Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this condolence motion. In doing so, I rise to tender my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the 15 innocent people murdered on Bondi Beach, to acknowledge the trauma of all of those impacted, to honour the bravery and courage of the police officers, the first responders and the everyday Australians who ran towards danger to help their fellow Australians, and to stand in solidarity with our Jewish Australian community who have given so much to our beautiful country.

Since the events of 7 October 2023, I have spoken in this place about the explosion of antisemitism, including in my home state of Queensland. I've sought to put on the record of this Australian parliament the fears and concerns of the Jewish community in Queensland. I've sought to express those fears and concerns in their own words and place those words on the record of this Australian Senate. So, in this contribution on this condolence motion, I seek also to quote the words of our Jewish community. I'll quote the words of a Jewish community leader, the words of one of the innocent victims and the words of his daughter. Following the Bondi atrocity, it is important to make sure that those words are placed on the record.

One week after the attack, there was a Queensland solidarity event convened by the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies. I want to place on the record the words of Mr Jason Steinberg, President of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies. Again, these are his words, the words of the Jewish community:

Before I share my reflections, I want to let you know how difficult it is to stand here. I feel a profound responsibility to find the right words, even when my heart is broken and feels empty and my eyes are full of tears.

The 14th of December, the first night of Chanukah, changed the lives of Australian Jews forever. The loss of 15 innocent, incredible people is a wound so deep that we wonder if we will ever truly recover. And, to be honest we are holding our breath to see what happens next.

The event has also changed Australians forever.

To our non-Jewish friends: every flower, every text, every hug and shared tear has meant so much to us—thank you.

Antisemitism is a social virus that has attacked civilisations for more than 3,000 years. We know its worst expression was the Holocaust. But we must remember: the Holocaust did not start with the Final Solution in 1941. It started with words, slogans, and street marches in the early 1930s.

History is our best teacher. Since the horrific Hamas attacks of October 7 2023 killing innocent Jews, Australian Jews—thousands of kilometers from a conflict in the Middle East—have felt a tsunami of dehumanisation.

Antisemitism mutates. In Germany we were sub-human. Today in Australia we are evil Zionists.

We have seen synagogues burned, businesses boycotted, students targeted and been made to feel like 'the other'.

And, one week ago today, we saw the ultimate harm that we've been warning about: Jews at a peaceful, public and open celebration, gunned down on the iconic Bondi Beach—15 dead and many still in hospital.

Jews have seen hatred before. We know what it looks like and across generations we've been here before.

We are gathered today in solidarity.

In this beautiful auditorium in the heart of our State's capital.

But I want to share a historical artefact that highlights why now—more than ever—right here, we need your commitment for action.

When I say we have been here before, I mean it—literally.

In our incredible Holocaust Museum, we have this original pamphlet from an event held right here, in this very room, on August 12, 1933.

At that point, Jason Steinberg, in his speech, refers to the fact that on 12 August 1933 there was a gathering in Brisbane, including the Premier, the leader of the opposition, the right honourable the lord mayor and the lady mayoress. They gathered in Brisbane City Hall on 12 August 1933 for a gala charity concert in aid of the German Jewish relief fund—in the year that Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, in the year the Reichstag was burnt down, in the year that all civil and political rights were suspended in Germany. They burnt the books and were soon to burn the people.

Jason Steinberg continues:

… today, the evil has changed. We are no longer looking across the ocean for a crisis to help Jews escape—the hate, coupled with ambivalence, is in Queensland schools, universities, workplaces, and on our streets.

So, I ask you: where do we go from here?

Eighty years ago after the Holocaust, the world united to say: Never Again. Today, we must ensure we are never here again—in this auditorium or any other to talk about the plight of the Jews because what starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.

In the memory of those who perished in the Bondi attack, I pray, I hope, and I implore you: no matter your station or your role, which neighborhood you live in, your family or your friends, use whatever strength you have to make sure that "Never Again" is not just a platitude.

Let us all work together to make "Never Again" Queensland and Australia's reality.

Those are the words of Jason Steinberg—who is the President of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies—given in a speech on 21 December 2025. I do want to sincerely thank Mr Steinberg and his committee for all the hard work they've been doing over the last few years in a very difficult situation.

I next want to quote from one of the innocent victims. When I saw the footage of the attack, and the photographs, I saw images of a man who was facing the terrorists with unbelievable courage. I subsequently found out that man was Mr Reuven Morrison, one of the innocent victims of the Bondi attack. Just 12 months before, on the very same day, 14 December—one year before the Bondi massacre—after the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue, he'd been quoted in an article, and I want to quote from it:

Reuven Morrison, 61, migrated to Australia from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s as a teenager and now lives in Bondi, in Sydney's east.

