George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

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Shimon Peres was one of the most important statesmen of the second half of the 20th century. In his almost seven-decade-long career in Israeli politics, from the forging of Israel's nationhood out of the wreckage of war and the horrors of the Shoah, through times of war and peace, and throughout Israel's recent emergence as one of the technology and innovation capitals of the globe, there has rarely been a moment in which Shimon Peres was not at or close to his country's helm.

It was my immense privilege, on my first visit to Israel more than 10 years ago, to have met Shimon Peres at the Knesset before he ascended to the office of President, and a photograph of us enjoys pride of place in my office.

Reflecting in later life upon his own eventful role in Israel's history, Shimon Peres once wrote that he was a child of the generation that lost one world and went on to build another. And, indeed, looking back on his long and accomplished life, it is difficult not to think of Shimon Peres as a builder of nations and as one of the pre-eminent statesmen of the modern world.

The trajectory of Shimon's early life is one that would be familiar to so many Jewish families who fled the anti-Semitism of Europe to embrace Zionism's promise, the land and a future free from persecution. He was born in 1923 in the predominantly Jewish town of Vishnyeva in what was then the Second Polish Republic. Amid growing anti-Jewish sentiment, he and his family made aliyah, and arrived in Mandatory Palestine in 1934.

By the age of 19, he had become the leader of the labour-aligned Zionist youth movement and went on to serve in Israel's pre-independence underground military organisation, Haganah. It was not long before Shimon Peres's precocious talents drew the attention of David Ben-Gurion, whose protege he would become. Ben-Gurion appointed him to be Haganah's head of mobilisation in 1947, the year before Israel's founding as a state. By 1953, at the age of only 29, he had risen to become the director of the Ministry of Defense. In 1959 he was elected to the Knesset. He served as Prime Minister on two occasions, as foreign minister on three and finally, from 2007 until 2014, as President.

In no small way, the passions that define Shimon Peres's life grew to shape Israel's destiny. He was a fierce defender of Israel's security, but, equally, he became a tireless advocate for peace. Even when the politics of the day meant that the very prospect of peaceful coexistence between Israel and its neighbours seemed fanciful, he persevered.

In 1994, along with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Oslo Accords. And, while that ambitious agreement failed to secure an enduring peace, Shimon never lost hope. The duty of leaders, he once said, is to pursue freedom ceaselessly, even in the face of hostility, in the face of doubt and disappointment.

Although his legacy will be defined by his ambitious pursuit of peace, equally we should pay tribute to Shimon Peres's advocacy for the transformative power of innovation, which helped to transform the Israeli economy into the global leader in advanced technology it is today.

Shimon Peres was among Israel's first visionaries and one of its last surviving founding fathers. In his passing, his country has lost a tireless advocate for peace and reconciliation, and the world has lost a famous statesman.

On behalf of the Australian government and the Australian people, as we take up this moment to celebrate the long life and distinguished place in history of Shimon Peres, I extend our nation's sympathy to his family and to his nation, and express our abiding friendship to the people of Israel.