Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise, as those before me have, with a very heavy heart, to pay my respects to those who lost their lives on 14 December and to offer my most sincere condolences to the families who lost loved ones and to everyone affected. It is a sad day for us that we have to speak about these issues and address them in our parliament after such a horrific event. Families—as we've heard from many speakers today and we will hear for the remainder of the day—were going about activities precious to them, precious to their community. They were gunned down in such a senseless way. Everything about what happened on 14 December is terrible, but the ideological motivation allegedly behind those who committed this is deeply, deeply concerning. We have to do everything we can to address antisemitism and extremism of all kinds, but we have to do it in a diligent, measured and precise way. Tomorrow will tell us much of the story as to how we do that.

Antisemitism has been on the rise for a long time. I watched the director-general of ASIO's 2025 threat assessment speech. It forewarned us about this. It forewarned us; it told us about the rise in antisemitism and the horrible acts that had been going on, directed at Jewish Australians. It begs the question, for me: why would the government choose to recognise Palestine in the middle of this—with all of the information and advice? To engage at that level, at that time, wasn't helpful. I don't think that was helpful at all. I think that contributed to a culture within a certain sector of our community who are out to harm people, and to the antisemitic protests that caused Jewish Australians to wonder whether they were safe in their own country. That's just horrible.

A close, close friend of mine, an octogenarian constituent in Wide Bay, Susie, is a Holocaust survivor. At the age of three she lost her grandparents in the Holocaust. I've spoken about her before. Since 7 October, when we saw that horrible attack on Israel, she has been working overtime to try to combat antisemitism, speaking at schools and at any forum that she can to highlight how dangerous and terrible antisemitism is. I spoke with her a couple of days after the Bondi attack, and it was heartbreaking to see a lady whose life started with the Holocaust, now as an octogenarian in Australia—the safe haven—in the state that I saw her. She is a strong, strong lady, one of the strongest people I know, but I could see that she was seriously affected by what happened at Bondi.

For me, it's a horrible, horrible circumstance that we find ourselves in this country. We do need to unite as a nation, we do need to call out all forms of radical extremism and, where appropriate, we need to legislate to help, but we can't implement laws that are going to affect people unfairly, and affect people's lives in a way where they don't deserve it. I look forward to seeing the legislation that the government will put forward tomorrow. I understand that today is about acknowledging and recognising this condolence motion, but it is a very sad and sorry day for Australia that this has happened. My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with all of those who are affected.

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