Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I met with Sheina yesterday. I spoke with her last week. I spoke with her community leaders—she's from Chabad community in Melbourne—on a regular basis, as well as Rabbi Moshe Kahn, who is a good friend of the member for Macnamara. I met her husband. It was a very warm meeting. It was a very warm and generous meeting.

Can I say this. The contrast between some of the rhetoric those opposite have engaged in and the warmth and generosity of this grieving community has been quite extraordinary. I have been into homes and into synagogues. I've had meetings and engagements with small groups, one-on-one and with groups of up to 30 for the first meeting. I was in homes on 16 December. Since then, I must say, a number of people have now become friends because of the extent of the engagement. I visited people in hospital. I have engaged with people in every forum, and there is no-one who has asked to speak to me who has not had a meeting.

At the same time, what we have had is loud shouting. We had shouting that the parliament had to be resumed before Christmas, but then, when we resumed it, we were resuming it too soon. We had shouting that we had to introduce legislation based upon the antisemitism envoy's report, but, when we introduced it, they opposed it.

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