Julian Leeser
Berowra · Liberal Party · Australia
“Third, the bill gives the minister unilateral power to impose conditions on higher education providers under the new section 36-65 of the HESA, which is introduced by this bill. The current version of section 36-65 of the HESA requires that there be an agreement in place with the provider. The new version does not.”
“Presumably, if you're a university and you get a bad decision, then your only recourse is judicial review, litigation or a constitutional writ. It's not a great option when the target of your litigation will be the minister who will make the future decisions that shape your ongoing financial viability.”
“This bill changes it from capped funding to capped places, but the places cost different amounts depending on the course. The Commonwealth contribution to a history degree is $1,316; agriculture costs $32,400. Could a university which typically teaches history be allocated 100 places and decide to convert them to agriculture?”
“I said very clearly that I understand the value of international students to Australia. I also said: We will want to make changes to the settings around international students, but I want the sector to know that we want to work closely with you to develop these policies and announce them in due course.”
“This so-called system steward, ATEC, can be bypassed at any time by a minister choosing to exercise this power. Again, this means universities are, under this bill, subject to extraordinary control by this minister or any future minister.”
“He said that Australian kids should be taught Australian values, which he defined as democracy, the rule of law, basic freedoms and a fair go.”
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“We'll further rebalance the migration scheme in Australia by reducing the permanent migration program by 25 per cent over this period and implementing a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing homes. Migration and foreign ownership outpacing the construction of new homes can no longer continue if we want to give Australians a chance of owning their own home. The coalition has recommitted to assisting first home buyers, allowing them to access up to $50,000 of their superannuation through the Super Home Buyer Scheme. This would allow a first home buyer's super to work for them, achieving the best of both worlds—homeownership and retirement security. It's real solutions like this that have the ability to give Australians back the dream of homeownership.”
“Over the past two years the coalition has been consulting with hundreds of local councils across Australia on the current housing constraints and practical ways to overcome these challenges. We know that one of the major obstacles for housing projects is the lack of funding for critical enabling infrastructure. Therefore we will, on a time limited basis, unlock necessary new housing supply and keep the Australian dream alive. We'll do this by investing in shovel-ready infrastructure, committing $5 billion to get these projects moving, and unlocking more than half a million homes delivered through a mixture of concessional loans and grants.”
“Not only does the Prime Minister have to explain where these people will live; the migration increase has significantly driven up the cost of housing and rent, further increasing inflation as Australians endure cost-of-living pain. This government has no real plan to support homeownership, no real plan to help renters and no real plan to build the homes Australia desperately needs. But the housing crisis shouldn't just be viewed as statistics or an abstract policy failure. For millions of Australians who find themselves locked out of homeownership or trapped in rental stress, it's a daily struggle. That's why the coalition will act immediately to fix the housing crisis.”
“Under the former coalition government, there were more than one million commencements during the last five calendar years, from 2017 to 2021. At the same time, Labor's reckless policies on migration have further strained our already struggling housing market. Over the past two years, we've seen a net increase of almost one million new arrivals, with 446,000 additional migrants arriving in Australia in the 2023-24 financial year alone. Now, I'm for migration. We all know that migrants have enriched Australia and enriched our culture, but we can't keep bringing people into this country that we can't house. Labor has overshot its migration target, this time by an additional 50,600 migrants, and it has failed to keep the housing supply up.”
“Analysis from CoreLogic reveals that under the Albanese government, in my home city of Sydney, it now takes a year longer to save for a first home deposit than under the former coalition government. New dwelling numbers have also gone backwards under this government. In 2018, over 210,000 new dwellings were built in a single year. To reach that level again, we need to increase construction by 20 per cent. Labor's target of 1.2 million homes in five years has been criticised by housing experts, who agree with the coalition's predictions of a shortfall of at least 400,000 homes, and by Labor Premier Chris Minns, who says they just won't get there. This number highlights the complete failure of the Albanese government.”
