Address by Senator James Paterson (Liberal, Victoria) to the ECAJ Annual General Meeting on 24 November 2024.

Transcript

Thank you very much for the invit­a­tion to be here today.

To Peter and Alex and so many other leaders of the community in the room – thank you for your courage and strength over the last year.

I want to start with an apology.

What the Aus­trali­an Jewish community has been asked to endure over the last year is simply not good enough. No community deserves this and espe­cially not the Jewish community, who have enriched every facet of life in Australia.

The rampant anti-semitism on our streets, in our schools and uni­ver­sit­ies, and online is a stain on our great country. And it has left the Aus­trali­an Jewish community feeling less safe and less welcome than at any time in living memory.

I am deeply troubled by the number of Jews who have told me they are con­tem­plat­ing moving to Israel because they think they may feel safer in a country under attack from three terrorist organ­isa­tions and a genocidal nation state than they do in Melbourne or Sydney.

But I under­stand it.

Because at times over the last year I have not recog­nised our country. The dis­tress­ing events in Woollahra in Sydney on Wednesday night are just the most recent and most dis­turb­ing among many the Jewish community has suffered.

Prominent Aus­trali­ans, including elected rep­res­ent­at­ives, have said the most breath­tak­ingly ignorant and objec­tion­able things.

Take the NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong. Her crude and grotesque use of the anti-semitic trope about Jews and tentacles attracted under­stand­able revulsion. But even more revealing and insidious was her accus­a­tion that Jews “infilt­rate” community groups and tac­tic­ally join anti-racism and other political campaigns as part of an underhand attempt to increase their power.

This was not a slip up. It was not a mistake. It was a window into how the Greens view the Jewish community, and the prejudice they are willing to tolerate. And this is an MP who has in her social media bios “remember, don’t be racist” – perhaps as a reminder to herself.

If any other politi­cian made comments like this about any other religious or ethnic community it would rightly be career ending. But not in the Greens, at least for vilifying the Jewish community.

While not on the same level, here in Victoria an inde­pend­ent MP who claims to represent the Jewish community called for a ceasefire in December last year because of the con­sequences of Israel’s actions for the Jewish community in Australia.

This is warped and dangerous logic. No Jew in Melbourne should be held respons­ible for the decisions of any gov­ern­ment of Israel. And no other community would be held to that standard by a federal member of par­lia­ment.

Has anyone ever called for a ceasefire in Ukraine because of the impact on the Russian diaspora in Australia? Of course not. We would all agree it would be absurd and unfair to hold a Russian Aus­trali­an respons­ible for the crimes of Vladimir Putin.

It is even more absurd to hold a Jewish Aus­trali­an respons­ible for the difficult choices Israel must make in a defensive war against a listed terrorist organ­isa­tion after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And yet that is exactly what has happened in our country over the last year.

We have even seen protests outside a Synagogue not far from here during a Shabbat service. It was so menacing the Shul had to be evacuated on Police orders because of their concern for the safety of its occupants.

I never thought we would see scenes like this in Australia.

Nor would I have ever thought any Aus­trali­an would think it is ok to waive the flag of a listed terrorist organ­isa­tion on the streets of our major cities, let alone that they would do so week in week out for over a year without any con­sequences.

That protest­ors would not just mourn the deaths of terrorist leaders, but publicly proclaim their loyalty to them.

That a mob would overtake our iconic inter­na­tion­al landmark, the Sydney Opera House, to terrify the Jewish community.

That our uni­ver­sity campuses would be occupied for weeks on end by extrem­ists who would also threaten and menace Jewish students.

That our Jewish schools would be defaced with vile anti-semitic slurs.

That there would be serious security threats to Jewish childcare centres and aged care homes neces­sit­at­ing around the clock security.

That offices of federal members of par­lia­ment would be routinely van­dal­ised with the symbols of listed terrorist organ­isa­tions and even fire­bombed.

That the targeting symbol of the militant wing of a listed terrorist organ­isa­tion would be hung from the front of Par­lia­ment House and that the per­pet­rat­ors would receive a slap on the wrist.

That our war memorials would be defaced with hateful slogans about a distant conflict – and that some politi­cians would defend and excuse it.

That social media activists would construct family trees of Jewish phil­an­throp­ists to explain why boy­cot­ting their grandkids busi­nesses was the moral thing to do.

That arts and cultural insti­tu­tions would publicly advertise they don’t take money from the Jewish community.

That private inform­a­tion of Jewish pro­fes­sion­als and artists would be published online in a cal­cu­lated attempt to intim­id­ate.

And when political leaders finally spoke out against it, I would never have guessed how much equi­voc­a­tion, false equi­val­ence and pre­var­ic­a­tion we would see. We’ve seen hand-wringing in the face of an unpre­ced­en­ted anti-semitism crisis. The Jewish community is the only community whose vili­fic­a­tion can never be condemned in isolation. It always has to be bracketed with denun­ci­ations of racism against other com­munit­ies – regard­less of whether it has recently occurred.

There is no other form of racism we treat like this. If there is an instance of racism against Indi­gen­ous Aus­trali­ans, for example, no political leader says “I condemn anti-Indi­gen­ous racism and anti-Asian racism.” All forms of racism should be called out when it occurs.

No one’s exper­i­ence of racism needs to be balanced against racism faced by other com­munit­ies. It is not a contest. Con­demning racism against the Jewish community takes nothing from any other community. And yet too often, that’s exactly the message weak political leaders have sent.

