Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Sheina Gutnick, whose father was tragically killed during Australia's deadliest-ever terror attack, in Bondi, publicly wrote:

Australia did not fail quietly.

It failed loudly, repeatedly, and with full knowledge.

Its government watched hatred grow and chose to do nothing.

They minimised it. They excused it. They dismissed Jewish warnings as noise.

Prime Minister, these are not my words. These are the words of the victims' families. Can the Prime Minister finally humble himself and just say sorry?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to 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.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance: my question was very pointed. Can the Prime Minister finally humble himself and just say sorry for failing to act?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister spoke directly about the person that you asked him about. He couldn't have been more directly relevant when he described what had happened. I can't make him do what you want in the answer, but I can ensure that he is being directly relevant. He has been completely directly relevant to the question he was asked.

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

You don't have to bang lecterns to show you're concerned. What you have to do is to show respect and engage in an orderly, respectful way. We have responded in that way in the meetings with the Jewish community. We didn't wait. We have appointed the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism. Within days, we began the legislation. Of course, we'd already appointed the National Student Ombudsman. We have appointed David Gonski to look through the education schemes. We've gone through. Professor Craven has been appointed to do the report card as well. We have been going through the envoy's report, one by one. A key element of it was vilification, and they opposed it. They wouldn't support it, and that's why they, together with the Greens, were there.

At the same time, those opposite—the gap between what they've called for and what has occurred is remarkable. They said they had a package of legislation on 5 January. Where is it? No-one has seen it. (Time expired)