Thursday, 16 October 2025

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (10:06): I move:

That this house notes that Victoria welcomes:

(a)   the return of the living hostages after 737 days;

(b)   the ceasefire; and

(c)   the renewed move towards peace in the Middle East.

In moving this motion I pay my respects to those who are grieving the loss of those who did not come home. Whilst there has been international both celebration and relief at the return of a number of hostages, I think it is appropriate to start this motion by honouring those families and loved ones who cannot welcome home their family member, who are going to grieve for the rest of their lives the loss of their loved one – either someone who was a hostage or indeed someone who was brutally murdered on that day, on 7 October 2023.

It was two years ago. It feels in some ways both longer and shorter than two years. Two years ago many of us attended an event in Caulfield. It was early days. I know the member for Caulfield was there, the member for Box Hill was there, the member for Brighton was there – many of us were there. I also remember it as an event where there was such a tumult of emotions. There was anxiety at what was going on because so much was not yet known – it was still very early following 7 October. I also remember standing there – it was one of my first big public events as Premier – looking at the faces in the crowd, looking at the women who were holding up pictures of family members that they love and seeing the anxiety and the grief on their faces. There were little boys carrying the Israeli flag, knowing that if they were in Israel and they were a bit older they would be called up to serve, and understanding that sacrifice.

I also on that day told the story of a family who had been torn apart in kibbutz Nir Oz, another victim of this act of terror. As we have said on many occasions since that day, they were victims of the largest theft of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust – victims of Hamas. Some of the members of that kibbutz survived 7 October; 47 died and 76 were taken hostage. When I spoke that night in Caulfield I borrowed a phrase from the great Golda Meir: I hoped that the strawberries could one day bloom again in the kibbutz and across Israel.

These last two years have been a living nightmare for the families of the hostages taken by Hamas and the families of those they killed. It is a scar that will never heal. But today, in this week, as the world grasps that possibility of peace, we can see the hope that the strawberries will bloom. As I said at the outset, my thoughts are with all of those in Israel and across the Middle East, across the world and here in Victoria who are still experiencing the echoes of that first devastating, unspeakable act on 7 October 2023, including the people who have lived through the wave of antisemitism and hate that has coursed through the world, into our cities and to the doors of our synagogues.

This has been another most tragic consequence, a devastating consequence, of this conflict in the Middle East, that we have seen this wave of antisemitism, this cancer, spread in a way that we thought had been dealt with many, many decades ago. Our love and blessings are with those families who can finally reunite, and I have honoured those families who cannot. Our love and blessings are with everyone who has lost their life and their livelihood in this attack and in this war. As we acknowledge and honour the families and loved ones and the communities who are associated with the hostages, we must too remember the innocent families and children in Israel yes but also in Gaza, in Palestine and across the entire region.

7 October marked two years of conflict. So many children have been killed, so many adults have been killed. We know that this period may not necessarily mark the end of conflict and war. But we all carry in both our hearts and our heads the hope that it starts the path of peace and life, and that is a responsibility here in Melbourne and Victoria, far, far away from that conflict in the Middle East. I say that responsibility to progress the path of peace rests with all of us because of that spread of the cancer of antisemitism that I spoke of in my comments today. We have seen that conflict, that disruption of our social fabric that we hold so dear here in Victoria. It has also been frayed, has also seen conflict and division here in Melbourne and Victoria. I say to everyone: there are no sides here. We should all be on the one side of peace. We have called as a government for some time now for a ceasefire, for a pathway to peace. We have that now, and it is incumbent upon all of us to grasp this opportunity to use our privileged positions as leaders in our community here to hold our community together.

