Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes with great sadness the passing of the former President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD), Jeremy Spinak;

(2) acknowledges with gratitude the work of organisations such as the NSW JBD; and

(3) recognises the outstanding contribution the Jewish community has made to Australia.

Shakespeare wrote:

The breaking of so great a thing should make

A greater crack: The round world should have shook

Lions into civil streets

And citizens to their dens.

That's how I've felt since the untimely passing of my friend Jeremy Spinak, the former president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, who died last month, aged 36, from the rare pericardial mesothelioma. Jeremy made such an impact in his short life that his passing has made me and others ask: what are we doing with our lives; what sort of contribution are we making; and where is the justice when someone so talented and so giving is taken from us so young?

After the tragedy of September 11, when people were trying to make sense of the madness, Queen Elizabeth II issued a statement, saying:

Grief is the price we pay for love.

Our grief is so strong because Jeremy loved so many, and he was loved by so many. None are grieving more than Jeremy's family, and today in the gallery we're joined by Jeremy's wife, Rhiannon. Condolence motions are usually reserved for former members of parliament. The fact that we're paying tribute to Jeremy is indicative of the standing he held across the parliament and the country. At one time, Jeremy could very well have come to serve in this place. He spent time working for Michael Costa and Michael Easson, but over the years he lost the partisan urge and instead channelled his efforts into serving the Jewish people.

I'd heard of Jeremy before I met him. In his work in the property industry, he was known to some of the Liberal Party branch members in my electorate—Yves El Khoury and John Vassallo. Although they knew of his Labor background, they spoke warmly of his professionalism and advocacy skills. In fact, John was so impressed by him that he employed him at Celestino.

I got to know Jeremy by serving with him on the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies. As president Jeremy united a fractious executive and got people to work together. He didn't come to office in easy times. Almost immediately, he was hit with the Kashrut commission issue, the Gaza war, the Sydney Morning Herald cartoon incident, and the campaign which was waged against Vic Alhadeff. Jeremy rose to the challenge, dealing with each of these issues in turn. When he was assembling his executive, he asked if I'd consider becoming chair of what is now the Community Relations committee. It was the committee Jeremy himself had chaired. This sounded like a lot of work, and I wasn't sure I had the time. But Jeremy charmed me into it. That was the sort of bloke he was. He was somebody who could always enlist you in a good cause.

Jeremy had a vision to deepen relationships between the Jewish community and other communities. His strategic vision has been implemented, initially under my leadership and then under the leadership of Gael Kennedy and the indomitable Lynda Ben-Menashe. Our relationships with the Indian, Armenian, Korean, Chinese, Assyrian, Catholic and even Uniting Church, to name a view, are much stronger as a result of Jeremy's vision.

For me, working on this committee was the single best preparation for my time as a member of parliament, so I have a lot to thank Jeremy for. Over the last few years, Jeremy has done more personal kindnesses for me than I can say. He was always there to encourage me in my political activity or provide counsel when our son was born early and had to go into special care or when he checked in on me when I'd had a hard day here. Even during the leadership challenge this year, he offered me good advice and picked the eventual winner. Somehow Jeremy always knew when to call and what to say. Maybe it's because we shared a birthday, 25 May. His encouragement was a great comfort to me.

Jeremy achieved more in his short lifetime than many of us ever will. When Jeremy's one-year-old twins, Grace and Michael, are older, if they ask me something about their dad, I'll tell them that Jeremy was a man of great humour, intelligence and foresight. He had an amazing sense of civic duty and concern for and pride in the Jewish people. He had extraordinary personal warmth. He had a wonderful way of dealing with people. He could break the tension in difficult circumstances with a joke or impersonation. He had the capacity to bring out the best in the people who worked with him, and if you asked him to do something he'd always back you up.

Jeremy never forgot who he was, why he was here or where he wanted to go. He was a mensch: truly one of best people I've known. As we mourn Jeremy's loss, we must redouble our efforts in the way we interact with each other, in the way we maintain our focus and the way we work together to serve our community, our state and the nation. If we do that then we will well and truly honour the memory of Jeremy Spinak. Zikhrono livrakha—may his memory be a blessing.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. First of all, I want to thank the member for Berowra for raising this important condolence and acknowledge in the gallery the presence of Jeremy Spinak's widow, Rhiannon, with whom he spent the last six, and best, years of his life. He was, as the member for Berowra said, one of the most important and influential leaders of the Jewish community in Sydney. To die of cancer at such a young age, 36, is a terrible tragedy for his family and friends but also for the Australian Jewish community and the people of Australia in general.

I had a telephone connection with Jeremy, being a Victorian, and he impressed me very much, as the member for Berowra said, as a person who, in the younger generation, was able to look to a wider future, wider engagements, and to reconcile and deal with people of all different backgrounds that perhaps an older generation of leadership had lost the touch for.

Jeremy's passion for the Australian Jewish community is well known. The president of the board, his successor and friend Lesli Berger, and Vic Alhadeff said:

His influence on our approach to representing the community, coalition-building, legislative reform, child protection and supporting marriage equality were among the numerous achievements which will be his lasting legacy both to our organisation and the entire community.

