David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to condemn the utterly odorous statements made last week by Mr Julian Burnside where he compared the treatment of Palestinians to the German treatment of the Jews during the Second World War. This vile attempt to equate the people of Israel with modern history's most disgusting acts is atrocious and shows that voters made the right decision to reject him at the 2019 election. This is not the first time that the former Greens' candidate has made vile comments equating people to Nazis. Indeed, in 2018 he shared doctored images of Minister Dutton superimposed with a Nazi officer's uniform. It seems as though, even after the backlash of that incident, he has not learned his lesson or sought to educate himself on the matter.

I suggest that Mr Burnside stops using the Holocaust whenever he has criticism of Israel or their policies, especially as, by his own admission, he is yet to even visit Israel and experience, look at and learn about the situation on the ground. His lack of understanding of this issue is clear. It's unfathomable that he would still make these comments before educating himself.

I was last in Israel in December 2019. I learnt so much from my time on the ground there. What you learn from being there goes to explain a lot of what happens on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. I suggest Mr Burnside follow suit and visit the region, meet the people and educate himself to see why such comments leave such a vile taste in one's mouth. These comments not only destroy the promise he made previously to Holocaust survivors after his previous disgraceful tweets but also unnecessarily open old wounds that many people suffer from and throw dirt in their face.

This type of rhetoric and language is utterly disgraceful and serves only one purpose—promoting anti-Semitic hatred, which we are working very hard to stamp out. If we are to remember the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust so that they never happen again and properly pay our respect to all those who suffered at the hands of the Nazi party, we as a nation must be very clear that this behaviour is unacceptable and that we will not stand by and let this sickening behaviour go unchecked. If we do so, we run the risk of seeing history repeat itself. To hear these words from a man who came close to standing in parliament last year with the Greens is unconscionable. Such rhetoric only poisons the public debate. The Greens should immediately take steps to remove him from the party.

When Mr Burnside met with Holocaust survivor Moshe Fiszman a couple of years ago he said that he would never make comments like this again, yet just last month he did so once more. I want to make my position known to this chamber and the people of Australia: anti-Semitism has no place in Australia, and I'll do everything in my power to ensure it is stamped out. As I have said many times in this chamber, Australia has no place for racism, and anti-Semitism is just another form of racism.

My concern is that the misuse of such events to portray one's own misguided views bites at the foundations of democracy and liberty of a country we all call home. Mr Burnside's contempt for decency clearly shows that he should hand back his AO and that he does not deserve his QC title.