“Homeownership is one of those issues that speaks to the very heart of the Australian dream—the dream of having a place to call your own. It's a source of pride. It provides safety and security for individuals and families and acts as the primary asset for family wealth creation. Under the Albanese government, that dream has now slipped out of reach. The minister gave us lots of poetry but not much policy. Labor's inaction and policy failures have created a housing crisis that's punishing young Australians. It's punishing low- and middle-income families, and it's punishing hardworking Australians who are striving to get ahead. The statistics speak for themselves.”
“The need for a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on campuses was necessary last year and remains necessary this year, and we will continue to pursue it. I hope the government will support our amendments to this legislation. I hope they will come on board and support some of those other measures. In this legislation, the parliament needs to stand together to send a clear message to those spreading hate and violence in our country that that has no place in Australia.”
“We cannot have a situation in this country where people are committing these crimes and then not doing jail time. There is no deterrence set. If it deters even one person, it will have been worthwhile. I also support and I'll also continue to encourage the government bringing forward not just the AFP Operation Avalite but the suite of federal intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies working with state government agencies to provide the most coordinated approach to dealing with these matters. Of course, we have seen the hatred on our campuses continuing, as we saw at the Queensland University of Technology in recent weeks, and as we've seen through some of the appalling performance of vice-chancellors before parliamentary committees in this place.”
“While I support the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 as an important step in the fight against hate, including antisemitism, I will continue to call on the government to complement this legislation with a much more comprehensive strategy to address the root causes of hatred and antisemitism that we're seeing. Those items include the items that have been put forward by the shadow minister for home affairs and the Leader of the Opposition, including tougher penalties and mandatory minimum sentences for the commission of these hate crimes and the commission of terrorist offences. I know the usual arguments about mandatory sentencing and mandatory minimums. They usually apply when you're talking about people engaging in small crimes like shoplifting, but these are some of the worst crimes—terrorism and crimes motivated by hate.”
“What has occurred particularly in recent weeks has been a test of our values. It's been a test of our commitment to diversity and a test of our resolve to stand up for what's right. The Jewish community has done what it has always done—shown remarkable resilience in the face of adversity. They shouldn't have to battle this alone. It's the responsibility of all Australians to stand with the Jewish community and to speak out against this hatred as we speak out against hatred when we see it directed against other communities in our country. We must work together to build a society where everyone can live free from fear, one of President Roosevelt's famous four freedoms.”
“We know, because he posted it on his social media account, that the Acting Tasmanian Premier, Guy Barnett, took stronger measures, tougher laws and harder penalties including mandatory minimum sentences to that National Cabinet meeting. But instead of that being the outcome of the National Cabinet meeting, all that came out of it was a database which, in some respects, mirrors the database that has been collected by the Jewish community for decades now. It was a very disappointing occasion. As with all Australians, the Jewish community deserve to go about their daily lives free of fear and discrimination. I'll continue to advocate in this parliament and elsewhere to see that occur. The fight against antisemitism and hate speech is not just a Jewish issue; it's an Australian issue.”
“For some time now, the opposition has been calling on the government to introduce additional measures through a multifaceted, multi-agency approach. We are still waiting for this to occur. It was the beginning of January, following the arson attempt at the Newtown Synagogue and the graffiti that had occurred at the Allawah synagogue a few days beforehand, that I called for the urgent convening of National Cabinet to see the state and territory leaders and the federal government come together to ensure that a series of laws could be drafted to ensure there was a complete stop to the escalation of these incidents. My leader—Peter Dutton, the opposition leader—had been calling for National Cabinet for more than a year. What we saw out of National Cabinet was disappointing.”
“Perpetrators that engage in behaviour that incites fear need to be caught and deserve to face the full brunt of the law, and this is particularly so, we believe, when people are attacking a place of worship—a place of communal gathering, a place that is sacred to people. It doesn't matter if we're talking about a synagogue, a mosque, a church, a temple, a gurdwara, a mandi—all places deserve protection, and all places would get that specific protection under the enhanced amendments that are proposed by the coalition. We sincerely hope that the government will support the amendments that we've put forward, which have been put forward in good faith. The evidence is clear that those amendments are needed. This legislation alone is not enough to combat the attacks that the Jewish community is now facing.”
