Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) deplores the appalling and unacceptable rise in antisemitism across Australia, including violent attacks on synagogues, schools, homes and childcare centres;

(2) unequivocally condemns antisemitism in all its forms; and

(3) resolves that all parliamentarians will work together constructively to combat the scourge of antisemitism in Australia.

Last week, as we marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I sat in the Great Synagogue with Holocaust survivors and listened to the testimony from 96-year-old survivor Jack Meister. It was incredibly moving. At almost the same time, it was announced that a caravan had been found with explosives and the addresses of Jewish community locations, including that Great Synagogue. People in this House have seen the appalling and unacceptable rise in antisemitism across Australia, including graffiti, arson and violent attacks on synagogues, schools, homes and childcare centres. But they may not appreciate what it's like for my Jewish community to live through these assaults every day, including private assaults like abuse on the streets and online.

The Jewish community is living in fear. Australia has for many years offered a safe haven. Now parents and grandparents are genuinely wondering if they can continue to build their lives here. It broke my heart last year when a mother told me that her preschool-age daughter was proudly taking part in a Hanukkah celebration and the only thing she could think of was: 'She's so happy. She's so proud to be Jewish. She has no idea how many people hate her.' But the message today is to say that those who hate on the basis of religion, those who perpetrate crimes on the basis of religion, do not represent the Australian community. Those who perpetrate those crimes are criminals, plain and simple. They must be treated as such. They must be charged, tried and sentenced in a way to demonstrate to all Australians that this behaviour has no place in our country. We in this House and across the different levels of government have the responsibility to keep the community safe. That must be the work of this parliament in the laws and the policing, education and justice systems. Some of those opportunities we have this week, including dealing with the hate crime legislation that is in front of this parliament and which I seek to strengthen.

But this is not just a matter of the laws; it is also a matter of culture. We must lead by example. The message from this parliament today must be unambiguous. We will not stand for hate, we will not stand for abuse, we will not abide intimidation and we will not tolerate the terrorising of any part of our community. We are all united against antisemitism. Words must be backed by action, but words matter—particularly those of this parliament.

In our country we will often disagree. We will disagree vehemently on conflicts overseas. We are a multicultural nation, and in any conflict we will always have people on different sides and many others with very strong views. I see that in my community, but I also see that my community is unified, that my community believes that hate and intimidation of others based on their religion, sexuality or ethnic background cannot be tolerated in this country. The hatred against the Jewish community in this country is unacceptable, as is hatred directed to any part of our community. We must maintain our empathy even towards those who disagree. This is one thing that my committee agrees with. That is the foundation of a truly pluralistic society. That is the Australia we aspire to be. I'm proud of this country: proud that it has been a sanctuary for so many; proud that it has offered opportunities to so many, including to my own migrant family; proud that a Jewish community member showed me the kind text chat between him and his Muslim friend at the height of the conflict; proud that, when a rabbi's home was vandalised in my community, his non-Jewish neighbours rushed to clean it up before he saw it. That is the Australia we must protect: an Australia defined by decency, respect and kindness.

The whole of this parliament should support this motion because we recognise that hate directed towards the Jewish community and those antisemitic attacks are attacks on the values of our whole country and that we must guard those values with everything we have.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion. I thank the number for Wentworth for bringing forward the motion. I know that we both feel a deep sense of responsibility for the two largest Jewish communities of any electorate in this country, and I thank her for bringing this to the House.

Last year, when I saw my office with horns on top of it, I thought, 'Surely, this is as bad as it can get.' My staff came to work with antisemitic graffiti all of my office and are completely shattered. But the truth is that the last six months have been like no other I've experienced in this country. My grandparents came to this country looking for a safe haven for the Jewish people, and over the last six months we've seen cars set alight, we've seen synagogues burnt down, we've seen Jewish homes and businesses marked and we have seen childcare centres being burnt down—our littlest Australians. Why? What is the common thread? They are all targeted towards the Australian Jewish community. But we must fix this and we must work together until Australia as we know it and as we grew up in is restored.

The first step is to listen to the Jewish people of Australia. They hold the collective memory of microagression, of hate, of words and acts of vilification and discrimination, and they understand the history of antisemitism. We cannot allow history to fester and get even more out of control.

Some of the tropes that we have seen in this country are ones we've seen before. Some people target the Jewish community because of some sort of response to what's happening in the Middle East, some because they believe in the myths of Jewish power and control, and some just under the false banner of racial supremacy. None of these tropes are new, but the common thread is conspiracy, dehumanisation and hatred, all of which have existed throughout history. We've been kicked out of our homes before. Our homes have been targeted. But today we say, 'Not here. Not in Australia.'

