House of Representatives 27 August 2025
Speaker:
I give the call to the Member for Fisher.
Andrew Wallace MP:
Thanks, Madam Deputy Speaker. And as has been remarked in this place on innumerable occasions, a government’s first responsibility is to protect and defend its people.
The comments of my good friend, the Member for Bruce. The Member for Bruce talks about not wanting to weaponise this issue, but that is this Government’s go-to whenever something is raised that the Government does not want to talk about.
It is absolutely clear, as clear as the nose on the Member for Bruce’s face, that this Government has been asleep at the wheel on the issue of antisemitism. It has walked a very, very dangerous fine line since the seventh of October 2023.
With your indulgence, Madam Deputy Speaker, I tell the chamber about a very unfortunate circumstance that happened to me. I wear proudly the Australian and Israeli flag on my lapel. I’m not Jewish, but I am the Chair of the Israel Allies Caucus in Australia.
I was at the LNP conference on the weekend, minding my own business. I was actually in the foyer, and a staff member of the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre approached me and proceeded to berate me for what he perceived to be the offences of the IDF. A staff member of the Brisbane Exhibition and Convention Centre.
I was initially stunned. I was quite taken back, and this staff member walked off, and I thought to myself, expletive this. I’m not going to sit up and put up with this rubbish. So I took off after him, and I said, mate, that conduct is absolutely not on, or words to that effect. One of his supervisors came up to me because he could see that I was somewhat animated.
Antisemitism in this country flourishes when good people do nothing. And it concerns me greatly when members opposite try and dampen down the debate by saying we are seeking to weaponise this. I am absolutely saying that this Government continues, in a surreptitious way, to promote antisemitism by its silence. It is absolutely true.
This Government continues to fail to call out what we have seen at universities. It has failed in every respect to call out antisemitism. It’s one thing to make mealy-mouthed expressions, mealy-mouthed comments.
The reality is, we had a group of Jewish Australian students in this building this week who have faced the most appalling antisemitism over the last two years by academics, by students and visitors alike.
This Government continues, despite repeated requests, to fail to institute a Royal Commission into the actions of those on university campuses. That is just one example of what we have seen over the last two years.
