Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Edith Brutman, Dan Elkayam, Boris Gurman, Sofia Gurman, Alex Kleytman, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Peter Meagher, Reuven Morrison, Marika Pogany, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Adam Smyth, Boris Tetleroyd, Tania Tretiak, Tibor Weitzen, 10-year-old Matilda—15 lives lost, 15 families shattered, 15 empty places at tables that will never feel whole again. Behind each of these names is a life taken, a family shattered and a community wounded. Their loved ones will carry this loss forever, and a nation carries a responsibility with them. We mourn them today and we owe them more than words. We owe them answers, the lessons we must learn and the resolve to protect Australians from this evil ever happening again.

In speaking on this condolence motion on behalf of the coalition for the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack, I begin where all Australians begin: with grief. On Sunday 14 December 2025, families gathered at Bondi to mark Hanukkah, the festival of light. It should've been a day of candlelight and song, and a day of prayer, of togetherness, of children laughing and of families holding one another close. Instead, in a place that represents everything Australians love about this country—community, openness, family and freedom—violence came without warning. The unthinkable happened in broad daylight among ordinary people who were doing what Australians have always done: gathering peacefully, looking after one another, celebrating faith and family and sharing a public place with trust.

Children were there, parents were there, and grandparents were there. Holocaust survivors were there. As someone who lived in Israel on a kibbutz with Holocaust survivors, to listen to the horrors that they went through back then and to then think that on Bondi Beach in Australia they were met with pure evil—I can't even begin to understand what that meant for them or their families. People came to pray, to sing and to stand together as Australians, and they were met with pure evil. What followed was chaos and terror: people running; people hiding; people trying to shield strangers with their own bodies; parents searching desperately for their children; and loved ones calling again and again, praying for an answer. But a day that began with light ended in darkness. Fifteen innocent lives were taken and many more were injured, and countless Australians—especially within the Jewish community but far beyond it—have been traumatised by what they saw and what they know. For so many, that day has divided life into 'before' and 'after'.

To the families who've lost loved ones: there is nothing this parliament can say that will undo what has been done to you. Nothing can fill the silence in a home that was once filled with their voice. The grief you carry will not be confined to funerals or anniversaries. It will be there in the ordinary moments: the empty chair, the message you still expect to receive and the habit of reaching for a phone to call someone who's no longer there. We cannot carry that grief for you, but we can say this and we can mean it: Australia mourns with you, Australia stands with you, and Australia will remember your loved ones always. And, if we're to honour them properly, we have to do more than mourn. We have to make sure the country learns, acts and protects.

To those who were injured, those who witnessed this horror and those who will carry its scars for the rest of their lives: we acknowledge the trauma you have suffered and continue to suffer. Trauma does not end when the headlines fade, nor can our responsibility to those who have suffered.

To the first responders—the New South Wales police and the paramedics—the doctors, the nurses, the lifesavers, the emergency services, the council workers and the members of the public who ran towards danger: thank you. In the worst moment, you showed the best of Australia. You saved lives; you comforted strangers; you held people, as the unthinkable unfolded.

We must be honest about what this was. This was not simply a tragedy. It was an act of terror. It was an antisemitic attack. It was an attack on Australia—on the promise that in this country you can worship openly, gather peacefully, and raise your children without fear and live your life without intimidation. Australia will never be the same after Bondi. We must also be honest about what makes this even more devastating. Jewish Australians have felt the pressure rising for too long. They have spoken about fear, about intimidation and about being targeted in their own country, and, too often, they have felt alone.

Let me speak directly to Jewish Australians. You should not have to live life with a permanent calculation of risk. You should not have to wonder whether it is safe to gather, safe to celebrate, safe to send your children to school, safe to wear your faith openly. Your safety is not negotiable. Your children's safety is not negotiable. Your place in Australia is not conditional. You should be able to light candles without fear at home, in public and in your community without wondering who's watching and who's waiting to intimidate you. You should be able to send your kids to school without a knot in your stomach, without worrying about threats, harassment or whether today will be the day something happens. You should be able to wear your faith openly, proudly and peacefully without looking over your shoulder, without hiding symbols of who you are and without being made to feel like you must make yourself smaller to stay safe.

To those who would target Jewish Australians, who would intimidate them, threaten them or try to push them out of public life, hear this: you will not succeed, you will not break this wonderful community and you will not break this country. This parliament has a responsibility to ensure Jewish Australians can live freely and securely in the weeks, months and years ahead, to ensure community institutions are protected, to ensure threats are taken seriously, to ensure the law is enforced and to ensure that those who incite hatred and glorify violence are met with consequences.

We must also be unsparing about the ideology that drives terrorism and fuels antisemitism. One of the drivers of the threat we face is violent Islamist extremism, an ideology that preaches intolerance, separation, supremacy and, in its most dangerous form, violence. I say this without hesitation: the fundamental Islamist ideology that incites hatred and glorifies terror has no place in Australia—none. It must be confronted and rooted out with the full force of the law. Australians deserve some basic truths stated clearly. Incitement is not protest. Glorifying terrorism is not free speech. Importing overseas conflict onto Australian streets through intimidation, threats and violence is an assault on Australian values and Australian law.

Following Bondi, Australians want to know what happened—what was known, what was done, what must change. Families deserve answers and communities deserve reassurance grounded in appropriate action. A Commonwealth royal commission has now been called. This is an important step. But it must be thorough, properly resourced and worthy of the families' trust. It must not be an exercise in closure. It must be an exercise in truth, however difficult that may be and wherever it leads, because the families deserve honesty and the country deserves protection.

We also can't be naive about what it takes to defend a free society. Decency is who we are, but decency must be matched with strength. A country that cannot protect its citizens is not a strong country, and a parliament that cannot name the threat confronted and defeated will leave Australians exposed.

Australians will never be the same after Bondi, but Australia can still decide what happens next. We can choose unity over division, we can choose courage over cowardice and we can choose action over excuses, and every Australian should demand nothing less.

I again offer my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those murdered at Bondi. Your loss is not a headline; it is a lifetime, and the whole nation grieves with you. May the memory of those lost at Bondi be a turning point for our country not just in how we speak about antisemitism but in how we stop it—when this country stops managing antisemitism and starts defeating it, when we stop excusing intimidation and start enforcing consequences, and when we make it unmistakably clear that those who threaten Jewish Australians threaten Australia itself.

To the families, we will never forget the lives you loved but sadly lost: Edith Brutman; Dan Elkayam; Boris Gurman; Sofia Gurman; Alex Kleytman; Rabbi Yaakov Levitan; Peter Meagher; Reuven Morrison; Marika Pogany; Rabbi Eli Schlanger; Adam Smyth; Boris Tetleroyd; Tania Tretiak; Tibor Weitzen; and 10-year-old Matilda.