We cannot let antisemitism become a partisan issue. It has never existed on a political spectrum. There are things that I disagree with the Liberal Party about, but not this. I will work with anyone, and I have stood with anyone in the past, in order to ensure that we present a united voice on this, that we confront this together and that we restore Australia together, and I would urge all members of the House to join us in coming together to send the clearest of messages that we will not fight, because the fight is not in here; it is for the Jewish people of Australia.

This is personal. I want this to end. I want this all to end. I dread turning on my phone and looking at the news and seeing another attack. We want this to be over, so we need to commit ourselves and take full responsibility for taking this on and doing whatever is in our power to combat it. Now, we have increased security, we have banned Nazi salutes, we've criminalised doxxing and we've appointed a special envoy to combat antisemitism. Over the summer, I spent countless hours holding our university vice-chancellors to account to ensure that students who return to university have a safe place to go from day one. But we need to do more. We are going to work together this week to create new laws to outlaw hate and incitement. We need to protect people from that.

Antisemitism is a wicked problem. It has existed for thousands of years and it has always been there in Australia, but it has lain dormant. It has always been in the corners of our society. Well, it is not anymore. It is up to each and every member of this House to stand firmly and strongly against it and to do whatever is in our power to ensure that Australia is a safe place—because it is not just the Jewish people who are watching; it is all of Australia. Every single Australian demands and deserves the right to be safe, to be able to live in their homes without fear and without worrying about intimidation, harassment or violence, especially for something as simple as who they are. I'm a proud Jewish Australian and I will continue to stand against antisemitism in all of its forms.

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

Until earlier this year I had never been to the Adass Israel Synagogue. When I heard about the firebombing there on 6 December last year, it rocked my sense of what it means to be a Jew in this country.

A few weeks before, at the Kristallnacht commemoration, I had met Beate Hammett from Hornsby, now in her 90s. Her father had been the chief architect in the Jewish community in Berlin. Beate was honoured at the commemoration because, on that fateful night in 1938, two of the beautiful synagogues that had been designed by her father were destroyed by fire. The images of Adass Israel in Melbourne in flames brought home the memory of Kristallnacht and the worst moments in our history.

In early January I visited the synagogue. The visit was very emotional. What the pictures don't convey is the burnt, damp smell that still pervades the air. The scenes are shocking—the twisted-metal air conditioners, the charred remains of chairs and the burnt honour boards, now impossible to read, that contained the names of people whose lives had been dedicated to the community. There's the cavity in the wall, stripped bare to the brick shell, where the Torah scrolls, the holiest objects in the synagogue, were kept. There's the knowledge that there were people in the synagogue when it was bombed and that lives could have been lost.

The community lost more than just a building. The synagogue is more than just bricks and mortar. It's a place where people go to mark some of the most significant moments in their lives—for weddings and bar mitzvahs. It's a place where sons sit with fathers and where mothers sit with daughters, learning their prayers and our traditions across the generations. It's where people come to say Kaddish and remember their parents. But Adass Israel was not the end. It was the beginning of a phase of escalation of unprecedented antisemitic violence, which has no place in this country. We've seen the firebombing of cars in Woollahra and Dover Heights outside the former home of prominent Jewish communal leaders. We saw the firebombing of a childcare centre which serves the Jewish community of Maroubra. We saw the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Newtown and antisemitic graffiti on another in Allawah. In my own peaceful electorate, a caravan was discovered with a list of Jewish communal institutions and enough explosives to cause the largest terrorist attack on Australian soil—an attack with the potential to kill hundreds of our fellow Australians. People in suburbs with high Jewish populations now go to sleep with helicopters whirring above their heads and police and armed guards patrolling the streets, because that is what is needed to protect them in Australia in 2025. We have a domestic terrorism crisis in this country, the sort of which Australia has never experienced.

In my electorate, as in most electorates, there are very few Jewish people, but there are so many Australians who hate what has become of our country today—a country where antisemitism has been allowed to flourish because of the inaction and half measures of this government. If you criticise this government, Labor and the teals say you're politicising the issue. This is despite the fact that Jewish communal leaders, former Labor MPs and Labor Party members are making the same criticisms that I, the Leader of the Opposition and my colleagues are making. Let me be clear. I will not cop criticism for standing up for my family, my community or the country I love in the face of a government that has constantly let down the Jewish community and every law-abiding Australian, who just want to live in a country where they're afforded the full protection of the law.

