Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to express my deepest condolences to the innocent victims of the Bondi shooting and their families, especially those that lost their lives during this horrendous violent attack. All Australians grieve with the families of those that have lost their loved ones, because nobody in this country should wake up thinking that today they might lose someone to targeted, hateful terrorism. Bondi Beach, a shining icon of Australian life, has been forever dulled. The only light there now is the memory of those who lost their lives on 14 December. I will never forget visiting the site in the aftermath of the attack. Words cannot describe the sorrow and the grief that hung in the air. It is a stark and brutal reminder of just how fragile our peaceful way of life is in Australia.

Our beautiful country was built on the idea that all life is sacred. It is an ideal that Australian people hold dear. Many brave young men and women have gone to war and made the ultimate sacrifice for these ideals, for our freedom, but we have neglected our duty to keep the people of Australia safe from those who hold ideologies that would see the taking of another life as righteous. Those that hold these views have no place in our society yet they have been allowed in.

Radical Islam has been tolerated for too long in this country and it is an affront to the victims of this attack but it is not mentioned once in the bills that were proposed to be introduced in response to this tragedy. It was not gun control that caused this, not a lack of hate speech laws that caused this; it was radical Islamists, people who had their heart set on the elimination of Jewish Australians, peaceful Australians. But they not come to the point of bloodshed of their own accord. This ideology is taught by the extreme sects of Islam all over the world and, sadly, now here in Australia. We've seen them chanting in the streets, in front of the Opera House, on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, threatening to kill Jews, to destroy the West. Our suicidal empathy has blinded our leaders to the dangers that were hiding in plain sight, who, instead of putting their finger on the problem, have used this crisis to try and limit freedom of speech.

The cure to bad speech is more and better speech. Australians have had enough of giving up their rights. They want action, not more laws. Now, we get called racist, right-wing extremists and divisive, not because we are any of these things but because we have the courage to say what so many Australians are thinking, to stand up against evil. We will not apologise for fighting for Australians, no matter where you are from and no matter the colour of your skin. The only condition to being Australian is loving this country and its people above all else. That is it. If you can't do that, you are the problem. You are the division. You are one not honouring the people who lost lives at Bondi or the brave men and women who serve and give their lives and whose shoulders we stand on today, who gave us this beautiful country and magical way of life.

There are too many people in this place who are more interested in what is happening in another country than in their own. To the victims of this atrocity, the dead and the scarred, I am so sorry. More should have been done before it ever got to this point. The tacit endorsement of these extremist ideologies can only lead to what we've seen unfold.

To the families left behind, your lives have been touched by true malice, and I'm certain you will be changed forever. I pray your faith will carry you through. While nothing that anyone in here can say will bring back those that you love, please know that I am truly sorry for your loss and that I will fight to ensure that those who seek to hurt good Australians are exposed before it is too late.

This country will not waver. We will not be cowed by terrorism. This is a country that will fight to defend its people against those that wish to harm us. We have the tools at hand; we have only to find the will to act.

The victims of Bondi will never be forgotten, nor will this stain on the Australia that we hold dear. For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, let us never forget the lessons learned. Let us never forget those Australians.