Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Today in this building we have heard 15 names, each one etched into our national memory. They are the names of those whose lives were taken far too soon at Bondi's horrific terrorist attack. This profound act of violence has shaken our nation. This was an attack on our shores in a place so special to many, an iconic place we all know and love.

The names of those we've lost represent an Australia that is forever changed. We are a nation now in mourning and in shock that this happened in our home. As a mother, grandmother and sister, I carry the fear of losing a loved one with me every day. Anyone who has lost someone they love knows that grief does not end. It stays with you, and it eternally comes in waves. For each life lost there remains empty chairs at family tables, faces no longer at community gatherings and a warmth missing from the moments that shape a life. Even the moments that should be joyful are forever marked by absence. Today and every day I extend my deepest condolences to the families whose lives have been torn apart by the attack at Bondi.

I want to take a moment to especially acknowledge the parents of young Matilda. No parent should ever have to bury a child. There are no words that can ease your pain, but I'm so deeply sorry for your loss. I also extend my condolences to the broader Jewish community, because the loss of these 15 lives was not random. This was a targeted antisemitic act of terror, an attack directed at Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, a time that should be marked by light, faith and celebration. Australia has been a place of refuge for so many Jewish people in the aftermath of the Holocaust. We are a country that promises peace, safety and solace not only for Jewish people but for so many people who migrated for a better life or travelled to our shores as refugees seeking safety. We are a fiercely proud multicultural society. It's part of our national character and one of our greatest strengths. Our promise of peace must never be broken by any of us.

While Bondi will mark Australia forever, the question now is how it will do that. We must remember that this attack was not only an assault on 15 people nor only the Jewish community. It was an attack on all of us, on our values, our social cohesion, our belief that people should be able to practise faith freely and live free from fear. Every one of us must be vigilant against attacks on our values, attacks on peace, and we have to be vigilant against the embedding of hatred towards Jewish and other communities in our society. We must hold those who seek to divide and harm others accountable. As the member for Macnamara said today:

Not every act of hate ends in violence, but every act of violence begins with hate.

Through the pain, we should remember all those who showed up for others in the wake of Bondi. They showed who we truly are. They showed us love, and they rejected hate. The ambulance officers, the police and first responders who ran towards danger, the nurses and doctors who treated the injured, and healthcare workers and thousands of Australians who lined up to donate blood, with queues stretching across the country. I also think of Australians who risked their own lives to protect strangers on that terrible day, including Ahmed al-Ahmed. In the aftermath, al-Ahmed's father has said: 'When he did what he did, he wasn't thinking about the background of the people he's saving. He was think of the people dying in the street.'

I think of those who refuse to stay silent in the face of hate and all those who showed up for the Jewish community in grief, in love and in respect for humanity.

In the aftermath of Bondi, I met with local Victorian Muslim leaders alongside Basem Abdo, the member for Calwell; and Premier Jacinta Allan. They spoke with deep compassion for the Jewish community, and they condemned the atrocity without hesitation or qualification. Despite their differences in faith, background or politics, they stood united in humanity, anxious to find the way through this tragedy and to do what they can to prevent this happening again. This is the Australia we must hold onto. This is who we must remember we are—an Australia where difference does not divide us, where kindness is not weakness but courage. Social cohesion rests on respect for one another, for our institutions and for the opportunity for every person to live with dignity and safety. All of us in this building carry a personal responsibility to stand against hate, not fuel it.

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