Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (12:07): I move:

That this house:

(1)   tenders Victoria’s heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the 15 innocent people murdered at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025;

(2)   condemns the atrocity which stole their lives, an act of terrorism deliberately targeted at Australia’s Jewish community gathering to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah;

(3)   unequivocally condemns the evil of antisemitism and vows stronger action to prevent extremism and keep our state safe, strong, proud and united;

(4)   honours the courage, composure and quick action of all the police officers, first responders, healthcare workers and everyday people whose dedication and skill saved lives;

(5)   acknowledges the trauma of the men, women and children injured physically and psychologically, including those who witnessed the horror; and

(6)   affirms the fundamental right of every Jewish Victorian to live, work, worship and learn in peace and safety; to participate fully and freely in the civic life of our state; and to gather in community without fear or hindrance, proud of who they are, and proud of the profound contributions Jewish Victorians have made to the life and success of our state.

We move this motion today out of respect for those who were killed, for the people who loved them and for a community that has endured immense pain. We offer our condolences to every family grieving an irreplaceable loss, and we speak directly to Jewish Victorians, to those who felt grief, fear and heartbreak in the days since. This was an act of antisemitic terror. It was deliberate, it was targeted and it has shaken people across our state and across our entire country.

In the weeks after the attack I spent time with Victoria’s Jewish community at memorials, meetings and Hanukkah events across Melbourne. Every place held its own quiet grief, but everywhere the feeling was the same.

At a festival I attended, a story was shared that spoke to the heart of this tragedy. It was about Reuven Morrison, a Melbourne grandfather. A man who had fled the Soviet Union searching for safety. A man who chose Australia because he believed it was the safest place in the world for his family. A man who met his wife on Bondi Beach. A man who helped establish the Bondi Chabad community that gathered on the afternoon he was killed. Reuven was not someone who sought recognition. He was grounded in faith, family and community. When terror struck that night, he did not turn away. He confronted danger. He tried to protect others. His bravery was instinctive. It came from a lifetime of knowing what it meant to carry responsibility for the people around him. Reuven had already lived through persecution. He had rebuilt his life in a new country, and he believed utterly in the safety and goodness of Australia. I had the privilege of speaking with his family in the days after his murder. To lose him in this way is a heartbreak that is impossible to measure.

We know Reuven was not alone in his courage. His story is one of many from that day. People acted selflessly. They confronted danger to protect those around them, and their bravery stands as a powerful reminder of what we are and who we are as a nation. But as we honour that courage, we must also speak honestly about another emotion, because alongside grief there is anger – there is deep and understandable anger. We must acknowledge that without hesitation. How could there not be anger? A Holocaust survivor killed on a beach celebrating Hanukkah, parents and grandparents taken from their families, the beautiful young 10-year-old Matilda murdered while sharing a moment of joy with her sister, people who had survived the worst of the 20th century only to face deadly antisemitic hatred in 21st-century Australia – how could we not be angry? After a tragedy like this, anger is not necessarily a sign of division; it is a sign of love, because it stems from that simple belief that our country must be safe for one another.

It is our responsibility as leaders and as governments to prevent attacks like this whether they happen in Bondi or in Ripponlea. The truth is that governments have let you down. Your fears were real. The warnings were clear and we failed, and I want you to know how sorry I am. I also want you to know I share your anger and your resolve. We stand with Jewish Victorians always. We will defend your right to gather. We will defend your right to practise your faith without fear, and we will defend your right to live openly and proudly in this state. We will confront antisemitism wherever it appears: in schools, in universities, in workplaces, online, on our streets, everywhere. We do it first and foremost through the law: through tougher anti-vilification and hate speech protections, banning the signs and symbols of terror, limiting protests that prevent people from worshipping freely, and limiting protests after attacks like this one that we are mourning today. We do it through how government operates: requiring a social cohesion commitment when awarding grants, adopting the broadest definition of antisemitism and implementing here in Victoria every one of the recommendations from the antisemitism envoy that relates to the responsibility of state governments. And above all, we do it by setting a strong moral example: speaking up and speaking out. This is a responsibility that belongs to all of us in this place: to lead with clarity. We cannot reverse what happened that evening. We can decide what we do today – for the people we lost, for the parents who shielded children, for the strangers who pulled others to safety, for the off-duty officers and those first responders that ran towards the fire and for the Jewish community who were targeted.

To the Jewish community of Victoria, I want to say this very clearly: Jews belong here. You have built places of worship, learning, culture and care that enrich our state. You have shaped this state’s story. You have contributed to every part of Victorian life in such an enormous and influential way. In this moment of your grief and fear, you are not alone. Your Parliament stands with you; your government stands with you.

So today we pause. We mourn the 15 innocent lives taken. We honour their bravery and the communities they helped build. May their memories be a blessing, and may this tragedy give us resolve to protect faith, to fight antisemitism and to reject hatred in all its forms and let the light prevail. I commend the motion to the house.

 Jess WILSON (Kew – Leader of the Opposition) (12:15): 6:47 pm on 14 December 2025 is a time that will be forever stamped into our national memory, when phones lit up across the country with urgent alerts and frantic messages. I was in the car on the way to the Hanukkah celebration in Melbourne when the first reports came through. Initial updates spoke of a shooting in Bondi. Within minutes there were whispers that the shooting was at a Hanukkah gathering. For many of us the idea of a deliberate attack against the Jewish community in Australia was almost impossible to process. We refreshed our screens, called friends and searched for reliable information, anything to make sense of the scenes that were unfolding. But many in the Jewish community knew instantly what had happened: their worst fear had been realised. Many in the community had been warning that escalating antisemitism would culminate in a targeted and deadly act of violence against Australian Jews, against 15 innocent people exercising a freedom all Australians should have – to celebrate their faith without fear.

Never let us forget those 15 innocent lives now lost to us: young Matilda, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Dan Elkayam, Peter Meagher, Alexander Kleytman, Adam Smyth, Tania Tretiak, Boris and Sofia Gurman, Reuven Morrison, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Tibor Weitzen, Marika Pogany, Edith Brutman, Boris Tetleroyd.

I acknowledge the frustration and the anger of many in the Jewish community whose deeply held fears about a violent culmination of growing antisemitism have now been realised. Many have expressed their frustration that the thoughts and prayers of leaders have felt increasingly devoid of meaning as attacks against Jewish places of worship and businesses continued to unfold. As Jillian Segal, the nation’s antisemitism envoy, said in the days following the Bondi attack:

I have to say that I’ve been holding my breath, fearing that something like this would happen, because it hasn’t come without warning …

The member for Caulfield, who has been fighting relentlessly for his community, has heard every single day that the Jewish community are sick and tired of their concerns being met with feigned pleasantries and assurances followed by inaction, and perhaps the most unpopular platitude many Jewish Victorians have told me they are sick of hearing is the claim that there is no place for antisemitism, because saying that has proved hollow. Antisemitism has been allowed to fester and to grow.

I had the privilege of visiting Sheina Gutnick, the daughter of the heroic Reuven Morrison, while she and her family were sitting in shiva, the Jewish mourning period, at their home in Melbourne. With her permission, I wish to share her words about her father to the house:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

There are not enough words to contain who he was, but on the night of 14 December, the world met him, not through stories or speeches but through raw unfiltered footage on phones and television screens. They saw his courage in motion: a father standing up to terror, a Jew refusing to be silent, a man who ran toward danger and threw himself against it to protect others. More voices come forward, friends, strangers, survivors all saying the same words: ‘Your father saved my life.’ When the first shots rang out and people dropped to the ground, my father lifted his head. He saw that no-one was fighting back, and he stood. He rose like a lion. He shouted at the terrorist, swore at him, challenged him: ‘How dare you come here? How dare you come to our place, to our people?’

