Josh Burns
Macnamara · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“It could go a bit rogue, I'm not exactly sure what's about to happen, but we're going to go through it anyway. I wanted to speak this afternoon at the end of a long sitting period before the winter break about the changes that came in yesterday for paid parental leave.”
“My family came to this country as a mix of migrants and refugees. Some spoke English; some didn't. Some held citizenships; some were stateless. But all of my family understood that the rights, freedoms and opportunities that Australia afforded were precious.”
“It is why we need to make sure that they have access to the basics so they can give everything back to our country—like access to buy their family a home, access to see a doctor and access to world-class education. We don't need to imagine what a monocultural Australia is.”
“Deputy Speaker Claydon, the Manager of Opposition Business is new here; He's still learning the ropes here! We have just passed tax reform through the House of Representatives that will make housing more affordable for younger Australians.”
“Of course, I was quite surprise to open the Australian Fin Review last night and see this headline: 'Greens and Liberals in fresh talks to delay legislation'. The Liberals and the Greens are teaming up together to block tax reform. They're teaming up together to stop young people being able to buy their first home.”
“There is this amazing garden, and I've brought ministers and colleagues there to go and see just how incredible it is. What is really special about the Windsor Community Children's Centre is that it's a community-run early education centre, and the parents and the community of Windsor have really galvanised and gotten behind this campaign…”
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“We made the decision that I was going to take two months off coming to Canberra in order to help raise our daughter, Lilah, who is very busy at the moment, and probably— Mr Burns's baby having interjected—”
“It could go a bit rogue, I'm not exactly sure what's about to happen, but we're going to go through it anyway. I wanted to speak this afternoon at the end of a long sitting period before the winter break about the changes that came in yesterday for paid parental leave. In doing so, I wanted to reflect on my own personal journey because this year I took parental leave from this place in Canberra. It was a decision that my partner and I discussed as to how we would make it possible. My partner is a member of the Victorian parliament, and she's exceptionally hardworking. We won't go into the political situations in our particular household, but I am constantly in admiration of how hard my beautiful partner, Georgie, works and how incredibly smart and dedicated she is to her job.”
“It is why we need to make sure that they have access to the basics so they can give everything back to our country—like access to buy their family a home, access to see a doctor and access to world-class education. We don't need to imagine what a monocultural Australia is. We have lived it, and we have said that we should never live it again. We are home to people born in 200 countries with 300 ancestries, and we speak more than 300 languages. That is something that we should all take great pride in.”
“My family came to this country as a mix of migrants and refugees. Some spoke English; some didn't. Some held citizenships; some were stateless. But all of my family understood that the rights, freedoms and opportunities that Australia afforded were precious. All worked hard every single day to create a life for our family and to give back to our incredible country. Yet none forgot the countries and the history that shaped who they are, because the beauty of Australia is that they never had to. Australia is the greatest country on earth not despite our multiculturalism but because of it. Australia is a rich tapestry of cultures, faiths and traditions. It has made us more diverse, more resilient, more appealing and more prosperous. And, just like my family, thousands of others around the country have also given back.”
“Of course, I was quite surprise to open the Australian Fin Review last night and see this headline: 'Greens and Liberals in fresh talks to delay legislation'. The Liberals and the Greens are teaming up together to block tax reform. They're teaming up together to stop young people being able to buy their first home. This new collection of ragtags are denying young Australians the dream of homeownership, but we are going to pursue this because we know that young Australians deserve to buy their own home in this great country of ours.”
“Deputy Speaker Claydon, the Manager of Opposition Business is new here; He's still learning the ropes here! We have just passed tax reform through the House of Representatives that will make housing more affordable for younger Australians. The bill will now be sent over to the Senate, and I am reminded that, at the last election Australians voted for builders not blockers. Australians voted for making housing more affordable not playing games with housing. If you wanted evidence of what their games and what their blocking did, you only have to look at where their housing spokespeople are right now. The Liberals own spokesperson is not in this chamber anymore because of the blocking that they did under the last parliament.”
“This is a sale that will happen thanks to our contribution of $4.3 million, the council's contribution and the contribution of so many wonderful people of Windsor. Long may the WCCC live!”
“I give a special shout out to the outgoing vice chancellor of Swinburne, Pascal Cuesta, who has been along this journey. We have had some honest and robust conversations, but she has always acted respectfully and listened to me and has been integral in turning this around inside Swinburne. I thank her very much for her efforts and for leading this inside the organisation, and I wish her well on her next chapter. Of course, the biggest thank you goes to Sophie and Alastair, to Fiona, to the educators, to Jonathan and to the entire team at the Windsor Community Children's Centre, who have just been formidable and brave and loud and tireless in their efforts to save this incredible community organisation.”
