Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I too would like to make a contribution to this opportunity to reflect on, frankly, unimaginable loss—loss that is incomprehensible on so many levels—and, similarly, on the inhumane acts by some in our world that have led to this loss. The scale and the depravity, the tragedy, that so many have experienced in this conflict is extremely well documented, both in the media but also by many of my colleagues here. We've just heard a couple of very moving contributions about exactly how what we're talking about here, one year on from 7 October 2023, has impacted some in our community, mainly the Jewish community of Australia, but particularly the Jewish community right around the world.

As we reflect one year on, I think it is critically important for us to consider that normally reflections on these sorts of things occur after a static event. But we reflect on this as these events continue to unfold, as the harm and pain continue to be felt by members of the Jewish community in Israel, those who are caught up in this heartless, hate-filled attack on a people, simply because of who they were. Normally we stop, take stock and hope it never happens again, but in this instance it continues to happen—and, sadly, not just in Israel but around the world, as I'll come to a little later on.

Australia is a country where people can go about their business safely. They can conduct themselves in a way where they don't have to fear for their life or their safety, where they don't have to worry about a threat to their existence and where they don't have to worry about threats to them or to their family. Frankly, it's something that we take for granted in this country. It's nothing like this for those who live in Israel, for example. What we've seen happen was based on, or at least caused by, who the victims in this conflict are—by their faith and identity, something that they're born with and cannot change. They are targets because of those characteristics and attributes.

Reflection is important because, for us as an advanced society, reflecting on what has happened, good and bad, is something that enables us to understand what's at stake—what is at stake, in this case, for Israel, for the Jewish community in Israel and globally, and for our global community, which is watching very closely what happens there and how world leaders respond to this. To relent in the face of heinous acts of terror—and these are acts of terror we're talking about; the acts of October 7 were not acts of war but acts of terror undertaken by a terrorist organisation—as some are demanding that Israel should do in the name of ceasefire, I think, frankly, is something that cannot stand up to scrutiny. It is not the right course of action to relent in the face of actions driven by pure hatred and nothing good of the human spirit.

Israel is a shining beacon surrounded by other nations that are the antithesis of what it is. They're a nation that respects the law, and they respect one another. Pluralism is part of their societal make-up. They're a democracy. They have equality. I've travelled there. I've seen what this country is like. I know the people who live there. To suggest, as some have in this debate, that they are anything other than what I've described them as, I think, is, frankly, atrocious. Those qualities I've just outlined are things we value and respect here in this country. Where are those who ordinarily would be preaching and crying out for these things to be upheld elsewhere in the world? They're nowhere to be seen in this debate. Instead, sadly, some in fact are whipping up that hatred and division or at least standing by and allowing it to happen, grow and continue. Who's going to counter this? Where is the strength of leadership required from our leaders? Where is it when we need it most?

It is this lack of leadership that in part has led to the surge in antisemitism in our community and, indeed, globally. It is a global phenomenon, but it should not be a part of what we in this country accept as okay. It should not be allowed to happen. The equivalence that's been drawn between what happened to Israel and the response—the right for entities to simply continue on in the way that some in this government have suggested—is an attempt to walk both sides of this debate and, frankly, has given permission for some to act in the way that they have in this debate.

In Tasmania, we have only a very small Jewish community, but they feel it as much as anywhere else in the country. Our capital city, Hobart, has protests every weekend for people who support freedom for Palestine, but, as a by-product of that chant and the protests that they run every week, there is an impact on the Jewish community, small though that community is, and they feel it. Only recently, there was some reporting, sadly, related to some of what I believe is antisemitic sentiment in our community, originating from the University of Tasmania. One of their senior lecturers questioned Israel's right to exist and described Hamas as a legitimate resistance movement. These are academics in a university in our country saying these things. What can a Jewish Australian, someone who might even have moved here from Israel, think when they hear someone who is purportedly educated saying these things? To suggest that it is a misconception that Israel has a right to exist and that it is a misconception that Hamas is a terrorist organisation—in fact, to suggest that it is actually a legitimate resistance movement—is unbelievable and terribly hurtful.

Of course, all of this information around this senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania was removed from social media as soon as media outlets were alerted and started asking questions. One has to wonder, if they were so proud to run seminars at the university in their facilities, preaching this sort of information, then why was the information removed from social media? This same academic described Israel as a 'racist apartheid state'. They were reported to have said at the event at which these slides were displayed that, as I said before, Israel has 'no right to exist', Jews in Israel should 'go back where they came from', 'Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement' and there is no peaceful way to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

This is exactly what we're talking about. This is the sentiment that is swirling around in our society. When leaders do not stand up and decry it and say, 'This is wrong, and it should not be said,' this is allowed to go unchecked. Then individuals who lend credibility to the things they're saying by virtue of their academic background give credence to these terrible, racist and uninformed views. It is interesting, though, when we consider the context of these comments made by a supposedly senior academic. Why were these comments not being made on 6 October but only in the wake of the tragedy on October 7? Why is it that this is the kind of thing that needs to be said after Israelis have been slaughtered, murdered, raped, beheaded? Why was this not a slide presentation being given a month or a year before? It's because it was being done in this context. The fact that anyone in our developed, respectful, tolerant society, especially somebody who is an academic from a higher education institution, can possibly say this tells me there are some things very wrong with our society, and this is why leadership is needed. If we don't stamp out this sort of sentiment—and this is not just freedom of speech; this is an attack on people because of a particular characteristic, and it cannot be clothed in any other way. And this is why leadership is required here.

I stand with those affected by this—our small Jewish community in Tasmania, who felt the pain like many others around the world. May it never happen again.