Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak in support of this private senators' bill—Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024—to establish an instituted judicial inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses. I think the term 'antisemitism' can confuse Australians sometimes, but antisemitism is simply another form of prejudice or discrimination on the basis of race. It's particularly in this instance directed against the Jewish people and the Jewish faith, but it is as worthy of condemnation and as worthy of this parliament's attention as any other form of discrimination.

Unfortunately, many people, including in this chamber, seem to have a blind spot when it comes to this form of discrimination. They will be virulent and condemnatory, and rightly so, of any other form of prejudice or discrimination they see arise in Australian society, but when it comes to antisemitism, which is directed against a particular part of the Australian community—the Australian Jewish community—these same voices often fall silent. We have seen this far too often in this debate.

Let's remember what the 7 October terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel involved—the massacre of some 1,200 innocent people, families, women, children and the elderly, and the abduction of some 240, who were taken to Gaza and continue to be held by Hamas. Large numbers of those hostages have since been killed. A number still remain in captivity. These were crimes of a truly barbaric fashion. Young children dancing at a music festival fled for their lives. Some 354 of them were killed that day. More were taken hostage. Others were hiding in a safe room, lying on top of their children, trying to protect them from Hamas gunfire. Bodies were defiled and mutilated. Women were the victims of horrific sexual assault and abuse. All of this has been well documented.

But, strangely enough, after these atrocities the only form of discrimination and prejudice we have seen surface in Australia has not been directed at Hamas or their fellow travellers or ideological supporters; it's been directed at the victims of these terrorist attacks—Israel and the Jewish people. And, undoubtedly, since 7 October we have seen what is truly a horrifying and unprecedented outbreak of antisemitism here in Australia.

We saw it begin with the shameful protests, if you can call them that, on the forecourt of the opera house on Monday 9 October, a day that was meant to allow Jewish people and other people who sympathise with Israel and the victims of that terrorist attack to gather together in solidarity—not in malice and not with ill will towards anyone, but in solidarity with and remembrance of the victims of 7 October. That event was hijacked by people who instead sought to glorify and celebrate the horrific acts perpetrated by Hamas. We saw that on the night that the opera house was lit up with the colours of the Israeli flag—at the same time, I'd point out, that the Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel Tower, Number 10 Downing Street and the Washington Monument were. All these other international capitals were able to respectfully honour the victims of that attack. Instead, in Australia, we had a mob descend upon the opera house, we had police forces tell Jews to stay at home and we had people burning Israeli flags, chanting hateful slogans and wishing ill will not just towards Israel but to Jewish Australians as well, uttering phrases which have been the subject of a number of police investigations but in which you could only detect malice and ill will.

Since that time we've seen Jewish individuals, many of whom have no public profile and many of whom have expressed no political opinion or public opinion whatsoever on this conflict, doxxed—that is, had their personal and private details released with a view to them being harassed, being targeted on social media and having their businesses boycotted. We've seen the hijacking of theatrical productions to express a political statement in places like the Sydney Theatre Company and elsewhere. We've seen religious services disrupted, notably in Melbourne. We've seen property vandalised at Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne and many other places. We've seen the boycott of Jewish owned businesses. And, of course, on university campuses, we've seen similar things.

If this sort of behaviour were targeting any other group of Australians—if it were targeting Coptic Christians, Muslim Australians, the Australian Chinese community or the Australian Filipino community—we would be, in this chamber and outside, united in our condemnation of this and equally repulsed by it. We would be as one as a society in calling out this sort of unacceptable behaviour and in taking resolute action. Instead, when we are dealing here with one of the oldest, most persistent and most virulent forms of discrimination, many of us have fallen silent.

On university campuses in particular, many of us have spoken to Jewish Australian students, and we know how unsafe they feel. We know that they are avoiding classes. We know that, if they are attending universities, they're seeking to give the encampments a wide berth. We know that, if they ever wear Jewish insignia such as the Star of David, they're not wearing it today. If they—heaven forbid—wear a kippah, a head covering, they are certainly not wearing that. If they are wearing anything that suggests their Jewish faith or even some element of solidarity with Israel, they are removing that.

The recent survey by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students—which was conducted, in fact, in August 2023, before these October 7 terrorist attacks—already revealed that Jewish students had personally experienced antisemitism on campus. That has only been exacerbated—multiplied, really—by the events since. I was in Israel several weeks ago, and a fact that far too few people know about Israel is that Israel's population is about 20 per cent Arab Palestinian. They are full citizens who enjoy the same rights and who attend university in the same proportions as Jewish Israeli students. You haven't seen any protests there. You haven't seen the majority, the Jewish Israelis, organising encampments or protests on campuses which have Arab academics and Arab students. You haven't seen Arab students harassed, you haven't seen Arab students deterred from attending lectures and you haven't seen them vilified or persecuted. In fact, communal relations between Israel's Jewish and Arab Palestinian communities have been, in some ways, improved as a result of this attack because of the solidarity they all feel with the victims.