To give peace a chance in the Middle East we have got to give peace every opportunity to thrive here in Melbourne and Victoria. There should be no need for division to continue on our streets, because that would not be in the spirit of what we have wanted to be achieved for the last two years: peace in the Middle East. To continue to support peace in the Middle East, to get that pathway to peace in the Middle East and to support families here in our community, it is time to bring peace to our streets here in Melbourne and Victoria, because that is in the spirit of hope. It is in the spirit of our great multicultural and multifaith state that I am so proud to be Premier of, and it is the way that we honour every Israeli and every Palestinian who has been killed during the course of this conflict, every Israeli and every Palestinian who has lost a loved one, a family member, a friend. We owe it to them to bring peace to our community, as we have been calling for and have seen this week, the achievement of what we are so relieved to see. But it is precious, and we must continue to work together and walk alongside one another on that pathway to peace.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (10:13): I begin by thanking the Premier for agreeing to do this motion today. I thank every member of this Parliament for doing welfare checks on both me and the member for Box Hill over this very, very difficult period. For 737 days we have felt helpless in many ways, but we never, ever gave up hope. I think that is something to be proud of, as a member of the Jewish community watching, as the Premier mentioned, the trauma, the devastation and the hurt from many of Melbourne’s Jewish community but also the hope that the hostages would still return. As we know, there are still a number of murdered hostages that have not returned, and we pray for them to be returned as soon as possible. Israel has a very strong philosophy of ensuring that no-one is left behind; it is something that has guided Israel from the beginning of its very existence.

The Jewish community is also very strong about celebrating life, and unfortunately in 737 days we have seen the trauma of the very opposite. On 7 October we saw 1200 Jews murdered by a terrorist organisation, Hamas. We must never forget that it was not just a terrorist organisation, but it was an organisation that was the government of Gaza. So this was a government that invaded Israel. On top of the 1200 that were murdered, there were 250 hostages taken. And through every single period the Jewish community, Israel, the Western world have said, ‘Bring the hostages home and the war ends.’ Very simple – bring the hostages home and the war ends. I know a lot of people have tried to convolute this into other things and rewrite history, that this is a genocide, this is not a war. Well, when somebody invades you, murders your brothers and sisters – and a number of my colleagues have witnessed the 47 minutes of terror of people that had their heads severed, women raped, people tortured, burnt in the most disgusting, traumatic way. I have seen that video twice, and the member for Brighton has as well. It will never leave my mind, and that is where it started. That is where this started.

It started with an invasion of Israel and hostages taken. And what happened literally two days after at the Sydney Opera House is they had people protesting. Whether it was ‘Gas the Jews’ or ‘Where’s the Jews?’, it was against the Jews. That was two days after, before Israel did anything – Israel had not responded. Israel took six days to respond with an initial defence, 20 days before they actually got involved in a full invasion – 20 days. Yet the Western world stood up and said, ‘Look at Israel, look at what they’re doing. Look at the Jews. How terrible are they?’ This is the rewrite of history that, as Jews, is just beyond belief. Many in the Western world and many Victorians and Australians that have come up ever since have stood beside us and said, ‘We know what you’re going through.’

And we pray for peace. We pray for the Palestinians to live peacefully – there is not a Jew that I have met that does not believe the same – but unfortunately not with a terrorist organisation in control. We saw, once the hostages were returned, Palestinians murdered in the streets by Hamas. They are an evil terrorist regime, and that is what we are dealing with. It is complex. It is not easy.

I wanted to just talk a little bit about the fact that – and there were a couple of occasions when we got to go to Israel. The first one was with the member for Brighton, the member for Mornington, and David Davis, Renee Heath and Trung Luu from the other place. It was around 8 June – when, historically, four hostages were rescued on the day we were there. It was such an amazing feeling when we woke up to the great news and we went to Hostages Square and we got to celebrate that brief time.

Noa Argamani was one of them. You would have remembered the graphic scenes of her being pulled by her hair onto the back of a motorbike and saying, ‘Don’t kill me, don’t kill me.’ She was separated from her boyfriend. He was taken separately. He returned only a few days ago to be reunited with Noa Argamani, which is such a beautiful thing. Unfortunately Noa Argamani’s mother died during that process, of cancer, and that is part of the trauma. That is part of what was experienced.