There is one image that is burnt into me: a still frame, my father eye to eye with death. No fear, no hesitation, only resolve. He ran across the grass, drawing the gunman away from the crowd toward the bridge. A woman later told me that she lay over her children, certain it was her final moment. The gun was pointed at her. Then suddenly the terrorist turned. My father had distracted him. He had pulled him away.

Another family say he ran out in front of them, placing himself between him, them and the bullets. And then came the footage the world saw: my father throwing a brick at an armed terrorist, not out of recklessness but out of instinct, out of refusal to stand by. More footage followed: my father grabbing the gun. He knew how to use one. He was ready to fight. He was shot in the wrist. Then another bullet and then another. He collapsed to the ground.

My father once said that when we leave this world, we take nothing with us, but he did. Eleven bullets were found in his body, a silent record of the final minutes of his life – minutes filled with courage, with clarity and with selflessness.

Sheina is one of the most articulate people I have ever met. She shared heartfelt reflections about her dad, his love for Australia and his unwavering belief that you help and uplift everyone you can. She also shared with me her belief that Bondi happened because of systemic failures of leadership in stamping out antisemitism.

When I speak to leaders and members of the Jewish community, what they have told me is they do not want higher walls or tighter security. These things might be necessary in the short term, but we cannot put a ring fence around the Jewish community and expect the more fundamental poison of antisemitism to simply go away of its own accord. Antisemitism is an ancient hatred and remains a toxic, corrosive influence on modern societies the world over, and we must be honest with ourselves that antisemitism has become normalised in our country in recent years. It is perhaps an indictment that I feel the need to say the following: Jewish Australians are Australians. They deserve to be able to fully participate in the Australian way of life free from violence and persecution. Jewish mothers should not have to walk past armed guards to drop their kids off at school. Jewish families should not have to walk past armed guards to simply attend synagogue and pray. That is not an acceptable set of circumstances in Australia in 2026.

In the days after the Bondi attack I attended a local Christmas carols in the park with my family. I did not even for a moment stop to consider whether security would be a necessary precaution for that event. I go to mass on Christmas Day every year. Never once has it occurred to me that there would be a need for police presence at the church, but in the wake of terror at Bondi, it has never been clearer that if we do not stop the hate and put an end to the disease that is antisemitism, then nobody in this country can take for granted their safety to worship freely regardless of their religion. We must combat antisemitism as a root cause of this violence and ensure that it is eradicated from our national discourse and that it is never again allowed to take root in our community with such tragic and violent ends.

The time for never again is now. To our wonderful Victorian Jewish community: you enrich the culture of our state and have made, and continue to make, profound contributions to Victoria. This is my commitment to you: I will work every single day to make sure that you are able to live, work, worship and learn in peace and safety, that you can be proud and public about who you are and what you believe in, that you will thrive, not just survive. And when you voice your concerns, my team will not dismiss them out of hand with hollow platitudes. As the senior rabbi at Caulfield synagogue Rabbi Daniel Rabin wrote following the Bondi massacre:

The choices we make now won’t just shape the future of the Jewish community.

They’ll shape the future of Australia.

 Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Education, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (12:26): When we enter this place there are moments that transcend politics, moments that are bigger and more important because of what they represent. This is one of those moments. Hanukkah should be a joyous occasion for Jewish communities around the world. It is marked by lighting candles and singing songs. It is a celebration of Jewish resilience against oppression in ancient times, the triumph of light over darkness. But on a warm, balmy night on 14 December at Bondi Beach as families and friends gathered to celebrate, joyous sounds were shattered by gunfire. Around 1000 people were at Bondi celebrating Hanukkah. Fifteen would never go home, and some 40 were injured. Every single person there that night had their life changed forever. Our nation was changed forever. This was the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil. It was not random, it was targeted at Jewish people celebrating a Jewish festival. The stark reality of antisemitism and its deadly consequences was exposed for every Australian to see.

We are here to remember and honour the 15 victims and the survivors and to send strength and solidarity to every Australian of Jewish descent. We also pay tribute to the many who risked or gave their lives to protect others. Each of them is a hero in the truest sense – the first responders, the paramedics, the surf lifesavers, police, community service volunteers and the ordinary people who intervened. The world knows the story of Ahmed Al Ahmed, who wrestled a gun away from one of the attackers. His courage symbolises the best of Australian multiculturalism – a Muslim man born in Syria risking his life to save Jewish people. Ahmed was only in Bondi by chance. He was actually there looking for where he could get a good cup of coffee, and he was welcomed into the Hanukkah event by a rabbi. He ran towards danger for people he did not know but who he knew shared his common humanity. He reminds us that this is not a fight between one religion and another but between extremism and tolerance, between hate and humanity. In the words of former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert, ‘We must live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools.’

Another hero that day the nation has come to know is Reuven Morrison. Reuven came to Australia as a teenager seeking a safe refuge away from antisemitism. He lived in Victoria, but he was at Bondi to celebrate Hanukkah with his wife and his community. When the shooting started he did not cower; he ran towards danger, trying to stop the attackers. He hurled insults at them and threw bricks at them. His bravery gave precious time for others to run, to escape, to live. Reuven lost his own life, but his heroism saved so many more. When I met his wife Leah and their daughter at their home they spoke of a man who embodied the very best of our country, a man who supported his community, who fought for those less fortunate. When we think of 14 December, his name is one we should remember.

The tragedy of his loss and of all 15 victims lies not only in their deaths but in the precious time their loved ones have been robbed of together: celebrations, milestones. Every day taken from them is a tragedy.

Over the past two months I have spent a great deal of time with the Jewish community, and it is wonderful to have so many of them in the gallery today. I have heard their grief, their sorrow and their anger – that they had felt the rise of antisemitism in this country over the past two years and that they feared it would come to this. As leaders, we must all take responsibility. What happened at Bondi was a failure of our nation to keep Jewish people safe. An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every single Australian. We cannot change the past, but we can work to make sure that what happened at Bondi never happens again. No Australian should ever feel unsafe or unwelcome because of their faith, background or heritage. So to every Jewish Australian I say this: you deserve to feel welcome and you deserve to feel safe. You deserve physical safety and cultural safety. You deserve tolerance, inclusion and equality. And that safety is unconditional. It has nothing to do with your opinions or your views. It is your inalienable right.

Our government, as the Premier said, has begun taking action to combat the hateful speech and extremism that contributed to the Bondi attack. We are working to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of radicals and give police the powers they need to protect our community. Education is also critical. It is one of the most powerful tools we have to fight ignorance and hate. In the words of the great unifier Martin Luther King, ‘Men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other.’ We must, as Martin Luther King called out, deepen our knowledge of each other to break down the walls and build understanding. That is a great goal of education and one we will continue to strive for. That is why in Victoria, Holocaust education is now mandatory for secondary students and we have provided support to Jewish schools to strengthen their security. But we know there is more to do, and we will do it. We will not rest until every Jewish Australian feels safe and respected and knows that we will never turn a blind eye to antisemitism. We will always remember the 15 lives taken at Bondi. We will always remember the heroes and the survivors. We will support the Jewish community and all those affected as they rebuild their lives, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that what happened at Bondi never happens again.

To the people of Victoria I say this: the world may seem dark at the moment, but there is light in times like this. I remember the memorial that was held 30 days after the Bondi attack. I saw Victorians from every community, every postcode and every political persuasion standing arm in arm, as one, to honour the precious memories of the innocent lives lost. I once again heard Reuven’s daughter Sheina reflect on her father and his life. What struck me was not just his bravery but the ongoing impact Reuven has had on those around him; I realised Reuven’s legacy reached far beyond his actions at Bondi. It echoes in every person he listened to and supported, every kind word and every quiet act of empathy Reuven showed. The world may feel dark at the moment, but people like Reuven are the light. Now it is up to each of us to be that light as well.

 Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (12:34): I rise on behalf of the Nationals to extend our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the Bondi terror attack, to all that were impacted and particularly to the Australian and Victorian Jewish communities. 14 December 2025 has, sadly, become one of those times when we will all remember where we were. I was driving to Melbourne from home when I saw a message come up from my brother saying, ‘I hope no-one is involved in the horrible events at Bondi.’ Having family in Sydney, I immediately went to see what he was talking about and was horrified. The early indications that this was a deliberate attack on the Jewish community I, frankly, did not believe. I wanted to see more information, because this is not Australia, this is not our country and this is not who we are or what we want to be. But, sadly, it has come to this state.

My own understanding and knowledge of the Jewish community is relatively limited, and it is mostly informed by my good friend the member for Caulfield, who is a champion of his community. But on the day after the horrible event I joined him and the Leader of the Opposition and others at the Caulfield synagogue, and what I found there was a community in grief – a community connected in a spiritual, cultural way, quite incredibly, with their brothers and sisters in Sydney and, as the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition have said, a community that was angry, very angry. Probably what struck me, apart from the grief and anger from the individuals, was on two occasions on that day attending the Caulfield synagogue and seeing the numbers of police and security guards around that synagogue. Clearly it was a heightened situation the day after and the fact of the cabinet and many from the opposition being there increased the security risk, but as the Leader of the Opposition indicated, this is sadly something that the Jewish community have had to get used to: security around their events, security around their places of worship and security around their schools. Like the Leader of the Opposition, I cannot fathom how it would be to go about your daily business and have to be worried about an attack such as this at any given time.

We remember the victims and the heroes, and the Deputy Premier has mentioned Ahmed al-Ahmed. There were many others, including Reuven Morrison, one of the victims. The others were Edith Brutman; Dan Elkayam; Boris and Sofia Gurman, who were killed at the start of the attack when they tried to prevent it from happening; Alexander Kleytman; Rabbi Yaakov Levitan; Peter Meagher; Marika Pogany; Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Adam Smyth, who was simply walking past with his wife when the attack occurred; Boris Tetleroyd; Tania Tretiak; Tibor Weitzen; and 10-year-old Matilda. I want to read out a little bit of the experience as relayed to the ABC by her father Michael Britvan:

We dropped to the floor. To be honest I thought that it’s going to be over in a second. I thought there would be police or something … but the shooting just kept happening.

Mr Britvan said he initially could not locate his daughter in the chaos of the attack.

I couldn’t see Matilda straightaway and I was trying to stay down and trying to look.

…

she actually ran to where we were sitting because she got scared. There was chairs, like a row of chairs and when we fell, we fell on other side and I saw Matilda on the other side.

He called out to her repeatedly.

I was screaming, “Matilda, Matilda.”

As he crawled around the chairs to reach her, he realised she had been injured.

… that’s when I realised that she was hurt.

…

[I] was just trying to calm [Matilda] down, trying to tell her, “Please just wait, wait, wait, help will be coming soon” … she just told me that she was hard to breathe.

Help did come from the many people that the Premier, the Deputy Premier and the Leader of the Opposition have mentioned, who came in the face of danger to assist, but sadly for Matilda and the other 14 victims it was too late and not enough. Matilda’s mother Valentyna Poltavchenko said she hoped her daughter’s death would have a broader impact:

I want her to be remembered like a light that will overcome darkness.

We all hope and we here in must work to ensure that the light does indeed overcome the darkness.

 Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh – Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Local Government) (12:39): I rise today to contribute to this most solemn motion of condolence. We grieve for the victims of the antisemitic terror attack at Bondi, we send our best wishes to those who were wounded physically and we also acknowledge the many people who witnessed the attack and will bear the psychological wounds for a very, very long time.

While this attack occurred in another state, it landed very, very heavily in my local community. I have lived in my Bentleigh electorate all of my life. Therefore I grew up alongside a very large Jewish community. As a local member of Parliament and before that as a local councillor in I think the most Jewish municipality in Australia, I have attended many Hanukkah events, usually held in a park: events with baby animal farms, face painting and jumping castles – events that are primarily for children. So when two terrorists open fire on such an event, it is truly something that is difficult to come to terms with.

Australians’ freedom to practise their faith, to gather in community and to raise their children in safety is fundamental to who we are. On 14 December that freedom was violently violated. Hanukkah is a festival of light. It is about resilience in the face of fear and hope in the face of darkness. It should have been an evening of songs, candles and children running around with sticky fingers and big smiles, and instead it became a scene of horror. To the Jewish community in Bentleigh and to Jewish communities right across Victoria and Australia I want to say this plainly: you should be able to live openly, proudly and safely as Jewish Australians. You should not have to look over your shoulder on the way to synagogue, and parents should not have to second-guess whether it is safe to take their children to a community celebration. No family should have to weigh their faith against their security.

Antisemitism is not an abstract idea. It is not just words; it is a poison that dehumanises people. It is the oldest form of hatred. What we saw at Bondi was a pure act of hatred: the targeting of Jews in public, in community, at what should have been a moment of joy. It was terrorism, it was antisemitic and we as a Parliament condemn it without qualification. The people who perpetrate acts of terror want division. They want Australians to retreat into anger and mistrust and blame and politics, and we must deny them that victory. The worst gun massacre since Port Arthur calls for national unity. That means standing shoulder to shoulder against antisemitism and against hatred in every form while remaining absolutely clear about the threat posed by violent extremism. It also means practical action, not just sympathy. That is why anti-vilification laws, anti-hate laws and everything that has been announced since then are so important.

My brother-in-law is Jewish. A few days after the terror attack in Bondi we gathered at their home for a joint Christmas and Hanukkah celebration, and we lit a Hanukkiah in front of the Christmas tree. That joyous family occasion really was in stark contrast to and perhaps a reprieve from the tensions that we have experienced in Australia and globally over the last couple of years, which have been unprecedented in my lifetime. It is as though we have lost the ability to walk in each other’s shoes, to acknowledge the impact that our words and actions have on other people. That is why in Victoria we will continue working closely with Jewish community organisations to do everything we can to tackle antisemitism and to keep our community safe.

To those mourning today: we stand with you. Your grief is not yours alone. To every Jewish Victorian listening, including those in my electorate of Bentleigh: you belong here. Your culture enriches our state, your faith is part of our story and your safety is not negotiable. May the memories of those lost be a blessing, may the injured heal and may we honour the victims, not only with words in this chamber but with an enduring commitment as leaders and as a community to confront antisemitism wherever it appears and to ensure that light always defeats darkness. I commend the motion to the house.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (12:43): 14 December 2025 will be known as one of the darkest days in Australia’s history. After 7 October 2023 the Jewish community saw something that I think we have never seen before. We all knew antisemitism – we have all seen it and some of us have experienced it – but for the best part of it the game changed after 7 October 2023. We knew that this was going to happen – it was just a matter of when and where. To understand what the community has been through in that time and to watch people living in fear is just beyond belief. I acknowledge the member for Box Hill, who also has seen it. We have all seen it, but there is nothing more than actually living it. I say that we have to do something because it will happen again. To all those that have spoken, I thank you for that. I thank you, Premier, for your apology, but we need to recognise the evil that has come to our great Australia and the fact that 15 people are no longer with us.

Many of those that are no longer with us were Russian-born immigrants that came to Australia to escape persecution, because Australia was the safe place. Australia is where they came. A Holocaust survivor chose Australia, the furthest place from the evil of the Holocaust, to come here and reside in safety. And what has happened? The Leader of the Opposition talks about walls behind which we now live.