“We've seen, as I said, the discovery of the caravan filled with explosives in my electorate, not to mention the countless accounts of lower-level antisemitic attacks on Jewish Australians, who are just trying to go about their lives. The coalition is taking a constructive approach to this bill. While we support the bill, we believe it can go further, and the shadow minister for home affairs and the Leader of the Opposition have foreshadowed that we would be making some amendments to this bill. We want to make it a hate crime to urge violence towards a place of worship, punishable by five years, or seven years in the case of an aggravated offence.”
“At that time, the coalition was ready to debate this bill, work to secure its passage and provide the additional security and safeguards that our community so desperately needed. Instead, like every opportunity the government has had to combat antisemitism, they didn't take it then. Instead, they sat back and chose not to act. There was no urgency from this government late last year to pass these laws. Since then, what have we seen? We've seen the continued firebombing and vandalisation of cars and businesses in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. We've seen the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne. We've seen the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Newtown.”
“In a sentence, that's what this bill is actually about. The changes will lower the threshold for prosecution for those who urge violence on individuals or groups and ensures that criminals can be held responsible for their actions. The bill also provides amendments so that, instead of intending that the violence occurs, it only needs to be proved that the person was reckless as to whether the violence would occur. This bill removes the good faith defence for those urging violence because we, like the government, believe no-one can urge violence in good faith. The current good faith defence provides redundant protections, and we think it is right that those protections should be removed. It's also important to note that this bill was first introduced in the last sitting week of September 2024.”
“It appears that this bill at least seeks to resolve some of the government's failures. This bill is an attempt to try and bring these matters on, albeit not as urgently as we in the coalition would have liked. The bill looks to modify existing offences particularly under division 80 of the Criminal Code. The existing provisions already make it an offence to urge violence on an individual or group on the basis of race or religion. For months, the coalition has been calling on the government to take action and prosecute those caught spouting antisemitic sentiments under this division of the Criminal Code. With the continued rise of antisemitism in Australia, we're at the point where we can no longer wait to test existing laws. We need these provisions to make it easier to prosecute people who try to spread hate in our community.”
“Criminals currently have a level of confidence that they can commit these acts without any serious repercussions. While the government has been floundering domestically, we've also seemed to abandon Israel on the international stage, further fuelling active antisemitism at home. In the wake of October 7, the instinct of this Labor government was not to stand with Israel, which had been the target of this horrific atrocity, but it was to call on Israel to exercise restraint. This was followed by a series of votes in the UN in which Australia, under the leadership of this Prime Minister, reversed what's been the longstanding bipartisan position on the State of Israel. The Albanese Labor government's soft, slow and contradictory response since October 7 worryingly let antisemitic sentiment fester in our community.”
“Antisemitic displays have been left unprosecuted. Universities were permitted to be used as encampments that served as a hotbed of antisemitic action, with weekly protests with clear antisemitic sentiment just allowed to carry on. Just last week it came to light that a possible terror attack was averted—and we should all be thankful that it was averted—with a caravan of explosives found in Dural in my electorate of Berowra. The need for stronger protections against hate crimes could not be clearer. What Australians are seeing today is an increasing indifference to the current penalties that apply to people who commit these abhorrent crimes. We saw this in protests that occurred last year. People were just thumbing their nose at the law.”
“Hatred against Muslim Australians or LGBTI Australians is bad and needs to be called out. But, at a time when the perpetrators of antisemitism are running rampant across our country, when it's resulting in armed guards outside Jewish schools and helicopters over Jewish suburbs at night-time because the security and safety of the community is so fragile, it is appropriate for the government and everyone in leadership to stand up and focus solely on the problems of antisemitism. Instead, unfortunately, this government has failed to support the Jewish community adequately. Small, family-owned businesses have been defaced with antisemitic slurs, cars have been torched, a preschool was firebombed in Maroubra, and, of course, there was the dreadful firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.”
