Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

We commence this parliamentary year not with optimism but with melancholy. We dedicate our time today not to routine business but to solemn remembrance. In mourning the victims of the worst terrorist attack on our soil in our history, we are reminded that something is rotten in the state of Australia. The Bondi Beach massacre was also the second deadliest antisemitic attack outside Israel in the post-Holocaust era. We must be under no misapprehension as to the magnitude of what's happened in a national and international context. More than a month has passed since that day of depravity, yet time has not dulled the feelings that gripped us in the wake of that monstrous act. There's still heart-wrenching grief for the 15 innocent and wonderful people who were murdered. There's still immeasurable gratitude for the police officers, paramedics, lifeguards and innocent bystanders whose courage shone amidst cruelty's darkness. There's still deep concern for the survivors, for those who continue to be treated by our marvellous doctors and nurses, and for those who are living with the trauma of terrorism. There's still profound empathy for all Australians of Jewish faith, a cherished community that continues to live in fear.

There's another emotion that has not diminished either: anger—an anger that's both palpable and warranted. The barbaric bloodbath on Bondi Beach was a threefold tragedy: a tragedy that occurred, a tragedy that was foreseeable and a tragedy that was possibly preventable. There's a long thread connecting the Bondi Beach terrorist attack and every antisemitic incident on our soil back to the weak and supine political response to the hate filled mob that gathered on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. Consider what we've been since 9 October 2023: the Caulfield riots; the storming of the Crowne Plaza, Melbourne; the doxxing of Jewish creatives, encampments on university campuses right across our country; Islamist hate preachers spreading evil; an academic indoctrinating preschool children; activists unfurling banners on the roof of this very parliament; the offices of parliamentarians vandalised; homes, cars and memorials graffitied; Jewish Australians accosted on public transport; the Addas Israel Synagogue firebombed; two nurses calling for the murder of Israelis; protesters worshipping terrorists, death cults and Iran's dictator with impunity; almost weekly antisemitic marches with mobs chanting genocidal slogans; and so much more. Intolerable antisemitic incidents were tolerated, and that led to more intolerable antisemitic incidents. Perpetrators weren't held accountable, and that meant would-be perpetrators weren't deterred.

Why has the disease of antisemitism spread through our nation? Because of weakness, inaction and a lack of moral clarity at the highest political levels. It is a shame that even today there still appears to be a lack of moral clarity. Today isn't about Indigenous hatred and intolerance. Today isn't about trans hatred and intolerance. Today is about Jewish hatred and intolerance. Today, of all days, is about confronting antisemitism, and shame on those who trivialise antisemitism through their false equivalence. Today I will do what those in power have failed to do: I'll speak honestly about the sources of antisemitism. That's what the Bondi victims, their families and Australians of Jewish faith deserve. Yes, the antisemitism we face has a neo-Nazi component, a component that's widely acknowledged. But there are other components which the Prime Minister in particular must confront and be upfront about. There's a youth component of young and impressionable Australians who have imbibed lies and propaganda about Israel and become antisemitic as a consequence. There's a revolutionary left component too of activists and professional protesters whose antisemitism goes hand in hand with other crusades—for example, spreading climate catastrophism, promoting radical trans activism and campaigning against capitalism. This revolutionary movement seeks to attack our institutions, sow division and ingrain national self-loathing as part of their war on the West.

And there is an Islamist component. I don't mean the majority of Australians of Muslim faith who, like their fellow countrymen, work hard, embrace our values and are loyal and cherished citizens. Rather, I mean an increasing number of people on our shores who subscribe to radical Islamism. Radical Islamism hasn't come out of thin air. It comes out from Islam, and we need to be candid about aspects of Islamic culture. In Australia, there are some Muslims that don't believe in equality of the sexes, some Muslims who want to establish parallel legal systems and some Muslims who reject freedom of speech and freedom of belief. Such views are incompatible with our liberal democracy and values.

It's time to speak frankly about this clash of views, undeterred by those who seek to ring-fence Islam from reasonable scrutiny by invoking Islamophobia. It's time to acknowledge that there are people on our soil who don't want to change for Australia but who want Australia to change for them. It's time to be upfront about the failures of our immigration system. We owe these conversations to those Muslims who have embraced our way of life, who discard those elements of Islam that are incompatible with our liberal democracy and who repudiate the extremists in their own faith. We owe these conversations to Australians of Jewish faith who are living in fear. We owe these conversations to all Australians because our country must never experience the social fragmentation that now afflicts part of the UK and Europe. Most of all, we owe these conversations to the victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack who were murdered by extreme Islamists. From tragedy must come truth. From truth must come courage. Never again is now.