Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a core Labor belief that it is completely unacceptable to target someone because of who they are or what they believe. This hate crimes bill builds on this foundation. It demonstrates the Albanese Labor government's steadfast commitment to protecting Australians from vile and damaging hate crimes and the activities and speeches that incite such violence.

Hate crimes are those that are motivated by hate or prejudice against a person or group because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, ethnic origin or political opinion. The Australian Hate Crime Network explains:

Hate crime erodes people's sense of safety. It sends a message to targeted communities, and individuals, that they are not welcome. Hate crime undermines equality, diversity, human rights, and social cohesion.

Sadly, we don't have to look too far for recent examples of cowardly hate crimes in Australia. There is an increasing prevalence of hate crimes at our war memorials, synagogues and mosques; many have been vandalised. Women wearing the hijab have been abused in the street, while men wearing the yarmulke have been assaulted. Members of the LGBTIQA+ community have been vilified for their differences. Thankfully, it is a very small minority of Australians who foster hatred or extremism and participate in such despicable crimes. The vast majority of us both believe in, and celebrate, our modern, multicultural and multifaith society. However, we must continue to stand firm against those elements that seek to create and exploit divisions in our communities. We must continue to combat the rise of extremist viewpoints which can lead to hate crimes.

The Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill does just that by strengthening existing offences and creating new criminal offences. It sets out in black and white that inciting violence is a crime and that it will lead to serious criminal penalties. The new offences will carry a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. A higher maximum penalty of seven years in jail is applied when the threat to use force or violence, if acted upon, would directly threaten the operation of the Commonwealth government or peace and order. The strengthened existing offences in this bill refer to sections 80.2A and 80.2B of the Criminal Code, which concern the urging of the use of force. The current requirement for an offence is that the person urging violence must intend for violence to occur. This reform makes it an offence if the person is reckless about whether violence would result from their activities. Section 80.3 includes a provision to apply the defence of good faith to this offence. This bill removes that defence. Inciting violence can never be done in good faith. I repeat: inciting violence can never be done in good faith.

The bill also extends the list of protected attributes. Earlier I gave a list of the potential targets of hate crime. This bill extends protection to people who may be targeted for their disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. The bill further strengthens the response to the public display of prohibited hate symbols and corrects a gap in the legislation. The provisions make it a crime to publicly display, or make, the Nazi gesture to all persons and groups distinguished by sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. This adds to those who are currently protected due to being distinguished by race, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion or national origin. This amendment reflects the power of these hate symbols to offend, intimidate, insult and humiliate. It also matches existing civil protections in the Sex Discrimination Act and meets Australia's international human rights requirements. As well as strengthening the Criminal Code, the bill creates a new criminal offence for threatening the use of force or violence against a person or group that is distinguished by their race, religion, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, national or ethnic origin or political opinion. This includes a direct threat from one person to another.

This bill is not intended to criminalise public debate or stymie free speech. Free speech is a foundational belief and a vital part of being a democracy. We all need to feel seen and heard about the issues that matter to us. Sometimes those views may be unpleasant and contrary to our own beliefs, but shutting down free speech is not what this bill is about. This bill focuses firmly on dangerous and hateful speech and actions that step further and become threatening, or that urge or incite violence against a person, a group or wider society. This legislation is crucial to protecting the Australian community from violence, discrimination and hatred, and by 'community', I mean, of course, our vibrant and diverse multicultural society—that modern Australia that we all know and love.

As the member for Moreton for the past 18 years, I've seen how successful a multicultural community can be. Moreton is enriched by many different cultures, languages, ethnicities and religions. That harmony will always take work and understanding and compassion and respect, to maintain the cohesion we currently have. Social cohesion faces challenges from a variety of sources. We have seen how conflicts overseas adversely impact communities here in Australia. Sadly, antisemitism, Islamophobia and the targeting of our First Nations people are all on the rise.

This legislation comes at a crucial time—a time when our community leaders and, indeed, all Australians must demonstrate their commitment to tolerance for all people and groups in our community. We must continue to engage with each other and we must continue to uphold our values of respect and inclusion. Attorney-General Dreyfus said something similar:

Tolerance lies at the heart of our Australian multiculturalism. It is a vital democratic value … tolerance of different cultural and religious values and … political positions—produces inclusiveness and not division. It enables harmonious communities and peaceful political debate.

I commend my good friend the Attorney-General and his team on the extensive consultation they took regarding this vital change to the Criminal Code. Stakeholder consultation included religious groups, disability advocates, gender equality and LGBTQIA+ groups, ethnic communities and media representatives, to name just a few. Consultation also included the states and territories, the justice departments and the police forces. Given the gravity of the subject matter, Commonwealth agencies such as the AFP, ASIO, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Office of the eSafety Commissioner were all consulted.

The measures in this bill will directly support law enforcement agencies in time-critical management of hate crime threats. It will enhance their ability to intervene before an act of violence has occurred and better support them to disrupt and investigate such threats. All this adds up to increased protection for Australians.

This bill, this hate crime legislation, builds upon the landmark steps already taken by this Labor government to protect Australians from hate symbols and salutes—and I will touch on some of the things that the Albanese government has done—including Nazi symbols and those of terrorist organisations. When that legislation was introduced, I said hate symbols were being used as beacons to influence and to spread hate. This bill ensures that those who use that foundation of hatred to threaten violence will face serious criminal consequences.

As the Attorney-General said:

How we protect minority groups, and how we treat those that are different to ourselves, is a measure of our society and a measure of our humanity.

I'm proud that the Labor government's record in shutting down hate crime and hateful symbols is now being made public.

This bill makes it clear to all Australians that threatening violence against individuals with protected attributes is now a serious crime. It also makes it clear that there is no place here for people seeking to divide the Australian community with threats of violence based on who you are or what they believe. Labor will always protect all Australians and ensure they can live freely and without fear. I commend the bill to the House.

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

It's an honour to follow my friend the member for Moreton on this bill, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, a bill that the opposition is supporting. It provides me with an opportunity, in commencing, to acknowledge the member for Moreton's service and our very great friendship, despite our disagreements on some quite fundamental things over the years. The member for Moreton is a very fine man, and I hope he has a wonderful retirement with his family. I look forward to the next instalment of his writings and so on! I've very much enjoyed the opportunity to serve with him.