So why are we seeing this on Australian campuses, our own university campuses? Not only have we seen encampments at places like Monash University and the University of Sydney, but we've also seen Jewish academics have their classes disrupted, be denied entry to their offices and be subjected to other forms of hate and intimidation. We've seen academics at places like Macquarie University actually join the encampments, take children to the encampments, encourage and urge that no Jewish Australian be allowed to have a safe space and encourage the targeting of them on social media and in other forms. I accept that universities face a difficult task in balancing freedom of speech and freedom of expression on campus. I've met with a number of vice-chancellors in my home state of New South Wales and discussed these issues with them. I think some of them have handled it better than others, frankly, but what I've heard consistently is that they have been looking for some leadership on this issue from the federal government, and they have found that leadership to be profoundly lacking.

You'd be aware that a number of university vice-chancellors wrote to the Attorney-General some months ago, seeking his legal advice, particularly around phrases like 'from the river to the sea', but the Attorney-General pushed it back on them and said, 'It's up to you to figure this one out.' Rather than telling universities to clamp down resolutely on this and to make sure campuses, whilst tolerating free speech, remain a safe space for everyone, where students of all faiths, denominations, race and ethnicities can attend without fear, we've seen the Minister for Education not only fail to issue firm directions to the university vice-chancellors but equivocate about phrases like 'intifada' and 'from the river to the sea'. Jason Clare, the education minister, said that such things can mean 'different things to different people', a comment which was rightly disowned and condemned quite quickly by the Prime Minister.

But we've seen too much of this, too much moral equivocation, from those in government, who are expected to set the moral tone of the nation, and, frankly, we've seen too many bothsidesisms. It's rare that you hear anyone in government condemn antisemitism without in the same breath condemning Islamophobia. Theoretically, yes, of course they should be condemned together, but, practically speaking, we're only seeing demonstrations of antisemitism on Australian streets, in Australian civic life, in Australian artistic institutions and on Australian university campuses. Of course, if we see an outbreak of Islamophobia or if I become aware that Muslim students are hesitant about wearing the hijab in public, feel intimidated about attending university classes and are being victimised, harassed or doxxed, I will condemn it just as much as anyone else in this chamber will. But here we are dealing with only one form of discrimination directed against only one sort of people.

In Australia, one of the secrets to our success as a nation is that we have been able to bring together, and people this nation with, individuals of vastly different backgrounds, different traditions, different religions, different ethnicities and, in many cases, different value systems and mould them into one. If you were to conduct an experiment and say, 'We're going to set up a new country, and there will be an old and existing civilisation, and we're going to bring people from all corners of the globe, from all different backgrounds, from different socioeconomic strata and with different professional skills, different life experiences, different religions, different faiths and different ethnicities and put them all together,' most people would think you were creating a recipe for social division and disharmony.

We've succeeded in spite of that because we've firstly demanded that everyone become Australians—that is, adopt, accept and promulgate Australian values. Whilst remaining true to their own heritage, their Australian identity must take primacy, and adherence to Australian laws and values must take primacy. We've also been very resolute in not allowing the importation of foreign conflicts and the tensions they bring into Australia. We are failing on this score right now because we have allowed people whose emotions can understandably run high as a result of the conflict in the Middle East to bring those emotions into Australia and to use them to target their fellow Australians.

Australians all enjoy—and this is one of our joys as a nation—equal civil and political rights. They should enjoy equal rights to be free from discrimination and harassment, equal rights to express their political opinion without intimidation or fear and equal right to go about their lives—to conduct businesses, to study at universities, to attend artistic productions and to identify themselves as of a religion or a faith. Our Jewish Australians certainly deserve those rights, but those rights have been eroded over the events of the last several months and what we have been seeing, frankly, in Australia is redolent of 1930s Germany.

Antisemitism in Germany began with schoolteachers and academics being harassed in university campuses and forced to leave their jobs, and with Jewish students being forced away from universities. It then escalated into the targeting and boycotting of Jewish businesses, property defacement, harassment and intimidation. We have been seeing all those same precursors here in Australia. In 2024 Australia we are seeing pictures that are redolent of 1930s Germany. That should be alarming to all of us because it is making one community of Australians feel unwelcome and unsafe—a community of Australians who, incidentally, have made a massive contribution to Australia in all spheres. Some have come from some of the most humble and fearful backgrounds, many of them Holocaust survivors, and have helped build this nation. Not only are we endangering their own lives and eroding their rights as Australians but we're risking the very social fabric of our nation by failing to stand up to this.

I support this private senator's bill because I believe it will give the guidance to university vice-chancellors that they need to deal with this issue resolutely.