Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Skills and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Sunday 14 December will forever remain in our nation's memory as a day of loss and of sorrow. Hundreds were down at Bondi that afternoon, celebrating together by the sea. But their joy was shattered by an act of terror that stole the lives of 15 Australians: an attack on Jewish Australians and on the very idea of Australia itself. It was an act designed to spread fear and sow division, an act of deliberate antisemitic hate. The day was not chosen by chance. Jewish Australians had come together to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah, a festival that brings light into darkness—a time for family, a time for community and for resilience. These messages of hope now carry, for all of us, a much deeper meaning as we come together—as we should in this place, Australia's parliament—to mourn the victims, to share our collective condolences with family and friends, to stand with the Jewish Australian community in their grief, and to bear witness and assume responsibility.

Last month the Jewish community stood strong, continuing to mark Hannukah, determined to shine light into what must have felt like an overwhelming darkness. This resilience demands more than just our admiration. Australia has been—and remains, in my view—the most successful multicultural society. What we've been building together is precious: a place where everyone belongs; a place indelibly marked by the contribution of Jewish Australians; a place which offered something much more than just safety to so many Jewish refugees a couple of generations ago; a place where people can be proud of who they are; and a place where they can freely and safely practice their faith, as Jewish Australians should have been able to do on 14 December before that murderous act of terror, which has already taken an extraordinary toll—15 lives taken and a community in shock and grief.

But this toll cannot extend to tarnishing what makes our country unique: the strength of our diversity, underpinned by our respect for each and every one of us. For those of us in this place, we must come together to tackle the evil that is antisemitism. We must remember the responsibility that comes with the extraordinary privilege each of us shares—to show leadership that is resolute, considered and empathetic; fundamentally, to recognise our responsibility to bring people together—and, in doing so, recognise the peculiarly Australian light that shone through the darkness on 14 December. There were those extraordinary acts of bravery—the lifeguards and the locals who rushed to provide first aid, the work of the police and other first responders who put themselves in harm's way to protect others, and, of course, the acts of everyday Australians, most notably Ahmed al-Ahmed, who stepped forward in so many acts, big and small, to help those in need and in danger. For me, it is these stories that remind us of the strength and the compassion that really define what it means to be an Australian.

Today, as a parliament, we pause and remember 15 lives murdered: Edith Brutman, Dan Elkayam, Boris and Sofia Gurman, Alex Kleytman, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Peter Meagher, Reuven Morrison, Marika Pogany, young Matilda, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Adam Smyth, Boris Tetleroyd, Tania Tretiak and Tibor Weitzen. We acknowledge—and I acknowledge on behalf of the people of the Scullin electorate in particular—the pain that is ongoing for families and friends, and for a community scarred and forever changed. We listen and we seek through listening to deepen our understanding and our reservoir of empathy. We reject hate, and we reject those who seek to degrade and dehumanise their fellow citizens. We redouble our efforts, too, to look for those acts of kindness, to build a deeper, shared understanding across our communities and to strengthen our social cohesion at this time because we must keep looking towards the light, even—I would say especially—when darkness tries to crowd it out.

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