I want to provide a bit of context for why this bill is important at this particular time. This week I did something extraordinary that I've never done before, and it indicates where we are as a society; I sent an open letter to the Jewish students of Australia as they returned to school. I did that because the level of hate against Jewish Australians is something we've never experienced in this country before, and it is a sad feature of this country. The public discussion about these things would have had a particular effect on the Jewish school students of Australia. So I wrote to them that often you would be returning to school perhaps feeling a bit anxious, nervous and excited, as you would at the beginning of any school year, but this year, because of the discussion your parents may have been having at home, the things you have seen on television and, if you are in a Jewish school, some of the things you would have seen, like increased security presence, you may feel extra anxious. If a child is not at a Jewish school, they may be feeling well accepted and supported, and others will be feeling alone and isolated.

I wanted to tell them, importantly, that it's going to be okay and that people in positions of leadership like me are working hard to make sure that they're safe and that the community is protected. Importantly, I said to them that, at this time of increasing hate, you can't let the haters win. This is an important time to stand proud, remember the beauty of the Jewish tradition and never be a bystander. If there are bullies or bad people, stand up against them, and, if things get tough, remember you're not alone. Parents, teachers, grandparents and even great-grandparents are people they can lean on. I concluded with these important words. I said: 'You're precious to your family, you're precious to our community, and you're precious to our country. We're counting on you to play your part, do your best, have fun and be proud of who you are. I wish you a year of great learning, wonderful friendships and countless opportunities. Australia needs you, and I know you'll make us proud. Go well.'

The fact that any student in Australia today is going back to school in an atmosphere where there are lots of hate symbols in our community and attacks on their schools underscores, in my view, the need for this bill. This is a bill that, once passed, can touch on some of the most fundamental principles that our society stands for: the protection of individual freedoms, the promotion of social cohesion and the responsibility of government to provide the necessary boundaries that safeguard our community from harm. Hate speech, hate crimes and acts of violence motivated by prejudice are abhorrent. They strike at the very heart of our shared values of respect, of dignity and of equality. They divide our communities, they foster fear and they undermine the very fabric of our multicultural society. As a nation, we must be united against hatred in any form. This bill seeks to strengthen our legal framework to address these challenges, proposing to expand the definition of hate crimes, increase penalties for offences motivated by hatred and introduce new provisions to better protect vulnerable communities.

These are very fine and laudable objectives. While I welcome the government bringing this bill forward, coming in the last sitting fortnight, it does epitomise, sadly, this government's failure to prevent the spread of antisemitism in our country and to treat this very serious issue with the priority it deserves. Since 7 October 2023, the Jewish community has been repeatedly attacked. Homes, cars, family businesses, synagogues and childcare centres have all been attacked. Whether these instances are of the graffiti of someone's property, the firebombing of a childcare centre or an arson attack on a synagogue, the community look to their leaders, the federal government and the Prime Minister for support. Sadly, every time the Jewish community has looked to this Prime Minister and his government for leadership, there has been a void. For months, we've had the Prime Minister and his ministers failing to acknowledge antisemitism without mentioning Islamophobia in the same breath to offset the other, just as the Teals can't mention antisemitism without mentioning hatred against LGBTI Australians, as if standing up to acknowledge Jewish Australians' experience of antisemitism would somehow diminish the experience of Muslim Australians or LGBTI Australians. Hatred against Muslim Australians or LGBTI Australians is bad and needs to be called out. But, at a time when the perpetrators of antisemitism are running rampant across our country, when it's resulting in armed guards outside Jewish schools and helicopters over Jewish suburbs at night-time because the security and safety of the community is so fragile, it is appropriate for the government and everyone in leadership to stand up and focus solely on the problems of antisemitism.

Instead, unfortunately, this government has failed to support the Jewish community adequately. Small, family-owned businesses have been defaced with antisemitic slurs, cars have been torched, a preschool was firebombed in Maroubra, and, of course, there was the dreadful firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. Antisemitic displays have been left unprosecuted. Universities were permitted to be used as encampments that served as a hotbed of antisemitic action, with weekly protests with clear antisemitic sentiment just allowed to carry on. Just last week it came to light that a possible terror attack was averted—and we should all be thankful that it was averted—with a caravan of explosives found in Dural in my electorate of Berowra.

The need for stronger protections against hate crimes could not be clearer. What Australians are seeing today is an increasing indifference to the current penalties that apply to people who commit these abhorrent crimes. We saw this in protests that occurred last year. People were just thumbing their nose at the law. Criminals currently have a level of confidence that they can commit these acts without any serious repercussions. While the government has been floundering domestically, we've also seemed to abandon Israel on the international stage, further fuelling active antisemitism at home. In the wake of October 7, the instinct of this Labor government was not to stand with Israel, which had been the target of this horrific atrocity, but it was to call on Israel to exercise restraint. This was followed by a series of votes in the UN in which Australia, under the leadership of this Prime Minister, reversed what's been the longstanding bipartisan position on the State of Israel.

The Albanese Labor government's soft, slow and contradictory response since October 7 worryingly let antisemitic sentiment fester in our community. It appears that this bill at least seeks to resolve some of the government's failures. This bill is an attempt to try and bring these matters on, albeit not as urgently as we in the coalition would have liked. The bill looks to modify existing offences particularly under division 80 of the Criminal Code. The existing provisions already make it an offence to urge violence on an individual or group on the basis of race or religion. For months, the coalition has been calling on the government to take action and prosecute those caught spouting antisemitic sentiments under this division of the Criminal Code. With the continued rise of antisemitism in Australia, we're at the point where we can no longer wait to test existing laws. We need these provisions to make it easier to prosecute people who try to spread hate in our community. In a sentence, that's what this bill is actually about.

The changes will lower the threshold for prosecution for those who urge violence on individuals or groups and ensures that criminals can be held responsible for their actions. The bill also provides amendments so that, instead of intending that the violence occurs, it only needs to be proved that the person was reckless as to whether the violence would occur. This bill removes the good faith defence for those urging violence because we, like the government, believe no-one can urge violence in good faith. The current good faith defence provides redundant protections, and we think it is right that those protections should be removed. It's also important to note that this bill was first introduced in the last sitting week of September 2024. At that time, the coalition was ready to debate this bill, work to secure its passage and provide the additional security and safeguards that our community so desperately needed. Instead, like every opportunity the government has had to combat antisemitism, they didn't take it then. Instead, they sat back and chose not to act. There was no urgency from this government late last year to pass these laws.

