Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As we've heard powerfully today, in the Jewish tradition, the memory of those that we have lost is kept alive by saying their names, so let me begin by again saying the names of those who were killed in the antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi Beach on 14 December last year: Matilda, Edith Brutman, Dan Elkayam, Boris and Sofia Gurman, Alexander Kleytman, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Peter Meagher, Reuven Morrison, Marika Pogany, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Adam Smyth, Boris Tetleroyd, Tania Tretiak, Tibor Weitzen. There is a universe inside every one of those names. There is a universe of human potential, of human experiences, of thoughts and feelings, of joy and of love in every individual life that was ended in that abhorrent attack.

We mourn for them in this parliament and as a nation. We grieve with all of those who lost a loved one or who were traumatised by this appalling attack, and we send to them our condolences, our love and our solidarity. We thank and celebrate the heroes of that day. People going about their everyday lives put themselves in harm's way to save others. First responders ran towards the danger. Surf lifesavers, a sacred symbol of Australian identity, braved human, rather than natural, threats on that day to save lives.

This sickening ISIS-inspired antisemitic terrorist attack targeted Jews celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, the eight-day festival of lights celebrating Jewish resilience. Our hearts break not just for the loss of life on that day but also for the way in which this atrocity attacked the Australian way of life. I represent one of the most religiously diverse communities in Australia—home to churches, Sikh gurdwaras, Hindu mandirs, Islamic mosques and Buddhist temples—and I've been proud that over generations we have built a country where people don't need to choose between their faith and a sense of belonging with their community and their nation. It's a country where the things that unite us as Australians are bigger than the things that divide us.

I see this on the beaches of my electorate every weekend. That this terrorist attack targeted Australians practising their faith on a beach—a place that unites people of all backgrounds in the secular rituals of Australian life—is an intolerable desecration. We don't do private beaches in Australia, because the country we share belongs to all of us. The idea that a terrorist has sought to deny a group of Australians the right to the peaceful enjoyment of our beaches in this attack feels like a particular affront. The reaction that we've seen in the swim-out at Bondi and the surf lifesavers standing arm in arm around our community, including at Altona Beach in my electorate, is a testament to this.

The response of everyday Australians to this atrocity has been to stand in solidarity with Jewish Australians and to insist that they continue to belong as a valued part of our nation; that they have a right to practise their faith as Jewish Australians in safety; and that the violation of this right that we saw at Bondi, and in a series of antisemitic incidents in this country in recent years, will not be tolerated.

For generations people have come to Australia from around the world seeking to build something better than the place that they left, to leave behind the prejudices of the old world and to build something new and better—a place where everyone gets a fair go to live their life and practice their faith in safety and security. Most poignantly, Australia has long been privileged to be home to the highest per-capita number of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel. Those people survived the worst of humanity and chose to seek safety among us. That a Holocaust survivor was killed in the Bondi attack is a fact of national heartbreak and shame.

We have work to do in Australia to ensure that the promise of this country is extended to all Australians and to stamp out the antisemitism that is denying a group of Australians the ability to live their lives like the rest of us. Antisemitism is the oldest prejudice, but it's grown into something of a different kind in recent years. Terrible events on the other side of the world have led far too many Australians to treat their fellow citizens here terribly. It's not right, and we need to do better. We should be clear that it is antisemitic to hold Jews in Australia accountable for the actions of the Israeli government, that it is antisemitic to speculate that attacks on Jews in Australia are false-flag events and that it is antisemitic to celebrate terrorist groups whose stated objective is to murder Jews. These kinds of views are not right, but they've become too common in recent times.

There's been too little empathy and curiosity and too much contempt and condemnation in Australia in recent years—too little kindness and too much hatred. All of us have an obligation to strive to do better in the wake of Bondi. We owe this to each of the individuals who lost their lives at Bondi and who we commemorate here today. May their memories be a blessing.

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