House debates

Monday, 5 September 2022

Private Members' Business

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

6:27 pm

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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) 27 January 2022 marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, a day where we remember the atrocities committed by Hitler's Nazi regime, their six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims including LGBTIQ, Roma, Sinti, people with disabilities, political dissidents and more;

(b) Australia has been enriched by the presence of one of the world's largest populations of Holocaust survivors per capita, and their descendants, in contributing to our vibrant multicultural society; and

(c) a landmark study released this year by the Gandel Foundation and Deakin University showed that nearly one quarter of Australians have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust;

(2) acknowledges the importance of Holocaust remembrance in honouring the memory of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and promoting tolerance, inclusivity and combating antisemitism and other forms of bigotry and prejudice;

(3) endorses the work of:

(a) the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in its work promoting Holocaust remembrance, combating antisemitism and combating Holocaust denial and distortion, and endorses their definitions; and

(b) federal and state governments in helping to fund and support Holocaust remembrance and education;

(4) calls on all states and territories to follow the lead of Victoria and New South Wales and make Holocaust education a mandatory aspect of their school curriculum; and

(5) condemns:

(a) antisemitism in all its forms, in line with the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, and resolves to combat it; and

(b) Holocaust denial and distortion, including those who appallingly and inaccurately seek to compare the Holocaust to modem-day pandemic health restrictions and measures.

I would like to begin this motion with an acknowledgement of the member of Wentworth, who is seconding this motion, and also an acknowledgement of her predecessor, who originally seconded the motion in the previous term of parliament. I also acknowledge the bipartisan nature and the way in which these motions are debated, and especially the current member for Wentworth's willingness to support this and to be a part of this important discussion.

In between the original placement of this motion on the Notice Paper and today, my grandmother passed away. Her name was Gerda Cohen and she left Germany in October 1938, a week before the Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, and came here to this country as part of the arrival of a few thousand Jewish people before the start of World War II in 1939. Australia took a few thousand people quietly and, of course, later declined to take a large number of Jewish refugees throughout the war. And then, amazingly, Australia became home to one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors per capita anywhere in the world.

This motion marks Holocaust remembrance, but it does so acknowledging that Australia is now a full member of the IHRA—the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Prime Minister Gillard started Australia's efforts to join the IHRA, and, at the same time, she bestowed the first posthumous honorary Australian citizenship to the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who, I believe, might still be the only honorary citizen of Australia.

In November 2017, IHRA unanimously agreed to upgrade Australia's status in the organisation from observer to liaison. Then, following the good work of the previous government, Australia became a full member of IHRA following a vote of the IHRA Plenary. This motion also endorses the IHRA definitions, including on antisemitism, something that I was very pleased that the federal parliamentary Labor Party first endorsed. I acknowledge the Attorney-General in 2016, 2019 and 2022. I also acknowledge that the former coalition government adopted the IHRA definition, as have many state and territory governments, oppositions, and other institutions around the country.

This motion was also influenced by the fact that the Gandel Foundation, in partnership with Deakin University, had a good look and did a really comprehensive survey of Australians, with over 3,500 Australians participating in it. It tried to engage Australia's awareness of the Holocaust and our understanding of the atrocities that occurred during that period. While there was, overall, a good understanding of the Holocaust by Australians, a large proportion of Australian society had no knowledge of it, Australia's involvement in it, and the lessons that came out of it.

The work of the Gandel Foundation is truly astonishing in how it seeks to empower young Australians to engage in Holocaust education. I acknowledge the Victorian government and its leadership in this. I also acknowledge the former Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, who gave a significant amount of money to set up Holocaust education centres around the country. This was and still is a real passion of the former Treasurer. It's something that he should be very proud of in deepening Australia's engagement in this important chapter of our history and world history throughout the country.

Lessons from the Holocaust are still as relevant today as they ever have been. Obviously, the Jewish community was not the only victim of the Holocaust. There were LGBTQI+ people, political dissidents, communists, trade unionists, political prisoners, and a range of people in German society who felt the wrath of the Nazi regime. Every student who walks through the Melbourne Holocaust Museum comes out with a renewed sense of respect and appreciation for their fellow humans and appreciation for the history that we must never forget. So I commend Gandel Philanthropy. I commend all members participating in this debate. May we continue to remember and never ever allow it to happen again.

