Government has lost control of extremist and antisemitic elements
'Last time the world failed to act, six million Jews were murdered'
Today, radical left-wing protestors breached parliamentary security and led an abhorrent protest from the top of Australian Parliament House.
Shouts like “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free” and “Sovereignty Was Never Ceded” echoed across the Parliamentary Lawn as radicals clad with balaclavas and keffiyehs made a delusional equivocation between Israel, Australian Indigenous issues and Australia’s peacekeeping and military operations abroad.
This is a shameful display. It’s vile. And it’s illegal.
This was an attack on the Jewish people and the people of Israel, at a time when antisemitism has reached levels we have not seen since we stood on the threshold of Hitler’s Holocaust.
It was an attack on our parliamentary democracy, disrupting the important work of parliament while families contend with crises in Australia’s economy, society, and national security.
It was an assault on the memory of those who have paid the ultimate price to protect Australia’s security and sovereignty, and to preserve peace in the global rules-based order.
In the conflicts of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and East Timor, Australian servicemen and women stood up to the tyranny of communism, Islamic extremism, and dictatorship. They purchased our freedom with their sacrifice, and that is a debt we cannot repay.
This extremist behaviour is made possible by a government which has been slow to act on antisemitism and virulent hate of extremists on the far-left and far-right.
It’s not just virulent; it’s viral, and it’s infected our campuses, communities, social media and now our Parliament.
I call on the Federal Labor Government to legislate for a Judicial Inquiry into Antisemitism on Australia’s University Campuses.
I call on the Federal Labor Government to step back from its unqualified support for a Two State Solution, without acknowledging how the war in Gaza actually started, after the atrocities of October 7, 2023.
I call on the Prime Minister to sack Senator Fatima Payman and anyone else who defends the use of terror slogans such as those we have seen today.
And I call on every Australian, from every walk of life, to call out antisemitism wherever you see it or hear it.
Last time the world failed to act, six million Jews were murdered.
We must show “never again” is more than mere words; it is a promise made to a people whose share of oppression has been unrivalled through many centuries.
We must show that Australians keep their promises.
Andrew Wallace MP is the Federal Member for Fisher and Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, as well as the Defence Subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. Andrew was the 31st Speaker of the House of Representatives and is chair of the Australia-Israel Allies Caucus.
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