Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

What a horror we witnessed in Bondi on 14 December last year. What should have been a beautiful celebration of faith and joy was turned into an utter tragedy by a gutless and brutal attack on Jewish Australians who were gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. It was an attack driven by intolerance. It was an attack driven by antisemitism—sentiments that have no place in our country. The events of 14 December have shaken our country to its core, understandably so.

I want to join with many other senators who have expressed our deepest sympathies and condolences to everyone affected by this tragedy, to the people who had their lives so brutally and so swiftly snatched away, to their families and their loved ones, to the people who witnessed the horrors firsthand and to everyone who was affected from afar. To the first responders, whether in uniform or not in uniform, whether official or whether they were Australians who just happened to be passing by, or whether they were gathered there as part of the celebration of Hanukkah: thank you for your courage and thank you for your heroism. You have undoubtedly saved lives and prevented this tragedy from being even more impactful and more horrific.

Of course, we have to respond head-on to the scourge of antisemitism in Australia and ensure that people of Jewish faith can be safe not just as they celebrate their religious beliefs but as they go about their ordinary day-to-day lives in this country. But Jewish Australians won't be safe from the scourge of antisemitism until Muslim Australians are safe from the scourge of Islamophobia, and neither will be safe until all Australians are safe from racism and from religious intolerance, and until we reckon with intolerance and discrimination based on any attributes and until we reckon with the brutality and the underlying violence of the colonisation of this continent based on the lie of terra nullius. Truly, no-one is safe until we are all safe, just as no-one is free until everyone is free.

We need a reckoning in this country, a reckoning about intolerance, a reckoning about hatred and a reckoning that includes a conversation about how we are going to address hatred and intolerance and respond to the hatred and to the vilification of people based on a range of attributes—of course including race, of course including religion, but also attributes like gender, sexuality and disability. We need to build a safe, more respectful society for everyone in this country. That is the challenge, and that is the opportunity before us.