Photo of Rebekha SharkieRebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

6:32 pm

Photo of Allegra SpenderAllegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | | Hansard source

I would like to second the motion. In January this year, we marked 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. We remembered those who suffered at the hands of Hitler's Nazi regime, including six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims, including those from the LGBTQI+ community, Roma, Sinti, people with disabilities, political dissidents and more.

Today, as we are seeing a worrying number of antisemitic incidents reported in our schools and universities, the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and other organisations in promoting Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism and Holocaust denialism has never been more important. Therefore, on behalf of my community in Wentworth, I'm honoured to co-sponsor this motion, along with the honourable member for Macnamara. I also want to acknowledge the work that my predecessor, the former member for Wentworth, Dave Sharma, did in this work.

Wentworth is home to a large and vibrant Jewish community. I have lived there almost my whole life. Over the years, I've developed deep, personal connections with many families devastated by the Holocaust, many of who sadly continue to suffer antisemitism today. When I was 20 years old, I had the privilege of visiting Auschwitz with my father. I will never forget that experience. You walk into the gates, and you can't quite believe what happened there actually happened there. Then you see the piles of clothes, the bags, the belongings of people who died there, and the enormity of what happened starts to sink in—the incomprehensibility of the unimaginable.

Earlier this year, I sat in Rookwood Cemetery with members of the Wentworth community, where they read the names of family members who died in the Holocaust. That was another moment when I really felt the enormity of what had happened. It is hard to imagine those horrors of the Holocaust unless you have those experiences that truly educate you about them. Studying the Holocaust—be that in school, visiting Auschwitz or in the local Jewish museum—gives people a crucial understanding of how social, religious, political and economic factors can erode and, ultimately, destroy human rights. It helps us to understand and appreciate the vital importance of our own democratic institutions and their vulnerabilities.

These lessons must never be forgotten, and that is why some of the trends in the Gandel Foundation's recent study, which is so important, are worrying. Nearly a quarter of Australian adults admit to having little or no knowledge of the Holocaust. That number rises to one in three for millennials. The knowledge of Australians about their own Australian links to, or stories related to, the Holocaust is very low. The research also found apparent latent antisemitism in Australia. Some of the trends noted in the Gandel survey are, unfortunately, evident in the worrying rise of antisemitism across our society. As I highlighted earlier today, in the past two weeks, the New South Wales board of deputies, a group that I work with, have received reports of two cases of antisemitic bullying in Sydney's east. These incidents come fresh off the back of another school in New South Wales where students use a chat room to share racist, homophobic and violent misogynistic content. Earlier this year, we saw another case in Sydney where the word 'Hitler' was graffitied across a high-school fence.

All members of our community need to feel safe and need to be able to practise their faith in freedom. We need urgent action to educate people about the Holocaust and to fight the rising tide of antisemitism. Whilst the Gandel survey found some worrying gaps in knowledge about the Holocaust, it also highlighted the brilliant work of the Holocaust museums. Among those who replied to the survey, those who had visited the museum were about 50 per cent more likely to have excellent Holocaust knowledge than those who hadn't visited. I have had the honour of visiting the Sydney Jewish Museum and I support the work of the IHRA museums across the country. I understand that there will be new or redeveloped museums in every state and territory, and I support the development of resources that could be shared with communities and schools.

Holocaust education in our schools is critical. I call on all states and territories to follow the lead of Victoria and New South Wales and make Holocaust education a mandatory aspect of their school curriculum. We also need meaningful implementation of the IHRA definition of 'antisemitism' in our universities. There are still too many antisemitic motions passed by student bodies across the country, and universities are not always safe spaces for our Jewish students, as they should be. I want to see leaders and community members empowered to speak out and take action against incidents when they happen, and I stand ready to support them in their efforts. I commend this motion to the House.

6:37 pm

Photo of Matt ThistlethwaiteMatt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | | Hansard source

I'm very proud to speak on this motion and I thank the member for Macnamara for moving it. It's an important motion for this parliament to debate.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a time to remember the victims of the atrocities committed by Hitler's Nazi regime—the six million Jewish victims and the millions from other walks of life. The scale of the death and destruction of people and communities in the Holocaust is almost impossible to comprehend, but the reality of the horrors is something that we should never forget. It's now 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. On 27 January each year, we mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We also honour the survivors of the Holocaust. We remember the horrific events to ensure that they're never repeated and to prevent prejudice and hatred from taking root in our society.

