Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill
Transcript
Ms WARE (Hughes) (18:26): At the conclusion of World War II, German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller wrote about the Holocaust. He said:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemoller had a very interesting life. He'd started off as a very antisemitic Nazi supporter in Germany, but his views changed when he was subsequently imprisoned in a concentration camp for speaking out against Nazi control of churches.
What does this have to do with the legislation that is currently before us, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill? Well, this bill has been brought in because of the attacks on Jewish Australians and the rise of antisemitism in this country. At the moment, those attacks, vile in nature, have been on our Jewish Australians. But if we don't do something about it now, if we don't draw a line in the sand and speak up for our Jewish Australians, who's next? Is it the Hindus? Is it Catholics, Muslims or atheists? For all of those reasons, I support this legislation. However, this legislation has come about very late in the piece. I've referenced the Holocaust, which, of course, was the worst example of antisemitism that we have ever seen in the world, and, unfortunately, antisemitism does have a very long history. But the Albanese Labor government's failure to respond after 7 October 2023 has indirectly caused this increase in antisemitism. It wasn't called out immediately after 7 October. We then saw on 9 October, in my home city of Sydney, dreadful protests: Palestinian flags, Hamas flags and calls of, 'Get rid of the Jews; kill the Jews.' There was dreadful antisemitism. That has continued not only in my home state of New South Wales but also, of course, in Victoria.