One of the hostages that returned was Omri, whose dad Dani was at Hostages Square, where we visited, and Dani was growing his beard. It was normally well kept. He would not grow a beard but was growing his beard. He went up to us and he said, ‘I’m growing my beard until my son comes home. When he comes home, we will shave together. That’s what we will do. We will shave together.’ And he is home, and they can shave together. He took off his necklace of Omri and put it over to Renee and said, ‘You wear this necklace and you pray.’ And Renee is a religious person, and she told him of this. And every day she and her community have been praying, and we got to emotionally deal with that.

So there was the first part. The second part was when I visited again, with the member for Prahran, and go back to Hostages Square to meet with the organisers there and talk about their plight in getting the rest of the world to try and raise the voice, because it was all about the voice. I want to share with you how important the grassroots are. We know it as politicians, because we stand in here quite often and talk about community leadership, but I want to share with you the grassroots, because it was the grassroots that largely brought the hostages home. I know we saw Bibi and Donald Trump, and they did some great things, as much as you might like or dislike those individuals. But what really brought the hostages home, both in Israel and even in Australia, were the grassroots, because in Hostages Square they never gave up hope. Those families camped in Hostages Square every single day and never gave up hope.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

In Melbourne we had our own Hostages Square. We had a group of Israelis, United with Israel is what they called themselves – it was just a group that made up the name – and they decided that every Sunday they were going to turn up at Caulfield Park and call for the hostages to be returned. They would do a little video and they would send it far and wide, and that was happening all around the world. I just need to share with you about these Israelis, because people think, ‘Israelis – they come here and they want to talk about Israel and they want to do all this stuff.’ Israelis actually leave Israel because they have had enough and they want to come and just be Aussies; they want to do Australian things and they love Australia. They actually do not really go to synagogue, they do not really connect much with community; they just live and work. Many have become quite successful in their businesses. But they do not really get out there and wave the flag. They actually stood up during this time because they had to make a decision whether to go back and fight, and some of them did; the others remained behind to fight here to combat the antisemitism and the hate. Nirit Eylon, Ravit Glance, Negba Weiss-Dolev, Natalie Gutman, Avishag Rager – they, as powerful women, ran that event every single Sunday to bring the hostages home. They, along with other groups like Project A, Moran Dvir, Lillian Kline, Liora Miller, Ginette Searle, were doing advocacy to ensure the non-Jewish community were hearing about the plight. And J-United, Simonne Whine, Maaian Galant and Tamir Pella wrote books and got women to talk about their struggle to fight against this – again, they were all grassroots, and so many more did what they could to ensure all of this.

I just wanted to finish by saying that this is largely, as the Premier said, about peace. It is hopefully about people now being able to unite, to bring temperatures down, to hopefully move on. The Jewish community has been traumatised over the last two years, make no mistake. The antisemitism is something that I have never quite seen. I mentioned the Opera House on the 9th. The protest started here on 10 October – three days after, many days before Israel actually entered into Gaza – and protests have continued ever since. There have been 100-plus protests, with $25 million worth of policing costs, which even the commissioner has spoken about. We would hope that that would end, and I would plead with those people that go out each and every week and disrupt, who are divisive, who are hateful in what they do, to stop. The hostages are back. We are working towards peace. Let us end it.

I remember six years ago talking about Extinction Rebellion coming in and hijacking our streets, costing us $3 million. Six years on we are seeing it all again. They just moved on to another cause. Now we are the targets, and we have had enough. This is the day to say ‘Enough is enough.’

The member for Box Hill has had to cop it. He stood out there fighting the fight. We all have. Federally we have seen your colleague Josh Burns has been targeted. Josh Frydenberg left as Treasurer, but he has come back fighting every day. James Patterson – they are all out there – Julian Lessar and a number of others. We just plead. I know in here we do as much as we can.

Thank you, Premier, for today. I know it has been tough, and I know you have had some tough periods in all of this. Thank you, Deputy Premier. Thank you to all of you. Let us come together. Let us fight against hate. Let us unite and say enough is enough, and hopefully today will be a great day. This pin – I know, Deputy Speaker – that I have been wearing this very quietly is not a political pin. All the pin has been about is the hostages to return. Ironically I ran out of pins on Sunday, because I have been giving them out to anyone that would wear them. This is my last pin, and I will not be needing to wear it again.

 Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (10:26): I rise also to speak in support of today’s motion. Before I commence I do want to acknowledge the member for Caulfield, not only on what he just said but how difficult it has been for him, particularly in the last two years. By far and away the largest Jewish community in our state is within the Caulfield electorate, and I know that he has worked every day of the last 737 days to be with the community and stand with the community in support of particularly bringing the hostages home. I also want to thank the Premier and all of my Labor colleagues for the support they have shown to me over the last two years. Obviously Box Hill does not have a particularly large Jewish community, particularly now; I think it once had a lot more. But being a member of the Jewish faith and having close obviously family connections, connections to places of worship and the largest Jewish day school in the Southern Hemisphere in my electorate, it certainly has touched me in many ways.

The motion deals with three elements, and I want to go through each of the elements and then touch on a fourth element, which is really about the antisemitism in Victoria. It is a really important motion of human significance. It brings together the values that we can all hold dear, of compassion, justice, security and hope. Even though the conflict occurred over 10,000 kilometres away, it has been felt very intensely by communities in Victoria. The conflict in the Middle East, as everyone knows, is ancient. It is layered in history, religion and nationalism, and for many of these reasons it has proven intractable and lasting peace has proved elusive. The latest conflict has exacted an unbearable human cost, from those held in captivity to civilians injured or killed and communities displaced. Hopefully this motion offers an opportunity to offer solidarity to victims of terror and war and to affirm our belief that peace, however fragile, must always be on the horizon.

If I can begin with the hostages, I was just reflecting that tomorrow it will be exactly two years since I rose in this place to speak on the motion condemning the horrific terrorist attacks of 7 October and about the hostages that were taken from their homes and their places of leisure. For more than two years families have lived in agony, unable to know whether their loved ones were alive. They were held under inhuman conditions, used as leverage – bargaining chips – in a broader conflict. For all of those days – days of fear, torment, uncertainty – still there was this hope, as the member for Caulfield said, hope both in Israel and in the Israeli community in Australia, that one day the hostages would return. It must be a terrible burden for those families who have waited for this day to come.

I welcome the safe return of these hostages with deep gratitude, relief and humility. Their release must be viewed not merely as a concession or outcome of a deal but as an essential restoration of human dignity. We must honour not just their freedom but also the memory of those who did not survive captivity and the suffering they endured. We must acknowledge that even for the returned, recovery will be long, painful and multifaceted – physical, psychological and spiritual. My thoughts and prayers are with the hostages and their families today, and we must ensure that support is robust and enduring.

The second limb of this motion is about the ceasefire, and I welcome the ceasefire with cautious optimism for what it signals and for what it must now deliver: return of the remaining deceased hostages, protection of civilians, unimpeded humanitarian corridors and a foundation upon which to build something better than war. We must acknowledge the painful cost that has preceded this ceasefire. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost. Entire communities do need to be rebuilt, but it cannot reset to the status quo that existed before 7 October. It must be a catalyst to something better. I also welcome the renewed movement towards peace. This is an aspiration that must always follow the end of bombs and bullets, however modest, however tentative, however incomplete. Without a genuine and sustained pathway to peace, ceasefires risk being temporary pauses in suffering and risk resuming a new cycle of violence.

Victoria as a state that treasures multiculturalism, human rights and diversity must reaffirm that we stand for a just peace – a peace that respects the rights, identity, security and dignity of both Israelis and Palestinians. It is not naive to hope for peace. It is not disloyal to Israel or disloyal to Palestinians to insist that peace, not war, must be our enduring goal. Indeed for those who love Israel the strongest security is a durable peace. For those who care about the Palestinians the strongest path forward is the politics of freedom, rights and self-determination. We welcome any and all efforts towards ceasefire, reconciliation, confidence building, reconstruction, third-party mediation and inclusive governance. I urge the federal government to continue its deep engagement through diplomacy, foreign aid and multilateral institutions and partnerships to press for a future that holds both states living side by side in dignity and security.

