MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (15:54): At the outset, I want to commend the members for Berowra, Isaacs and Macnamara for their contributions. It would not have been particularly easy for them to stand and speak on this very important matter of public importance. 7 October 2023 was a day of shame, infamy and savagery. It is a day we must never forget.
I wonder what Eddie Jaku would think about what happened on that day and about what has happened in his adopted country since that day. He, of course, wrote The Happiest Man on Earth, an autobiography of his life. In the frontispiece of that 2020 publication, which was reprinted six times that year, is written: Eddie Jaku has always considered himself a German first, a Jew second.
He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp. It was a concentration camp run by the Nazis.
They were no better and no worse than Hamas—despicable people, absolutely abhorrent people. I recommend everybody read this book. It was given to me by Josh Frydenberg, a great friend of mine; we communicate every day.
In this book, there are 15 chapters. The book runs to 195 pages. Each chapter has a little verse just under the number.
Particularly I want to note four of those. Chapter 8 says: If you lose your morals, you lose yourself. That's what Eddie wrote.
Chapter 10 says: Where there is life, there is hope. Chapter 11 says: There are always miracles in the world, even when it seems dark. And chapter 13 says: We are all part of a larger society, and our work is our contribution to a free and safe life for all.
Of course, that's all he ever hoped for. That's what he was given by his adopted country, Australia. He lived a long life—101 years.
We thank him for what he brought to this country. What we've seen in this country in the last two years has been beyond belief. It's been un-Australian.
I see the member for Isaacs nodding. He, like me and like all of us, agrees it's just appalling. I was appalled at the decision by New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Belinda Rigg to allow a protest on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 3 August, a protest which was not about bringing peace and a safer world for all.
It was antisemitic. Let's call it what it was. The people who engaged in the sorts of things that day, carried the sorts of signs and chanted the sorts of slogans should take a good, long, hard look at themselves.
The same people are now wanting to have another protest in front of the opera house. We already had the opera house used—I would say abused—in the past two years, very soon after the October 7 attacks. Of course, these Hamas lovers want to use iconic symbols to show the world that this is what Australia thinks.
Well, this is not what Australia thinks. I know that most Australians are appalled at what happened on October 7 and are appalled at the attacks on Jewish synagogues and on Jews themselves since that terrible, terrible day. Yet sometimes, when you read the media, particularly social media, you would think the opposite was the case.
Well, it is not. It's not just confined to capital cities. Even in my own home town of Wagga Wagga there have been appalling things done in the name of being pro-Hamas, in the name of, apparently, being pro-Palestine.
But it's not pro-Palestine, because what they ask for—a free state for Palestine—has been granted by the Australian government. I don't believe it should have been. I believe our government should have and could have done more, but this is the world in which we live.
It is not just confined to capital cities, and I think it is a terrible, terrible state of affairs. I mourn for the Jewish people. I stand with Israel today and every day.