Today, Abigail contributed to the Bondi Beach terrorist attack condolence motion in Parliament condemning antisemitism and violent extremism and expressing solidarity with the Jewish community, honouring the victims and heroes and called for compassion, reflection and unity over political opportunism, hatred and division.
Abigail said:
It is with a heavy heart that I, too, pay my respects and remember the 15 people murdered in the Bondi Beach terrorist attack on Sunday 14 December 2025: Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Boris Gurman, Sofia Gurman, Edith Brutman, Boris Tetleroyd, Adam Smyth, Marika Pogany, Peter Meagher, Dan Elkayam, Reuven Morrison, Tibor Weitzen, Alexander Kleytman, Tania Tretiak, and Matilda, aged 10. Each of those people were loved and valued members of our community, and they have left behind children, grandchildren, partners, parents, friends and so many loved ones. The taking of each of those lives has devastated the lives of so many more, and the impact of this event will continue to be felt for generations to come.
There should be no place for antisemitism but, throughout millennia, it has consistently found a home in the dark recesses of our societies. It varies in its virulence, but it has always persisted. We are capable of doing so much more to prevent that discrimination, but hatred and division persist. There should be no place for violent extremism, hatred or intolerance in any form, but last weekend it reared its brutal head. We need to cultivate a culture of truth so we can find a true resolution to those social divisions and work towards justice. I stand in solidarity with our State's Jewish community and with all those impacted by this horrific event. My thoughts are with all those grieving, hurting and shaken.
Dozens of people were injured in the attack, with a number still in hospital. Among the dead and injured are genuine heroes: people who shielded each other from bullets; people who were shot trying to disarm the gunmen; and people who ran towards the scene to help others. Among them is Ahmed al‑Ahmed, who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen and was shot multiple times in the arm. It is in the actions of these individuals and of all first responders and those working to help people after the attack that we see our true humanity. The acts of kindness of strangers, whether it is the people in Bondi who sheltered others in their homes in the hours after the attack or the thousands who rushed to donate blood in the days afterwards, are a guiding light for all of us as we navigate our way through our collective grief, horror and bewilderment.
We know that this attack was targeted at Jewish people at Hanukkah, during what should be a time of celebration, peace and connection. For any part of our community to be targeted on the basis of their faith is disgusting and entirely unacceptable. The shock and fear that Jewish people in our State are now feeling is profound and overwhelming. In the days after the attack, I have reached out to many of my Jewish friends. Their pain is unimaginable, and it is complex—intergenerational trauma born out of centuries of antisemitism; grief and trauma from this latest attack; and fear, hopelessness and despair for the future. They have asked me and are asking all of us for support, love, kindness, understanding and space to grieve. They ask for the time to mourn and reflect alongside one another in solidarity.
Sitting with grief and shock is uncomfortable. Not many of us do it well. We want to take action to make ourselves feel less pain, to ensure that pain is never felt again and to find even the smallest piece of positive outcome or change from the darkest of our days. We find it very hard to instead allow space for grief and reflection, for comfort and collective healing. But that is what we need to do. Some with very good intentions and others with bad intentions have too quickly turned from reflection to action.
Naomi Klein, in her book The Shock Doctrine, describes how political elites capitalise on disasters, both natural and man-made, to push through long-held agendas for which they would never get support in normal times. It is unfortunate that we have seen so many jump so quickly to attempts at political point scoring, the spreading of misinformation and commentary designed to stoke division. At a time of widespread trauma and grief, I have seen firsthand how people who have lost loved ones in the attack and people who are Jewish themselves have been verbally abused by those seeking to fuel anger and division. It is unfathomably cruel. This is, predictably, what happens when people are not allowed to sit with their grief but instead have politicians and political media outlets clambering over themselves to crowd out the space with political opportunism. That is not what our community needs.
Thankfully, the Australia that I know and love is kinder and stronger than most politicians and the media give it credit for. Over the past week people across the country have come together to support one another. It is amongst their individual acts of kindness and strength for one another that we collectively grieve, reflect and bolster our resolve to choose peace over war, unity over division and love for one another over hatred based on race or religion. It is in those individual acts that we make our communities stronger and work to ensure that everyone in our country feels safe and accepted. Today and every day I commit to fostering that kindness and connection within and amongst our communities, and I call on all members of this place to do the same.
Read the transcript in Hansard here.
22 December 2025