Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a motion that seeks to give sorrow words. There have been many fine contributions today. In particular, I want to acknowledge the words of my colleagues and friends, the member for Berowra and the member for Macnamara. My heart breaks for both of them. I want to acknowledge the presence in the gallery today of members of the Jewish community. I saw the former ambassador Amir Maimon there earlier. We met early in my term, last year, to discuss the rise in antisemitism across Australia. I spoke in my maiden speech about antisemitism as a stain on Australia's good character. It is now a permanent stain on the nation's heart, as Josh Frydenberg remarked recently.

Australia makes a special, sacred compact with those who come to our shores. To those who seek refuge in our beacon of hope, in our harbour of freedom, we give a promise that we will keep you safe. For Jewish Australians, that word has been broken. As the Leader of the Opposition said in her contribution, Jewish Australians have been telling us they haven't felt safe for some time. Since 7 October, over two years ago, hate has stalked fear that has now metastasised. Antisemitism is a cancer on our nation's soul, and we have now witnessed the unfettered evil it feeds.

Those 15 souls taken on a balmy Sunday evening at Bondi were not the only thefts on that December evening. From that night—now seared into the soul of our nation—there are families who will never share in completeness again. Anniversaries, birthdays and graduations have been stolen—from a 10-year-old girl who will never turn 11, Matilda Bee, to Alex Kleytman, who survived the greatest horrors on earth to find refuge in our sandy beaches, sunny skies and wide open spaces. He should have passed peacefully, as an old man in a warm bed surrounded by loved ones. That, too, was stolen from him. It was stolen from his family.

The innocence of our nation has been stolen in our worst ever terror attack. The notion that something like that doesn't happen here—not in Australia, not us, not the Lucky Country, she'll be right—won't cut it now. And if we don't act on antisemitism it will happen again. And, for all of the things that have been stolen from the victims, their families, the Jewish community and the Australian nation, that would be the greatest crime out of this tragedy: to chance another attack through inaction. We need to have some hard national conversations: about antisemitism on our university campuses, about casual references in restaurants and cafes, and about what it means for Jewish Australians not to feel safe. Actions need to have consequences.

My privilege is to represent a federal electorate named in honour of Australia's greatest ever citizen, General Sir John Monash. His brilliance and bravery on the battlefield helped win a war. He was the first soldier to be knighted on a battlefield by a British monarch in over 200 years. His fidelity to Australia continued after the war when he was back home in Melbourne. Monash helped set up the Latrobe Valley power stations as inaugural chair of the State Electricity Commission. That really set Victoria up as a manufacturing powerhouse. Having fought for this country as our greatest citizen-soldier, Monash's eternal gift was to bestow economic prosperity on generations of Australians, some still yet to come. An engineer by training and a Jewish man of faith, Monash built bridges in Australia, literally and figuratively. He would despair at the rampant antisemitism that has infected the Australia he so loved.

One of my favourite quotes is by Martin Luther King, and it goes something like this: 'Men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don't know each other. They don't know each other because they can't communicate, and they can't communicate because they are separated.' Australia is separated right now, and it is our responsibility, from this place, to put our nation back together.

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