Australians want to see this government do all that they can, but the Prime Minister and the government have failed to do all they can. There has been moral equivalence right from the very beginning. The Prime Minister, other ministers, the teals and others failed to call out the uniqueness of antisemitism and recognise it as a standalone hatred. What we have seen are half measures and weakness when what we needed was strong measures and strong leadership. The government has been reactive. It has not led. They took months to bring in the hate symbols law that we first proposed. They took months to appoint a special envoy on antisemitism, and then they failed to heed her advice on crucial matters. They did not coordinate all the law enforcement in the intelligence services and state and federal police when this issue first reared its ugly head. They did not do all they could to curb the violent protests on our city streets. They allowed Jew haters to run amok on our campuses and failed to call a judicial inquiry. This parliamentary committee scares no-one, as the performance of vice-chancellors indicates and the racist QUT anti-racism conference highlights.

The Prime Minister had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to call a national cabinet, which didn't produce stronger penalties or tougher laws, and the Attorney-General has failed to root out antisemitism at the Human Rights Commission. The foreign minister's conduct is regarded with disgust by thousands of Jewish people, calling for her not to represent our country in Auschwitz. The time for half measures and moral equivalence is over. The only thing that will solve antisemitism in this country is tough measures, strong leadership and stronger laws. That is what is needed in Australia today.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion moved by the member for Wentworth, and I congratulate her on doing so. I want to speak about the issue that's actually before us. On the first day that this parliament sat after the terrorist atrocities of 7 October 2023, this parliament overwhelmingly voted for a motion. It said, in clause (3):

… the House …

…   …   …

condemns antisemitism and recognises that generations of Jewish people have been subjected to this hateful prejudice …

I, on that day, said:

I know I speak for every member of this House when I say that this kind of hateful prejudice has no place in Australia. The awful antisemitism chanted by some of the protesters at the Sydney Opera House is beyond offensive; it is a betrayal of our Australian values. We reject it and we condemn it. Our country is better than that and our country is a better place because of our Jewish community. Our government is committed to keeping the community safe.

We have not wavered.

Antisemitism stands in vile opposition to all we are as a nation and all that we have built together over generations. It has no place in our nation, and we'll combat it with the full force of our laws and total commitment from every level of government.

Some of the horrendous acts have led to arrests. More will follow. We have a simple message to those cowards and criminals engaged in these low acts of hatred: you will be caught and you will be punished; our government has no tolerance for your actions. That is why we introduced a landmark ban on the Nazi salute and hate symbols—the first ever—which came into effect in January last year. It's also why we criminalised doxxing, legislation that some failed to support in this parliament, at the end of last year.

Our groundbreaking legislation has made it easier for our law enforcement bodies to deal with the perpetrators of antisemitic acts, but it cannot be our only tool. Hatred feeds on ignorance, and ignorance thrives in darkness. So, as we fight these crimes of bigotry in the present, we are building for a better future through the light of education and memory. Last week, as we marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day, my government committed $2 million for the upgrade of the Holocaust Institute for WA education centre, and we also announced $4.4 million for a national centre for Holocaust education here in Canberra. I want it to be part of the itinerary for visiting school groups, every bit as much as Parliament House, Questacon and the National Museum are.

The Holocaust was carried out on a scale that falls across the decades like a terrible shadow, and we cannot let its lessons recede into history. It's important we know what road hate can take people down. We saw hatred in the October 7 attacks, the same hatred fuelled the fire that devastated the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne, and the same hatred drove those who targeted a childcare centre in Maroubra. These acts of hatred are an assault on the rights that every Australian cherishes.

In addition to the laws we have passed, this government has made multiple commitments and investments to combat antisemitism. They include: establishing Special Operation Avalite, to respond to and investigate antisemitism attacks; $57 million investment to improve safety and security at Jewish schools and synagogues; an $8.5 million investment to upgrade the Sydney Jewish Museum; funding towards the replacement of the Torah scrolls housed in the Adass Israel synagogue; the appointment of the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal—something that has existed for a while in other parts of the world; and an agreement of National Cabinet to establish a national database to track antisemitic crime.

In addition to that, we will continue to provide ASIO, the Australian Federal Police and all of the authorities every resource that they request or desire in order to be able to do their work. We respect their work and give them support.

We want to make sure that we have not just the words, as we repeat them, 'never again'; we want to make sure that this is a reality. We know that antisemitism has given dark shadows across generations. I say to Jewish Australians: live proudly, stand tall, you belong here and Australia stands with you.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the members for their contributions and acknowledge that this is a very significant time for our country. This is a time of national crisis, and it has been brewing away and been in the making for a long period of time. Antisemitism has always been there, as previous speakers said. It has been here for thousands of years. But in our country, the depth and the level of hatred and racism that we've seen has never been evidenced in our country's history.

