Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Most Australians will have the moment they first learned of the terror attack of 14 December 2025 forever etched in their memories. I was away from my children that evening, and as the news started to come through I felt an overwhelming and deep urge to pull my children close, to hold them and to hear their breath. Such acts shake all of us to our core. They make us want to connect to the things that ground us, the things that we love and the things that we fear losing the most.

Terrorism is, by design, intended to make us feel less safe and less secure, but we must not let it. We must not let these acts of evil divide us. We must not let them frighten us into a course of disunity and division which corrodes the very values of our nation that terrorists seek to disrupt and overturn through their evil acts, and we must stand firm against antisemitism in all of its forms because too many members of our Australian community have been carrying the toll of these fears and feelings each day for years. These fears are layered on top of intergenerational trauma and acts of brutal antisemitism throughout our global history that carry on in the losses and fears of generation after generation.

What happened on 14 December was an act of pure evil. It was an act of antisemitism and was an act of brutal violence and of terror. Our nation is now mourning the lives of 15 innocent people taken from us, including a child—taken while celebrating the first day of Hanukkah, a celebration of the festival of light.

Every Australian, no matter their race or religion, should be able to enjoy their life, practice their faith, celebrate with family and be free—without fear, prejudice or discrimination and certainly without violence. This was an attack on Jewish Australians, but it was also an attack on every Australian, because it was an attack on our values and our way of life. There is no place for hate, violence or terrorism here, and, as we come together here to offer our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives during this horrific attack, unity must triumph over division and light must triumph over darkness.

As we stand here today to offer our condolences for the lives lost, I want to take a moment, as my colleagues have, to name the victims that we mourn: Marika Pogany, Dan Elkayam, Alexander Kleytman, Reuven Morrison, Peter Meagher, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Tibor Weitzen, Rabbi Schlanger, Boris and Sofia Gurman, Edith Brutman, Adam Smyth, Boris Tetleroyd, Tania Tretiak and Matilda, at just 10 years of age.

South Australians grieve for the loved ones, who are carrying such an unimaginable loss, of all those lost, and we will always remember and praise their bravery and courage. Their acts of bravery in these moments of darkness are what we must remember, the courage they showed to protect their own family members and to help and provide assistance to others—showing courage through danger and showing light through darkness.

We also acknowledge all of those who sustained injuries—41 people hospitalised, including Ahmed al-Ahmed, who risked his own life to remove the gun from the gunman and endured serious injuries as a result. This was an extraordinary act, admired by all Australians and, indeed, by people across the world. We recognise those who witnessed the attack and carry deep psychological pain and trauma as a result.

And, of course, we commend the bravery of first responders. I thank, in particular, the New South Wales police officers, who acted heroically in shocking circumstances, including the two police officers who suffered gunshot wounds. I thank the paramedics too, who transported the injured in the face of danger, as well as our doctors, nurses and emergency services teams who assisted them. It takes an absolutely extraordinary person to run towards danger to help others. We thank you all, and we thank and acknowledge the courageous and compassionate bystanders who assisted others in moments of immense fear and terror.

The day 14 December will forever be etched in the memories of Australians as one of the darkest days of our history, but it must not become the day that divided our country irreparably. There is a great national effort required now to eradicate antisemitism, protect ourselves from terrorism, strengthen social cohesion and stand up against hatred. Some of that work will take place in the parliament this week, as it rightly should, and I don't intend to use this condolence motion to debate the specifics of that, but I will say that we must move fast and that this is deeply urgent work.

On behalf of South Australians, who I represent, I offer my deepest condolences to the victims, their loved ones and the entire Jewish community in Australia. We stand with you, united against hate, for light over darkness.