“There is this amazing garden, and I've brought ministers and colleagues there to go and see just how incredible it is. What is really special about the Windsor Community Children's Centre is that it's a community-run early education centre, and the parents and the community of Windsor have really galvanised and gotten behind this campaign. They have fought so hard at each and every turn to make this possible, and there were moments when I didn't think this was possible. When Swinburne made the decision to sell this land and divest from it, we had crisis meetings. We had planning for a whole range of different scenarios that was, frankly, devastating. But, thanks to the work of the parents and the people of Windsor and the community—and I was proud to support them—we have achieved what was at the time unthinkable.”
“I am absolutely delighted to be able to say that yesterday the Swinburne University senate council approved the sale of the Windsor Community Children's Centre site in the city of Stonnington after years and years of campaigning by the Windsor Community Children's Centre. There are still a few I's to dot and T's to cross, and the council, the state government and the federal government are all working in collaboration to ensure that the sale can proceed and that the lease can be signed with the Windsor Community Children's Centre. I have spoken many times in this place and in the other place about the Windsor Community Children's Centre. It is one of the most magical little pockets of my electorate, where young little learners can go and can play.”
“The Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 and the Income Tax Rates Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Bill 2026 are significant. They mark the moment when this House will make a determination on the way in which our government collects revenue and the way in which we set up our tax system into the future for future generations. The changes that we are discussing as part of these bills are some of the most important considerations that this House has made in my time here as a member of parliament, and I am proud to support these bills, which will set up our tax system and our revenue collection for future generations—to make it fairer, to make it more appropriate and to make sure that hardworking Australians are not left with the growing burden of our tax revenue.”
“Mendy, who's dedicated his life to being a first responder, spoke about the humility and the importance of what he went through. I thank them both for all of their efforts.”
“It was one of the most incredible moments I've had in my office. I was privileged to meet two people who embody the very best of our country. In the hardest of moments, they rose to the occasion. They were selfless, they were powerful, they were kind and they were generous to everyone around them. These two men, Mendy and Yanky, were a privilege to speak to. I'm in awe of their bravery. I'm in awe of the way that Yaakov 'Yanky' Super, who is literally still dealing with shrapnel all through his back, is able to not be bitter but to actually be hopeful, to talk about his experience and to talk about the work he's done since. He was very grateful for all of the engagement right across this place from all different sides of politics and didn't have an ounce of bitterness in him.”
“And if you leave people too long, to know that the scene is a hundred per cent safe, then it's going to be too late.' What he did is he started triaging people, and one of the people who he triaged was one of his best friends, Yanky Super. Yanky was also a first responder volunteer. He was shot in the back and he still has shrapnel all around his back. It hurts to move in certain ways. Extraordinarily, when he was being presented to his good friend Mendy, who was triaging people, he was telling him to send other people who needed help to the hospital. At that point, he actually had a collapsed lung and was fighting for his life. These two young men faced more than they ever should have that day. But, when they were sitting in my office, they were beaming and they were talking, speaking about hope and about how they are.”
“I've had the honour of hosting two extraordinary young people in my office: Yanky Super, whose family lives in my electorate; and Mendy Liberman, a paramedic who was working the day of the Bondi terror attack. Mendy was thrown into the scene and was asked to triage all of the different victims of that day. What was even harder and more extraordinary about his efforts was that he was a member of the community himself. I asked him: 'How do you know that it's safe for you to go in there? How do you make the decision, as a first responder, to put yourself in harm's way and decide that you're going to get in there?' And he said: 'Look, sometimes you don't really know the full answer to that. You don't know what's around you.”
“He was talking about the capital gains tax discount. Those opposite want to increase support for investors to buy multiple homes, and they want to take away support for Australians and essential workers who need their first home and a safe place to live. We are builders, and they are blockers. We share opportunity, and they share misinformation. We lay bricks, and they lay blame. We're interested in building homes for Australians, and they spend each and every day trying to compete with One Nation in a race to the gutter. We have a job to do, and we're getting on with it for Australians, who deserve it.”