He knows what it is like to be persecuted.

These are his words, one year before the attack where he lost his life:

"Walking around the streets in the USSR we always looked back, we were aware of our environment, and we expected the unexpected." Mr Morrison said.

He said Jewish people who emigrated from the USSR, especially the older generation, had lived through intimidation coming from both the Soviet establishment and the general population.

"It is nothing new to us."

But he said the community was shocked that was also now happening in Australia.

"We came here with the view that Australia is the safest country in the world and the Jews would not be faced with such anti-Semitism in the future, where we can bring up our kids in a safe environment."

Mr Morrison said it was hard for some of the younger generation.

"There is a feeling of being scared, when people are taking their kids to kindergarten and school, they do not know what kind of events can take place. It is unpredictable.

"They have not experienced this before."

However, Mr Morrison said so many in the community had been very supportive.

"They understand the beginning of anti-Semitic feelings in any shape or form should not be acceptable because it really is a fertile ground to grow something else."

We saw that 'something else' 12 months to the day that Mr Reuven Morrison was quoted in that ABC article. Twelve months to the day he lost his life.

I now want to quote an article from 7 January 2026 by Sheina Gutnick, daughter of Mr Reuven Morrison. She writes:

A little over three weeks ago, my father, Reuven Morrison, was murdered in cold blood for being a Jew.

My father was celebrating Hanukkah with his Chabad community on Bondi Beach, an event he'd been to every year since 1996. Every year, this Hanukkah event took place on one of the most famous beaches in the world. Holding a Jewish event at a place that every Australian knows meant something to him, to all of us.

That night, Bondi Beach was turned into the scene of a massacre. Blood stained the ground where just moments before people were standing, celebrating the Jewish people's triumph over oppression. Prams were scattered across the grass. White sheets covered the bodies.

Along with 14 others, my father was gunned down. He faced the terrorists and bought others time to get away. He took over 10 bullets while shielding others. He saved the lives of innocent people.

I'm quoting here from the daughter of Mr Reuven Morrison. She writes:

In the last few weeks, time has stopped making sense. The days blur into one other and the world without my father feels wrong. Our grief is all-encompassing, an ache so strong it is hard to breathe. I feel as though I have been thrown into an alternate reality. In his final moments, my father was exactly who he had always been. When the shooting began, he did not freeze; he did not run. He stood his ground, throwing bricks at the terrorists, furious that they would dare attack Jews celebrating Hanukkah on his favorite beach. He protected his community until the very end.

The words of the daughter of Mr Reuven Morrison, who showed such unbelievable courage on 14 December last year.

When I read the story of Mr Reuven Morrison, I thought back to the Jewish Warsaw uprising. In the summer of 1942, the Nazis had deported 265,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp. In April 1943, they came for the remaining Jews. Those Jews fought back. They fought back against overwhelming odds. They fought back knowing that they would lose, but they still fought back and displayed such unparalleled courage and defiance in the face of evil. When I learnt about what Mr Reuven Morrison had done at Bondi on 14 December, I thought of the courage and the defiance of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto uprising—courage and defiance in the face of evil.

This condolence motion contains a vow. It isn't just a condolence; it contains a vow—a pledge, a promise, a covenant. It unequivocally condemns the evil of antisemitism and vows new action to eradicate it. From my perspective, we will only be successful in meeting our vow as an Australian Senate when we pass this resolution—when Jewish children can go to school without walking past security guards with machine guns; when Jewish children at school do fire drills, not lockdown drills, in response to future terrorist attacks; when Jewish students can go to campus without being harassed, threatened and abused; when Jewish members of the creative arts are respected and welcomed in our arts festivals, not excluded and doxed; and when the Jewish community can live in safety, without fear, and hold their community events in public places like they have every right to. Perhaps more than anything, we will only be successful when members of the Jewish community aren't talking about leaving this country because they do not feel safe.

Reflect on this. Between 1933, when Hitler was elected and took over Germany, and 1939, there were 8,200 Jewish refugees who found safety in Australia. After World War II, between 1945 and 1960, there were 25,000 displaced Jews who found safety in Australia in the aftermath of the war. Now, when I attended Bondi Beach on Tuesday after the terrorist attack, after the massacre, I spoke to members of the community who were telling me about leaving Australia. That is the situation we now find ourselves in. So this is not just a condolence motion; it contains a vow—a vow to eradicate antisemitism. We will only discharge our vow, we will only meet our commitment, we will only meet our promise, we will only carry our obligations with respect to that covenant, when all Jewish people can live in this country safely, without fear, and in harmony with their fellow Australians.