Thursday, 20 June 2024

Community safety

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (17:12): (725) I wish to raise a matter for the Premier, and the action that I seek is for the Premier to work with the opposition in putting together a working group in a very bipartisan manner with an independent chair that is agreed to by equal amounts of MPs from the government and the opposition to work on combating antisemitism and hate in this place. For far too long we have seen the Jewish community particularly targeted since the events of 7 October, and unfortunately many of the Jewish community are now feeling very, very unsafe. I cite the member for Macnamara’s office being targeted only yesterday in a hateful way.

A number of my colleagues, including the member for Brighton, the member for Mornington and Renee Heath, David Davis and Trung Luu in the other place, went to Israel just recently. Australia and Israel have been friends for a very, very long time. What really, really concerns me is the things that they related to me about what they have heard about the events happening in Victoria – things like 10 ‍November, in which we had people coming to Caulfield and storming outside a synagogue; families of hostages, whom we hosted here in this Parliament, on their way home being unable to go to their hotels, because they were under siege; and thirdly, Mount Scopus, where the words ‘die Jew’ were on the front of that building. These things are unacceptable and these things need to change, and the only way that we will be able to change them and ensure all people feel safe, particularly the Jewish community at this point in time, is to do it in a bipartisan way.

This is something that we did a few years back in a very, very different scenario, when we looked at ultimately what was a new act of Parliament for the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve. At that time Steve Dimopoulos, the member for Oakleigh, and I worked together with an independent chair, and that resulted in getting that act of Parliament. It was done in the spirit of getting things done in a bipartisan way, and I would ask the Premier to consider doing the same thing. Words are not enough. People need action. Whether it is police powers, ensuring that those haters are held fully to account or ensuring that we get social cohesion and people feeling safe in our community, there are a whole range of things we could do. I suggest we do it with this working group. This is something that should not take months to do. It needs a tight timeframe for reporting back in the spirit of bipartisanship to ultimately get the job done and ensure once again our Jewish community can feel welcome, can feel included and can feel safe in Victoria.