Motion: Bondi Attack

MOTION

‘BONDI ATTACK’.

Tuesday, 3 February 2026.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (13:07):

Within moments the horrors of the shots fired in Bondi echoed around the country. Within minutes the terrorist attack and the dread of its impact left all good Australians drawing their breath. I am sure our country was left paralysed. Knowing of the Jewish Hanukkah celebration that evening, many knew instinctively that the attack was targeted and who the target was.

Every one of the 15 victims deserved to live their full life, including beautiful 10- year-old Matilda. Our world was better when Matilda and the victims murdered that day were in it. May their memory be a blessing.

The terror of the attack has left us feeling shock, pain and grief. Those feelings have not subsided. The attack still hurts. It will never stop hurting. Our fellow Australians lost their lives at a celebration during summer on the beach. It could have been any of us on that beach, a place that could not have been more Australian. But Australia has been changing, and that day was a turning point.

After that day our community has said strongly that, despite our country changing, we cannot accept a changed Australia where division becomes embedded, because division has grown roots and its roots are weeds of hate – hate that has been spreading on our streets through normalised incitement, protest agitated by rogue international countries and now violent murder.

As the horror of the Bondi attack became real and the depth of our countrywide grief ached in all of us, so too did we realise one truth: our leaders were warned that the growing hate in our community would lead to the horrors of Bondi. It has been wrong for our leaders to turn their backs on age-old values that underpin what we stand for as a country and what countries we have internationally stood with as friends. By tearing up these values, we have stood by our federal leaders bear responsibility for what is happening in our communities. Our leaders’ actions have emboldened those who perpetuate the oldest hate in existence, and our state leaders also bear some responsibility. Our state leaders have looked the other way as social cohesion has broken down. Government silence has been deafening.

It is wrong to say that Bondi was a failure of our nation. It was a failure of our governments. Make no mistake, the breakdown in our social cohesion has been targeted at our Jewish neighbours. Chants of ‘gas the Jews’; nurses who claimed intent to kill Jewish patients; in Melbourne, a mob congregating in Caulfield streets; the Adass synagogue firebombing and the alleged offender being let out on bail; the East Melbourne synagogue firebombing; and on Christmas Day, only weeks ago, a Rabbi’s car being firebombed – these are just some of the incidents that are known. But hate towards the Jewish community has been deep, daily and has exposed a dark side to our country that good people had hoped did not exist.

Antisemitism is one of the oldest hatreds in existence. It is a hatred that is generational, as we saw in Bondi, an inherited hate that is passed from father to son. What is so tragic about the recent attack is that our leaders have ignored warnings that tolerating prejudice would end in violence. Devastatingly, it has.

840 days ago, we stood in this very spot following the darkest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the attack on 7 October. During that contribution I referred to the call written about the defenders of the ancient kingdom of Masada: never again. These words were also used by survivors of the concentration camps during the Holocaust. At each of the worst adversities faced by the Jewish people who have stood against a century-old hate, they have stood firm.

At the core of the Jewish people is a unique resilience, and despite being victim to the worst events in human history, the Jewish people are also driven by tikkun olam, a driving commitment towards repairing the world. On their darkest day we must never forget that the Jewish community is always motivated to do good.

The hurt of Bondi is still with us. We will carry it in their name and in support of the values that define what is best about this country. We must not allow the hate that has been uncovered to spread or grow stronger in this country. Fifteen innocent Australians were lost in Bondi, fifteen victims who should have lived their full lives. Our world and our country is lesser without them. May their memory be a blessing.