Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I begin by saying that the government utterly condemns antisemitism in all its forms. Hate and extremism have no place in Australian society, and we've established a special operation, Avalite, to investigate threats, violence and hatred towards the Australian Jewish community.

Earlier today in this chamber we had around an hour and 30 minutes debating a motion put forward by Senator Lambie. The motion passed in this house; it also passed in the other place. I would have thought that, as leaders of our communities, our roles both here and in the other place would be to bring people together and stamp out this behaviour from our society—and working together to do that.

I do note that law enforcement are taking the investigations on the Dural incident seriously, and they do not believe there is an ongoing threat. The matter is being investigated by the joint counterterrorism teams, so there is an investigation under way. It's a bit rich for people to say that they're not getting any information and that we're not doing anything. There is an investigation under way. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said that Australia's terrorism threat level remains at 'probable', and, obviously, there are investigations going on into these matters.

The government is committed to protecting the community from those who promote extremism, who promote hatred or who seek to incite violence. That is not the type of country that we want to live in, and we are acting to condemn all these forms of antisemitism. We believe that no Australian should be targeted because of who they are or what they believe in. No Australian should be targeted because of who they are or what they believe in.

The Albanese Labor government has introduced legislation to create new criminal offences and to strengthen protection against hate crimes. People might say we're not doing anything, but that is actually not correct. There's a bill that will create new criminal offences for directly threatening the use of force or violence against a group or a member of a group. That bill will protect groups or members of groups distinguished by race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality, national or ethnic origin, or political opinion. The bill is long overdue and represents very significant reform to Commonwealth offences. We hope that the parliament will unanimously pass this bill to bring together Australians. There is no place in Australia for the kinds of antisemitism, hatred and violence that we've recently seen. I think that's something that we all agree on; we all agree that there is no place in Australia for that. It's despicable and it won't be tolerated. That's why we're taking a series of actions to crack down on antisemitism.

Here are some of the measures that we've taken. As I mentioned earlier, we've established Special Operation Avalite with the AFP to combat acts of antisemitism. We've put a landmark ban on Nazi salutes and hate symbols, a ban which came into effect in January 2024 with penalties of one year imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $16,500. We've criminalised doxxing—the malicious release of personal information—which the opposition voted against. We're working with states and territories on a national database to track and coordinate on antisemitic incidents. We've brought legislation to appoint Australia's first National Student Ombudsman.

In the weeks following the 7 October terrorist attack, the Albanese government committed $25 million for improved safety and security at Jewish sites across the country, including schools, and an additional $32.5 million for security measures for schools and synagogues. Legislation now before parliament is to criminalise hate speech, including the urging or threatening of force or violence against individuals or groups because of who they are or what they believe. There is more that I could go on with, but instead I'll say we believe that antisemitism has no place in this country whatsoever.