Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I add my heartfelt sympathy for the victims and their families around the events of 14 December at our beloved Bondi Beach. I acknowledge their pain and embrace those impacted; some, we know, were here in the gallery earlier this morning. The Gold Coast community send our deepest condolences: shalom aleichem—peace be upon you. My local Jewish communities send their love and support for your loss.

We thank those first responders, the emergency services, but also I feel compelled, as the co-chair of Parliamentary Friends of Surf Lifesaving, to thanks those volunteer lifeguards—in fact, the 73 of them that day at Bondi who went way outside of their comfort zones, untrained for these matters, to attend to Australians and to save those lives. Thank you to all of those volunteers at Bondi surf lifesaving club.

What we saw at Bondi—the loss of 15 lives—was nothing short of horrific. It was a despicable act of terror targeting innocent Australians who were celebrating Hanukkah—people gathered in joy, community and faith whose lives were stolen by hatred and violence. The youngest, just 10, had her future stolen. Our future as a country was stolen. Today we remember those who were senselessly killed. We grieve with their families and their loved ones, and we recommit ourselves to ensuring that such acts of terror, hatred and violence have no place in Australia.

But condolences, thoughts and prayers alone are not enough. The Jewish community is rightly angry, and I have words and sentiment directly from the three Gold Coast rabbis, Rabbis Gurevitch, Serebryanski and Cohen, who I joined with my Gold Coast colleagues in solidarity at the Bondi massacre remembrance at the Home of the Arts on 22 December. I was with Rabbi Serebryanski at Hanukkah celebrations when the news of the massacre unfolded.

Their words, they say, must be matched with honesty, with leadership and with action. Antisemitism—what should more truthfully be called Jew hatred—has been allowed to fester in this country for far too long, and the fear within the Jewish community is real. Jewish Australians should not need increased security at their homes, at kindergartens or at places of worship. They should not need to scan their surroundings before attending synagogue or sending their children to school. Jews should not feel compelled to hide their identity or think twice about wearing symbols of their faith in public. They should be as free at any other Australians to go about their lives in safety and dignity, yet today Jews are not. When a minority in this country live in fear simply because they are Jewish, it is a failure. The government has failed in its first responsibility: to keep all Australians safe. We do not defend antisemitism as those opposite have done for so long. We attack it head on, directly, unequivocally and without apology.

Protecting Jewish Australians and protecting free speech must go hand in hand, because they are not opposing goals; they are inseparable. Free speech is not a luxury; it is vital protection for minorities, including Jewish Australians, who rely on it to defend themselves, to speak out and to challenge hatred wherever it appears.

Australia has long prided itself on being a nation where people of all faiths can live freely and securely. Freedom matters because it allows minorities to call out hatred, expose extremism and defend their place in society. But freedom also carries responsibility to condemn violence, reject extremism and stand up for one another when it matters most, and we have seen that from Australian society calling for a royal commission. We cannot focus on only the symptoms while ignoring the deeper problem, we cannot condemn terror in one breath and tolerate hatred in the next, and we cannot continue to celebrate multiculturalism while any minority community feels unsafe in its own country.

The victims of the Bondi attack deserve more than remembrance. They deserve resolve, and we must be honest about where antisemitism comes from. It exists on the far left. It exists among radical Islamist extremists. If we are serious about fighting terror and hatred, we must confront all of it head on and without fear or favour. This is not about politics; it's about public safety. It's about moral clarity and what sort of Australia we want to be. For too long there's been a deafening silence while anti-Jewish hatred has been allowed to fester and grow. This parliament must do better. A nation that tolerates hatred through silence will eventually pay a far higher price.

May we honour and remember the victims of the Bondi terror attack not only with our words today but with courage, clarity, action and leadership. In the words of Rabbi Adi Cohen, 'Today's compromise is tomorrow's new normal.' So I condemn the hate and antisemitism that continues today on the Gold Coast. It is wrong, and it must stop, and those responsible will be held to account.

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