MOTIONS

Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (12:10): I second the motion. I'm proud to second the motion moved by the member for Berowra, my dear and good friend. As he correctly outlines, now is the time to get this royal commission right.

We remember the horrific events that led to the basis of the royal commission in the first place, but we know it didn't start at the end of last year. It was the escalation of an outbreak of antisemitism which started after 7 October 2023 and cascaded through a series of events from protests on Sydney Opera House through to the attacks at the front of Central Shule in Caulfield South in the Goldstein electorate, to the harassment and the firebombing of synagogues, and even to graffiti across people's homes, streets and schools.

This is not a subject that we discuss lightly, because it is very real and extremely human. We know full well that escalated to the most horrific terrorist incident in Australia's history, where 15 people lost their lives tragically on our most famous beach, including some family members of Goldstein residents. But this is not about Goldstein specifically or Berowra; it's about the whole of the country and the type of nation we want to be.

Let's not misunderstand how important this royal commission and the extension of its timeframe are, because in the lead-up to this royal commission we saw one of the greatest outbreaks of racism in this nation's history—something that we should never tolerate and never accept. We have a choice now of how we're going to respond. At the start of this year, this parliament met in an extraordinary session to deal with legislation, and during that many condolence motions were moved by members and excellent speeches were delivered.

If there was one recurrent theme throughout all of those speeches, it was that never again would we allow such incidents to occur. Well, if we want to honour those words and the lives and the memories of those who were tragically lost, now is the time to make sure that the royal commission is extended so it can fulfil its important purpose, which is to get to the bottom of the evil that sits at the heart of parts of our society and that has tolerated exactly this sort of conduct.

As the member for Berowra correctly outlined, there are so many witnesses that have not been called, and the importance of having them called is amplified considerably following Dennis Richardson's resignation from the royal commission in making sure we're addressing, in every way and from every angle, the root cause that led to the royal commission being called in the first place.

As the member for Berowra correctly outlined, we need to make sure that Australia's universities and their representatives are properly brought to account. In the chamber right now in the Speaker's gallery, we have representatives and students from the Australasian Union of Jewish Students. They have lived the frontline, firsthand consequences of antisemitism in our nation, and that should not be forgotten—firstly because a university should never be a place where people experience harassment or violence simply for who they are, but, more importantly because if we do not stamp this out for one generation then it can fester and continue on to future generations.

One of the most important tests of leadership is to stand up and to be held to account. Too many universities in particular were found wanting, and the leadership of universities was found wanting in the lead-up to these horrific events and throughout this antisemitism crisis. There are so many people from the arts institutions, the unions and particularly the National Tertiary Education Union who need to be before this royal commission—and, of course, state and federal government ministers whose responsibility it was to provide that critical leadership over recent years and were found wanting.

Also, the member for Berowra correctly outlined the importance of the Australian Human Rights Commission appearing before the royal commission. I remember being Australia's human rights commissioner. We were always told that our responsibility was to focus on the issues of human rights inside Australia, yet we didn't see that in standing up against antisemitism, and, even worse, we were told that things outside of the commission were not the subject or focus of the Human Rights Commission.

Yet, during the past couple of years, the AHRC found a way—in response to staff, not principle—to respond to international events but stay silent on the issue of antisemitism in this country. It's a stain and very disappointing. This is one of the darkest periods in our nation's history, and we have a choice about how it is we're going to go forward.

The most important thing is to make sure that those who were responsible and failed to act are held to account and that the protests, the violence and the harassment that has occurred is held to account so we can move forward as a nation together.