In One Voice festival
Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (13:20): On Sunday, with thousands of members of the local Jewish and broader community, I attended the In One Voice festival held on Selwyn Street in Elsternwick. In One Voice is a celebration of the Jewish community and culture, the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. With my federal colleague and good friend Josh Burns I walked through the market and food stalls chatting with community groups and listening to the wide range of issues that matter to them. We even survived an interview with Maurice on J-AIR, the local community radio station. The festival is held in the streets outside the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, where there are impressive community-led plans to establish a Jewish arts quarter. I acknowledge my colleague Mr Berger was also there showing his support, as were Ms Copsey and Mr Southwick from the other place, and there may have been others who I missed in the crowd.
While the day and the mood of those in attendance were incredibly vibrant, they were obviously negatively influenced by the vile acts that had occurred on the steps of this Parliament just 24 hours prior, where hatemongers with their Nazi salutes sought to vilify and denigrate others. During our walk through the festival, Josh and I stopped and talked in depth with and stood alongside Jews of Pride, a coalition of LGBTIQ+ community groups and allies within Melbourne’s Jewish community. As Victorians we can all be proud of the strength of the Jewish community. Their contribution across all walks of life has made our state a better place. Whenever they are subject to hate, as they were on Saturday, we will stand with them on that day, the next day and every day after that.