Since then, what have we seen? We've seen the continued firebombing and vandalisation of cars and businesses in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. We've seen the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne. We've seen the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Newtown. We've seen, as I said, the discovery of the caravan filled with explosives in my electorate, not to mention the countless accounts of lower-level antisemitic attacks on Jewish Australians, who are just trying to go about their lives. The coalition is taking a constructive approach to this bill. While we support the bill, we believe it can go further, and the shadow minister for home affairs and the Leader of the Opposition have foreshadowed that we would be making some amendments to this bill. We want to make it a hate crime to urge violence towards a place of worship, punishable by five years, or seven years in the case of an aggravated offence. Perpetrators that engage in behaviour that incites fear need to be caught and deserve to face the full brunt of the law, and this is particularly so, we believe, when people are attacking a place of worship—a place of communal gathering, a place that is sacred to people. It doesn't matter if we're talking about a synagogue, a mosque, a church, a temple, a gurdwara, a mandi—all places deserve protection, and all places would get that specific protection under the enhanced amendments that are proposed by the coalition.

We sincerely hope that the government will support the amendments that we've put forward, which have been put forward in good faith. The evidence is clear that those amendments are needed. This legislation alone is not enough to combat the attacks that the Jewish community is now facing. For some time now, the opposition has been calling on the government to introduce additional measures through a multifaceted, multi-agency approach. We are still waiting for this to occur. It was the beginning of January, following the arson attempt at the Newtown Synagogue and the graffiti that had occurred at the Allawah synagogue a few days beforehand, that I called for the urgent convening of National Cabinet to see the state and territory leaders and the federal government come together to ensure that a series of laws could be drafted to ensure there was a complete stop to the escalation of these incidents.

My leader—Peter Dutton, the opposition leader—had been calling for National Cabinet for more than a year. What we saw out of National Cabinet was disappointing. We know, because he posted it on his social media account, that the Acting Tasmanian Premier, Guy Barnett, took stronger measures, tougher laws and harder penalties including mandatory minimum sentences to that National Cabinet meeting. But instead of that being the outcome of the National Cabinet meeting, all that came out of it was a database which, in some respects, mirrors the database that has been collected by the Jewish community for decades now. It was a very disappointing occasion.

As with all Australians, the Jewish community deserve to go about their daily lives free of fear and discrimination. I'll continue to advocate in this parliament and elsewhere to see that occur. The fight against antisemitism and hate speech is not just a Jewish issue; it's an Australian issue. What has occurred particularly in recent weeks has been a test of our values. It's been a test of our commitment to diversity and a test of our resolve to stand up for what's right. The Jewish community has done what it has always done—shown remarkable resilience in the face of adversity. They shouldn't have to battle this alone. It's the responsibility of all Australians to stand with the Jewish community and to speak out against this hatred as we speak out against hatred when we see it directed against other communities in our country. We must work together to build a society where everyone can live free from fear, one of President Roosevelt's famous four freedoms.

While I support the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 as an important step in the fight against hate, including antisemitism, I will continue to call on the government to complement this legislation with a much more comprehensive strategy to address the root causes of hatred and antisemitism that we're seeing. Those items include the items that have been put forward by the shadow minister for home affairs and the Leader of the Opposition, including tougher penalties and mandatory minimum sentences for the commission of these hate crimes and the commission of terrorist offences.

I know the usual arguments about mandatory sentencing and mandatory minimums. They usually apply when you're talking about people engaging in small crimes like shoplifting, but these are some of the worst crimes—terrorism and crimes motivated by hate. We cannot have a situation in this country where people are committing these crimes and then not doing jail time. There is no deterrence set. If it deters even one person, it will have been worthwhile. I also support and I'll also continue to encourage the government bringing forward not just the AFP Operation Avalite but the suite of federal intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies working with state government agencies to provide the most coordinated approach to dealing with these matters.

Of course, we have seen the hatred on our campuses continuing, as we saw at the Queensland University of Technology in recent weeks, and as we've seen through some of the appalling performance of vice-chancellors before parliamentary committees in this place. The need for a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campuses was necessary last year and remains necessary this year, and we will continue to pursue it.

I hope the government will support our amendments to this legislation. I hope they will come on board and support some of those other measures. In this legislation, the parliament needs to stand together to send a clear message to those spreading hate and violence in our country that that has no place in Australia.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in strong support of the government's Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024. We are a nation, I think we can agree across the aisle here and across partisanship, that values diversity, inclusivity and respect, and one thing I've learnt as the Special Envoy for Social Cohesion is that it's not that complicated. Having a harmonious society comes down to ensuring that when people have differences and disagreements, sometimes vehement disagreements, they can navigate the difference peacefully and respectfully, which adds to the harmony and cohesion in our society. It doesn't mean we will never disagree or never have difference. It means we have the skill and the ability to engage with each other in a peaceful, respectful way and not let it cross over into hate speech or violence. How we interact with each other, as individuals and as members of organisations, groups and communities, is of critical importance. It's about how we do so in such a way that, despite what may be very deeply held disagreements, that interaction occurs peacefully and respectfully. Where it becomes a threat to our cohesion, to our harmony as a multi-ethnic, multifaith, pluralistic society, is when it crosses over into hate speech and vilification of others based on their identity—when violence and conflict are used to express views, rather than navigating disagreements in a peaceful way.

We're debating an amendment bill that seeks to sanction some of this hate speech. It deals with the problem that is occurring and has been occurring. This also depends on people's willingness and ability to feel like they are part of a society, like they are part of a nation, with an investment in that society so that they make the commitment and take the responsibility to engage in a peaceful and respectful way and call out the hate speech and anyone that seeks to use violence or hate speech to express themselves. I think a sense of belonging, of being part of a community and part of a nation—part of Australia—is really important so that you can make that commitment as a citizen.

The sense of Australianness, of who we are as a nation, is really important, but so is the sense of a shared humanity—understanding that, even if someone is from a completely different background than you, with completely different experiences, and you disagree with them wholeheartedly, down to your bones, you still have a shared humanity. The basic decency that comes into play there is being able to understand, or at least tolerate, others' perspectives without resorting to a form of violence or hate speech. That's a sense of basic decency. That's something that the law can't enforce. It's about who we are as people, it's about behaviour and morality, and it's about what Australians are like as people—the fair go that we always talk about.

