Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I listened carefully to my friend the member for Berowra's speech on the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill 2026. For all of us who have lived antisemitism over the last two years, this is an incredibly difficult moment in our country's history and for our community. I take the words the member for Berowra said seriously. I have never sought to politicise antisemitism and I will work and stand by anyone, from any part of this House or from any part of politics, in order to get things done to protect our community. But the bills that will pass this parliament, hopefully, with the support of the coalition, are not the full set of bills that should have passed this parliament today.

The member for Berowra is quite right in saying that antisemitism should be confronted in more than just the way these bills present today. But the truth of the matter is that the vilification clauses that were originally attached to these bills had to be taken out because the Liberal Party refused to support serious vilification laws in this place. That came after the Leader of the Opposition came to my electorate last week, stood up in a synagogue and said that hate needed to be confronted and that there needed to be consequences. She said that, if she were the prime minister, there would be. Within hours, the Liberal Party refused to support laws in this place that would do exactly that. If you break down what the Leader of the Opposition said—that, if she were the prime minister, there would be consequences for hate—there is not going to be an election for over two years. So the Leader of the Opposition is actually saying that she's not going to look at tackling hate or antisemitism in Australia for 2½ years—not while we are government and not before the next election. The Jewish community shouldn't have to wait that long for the Leader of the Opposition to do what she said she wanted to do inside a synagogue last week.

The Leader of the Opposition and the Liberal Party, after Bondi, were very quick to stand up and do press conferences, talking about how the recommendations of the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism should be adopted in full and that the Liberal Party supported them in full. Let me read recommendation 3.2 of the special envoy's report:

You cannot claim to support the special envoy and then refuse to support the very recommendation that the special envoy put forward in her report, but that is exactly what the Liberal Party has done. Make no mistake; as a result of the Liberal Party's refusal to support the serious vilification laws, hate will not have consequences, and instances of hate will not have the consequences that we wanted to put into legislation today. That is because of the Liberal Party. They are the ones who will have to answer to the community.

I completely accept that more could have and should have been done. I accept responsibility for the way in which our country and the community has felt, and I am deeply, deeply sad about the state of Jewish life in Australia. But it is not an excuse to then not try to do everything in our power to confront it, today and tomorrow and into the future. We all have to be humble about this.

The fact of the matter is that, even late last night, a bunch of Jewish kids in my electorate who were dressed in religious Jewish garb were chased down the street and screamed at just for being who they are. Incitement, vilification and hatred—all of which would be criminal offences had the Liberal Party been willing to support what they said they were willing to support when they were inside a synagogue. It's all well and good to be strong in a press conference and it's all well and good to call your political opponents weak, but what actually matters is that we are strong in this place and that we put legislation in place in order to protect the communities who are affected by it.

The Jewish community also has said that the vilification clauses shouldn't just be around race and that they should go to everyone because everyone deserves equal protection before the law, and of course that is true. No-one should suffer vilification. No-one should suffer hate. No-one should suffer because of incitement.

It is just an absolute shame that we come in here today and the full suite of laws aren't what they should be, because the Liberal Party refuse to support the very things that they said they supported. But these bills as they stand will have a significant impact, and I commend them to the House.

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