Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak on the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024, and I do so with a very heavy heart. I find it almost inconceivable that in this day and age this bill is necessary. I commend my colleague Senator Henderson for her leadership in this area. I participated in the hearings of this bill, and I was utterly dismayed to hear some of the responses of the chancellors, but particularly the Australian Human Rights Commission, who were completely blind to this most ancient and wicked form of discrimination.

I start by making this observation—that there can never be security or safety in appeasement, where there is appeasement of dictators or antisemites or others who wish others harm. There is no peace and there is no security in appeasement. In fact, I have before quoted Winston Churchill, who in 1940 observed that—this is appeasers:

Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their time comes to be devoured.

In recent years, it's been shortened to 'An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last.' Sadly and almost unbelievably, today in our nation this is what we are now getting from our Prime Minister. Whether it is standing up with our democratic allies and friends to fight back against dictators who hate us, who hate democracy, and who have formed an axis of evil to support each other's activities—Russia in the Ukraine. Remember, a decade ago, the West appeased him, Putin, and what did he do? He was emboldened by it and came back for more, and much more, of Ukraine.

Today, here in Australia we are witnessing the most extraordinary acts of hate against Jewish Australians. Not only are we seeing it across the nation; we are now seeing it—and arguably it started—in our universities with the radicalisation of our students and the complete failure of leadership by a number of vice-chancellors, who turned to mush in the face of this. Whether ideologically it wasn't their flavour or whether they were just afraid, they appeased the voices of hate and hatred and the accompanying acts. So, as the university students return for this academic year, everybody in our universities has the right to be safe.

I had the great privilege of attending the Holocaust 80th commemorative service in Perth. I thank and commend the Australian Jewish community. It was a most powerful service. Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition attended. Sadly, it looked like the Prime Minister was in witness protection, flanked and protected by the Premier of Western Australia, but I was so proud to see so many Liberal colleagues there, along with the Leader of the Opposition.

Amongst the many moving speeches, we heard from Western Australian students about the impact that this has had on their mental health, on their sense of security, on their sense of identity here in Australia.

The director of education at the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia, Judith Lawrence, made an astonishing speech, and she's given me permission to read some of what she said. I, in my own words, can't do justice to what she said. She said: 'How was the Holocaust humanly possible? The question haunts us still. The Holocaust was not the product of one moment, nor of one man. It was the result of a world that allowed hatred to take root unchecked until it reached its most horrific expression. It started small. Words, propaganda, exclusion, discrimination, violence, extermination—it was gradual until it was sudden.' To pause there, all of those things, bar the ultimate expression of that in terms of extermination, are things that, until now, for 18 months or more, have gone unchecked. And, as she said, it was gradual until it was sudden.

She said, as we reflected on this year's theme, which was for a better future: 'As Australians, we all ask ourselves: what have we learnt from history? Change does not happen overnight. It is gradual, insignificant in a single act but transformative over time'—and that is, sadly, exactly what we are seeing here in Australia today—'with the small but powerful consistent choices we make daily to challenge hate, to open conversations and to foster understanding.' We on this side of the chamber understand that, but we need everybody in this chamber to stand up, to call it out and to stamp out hate.

Judith Lawrence also said this: 'Eighty years later, the lessons of the Holocaust remain painfully relevant. Here in Australia we are witnessing a rise in blatant antisemitism. Swastikas smeared publicly, verbal attacks on Jewish individuals, doxxing of the arts community—it is gradual until it is sudden. The Adass synagogue in Melbourne burnt to the ground, firebombed cars and daycare centres in Sydney, attacks on private homes, violent rhetoric and intimidation of Jewish communities—it is gradual until it is sudden.'

She made this observation, which, sadly, is also very true: 'The Holocaust was not an aberration in history; it was a warning. And, since then, as we have seen, there have been far too many other genocides over the past 80 years. The patterns of hatred that led to Auschwitz did not begin in 1933, nor did they end in 1945.' As she said, the antisemitism we see today is not new, but it has morphed. The same deeply ingrained Jew hate has been repackaged through modern narratives—and, I would also add, through social media—and adapted to fit contemporary political and ideological movements. But today the same rhetoric of dehumanisation, of blood libels, of conspiracy theories and of scapegoating is being used against Jews globally. It is an indication of broader societal decay. The failure to combat it undermines our social cohesion, and, sadly, that is very true today.

I will finish with these comments by Ms Lawrence: 'If we are to truly create a better future, we must recognise these patterns of hate and refuse to allow history to repeat itself. The Holocaust teaches us what happens when prejudice is left unchecked, when silence allows bigotry to grow, and when moral leadership fails to take a stand.' Again, as I said, I find it inconceivable that here in Australia today these attacks, this violence, this antisemitism has been allowed to grow unchecked by state and federal governments.

What does that mean? It means that somehow we need to find a way to come together in this chamber, in this place and in this nation to say that all Australians, regardless of religion or background, have the right to be safe in this nation—safe from hatred, freedom from ancient enmities repackaged. The fact is that today we are facing challenges in this nation that we have not seen since the end of World War II. We have a four-nation axis of dictatorship and authoritarianism that has a single shared enemy, and that is us and democracy. They don't respect compromise. They don't respect appeasement. They exploit it—and exploiting it they are. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are working together in new ways to support each other's ambitions, and still, as a coalition of democracies, we have been slow to see this, we have been slow to react and, even worse, we have allowed the hatred, the antisemitism and the discord in our nation to grow unchecked. It is like our national leaders in government think that, if they keep feeding the crocodile, they will get eaten last, but the consequences of that in this nation are deadly.

Let's remind ourselves what has been going on at our campuses and what has then been more widely fermenting. Since the shocking attack on 7 October 2023, our Jewish communities have faced one of the most difficult periods in their lives. Holocaust survivors who came to Australia and thought they would be safe have been shocked to discover that they are not. The events of that day, the unprovoked attack, resulted in 1,200 innocent people being murdered, which sent shockwaves around the world, including in Australia. That day of depravity was the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day in 80 years, since the Holocaust. It awoke and exposed a shocking antisemitic rot in Western democracies, including, sadly, here in Australia. This has resulted in an over 700 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents on Australia's soil since October 2023. Australians have witnessed an unchecked and unprecedented spike in antisemitic activity across our country, in our streets, in our synagogues and outside of people's homes. A synagogue was firebombed in Melbourne. A Jewish daycare centre was firebombed in Sydney. A car was firebombed outside the address of a prominent Jewish leader. Then, of course, a caravan full of explosives was found in suburban Sydney, with a map of prominent Jewish targets, including the Great Synagogue. As we know in this place and as we debated yesterday, had this attack occurred it would have been the most disastrous terrorist attack on Australian soil in history. The list goes on and on. Synagogues are being sprayed with swastika graffiti. People's homes, where they live and have the right like any other Australian to feel safe, have been attacked.

Sadly, in my own home state of Western Australia, just last weekend there were incidents of disgusting antisemitic graffiti sprayed across walls, roads and street signs. According to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, there were 116 anti-Jewish incidents in Western Australia alone. Our community leaders have been left abandoned and disappointed with the lack of response from the Labor government. The Jewish Community Council of Western Australia Vice President Steve Lieblich said that the weak stance from the government emboldens those hate mongers and agitators who are stirring up the people prepared to take violent action.

In conclusion, as we reflect on the immense loss of six million Jewish lives and countless other minorities during the Holocaust, one of history's darkest periods, unfortunately the lessons of 80 years ago must be relearned and we must find a way to stand together in this place to make sure that it does not happen again.