When I first started this job, we would have celebrations down the main street. We would have Simhath Torah, the actual day on which 7 October happened. These are targeted attacks. These extremists choose when the Jewish community is celebrating at its best to try to bring darkness, to put hate over the light that we try to shine during these festivals. Simhath Torah, we would celebrate on the main streets. Hanukkah, which we used to do in Caulfield Park, is now at Caulfield Racecourse, because we can secure Caulfield Racecourse better than we can the park. The very fact that we had Ahmed who came to help during that time was because it was an open event. The Jewish community want to welcome people. The thing that our community is so much about is showing people and sharing the love. This is the multicultural Victoria that we know and that we love – we love the fact that we can learn from one another. But why is it that the Jewish community needs to hide behind walls? Why is it that way?

After what happened, as the Leader of the Opposition said, I was on my way to the Hanukkah event. It is probably one of the best times of the year, I have got to say, because we get up and we light the Hanukkiah on the first day. It gets raised up on this big platform and we celebrate and sing and dance, and it is so joyful. Well, that crane was never lifted and that Hanukkiah was never lit on the first day of Hanukkah – it was abandoned. It was abandoned at Caulfield Racecourse because we could not continue. Over the eight days where there was meant to be light and happiness and celebration of Hanukkah, it was hard to smile. It was impossible to smile. We lit the candles each and every day, but each one of those candles had a different meaning.

On the morning of the eighth day, I attended with Rabbi Sufrin and Rabbi Gorelik and a number of members of the Jewish community. Rabbi Sufrin leads the Russian Jewish community on Carlisle Street. We got on a plane to spend time with the Russian community, many of whom had lost their loved ones. Over a thousand people attended that event. Nearly half of those were from a Russian-speaking community. Many of those who were murdered were from the Russian-speaking community. We got on the plane and Rabbi Sufrin handed me a kippah, and he said, ‘When you get to the religious events, wear one of ours’ – it is very territorial; each shul has their own kippah – ‘Wear the Carlisle Street one.’ I got on the plane and I put the kippah on my head and I said, ‘For the day, I’m going to walk in the shoes of an Orthodox Jew – on the plane, in Bondi, at the airport, everywhere – and understand what it is like.’

That moment we spent together visiting Rabbi Ulman, who was the leader of that community, whose son-in-law Rabbi Eli was murdered and who organised that event. We got there for the morning prayers. Rabbi Eli’s son, who had lost his dad, was saying the prayers – a teenage boy, 14, saying the prayers. Rabbi Eli had five kids. The youngest was two months old and was in hospital with shrapnel. His wife was also injured. They are the light; they are the ones that organised this event. Rabbi Ulman had to bury four people on the Friday. Many of the 15 people were from his congregation, people he went on to bury, while at the same time losing his son-in-law, the rod from Chabad in Bondi.

People today have mentioned Reuven Morrison and Sheina Gutnick, who has been such an inspiration in telling the story of her dad. It is so important to talk about people that stood up against evil. He fought with a brick, took 11 bullets and kept fighting. Reuven Morrison came to Australia to escape persecution. He married Leah, and he fought to have that synagogue built. He fought to ensure that those that needed it would have it, and he would not put his name on the wall. He would just make sure that a community member, somebody that was suffering, would be supported through the community, because that is the kind of person that Reuven was.

The list goes on. When we visited the many families during the day in Bondi, we visited the family of Tibor Weitzen, a 78-year-old automotive engineer from the Soviet Union who died shielding others, including his wife Eva. We went to Tibor’s family home, and Hanna and her husband Mishel were actually from my synagogue, Hamerkaz. They had lost their dad, and days on they could not recognise their father because of the damage that was done to him by those terrorists. He needed to be identified by the clothes that he was wearing. That is what those evil people did. One of his grandchildren was days from giving birth, and she has now given birth. That grandchild will never meet Tibor.

We finished the day by going to St Vincent’s Hospital to visit family members. We had been to people’s homes, we had been to Bondi, we had laid flowers, but then walking around the hospital I was not sure of that feeling of walking around a hospital when people were being operated on. As a member of Parliament I did not feel right being there. The rabbis there all of a sudden got a call that we needed to go up to the top floor because Ya’akov had just come out of an operation. Ya’akov is the son of Boris Tetleroyd, who died at 68 years of age. His son Ya’akov was shot and had just come out of an operation. Ya’akov had his shoulder blown apart, and he had just had an operation. He woke, and there were 10 or 11 of us standing at the door. The first thing that he said is, ‘I need you all here to say prayers for my dad.’ And I knew why we were there, because in the Jewish custom you need 10 men for a minyan, and we were there at that time to be able to say prayers for his dad. He put the Bible in the hand that was literally blown apart. He held that Bible, those fingers moved and with such passion he said prayers for his father, who is no longer with us. That memory will stay with me forever.

We have to do better. The simple thing is we have to do better. We have spoken about stronger laws and the protests that go on every week. We have spoken about Holocaust education, which is so important. We have got kids that are going out there on the football field and calling kids ‘dirty Jew’ at the ages of seven, eight and nine. Why is that happening? Kids are not being educated. We are not doing the job that we need to do as leaders, and we have recognised that, but we have got to all come together and do something about that.

We have got Isaac Herzog coming here to pay respects. President Isaac Herzog is coming here as a figurehead. He is not in government. When he was in government he was in the Labor Party, fighting the current Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu – a very different set of views. Now he is a figurehead coming from Israel to pay respects to those that have lost loved ones and to the Jewish community, who are in mourning. And what is happening? People are arming up for another protest against him, saying, ‘You’re not welcome here.’ Where would that happen with any other community? How can it be acceptable that a leader would do this and we have got protesters thinking that it is okay to protest a head of state coming here to pay their respects after the worst tragedy in Australia’s history. It is the worst tragedy in Australia’s history and the President of Israel is not welcome in Australia. I think that is a disgrace. We must stand against every protester that finds themselves on the streets. If we do not have move-on laws and whatever laws we need, let us get them and let us ensure that we are able to greet a head of state when we, the Jewish community, are in mourning. We must all stand together for that, and we will be ready to help in any way we can.

I say to everybody that there is work to be done. I know there are so many well-meaning people in here – and I have had it, Paul has had it: people have come up and wished their best for us during these times. Those that lost their loved ones in Sydney, in Bondi, are not just in New South Wales; we have all lost them in Australia. Every Jew in Australia is mourning right now, every one of us. For those that have been traumatised by this and those that were there that were injured mentally or physically, I say to you that we must do better and we will do better, and I will help whoever wants help. We have got to come together and ensure that happens, because if we do not, we are failing. What are we here for if not to ensure that all people are welcome and are encouraged to enjoy their traditions, their cultures and their faiths, and to do that in a free way and to do it in such a way that enriches Victoria, because that is who we are. We always talk about how great our multicultural state is. We have really lost our way in the last couple of years. It is time to get it back. It is time to take that back, and let us do it. Let us not leave one community out in the cold. Let us all walk together and ensure we can all make sure that that happens.

I just conclude by once again paying my respects to all 15 that have lost their lives: the 11 men, the three women and 10-year-old Matilda. We should really recognise the future of our community, a vibrant community, which will live strong and continue to contribute to this great state of Victoria. Zichronam livracha. May their memory be a blessing.

 Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (12:58): Usually when I rise to talk on a condolence motion I have had a lot of time to think about it and write some words. I actually found this one very difficult. I have not put any words to paper. It will just be what comes from the heart in the moment.

I will just start with a reflection of that day. My family were not planning to go to the event in Caulfield. From a safety and security perspective, we do not like attending large community events. As we do on every Hanukkah – it was the first night of Hanukkah – we had just lit the first candle and we sat down to play a very traditional game of chance with the dreidel, or the spinning top. It is a game where I always lose. You have a pot of chocolate coins in the middle, and the aim is to secure the largest amount of the chocolate coins. Somehow the kids always win.

