Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

Imagine attending university, which should be a place of wonder and learning, but instead being met with chants of 'death to Israel' and even 'death to Australia'. That's what Jewish students endured at a meeting questioning an article, published by the University of Adelaide's student magazine, that ended with: 'The solution to achieving peace and bringing forth justice for Palestine is to demand the abolition of Israel. Free Palestine and death to Israel.' That's pretty clear, pretty ugly, vile stuff.

This week the former editor of the university's magazine led a pro-Palestine rally in Adelaide, continuing that vile commentary that is never acceptable—not ever and not on Australian soil. In Australia we enjoy the privilege of living in a democracy where we have the gift of many, many freedoms. We must value that and hold that close to us, never ceding the concept of freedom and never letting it fray at the edges. There is no place for the promotion of terrorist organisations, not on our university campuses, not on the steps of our South Australian parliament, not here in Canberra, not anywhere.

When students held an unauthorised four-week pro-Palestinian encampment on the Adelaide campus in May this year, my instinct was that university is a place of learning; it's not a campsite. So the decision to move them on should have been an easy one. That should have happened immediately. Every Australian should rightly shudder at accounts of Adelaide students about life on campus, as conveyed in submissions to a Senate inquiry. A first-year Jewish student at the University of Adelaide recounted: 'It has become a place, like most other places in the world, where we are othered. I most likely speak for most of our Jewish students when I say this is not a place where I can feel proud of my faith or even the smallest bit comfortable to make it known.' People hiding their own identity—how tragic in Australia, in our free country.

As a graduate of the University of Adelaide and a governing council member, I think this is a deeply disturbing reflection on an experience at a place of intellectual inquiry and learning, not of fear, intimidation and exclusion. In a submission to the committee inquiry into the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024, an Adelaide mother explained being scared for her daughter who had decided, for her own mental health, to attend campus only when absolutely necessary. This is not just happening on campuses. It is also happening in the wider community—on the streets, in clubs and in shops. We must reflect on the kind of Australia we want. We should demand zero tolerance for any support of terrorism or any attempt to indoctrinate children or our young minds at universities.

Contributing to the failure to crack down on antisemitism is the failure of this Prime Minister to address this with clarity and conviction. In October and November 2023, there was a 738 per cent increase in the number of reported antisemitic incidents in Australia compared to the two months one year earlier. Never Again is Now organiser Mark Leach told me yesterday, at a vigil here at Parliament House, that there had been a 1,000 per cent increase in antisemitism since 7 October. In the year since Jews faced the most murderous slaughter since the Holocaust, the opponents of Israel have denied charges of racism by insisting: 'I'm not antisemitic. I'm not anti-Zionist. I don't hate Jews. I hate their state.'

Terrorism has no boundaries, and we should give it no room, no space, no oxygen. I know people who've seen images from 7 October, from body cameras worn by those terrorists, but I don't need to see it to appreciate the scale of the horror that was endured on that day. I hope everyone in Australia never has to endure that. What Australia needs is strong leadership, and that's what a coalition government would provide, restoring moral clarity and acting with moral courage. We condemn Hamas's terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,200 innocent Israelis. We mourn all impacted by these heinous acts. We call out the terrorists, we call out hatred and we will use the full force of our democratic institutions, our laws and this parliament to do that. And we should.