“Whether these instances are of the graffiti of someone's property, the firebombing of a childcare centre or an arson attack on a synagogue, the community look to their leaders, the federal government and the Prime Minister for support. Sadly, every time the Jewish community has looked to this Prime Minister and his government for leadership, there has been a void. For months, we've had the Prime Minister and his ministers failing to acknowledge antisemitism without mentioning Islamophobia in the same breath to offset the other, just as the Teals can't mention antisemitism without mentioning hatred against LGBTI Australians, as if standing up to acknowledge Jewish Australians' experience of antisemitism would somehow diminish the experience of Muslim Australians or LGBTI Australians.”
“As a nation, we must be united against hatred in any form. This bill seeks to strengthen our legal framework to address these challenges, proposing to expand the definition of hate crimes, increase penalties for offences motivated by hatred and introduce new provisions to better protect vulnerable communities. These are very fine and laudable objectives. While I welcome the government bringing this bill forward, coming in the last sitting fortnight, it does epitomise, sadly, this government's failure to prevent the spread of antisemitism in our country and to treat this very serious issue with the priority it deserves. Since 7 October 2023, the Jewish community has been repeatedly attacked. Homes, cars, family businesses, synagogues and childcare centres have all been attacked.”
“Go well.' The fact that any student in Australia today is going back to school in an atmosphere where there are lots of hate symbols in our community and attacks on their schools underscores, in my view, the need for this bill. This is a bill that, once passed, can touch on some of the most fundamental principles that our society stands for: the protection of individual freedoms, the promotion of social cohesion and the responsibility of government to provide the necessary boundaries that safeguard our community from harm. Hate speech, hate crimes and acts of violence motivated by prejudice are abhorrent. They strike at the very heart of our shared values of respect, of dignity and of equality. They divide our communities, they foster fear and they undermine the very fabric of our multicultural society.”
“Importantly, I said to them that, at this time of increasing hate, you can't let the haters win. This is an important time to stand proud, remember the beauty of the Jewish tradition and never be a bystander. If there are bullies or bad people, stand up against them, and, if things get tough, remember you're not alone. Parents, teachers, grandparents and even great-grandparents are people they can lean on. I concluded with these important words. I said: 'You're precious to your family, you're precious to our community, and you're precious to our country. We're counting on you to play your part, do your best, have fun and be proud of who you are. I wish you a year of great learning, wonderful friendships and countless opportunities. Australia needs you, and I know you'll make us proud.”
“So I wrote to them that often you would be returning to school perhaps feeling a bit anxious, nervous and excited, as you would at the beginning of any school year, but this year, because of the discussion your parents may have been having at home, the things you have seen on television and, if you are in a Jewish school, some of the things you would have seen, like increased security presence, you may feel extra anxious. If a child is not at a Jewish school, they may be feeling well accepted and supported, and others will be feeling alone and isolated. I wanted to tell them, importantly, that it's going to be okay and that people in positions of leadership like me are working hard to make sure that they're safe and that the community is protected.”
“This week I did something extraordinary that I've never done before, and it indicates where we are as a society; I sent an open letter to the Jewish students of Australia as they returned to school. I did that because the level of hate against Jewish Australians is something we've never experienced in this country before, and it is a sad feature of this country. The public discussion about these things would have had a particular effect on the Jewish school students of Australia.”
“It's an honour to follow my friend the member for Moreton on this bill, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, a bill that the opposition is supporting. It provides me with an opportunity, in commencing, to acknowledge the member for Moreton's service and our very great friendship, despite our disagreements on some quite fundamental things over the years. The member for Moreton is a very fine man, and I hope he has a wonderful retirement with his family. I look forward to the next instalment of his writings and so on! I've very much enjoyed the opportunity to serve with him. I want to provide a bit of context for why this bill is important at this particular time.”