In 2022, we're reminded all too often of the need to continue to fight against antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. That's why we commit to standing up for tolerance and inclusivity. I've seen in my community the great work on this front of Holocaust survivors, their families and volunteers. Courage to Care is an outreach program of B'nai B'rith, the world's oldest Jewish service organisation, and aims to inform Australians of the dangers of prejudice and discrimination. Since 1999, Courage to Care in New South Wales has run a travelling educational exhibition inspired by many stories of rescue and courage displayed by non-Jews who saved or helped Jews during the Holocaust.

A unique feature of the Courage to Care programs is a session with a 'living historian'—a survivor of the Holocaust who shares the horrors of their story but also the positive nature of their rescue and survival, and explains the support he or she was given by others. I've been fortunate to do a fair bit of work with Ernie Friedlander, who told me how he and his mother escaped the concentration camps due to the humanity of a single German soldier. They were the only two in their family to survive. Ernie now devotes his life to anti-racism campaigns, and we're working on a march in my electorate in November this year against racism. The program celebrates the people who have had the courage to care for their fellow citizens—ordinary people whose acts were extraordinary in their bravery and impact. I'd like to thank all Holocaust survivors and volunteers from Courage to Care, who continue to help individuals to stand up to prejudice.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is a reminder that we must never allow the differences between us to be weaponised. It's a reflection on the atrocities that can stem from dehumanising and devaluing human beings. That's why we all have a responsibility to make sure hatred, intolerance and extremism are never normalised in our communities.

Australia has one of the world's largest populations of Holocaust survivors per capita. They, along with their descendants, contribute to our vibrant multicultural society. That includes the Maroubra Synagogue in my electorate. A pillar of the thriving Jewish community, it was established in 1948 by Holocaust survivors, with the support of their families and friends. Building the synagogue was an act of faith, belief and defiance, and it stands as an everlasting memory of the relatives and friends who perished during the Holocaust. There are now more than 400 member families who belong to the synagogue, and together we acknowledge the importance of Holocaust remembrance in honouring the memory of victims and survivors.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is also a time for promoting tolerance and inclusivity and for combating antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. But it's also an opportunity for education, and I wholeheartedly endorse the elements of this motion that encourage education about the Holocaust, particularly in school curriculums throughout the country. It's vitally important that people are educated about this so we can avoid these horrors in the future. We also endorse the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and its efforts in promoting Holocaust remembrance, combating antisemitism and combating Holocaust denial and distortion. Together we all have a responsibility, not only in this place but within Australian society, to remember the victims of the Holocaust and to continue to stand against antisemitism, racism and intolerance in all forms.

6:42 pm

Photo of Angie BellAngie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the member for Macnamara's motion on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Can I also say I'm sorry to hear of your loss—the recent loss of your grandmother.

As many members have outlined here today, it has been 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The appalling treatment of minority groups during World War II, including those of the Jewish faith, is something we can never forget. And yet, sadly, we've seen examples of antisemitism on the rise in both Australia and abroad. I was disgusted during the 2019 and 2022 federal elections to see swastikas and racial slurs graffitied across election materials. I wish I could say it was an isolated incident, but indeed it was not.

Earlier this year, the Australian Jewish community in my own electorate of Moncrieff were subjected to despicable antisemitic attacks as they gathered to remember the Holocaust. I was among them. Poles outside Temple Shalom in Isle of Capri were covered with flyers containing swastikas and vile anti-Jewish slurs. Flyers were also dropped in the letterboxes of local houses, including the home of a member of my community whose family survived the Holocaust. Those symbols and that behaviour have no place in Australia or anywhere else. Many families, including that of my good friend and former colleague Josh Frydenberg, who has been mentioned already in this place, have been the target of disgusting antisemitic attacks.

About 27,000 Holocaust survivors settled in Australia after World War II, making Australia one of the most popular destinations for survivors after Israel itself. These families came to Australia to seek refuge and a better life for themselves and future generations, and we remain determined to keep it that way. There's no place for antisemitism here in Australia or around the world, as I stated.

