Mr Speaker,
Today we gather to:
Remember the victims,
Support the injured,
Comfort the mourners, and
Praise the heroes.
And we gather to reflect on the choices before us as a country.
As a sixth generation Jewish Australian, I have always felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for what this country has given us.
Jewish and Australian stories are deeply intertwined.
My grandfather Sam served in the Australian Army in World War Two.
He was taken prisoner of war and endured the hellhole of the Thai-Burma Railway.
In that terrible place, he drew strength from the freedom of the Australia he loved.
Every week, no matter where the Australians held camp, Jewish services were held.
Even in the horrors of Changi prison camp a place was consecrated to be a synagogue.
It’s why when my son was born – I wrote.
“I want James to understand the particular perspective that comes from being a Jewish Australian – a religious minority which has never numbered more than one percent of the population – in a land which has been, almost uniquely in human history, good to the Jewish people.”
There is much I grieve for today.
The innocents lost at Bondi.
The survivors of Bondi and the things they cannot unsee.
The synagogues torched.
The Jewish artists doxxed and frozen out.
The university students harassed.
The small businesses shut down.
All of this pains me.
But it is the loss of the truth that “Australia is good to Jewish people” that crushes me.
The loss of this idea is felt by every Jewish Australian – particularly when we see our children confused and scared about what is happening in this country.
Bondi alone did not do this.
But it has been accelerating in the 800 days between the Hamas attack on Israel and the Bondi attack.
800 days of failure across our national life.
The feeling in the Jewish community right now is visceral. It is a feeling of disappointment, anger, and betrayal.
The Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku at the end of World War II, left Europe for Australia because he couldn’t resolve the question: where were my neighbours?
Increasingly Jewish Australians are asking the question: where are our leaders?
Today is not about day-to-day politics.
It’s about the type of country we want and the type of people we are.
The sad reality is that if we do not change – then Bondi will not have changed anything.
Bondi represents a moment of choice.
Will we stay in the political cul-de-sac that we have been in for over 800 days, or will we tackle the sources and causes of antisemitism in this country?
Will our leaders continue to treat antisemitism and violence against Jews as a political problem to manage, rather than the moral and cultural problem that it is?
And will our leaders drag their heels or deal with the issue with priority, alacrity and zealous determination?
If we are to change, it starts with tackling three groups where antisemitism has taken hold.
The first group where Jew hate is festering is in violent neo-Nazi groups.
They move in small cells that must be disbanded. They are best tackled with more funding and stronger powers for our security services.
The second group is Radical Islamists.
They are a danger to the Australian community, including Muslim Australians.
In my own electorate, the Persian community have for years stood against the Mullahs of Iran and all extremism, and I honour them.
We must shut down hate preachers and their extremist “prayer halls”.
We must proscribe Hizb ut-Tahrir – it should have happened years ago.
We must expel or jail the violent propagandists.
And we must be vigilant about those who seek to enter this country.
The third group where antisemitism is rife – is the cultural Left.
It is the writers’ festivals that celebrate people who say their mission is to make Jews feel “culturally unsafe”.
It is the theatres where Keffiyehs are donned and Jews are cat-called.
It is the universities where Jewish students are harassed and Jewish academics deplatformed.
It is the conferences where Jews are silenced, shut down and humiliated and called “mutt” and where the term “zionist” is used as an insult.
In all of these places, we have witnessed a failure of moral leadership
We have seen antisemitism excused with the word “but…”.
We have seen hatred framed as “artistic expression”.
Mr Speaker, it would be tempting to conclude with something poetic, or sacred – a call, as it were, to give us hope.
I can’t do that. But I will finish with a warning.
We cannot continue the 800 days of neglect.
Bondi will either be the crescendo of a bad chapter in our history, or the midpoint of a story that gets worse.
Without change; without political change, without cultural change, without a reprioritisation of antisemitism as the principal threat to our country – what we have seen will get worse.
Its naive to think parliament can sit for two days and then move on as if that’s enough to deal with this issue.
If we have to, we need to deal with antisemitism every day this parliament sits until we get the job done – until we restore an Australia that is good to the Jewish people and free and fair for all.
Our times require leadership and goodwill.
If we show it, if we work for it, we can reclaim the Australia we remember and love.
And in so doing, provide some comfort for all who have lost so much.
The choice is before us today.