Australia has witnessed one of the darkest days in our nation’s history. This horrific terror attack on the Jewish community will be seared into the conscience of our country for generations. My heart breaks for the victims, their families and loved ones, and for Jewish Australians who are once again left grieving, traumatised and afraid.
I want to acknowledge the extraordinary bravery of our first responders and the everyday Australians who ran towards danger to save lives. Their courage embodies what it means to be an Australian.
But alongside grief, there is anger. Deep anger felt by the Jewish community and by Australians who have watched antisemitism grow unchecked. This attack did not come out of nowhere. Since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023, the Government was repeatedly warned that hatred was escalating and that violence was inevitable. This was never a question of if, it was a question of when.
Under Labor, antisemitic hatred has been allowed to fester in plain sight. Our national icons, the Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi, have been defaced with hate. Jewish homes have been targeted. Childcare centres attacked. Jewish Australians have been forced to live in fear in their own country, while the Prime Minister offered words instead of action.
The Prime Minister told the Jewish community he would do “whatever it takes” to stamp out antisemitism. Those words have proven to be empty. The Government’s own Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Ms Jillian Segal AO, delivered a comprehensive plan earlier this year. That report has sat on the Prime Minister’s desk for months. It has been ignored, gathering dust, while hatred intensified.
Attempts by the Prime Minister to shift the focus onto gun law reform are a blatant deflection from his Government’s failure to confront the real driver of this attack – antisemitic hatred.
Australia already has some of the toughest gun laws in the world. This attack was not the result of a lack of gun regulation, but a lack of leadership. Deflecting to gun laws may be politically convenient but it does nothing to dismantle the ideology of hate that was allowed to grow unchecked under Labor’s watch.
While National Cabinet deliberates, Australians are entitled to ask why the Prime Minister has still not urgently committed to implementing the Envoy’s recommendations in full. Once again, Labor has failed to act and Australians have paid the price.
The Coalition stands ready to support decisive and meaningful action. That starts with immediately implementing the Special Envoy’s antisemitism recommendations in full and taking the strongest possible measures to protect Jewish Australians and keep our country safe.
Antisemitism has no place in Australia. I stand unequivocally with Australia’s Jewish community and I will continue to fight to ensure they can live safely, freely and without fear in their own nation.
At the heart of this tragedy are innocent lives taken and families forever changed. We owe it to the victims, and to every Jewish Australian living in fear, to ensure their suffering is not met with silence, excuses or political deflection. Their memory demands action, accountability and an unwavering commitment to ensure that no community in Australia is ever again targeted because of who they are or what they believe.
ENDS