I wish to highlight a little bit of my own experience of visiting a concentration camp in West Germany. In the heart of Bavaria stand the remains, and a replica, of the Dachau concentration camp, which was the first camp built by the Nazis. The concentration camp was in operation for 12 years, from 1933 to 1945, and it took 206,206 prisoners, with deaths to the number of 31,951. The crematoria remain today for visitors to see and to feel. I say 'feel' because there's a chill that comes over one—an overwhelming sadness and fear, and confusion and disbelief that this happened in history.

Our good hosts in Germany at the time included a German woman whose grandparents hid Jews in their barn for very many years. A lucky few escaped on the death march through a little town called Puch to the Dachau concentration camp, and her family were kind enough, at their own risk, to see a few Jews through the Holocaust. While I and my partner went into the camp, she stayed in the car for fear that she would feel too ill to walk through the gates, which say, 'Arbeit macht frei.' Nothing could be further from the truth. That work did not set those Jews free. Other groups, such as Catholics, socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, LGBTIQ people, people of colour, people with disabilities and Romani—Gypsies—were made to wear badges that labelled them as political prisoners, as criminals, as homosexuals, as immigrants, as Jews or as idiots.

In 2021, there were 447 antisemitic incidents recorded in Australia. In May 2021 alone there were 88 antisemitic incidents, the highest monthly total ever in our country's history. This is not the Australia we want to be. It's one of the reasons why the coalition invested significant funding to establish Holocaust educational centres or museums around the country. Every state and territory in Australia will soon have a museum to recognise the Shoah.

I would like to acknowledge the late Eddie Jaku OAM, a Holocaust survivor who founded the Sydney Jewish Museum. He was tattooed by the Nazis with the number 72338. Eddie's story is one of suffering but also one of happiness. We must ensure our future generations learn from the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. Those stories will live on with us to ensure those atrocities never occur again.

6:48 pm

Photo of Mark DreyfusMark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macnamara for moving this motion, which I wholeheartedly support. I would like, as have other speakers, to acknowledge the work of the Gandel Foundation, which commissioned the Gandel Holocaust Knowledge and Awareness in Australia Survey, Australia's first comprehensive survey of Holocaust knowledge and awareness. The results of the survey were published in January of this year. While many of the findings are encouraging and even positive, the research team identified some worrying gaps in the community's knowledge of the Holocaust.

As the member for Macnamara notes in the motion, 27 January 2022 marked 77 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Seventy-seven years—it's not so long ago. I am only standing here today because my father fled Nazi Germany as an 11-year-old boy, along with his older brother, Richard. They arrived at Station Pier in Melbourne in July 1939. Their parents, my grandparents, also managed to escape the Nazis, arriving in Australia as stateless persons in late December 1939. Three of my great-grandparents could not be convinced to leave Germany. They perished in the Holocaust. I acknowledge that there are other members in this place, on both sides of the chamber, who, like me, owe their lives to the fact that one or more of their family members managed to escape the Nazis and find refuge in Australia. This is only recent history.

Yet, as the motion states, the national survey commissioned by the Gandel Foundation has revealed that nearly one-quarter of Australians have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust. This is despite Australia being home to one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors per capita in the world. This ignorance has consequences. It breaks my heart to have read reports over the last week of Jewish students at a private school in Sydney being bullied by other students performing Nazi salutes. That followed earlier reports which found that such bullying has become increasingly common in our schools. Do these bullies—these children—understand the significance of these actions? Such incidents should be unthinkable in modern Australia, and yet the number of reported antisemitic incidents in this country continues to rise.

And it's not just Australia. According to the Annual report on antisemitism worldwide 2021, released by Tel Aviv University, antisemitic incidents have increased dramatically across the world in recent years. This report offers a number of explanations for this, including the proliferation of harmful antisemitic discourse on social media since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, we cannot blame these incidents and worrying trends on ignorance of the Holocaust alone. But ignorance is part of the story, and I join the member for Macnamara in endorsing the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in promoting Holocaust education and combating antisemitism around the world. Closer to home, I applaud the move in 2020 by my home state of Victoria to join New South Wales in making Holocaust education a mandatory aspect of their school curriculum, and I encourage other states and territories to follow suit.

