Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 32 days time we celebrate the Games of the 30th Olympiad in London. Two weeks of intense competition and interstate rivalry is sure to provide a lifetime of memories and, in many cases, a lifetime of friendships. But, unless the International Olympic Committee has a change of heart, there is likely to be in London something significantly amiss.

Some 40 years ago, at the 20th Olympiad in Munich, West Germany, the world was shocked when 11 Israelis—six coaches and five athletes—were murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. But since that time the international Olympic Movement has refused calls to devote one minute of silence before the start of every Olympics to remember the tragic events of 1972. This Olympics in London is the perfect opportunity to right the wrongs of the past. Indeed, the slogan for the 2012 Olympics is 'Inspire a Generation'. Now it is time to live up to these words. Plaques and memorials only go so far. What is now needed is a minute of silence.

This is what the motion before the chamber today, moved by my friend and colleague the member for Bradfield and seconded by me, is all about. We in the Australian parliament, in a bipartisan manner, Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition alike, join with our parliamentary colleagues in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada in calling upon the International Olympic Committee to at last pay a proper tribute to the innocent lives lost at the Munich games in 1972. To deny this commemoration is to deny the reality of what happened and the urgency of ensuring it never happens again.

The IOC needs to understand that the terrorists who carried out the attacks of 5 and 6 September 1972 took more than the lives of talented Israeli athletes and coaches, devoted fathers and husbands. They also took with them the innocence of the entire Olympic Movement, a movement which from its origins at Athens in 1896 was known as a noble sporting competition devoted to the goal of 'citius, altius, fortius'—faster, higher, stronger. But thereafter it became the scene for a bloody act of political violence wreaked by those with no regard for the innocence of sport and the sanctity of international competition. Ironically it was in Germany too, at the Berlin Olympics of 1936, that an ascendant Hitler turned his back on the victorious American black athlete Jesse Owens, but the events of Munich were of a different scale and nature, with the loss of so many lives. This is what the IOC must understand and acknowledge in the appropriate way.

The Olympic Charter itself states emphatically in paragraph 1:

The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised in accordance with Olympism and its values.

Those values are clearly outlined as the rejection of discrimination and the preservation of human dignity. The act of terrorism was a direct repudiation of these values and of the Olympic Charter itself, thereby making it incumbent upon the IOC to step up and do more than it has been prepared to do to date.

It must be remembered there are precedents which have seen the Olympic Movement acknowledge tragedies of the past. In 2010, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, there was a minute of silence following the earlier death of an athlete in training, and at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics there was a special tribute to the victims of September 11. The question therefore has to be asked of the IOC: what is it that makes commemorating the events of 1972 so different? If indeed it is a fear of antagonising countries that are not friendly with Israel then this is even a greater reason for the IOC to take a stand. Sport must be above politics and divorced from political violence of any kind. A minute's silence at the London Olympics for the 11 Israelis and one German police officer killed at Munich will send a strong message to the world. Never again.

I commend all those individuals, including the member for Bradfield, the member for Melbourne Ports and the member for Eden-Monaro; the media outlets, including the Australian Jewish News; and national governments from around the globe who have worked tirelessly to ensure that the Olympic Movement does not forget the victims of Munich. My heart goes out to the families of those lost, particularly to Mrs Ilana Romano and Mrs Ankie Spitzer, whose husbands, weightlifter Yossef Romano and fencing master Andre Spitzer, were killed at Munich. Together, those two women have worked hard to promote this important cause. I say to you all, on behalf of my many colleagues in this place: we feel your pain and we will do all we can to promote the memory of those who so deserve their one minute of silence.

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