We know that Gaza is a densely populated place, about half the size of Canberra, where two million people live. We know that this is a population of people who are young. A very large share of the population there are children, and what Hamas have done is put those people in danger. That is a disgraceful, disgusting betrayal—violence begetting more violence. What Hamas have also done is set back the cause of peace and statehood for Palestinians; they’ve set it back a long way. There are legitimate aspirations that Palestinians have for their own state. We are far further away from that than we were 10 days ago, and Hamas is responsible for that.
Ms O’NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security) (16:24): I thank the parliament for the opportunity to make some remarks on what has been the extraordinary and shocking level of violence that we saw inflicted on innocent men, women and children 10 days ago in Israel.
I cannot express strongly enough how powerfully our government condemns the violence that has led to the unnecessary deaths of men, women and children in Israel. This is a terrorist attack which is profoundly wrong and inhuman, and the vile way in which innocent people, who have no role in a conflict, were treated is just beyond belief. What we saw was a bunch of incidents which echo the darkest days of modern history. I won’t go into the gory detail of some of what was perpetrated because the parliament doesn’t need to, again, hear about what have been horrendous crimes committed against Israeli people and against humanity.
It’s really important that we acknowledge that there are people in our community and even people in our parliament who are having a deeply personal experience of what has occurred over recent days. I want to acknowledge the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, the son of a Holocaust survivor. I want to acknowledge Josh Burns, my dear friend, the member for Macnamara, and the representative of what I presume to be the largest Australian Jewish community in our country. I want to acknowledge Mike Freelander, a Jewish Australian and someone who is a fierce advocate for his local community in Western Sydney. Like most Jewish Australians, they feel what has happened here so deeply and so keenly. To see people attacked for their religion is a horrible and terrifying thing but particularly for this community and particularly given the history. I want to thank those three people in particular for the leadership that they’ve shown and for the advice that they’ve given me over recent days about how to handle this matter.
Our local Jewish community is feeling this incredibly keenly. I was really pleased to join with people from across this parliament to attend a vigil last Friday night with the Jewish Australian community in Caulfield. This is a community that is extremely tender, fearful and anxious. What they did last Friday night was give an expression of their spirituality, religion and community and gathered together to grieve in a public place. This was not an easy thing for some people in that community to do and it showed great courage and bravery. It was my privilege to be there, to stand alongside them, as they grieved for the loss of what’s occurred.
I want to speak briefly to the fear and anxiety that I know is being felt, in particular in Jewish Australian communities at the moment, and to say as home affairs minister: ‘I hear those concerns and anxieties.’ I’ve sat with people in recent days who have told me that they’re too afraid to send their children to their Jewish school, that there are young people who will not put on their Jewish school uniform at the moment because they are so fearful of antisemitism, of violence and attacks. I want the community to understand that I hear that message.
I want you to know something that’s been expressed really clearly to me by our national security officials in this country, and that is that there is nothing to suggest that we need to change the terror threat level at the moment in our country. Our terror threat level was at ‘possible’ two weeks ago. It is still at ‘possible’ today. The analysis has been conducted specifically with reference to the Jewish Australian community, and the answer is the same: the terror threat level remains at ‘possible’. Our agencies are amazing. They are full of the most clever, thoughtful people that I’ve ever come across in my life, but they’re not all-seeing and all-knowing, so I’m not saying that nothing bad can, or will, happen here.
But what I want you to know is that despite that lack of change to our terror threat level, what has changed is the extent of vigilance, activity and care that is being taken to address national security concerns as of today. That’s being driven by the general sense of understanding amongst our national security apparatus here in the federal government and at the state level about how scared people are right now. I want you to know that we are very well-served in our country by mature arrangements around counterviolence and counterterrorism across the Commonwealth and the states and that we have some very, very experienced, very clever people who are working at the moment, throughout the weekend, throughout the night, to try to do everything they can to keep our country safe.
I know I speak for everyone in the parliament when I express my deep gratitude to the people who come to work every day with the sole purpose of trying to protect their fellow Australians and their fellow citizens.
I want to address, specifically, the evil of Hamas in what is an act of unbelievable violence which will only beget more violence and only hurt the people that Hamas pretends to represent. Hamas is of course a listed terrorist organisation in Australia. They have committed heinous, inhuman, disgusting crimes against Israelis. They have also committed disgraceful crimes against Palestinians. They have done that because they have now retreated back into Gaza and are using innocent people who live in Gaza as human shields. I was just disgusted to see, with the Israeli government having indicated that people should evacuate northern Gaza, that Hamas is sending a message to not evacuate. If we had any question about the sort of people that we are dealing with, then that says it all.
We know that Gaza is a densely populated place, about half the size of Canberra, where two million people live. We know that this is a population of people who are young. A very large share of the population there are children, and what Hamas have done is put those people in danger. That is a disgraceful, disgusting betrayal—violence begetting more violence. What Hamas have also done is set back the cause of peace and statehood for Palestinians; they’ve set it back a long way. There are legitimate aspirations that Palestinians have for their own state. We are far further away from that than we were 10 days ago, and Hamas is responsible for that.
There are people across our country who are going to feel very deeply about what has occurred in the Middle East and what will occur in the Middle East. I’ve spoken about Jewish Australians, but let me address some comments for Muslim Australians and people of Middle Eastern heritage for whom deaths in Gaza are going to be felt just as personally, just as deeply and with as much grief as Israelis feel about the deaths of people in their country. I want communities across this country to know that the Australian government stands with communities when they are grieving the innocent loss of life. There is more loss of life to come, and I say that with a heavy heart. I’m here next to my friend the Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Sport, and we’ve both got young children. I know we’ll keep our children away from the television for the next few months because what is to come is something that no child should have to witness.
We are very lucky in our country to live in a beautiful multicultural country. There’s no God-given reason why our country should work and be so prosperous, cohesive and beautiful in the way that it does function. I think about my community, where people who come from countries which have been at war for many years now live alongside me as neighbours and friends whose children go to school together, whose kids play sport together and whose parents have tea together. That is a beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing about our country.
Now we have important obligations to think about what we can do for each other as Australians to protect and defend the social fabric which underpins this. I’d say to every member of parliament that it starts with the people in this room. As parliamentarians, we are a microcosm of our nation. We have different religions, different backgrounds, different spiritualities and different life experiences here in this parliament, and the Australian people are looking to us at the moment to consider how they should handle what is going on around the world. I’d say to parliamentarians that we can do ourselves and our nation a great service by treating each other with dignity, respect, honesty, care and love. They’re looking to us for cues about how to manage this issue, and I think that if we behave well towards one another then we’re doing a great thing for our country.