“I'm proud to be a part of a budget that is building homes for Australians and supporting Australians to buy their own home. In fact, over 2,000 people in my electorate of Macnamara have bought their first home thanks to our five per cent deposit scheme. We've also been going around the country looking at thousands of homes that are being built under the Housing Australia Future Fund. It's quite telling that the Leader of the Opposition had this to say on budget night: We will scrap Labor's housing bureaucracy—the ineffective Housing Australia Future Fund … That would leave thousands of Australians without a home and have a devastating impact across our community housing sector. But, of course, Senator Bragg said this: They shouldn't proceed with this tax … I would increase it. I wouldn't reduce it.”
“The decoupling between house prices and wages has occurred over decades because we incentivised investors. While there are those who want to make sure that they are continuing to support investors, we want to support those hardworking Australians who want to buy their first home.”
“When you look at the Help to Buy scheme—which is a shared equity scheme which allows the government to purchase a portion of the home so that someone can at least get into the housing market if they are an essential worker, a low-income or middle-income worker or a single parent—it's only 10,000 places, but, for every single one of those homeowners, it means that they are going to have stability and safety at home. Then you have the fact that, right now, we're putting forward changes to negative gearing and capital gains. I understand that there is a whole range of commentary around it, and it's absolutely fair game around the actual policy discussion, if you want that. But there haven't been any discussions around the actual policy; it's only been around the politics. The policy is simple.”
“But, of course, at every opportunity, instead of saying, 'Well, at least the federal government is trying to push the states and territories to set housing targets,' they've criticised the fact that we've got them in the first place. When you look at the fact that we have put in so many different measures, like Help to Buy, to at least try and remove some of those barriers that I just described—the Liberal Party have said that that five per cent deposit scheme is support for billionaires. Over 2,000 people in my electorate and over 200,000 people across the country have used that five per cent deposit scheme, and they are not billionaires.”
“The decoupling between housing prices and wage increases has happened over decades. Right now, young Australians are looking at houses and saying, 'It is just absolutely inconceivable that I could get into this market,' mainly because the amount of time it would take to save up a deposit is just too long when you've got all of these other expenses. Then, by the time they could get a mortgage, young Australians are also looking at the price of housing and saying, 'Well, that would just push me too far.' What is the solution? The solution is that we need to build more homes. And we've set targets to work with the states and territories, who do have a lot of the levers.”
“And when inflation goes up, the people who get hurt the most are low- and middle-income Australians. Then you come into this place and you ask: 'Alright, what are the things and what are the levers at our disposal to take the pressure off all of these hardworking Australians who really rely on the things that we can do in this place?' Then, when you look at each and every measure that we have put forward, the Liberal Party have come up with an excuse. Despite people like the shadow treasurer previously saying that they support it, and putting it in writing, and coming into the House of Representatives and saying they support these measures, they have turned around and said that this is somehow just a pox on Labor. I mean, the Australian people aren't listening to that sort of rubbish. So let's go through housing as one example.”
“We'll just go to the other person.' The Liberal Party's demise right now is also evident in the fact that, when you actually look at the issues that are affecting Australians and the issues that people are raising that are leading them into the parties like One Nation, who have no practical solutions and are just seeking to divide our country on the basis of grievances, then you have to ask yourself: are they really listening to the needs of Australians? And the truth is that Australians are hurting. They are hurting right now, because the cost-of-living pressures are real. When you add up all of the pressures to pay for your rent, pay for your mortgage, pay for the kids, pay for the groceries, pay for all of the things that add up, like fuel, things are really tough.”
“The Liberal Party has a lot of smart people in it—a lot of people who I genuinely respect, who are really smart people who care about this country. But, if you are going into an election and you're only talking about One Nation and preference deals with One Nation, and you're going into an election only spouting policies so that you can compete with One Nation, and your whole focus in everything you talk about is just One Nation, One Nation, One Nation—well, why on earth would the voters of Farrer do anything other than pick the real version, not the Diet Coke version? And that's exactly what has happened. The people of Farrer have said to the Liberal Party: 'If you're going to try and pretend to be someone else, we're not going to bother with you.”
“This motion is as much of a joke as the modern Liberal Party, to be honest, because the modern Liberal Party is completely spooked. They are spooked by the fact that they had a 31 per cent primary vote reduction at the hands of One Nation. The National Party proudly declared that they were back, though they got a less than 10 per cent primary vote in that same by-election. All of the pivoting from the Liberal Party has been towards being in this position where they are unable to process what that means. Instead of taking some accountability and responsibility and listening to the Australian people about what might actually be happening here, the Liberal Party is just lurching further and further to the right—further and further towards the One Nation party that is taking up all of their votes and all of their supporters.”
