Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macnamara for the question and note that no member of parliament wants to have in their electorate the situation where we see the sort of hate crime that the member for Macnamara dealt with, with the synagogue fire at the Adass Isreal Synagogue.

Earlier today, Australian Federal Police executed seven different search warrants at locations across Melbourne as part of Operation Hillfield—the investigation into the arson attack at the Adass Israel Synagogue. Federal Police have today arrested a 21-year-old man who is alleged to be one of three people responsible for the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in December last year.

I want to acknowledge the patience of the Jewish community. People, when there is an attack as reprehensible as this, want to see someone being charged immediately, understandably, but there is always a tension between wanting to see immediate action and making sure that the investigation gets to every person involved. While the attack happened last year, the wounds from that attack are still raw. As Deputy Commissioner Barrett said today, the investigation is not limited to Australia. The Federal Police are investigating criminals offshore who are suspected of working with criminal associates in Victoria to carry out the attack. This follows the arrest two weeks ago of another individual who was charged over his alleged role into the theft of a vehicle used by those involved in the attack.

I want to thank, on behalf of the government—and I think fair to say the parliament and the nation —the more than 200 members of the Joint Counter Terrorism Team from across the Australian Federal Police, the Victorian police and ASIO. Together, they have worked more than 50,000 hours on this investigation, and they continue to do so.

Following the horrific attack last year, the site was visited by the Prime Minister, the member for Macnamara and members of the government, and by myself on two occasions. I remember going the second time with the member for Macnamara, which would have been more than a week after the attack. You could still smell the smoke as though it was fresh and you could still see at your feet the rubble of the Torah, which had been burnt. The government committed $250,000 almost immediately for the restoration and replacement of those Torah scrolls. In this year's budget, a further $30 million was committed to rebuild the synagogue and the community centre.

It's not widely known, but in the week following the attack, the Prime Minister had raised with me that the rabbi and his family were on a temporary visa, which was soon to expire. Given that, in an act of horrific hate, people had tried to say that the members of the Jewish community and that rabbi, in particular, were not welcome in Australia, I took, on behalf of the government, the most deliberate action you can take which was, that week, to make him and every member of his family permanent residents of Australia, to say they belong. The hatred doesn't.

This arrest cannot undo the pain and fear that it caused, but it does send the strongest message that this kind of hate and violence has no place in Australia. This attack was not simply an attack on Jewish Australians. An attack on a synagogue is an attack on Australia and is treated as such. Jewish Australians, like all Australians, have the right to feel safe and to be safe.

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