Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

While we're all strangers on this earth, even so, our souls melt from the heaviness of last month's heinous attack on Australia's Jewish community. It showed us, horrifically and graphically, the evil that can reside in the souls of human beings, an evil that seeks to destroy our humanity. All Australians and the rest of the world were utterly horrified by this ISIS-inspired terrorist atrocity at Bondi Beach. What we've been faced with is tragedy, pain and grief: the tragedy of 15 innocent people losing their lives, including 10-year-old Matilda; the visceral pain of survivors and family members who witnessed the horror; and the aching grief of our entire nation at the incomprehensible loss of those innocent lives and of our nation's innocence.

Yes, this atrocity at Bondi was targeted at our Jewish Australian community, but it was also an attack on all of us. What sense could any of us make of this depraved evil act? For many of us, there was no sense to it. It is an unalloyed hatred, borne of evil. It's an extremist Islamist world view, a perversion of a great faith. It's a perversion that rejects our pluralism, our democracy and our very way of life. It's a world view that encourages its adherents to dehumanise and demonise minorities—people of Jewish faith—and that encourages deadly attacks on innocent people, with no respect for human life. That is the simple evil of it.

But there is light in the darkness. There is something to grasp in the emptiness. That has been the response of Australians in the wake of this brutality. They've shown us the light: the strength in our unity when we do come together. The bravery of our fellow Australians, who fought to stop the evil acts of violence inflicted by these terrorists, is the light. Boris and Sofia Gurman and Reuven Morrison all lost their lives trying to stop the attackers, buying precious moments for others to get away and to live. We all know the heroic story of Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Syrian refugee who tackled and disarmed one of the terrorists. We don't know how many lives he saved, but he saved many. The police officers who fought back—detective Cesar Barraza, who brought down one of the terrorists, and constables Scott Dyson and Jack Hibbert, who were both seriously injured during the attack. The first responders, from our amazing paramedics to the local Bondi lifeguards, whom I met today and who acted so swiftly to save as many survivors as possible, even though they told me they didn't have training to deal with gunshot wounds but relied on their training around shark attacks and massive loss of blood, went straight into action and saved people in front of them. All the civilians who found themselves on a typical Sydney Sunday afternoon in the middle of a crisis and who went to aid the wounded—there were so many more people who shone the light so brightly against the darkness of just those two extremist gunmen. All of those Australians demonstrated an unwavering commitment to life and the best of our humanity.

Antisemitism is an evil that tears at the fabric of our country because it threatens the peaceful, free and egalitarian society that we all cherish. Since the terrible events of October 2023 we have witnessed a series of appalling attacks targeting Australia's Jewish community. What we do to resist and defeat this hatred and the evil we witnessed at Bondi is our challenge as a nation. If we do cherish our pluralistic society, as lawmakers, political leaders, community leaders and everyday Australian citizens we all share the obligation to protect what we have built over generations. This can be done through the laws we pass here but also every day in every act of kindness, as the Prime Minister has mentioned, and in every resistance to prejudice and discrimination, whenever we hear it and whenever we see it. Our multifaith, multi-ethnic society works because we commit to it. It works because the majority of Australians commit every day to disagree peacefully, despite our differences, regardless of the diversity of our backgrounds. That, fundamentally, is our way of life, our democracy, the harmonious and peaceful society we create. It's the type of country we want to live in, in which anyone should be free and at peace to worship, to celebrate their faith and to be free from this kind of violence and hatred we've seen. Whatever differences we have, whatever disagreements we have, we can navigate through those without resorting to violence. These terrorists, filled with hatred, sought to divide and weaken this multicultural democracy we hold so dear. We cannot allow this.

My community of Wills is the embodiment of the society these terrorists want to destroy. Our multiculturalism and the cohesion we've worked so hard to build and protect is what makes Australia stronger. It is our duty to ensure this brutality never becomes normalised in this country. Our national unity is vital to our national security, and our government will continue to strengthen both. In our time of mourning and grief, Australians have put our arms around the Jewish community—our friends, our neighbours, our family. We honour the memory of those lost. May their memory be a blessing. In our darkest moments so many everyday Australians have been the light that has rejected hate. That is real heroism. To all those who have helped, all those Australians who have worked to push back darkness over the past month, thank you. It's not great power that keeps evil in check; it is the everyday deeds of ordinary Australians—the mitzvah, the small acts of kindness and love that keep the darkness at bay.

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