Finally, I want to reflect on the pain, suffering and anguish that has occurred in Melbourne over the last two years within our vibrant Jewish community. Following 7 October the Jewish community in Victoria held vigils, prayers and communal gatherings confronting grief, fear and the rise of antisemitism. As the member for Caulfield has noted, it was less than 48 hours before we saw the ugly scenes on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. In the last two years the community has continued to grieve and pray while around them the level of antisemitism has risen to levels that I have never witnessed in this country before. It is not just the protests that we see weekly; it is the vandalism of Jewish-owned businesses, the vandalism of offices of Jewish politicians and of Jewish schools, the boycotts of businesses, the vilification and abuse sometimes directed at kids and the blacklisting of Jewish writers and artists. These are just the incidents that have been reported. I have spoken to many others in the community who have been targeted by this abuse but have chosen not to have it reported in the media.

None of these Australians are members of the Israeli cabinet. None of these Australians have any say in how Israel conducts its foreign policy or its military policy. In fact many of them have openly opposed the Netanyahu government for years and have called for self-determination for the Palestinian people. Yet they have still been targeted because, like the vast majority of the Jewish community in Victoria and indeed around the world, they support Jewish self-determination in the ancestral home of the Jewish people. The antisemitism and vilification that we have seen in this state is sadly not unique. We have seen it in other cities in Australia and other cities around the world. In addition to enduring peace in the Middle East, my hope from this ceasefire is that the temperature of the debate can be turned down and that communities in Victoria can be allowed to go about their lives free from harassment and vilification, free to attend their place of worship without being concerned that they will confront an angry mob on departure, free from going to their place of worship without fear that it is going to be attacked while they are in there and free to visit the CBD where they want and when they want.

To those who are continuing to advocate for and incite violence and hate against the Jewish community, I say, ‘Your hate stops now.’

We must redouble our efforts to protect and support communities in Victoria that have felt fear, harassment or division during this period. We should increase education on religious tolerance, anti-hate initiatives and strengthen policing and community security within the imperative of civil liberties.

Victoria has long embraced the ideals of multiculturalism, tolerance, human rights and social cohesion, and here in Victoria we stand together with all communities that have felt pain, division, suspicion or fear during this conflict. We stand against hatred in all its forms. We stand for a Victoria where our towns, our schools and our streets remain places of safety, mutual respect and shared humanity even when the bombs fall thousands of kilometres away.

 James NEWBURY (Brighton) (10:36): Two years ago we saw a rip in the good fabric of the Western world in a way that I am sure the entire Western world did not want to see. What was so shocking about the events of 7 October was the deepness and the closeness of that tear and that atrocity and hate aligned with those in the Second World War, atrocities that every good person around the world probably hoped with some certainty could not happen again. Because though disputes happen across borders, the hatred of 7 October showed and has shown for the two years since that the dispute, the hatred and the atrocity were not about borders though they were too. They were far more deep-seated. The hatred went to the core of who people are and it runs totally in contrast to what every good person around the world believes we as a humanity should believe in, what we should support, what we should stand for collectively, no matter what our differences are.

I remember on 7 October, in the afternoon as the sirens started in Israel, messaging the member for Caulfield and our first thoughts being absolute shock that events were occurring that we knew at the time cut so deeply into what we stood for as a Western world. Since then, I do not think any good person has been able to be fully settled while this dispute, while this conflict, has occurred.

But what was so special this week was the incredible moment of seeing the final hostages return and knowing that, though not every single victim has been returned, some have and we hope that the final victims are returned soon. Seeing that hope, though we have been witness to a tear in our world, the goodness of our world, a step goes towards healing that tear this week.

I watched the events first in a community event in Caulfield with the member for Caulfield but then went home and watched it with my two children. I do not often talk about my family in this place, and my wife gets quite grumpy with me, because these are very, very complex issues for little children. My children are aware of me going to Israel twice in the last year and why and the effect that it had on me, but I needed them to see that goodness has prevailed. After two years, goodness in the world has prevailed.