Thinking about how we say and do things, and why that matters when it comes to engaging with different people and different groups, is of critical importance, but we know, of course, that hate fuelled violence and discrimination remain a real threat. We're seeing the emergence of the vile hatred of antisemitism. The ancient scourge of antisemitism has been unleashed, and that's why this bill is important. We can't afford to be complacent while these hate crimes continue to increase. As previous speakers have noted, this legislative response is a very important marker. Putting in place this hate crimes legislation gives a very clear signal from the very top of the political leadership of this country, from this parliament, this place, that hate crimes are unacceptable, both legally and morally. That is what real leadership is about. Ensuring cohesion and harmony in our society requires us here in this place to take responsibility and take a firm stand against those who would seek to divide us through fear, hatred, anger and violence.

I'm a member of the Labor Party. It's a party of government, and it has been the architect of the antidiscrimination framework of this country. We put in place the Racial Discrimination Act in 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984 and the Disability Discrimination Act in 1992, and we supported the Age Discrimination Act, which was passed in 2004 by the former coalition government.

The amendments we are introducing in the bill before us seek to build on that strong foundation, that legal framework and architecture that sets a standard for people to follow and says clearly that discriminating against people based on who they are is unacceptable under the law. In many respects, what parliaments and governments do over decades in setting that standard in a legal sense is a form of leadership, insofar as society moves in that direction as well and changes to understand that these actions are no longer acceptable—if they ever were. They never were. That is the power of politics and the power of being in this place and in this parliament and of our duty to make laws.

These amendments build on that strong foundation, as I noted. They strengthen our ability to combat hate speech and protect many vulnerable communities who are feeling the pain right now of being the victims of egregious and disgraceful forms of hatred such as antisemitism, which has been such a scourge, and the rise of antisemitism, which has been such a scourge in the past 15 months. In modern day Australia, Jewish Australians feel in such a vulnerable state. I've visited a number of synagogues and I've been to the Adass Israel Synagogue. I've been to other synagogues where I've spoken to people. You can sense the fear and the palpable anger and the uncertainty that people are feeling.

These amendments are a direct response to the recommendations of the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee and the extensive consultations the government has undertaken with community stakeholders, law enforcement and a variety of legal experts. They're amendments that will expand the existing offence of urging violence and establish new offences as well. In doing so, we are extending protections for many minority groups that are vulnerable—LGBTQI+ communities, people with disabilities, religious minorities, racially diverse groups and many more.

In detail, the bill and amendments combat hate speech and protect the Australian community from violence and discrimination by specifically creating a new criminal offence for threatening the use of force or violence against protected groups, their associates and property and by strengthening existing offences for urging the use of force or violence against protected groups, their associates and property. The existing offences of publicly displaying prohibited hate symbols would be extended to apply to circumstances where the targeted persons are distinguished by sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. This accords with Australia's international human rights obligations and complements existing civil protections in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

Hate speech and hate fuelled violence don't just harm the individuals who are the immediate victims. They really undermine and threaten the very fabric of our society and who we are. When extremists feel emboldened to intimidate, to vilify and to physically attack individuals and communities based on their identities, they're not just targeting those individuals. They're attempting, in many ways, to bring down and undermine and destroy the very fundamental elements of who we are as a liberal democracy—the values of equality and fairness, the cohesion and harmony that define us, and our ability to engage with each other.

We have people from hundreds of countries around the world, with hundreds of different languages and faiths and so many different backgrounds, who've adopted this country and made it their home. We have been able to actually live in a relatively harmonious society over many decades, and people say, 'Oh, what a miracle.' It's not a miracle. It's based on the hard work and the commitment of generations of Australians, not just the political leaders in this place. Yes, the parliament has played a role in setting those legal frameworks and that architecture, but millions of Australians—individuals—have committed to those principles to ensure that, even if they disagree with someone, they are navigating that difference without resorting to violence and hate. It sounds simplistic and it sounds easy, but it doesn't happen in a lot of parts of the world. What we've created here is something special. I'm not saying we're perfect. There have been many instances where ethnic and other disputes have emerged. But, on the whole, we have been a successful multifaith and multi-ethnic nation, and that pluralism has become celebrated and embraced.

We've seen the devastating consequences of hate crimes here. We've seen it play out. We've seen it play out abroad. We know that when people move towards violence to express their ideological or political views, it's often following a long line, a long tail, of online radicalisation or public intimidation—and the unchecked nature of that hate speech follows through into more and more egregious, violent actions towards others. This bill, these amendments, ensures that law enforcement have the tools necessary to intervene before words turn into violence—or physical violence, because words themselves can be a form of violence, as we know. More importantly, it reinforces our commitment to fostering a cohesive society where all Australians, regardless of background, feel safe, valued and included.

What the government is doing is matching our words with our actions, and I know there's been a degree of politicisation around the challenges we face. The Albanese Labor government has taken a lot of substantive action over this period of time, and I know there's been a lot of criticism from various points in the political spectrum. I think it's important to note, though, that when I said words actually matter, we've heard that not just from myself in this place but also from people like the Director-General of ASIO, who talked about the fact that words can inflame tensions and make things worse. So when we see this politicisation, particularly by the opposition, minor parties and other political actors in this place, it is running against the fact that, rather than uniting with and supporting the actions that are being taken by the government, there's a choice there that's being made to politicise.

The Leader of the Opposition had nine years in government to legislate against hate symbols and the Nazi salute. He didn't. We did, and it all came into effect last year. He had nine years in government to legislate against doxxing. He didn't, and the coalition actually voted against the bill that criminalised it. He had nine years in government to legislate against hate crimes. He didn't. We're doing that now in parliament with this bill. The fact is the Leader of the Opposition was a senior member of a government that actually fought to strip protections for all marginalised communities against hate speech. If that wasn't enough, just last week we also saw the Leader of the Opposition launch an extraordinary attack on the Australian Human Rights Commission, calling it a rogue body for merely upholding Australia's commitments to human rights. There have been multiple opportunities to unequivocally condemn the escalating hate speech and vilification, and yet the choice there was to undermine institutions that are there to protect Australians from discrimination.