When speaking to Holocaust survivors who came to our country at the end of the Second World War and who have experienced peace and tranquillity—living in an environment which has been conducive to them living safely and raising their children, contributing to civil society, being involved in philanthropic causes and contributing more generally to the betterment of this country—they say that, for the first time since 1945, they feel unsafe in this country.

There are people otherwise within the Jewish community that I've spoken to, not just in Sydney and Melbourne but across the rest of the country, who are talking about leaving our country. These are people who were born here who know little of Israel and little of that life. They're talking about leaving our country and going to Israel—a country that's under nuclear threat from Iran—because they feel safer there. This is the moment we find ourselves in.

It has been building since the horrible, dreadful circumstances of October 7 2023. Two days later, before any response from Israel, people were out chanting on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. The time was then for our country to take a very definite and strong stance against those actions. No such stance was taken. It then morphed into university campus demonstrations, which went on for months and months—no red lines and no boundaries—and targeted people who were just going about their business: Jewish students, which I spoke about before, and academics on campus who were made to feel unwelcome in an environment which had previously preached inclusion, tolerance and forbearance.

Members had their offices attacked and people were doxxed online, not because of anything they'd said or done but simply because of their surname or because of their heritage. The fact is that this has continued unabated over the course of this period. The doxxing then morphed into attacks by way of graffiti on people's places of business, their cars and now their homes. There has now been the firebombing of a synagogue and the attack on a childcare centre.

Funding has been ramped up to protect children with armed guards at Jewish schools. No other schools in Australia have that level of protection or overlay of security. We've now seen in Sydney an attempted terrorist attack, which, on the advice of the police, would have provided an attack not just on people of Jewish faith outside a synagogue but many hundreds, potentially, of Australians, with a 40-metre blast zone that would have caused the most catastrophic terrorist attack in our country's history.

So this has continued on for a long period of time, and it is no wonder that people within the Jewish community, their friends, their supporters and every Australian of good endeavour and of big heart has been condemning of the inaction that we've seen over the course of the last 12 months.

I want to thank the member for Wentworth for bringing forward this motion. It is true, though, that we worked with the member for Wentworth and the government to see struck out the original words—which were contained in paragraph 2—which read, after 'forms', 'as we condemn all similar hatred directed to any groups in our community'. The member agreed to that form of words being struck out, because we don't think that was necessary and we also think it is inexplicable to try and mount the argument that this sort of hatred, racism and antisemitism is being conveyed against any other pocket of the Australian community.

We voted against the government's motion because it stopped us from moving amendments to the member's motion, which would have strengthened the motion and provided stronger support to the community, and we'll continue to do that in further forms in this parliament. We stand with the Jewish community, we stand with every right-thinking Australian and we condemn antisemitism in every form.

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

I'm very pleased to speak on behalf of my community in support of the motion moved by the member for Wentworth. In 2014, a group of primary school students from Mount Sinai College, in Maroubra, were racially abused with shocking antisemitic language whilst they were getting the bus home from school. Naturally there was outrage and concern from parents and the wider community. In the wake of that, I wanted to find a way to make it known that antisemitism and racism were abhorrent and did not represent what our community was about.

So I came up with the idea of painting a mural on the side wall of the Only About Children childcare centre on Anzac Parade in Maroubra. I got students of different faiths and backgrounds from local schools to come together. We had students of the Jewish faith from Emanuel School, Indigenous students from Matraville Sports High School, students of the Christian faith from Corpus Christi, and Randwick Girls' High School students. They came together to create and to paint a mural, and theme of that mural is harmony, respect and unity.

That mural still stands today, almost a decade later. Despite the firebombing of the Only About Children early childhood centre and the spray painting on 21 January of disgusting antisemitic words on the other side of that wall where the mural is, the mural has survived. That mural, designed and painted by students of different faiths and backgrounds, remains unharmed. The mural in itself is a symbol of the resilience and strength of our community and our resolve to fight antisemitism and racism in any form.

Over the last month, members of the Jewish community in our area and across Sydney have been subjected to some disgusting and terrifying antisemitic and racist attacks. I unequivocally condemn those attacks and their perpetrators for the shocking horror that they have brought to members of our Jewish community and I say to the Jewish community: I'm truly sorry that Jewish members of our community have had to endure these shameful actions. I've got many friends in the Jewish community. They are good people. They're law-abiding citizens who, like the rest of us, just want to go about their everyday lives. They deserve the right, like every Australian, to live in peace and to go about their lives in an ordinary manner.

