Ms SPENDER (Wentworth) (16:09): The barbaric atrocities of 7 October 2023 are seared in our minds: around 1,200 dead, 251 hostages taken—48 of those still in Gaza—women raped, children murdered and lives destroyed. It was the most devastating attack on Jewish life since the Holocaust. Hamas's barbaric attack was not just an attack on Israel; the impact has reverberated around the world for the last two years. When I look back today, I cannot think of a single group of people around the world whose lives are better off due to that barbaric attack, except those who are enemies of peace, enemies of social cohesion and enemies of the values that our country holds most dear and must protect.

Today we remember the attack and we commemorate the lives of all of those who were lost on that day and those people whose lives are daily affected. We think of the families, in particular, who are left behind, like the family of Galit Carbone, a Sydney born grandmother. We think of the family of people like Eli Sharabi, a hostage who was finally freed to find that so many of his family did not survive that day and who came to the parliament recently to share his story. We think of the Bibas family, whose beautiful children and mother were murdered on that day, and people like Remo, Mazal and Millet, who came to Australia and told of their terrifying experiences at the Nova music festival—the friends that they helped and the friends that they lost on that day. Today is the day to recognise and commemorate the lives that were destroyed on that day. Many of those were Israeli and many of those were Palestinian. Lives have been destroyed across the world because of a war that followed Hamas's actions that day. We can acknowledge all the pain across humanity that started with those atrocities that day. We are all the children of humanity, and all of our children are innocent.

Jewish Australians in particular have been affected by that day because of their personal connections to Israel and the friends and families in Israel who were directly affected—those who were lost and those who were devastated by losses. But of enormous pain, I think, for the Jewish community, particularly the community I represent, has been the devastating rise of antisemitism here in Australia. There have been Jews in Australia since the First Fleet, and the Jewish community has made an outstanding contribution to this country in all fields, from the military to law, the arts and community, and in so many different ways. But I have spoken to so many Jewish people, whose families have been here for generations, who are now not sure if they are welcome here or if their children or their grandchildren are safe here, and that is a terrible thing to be contemplating in this country.

I spoke to a 15-year-old who was walking down the street wearing a blazer from a Jewish school when a car slowed down to do a 'heil Hitler' at him and swear, 'Effing Jews.' A friend of mine asked another person just to move his car and was told, 'Eff the South African Jews'—again, just because he asked someone in a South African accent. A rabbi said he was holding the hand of his eight-year-old daughter and waiting at the lights when, again, a car slowed down to swear at them as Jews. This eight-year-old girl—what responsibility does she bear for anything? Absolutely none. She is welcome in this country, as are all Jewish Australians and all people of all faiths in this country. The armed guards in front of the schools in my electorate are an affront to our Australian humanity. The food that has been thrown and the firebombs on the street—the street that I actually grew up on—don't belong here in Australia. No attacks on any religion belong here in Australia, and the Jewish community has been absolutely devastated in the last two years in particular.

The question really is: now what? Where do we go from here? I think the first thing that I pray for, and I know so many do, is peace because of the devastation of the war overseas. We know that there are negotiations afoot between Israel and Hamas. I pray that those are successful, that we find peace, that the ceasefire happens, that the hostages are released, that aid is reached and that we rebuild a Palestinian state and the Israeli state. But it is also up to us to protect what we have in this country here. We are the most successful multicultural country in the world, and it is up to every single one of us every day to protect that, to make sure this is a safe and welcoming place for all faiths and all cultures. (Time expired)