CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (10:00): How bad does antisemitism have to be for the Australian government to act? Since 7 October 2023, we have seen a cascading series of problems of antisemitism in our community. It's been consistent.

It's been successive. We've seen a fundamental failure of leadership. We've seen a failure at every point to condemn the acts of antisemitism in our country at a scale that should never have been permitted.

We saw it on 8 October on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. It doesn't matter what version of history you want to interpret, there was no place for people simply screaming out and demanding to take retribution for horrific acts overseas. We saw it on 10 November in 2023 out the front of Central Shule in Caulfield South in the Goldstein electorate.

The failure of leadership continued to cascade all the way up to the worst terrorist attack on our nation's soil, on the beaches of Bondi. That's why I made a formal submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion documenting these incidents in detail and on the record. That's because law alone won't fix this.

We need leaders willing to properly diagnose the problem and set the standard of behaviour our country has been missing, a lack of standard which, sadly, our government has allowed to fester. I really hope this parliament will read the evidence and make judgement calls on the recommendations from the final royal commission, because we want an Australia where everybody feels that they are part of our common journey and building a better nation for everybody.

What does it mean to belong for young Australians? Ruth Sharma is 11 years old and she felt compelled to write a speech defending the right of every family to belong. No child should have to make this case.

In Ruth's own words: Australia belongs to everyone—no matter who you are, or what religion you practise. We share a common bond that unites us. Ruth Sharma didn't write 'One Australia.

One Heart' because she wanted to. She wrote it because she felt she had to. That should tell this parliament everything it needs to know about the challenges young Australians face and the importance of unity.

We don't want a government that divides us. We don't want alternatives that divide us. What we want is a country of one land and one people with one destiny.

So thank you, Ruth. Thank you for your courage and for reminding this parliament what we owe every child in this country. We need to make sure we're stewards who hand forward to the next generation a better country than the one we inherited.

At the age of 11, you can already see the type of Australia we should want and we should be building. I hope for the generations to come that they will reflect on your important words of 'One Australia. One Heart', which tells a direct story about the type of nation that we should want to be.