The choice to fuel division and discord is not leadership. The manufacturing of culture wars and the cynical attempts to stoke the flames of division for short-term political gain are not leadership. Those members have a choice: they can support this bill and take a stand against hate or they can continue to dog whistle and divide. The same applies to other members of this place who have fanned the flames of hatred with the words that they have used. That is something that we should all be cognisant of: as political representatives, all of us bear a responsibility—a greater one than just debating policies and laws—of setting the tone for our nation through our leadership. Our words and actions shape public discourse, influence community attitudes and have real consequences for people's lives. Leadership demands that we stand up against hate, not exploit it for political gain, and that is what the Albanese Labor government is doing today by introducing this amending bill. We are standing with all communities targeted by hate, and that is something that we are doing in order to protect vulnerable communities in our nation.

Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a matter of sadness and concern that we've come to this—that this legislation should be necessary. The fact that we're debating this bill, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, today is a sign of just how seriously the social fabric of this nation has been torn and the extent to which division and vilification have been normalised in public debate.

The wild west that social media has become has not helped, aided and abetted by the intransigence of the digital giants. They should be responsible for the content they allow to be published. The idea that age assurance or verification, for example, will protect children from the deluge of pornography and toxic misogyny available at the click of a cursor or the swipe of a device is a victory for hope over expectation and a reward for corporate irresponsibility. That's a matter for other legislation, but I make the point to indicate how much of the antisocial behaviour we confront is linked and how hard it is, indeed, to address one problem just as another pops up elsewhere. Technological change aggravating social and cultural division is so rapid that we struggle to keep up. But try we must, and in doing so we must separate the right to free speech from hate speech and hateful online behaviour. They are not equivalent.

Hate speech, at its core, is about dehumanising, silencing and infringing on human rights. Freedom of speech is critically important, and I've worked in countries where it does not exist, but it is not absolute. We have been a socially cohesive nation. Our multiculturalism has been a success story and the envy of much of the world. But as I've said many times since entering this parliament, our social cohesion is being challenged as never before in my lifetime: homes sprayed with graffiti, communities vandalised, a synagogue just outside Goldstein firebombed and a caravan found packed with explosives and antisemitic materials in New South Wales. The fault lines of war in Gaza have reached into Australian society. In the wake of the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks, which have had a profound impact on the Goldstein community, the government says this bill is a further step designed to 'address the rising incidence of hate speech, in particular antisemitism and Islamophobia'. The bill would create new criminal offences and strengthen existing offences to protect the community from harms caused by those who foster hatred and violence.

I note, however, that the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, while welcoming the legislation as a step in the right direction, says it still falls short of the reforms that are needed. The ECAJ argues that there should be the opportunity for criminal prosecution for people calling for a final solution against the Jews and describing Jews collectively as innately bloodthirsty, treacherous criminals and monsters. The executive council argues this legislation does not do that. It was not so long ago that we were passing legislation to strengthen the outlawing of Nazi symbols and memorabilia. Yet it's been a matter of just a couple of months since the firebombing attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and only a matter of months since a restaurant within the Goldstein electorate hosted a gathering attended by prominent neo-Nazis.

It is appalling that Nazism has any support in Australia in the 21st century. It has absolutely no place in our suburbs. As I've said many times in the last 15 months, my absolute priority is the safety, security and wellbeing of the Goldstein community. I sincerely wish that this legislation was not necessary. But, unfortunately, the language of hate has become even more extreme and more prevalent in recent years, as have the threats of violence that go with it. As the explanatory memorandum accompanying this bill notes, public discourse has increasingly been weaponised with hateful rhetoric aimed at attacking groups in the Australian community. Urging and threatening force or violence against targeted groups or members of targeted groups undermines and erodes Australia's shared values. The harm caused by this conduct can be profound. It's an attack on the dignity of targeted groups and members of targeted groups which affects the physical and psychological wellbeing not only of those targeted but of the whole community. It can also lay the foundation for violence and extremism.

This is in line with last year's admonition from Mike Burgess, the Director-General of Security, when he found it necessary to state publicly that words matter and that ASIO had seen direct connections between inflamed language and inflamed community tensions. Less than a year later on 5 August, ASIO found it necessary to raise the national terrorism threat level from possible to probable, with the Prime Minister noting that more Australians are embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies. In November 2023, in the days after a frightening confrontation outside a synagogue in my electorate, I moved the following matter of public importance: the need for the parliament to support social cohesion and take steps to ensure the safety, security and wellbeing of those affected communities at a time of international conflict when communities in Australia are directly affected. Nothing has changed. In fact, it's worsened, as demonstrated by ASIO's decision to elevate the terrorism threat level.

As I said in my MPI speech a lot more than a year ago, Australia has a limited ability to influence the course of events in Israel and Gaza. What we can do and have a responsibility to do is articulate multipartisan calm, encourage empathy and, at all costs, take the politics away. The risk of cataclysmic global conflict is higher than at any time since the height of the Cold War in the early eighties or perhaps the Cuban Missile Crisis of the sixties. Now we're confronted with a conflict which directly affects our own communities and threatens to tear apart the hard-earned gains of Australian multiculturalism—the envy of the world. Since then, I've engaged with Jewish and Palestinian organisations, met university leaders to encourage them to take robust action to address antisemitism on campus, publicly encouraged the government to appoint an antisemitism envoy, pressed the Prime Minister to fast-track security grants for religious institutions and engaged with the government to act to address doxxing, among other things.

Unfortunately, and not just because of the conflict in the Middle East, social cohesion overall has eroded in recent years. The Voice to Parliament, for example, should have been an opportunity to bring the community together to right a historical wrong and forge a way forward for greater equity and equality for First Nations peoples. In fact, the opposite occurred. The lack of groundwork and preparation for the referendum, the failure to explain the value of amending the Constitution to provide for constitutional recognition and the opposition of some in the 'no' case provided an opening for division.

It was not so long ago that the existing protections against discrimination now acknowledged by the intelligence community as one of the gateways to community tension and worse were under fire. A decade ago the Attorney-General of the time, George Brandis, argued for the removal of section 18C from the Racial Discrimination Act, declaring, 'People have the right to be bigots.' It was only persistent and cogent opposition from Jewish and ethnic community organisations that convinced the Abbott government to reject the arguments of former senator Brandis and other enthusiasts—among them my predecessor, the former member for Goldstein. In a submission to a 2016 inquiry into the Racial Discrimination Act, and specifically section 18C, by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, he argued:

… the law is inconsistent with human rights, operates anathema to liberal democratic values and is utterly inconsistent with a free society.

