Richard Dowling (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are moments when words feel utterly inadequate. This is one of those moments. Today we come together in grief to mourn lives taken in an act of shocking violence, to honour courage in the face of terror and to stand in solidarity with a community that was deliberately targeted simply for who they are. What happened at Bondi was not only an attack on innocent people; it was an attack on families, on children, on faith and on the shared sense of safety that underpins life in this country.

This was not just senseless violence; it was a terrorist attack deliberately targeted at Australia's Jewish community as they gathered to mark the first night of Hanukkah—and we should name that honestly. Antisemitism is not an abstract idea to be debated or explained away. It is a belief that Jewish people should be feared, excluded, blamed or punished simply for being who they are—and when that belief is tolerated, it doesn't just stay as words; it becomes intimidation, violence and terror. It has no place in Australia—not now, not over.

Bondi is one of those names that carries a particular kind of Australian happiness—sun, surf, sand, families gathering, people from everywhere sharing that same stretch of coastline. It is Australia's public square that belongs to everyone, and when the first reports came through on the evening of 14 December, many Australians had the same instinct: this sort of thing doesn't happen here—not in Australia. But it did.

The first emergency calls came in at 6.47 pm. The violence itself was measured in minutes, but the harm will be measured in years: 15 innocent people murdered, 42 people taken to hospital. And beyond those numbers were the parents, the children, the friends and the witnesses who would carry the shock and the trauma long after the crime scene tape was removed. This is one of those moments people remember with unwanted clarity—where they were, what they were doing, who they called and what they feared might be true.

For me, the last time a moment landed with the same force was Port Arthur in my home state of Tasmania, when the nation collectively realised something fundamental had been shattered. Bondi now sits alongside that moment in our national memory, and it tests us in the same way—whether we respond with seriousness, resolve, action, decisiveness and unity.

Today I rise to honour those who were lost and to stand with their families and loved ones in their grief. I honour the parents, partners and children now living with an absence that cannot be filled. I honour the friends and communities whose sense of safety was violently shaken in a single night. And I acknowledge those who were injured physically and psychologically and who will carry the weight of that night long after the attention has moved on.

In the midst of horror, we also witnessed extraordinary courage. I honour the police officers, first responders, healthcare workers who ran toward danger with calm, skill and determination and whose actions saved lives. And I honour the everyday people who stepped forward to protect others, including those who were wounded and those who lost their lives doing so. Their actions remind us of something deeply Australian: even in our darkest moments people instinctively looked after one another.

We cannot undo what happened that night, but we can decide what follows. Here in this place, we must honour the victims by refusing to let hatred divide us and taking action to make never happens again. We honour them by standing clearly and unequivocally against antisemitism and by affirming the right of every Jewish Australian to live, work, worship and gather in peace and safety. This is a moment that carries responsibility not just to mourn but to act, to ensure our laws, our institutions and our national resolve protect all communities now and into the future.

But policy alone will never be enough. It is families, friends and strong communities that carry people through grief. It is solidarity across difference. It is simple human decency showing quietly, consistently—and together. We stand together in resolve, determined to confront hatred, to protect one another and to hold fast to the values that define us as Australians and define us as decent people. I honour the victims. I stand with their families in solidarity and in sorrow. I commend the motion.