In December last year, I established the local Operation Shelter taskforce, with elected representatives, local police and leaders of Jewish synagogues and schools. We come together on a regular basis to cooperate and to plan actions to keep the community safe. We've had several meetings and there've been actions, including additional police patrols, helicopter surveillance and community support. But the most important thing is that we come together to talk, we come together to cooperate and we come together to work together. We have seen the largest police operation in Sydney since the Sydney Olympics, which is being undertaken to protect the Jewish community. I want to congratulate and thank the police for the arrests that they've been making and the staff at the Only About Children childcare centre, who were subject to this shocking attack. Those mongrels, the perpetrators of these crimes, will be caught and prosecuted, and there've been arrests over the last couple of days.

In our community, our response to this shocking situation has been to work together, to choose unity over division, and to unite and come together to solve this challenge, rather than to take pot shots at each other in this place. We've chosen to adopt the approach represented by the mural that stands on that wall and the approach of those students who created it: harmony, respect and unity. If a bunch of high school students can set an example of how we should be approaching this issue and how we can solve it together, then surely we, as the leaders of this nation, can put politics aside and come together and work together to fight the scourge of antisemitism and racism in this country.

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Antisemitism is the world's most ancient hatred, dating back thousands of years, and history is incredibly clear: if you allow antisemitism to gain even the smallest foothold in your society, you are no longer safe; your society is no longer safe. It is an evil that is always there below the surface and, at the first sign of it coming above the surface, it must be repressed. History could not be clearer on that point.

We face a crisis today of antisemitism in Australia, and we have to think about how we got here and how we can ensure that the crisis is curtailed and that we never, ever get into this position again. On 9 October 2023, that night of infamy at the Sydney Opera House, we were all shocked by what we saw. We'd seen nothing like that in our lifetimes—the most despicable sentiments towards Australians of Jewish faith.

What should have happened then is that we should have come together as a nation, led by our Prime Minister, and put in place a clear national strategy and plan to deal with antisemitism. But, unfortunately, that did not happen. It should have been the top of the Prime Minister's priority list after we saw that evil of 9 October. It didn't happen.

In November of 2023, the next month, the Leader of the Opposition wrote to the Prime Minister and basically said, 'We need to significantly escalate our focus on stopping antisemitism in this country. We need to have a National Cabinet meeting, make this a national priority and really lead on this right now.' Again, the Prime Minister did not take up that offer and, in fact, did not even respond to the letter.

It's really important that we talk about these things, because this is a democracy, and the way democracies can progress is by learning from their mistakes, and it is self-evident that, from the beginning of this antisemitism crisis up to this day, immense mistakes have been made. We need to learn from that. We need to learn from the ongoing failure to address antisemitic acts as they arose in our community. We saw antisemitic displays not prosecuted. We saw antisemitic protests allowed to continue week after week, with no consequences for the people who held up those shameful signs and made those shameful statements.

Horrendously, we saw Australian students of Jewish faith afraid to go to university because of who they were—in Australia in 2024. That should never, ever happen in this country, but it did. Then we saw these acts escalated. We've seen horrendous acts of graffiti on synagogues around the country—on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in Allawah, just outside my electorate, and so many others around the country, like the synagogue in Newtown—and on the childcare centre at Maroubra. Most shockingly, of course, there was the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. All of these things have happened in our country. What should have happened is that, back on 9 October, when we saw the face of antisemitism in Australia at the Sydney Opera House, our Prime Minister should have led the nation in a response. He didn't do that. That was wrong, and we need to be frank about it.

We now need to take action on things like mandatory sentencing for people who commit acts of terror. It sounds straightforward. We should do that. We need to have mandatory sentencing in relation to symbols of an antisemitic nature. We all need to move forward to address this antisemitism crisis in Australia and take steps to ensure that we never, ever again end up in this situation in our great nation.

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

Goldstein is home to the third-largest Jewish community in Australia—Holocaust survivors and their descendants, largely, who came to Australia for safety. This is something to be proud of. When I speak to members of the Jewish community in my electorate, they speak with such strong love for the safety their families have found here and now with such deep sadness, confusion and fear about what's happened over the last 15 months.

When I think of the Jewish community and talk about this frightful situation, my mind inevitably goes to a friend and her young, primary-school-age son. He has barely slept since 7 October 2023, and he has barely gone to school, not only because of the terror over the seas but because of his fear here. It was only when he saw armed guards at school that he would go back. This is not only sad; this is wrong.

What's happened in Gaza is terrible. I don't agree with the way it has unfolded. Questioning that, the lack of humanity in it, is not antisemitic. We must be able to demand accountability from governments across the world. But hateful rhetoric and acts against Jewish people here are absolutely wrong and must be condemned. No Jewish person—Jewish people have many views, I might add—should be blamed for the actions of a government in Israel. These are separate and must be treated as such. People have been cancelled, communities have been defaced, a synagogue adjacent to my electorate was firebombed, and credible threats of domestic terror attacks have been found.