The member for Caulfield and I and some of our colleagues went to Israel soon after the war began for the first time. We sat in the rooms of victims and their families – sometimes sitting with the families and sharing their stories, sometimes sitting on the beds of children who are no longer here, looking at the bullet holes behind us, some of them with the blood the bullet caught on the way through as it killed those victims. We watched the video that the terrorists filmed of what they were doing, and to any member who is offered the opportunity to watch that video I would say to you it is important that you do. It is important that you do so that you can understand what occurred but also understand that the terrorists felt the need and the want to not only commit the worst things that you can imagine being committed but also film them. I can say I have found it very difficult to talk about that first trip to Israel because it was so deeply impactful, I think, on all of us who were there. Since then I have found what I saw very difficult to deal with, and I have not publicly talked about it until recently, because it was so deeply impactful.

The member for Caulfield organised a second trip to Israel and Poland this year, where we took the opportunity to go to the March of the Living and walk between the two death camps. It was hard not to, on that trip, reflect on the similarities of these events – the worst atrocities perhaps we have seen. Because, as I said earlier, these atrocities were not about border disputes. At the end of the day these atrocities were about who people are – attacks on people for what they believe and for who they are at their most core sense. What we saw as we marched between two death camps, though, was a sense of hope – the same spark of hope that we have seen this week, the same spark of people from around the world coming together and saying, ‘Goodness must win. We believe in goodness. We believe in goodness winning.’

This week we have seen what is best about our world movement. The member for Caulfield spoke very eloquently about the last two years and the community movement of that goodness and of that hope. Knowing, as an Australian, that throughout those two years we have seen events not only in this country but elsewhere that clearly lean into hatred and lean into an undermining of social cohesion has not only made what has happened on the other side of the world so deeply painful but made it even more painful to know that the worst things also happened on our own shores, where we had hoped that they never could.

As we have the goodness of this week shine forth, it is an opportunity for all of us, in whatever role we have, to say that it is time that we all lean into the goodness in ourselves, whether that be in the little things that happen in our days and the decisions that we make or whether we are in leadership roles and it is about what we can say externally, and the member for Caulfield talked about the protests. It is time to say goodness everywhere has to prevail, and that means we need to express it, we need to call for it and we need to do it together. It means we need to join hands and call for it in every form where it is clearly not there and where things are clearly wrong. I mentioned the protests – they are one example – but that is what the victims from all sides deserve and that is what our world deserves, so my hope is that the goodness of this week can extend to our shores and the future.

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (10:46): I would like to add a few short words, on behalf of the Greens, on this motion. We too welcome the return of the Israeli hostages to their families and acknowledge the two years of fear and heartache these families have gone through. We wish them peace and healing as they reunite, and we acknowledge the pain and suffering of those whose loved ones did not come home and the impacts on the Jewish community, particularly here in Victoria.

I do also think it is important to acknowledge the Palestinians who were released at the same time, who have not yet been mentioned in this debate, many of whom have been held captive by Israel without charge, many for a lot longer than two years. I note that the UN has said that many more children and adults, including many captured health workers, are still held arbitrarily in Israeli detention centres and must be released. I acknowledge that over the last two years over 67,000 Palestinians, a third of them children, have been killed in what the UN has deemed a genocide, and many were been killed before this. I acknowledge the impact that this has had, especially on the Muslim community, including here in Victoria.

The second part of this motion talks about ceasefire. We welcome peace, we welcome ceasefire, but we are also disturbed by reports of continued attacks on Palestinians by Israeli military forces and reports of the withholding of agreed aid. We call for a true ceasefire and lasting peace and the uninterrupted flow of aid, and we acknowledge that any peace plan must include Palestinian involvement and a clear path for Palestinians to exercise their internationally recognised right to self-determination and an end to the occupation. May peace prevail. May justice prevail.

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (10:48): I want to add a couple of comments to this motion. I thank the Premier for bringing it to the floor of this Parliament. The horror and atrocities perpetrated against innocent Israelis on 7 October 2023 marked the single largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. That is not something we should ever lose sight of. This was a profound event, and it is an event that has, in my experience, crept into every single interaction, every event, every encounter with members of Melbourne’s Jewish community over the course of the last two excruciatingly painful years. It was a day of unspeakable terror as families were slaughtered, children were murdered and entire communities were traumatised, perhaps forever, by the brutality of Hamas.

