Thank you, Rabbi, and thank you to the leadership and members of St Kilda Shule for your warm welcome.
It is an honour to address you in this most sacred place of worship.
I want to begin by paying my deep respects to your faith, your traditions, your community, and your wonderful contributions to our great country.
I also want to convey my deepest sorrow for what you are enduring.
I cannot walk in your shoes. I cannot feel your fear.
But I stand with you – in solidarity – against hate, against terror, and against silence.
What Australian Jews have endured since October 7 is a national disgrace and an international embarrassment. No community should be frightened to send their children to school, attend university, run a business or openly live their faith in this country.
And yet, that fear has become a daily reality for so many Jewish Australians.
Like many other Western democracies, Australia has seen a shocking surge in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack on Israel. But what sets our experience apart is how quickly this hatred spilled onto our streets.
Within hours of the October 7 massacre—the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust—a baying mob of Islamist extremists gathered on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
Many were celebrating with cries of “F” the Jews and where are the Jews. Around the same time, at Lakemba, we heard the words: it’s a day of courage, it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory!
In response to this sickening hate speech, there were no consequences – no arrests, no prosecutions, just weasel words or even worse silence from our government leaders.
And then, it did not stop – the protests, the firebombing of a synagogue, the attacks on businesses and schools and a childcare centre and homes, the campus hate where one university so lost its moral compass it allowed students to be terrorised by the extremist group Hizb-ut Tahrir.
Every Australian has a right to feel safe in their own country. As the former shadow education minister, my calls for the government to act – against the encampments, building occupations, the storming of a Jewish academic’s office and all of the other horrendous things that happened on university campuses fell on deaf ears.
Unbelievably, it took the Bondi Massacre for the University of Sydney to terminate the employment of a lecturer who viciously attacked two female Jewish students who were simply quietly running a stall on behalf of AUJS.
In April 2024, after exposing the implicit endorsement of the Hamas terrorist attack by Israel-hating academic Randa Abdel-Fattah – someone who had encouraged children to chant ‘intifada’ at a campus protest – again at the University of Sydney what an absolute disgrace – and who had called for the destruction of Israel by the end of last year, I demanded her taxpayer funded research grant be terminated. But the government sat on its hands and continues to do so.
There was no moral conviction. There was no moral courage.
The Adelaide Festival board acted properly in rescinding Dr Abdel Fattah’s invitation. No Australian institution should platform a speaker who glorified October 7.
But most importantly of all, fighting antisemitism should be above politics. As I watched the disgraceful pile-on by the cultural left against the principled leadership of the South Australian Premier, I ask – what has happened to our country? Bob Hawke would be rolling in his grave.
Jewish community leaders, our intelligence agencies and Israel, the state of Israel, all understand where violent antisemitism and Islamist extremism lead.
But despite the warnings – and there were many – our Prime Minister and his government did not listen including on the dangers of prematurely recognising a Palestinian state.
We are now grappling with the most serious consequences.
I pay tribute the leadership of Sussan Ley who as the Leader of the Opposition is listening and speaking up, every single day.
Sussan, myself and our Coalition team – we understand that the real threat is the unchecked spread of jihadist ideology—an ideology which glorifies violence, dehumanises Jews, and is fundamentally incompatible with life in a western liberal democracy, in a great country like ours.
Let me be clear: standing up against antisemitism is not some simple favour to the Jewish community. It is a test of our values as a nation. If we fail that test—if we excuse hatred, minimise incitement, or appease extremism—we betray not only Australian Jews, but Australia itself.
I promise you this: we will continue to speak out, to demand accountability, and to fight for your safety and dignity, and freedom of Australia’s Jewish community.
Thank you