Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I speak to honour the Australians who were murdered at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025. This is not a joyful return to this place. Today we gather in sorrow. We mourn lives taken with shocking cruelty, and we hold close the families and loved ones who are now living with an absence that words cannot fill. Behind every one of the 15 victims is a future that should have been but was cut short. We also acknowledge those who were injured, those who witnessed the violence and people whose lives were split in two, before and after, in a matter of moments.

This was an act of terrorism. It occurred at Chanukah by the Sea on the first night of Hanukkah, a gathering intended to celebrate faith, community and hope. It was a gathering that should have been safe, a gathering that should have ended with people returning home to their families tired, maybe even sunburnt, but full of joy and light for their community. Instead, it was shattered by violence. We condemn this atrocity and the hatred that drove it in the strongest possible terms. Acts like this are not only about the loss of life; they are intended to instil fear, to make people hesitate before gathering, before worshipping and before living openly. We must condemn that entirely. An attack on Jewish Australian is an attack on all Australians. What this attack sought to do was divide Australians from one another, to make people feel unwelcome in their own country, and this is not who we are. Australia is a nation built on the simple promise that people can live openly, gather freely and practise their faith without fear. We do not ask people to hide who they are to belong.

We are strongest when every community knows they have a secure place in our national life, and that is why we have returned to this place early. We are here to affirm the right of Jewish Australians, like all Australians, to live, work, worship and learn in peace and safety, to participate fully in public life and to gather in community without intimidation or threat. It recognises the deep contribution Jewish Australians have made to our country and the values we share. To the Jewish community, particularly those in New South Wales who have been deeply wounded by this attack, we say today: you belong here and you are part of us. We will not allow fear and violence to diminish our place in Australia that we are determined to protect.

We also acknowledge those who responded in the immediate aftermath—police officers, paramedics, emergency staff and healthcare workers who acted under extraordinary pressure. In moments like these, there is no rehearsal, no perfect information and no margin for delay. People are required to move towards danger and focus on one thing only—protecting life—and we saw that at Bondi. We saw police and paramedics place themselves in harm's way, we saw emergency departments respond at speed and we saw doctors and nurses work through the night to save strangers, neighbours and children. We also saw ordinary Australians who, without hesitation, stepped forward to help others. Some were wounded; some were killed saving others. It was instinctive, human and deeply Australian—the sense of responsibility and care for another that compels us in moments of danger to protect and shelter those around us. Their courage reflects the very best of the Australian spirit, revealed in the very worst of circumstances.

Acts of violence may wound a nation, but they do not define it. There are nights that tear at our nation's soul, and this was one of them. In moments like these, the noise falls away and what matters becomes clear. Australians look to one another not for blame or bitterness but for reassurance and dignity. We look to our institutions not for spectacle or politics but for calm, for care and for a reminder of who we are at our best. Today is not about division; it is about mourning together, standing together and recommitting ourselves to confront hatred and violence with the best of who we are. It is about choosing compassion over fear, and we must be each other's light.

May those who were murdered rest in peace, may their memory be a blessing and may this place, and the people in it, meet this moment and the responsibility that it places on all of us with compassion, unity and unwavering resolve.

Question agreed to, honourable senators joining in a moment of silence.