“This parliamentary committee scares no-one, as the performance of vice-chancellors indicates and the racist QUT anti-racism conference highlights. The Prime Minister had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to call a national cabinet, which didn't produce stronger penalties or tougher laws, and the Attorney-General has failed to root out antisemitism at the Human Rights Commission. The foreign minister's conduct is regarded with disgust by thousands of Jewish people, calling for her not to represent our country in Auschwitz. The time for half measures and moral equivalence is over. The only thing that will solve antisemitism in this country is tough measures, strong leadership and stronger laws. That is what is needed in Australia today.”
“The Prime Minister, other ministers, the teals and others failed to call out the uniqueness of antisemitism and recognise it as a standalone hatred. What we have seen are half measures and weakness when what we needed was strong measures and strong leadership. The government has been reactive. It has not led. They took months to bring in the hate symbols law that we first proposed. They took months to appoint a special envoy on antisemitism, and then they failed to heed her advice on crucial matters. They did not coordinate all the law enforcement in the intelligence services and state and federal police when this issue first reared its ugly head. They did not do all they could to curb the violent protests on our city streets. They allowed Jew haters to run amok on our campuses and failed to call a judicial inquiry.”
“This is despite the fact that Jewish communal leaders, former Labor MPs and Labor Party members are making the same criticisms that I, the Leader of the Opposition and my colleagues are making. Let me be clear. I will not cop criticism for standing up for my family, my community or the country I love in the face of a government that has constantly let down the Jewish community and every law-abiding Australian, who just want to live in a country where they're afforded the full protection of the law. Australians want to see this government do all that they can, but the Prime Minister and the government have failed to do all they can. There has been moral equivalence right from the very beginning.”
“People in suburbs with high Jewish populations now go to sleep with helicopters whirring above their heads and police and armed guards patrolling the streets, because that is what is needed to protect them in Australia in 2025. We have a domestic terrorism crisis in this country, the sort of which Australia has never experienced. In my electorate, as in most electorates, there are very few Jewish people, but there are so many Australians who hate what has become of our country today—a country where antisemitism has been allowed to flourish because of the inaction and half measures of this government. If you criticise this government, Labor and the teals say you're politicising the issue.”
“It's where people come to say Kaddish and remember their parents. But Adass Israel was not the end. It was the beginning of a phase of escalation of unprecedented antisemitic violence, which has no place in this country. We've seen the firebombing of cars in Woollahra and Dover Heights outside the former home of prominent Jewish communal leaders. We saw the firebombing of a childcare centre which serves the Jewish community of Maroubra. We saw the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Newtown and antisemitic graffiti on another in Allawah. In my own peaceful electorate, a caravan was discovered with a list of Jewish communal institutions and enough explosives to cause the largest terrorist attack on Australian soil—an attack with the potential to kill hundreds of our fellow Australians.”
“The scenes are shocking—the twisted-metal air conditioners, the charred remains of chairs and the burnt honour boards, now impossible to read, that contained the names of people whose lives had been dedicated to the community. There's the cavity in the wall, stripped bare to the brick shell, where the Torah scrolls, the holiest objects in the synagogue, were kept. There's the knowledge that there were people in the synagogue when it was bombed and that lives could have been lost. The community lost more than just a building. The synagogue is more than just bricks and mortar. It's a place where people go to mark some of the most significant moments in their lives—for weddings and bar mitzvahs. It's a place where sons sit with fathers and where mothers sit with daughters, learning their prayers and our traditions across the generations.”
“Until earlier this year I had never been to the Adass Israel Synagogue. When I heard about the firebombing there on 6 December last year, it rocked my sense of what it means to be a Jew in this country. A few weeks before, at the Kristallnacht commemoration, I had met Beate Hammett from Hornsby, now in her 90s. Her father had been the chief architect in the Jewish community in Berlin. Beate was honoured at the commemoration because, on that fateful night in 1938, two of the beautiful synagogues that had been designed by her father were destroyed by fire. The images of Adass Israel in Melbourne in flames brought home the memory of Kristallnacht and the worst moments in our history. In early January I visited the synagogue. The visit was very emotional. What the pictures don't convey is the burnt, damp smell that still pervades the air.”