Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October last year, claiming the lives of more than 1,200 innocent Israelis. It was a brutal and unprovoked assault on civilians, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. It is a tragedy which continues to reverberate through the Jewish community, here in Australia and around the world. Today, we remember the victims and we stand resolutely against the forces of terror and terrorists.

We all saw the gut-wrenching vision: terrorists parachuting into a music festival, where those who were there to enjoy the music were hunted down, brutally tortured and murdered—some 360 in total. We saw the footage of people scrambling across open fields, desperate to escape. Cars were peppered with bullet holes, abandoned with doors opened and bodies burnt beyond recognition. Then there were stories from the many Jewish communities which border Gaza, where the early morning was shattered by this heinous attack. There were screams from the innocent Israelis as they were dragged from their homes, shot or stabbed to death in front of family members. Others were filmed as they were brutalised then pulled into the back of vehicles and driven back across the border.

Today, it's reported that over 60 hostages and the remains of over 30 hostages—these numbers are very unclear—are still being held in Gaza at the hands of Hamas, a terror group committed to one cause: the complete destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.

Israel was at the centre of Hamas's evil last year, but the shockwaves of the terrorist attack resonated around the world. That day of depravity—as I say, the greatest loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust—awoke and exposed an antisemitic rot afflicting Western democracies, including tragically here in this country. Last night, I was privileged to be amongst some 5,000 people at an incredible gathering in Melbourne to commemorate October 7. It was a profoundly moving evening and an opportunity for deep reflection, to mourn and to grieve. It was underlined by the continuing impact this horrendous attack and the subsequent alarming rise in antisemitism across Melbourne and across this country has had on Jewish Australians and on Australians across the board.

Zionism Victoria president Yossi Goldfarb did not pull his punches when he called out the inaction of the Albanese government. He said:

We have seen darkness in Australia.

Darkness underpinned by virulent and dangerous anti-Semitism that is, in the view of our community, simply out of control, a threat to everything that makes our country unique and great.

There is a permissiveness that has let anti-Semitism fester. A permissiveness encouraged by weak and ambiguous expositions of our foreign policy that, in our community's view, have weakened our social cohesion, leaving us to feel that the state of Israel has been abandoned as a natural ally of the Australian people.

The roar from the crowd in response to those words was incredible. The Jewish people of this country largely feel betrayed by this government.

As the shadow minister for education I have been very proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jewish students and staff from universities and with Jewish students attending Jewish schools and their families. We know the stories, and they are deeply traumatising. As we heard in the Senate inquiry on the bill to establish a commission of inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities, Jewish students are saying that they have been forced, since October last year, to choose between their safety and their education. That is completely untenable. Students are staying at home. They are too afraid to go to university. They are hiding in the shadows. They are not wearing the symbols of their faith for fear of intimidation, vilification and all the other horrendous things that have happened on university campuses which we have exposed over many months.

Earlier today in the other place, opposition leader Mr Dutton raised deep concerns after he sought to work with the Prime Minister on a motion that would have unequivocally condemned Hamas and honoured those murdered a year ago. As Mr Dutton stated, Mr Albanese opted to go it alone, continuing to speak from both sides of his mouth. But it's a familiar narrative. This is a government which has turned its back on its own antisemitism envoy. Before our committee to establish a commission of inquiry, which was so brilliantly prosecuted by the member for Berowra in his private member's bill in the other place, the antisemitism envoy urged that a judicial inquiry be established. She identified that antisemitism at universities was so embedded and so systemic that anything less was not good enough.

Throughout the inquiry, we heard stories of despair after children were allowed onto the University of Sydney campus, where they chanted, 'Intifada,' and, 'From the river to the sea.' I will say that the minister has now essentially apologised because of these statements, but he initially said that chants such as these meant different things to different people, and that caused enormous distress to many Australian Jews. Of course, we had a situation at the University of Sydney where members of Hizb ut-Tahrir infiltrated the campus. We called on the Albanese government and the minister to conduct a full investigation into to how this could have happened and how the vice-chancellor's office knew about this for weeks and did nothing, when these people were menacing and terrorising students and staff. Yet that investigation never happened. Whatever may have been raised in private, the Minister for Education never said anything publicly, and I remain stunned by that decision.

It is absolutely essential that we see zero tolerance of antisemitism on university campuses, just as it is absolutely essential that we see zero tolerance of antisemitism in every corner of this country. Even after we handed down our dissenting report calling for a commission of inquiry, we've now seen other stories that Jewish students have raised about what has happened on university campuses, including a Jewish student who raised complaints about some shocking slogans that were being yelled at Deakin University in relation to Zionists. The family of that student is deeply concerned that appropriate action was not taken.

There was an academic at the University of New South Wales—and this happened only in the last couple of weeks—who was giving a speech to pro-Palestinian supporters or protesters and said, 'Our job is to make Jews feel very uncomfortable.' This was recorded on video at the University of New South Wales. I have been advised that the university is taking this very seriously, but this incident happened just in the last few weeks.

I do want to thank Monash University and acknowledge its efforts. There was an event scheduled by the Monash University Islamic Society, a fundraising dinner that was scheduled to coincide with the first anniversary of October 7. That was scheduled for last night. I am very pleased that when I raised my deep concerns with the university's vice-chancellor, Professor Pickering, the university took action and prohibited that event from going ahead.

I'm very proud to be part of a coalition led by Mr Dutton, who has a clear conviction about the importance of standing with Israel and with Jewish Australians. Jewish Australians understand that, to do so, you need the moral courage and clarity of your convictions, and we have seen that in spades from Mr Dutton, who has been unwavering in his support for Israel and in his efforts to forge a united and bipartisan response from this parliament. As Yossi Goldfarb so powerfully stated last night, we cannot allow permissiveness to let antisemitism fester in our society. We proudly stand firm in our support for Israel, for Jewish Australians and for the peace and security that we all cherish and that Jewish Australians and all Jews around the world so deserve.