Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to pay my respects and remember those whose lives were mercilessly taken on 14 December and those who were injured by the antisemitic attack that terrorised the Jewish community in Bondi Beach. Today we again bear our heartfelt condolences to the 15 people whose lives were taken and the families, friends and loved ones, whose sorrow is unfathomable and immeasurable. This act was not only heinous; the place that it was perpetrated at also matters. Sydneysiders know that Bondi Beach is an iconic location, recognisable across the world, which meant that this terror and violence too reverberated around the world. After my family migrated to Sydney 34 years ago, Bondi Beach was a must-do once a week. Sitting on the sand, looking out on the Pacific Ocean, while hearing the waves break on the rocks was a new pleasure for Lahoris from a river city. It will never be the same again. Some wounds will always be felt.

Worlds have felt and continue to feel totally inadequate. The grief of the community is immense. The grief of the nation is immense. The shock is profound. The brokenness of the world seems overwhelming, but we stand alongside our Jewish brothers and sisters, who are reeling in the wake of this senseless violence. We mourn with them and we grieve with them.

The day following the attack, I went to Bondi Beach with my colleagues to pay my condolences and my respects. It was deeply important for me to pay tribute and to pay my respects to the victims of this violence and especially to my husband's colleague who was brutally murdered on that day. What happened on that day was an appalling and unforgivable act of terrorism and antisemitic violence. As a Muslim woman, my faith teaches me that silence is not an option in the face of suffering. It calls on me to feel the pain of others and to respond with compassion, care and love. It reminds me that nothing is more important than our shared humanity. This humanity was shown by our frontline services and ordinary people on the scene who ran towards danger to save, to help and to support those in need and try and stop the terrorists. Without any hesitation, they put their lives on the line trying to protect others. They must be commended as heroes for their courage and humanity. I do hope that it is this spirit of solidarity and of service that we will long remember and aspire to as a society.

This attack is, for our society, our Christchurch movement. Just like our neighbours in Aotearoa New Zealand, where 51 Muslims were murdered by an Australian white supremacist in mosques as they prayed, we have now seen hate up close. How we respond, how we honour the dead and how we make sure that this never happens again to any community is a heavy responsibility for this parliament and one we feel deeply—because, even in moments of deep grief, there are voices that seek to divide us, to politicise loss, to police grief and to sow further hatred. We must reject that path. We must refuse to allow tragedy to be weaponised and turned against one another.

Many of my Jewish friends and comrades who have been shocked and devastated by the Bondi antisemitic terror attack have also expressed to me their distraught and their anger at the politicisation of these horrors and at their grief being exploited by powerful forces to achieve narrow political ends. This should not be the way. The legacy of this appalling violence at Bondi cannot be the undermining of basic civil and political rights or laws that can be used to weaponised racism and hate against everyday Australians who follow their conscience and speak out against injustice and genocide.

Our safety, our dignity and our humanity are bound together. We are not safe until everyone is safe. We are not free until everyone is free. Hate directed at one community threatens all of us. In Christchurch, the world saw leadership that met horror and trauma with compassion and met violence with unity. That is the path we must choose here as well. That is the path needed to make sure that something like this can never happen again.

My deepest and heartfelt sympathies and prayers are for the families, friends and loved ones of those whose lives were taken and those who continue to deal with the wounds, seen and unseen, of 14 December.