Such skills are rare. Such skills in a young man are even rarer. To have been taken at such a young age is a terrible tragedy, and we're all poorer for his passing.

It's very interesting that the Premier of New South Wales actually had the cabinet—normally something that would only be done for a member of parliament—stand for a minute's silence. Gladys Berejiklian said:

Jeremy was an outstanding community advocate and an amazing human being. He had a huge impact on everyone he met, including myself, and will be sorely missed. Jeremy was dedicated to forging links between our multicultural and religious communities and was a champion of an inclusive and harmonious State. Whether mentoring young Jewish leaders, advocating for policy reforms or strengthening ties with the diplomatic community, he represented our State's Jewry with pride and distinction. Jeremy's leadership was crucial to the NSW Government's passage of landmark reforms to protect our State's communities from the incitement of violence, replacing section 20D of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act.

He may not have been here as a member of parliament, Member for Berowra, but he certainly had an effect on legislation.

Rabbi Kamins, in his very moving address at the funeral service, which I attended, said:

How did a 36-year-old man come to be the person he was, achieve so much and touch so many? A suggestion is given in our tradition, in Pirkei Avot, where the sage Ben Azzai says the most important verse in the Torah is the seemingly minor, "Zeh sefer toldot Adam—this is the book of the generations of Adam." Ben Azzai is suggesting that each one of us is a product of those who have come before us; Jeremy, gracious and thoughtful, a man of the book himself, always acknowledged those who preceded him in life with shaping his life.

And the amazing story that Rabbi Kamins told of the generations that preceded Jeremy Spinak and how he was such a product of them was extremely fitting and moving for that funeral.

In his final public address, in August, Jeremy Spinak knew that there would be no cure for his illness. Yet, with typical self-deprecating humour, he said:

If you really want to know, at all times, no matter what happens, when you bump into my children, Grace and Michael, in the future bore them with your recollections of me and bore them with just how fantastic I was. Tell them of your memories and please give them a sense of what it was like working with their dad.

For someone so young to have obtained so much respect is extraordinary. His death was announced at the New South Wales cabinet meeting, as I said, and the ALP caucus bestowed on him the honour normally only provided to former members of parliament on their passing, by standing for a minute's silence. I will conclude by quoting Rabbi Kamins:

Ben Azzai has taught that the most important verse of Torah is: "These are the generations of man". Just as Jeremy has been a product of the generations of those who shaped him—his grandparents, Margie and Richard, Jason and Jenny—so too will Michael and Grace be the generation carrying his memory and influence, forever into the generations to come, forever a blessing and inspiration.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Firstly, I thank my good friend and colleague the member for Berowra for initiating this important motion, I acknowledge the member for Melbourne Ports for his warm words and I acknowledge the presence in the gallery today of Jeremy Spinak's family. Behind me in this chamber is a portrait of Sir Isaac Isaacs. Sir Isaac Isaacs was a great Australian and he was also a very proud Jew. He represented what the member for Melbourne Ports, the member for Berowra and I try to uphold in this place, which is a commitment to our Jewishness and a commitment to our country.

Jeremy Spinak was not someone I knew well but was somebody whose deeds were known to me. He was a proud Australian but also an active and important leader within our Jewish community. Passing away aged 36 and leaving behind his wife, Rhiannon, and his twins, Grace and Michael, and many, many other friends means that he will be very sadly missed. He attended Woollahra Public School and Emanuel School. He was a former president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies. While he was there, as the member for Berowra said, he dealt with some difficult issues and showed great leadership, including on the Kashrut commission issue as well as the Gaza conflict.

He was described by those who knew him as a man of great warmth, intellect and civic duty. The reference to the speech by Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins is very powerful, but it is a quote that the rabbi used in his speech which I would just like to dwell on. It was from a congregant who wrote to the rabbi:

It's so hard to accept why someone who created so much good in his short years and could make such a positive difference in the future should be taken away so young.

This is the 'why?' that we never have an answer for. In our lives, all of us lose people who are close, but to lose someone so young, with a life so full of promise, is even more devastating. I say to his family: it's hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember, and Jeremy's life will be remembered for all that he did for the Jewish community.

As the member for Melbourne Ports mentioned, Premier Berejiklian described him as an outstanding community advocate and an amazing human being, but it's also the fact that he was a mentor to others that has shone through his life. Rabbi Kamins remembered how in December 2011, speaking at the Emanuel School speech night and reflecting on those years, Jeremy had given insight into how he lived life and what he valued. He had told the students that to be successful one should live a well-balanced life focusing not just on work but also on one's interests, one's relationships and one's community. These were lessons he had learned from his family that were now more deeply understood and internalised. His grandparents, like those of many of us in the Jewish community, fled Europe just before the Shoah, and this helped engender in him a great pride in his faith and his family history.