The spinning top, or dreidel, that you use has four Hebrew letters, ש, ה, ג, נ, and they are an acronym which means ‘a great miracle occurred there’. This refers to the miracle of Hanukkah that occurred in the old temple. The origins of the game are very interesting and very pertinent to how we see ourselves and in particular to what the member for Caulfield was saying in terms of how Orthodox, or religious, Jews see themselves today. It was developed as a way of keeping the Jewish traditions alive without demonstrating that you were Jewish to the outside world. So if somebody had come in to your home – and you think about those times in Europe or even going back to the Spanish Inquisition, when it was forbidden to be Jewish or to show any signs of Judaism – this was a way of keeping the culture and the tradition alive through a game that to most observers would just be a game but to the Jewish community could continue that sense of Judaism.

We finished the game, and normally we would not be going to watch television or tune into the news – it was a Sunday night – but thankfully the Big Bash had started, so we turned on the television to watch the cricket, and we saw the breaking news that there had been a shooting in Bondi. My first thoughts were not actually for the worst, as bad as that sounds. I actually felt that this was a general attack, perhaps in the moment, in a similar vein to Port Arthur, a horrific attack – that someone had chosen Bondi because of its iconic status as Australia’s global location. If you are overseas, everybody knows of Bondi Beach. It had not really even occurred to me that this could be coinciding with a Hanukkah event. Obviously, as the time moved on, it was clear that this event had been planned and targeted deliberately at a Jewish event.

My heart really sank, and I thought of our family members, our friends who were up in Sydney at the time or who lived in Sydney. I thought of my cousin. I spoke to my cousin that evening. He lives in Coogee and has two young daughters, and they were going to go to the event. But as luck would have it, one of their children was being very uncooperative that day, so they decided that it was all too difficult and they chose not to go. I just think of how fate can intervene in circumstances such as that, where so many other people – all the 15 men and women, including Matilda obviously – made that fateful choice to turn up to an event, a community event, an event that is filled with celebration, filled with light. It is such a story of hope and resilience for the Jewish people, and for that event to be cut short and for those lives to be cut short in such a traumatic manner is just horrific. It is still horrific to think about.

Post 14 December I have reflected a lot on myself and on what I have done and what I could do more. What should I have been saying more in the last two years that could have made a difference? How could I have raised my voice to get my message and our message across in a stronger way? I would ask that to everyone in this place.

All of us are leaders of our community. What more could we have done? What more can we do to make sure that this never, ever happens again, not just to the Jewish community but to any community?

The member for Caulfield referred to Holocaust survivors and, as I have mentioned before, my dad is a Holocaust survivor. Two days before Hanukkah we celebrated his 88th birthday. It is such a treasure that he is still around, healthy, that we can enjoy his company and that my children can enjoy the company of their grandfather. After the horrors that he bore witness to as a child, he came here. Australia has been such a safe and welcoming place for him, for our family and for so many other families who have come from the same situation, and to see what has happened in our community and what has happened in Australian society over the last two years has just been devastating. Words cannot really even do justice to what we are experiencing as a community and what we see our Australian society, which we love, has become. There is a lot more work to do. I will leave you with these words again and ask each and every one of you: what more could we have done? What more can we do?

 James 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, 15 victims who should have lived their full lives. Our world and our country is lesser without them. May their memory be a blessing.

 Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (13:12): I rise with solemn respect to commend very strongly the Premier’s motion today. The abhorrent events of 14 December, represented in the deaths of 15 innocent people, was in many respects an attack on all Australians, on our values, on our democracy, on our liberal, multifaith, cosmopolitan society underpinned by mutual respect, decency and a commitment to the common good. Much more particularly though, it was an attack on Jewish Australians. It was an attack on Jews, on Judaism and on the inalienable rights of Jewish people to practice their faith, to live in peace and security and indeed to live. As Premier Minns said a week after those abhorrent events, it was a crime that was an attempt to marginalise and scatter, to intimidate and cause fear, with particularly pernicious timing on the first night of Hanukkah, which should have represented the enduring power of light. It was a hatred motivated by the faith and culture of others, an ancient hatred that sadly and very clearly endures. As Premier Minns at Bondi also said:

Jews have stood up to this intimidation for thousands of years …

We cannot let them stand alone.

The importance of community safety is my priority – I have talked about it here before – and the first priority of any government. But Australia failed when 87-year-olds like Alex Kleytman, who survived the Shoah, were murdered in Bondi. As Premier Minns and Premier Allan have said, we grieve with humility for that failure, and collectively, both inside this place and across civil society, we have a responsibility to do everything and anything we can to stop it from happening again. Let us be clear, people in Bondi died because of an irrational hatred of Jews, simply on account of their faith and culture. We do not tolerate any form of racism. We must not tolerate antisemitism or allow it to fester in the shadows. Every Australian must have the right to express their faith. A failure to do that demeans us and diminishes our society. It dehumanises, it corrodes relationships and it undermines people’s sense of belonging and safety. It kills.

On 14 December it killed Matilda, Edith Brutman, Dan Elkayam, Boris Gurman, Sofia Gurman, Alex Kleytman, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Peter Meagher, Reuven Morrison, Marika Pogany, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Adam Smyth, Boris Tetleroyd, Tania Tretiak and Tibor Weitzen. Those people ranged in age from 10 to 87. They came from extraordinarily diverse backgrounds. They were Meals on Wheels volunteers. They were sportsmen and photographers. They were united, though, by their love of family and their love of faith, and they were expressing that.

I acknowledge the first responders, who showed extraordinary bravery in seeking to preserve life at Bondi; the trauma specialists in hospitals, which were overwhelmed, which the member for Caulfield talked about; the police, the paramedics and the lifesavers; and the victims who fought back. I acknowledge the response of so many across our community to those horrific events, and I thank the Premier for bringing together so many faith leaders, including many from my community, who were able to express their solidarity with Jews, with Jewish Australians and with the victims of that horrific event. I recognise Ahmed al-Ahmed, who has become a metaphor and a symbol of Australia at its best but is also a very real man, who just happened to be there and sought to do the right thing when confronted by hatred and violence. As the Deputy Premier said, it was an expression of humanity versus hatred.

What happened in Bondi has been very resonant beyond those sandy shores and also beyond the immediate Jewish community, which it has hit so hard. I represent a community in Melbourne’s north that does not have a large Jewish community, but it has been particularly resonant for many who have come to Australia with that promise of Australia that drew so many people who lost their lives at Bondi: a belief that this is a country where anybody can practise their faith freely. So for people from my community who have escaped persecution, hatred and a fear that manifests when they seek to practise their faith, these events hit home hard. They have shared that with me, emphasising that this is a national tragedy that requires a national response as well.

On a recent visit to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, the day after Holocaust Remembrance Day, I saw too the security guards who are there, who are at the schools that Jewish children attend, and it emphasised to me the need for ongoing education to emphasise the consequences of unchecked hatred of Jewish people and indeed of people of any faith. Every Victorian must have that right to live in safety, in freedom, and to practise their faith to express their culture, history and identity. I remember the victims today, I stand in solidarity with them and I commend the Premier’s motion.

 Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (13:18): Jews arrived in this country in the First Fleet. Since then Zelman Cowen, John Monash, Isaac Isaacs, Sidney Myer, Harry Seidler, Victor Smorgon – our Jewish community have been immense contributors to modern Australia. What we saw in Sydney was 15 members of the Jewish community – 15 Australians – murdered by radical Islamic terrorism. You cannot fix a problem if you do not acknowledge what it is. I went to my local synagogue, my local shul, the day after, and the emotions I got from people there and other people in the Jewish community in my electorate since have been anger, despair and terror. For years, two years, this country was warned. That is what they have said to me and that is what I relay in this condolence motion today, the voices of the Jewish community in my electorate: this country was warned.

