Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We all will remember the time that we found out about this. I was at Danglemah. I was just coming in from work, and Vikki came to the fence crying and saying: 'They are murdering people at Bondi. There is someone; there is a gunman. They are murdering people.' She's a tough lady, but it was devastating. We all knew at that point that something evil had occurred. We think about that evil. Who sowed that foul seed? Where did this hate come from? Who tended it? Who watered it? Did we ever see that malignant pest, that malignant bush, that burr that grew up? Did we walk past it? Was it too difficult for us to deal with? We have to show the resolve now to deal with this issue.

On that day, Boris and Sofia showed resolve. As an older couple, they decided to do something about it, and they died for it. Ahmed al-Ahmed decided to do something about it. He stood up and put his own life on the line. He walked forward when others were rightly taking cover. He sought out and closed in on the person who was murdering people. And, if he hadn't, more would've been murdered. But we have to be honest about exactly what is going on. We are having a condolence motion today for the mass murder of innocent people at a park at a beach in Sydney on a Sunday by Islamic fundamentalists. Did we ever think that day would happen in Australia? Did we ever believe that day would come?

On that day, 14 December, 15 people were murdered; 40 people were injured, some critically; and our nation was torn apart at the fabric of how we saw ourselves. We felt sullied. We felt there was something dirty that had happened in our country—because this was not inspired by rage; it was not inspired by drugs. It was done coldly and calculatedly by a father and his son, who planned it and walked out of their flat like they were walking out for a morning jog. We have to do something about this. We've got to ask ourselves: How did they come to that view? How did they justify it and reconcile it in their own minds? If we don't do something about it—and that's hard; that's tough—then all we are doing is saying, 'Sorry. We empathise with you,' but we're not changing anything.

You've got to think, the next time—we hope this doesn't happen. But that foul seed did not self-propagate. I do not believe for one second that this happened in some form of isolation. There is an issue, and it needs to be dealt with. If we don't, what do we expect—that that was the only weed in the wheat paddock? If it happens again, we'll all be partially responsible for it because of our inaction now. So this is a call to all of us to make the hard decisions and to ask the questions.

We have got to understand that we have to have stronger oversight of the basic principles that get you entry into our nation. The reality is this was a father and son. We have to ask the questions: Did we get any idea that this was an essence of what his belief was when he got that incredible gift of Australian citizenship? How did he manage, without anybody asking questions, to indoctrinate his son? When the son was going to William Haddad, formerly Wisam Haddad, with that putrid hate that emanates from that school—why didn't we do something about it? Why did we just stand back and look at it?

Australia—egalitarian, easygoing, beach, bush, barbecue, bravery, family, friends, compassion. It's all these things. They're such an incredible gift. But make no mistake. If you don't stand up, even belligerently, for your beliefs and the tenets of this nation, then you can sully them and, at the very worst, you can lose them. May those who have departed rest in the Lord.

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