We have been blessed to be a socially cohesive nation. Our multiculturalism has been a success story, the envy of much of the world. But, as I've said many times since entering this parliament, our social cohesion is being deeply challenged. Our geographical distance has provided us safety from many modern conflicts in the past, but not from this one. Let me be clear: antisemitism is intolerable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. But the twin tragedies of this conflict—the suffering in Gaza and, to some degree, the West Bank, and the fear among Jewish communities—coexist. Their peace and their safety are intertwined. Defacement, demonisation and, indeed, terror do nothing but deepen these enduring wounds. We must get back to reason. When hatred is allowed to fester, it endangers all of us.

Life and death must never be weaponised for political gain, and hate, in all its forms, including antisemitism, must never be allowed to shape our discourse. I support this motion, and I thank the member for Wentworth for bringing it. I'm hopeful that legislation now before the parliament to combat hate crimes will be a substantial step forward to restore social cohesion and safety for our Jewish communities. There is more to do. I send this message to everyone in my community and the nation who is living in fear of antisemitic violence: I stand with you, and we must work together across these aisles to bring people together, not tear them apart.

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm a very proud Jewish Australian. I'm not particularly religious, but my family has contributed to Australian life over many generations. I can trace my family back to the beginnings of European settlement in Australia. My four-times-great-grandfather, Abraham Rheuben, was one of the founders of the Hobart Synagogue, which is still functioning today. My grandfather was one of the founders of the Emanuel Synagogue in Woollahra, which was recently subjected to an attack of antisemitism and defacement. I'm very proud of my heritage. My family, over many generations, as I've said, has contributed to Australian life in many ways: in law, in medicine, in business and in other fields. One of my ancestors was one of the first paediatric cardiothoracic surgeons in Australia, and many others have contributed, particularly in medicine, over many years.

Antisemitism, of course, has existed in Australia since European settlement. We have had episodes of antisemitism going back to the 1800s and the early 20th century. There was, of course, the bombing of the Israeli consulate and the Hakoah club in 1982. The Bankstown Synagogue, where I did part of my Hebrew studies prior to my bar mitzvah, was firebombed and completely destroyed in 1991. The recent increase in antisemitism has been shocking, and, with the recent conflict in the Middle East, we've seen the ramping up of these antisemitic episodes. It is terrible, but we are very lucky to live in a multicultural, secular democracy like Australia, where we live by the rule of law, and we are very grateful for the efforts of the police and the security forces to make sure that these episodes of antisemitism are being followed up and investigated. Ultimately, the perpetrators, I am confident, will be punished. I don't believe in mandatory sentencing, and I do believe that we should trust in the legal process. We do have the separation of powers, and we do need to trust in the legal process to make sure that people are appropriately punished for the crimes they commit—and these are crimes. They're terrible crimes. As a paediatrician, the way that schools and preschools have been targeted is absolutely shocking and does ongoing damage. I can completely understand the reticence of parents to send their kids to these schools and preschools because of this recent spate of antisemitic attacks. The attacks must be stopped.

The most important thing I see, though, is social cohesion. We must act together on this. I congratulate the Prime Minister and the government on their efforts. We have done many, many things to try to prevent episodes of antisemitism and make sure they are appropriately punished, such as establishing Operation Avalite with the Australian Federal Police, banning doxxing and the display of antisemitic symbols, the appointment of Peter Khalil as the Special Envoy for Social Cohesion—he's been excellent—and the appointment of the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, who is doing a fantastic job. The government has funded security and improvements in the Sydney Jewish Museum and in other places around Australia and is doing whatever it can to make sure that antisemitism is recognised, investigated and punished. I'm confident in the efforts of the government, and I think that we must all act together on this, as the Australian parliament and a cohesive group, to lead efforts to prevent antisemitism. I'm very proud of what our government is doing, and I'm very proud to be a member of a government that recognises the importance of catching and punishing people who are committing these terrible acts in whatever cause. I thank the Member for Wentworth for bringing her motion. I support it completely, and I thank all those other members who've spoken out against antisemitism. I know that, as a government, we are a cohesive force, and I really do support the efforts of the opposition members who have spoken today as well. It is important that we do act together to get rid of this scourge.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There's been a lot of talk this morning about what the government has done or wants to do to address antisemitism. But I think it's important that in this chamber, at this time, we actually deal with some facts. Part of the reason we are where we are today and for the rise of antisemitism is the appalling lack of political leadership and, it has to be said, the appalling lack of leadership from our leaders. That's not the men and women of the police and security services on the ground. It's a lack of leadership at our utmost top levels in those security and policing services.