But the battle against ignorance and antisemitism is not the responsibility of state and territory governments alone. Tackling racism and prejudice—including antisemitism—is everyone's responsibility, and, as Attorney-General in the new Albanese government, I will be looking for ways in which the Commonwealth can do more to combat antisemitism. I acknowledge the work of the former member for Kooyong Josh Frydenberg, who, as Treasurer, provided funding for Holocaust museums and education centres across Australia. 'Never forget' and 'never again' are phrases that are often associated with Holocaust remembrance. We must ensure they never become mere slogans.

We must, as individuals and as a community, remember the Holocaust in order to honour the memory of the victims—not only the six million Jewish victims but also the millions of others who perished, including homosexuals, people with intellectual disabilities and political prisoners. We must remember the Holocaust to honour the survivors of the Nazi regime—those who are no longer with us and those still alive today, including my father, who celebrated his 94th birthday in July. We must remember, because it's only by learning the lessons of the Holocaust we can ensure it never happens again.

6:53 pm

Photo of Monique RyanMonique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macnamara for bringing this very important motion today. Just last week I had the pleasure of meeting the honourable member's former high school teacher Sue Hampel, co-president of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, who spoke with great affection of her former student and pride for what he is doing in this place. She also spoke with great respect and affection of my predecessor in Kooyong, Josh Frydenberg, who, as I think all the speakers in this debate have noted, has made an incredibly important contribution to the field of remembrance of the Holocaust.

Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and it honours the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism. It's a solemn day of mourning and of reflection—a day to remember the millions of people lost and to honour their memories and their legacies. Many victims of the Holocaust are ancestors of Jewish people around the world today. For many, however, their lives were taken before they had an opportunity to begin their own families.

The devastation of the Holocaust would be too vast to begin to understand were it not for the courage of survivors telling their stories in the hope that the world never forgets those horrors and so that we can say: never again.

One such survivor is Phillip Maisel, who passed away last month, just days after he celebrated his 100th birthday. A Polish-born Jew, Phillip was 21 when he was imprisoned in a Nazi labour camp. He survived, then dedicated three decades to reporting the testimonies of 1,000 fellow Holocaust survivors in Australia. A few years ago, he explained:

If people survived, it was a miracle. When I want to convince people to give a testimony, I just tell them 'You had the privilege to survive the Holocaust, you should talk for those that can't do it anymore'.

Phillip Maisel was a Kooyong constituent, and I am honoured to know his story.

As we have noted in this chamber today, antisemitic incidents are disturbingly common in this country. They are worsened by ignorance—ignorance we have to continue to fight on every front. Holocaust Remembrance Day calls upon us all to condemn and guard against intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief. It's an opportunity to recommit ourselves to ending religious persecution, racism and discrimination in our own countries and around the world. We honour the memories of disabled people, LGBT people, the Roma and the Afro-German people, all of whom were persecuted under Nazism. We honour the survivorship of Jewish people, exemplified by the extraordinary contributions made by the Jewish diaspora across the world and here in Australia.

6:56 pm

Photo of Mike FreelanderMike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

DER () (): First of all, I congratulate the member for Macnamara for bringing this motion to the House. I thank all the other members for their very well-read and very well-understood discussion of this motion. I'm an Australian Jew of the eighth or ninth generation, but the Holocaust is very close to me and my family. Very recently, I saw the Sidney Nolan exhibition at the Sydney Jewish Museum, Shaken to His Core. I was shaken to my core when I heard about the antisemitic comments and statements that have occurred around Australia in the last 12 months.

Recently, I was contacted by a university student from the University of Adelaide commenting on antisemitic statements in the university magazine On Dit, which included phrases like 'death to Israel' and 'death to Jews', which is disgraceful. Sydney has recently been shaken by chat room messages between members of one of the most prestigious schools in Sydney, with repeated misogynistic and antisemitic messages by many of its students.

It is really important that we remember the Holocaust. In my own family, passed down from my grandfather to my father, and now to me, we have a book called the Black Book, which lists in detail the tragedy and the terrible deaths that occurred under the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945—six million Jews and millions of Roma. In fact, in my electorate of Macarthur we have some of the Roma who fled Nazi Germany to come to Australia. In the Macarthur area and down to the Illawarra, they made homes for themselves and travelled up and down the coast, having fled the Nazis. Many of their families perished in the Holocaust. As a paediatrician, I see many people with disabilities. The Nazis put them to death—people with physical and intellectual disabilities, people with mental illness, people who were homosexual or judged to be homosexual, people who were transgender, and people of different religions. I believe the Jehovah's Witnesses suffered a lot under the Nazi regime.

