Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to continue to speak to the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024 (No. 2). I last rose to speak on this private senator's bill in July 2024. At that time, I spoke about the fact that history gives us a clear map of where things can go. History tells us the inevitable result of failing to stamp out antisemitism and condemn it in the strongest terms. I said that if we fail to stand up then we are not learning from history. Since I said those words, the Albanese government have had months to learn and to take meaningful action, yet they have not. Since then, we have seen antisemitic ideologies spill over into antisemitic violence right across this country. In the last three months alone, we have seen cars set on fire, buildings and cars covered in antisemitic graffiti, synagogues defaced with antisemitic rhetoric, people's homes and properties being sprayed with graffiti and terrorist symbols, and a childcare centre and synagogue being set on fire. We also saw the preparation of what could have been one of the most catastrophic attacks of terror in this country. All the incidents were pointing towards Jewish people here in Australia as the targets.

Those were only the events of the last three months. It is deplorable behaviour. It is absolutely no wonder that Jews in Australia now live in fear. It's no wonder that Jews in Australia no longer feel like this is a country where they are safe and protected. The places where any person, any Australian, deserves to feel they're most safe and protected are their homes, their places of worship and the places where they leave their children while they go to work. The targeting of these places sends a clear message—a message of terror. It should never be happening in our democratic, free, western nation of Australia.

Sometimes I wonder if we can ever truly come back from this or if things have gone too far. One of the worst parts of the situation that we find ourselves in now is that I believe it was largely preventable. The fact is that people only do what they know they can get away with, and the Albanese Labor government's lack of action and weak leadership has told people that they can get away with this kind of behaviour.

Anthony Albanese left a glaringly large question mark over our country's loyalty to and solidarity with the State of Israel. He left a question mark over the value and the worth of Jewish people in Australia by failing to protect them from this national crisis. He was ambiguous. He refused to take a strong position. He walked both sides of the street on an issue that left no room for that. Then we had our Minister for Education, Mr Clare, who had the audacity to suggest that terrorist slogans like 'from the river to the sea' mean different things to different people. That is the man who is in charge of our educational institutions at a national level in this country. That ambiguity from the Prime Minister and his government allowed people in the community to know that they could get away with things.

Little by little the hatred grew and became more pronounced. People became unashamed of their antisemitic views, and there's no question that what went on in our educational institutions following the October 7 attacks was a significant factor in the crisis of antisemitism we are now trying to deal with. We had student protests that defied orders and threatened the safety of their fellow Jewish students on university campuses mere weeks after the attacks of October 7. Those protests, against alleged genocide by Israel, were going on when hostages had not yet been returned, when loved ones were still to be found or their fates known. It was allowed to fester, and now we are seeing and hearing of university faculty members expressing antisemitic views—the ones we leave our young people with to educate, not to indoctrinate with hatred. This is why urgent and serious action must be taken.

The Albanese government has not done enough to combat antisemitism in this country, and that is why I wholeheartedly support this bill. We must launch an inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities because these institutions wield enormous power. They shape the thinking, the attitudes and the behaviour of the next generation, and if we don't have this inquiry then the next generation is on a fast track to learning hatred that will lead to destruction. Again, the Prime Minister has utterly failed Jews in Australia. Opposition leader Peter Dutton wrote to Mr Albanese in May last year asking that he establish this inquiry as a matter of urgency, and one has to wonder how different the situation might be if the Prime Minister had actually agreed to hold the inquiry back then.

We need a judicial inquiry because it is the most authoritative form of inquiry. For a start, it would be independently led. It would also have full investigative powers and would be assisted by skilled cross-examiners. It would be able to hear evidence confidentially without witnesses having to live in fear of retaliation—and this is an incredibly important point. If Jews in Australia are becoming more reluctant to even attend their places of education or their workplaces simply because they exist then why on earth would we expect them to feel comfortable testifying about antisemitic hatred in a public forum? The power of a commissioner to take evidence in confidential sessions is absolutely necessary. The leadership of this country and the Albanese government have already betrayed the Jews in Australia. That is why the coalition must and will do everything we can to support Jews in this country including by giving them the confidence to make the truth known.

Further, the inquiry that this bill would establish would differ in important ways from the Albanese government's racism study being conducted by the Australian Human Rights Commission. That study is absolutely inadequate if it is going to go any way to improving or stamping out the prevalence of antisemitism on campuses. It is not specifically investigating antisemitism; it is being run by an organisation which has failed to condemn the Hamas terror attack. It does not have the independence, powers or personnel to adequately deal with campus antisemitism. The Jewish community does not have any faith in the Australian Human Rights Commission. Many Jewish peak bodies were opposed to the suggestion of the Human Rights Commission leading an inquiry into antisemitism. The groups were, however, in favour of an independent judicial inquiry, such as the one that this bill would establish.

We must remind ourselves of the gravity of what we are dealing with here. As I said before, the issue of antisemitism is not one that anyone can afford to be on the fence about. This is not about a few instances of racism, which would be bad enough; this is a situation of people openly and publicly advocating for Israel to be wiped from the face of the earth. This is terror. Our response to antisemitism on university campuses must be swift, strong and comprehensive. It's caused too much destruction already and it demands our full attention. We must prove that as a nation we stand with the Jews who live here. Jewish Australians, we stand with you. We must prove, through action, not words, that we are committed to their protection and that we will learn from history and never, never, ever let it be repeated.