As the inquiry prepared to bring down its report in 2017, the former member for Goldstein declared he'd like to see the committee abolish the existing definition of 'racial discrimination'. That was not the view of the committee, which was much more persuaded by the views of community representatives, ALP members on the committee, the ECAJ and others. The ECAJ argued in its submission that any amendment to the part of the Racial Discrimination Act where section 18C is located:

… would send a strong and dangerous message from Australia's political leaders that a degree of racism in public discourse is to be considered acceptable.

…   …   …

The threat to public peace and order posed by home-grown and imported forms of racism are of an entirely different order to the dangers posed by bad policy ideas. It is naive to suggest that racism can always simply be left to sort itself out through public debate.

Subsequent events, especially those of the last 15 months, have indicated this, and that is why we now have this legislation before us today. It may be one step in the right direction rather than completely up to the task. I note the member for Wentworth's amendment to create a new offence of the promotion of hatred, which, in these troubled times, I will support.

As I've said many times since entering this parliament and before, hate speech is not free speech. We must all work together across these aisles and across this nation to bring people together, not tear them apart. I will support this bill.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the wake of October 7 we've had a dramatic increase in hatred in Australia, unfortunately. It's something I can't recall ever seeing being so severe in my lifetime. Some of that hatred has manifested itself in antisemitism and racism, and it's having a dramatic effect on social cohesion. Some Australians are feeling scared and threatened and are unable to leave their homes. They feel that they're not part of the community that they grew up in. These are not values that we want to see here in Australia. These are not values that represent our nation, and, on that basis, the Albanese government are acting. We're acting through this bill and through other reforms to ensure that we respond to the increasing number of hate crimes that encourage violence and extremism and to make them crimes in this country.

Unfortunately, in the community that I represent, we've had a number of shocking antisemitic and racist attacks on premises, on people and on our community. The Only About Children childcare centre on Storey Street, Maroubra, was attacked on the morning of Tuesday 21 January with a disgusting and evil act of antisemitism, which I strongly condemn. The targeting of an early childhood education facility is simply unforgivable. Targeting kids—it's about as low as it gets.

I grew up a few hundred metres from that site. It's actually the site of a former primary school where I went to school as a kid. It's now a childcare centre, and it was quite alarming for me to see what had occurred there that morning in an area that I've got such a connection with, which I have had for most of my life. I was there that morning to see the impact of those crimes and I made it clear that I stand with the Jewish community in our area and across the nation in working to stop these sorts of attacks. There's no place for hateful and cowardly antisemitism anywhere in our community. I was joined by the Prime Minister and the New South Wales Premier that morning, who equally condemned the attacks. We spoke with neighbours, educators and members of the Jewish community at the site to offer our support.

Unfortunately, a week later, another attack occurred at the Mount Sinai College and on a nearby home on 30 January. This was a targeted attack against students returning to the Jewish primary school that morning. It was another disgusting and low act to try and target kids and make them feel unsafe as they were returning to school for the year. On that morning, I met with the school president and community members to see what we could do to help, and I was back at the school on Friday morning when the kids were returning to greet the parents with local police to let them know that we had their backs.

I've been meeting with members of the Jewish community over the last couple of months, and, understandably, they're fed up—and so they should be. They're scared and they want this all to stop. My message to them was very clear that we're doing all we can to catch these perpetrators and ensure that they're prosecuted as quickly as possible. Just over the course of the last week, two arrests have been made in relation to some of those antisemitic attacks in our community, and they follow about 180 arrests that have been made since the government passed laws strengthening protections for Jewish communities throughout this country. We're continuing to work proudly with our Jewish neighbours in Kingsford Smith and across Australia.

Jewish communities are ordinary Australians who just want to go about their lives, take their kids to school, go to work and live a rewarding and fulfilling life here in Australia like everyone else. They don't deserve to be targeted with these shocking unAustralian attacks. It's been encouraging to see our community get behind the Jewish community and support them and work with them, and that's why we've established a working group made up of elected representatives, including myself, the local area commanders, the police, and leaders of the Jewish community. We're going to work with them to make sure that they can live safely in Australia. That's why this government, the Albanese government, is acting to protect all Australians from hatred, extremism and violence. The government introduced legislation to create new criminal offences that strengthen protection against hate crimes. This bill will make it clear that urging or threatening violence and force is unacceptable and subject to serious criminal penalties. This bill strengthens existing offences that prohibit urging the use of force or violence against others. It also creates new criminal offences for threatening the use of force or violence against others. We have no tolerance for some of the actions that have been occurring in our nation and we will hunt down those responsible and prosecute them under these new laws.

These new laws will protect groups or members of groups distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, political opinion or national or ethnic origin. The offences will carry a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment. There will be a higher maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment where the threat to use force or violence, if carried out, would threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth. The new offences will target the most serious forms of harmful hate speech, namely urging and threatening force or violence against others. The bill sends a clear message that urging force or violence is unacceptable and will be subject to serious criminal penalties. We're doing all we can to make sure that we keep our communities safe and that all Australians have the right to go about their business, to take their kids to school, to go to work, to enjoy our wonderful country and to be treated equally and respectfully as Australians. That's why the Albanese government is doing all it can to protect the community that I live in and all Australians across our wonderful nation.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, it is, in some ways, a great disappointment to speak on a bill, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, that has become necessary because of actions that are happening within our community that I never thought I would live to see in modern day Australia. Some of the things that we see in the news, in fact, and experiences I have had in the streets of the Adelaide CBD belong more in a Hollywood movie about a bygone era that we look upon and think how grateful we are that that is in history. Alas, we are far from that. We are seeing this remarkably depressing blooming of disgusting antisemitic behaviour in our community, which brings us to the need to consider legislative change to address behaviour that we couldn't have foreseen would occur in modern Australia.