Finally, I would like to quote from a message from Lesli Berger and CEO Vic Alhadeff, who talked about Jeremy joining the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies in his 20s and about how he was a driving force behind so much that was done. I would like to put on record our great appreciation for Jeremy Spinak's life— (Time expired)

Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Industry and Support) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Berowra for bringing forward this motion. He and I have worked together on issues relating to the prevention of suicide. I think we've both been inspired by the example of Jeremy Spinak. I want to acknowledge the presence of Rhiannon here. Our hearts and thoughts are with you through this time.

It is very hard to speak about Jeremy in five minutes and encapsulate and do justice to the man. It's just not possible. But I do acknowledge and recognise the wonderful speech that Rabbi Kamins gave at the memorial service at Woollahra. He struggled to work his way through that speech, which really, I think, embodied the emotion at this loss that we all felt that day. I personally feel it greatly as well. Jeremy worked with so many people across the spectrum of politics and the spectrum of our lives. That was really what Jeremy was all about: Jeremy was a bridge builder. And no more important work can be done in this world at the present time, with the divisions and rifts and problems that we face, than the work of bridge building. In the Jewish faith there's a wonderful concept, tikkun olam, which is all about healing the world. There was no better embodiment of that principle than Jeremy. He took that obligation personally and strove every day, in every way, to deliver on that central tenet, that commitment. He did it across the spectrum, reaching out to people in faiths where sometimes there have been journeys to progress and get over historical anomalies and impediments. He laboured long and hard in the marriage equality debate and on issues like child protection, and he achieved magnificent outcomes in all of those battles that he fought.

It was mentioned that there was a minute's silence in Gladys Berejiklian's cabinet room, which was a wonderful tribute. But there was also a minute's silence in Michael Daley's New South Wales caucus room, which really illustrates and brings home the concept of Jeremy as a bridge builder in the political sphere. More than in just the political sphere, he was very actively engaged in interfaith and intercultural bridge building. In Sydney, with its wonderful diversity of communities, he embraced and celebrated that diversity. He showed the way forward to inclusion and the way to build understanding. At this time, when we're seeing extreme right-wing elements out there trying to give new life to anti-Semitism—the Nazis who have been responsible for attacks on my own electorate offices—there's never been more important work than dispelling the myths, the misinformation and the propaganda that groups like that are seeking to disseminate. We've seen their active attempts to infiltrate political parties recently. The eternal vigilance that we must exercise in tribute to Jeremy in that space has been brought home more starkly in recent times.

The other side of Jeremy that I want to celebrate, as well as commemorating him today, is his sense of humour. He was such a special person in that respect. He could defuse moments of tension and find that right moment to intervene with a point of wit. In fact, we exchanged text messages quite often during this period. In his last text message to me he joked about being at the 100th anniversary of the board in 2045. He was a very special person. As has been reflected here, he achieved more in 36 years than many people achieve in 100 years. It's incumbent upon us and we will strive to ensure that his young children understand the manner of man that was their father and their right to be proud of him—a pride we all share, having known Jeremy. His example will light our way for all our remaining days. He's physically gone but he will always be with us. Shalom, haver.

Kerryn Phelps (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm here to express condolences on the death of Jeremy Spinak. Jeremy Spinak was an exceptional member of the Wentworth community and his contribution to the community exceeded that of most people twice his age. I'd like to acknowledge the presence of his wife, Rhiannon, here today. Jeremy's life was centred in the electorate of Wentworth, but his impact on society was far wider. With an abiding love of history and an interest in politics gained from his grandparents and nurtured by his parents, his educational journey took him across the world, from Woollahra Public School to Georgetown University in Washington DC, via Emanuel school and the University of New South Wales. His early political career included an internship in the New South Wales parliament, a role in John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and a position as a legislative aid to the US Senate minority leader. It was, however, through his service to the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies that Jeremy's impact on society was perhaps the most substantial.

Jeremy served the board of deputies for over a decade, including a term as one of its youngest presidents—a role he relinquished just a few months before his untimely passing. Jeremy helped the organisation to grow in strength and drove an increased focus on intercultural relationships and interfaith programs. His leadership featured coalition-building, bipartisanship and advocacy across a wide range of issues, including strong support for marriage equality. Jeremy was particularly proud of creating dialogue with the Uniting Church, engaging with key ethnic and religious groups in New South Wales, facilitating former Premier Mike Baird's historic visit to Israel and helping organise a bespoke course on anti-Semitism for the editors of The Sydney Morning Herald.

Jeremy was a much loved and greatly respected leader of the community. His commitment to social cohesion and intercultural harmony was unequivocal. He leaves behind a strong, positive legacy for the Jewish community, for its intercultural relations and for the wider community as a whole. I was deeply moved by the collective grief of the community at his funeral service and at the minyan the following day. We have lost a remarkable community leader at far too young an age. On behalf of all of the people of Wentworth, I wish to extend my deepest condolences to Jeremy's wife, Rhiannon, his baby twins, Grace and Michael, his parents, his siblings and the extended Spinak family.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.