Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the distressing and dangerous events that occurred in my electorate and my community over the weekend. I know that tensions are high right now. I know that people are devastated by watching what is happening across the world. I know that my community is feeling it, and I know that they're not the only ones. I know that there are other people and other Australians who are shattered by what they're seeing on their TV screens. But we need to remember that we are here in Australia and that we share a common purpose and a common bond, that, as Australians, we respect each other and we respect each other's right to exist freely and safely in our own communities.

In what seemed like an overwhelming day, we woke up in my electorate to news of a burger chain having been set alight. Let me take this opportunity to extend my best wishes to the owner at what must be an extremely distressing time right now. That's an awful thing to happen to a business. I say this with clarity: what happened there needs to be uncovered by the police and needs to be investigated by the police. I can also tell you that there were Jewish community leaders that, if there was an inkling that this was in any way, shape or form a crime motivated by hate, were ready, with me, to condemn that act, as appropriate, because we can never, ever have violence motivated by race or religion in this country.

But the police have come out and said that they do not believe that this was racially motivated. If we are making our own judgements and casting our own aspersions, then this is a dangerous and slippery slope. What followed after the accusation that this was somehow motivated by hate was that there was a call for a protest to come to Caulfield to stand in solidarity with this burger chain. That is a dangerous call to action. It is akin to calling a whole range of Jewish or Israeli expats to go into the heart of an Islamic community, when tensions are so high right now. I would never make that call. I think that it's incumbent on all of us to be responsible as leaders in our community, to think about our actions and to think about what the consequences could be.

I want Australians who are going to the mosques to go safely with their community and to be with one another right now. Of course they should have that. I also want people in my electorate to know that they can go to synagogue and be safe and to be with one another right now, because they deserve that too. On Friday night, they weren't afforded that. Synagogue was cancelled, and people in my own community were terrified of the scenes and the videos that were being sent around in our WhatsApp groups.

I say to this House that these tensions that are going on right now are going to go on for a little while longer, and I want them to stop right now. Of course I do. I think every member of this House wants them to stop and never wanted them to start in the first place. But we all bear responsibility for what happens in Australia right now. We bear responsibility to be deliverers of truth and to make sure that the information that we're passing on does not inflame tensions but rather reflects the responsible actions of leaders in difficult times.

It is also our responsibility to ensure that we are absolutely supporting people's right to protest. I am a proud Labor member, and I'm proudly supporting people's right to protest in this country. I will always defend that, but it is an incitement to come to the heart of Jewish communities and bring a political message in this time. That is not protesting, that is incitement. I say this with clarity and with a deep sense of devastation, that I want this all to be over and that I want us to go back to the peace-loving country that we are. But we need to get through the next few months together. We cannot have a situation where communities are put at risk; we cannot have a situation where people in this place, and other leaders, are inflaming tensions. It is our duty to bring calm and to bring leadership to this moment, and I hope that every member of this place, and all Australians, get through this together.