My heart certainly goes out particularly to members of the Jewish community in my electorate and across this country. I cannot imagine how they are feeling about the unrecognisable behaviour that they see and experience in this country that they love. Many of them descend from families that came to this country for refuge from disgusting antisemitism and the horrors of the Holocaust and have built such an amazing future for themselves and their families in this country. In some cases, they find themselves considering whether or not they have a future in this country anymore because of what we've seen happen, particularly since 7 October. It's been confronting. It's been appalling. It is completely un-Australian. We find ourselves in a situation where we have an opportunity with the bill before us to strengthen our legislative framework at the Commonwealth level to address these remarkably disgusting, impossible-to-predict developing elements of behaviour in our society. The coalition has some specific issues and hesitations around amendments and around seeking to improve the legislation from the government that is before us, and I commend other coalition speakers who have contributed on this bill and who have outlined some of those issues.

We hope the government will engage in good faith to discuss with us our sensible suggestions of how to improve this framework. I hope we all want exactly the same thing. Indeed, apart from one vile element of the Australian political firmament—that is, elements of the Greens political party who couldn't even support a motion in the parliament condemning a terrorist action in the wake of the atrocities of 7 October—apart from that shameful little cabal, I know that the goodwill towards addressing this genuine, appalling rise of antisemitism in our society is shared almost unanimously in the chamber. We in the coalition look forward to being part of approving this bill and achieving the outcome we all want through its passage.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this incredibly important bill. It's a bill that I hope will pass this parliament, and with the amendments that we have suggested to improve it even more. I don't think there is a greater issue which is confronting the nation at the moment than in this bill when it comes to ensuring a cohesive society going forward. If there is anything that will drive division, if there is anything that will destroy the social fabric of this nation, it is antisemitism, and we have to do everything we can to stamp it out.

It is a sad reality that we are where we are in this nation when it comes to dealing with antisemitism. There is no doubt, sadly, that the time to act, immediately after 7 October, didn't see the action that this nation required. That has meant we have got to the stage now where antisemitism in this country is occurring far too often, and in the most draconian of ways. That is a sad reality, and it is why we need to act, immediately, with strength and with unity, to stamp it out, because it has no place in our nation. One of the things that I think the coalition can be incredibly proud of is that immediately after 7 October we saw and understood the potential changes in antisemitism rising in this country and we sought to act immediately. We have sought to do it on a daily basis ever since, and that is why we're here now, still offering very constructive engagement with the government to make sure that we can get this bill through, and through in the right way so that we can begin to finally ensure that we have unity of purpose in ridding this nation of antisemitism.

Why is this bill necessary? It's necessary because of the repeated failures of the government to prevent this predictable rise following inaction after 7 October. Why do we need to act? It's very simple why we need to act, because an attack on a Jewish Australian is an attack on every Australian. It's quite simple. If we don't act against those attacks on Jewish Australians, the question that everyone will ask is, 'Who will be next?' Will it be a Hindu? Will it be a Catholic? Will it be a Muslim? Will it be an atheist? Attacking people because of their faith and their ancestry is purely and simply wrong, and that is why we have to deal with this issue. We are a proud nation, and rightly a proud nation, because we always act against racial attacks and we always act against those who target people because of their faith, and we have to keep doing that. It goes to the heart and the essence of the values that underpin our great nation. We have to make sure that we protect those values because, without them, we're a divided nation. The last thing we need to be is a divided nation, because it's been the strength of those values that have underpinned us and kept us united.

The 7 October attacks were heinous and carried out by a listed terrorist organisation. That's why they deserve to be outright condemned from the very start. We're still seeing today the impact that they've had globally, the impact that those attacks have had on Israel, the impact that those attacks have had on Israeli families and the impact that those attacks have had on the hostages. As someone who went to Israel not long after those attacks, I can say that the scars and the legacy of what I saw and the testimonials that I heard are still with me today and will never leave me. It's why I've been so strong in supporting the position that the coalition has taken in our defence of Israel's response to those attacks. I've always, always said, 'Put yourself in the place of Israel.' Say those attacks had occurred here in Australia. Say Australians had been taken hostage. Say those hostages were still being held and hadn't been released. No government in its right mind wouldn't do everything it could to get its citizens returned. No government in its right mind wouldn't do everything it could to get its citizens back, especially when they are being held by a listed terrorist organisation.

That is what Israel has been trying to do. We have to remember what occurred on 7 October. What was perpetrated by Hamas against those Israeli citizens was nothing short of heinous. It was a day of murder, torture, kidnapping, brutal sexual violence and sadly much, much more. It was designed to be cruel and barbaric. It was designed to send shockwaves. It was designed to strike at the heart of Israel in the most heinous way to cause maximum pain and maximum anguish and to basically try to destroy the absolute core of Israel's society. The way the Israelis across the divide responded with such strength and such unity showed that they were not going to be intimidated or defeated by Hamas, a sad, sad listed terrorist organisation. As a matter of fact, what they did was unite and make sure that they would do everything they could to get their citizens back. It's taken too long for that to occur.

We're only seeing part of that occur at the moment, but all of us hope—and I'm sure it is the hope of everyone in this parliament, even, I hope, the Greens—that we will see those hostages returned. The best way that we can ensure that we start to get on a pathway to peace is if we can get all of those hostages returned. Then we have to do the very hard task of trying to work out how we can ensure that the Palestinian people aren't governed by a listed terrorist organisation in Hamas. That is the next step, which is absolutely required, to bring about the lasting peace that we need to see in the Middle East. But that should not distract us from our task here. That task here is to make sure we're doing everything we can to deal with the antisemitism that has arisen as a result of 7 October.

What I think we all hope for is to see the Prime Minister step up and set the tone for what our national response should be to this antisemitism crisis in this nation. That could have been done from the very beginning. It could have been done in how those terrible actions that occurred on the steps of the Sydney Opera House were dealt with, but it wasn't, sadly. But that doesn't mean that we can't act now and begin to repair the damage which has occurred as a result of the Prime Minister's initial response to what happened in this country in the days after the 7 October attack. That is my hope for what we will see with this bill, because the time of false equivalence is over. What we need to see immediately is the government acting on stamping out antisemitism.

I didn't think that we would see synagogues set on fire in this nation in my lifetime, but that is what we have seen, sadly. I didn't think we would see increase after increase after increase of antisemitic graffiti across our cities, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. I didn't think we would see Jewish shops being vandalised. I didn't think we would see Jewish Australian citizens being harangued by roaming gangs. We need to put an end to all of this.