But the suffering did not end on that day, because hundreds of hostages were taken – men, women, children, the elderly – and many of them have been held in captivity for most if not all of these two years. Some of them, sadly, are returning not to the loving arms of their family but in coffins. The awful pain, the awful truth, that attaches to the joy of the hostages returning is those who are not returning alive. This has been a profoundly important event for Melburnians, and I think it is entirely appropriate that this Parliament take the opportunity to talk about it, because the impact on Melbourne’s Jewish community has been profound.

I have never seen antisemitism in my lifetime like we have seen in the last two years.

When antisemitic graffiti makes it all the way to the footpaths of Mitcham, you know that you are dealing with something that is not confined to a radical rabble in the CBD or confined to areas in Melbourne’s southern suburbs. It is something that has gone way wider than that, and my great fear is that we now have an established narrative of antisemitism, that we now have a pattern of antisemitism that will take a very long time to properly combat.

I want to thank the leadership of my friend the member for Box Hill, who has shown such extraordinary strength through this very, very difficult period, particularly within a party where there is a diversity of views around these matters. It is uncomfortable territory when you are in the left and you find yourself agreeing with Andrew Bolt on things or agreeing with others from the right on things, but I have found myself, perhaps surprisingly, at one level agreeing with the absolute condemnation of Hamas, the absolute condemnation of these attacks and the willingness to support those who support Israel and to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who believe in the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, as I do.

We ought be very, very careful not to concatenate the Netanyahu government with Israel or concatenate Judaism with Zionism, or to concatenate being a Melbourne Jew with being an Israeli decision-maker, as the member for Box Hill so eloquently explained. We do not often say, ‘America has done XYZ.’ We frequently say, ‘Trump has done XYZ,’ and yet somehow in this debate, it is always ‘Israel has done X’ or ‘Israel has done Y.’ You can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with Melbourne’s Jewish community and proudly support the existence of an Israeli state whilst disagreeing with some of the actions of the Netanyahu government, and that is the position I find myself in. I think it is so important that we approach this debate about what comes next with nuance.

Winning back the hostages has been really, really hard. Winning peace will actually be harder, and I urge everyone to respect the nuance of this debate, to respectfully disagree, where they need to, with actions taken on either side of this debate, but to do so in a way that is respectful of Melbourne’s Jewish population, that is respectful of Melbourne’s Muslim population and that fundamentally recognises the core and gross injustice at the heart of this issue – the extraordinary attack on civilian life, the extraordinary targeting of civilians. It has been an incredibly painful period for Melbourne’s Jewish community. I am so pleased that some of that pain has now ended, but I am very conscious of the fact that it is not over. It is not over in terms of winning the peace. That will be a very, very difficult part of this process, and of course I want peace to prevail in this part of the world.

This Parliament has a duty to uphold the values that bind our democracy: freedom, tolerance, mutual respect and the protection of all citizens, regardless of faith or heritage. The anti-hate-speech changes that were made through this chamber, I think about a year ago, were important changes, and I supported them. I will continue to support Melbourne’s faith communities, irrespective of what faith they are, in peacefully practising their faith. But let us never lose sight of the extraordinary terrorist act that commenced this process and the profound injustice that sits at the heart of it.

My heart breaks for Melbourne’s Jewish community. My heart breaks particularly for young Jews whose schools have been vandalised or who have been pilloried whilst attending university campuses. Their experience has been horrific throughout this period too, and as Victorian legislators our first duty is of course to those Victorians who have done it tough as a result of the egregious, disgusting and appalling acts of Hamas on the other side of the world. So today we stand with the Jewish community. I want to extend to them and to the member for Caulfield and the member for Box Hill our love and appreciation for every single thing that Melbourne’s Jewish community has done for us and for our state, our great delight that the hostages are home and our very best wishes for better days ahead for Melbourne’s Jewish community.

Motion agreed to.