Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

Now, 14 December is going to be one of the dates that the nation will never forget. We come together as leaders in our country to offer our condolences. I happened to be on that beach at the beginning of that day. I collected some shells, walked along the beach and hours later, of course, could hear the sirens wailing and our sense of our country's safety completely evaporating. I think it is just so shocking to hear that so many Jewish Australians now would say that they feel safer in a war torn country than they do in our country. The fact that we have failed these people is very hard to take. I would say that there are few other communities that have given more than they have received from Australia.

The thing about the eastern suburbs of Sydney is that it is a very open and very strong community. It is very accepting and it is also a very diverse community. It has had Jewish Australians at the centre of it for 200 years or more. So the attack on Jewish community has been felt greatly across the eastern suburbs—every community group, every school, everyone. Of course, it transcends the eastern suburbs, but that is the epicentre. I feel so sorry that we have let a community down that has done so much for our country. That's why it is so regrettable that, I believe, it was avoidable.

In terms of the 15 people that we lost—I do want to mention a few of them today. Many have mentioned already Alexander Kleytman, who was a Holocaust survivor. He, of course, survived the Holocaust but was murdered in Australia. Reuven Morrison threw a brick at the terrorist. He said, a year ago:

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

That's what he said. And then there is Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was a servant of the community, much like the rabbis that are well known to me—Slovan, Wolff and Kastel. And then there is Matilda. Her parents described her as a softie who loved animals, practised judo and rarely wanted to be away from her sister. As it was widely reported, she was called Matilda because she was the first Australian in the family. Of course, her parents, who had fled Ukraine, wanted to raise their child in a safe country—the same country that Mr Morrison had described he believed he was immigrating to many decades ago. But the truth is that we ruined their lives. We destroyed their freedom and their happiness. At the Bondi vigil, which was conducted about a week after the attack, David Campbell led a rendition of 'Waltzing Matilda', which was very moving, as was their rendition of the famous Seekers song. I have to say, I said to myself, 'How terrible it is that these people who love our country so much have been so hurt.'

And then there were the heroes: Sofia and Boris Gurman, driving past and trying to relieve a terrorist of a gun; Ahmed al-Ahmed, well documented today—incredible. Then there was Tash Willemsen, who was working at the petting zoo, and she shielded Matilda's sister, Summer. The community stepped up—the surf clubs, Bondi and North Bondi, members and lifesavers, just as they did during the bushfires, when the Bondi surf club became a hub for transmitting goods down to southern New South Wales, where there were significant fires.

I want to make special mention of Josh Farquhar, who is the president of the North Bondi RSL, and they did an incredible job. They set up the community hub, where you had Lifeline, St John Ambulance, Red Cross and chaplains meeting on a daily basis. Some of the members of the RSL, in particular Max Streeter, Henry Jamieson, Kia Mehr and Oliver Carleton, actually ran into danger and supported some of the victims on the day. There was first aid administered to gunshot victims. As the largest RSL in New South Wales, with many recently active servicepeople, they were well positioned to support in that incredibly stressful environment. The club remained a hub over those weeks, and I want to acknowledge Mr Farquhar's incredible leadership.

Rabbi Yossi Friedman for 30 days in a row conducted memorial services where he read all the names. Rabbi Friedman conducted 118 memorial services where he read the names. Unlike me, I don't think he cried once. He must have a much stronger constitution. Anyone who was able to be present at Bondi after those attacks would have seen the rabbi's presentation, and that gave the community something to coalesce around. I think he showed incredible poise and dignity, and he showed leadership. He provided people with an outlet when they needed something, and I want to acknowledge the rabbi's service.

Police, emergency service workers, the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies and David Ossip, CEO Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry—I am loath to mention politicians in a condolence motion, but I do want to mention Will Nemesh, who is the mayor of Waverley. Cr Nemesh said in the immediate aftermath:

This is part of our history now, and I think what we do next is extremely important. For our community, 'never again' can't just be words, it needs to be action.

In my mind there were effectively three things that happened here. We have extreme views where people had become adherents of a mutation of a religion, where they became desperate to kill Jews, a father and son who were inspired by Islamic State, and if they hadn't been able to get guns they would've got bombs. The fact that they were radicalised here in Australia as Australians—a migrant, naturalised man and an Australian-born man—means they are our citizens. It happened on our watch, and now this is our problem to fix.

The failure to rein in antisemitism over these last few years—the community knew that they were sitting ducks. We would try and get information, we'd try and get briefings and we'd try and warn that there was no equivalence here. The frustration I have is that every time we talked about antisemitism, someone else would say Islamophobia or someone else would say there's some other group in great danger. The truth is that the only people who live in cages in this country are Jews. Australian Jews live in cages. That is the truth. Unfortunately the moral fog here has, sadly, created an Australia now that is one of the most antisemitic countries on earth. It is commonplace now to hear in the Jewish community that they feel safer in Israel than they do in Australia. This is our great shame. The false equivalence between the actions of Israel and Australian Jews is a disgrace. There was a cartoon in the papers last week. It's a disgrace. Imagine if you said, 'I'm going to blame Australian Muslims for the views of the government of Pakistan.' You'd be run out of the country. We've got to get serious about this. We have become one of the most antisemitic nations on earth. It's happened somehow, and we've got to address that.

The third piece is, of course, the failure of law enforcement and the failure of intelligence. In our Westminster system of government, the elected officials have to take responsibility, but I do think that, in this case, the people who are leading the agencies need to consider their positions. We have had a religious massacre in this country. We've never had one before. I'm so over hearing people talk about Port Arthur and other things. There is no equivalence. This was an attack. This was not some random killing; they were killed because they were Jews. That's why they were killed.

Those are the three things: an extreme mutation of Islam, a failure to provide leadership on antisemitism and the issue of a massive failure of intelligence and law enforcement. Of course, the inquiry should look at these failures. Of course, it should. We look forward to seeing exactly what it comes back with. But we've also got to look at other economic sanctions that we can apply, frankly, against our own citizens. If we can't deport people, then we need to look at how we could turn off the financial taps. It's very important.

I would just say that you can have as many laws as you want on the books here in Canberra, but no-one gives a rats if they're not enforced. In New South Wales, we have a law that says that it is illegal to incite violence against people based on their racial heritage. That law has been on the books for years. Sure, it was tweaked a bit last year, but that's a law on the books. The answer here isn't necessarily having more and more laws. The answer is being honest about the problem and getting better at law enforcement. Law enforcement is porous in this country and not just relation to this issue. It is, unfortunately, a problem that we all have.

I regret very much that, in a condolence motion, these matters have to be canvassed, but I think we owe it to the victims of this attack to be honest and frank and to try and work together to find solutions to this problem that, as Australians, we all have now because there is no equivalence between antisemitism and other issues right now in Australia. These are the only people that are living like this. All forms of discrimination are abhorrent, but right now this is the priority. The risk is that we will lose these people. They have the right of return. We could lose some of the best Australians that we've had in the past 250 years if we fail to take this seriously.

I want to, again, say that I can't believe this happened in our country. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to all the families, and I want to work with everyone here to make sure that it never happens again. This is not Australia if we fail to protect minorities. We've always done a good job of protecting minority interests. That is going to be the mark of a good society and our country's safety and prosperity in the future.