Sadly, we allegedly nearly saw a major terrorist strike against Jewish communities, which would have been the largest terrorist action we have ever seen on these shores. If such actions had been undertaken against the Jewish community here in Australia, the government would have acted and it would have acted unconditionally. That is the time that we have come to now, where we have to act unconditionally. This bill will help in that regard, but if we fail to continue to take the decisive action that is needed then the sad reality is we're going to see antisemitism continue to increase in this nation. As I said at the start, we cannot allow that to happen, because an attack on a Jewish Australian is an attack on all of us.

Some of the things that we're going to need to do will require a complete and utter change in the way that some of our institutions, especially, deal with antisemitism. I think the universities, beyond every other institution, need to be the ones that have a good hard look at themselves and act immediately. If they're going to allow some sort of academic pretence for antisemitism, that is sending the completely wrong message to young Australians. Of all institutions, they are the ones that need to have a good hard look at themselves.

I hope that, as a parliament, we can come together and support this bill. I hope that we can come together and make sure that all the amendments that will strengthen this bill are agreed to. There has never been a more important time for the unity of this country, for us to come together and defeat antisemitism. We need to act and we need to act now.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wannon for his comments. One of the things that makes me so proud to be the member for Hotham is the incredible community that I get to live in and be a part of. I represent one of the most multicultural electorates in all of Australia. When we tell the story of multiculturalism, a lot of people talk about public policy and strategies, the Whitlam government and those kinds of things. I don't think about those things; I think about my community and the fact that the reason we live in such a beautiful, harmonious country is that people, constituents of mine, have lived side by side sharing their cultures, sharing their religions, having their children play together, learning from each other and building up that beautiful social fabric.

In the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, we get to love and enjoy that every single day, but, from time to time, that social fabric does come under strain. One of the most concerning things that I've seen happen in my adult lifetime in this country is the rise in antisemitism that we've seen around our country in recent times. That threat is felt really deeply in my community. I have a very culturally diverse community, and I'm very lucky and privileged that that includes a Jewish population. Of course, I talk to my Jewish constituents, and they tell me about the deepest feelings that they have about what they're experiencing today as Australians. The fears that they hold for themselves, their families and their communities are fears that reach into every single part of their lives.

One of my jobs as a member of parliament is to speak about the experiences of different constituents of mine and to share those with and express those to the rest of the country. I really want people to understand what's going on for this community at the moment. There are lots of experiences that Australians have within their stories of discrimination, and I'm always very open to hearing those stories. I want people to know that, for our Jewish Australians at the moment, multiple people in the community have talked to me about the fact that they're living with a kind of antisemitism at the moment that they never believed could possibly happen in Australia. I really want people to understand that. Obviously in our experience as human beings, we don't carry that burden of experience with us everywhere we go, but I want people to understand what is going on for the community now is very real and is affecting every part of their lives as Australians.

I'm really lucky to have a Chabad centre in Bentleigh East that welcomes me into their beautiful community. This is not just a religious institution; it has this beautiful childcare centre. Jewish children of varying degrees of orthodoxy come together to get that early learning and to be steeped in the Jewish culture that they will take with them for the rest of their lives. It is genuinely the most beautiful and amazing place. With some boundary changes in my electorate, another Chabad centre, in Carnegie, will now come into my electorate. These two Chabad centres invited me to join in their Hanukkah festival at Packer Park around Christmas time, and I want to thank them for that. They welcomed not only me but my three beautiful children into this amazing religious celebration. It was a really beautiful experience, and I'll just be forever grateful for the loving, tender care that they gave to my children and to me. I really want to thank them for that. Of course, the conversations I have with Jewish Australians are often had in these environments, and I've heard from that community about the real fears that people have dropping their children at child care. Come on, that's not an experience that an Australian should be having in our country. People feel fearful wearing a yarmulke and walking down streets that are nearby to my electorate that have really strong Jewish traditions and Jewish populations. This shouldn't be happening in our country.

I'm really hopeful that the parliament will be able to speak with one voice about what comes out of the legislative process here, but I want to say really clearly to our Jewish Australian community that you are loved. You are loved by our country, you are cherished and you are an essential part of what it is to be a modern Australian country. This parliament is acting this week to try to better protect you, and we're really committed to that. I'm proud to be a part of a government that's taking decisive action on the matter of antisemitism. This is a poison in our country, and it deserves the most powerful possible action.

That's why I'm proud to support this bill. The Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 will strengthen the law against hate speech in this country. It will create new criminal offences to stamp out violence and hatred. It's my hope that this law will send a really clear and unambiguous message that the threats that this community has experienced—these acts of violence, these acts of hatred—are utterly unacceptable in this country. I'll be supporting the bill because it's unacceptable to me and, on behalf of the people of Hotham, it's utterly unacceptable to our community.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At the conclusion of World War II, German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller wrote about the Holocaust. He said:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Martin Niemoller had a very interesting life. He'd started off as a very antisemitic Nazi supporter in Germany, but his views changed when he was subsequently imprisoned in a concentration camp for speaking out against Nazi control of churches.

What does this have to do with the legislation that is currently before us, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill? Well, this bill has been brought in because of the attacks on Jewish Australians and the rise of antisemitism in this country. At the moment, those attacks, vile in nature, have been on our Jewish Australians. But if we don't do something about it now, if we don't draw a line in the sand and speak up for our Jewish Australians, who's next? Is it the Hindus? Is it Catholics, Muslims or atheists? For all of those reasons, I support this legislation. However, this legislation has come about very late in the piece. I've referenced the Holocaust, which, of course, was the worst example of antisemitism that we have ever seen in the world, and, unfortunately, antisemitism does have a very long history. But the Albanese Labor government's failure to respond after 7 October 2023 has indirectly caused this increase in antisemitism. It wasn't called out immediately after 7 October. We then saw on 9 October, in my home city of Sydney, dreadful protests: Palestinian flags, Hamas flags and calls of, 'Get rid of the Jews; kill the Jews.' There was dreadful antisemitism. That has continued not only in my home state of New South Wales but also, of course, in Victoria.

I heard the member for Wannon say that he never thought that he would see in his lifetime—

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hughes will resume their seat. It being 6.30 pm, the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 192B. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting. The member for Hughes will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed on a future day.