Melbourne is home, or was home, to the largest numbers of Holocaust survivors post World War II per capita, more than any other city in the world – not Vienna, not Berlin, not London. Outside of Israel it was Melbourne where people came to find their safety and their security. Yet open disrespect to our Jewish community has been clear and obvious to all Australians for two years, even in this place. Post 7 October, on 10 November 2023, we saw what happened on the streets of Caulfield. Why did young men choose to come to the streets of Caulfield to cause mayhem straight after the massacre of Jews in Israel a month before?

Nothing followed; the moment was forgotten. But were warned. What we saw on the Harbour Bridge were open displays of antisemitism and of hatred of our Jewish community in this country. We were warned as a country. We were warned when people assembled at the front of the Opera House and chanted ‘Death to Jews’ and authorities tried to tell us they were saying something else, and we knew they were not. As a country, we have been warned clearly. We were warned when every Friday night our city was allowed to be disrupted by protesters openly attacking our Jewish community, doxxing Jews and outing Jews for their addresses, vandalising their schools and burning down their places of worship in modern Australia. When artists, when universities and when the federal government recognised Palestine, in the middle of all of this, we were warned as a country, and there are consequences for not acting on those warnings. These are the voices from my Jewish community in Doncaster, and I agree with them wholeheartedly.

Excuses were made when politicians could not even use the word antisemitism without adding in Islamophobia. Well, I only saw one religion – one faith – being attacked every Friday night for the last two years. It was not Sikhism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Taoism. It was Judaism. We were warned. We have seen what is coming in all major cities in this country. There is the tolerance of hate by some hate preachers – not a single one deported. There is the funding of hate for some cultural centres who still receive government funding yet call Jews ‘bloodsuckers’. This continues today. There is the refusal to call it out when members of the Victorian Multicultural Commission retweet people who hate Jews. We have been warned. Governments were warned. When normalisation of demonisation is allowed, it manifests. I just say that no-one in my Jewish community wants condolences, thoughts and prayers. They want respect to practice their faith like any other Australian. They want safety. I grieve for what has happened in Sydney. This is a lesson for our whole country, and it should never happen again.

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (13:23): I rise today to offer my deepest condolences following the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025, an act of antisemitic violence that stole 15 innocent lives and shattered families, communities and our nation’s sense of safety. This house mourns those who were murdered simply because of who they were. We grieve with their loved ones. We acknowledge the trauma borne by the Jewish community, and we affirm without qualification that antisemitism has no place in Victoria, nor anywhere in Australia.

In recent weeks I have stood alongside Victorians of all faiths and backgrounds at a number of memorial events, and I will reflect on two of them. The first was the Bondi Shloshim memorial service at St Kilda Hebrew Congregation, where the Jewish community gathered 30 days after the attack to mark loss through remembrance, prayer and reflection. The second was the Victorian state vigil at St Paul’s Cathedral, held as part of the National Day of Mourning, a powerful multifaith expression of unity, grief and resolve. At both events I witnessed sorrow, dignity and strength, but most of all I listened. At the Shloshim reflections were shared by Sheina Gutnick, daughter of Reuven Morrison, of blessed memory, and Perele Goldhirsch, sister of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, of blessed memory. Their words were not political. They were not rhetorical. They were profoundly human. Sheina Gutnick spoke of her father not as a statistic or a victim but as a man of warmth, faith and quiet generosity. She spoke of the ordinary moments that now feel extraordinary in their absence. In doing so, she reminded us that every life taken at Bondi was a universe of relationships, of memory, of love and of unrealised future. Perele Goldhirsch spoke of her brother Rabbi Eli Schlanger as a moral compass within his community, a man whose life was devoted to teaching, compassion and service.

Her reflection caused grief, yes, but also dignity and resolve. She spoke not with hatred but with an insistence on humanity in the face of cruelty. What struck me most was the incredible strength of these speakers. Neither speaker asked for vengeance. They asked for remembrance, for solidarity and for refusal to allow hatred to define our response.

Those reflections stayed with me at the state vigil, where political and multifaith leaders stood together beneath the vaulted ceiling of St Paul’s Cathedral. Candles were lit, names were remembered, silence was observed, including the national minute of silence at 7:01 pm, and landmark buildings across Victoria were illuminated in white as a symbol of light. That light matters. It matters because antisemitism does not exist in isolation; it thrives in silence, in indifference and in the normalisation of hate. When Jewish Australians are targeted, the social fabric of our entire society is weakened.

The message from both commemorations was clear: grief must not divide us, it must bind us together. Victorians were invited to come together across faiths to share meals, to light candles, to undertake acts of kindness – the 15 mitzvoth for Bondi – and to affirm that our response to terror will be community, not fear. Today in this Parliament we have a responsibility to do the same: to honour the 15 lives lost, to stand unequivocally with the Jewish community, to reject antisemitism in all its forms, explicit and implicit, and to recommit ourselves to a Victoria where people of all backgrounds can live openly, safely and without fear.

In Jewish tradition memory is an act of justice. May the memories of Reuven Morrison, Rabbi Eli Schlanger and all those murdered at Bondi be a blessing. And may our actions here and beyond this chamber ensure that their lives are honoured not only in words but in the values we defend. I commend this condolence motion to the house.

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (13:27): It was over a decade ago, in 2013, when I was in my early 20s, that I had the great opportunity to visit Israel for the first time. In this trip with my church we visited the holy sites, did tours with local historians, floated in the Dead Sea and stood sombrely at Masada. I remember it being Shabbat during the time we were in Jerusalem and marvelling that at the hotel the lift had been programmed to stop at every single level, because in Judaism it was and is a holy day.

What I will never forget in my lifetime is visiting the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem. It is a museum that has been entrusted with Holocaust commemoration, documentation and education, remembering the 6 million Jews murdered by Nazis and their collaborators and honouring the righteous among the nations who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. What I saw in there will remain with me forever. There are images from in there that will be forever seared in my memory: the tiny little shoes on display of children lost to the Holocaust, the video footage of scenes too graphic to detail and the archives and displays, all a chilling reminder of what the worst of hate looks like in humanity. I remember leaving the centre weeping, grappling with how unbridled hatred for one’s fellow man could culminate in humanity’s darkest genocide. In part, that is the purpose of the centre: a reminder to the world that the Holocaust really did happen, that Jewish people really were massacred only because they were Jewish. And the centre reminds us that hate and evil left to fester is dark, dangerous, and unfathomably destructive. It has stayed with me for life.

The memories of the centre came back to me when I turned on the news on the 14 December 2025, and it was a horrific terrorist attack where 15 innocent Australians were murdered simply for being Jewish and for practising their faith in public. As the granddaughter of a World War II survivor myself, I never, ever thought this kind of hate would reach our shores. We remember them, every one of those 15 lives. Some laid down to protect others, all lives cut too short.

We remember Alexander Kleytman, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor himself, who moved to Australia to escape the atrocities of his past. The member for Caulfield, who is a pillar in his community, told me earlier today that what many Holocaust survivors did was look at a world map and look at where in the world they could go to escape the atrocities they had survived. They found Australia to be the furthest place they could go to escape and survive.

I have since turned over in my mind what Alexander Kleytman might possibly have been thinking in those final moments, as a Holocaust survivor who successfully emigrated to Australia, made a life for himself here and whose daughter has since said that the happiest day of his life was when he received his Australian citizenship. Yet the hate found him here on our shores, and that hate took his life as he was shot protecting his wife from the gunman. I have turned my mind to those final moments, when he might have thought, ‘I thought I escaped this, but they found me here.’ I think of young Matilda, 10 years old, with her whole life ahead of her. And we remember her. We remember each and every one of the 15 innocent lives now lost to us forever – lost to their families and to the Jewish community. We will remember them. We will not forget them, and we will not forget.