This false equi­val­ence has been par­tic­u­larly dangerous because while all racism is equally morally wrong, it is not equally prevalent. As stat­ist­ics from Victoria Police and evidence from the Director General of ASIO have demon­strated, anti-semitism has been far more prolific than any other form of hatred. That is a dis­turb­ing fact no leader should overlook, no matter the political dis­com­fort it might cause.

Nor should we pretend that thinly veiled attacks on Zionists are anything other than attacks on the Jewish community.

When extrem­ists on the streets say “Zionists are not welcome here” we know what they really mean. I guess it is the­or­et­ic­ally possible to be an Anti-Zionist without being an Anti-Semite. But I am yet to meet this mythical person who wants to wipe the only Jewish state off the map and condemn the Jews of Israel to dhim­mitude or worse, but who bears abso­lutely no ill-will in their hearts towards Jewish people.

I recently visited the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Two things moved me pro­foundly. The first was the exhib­i­tion of Kristallnacht. It is a time in history we teach young people about in the hope it is never again repeated. Yet in Amsterdam this month we’ve witnessed scenes dis­turb­ingly remin­is­cent of that dark time.

And we would be naïve if we think Australia is immune. We are not.

The second was exhib­i­tions about righteous gentiles who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. I remember learning about them as a student, and thinking it would never be necessary for non-Jews to show that kind of courage again. While I think we are thank­fully still a long way away from the 1930s, non-Jewish friends of the community have never been called upon since then like we are today.

And we must step up to the challenge.

Of course, the extremism unleashed in our country since 7 October is not only a problem for the Jewish community. It is a problem for all of us. Because prolific anti-semitism is a warning sign of a sick society. Through­out history whenever anti-semitism has reared its ugly head, trouble has followed. While anti-semites might start with Jews, they will never end there. By their actions these extrem­ists have revealed them­selves not just to be enemies of the Jewish community, but civilised people every­where. You deserve better, and Aus­trali­ans expect better.

The tragic truth is that it didn’t have to be this way. We could have had a very different year if, as a country, we took a different approach to the explosion of extremism in our community since 7 October. We could have had rallies for peace without praise for terrorism. We could have had empathy for the heart­break­ing loss of innocent life without vili­fic­a­tion. If, instead of weakness and impotence, we had strength and clarity.

A Coalition gov­ern­ment led by Peter Dutton would have handled this very dif­fer­ently. And if we form gov­ern­ment at the next election, tackling the anti-semitism and extremism crisis will be a top priority. Because we recognise this as morally abhorrent and a threat to our national security and community safety.

So, what will we do?

Firstly, and most import­antly, we will show lead­er­ship.

There’s great moral power and authority in the office of Prime Minister. It is past time it was used. No Aus­trali­an will be in any doubt where the Prime Minister stands on anti-semitism if Peter Dutton occupies that office. There will be no hes­it­a­tion, equi­voc­a­tion or ambi­val­ence when it comes to con­front­ing extremism.

Second, enforce the law.

Extrem­ists have been emboldened in our country since 7 October because they do not fear the con­sequences of their actions. Why would they? The law has been repeatedly and blatantly violated when it comes to incite­ment to violence, support for listed terrorist organ­isa­tions, online har­ass­ment, hate symbols and much more. And yet today we can count on one hand the people charged but not convicted for any of these crimes.

Third, strengthen the law.

Our incite­ment pro­vi­sions are not fit for purpose. Doxxing has still not been crim­in­al­ised. And if it proves too hard to prosecute someone for dis­play­ing a symbol of a listed terrorist organ­isa­tion, that law will have to be fixed.

Fourth, use the powers already available to gov­ern­ment.

It is a privilege to live in Australia. No guest in our country who violates the character pro­vi­sions of the Migration Act will be allowed to stay. No form of support for terrorism – rhet­or­ic­al or otherwise – will be tolerated. Their visas will be cancelled without hes­it­a­tion or remorse.

Fifth, don’t make the problems worse.

No one will be brought into our country from a warzone con­trolled by a terrorist organ­isa­tion without proper checks. No hate preacher or extremist organ­isa­tion will be given taxpayers money for social cohesion. No UN body guilty of employing ter­ror­ists will be sub­sid­ised by the Aus­trali­an taxpayer.

Sixth, we will address the rot in our cultural insti­tu­tions.

We will not allow anti-semitism to fester on campus unchecked. We will not allow our taxpayer funded arts and cultural insti­tu­tions to be hijacked. We will make clear we expect accurate and impartial reporting from our publicly funded broad­casters.

Finally, we will always stand with Israel.

Because it is the right thing to do. And because letting extrem­ists dictate our foreign policy through political intim­id­a­tion is not in our national interest. We will not – and I can’t believe I need to say this – ban former Israeli ministers from centrist gov­ern­ments from visiting Australia. Nor would we – and again I can’t believe this needs to be said – arrest the demo­crat­ic­ally elected head of a friendly gov­ern­ment for the crime of defending his country. We will never abandon our ally in inter­na­tion­al forums like the United Nations. We will never concede important prin­ciples like the right to self-defence. We will never reward terrorism by giving in to their demands.

We will do this not only for the Jewish community, but for our country.

Because a country that is not safe for Jews is not safe for anyone.

And for as long as I am in public life, and whatever position I hold, I will work every day until we fix this.

Thank you.