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THE HON PETER DUTTON MP
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION

HAPPY PASSOVER

On behalf of the Coali­tion, I extend my warmest wish­es to Aus­trali­a’s 100,000 strong Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty as you cel­e­brate Passover.

Dur­ing the eight days of Passover, as you reflect on the sto­ry of your ances­tors, may you find renewed strength in your faith and iden­ti­ty.

It is the Tanakh’s scrip­tures – specif­i­cal­ly the Torah’s book of Exo­dus – which recounts the events of how God instruct­ed and helped Moses to lead the Jew­ish peo­ple out of Egypt­ian slav­ery and into free­dom.

The cli­mac­tic moment comes with God’s part­ing and clos­ing of the Red Sea – allow­ing the Jew­ish peo­ple to cross and pre­vent­ing the Egypt­ian forces from pur­su­ing them. But for forty more years, the Jew­ish peo­ple would have to wan­der the desert before reach­ing the Promised Land.

Accord­ing­ly, Passover sym­bol­is­es what dri­ves and defines the Jew­ish peo­ple: the traits of per­se­ver­ance and resilience; the impor­tance of free­dom and a home­land.

In join­ing with Aus­tralians of Jew­ish faith in cel­e­brat­ing Passover, we also con­demn the repug­nant rise of anti­semitism around the world, includ­ing in Aus­tralia. Free­dom of reli­gious asso­ci­a­tion and free­dom of speech are core tenets of lib­er­al democ­ra­cy which must always be defend­ed.

To our won­der­ful Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty who have con­tributed so much across our nation in many fields of endeav­our, we thank you.

I wish you all a hap­py Passover.

Chag Pesach Sameach!

Hon Peter Dut­ton MP
Leader of the Oppo­si­tion

April 2023