In the last year alone, this federal Labor government has delayed a visit to Israel by senior ministers and then refused to visit the sites of the atrocities. When the foreign minister visited Israel—I think it was in early 2024—she refused to visit the sites of the atrocities. That was our foreign minister. I've been to the sites of the atrocities, and for our foreign minister to have travelled to Israel shortly after the incident but to have refused to go to those sites is a travesty, and she stands condemned for not doing so. In fact, it was only a couple of weeks ago that this government's Attorney-General visited Israel. That was in the last couple of weeks.

This government reinstated funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine despite an ongoing investigation into the agency's complicity in the 7 October attacks. This investigation inevitably proved that as many as nine UN relief workers were involved in the murder of 1,200 innocent Israeli people and the kidnapping of 251 men, women and children.

This Labor government called for a ceasefire and a two-state solution just months after the 7 October attack, and this announcement, by this government, came on a Jewish high holiday—of all days!

This government has consistently refused to instigate a judicial inquiry in relation to the antisemitism that has pervaded our university campuses, instead opting for a parliamentary inquiry.

This government voted to recognise the state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly, breaking with allies and decades of bipartisanship on this matter.

This Prime Minister watched on as the trade union movement backed Hamas and the two-state solution in a public statement, another affront to the long history of trade union antisemitism.

Labor chose cowardice over courage when the International Criminal Court issued warrants for Israel's democratically elected leaders.

This government failed to hold the Australian Human Rights Commission to account for antisemitism within its senior leadership.

This government dithered and delayed instead of responding to vile antisemitism on our Australian university campuses. This government has since refused to support an urgent judicial inquiry into antisemitism on those campuses.

This government were woefully slow to act when their own Senator Fatima Payman chose solidarity with Hamas and the Greens over the Jewish people.

This government tried to stand on both sides of the barbed wire fence by abstaining on a UN General Assembly vote, proposed by Palestine, to demand Israel cede its territory and end its so-called occupation.

Under this Prime Minister the Australian Labor government sided with UNRWA and its Hamas affiliated counterparts after Israel's elected legislature voted to revoke UNRWA's right to operate on Israeli sovereign territory.

Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Wentworth for raising this very real and corrosive issue in this House, and I consider the last speaker from the opposition to be part of that corrosiveness and that type of attitude towards an issue that we should be coming together on.

Last month Southern Sydney Synagogue, in Allawah, was vandalised with antisemitic slogans. The synagogue is just outside my electorate, with a rail line between us, but the congregation are very much part of the community. It wasn't just property damage; it was an attempt to instil fear in the small Jewish congregation, and it made the wider St George community feel less safe. The attack has been part of a pattern of antisemitic violence in Sydney, Melbourne and other parts of Australia. That violence has targeted homes and properties in areas where there are large Jewish populations. New South Wales and federal police are acting swiftly to find the culprits.

The government has legislated to ban the display of hate symbols and Nazi salutes, which homes in on the very public attempts to intimidate our communities. The government has imposed sanctions on the Terrorgram network. It has announced $100 million for countering violent extremism. The Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, has been conducting important work to determine the scale of this prejudice and provide advice to the government.

I have a very simple message to those perpetrating these antisemitic acts. If you think you are feeding a cause, you are not. You are making it worse for everyone. Disgust will be your reward. Sowing division and fear is not brave; it is completely unacceptable.

When we see what is taking place in this country, we see pure evil and pure racism, and we have seen it periodically in this country when it comes to different groups of people. This parliament has a responsibility to come together and show a really decent approach to this issue and to show leadership. The last speaker from the opposition spoke about leadership; he displayed none. Leadership would be to come together as one and support the member for Wentworth's motion. Leadership is understanding that these antisemitic acts and acts of racism divide people. They hurt people. They stay with you. Let me tell you; I can speak from personal experience about that.

Instead of trying to make this a political issue, instead of trying to paint one side one way and one side the other, why don't we display to the Australian community an act of bipartisanship in not accepting what's been going on, an act that will display to the Australian people that we are one in rejecting racism, rejecting antisemitism and rejecting hate in this country? That is required of this parliament—not what we are seeing now, where there is the attempt to sow division here. How can the Australian people have any faith in political leadership if we cannot come together on this one? I urge everyone to do it.

I am proud to be part of a government who has made many moves and done many things to support social cohesion in this country and to call out antisemitism as absolutely unacceptable. I'm proud of that—I am very, very proud of that. You cannot rewrite history and you cannot rewrite the truth. Politicising this issue is reprehensible, unacceptable and not a display of leadership to the Australian community.