Like Sidney Nolan, I am shaken to my core to think that this can still happen in a society like Australia's. We must remember it. I think it was in 1961 that Sidney Nolan visited Auschwitz, and he painted, I think, over 200 works. When he saw what he had done, he wanted them locked away. He couldn't bear to see them. It changed the direction of his life, he felt. We should feel the same. What happened in the Holocaust should never happen again. We should always remember that a supposedly civilised society can vilify and attempt to destroy a minority for political reasons. It is a disgrace. Sidney Nolan remembered this, and certainly the survivors of the Holocaust remember this.

I remember my uncle, who married into my family, still carried the tattoo on his arm from, I think, Dachau. He would never remove it, because he said that it would be a reminder forever, while he was alive, to never forget what the Holocaust was. I am heartened by the response of the other members who've spoken of the previous Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, of the Gandel family and of the people who are making sure that we do not forget what happened in the Holocaust.

7:01 pm

Photo of James StevensJames Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion, and I start by thanking the member for Macnamara and the member for Wentworth, the seconder of this motion, for providing us with this platform. We should always take this opportunity to commemorate such a horror—the murderous tyranny that occurred under the Nazi regime in Europe.

I particularly pay tribute to, and thank, those members who have shared their personal stories of their connections, through their families, to the Holocaust. It is quite striking that we have members of this parliament who have members of their family who escaped the horrors of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, that is a tragic reminder of the six million people whose descendants could equally have been serving in roles like members of this parliament and making such a contribution to humanity. That, of course, never came to pass because of the murder of their ancestors in that awful period of history.

I too have been to Dachau, just outside Munich. I've also been to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, and I'm very proud that we now have a Holocaust museum in Adelaide. Like others, I pay tribute to the former member for Kooyong Josh Frydenberg, who I was able to work with to secure very important support for that institution.

I particularly acknowledge my constituent Andrew Steiner, who is a Holocaust survivor. He was born in 1933; he's about to turn 90 years of age. He, for many decades, has been utterly dedicated to educating school-aged children, in particular, about the Holocaust; about the experience that he had as a boy growing up in Hungary, fleeing Europe and coming to Australia; and about the members of his family that he lost, that were murdered. The people that he came to Australia with had similar scarring experiences. He encapsulates the essence of how vital it is that we continue to educate people, particularly our next generation, on that horrible, murderous period of our history.

It is depressing to hear stories about a lack of awareness of the Holocaust. It is disgusting to see some of the very recent examples of antisemitism and the glorification of Nazism. We had it in Adelaide a few days ago. These are vile neo-Nazi people, giving their Hitler salutes in front of the Holocaust museum. Who are these people? They are an absolute disgrace. But at least we stand up to that sort of rubbish. We will make sure that the tragic loss of life and the other horrors of the Holocaust are not forgotten to the next generation and every generation into the future. The only good that can come out of the Holocaust is that it never, ever happens again and that nothing anywhere like it ever happens again. The only way that we can ensure that is by all doing everything we possibly can to make sure that the awareness of that horrible period in our history is always present with every generation into the future. There are members of this chamber that do great work in that regard. I would like to see other states follow the lead of Victoria and New South Wales in having Holocaust awareness in the curriculum, and I don't see why that is a challenge or anything overly controversial.

I want to finish by quickly touching on a very important element of the motion that the member for Macnamara moved, which is about some people recently seeking to compare things that happened in the pandemic to the Holocaust. There's nothing more disgraceful than people that think they can reference the Holocaust and trivialise the Holocaust by saying, 'This is just like the Holocaust.' There's nothing like the Holocaust. Nothing that we have experienced could ever come close to what happened in the Holocaust. Thank God! But it is absolutely disgusting and disgraceful when people trivialise the Holocaust by referencing things that have got nowhere near the horrors of that period of time and thinking that they can reference it to make some kind of cheap political point. So I thank the member for that element of the motion and I thank all those that have contributed to the debate. I look forward to continuing to work towards ensuring we commemorate the Holocaust into the future.

Photo of Maria VamvakinouMaria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.