Unbridled hate cannot be allowed to fester on our shores. Hate cannot be allowed to win. As has been said, the Jewish community has been warning us for years that this was a risk and that their worst fears could be realised. Tragically, they were on 14 December. These attacks and this kind of hate are an attack and an affront to all of us. It is an attack on our Australian values and on our multicultural way of life. If allowed to fester, antisemitism and this type of poisonous hatred can descend into unspeakable evil, like we have seen tragically at Bondi. We say we condemn it. It is unacceptable, it is un-Australian and we will fight against it every single day and stand with our Jewish community until they feel safe on our streets and on our shores. We remember Matilda. We remember the 15 victims. May their memories be a blessing.

 Belinda WILSON (Narre Warren North) (13:32): I stand today to speak on the condolence motion following the tragic shooting at Bondi Beach. This was an act of violence that shocked the whole of Australia and the world. It shocked us all to our core, leaving families, friends and entire communities grieving. It was a tragedy that reached far beyond the shoreline where it happened, reaching households and communities nationwide. Bondi Beach is known to all of us. It is known to everyone in the world for its place of connection and of life. It is a place where people gather to enjoy the outdoors, to spend time with loved ones and to share the simple pleasures of everyday life – of family, of children and of laughter. To have such a place become a site of violence is very distressing and confronting. It challenges our sense of safety, and it reminds us how fragile even the most familiar and joyful spaces can be.

Today we mourn the lives that were lost. We mourn the people who should still be here: people with futures, with families, with plans and with hopes, whose lives were taken in an instant – lives that mattered. They will be deeply missed. On behalf of this Parliament and my community, I extend my deepest condolences to the families and all their loved ones. No words spoken by me or anyone in this place will ease their grief. They are now experiencing loss and profound grief and sorrow, something they will carry for the rest of their lives.

This terrorist attack cut me and my soul deeply. It was very close to my home. That is because I have a very close connection to the Jewish community. I worked for over five years for two members of Parliament and worked closely with many, many friends who have a strong connection to this community. I saw their sorrow and the hurt on their faces and in their souls.

I felt responsible because I stand in this place, like each and every one of us does, and it hurt and it cut deeply.

This attack was not about guns, it was about hate, hate to its core, and it was about extremism. It was not about Islam, and my Muslim community are hurting too. One of the first places that I went to the day after this attack was the mosque in my community. They were scared because they understood what the repercussions of this are.

Along with many of my caucus members, the member for Cranbourne, the Premier and the Deputy Premier, we attended the vigil at the Caulfield Shule – a moment to hug our friends, to listen, to let them know that we were there and to tell them that we were sorry.

In these moments of tragedy we often see the best of humanity, and I want to acknowledge the courage shown by members of the public who acted instinctively in these moments to protect others, to provide help and to comfort those in distress. We have heard lots of those stories in today’s motion debate.

I also want to pay tribute to the first responders, the police, the paramedics, the medical staff, the lifesavers and everyone who just jumped in. I am sure there are many, many stories that are yet to be told. Their bravery and dedication reflect the highest values of public service, and we thank them. We also recognise the emotional toll all these events take on these people. They are experiences that will stay with them forever.

I also want to acknowledge the Bondi community. I have many friends that live in that area, and they have been marked with sadness and sorrow. It is a community that will carry the memory of this day with it forever, yet it is also a community that will show resilience, compassion and unity as it begins to heal in this process.

Today we remember, we hold our families a little tighter, we say our prayers, no matter what faith we are, we acknowledge their pain and the long road ahead and we stand with all of them in grief. We will find healing, and we will try and find peace. May our nation continue to respond to tragedy not with fear or division but with compassion and with unity. I commend this condolence motion to the house.

 Rachel WESTAWAY (Prahran) (13:38): I rise to support this motion and to tender Victoria’s heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the 15 innocent people murdered at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025. On what should have been the first day of the joyful evening of Hanukkah families gathered for the annual Chanukah by the Sea. Children played, parents smiled, and a community came together. Fifteen lives were taken, among them a 10-year-old girl, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of the 20th century only to fall to hatred in the 21st, rabbis, grandparents and a couple who died heroically trying to disarm one of the attackers. To every family who lost a loved one, this Parliament grieves with you. This house condemns unequivocally the atrocity that stole these lives.

This was an act of terrorism deliberately targeted at Australia’s Jewish community when they gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. We must name it plainly: it was an antisemitic attack. This attack did not emerge from a vacuum. It was the most devastating point on a trajectory of escalating hatred. It began with what some dismissed as small things: graffiti on a St Kilda synagogue and on the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in South Yarra on more than one occasion, hateful slogans on the walls of Mount Scopus and swastikas on cars. Then it escalated: windows smashed at a member of Parliament’s office and my own electorate office defaced, children taunted on school excursions. Then, further still, in December 2024, the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea was firebombed.

In July 2025 another synagogue was set alight during Shabbat dinner. The normalisation of small acts of hatred leads to spray paint. Spray paint leads to arson. Arson leads to Bondi Beach. I have always been an advocate for inclusion, because when one group is allowed to be targeted it gives permission for other minority groups to be targeted, and that is not the Australia that I want to live in.

I find it extraordinary that there are so many conflicts in the world – Russia and Ukraine, Thailand and Cambodia, Sudan and Yemen – conflicts causing immense suffering, yet none have brought protesters to our CBD weekend after weekend for two years. Only one conflict has done that, and the Jewish community has had to endure the consequences of it.

According to the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, there were 552 antisemitic incidents in this state in 2024 alone, a 52 per cent increase on the previous record. This house condemns the evil of antisemitism, and it vows stronger actions to keep our state safe, strong, proud and united. We honour the courage of all police officers, first responders and healthcare workers whose skills saved lives that evening, and we also honour the everyday people who showed extraordinary bravery. Boris and Sofia Gurman gave their lives attempting to disarm a gunman. Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-born Australian, charged at one of the attackers and wrestled a weapon from him. His courage reminds us that the bonds of our common humanity are much stronger than the ideology of hate. We acknowledge the trauma of the men, women and children injured physically and psychologically. More than 40 people were wounded, and the scars will endure for an absolute lifetime.

The electorate of Prahran sits in the heart of one of the most culturally diverse communities in Australia. Our suburb adjoins that of the most significant centres of Jewish life in this country. Victoria is home to 60,000 Jewish Australians, the largest Jewish community in the nation. Melbourne’s Jewish community is woven into the fabric of our city – the synagogues of St Kilda and Caulfield, the schools, the businesses on our local streets. These are our neighbours, our friends, the parents at school drop-off. Many came as refugees and rebuilt their lives here because Australia promised them safety, belonging and the freedom to worship in peace, and that promise must be upheld.

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (13:43): On behalf of the Victorian Greens, I rise to add our voices to the condolence motion for the victims of the horrific antisemitic Bondi terrorist attack in December. Bondi, as people have mentioned, sent a shock wave through us all. We often look at the US and ask how that country has become so complacent to so many gun massacres happening in their community, and we thank our lucky stars that Australia is not like that and that when we go out in public we are safe. Then something like Bondi happens and it completely rocks our sense of safety and security. To have so many lives taken in such a brutal way at an event that is so familiar to many of us – people simply gathering for a celebration with their community by the beach – is an unspeakable horror. But none have been rocked more than the Jewish community, who were deliberately targeted with this brutal violence at a Hanukkah event, an attack fuelled by repugnant hatred and antisemitism. Fifteen families lost children, parents, grandparents and loved ones in the most horrific way at the hands of two men who held racist, antisemitic views that are simply and unequivocally wrong.