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

I remember vividly, on the morning of 8 October 2023, the first conversations I had expressing what I thought would be an urgent need to put in place protections for places of worship in Australia, such as synagogues, churches, mosques, Jewish schools and community centres, because I knew from bitter personal experience that there would be terrible ramifications from the horrific massacre of October 7, the unleashing of that dreadful, dark hatred and violence that saw the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. There was the massacre of 1,200 people and the capturing of 250 hostages; the 15 months of war, death and destruction; the loss of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives; and the displacement of millions. There is the deep, indescribable pain of Jewish Australians who lost loved ones in the kibbutzim and of the Palestinian Australian teacher in my electorate who lost a dozen family numbers in the bombing of Gaza, and they are joined only in the darkness of their grief, which is the sad remaining remnant of shared humanity.

Now there has been the unleashing of the vile scourge of an ancient hatred, antisemitism, upon Jewish Australians. There is what I can only explain as a dark dread in the pit of my stomach that these ancient animosities, these ancient hatreds, that have wound their way through thousands of years have now come to hurt our people in Australia because of their faith or ethnic background. Antisemitism is a violent, ancient hatred. It's run its wicked course through history; through the pogroms of Europe to the culmination of the greatest horror mankind had ever perpetrated on itself, in the Holocaust; and now into our Jewish Australian community, who feel this ancient scourge in an unprecedented way in modern-day Australia. I considered in late 2023 that we would be facing not only a political storm but also a moral storm. In those moments in the eye of the storm, it's important to hold fast to the mast that is our principles, to go through the battering of the storm to find calmer waters on the other side.

But what are these principles? No Australian should be subject to violence and hatred because of their faith or their ethnic identity. This goes to the heart of social cohesion: that we can disagree, that we can have deeply held viewpoints of the world that are different from one another, that our society works only when we are able to navigate those differences peacefully and respectfully without resorting to violence or hate speech. At every turn, the government has unequivocally condemned antisemitism and has taken extensive policy and legislative measures to protect the Jewish Australian community and tackle antisemitism, but legal sanctions from any government can go only so far. The deep hatred within people who think that violence is a legitimate form of expressing their political or ideological views has to change. It has to be addressed beyond legal sanction, and that happens when representatives in this place, grassroots communities across Australia and every individual Australian citizen understand that we all have a responsibility to engage and navigate our differences peacefully.

I confess that I don't know whether the rise of antisemitism that we have seen across Australia is from a very loud and violent minority or whether what we're seeing is an unleashing of an ancient hatred that has always existed, lurking underneath. I sincerely hope it's the former. In my heart I believe that the vast majority of Australians are inherently good people who give each other a fair go regardless of their faith backgrounds and reject violence and hate as a means to an end. This small but vocal and loud minority who hold hatred in their hearts, who seek to break down our cohesive society through violence and intimidation—the leadership here in this place and across the country, in every community, in every citizen believing in and committing to their nation and citizenship, and the responsibility to protect it from violence are what will defeat that hatred.

Unfortunately, we have seen in this place those who have sought to use the human tragedy to politicise attacks on Jewish Australians for their own short-term political gain and, worse, fanned the very flames of hatred. That's an abrogation of responsibility as democratic representatives. We have to see beyond the short-term political prism to take actions and speak words that go to protecting and supporting all Australians regardless of their faith or identity, calling out the hatreds such as antisemitism, not sowing division and discord to make short-term political gain. This is our responsibly to the Jewish Australian community so that we can once again make sure that they feel safe and secure in this country.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Greens support this motion. The recent rise in attacks on childcare centres, on homes and on synagogues is to be condemned. Antisemitism has no place in our country. Hate has no place in our country. Violence and racism of any kind have no place in our country. I've had members of the Jewish community say to me recently that they oppose the invasion of Gaza, they oppose the occupation, they oppose what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing and they participated in peaceful protests but that the recent attacks are having an effect on them. I want them to know that we hear that here in parliament and there is universal support to say that antisemitism has no place in this country.

There have been mentions from other members in this place about the longstanding roots of antisemitism. I remember, together with other members of our community in Victoria, seeing the terror and the horror in 2021 when neo-Nazi groups gathered in the Grampians and we started to see the far right and white supremacists start to feel so emboldened that they could gather together publicly. For many of us, that represented a significant moment, following on the heels of the rise of the far right generally, that required some action. We in Victorian parliament moved for an inquiry into the rise and resurgence of the far right in Australia, which found a year later that sadly there has been a resurgence, and it's something that, back at the time, ASIO and our security agencies—

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being 1.25 pm, in accordance with the resolution agreed to by the House earlier today, I now put the question. The question is that the motion moved by the member for Wentworth be agreed to.

Question agreed to.