As many other people no doubt would have as they were reflecting on their speeches, I thought a lot of Matilda, the 10-year-old child. My own daughter is about to turn nine, and she too spent some of her summer at the beach, with not a care in the world, just like Matilda deserved to do. To lose a child is the worst thing imaginable, and to lose them in these circumstances is just too horrific to imagine. I would like to, as others have done, put the names of the Bondi victims on the record to remember them: Matilda, Edith, Dan, Boris and Sofia, Alexander, Rabbi Yaakov, Peter, Reuven, Marika, Rabbi Eli, Adam, Boris, Tania and Tibor.

Like many people with children, it has been a struggle to figure out how to explain it to my own children when they ask questions about an event like this, but I always remember the advice to look for the helpers and how extraordinary it is to see the lengths that people will go to to save others, even risking or giving their own lives.

I will not be mentioning the names of the killers here today. They do not deserve fame or notoriety. The people who deserve fame and recognition are the first responders who jumped into action and other people like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Muslim man, who bravely wrestled the gun from one of the killers, chose not to shoot and was shot five times himself, thankfully not fatally. The people who deserve to have their names in lights are the Jewish couple Boris and Sofia Gurman, who were tragically murdered while confronting the killers at the beginning of the attack; people like Jessica Rozen, a pregnant mum who shielded a stranger’s child during the gunfire; and people like Reuven Morrison, who drew the killers away from the crowd. And there are countless others of course whose names I do not know who risked and gave their own lives to save the lives of others. May their memory be a blessing.

In the aftermath of Bondi I have been thinking a lot about the Jewish phrase ‘May their memory be a blessing’ and talking with my Jewish family and friends about its meaning. They tell me it is more than just a condolence; it is an active wish that the departed’s life truly mattered and continues to matter, and nothing could be more true for those who died at Bondi protecting others. My hope is that we honour their sacrifice and their lives by coming together across difference and seeing each other’s fundamental humanity. I am grateful to the Jewish community organisations who took my calls, who invited me to visit before and after Bondi to start and continue a dialogue with me and to talk about our common humanity and common ground. I acknowledge that the Greens statements criticising the conflation of antisemitism with the criticism of the actions of the Israeli government have not always been supported by some of these organisations, but our opposition to antisemitism and our belief that everyone should be safe to practise their culture and religion is not in doubt and should be very clear.

There have been and will no doubt continue to be debates about what direction policymakers should go from here to stamp out the scourge of antisemitism and racism but also to deal with the violent extremism and radicalisation of, let us face it, mostly men, which are on the rise, and there will be disagreements on how to do this. My hope is that as leaders we move forward with reflection, evidence, depth and care. In politics – I have been here for almost 12 years now – there is often an imperative to move quickly, to be reactionary, as the 24-hour media cycle and partisan players often demand. Politics does not often allow time and space for proper listening, for true and deep consideration of what is needed to get us from where we are to where we need to be. Politics often asks people to choose sides quickly and then pits groups against each other, with vested interests too often using this to advance their own interests and agendas. Disappointingly, this has already happened in the wake of Bondi, including from current and former senior politicians. This serves no-one except the cause of division. In this Parliament I hope we can all agree that we need to let a little more reflection and humanity make its way in.

Of course we should be celebrating this country’s incredible diverse cultures and actively working to combat all prejudices. At the state level we can look to the recommendations from Victoria’s parliamentary inquiry into extremism that happened in 2018, which sets out a clear expert-backed road map to invest in solutions which tackle the root causes of hate and extremism in all its forms to benefit all our multicultural, multifaith diverse community and not pit groups against each other.

I hope we are also able to listen deeply to David Meagher, the brother of photographer Peter Meagher, who was killed in the Bondi attack. At Peter’s funeral he called for proper gun law reform, not just tinkering around the edges. We know our gun laws have been gradually eroded since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. The shooting death of police officers in Porepunkah and the shooting death of three innocent people in a small New South Wales town recently should be a big wake-up call that our gun laws need serious reform to keep everybody safe.

This year, as the Bondi and Jewish communities continue to honour their loved ones and gradually attempt to heal from this atrocity, I will be holding our Jewish community and the community of greater Bondi in my thoughts and in my prayers. I will also be holding our Muslim communities in my thoughts as they again face collective blame and backlash, including from some political leaders, for the actions of individual violent men. It is not helpful. It is hurtful. It is wrong. The Christchurch massacre and now the Bondi massacre should teach us that racism in any form is a scourge and that heroes come from all backgrounds, Jewish, Muslim and more.

Today I am also thinking of our First Nations and multicultural communities who are facing a rising threat of racism, hatred and violence, most shockingly demonstrated last week by the attempted terror attack at a rally in Perth, where a man threw a bomb into a crowd of innocent people, including many Aboriginal community members, which could have also been a horrific mass casualty event and which has received far too little public and political attention.

Others have quoted Martin Luther King Jr here, and I would like to do the same. He said:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere … Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

After Bondi the Jewish community invited us all to light a candle. Hanukkah, after all, is the Festival of Lights. As I lit my candle I was reminded of another Martin Luther King Jr quote:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I hope we hold this sentiment in our thoughts as we move forward.

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (13:51): I too rise to acknowledge the horrific terror attack in Bondi on 14 December and extend my deepest condolences to the victims and their families. I acknowledge the acute pain, particularly for the member for Box Hill and the member for Caulfield, and I thank them for their leadership of their communities in this extraordinarily difficult time. I thank all members for their contributions today.

This act of violence has shaken the nation. It has also intensified the very real fear within Jewish communities who have experienced a shameful and deeply troubling rise in antisemitism. It remains an appalling scourge on our society and a challenge to Australia’s multiculturalism. It has no place in Australia, nor do hatred, intimidation or violence directed at any religious or ethnic community. Our diversity is a strength, and our social cohesion must never be taken for granted.

This is not a moment for blame or for importing overseas conflicts into our streets. It is a moment for leadership, for restraint and for unity. We must come together across political lines, across faiths and across communities to reaffirm our shared values. We should support our police and security agencies in the work they do to keep people safe, whilst also ensuring our response is calm, proportionate and respectful. In moments like this Australians and Victorians expect us to lower the temperature, reject division and stand together. In the face of terror unity is not optional, it is essential. But the challenge is large. It might well be the greatest social challenge of our time.

I want to quote the ASIO director-general Mike Burgess, who gave the 2025 Lowy lecture before the Bondi attacks. He said on 4 November last year:

Political differences, political debates and political protests are essential parts of a healthy democracy.

Unfortunately, here and overseas, levels of personal grievance and frustration are growing.

Rightly or wrongly some Australians feel dispossessed, disaffected, disenfranchised. There are spikes in polarisation and intolerance.

Many of the foundations that have underpinned Australia’s security, prosperity and democracy are being tested:

• Social cohesion is eroding,

• Trust in institutions is declining, and

• Even truth itself is being undermined by conspiracy, mis- and disinformation.

Similar trends are playing out across the Western world.

Angry, alienated individuals are embracing anti-authority ideologies and conspiracy theories; engaging in uncivil debate and unpeaceful protest.

He is right. The answer is not more political opportunism – something that, sadly, both Sussan Ley and then Anthony Albanese engaged in over the summer. Nor should our leaders ever pause or delay in calling out radical Islamic terrorism or antisemitic terrorism for what it is.

But if you think One Nation is the answer, you are asking the wrong question.

We need more of the best of us. If there is to be some good to come of this horror, let it be that. We mourn these losses, we cry for the victims and we stand with Australia’s Jews this day and every day. Long life.

Motion agreed to in silence, members showing unanimous agreement by standing in their places.