“But, if you go back far enough, the member for Goldstein said something very different. In 2017, the member for Goldstein said, 'Australia's postwar immigration program has been a phenomenal success.' Well, the member for Goldstein, just as with his interview on Insiders , has had to walk that back. The member for Goldstein also said: … the tax system is screwing over young Australians. Instead, it favours well-off, established interests against those trying to get ahead … In short: if you work hard to get ahead, you get hit hard; if you live off assets, you don't. He's changed his tune. (Time expired)”
“(): Senator Hanson from the other place thought that she had found a goldmine from Goldstein when she heard his interview on the ABC. When asked whether or not he would form a coalition with One Nation, the member for Goldstein said: We traditionally form a coalition with the Nationals— traditionally? A bit of cold feet!— but it's up to the Australian people—who they want to vote for. Sounds like they're really interested. Sounds like dipping the toes in the water! But, sadly, the goldmine from Goldstein for Pauline Hanson got told, 'Change your tune,' and had to walk that back. It's not the first time the member for Goldstein has changed his tune. Tonight we're going to hear the dog whistle from those opposite. We're going to see the finger pointing. We're going to hear the 'blame the migrants' story.”
“Finally, I want to mention the youth housing incentive that we are funding in this budget, because what that will do is make sure that young people who are in those difficult circumstances will be on an equal playing field and will be able to access those incredible social housing homes that we're building, along with the others around Australia, instead of being locked out. We care about housing, we're delivering housing and we're helping Australians buy their own home as well.”
“Well, we are building 55,000 social and affordable homes that are going to Australians who really need them, whether they be key workers, whether they be people who are escaping family or domestic violence, or whether they are just people who, through no fault of their own, need a safe place to go for a period of time. We are investing in making sure that there are those homes available. I've been touring the country looking at all of those sites, and it is so exciting. The quality of that housing is something that we can all be very proud of.”
“We couldn't be prouder to help every single Australian to be able to get into the housing market and to find that stability and security of paying down their own mortgage instead of paying down someone else's. But, of course, that is not all. Since coming into government, we have made the largest investment in social housing in decades. Now, those opposite didn't even have a housing or homelessness minister for most of the time they were in government, which showed just how low a priority it was for those opposite. I remember the former housing minister, Mr Sukkar, the former member for Deakin—who has been replaced by an outstanding member for Deakin, may I say—who said that social housing was just a matter for the states, and refused to invest a single dollar in social housing.”
“But, once they had the opportunity to get a mortgage of their own, they could pay down that loan. There's also the Help to Buy Scheme, a shared equity scheme, that, at every opportunity, those opposite decided to come up with the most ludicrous ways of criticising—saying that we'd be in your kitchen and all sorts of other absurd things—when, actually, the vast majority of people who are using that scheme are people who are either low- or middle-income earners who are getting into the housing market for the first time, or people who have separated. A lot of women who are single have used that scheme and have done so in order to give themselves safety and security and stability in their lives.”
“But let me remind this place of the journey—which the Liberal Party has opposed, at each and every single opportunity—to improve access for Australians to the housing market. As to our five per cent deposit scheme, which over 200,000 Australians have accessed to be able to get into the housing market and purchase their own home, the Liberal Party and the shadow minister for housing—Senator Bragg, from the other place—said that that was subsidies for billionaires. I'm not sure what billionaire he was talking to, and why they were using five per cent deposits, but certainly the 200,000 Australians who have accessed this, I think, would have a very different opinion: that these Australians are hardworking Australians who struggled to get the deposit to get into the housing market.”
“But those days are long since over, and the Liberal Party have shown that, no matter what electoral punishments they continuously get, they are happy to go back to the well and ignore the interests of Australians. And then they get surprised when Australians ignore them at the ballot box. On this side of the House, since coming into government in 2022, we have completely changed and transformed the way in which our housing sector is operating, and it's all been around giving more Australians the opportunity either to purchase a safe and secure home or to be able to access a safe and secure home when they need it. We've made sure that renters have a better deal, with long-term tenancies, via working with the states, and better conditions on those tenancies as well.”
“It is just an honour to hear that insightful reflection from the Liberal Party about how important someone's word is! I thought I'd reflect on someone's word in this chamber when they said: … the tax system is screwing over young Australians. Instead, it favours well-off, established interests against those trying to get ahead. … In short: if you work hard to get ahead, you get hit hard; if you live off assets, you don't. Now, that wasn't anyone on this side of the House that said that. It wasn't anyone on the crossbench either. It was the young shadow treasurer, Pauline Hanson's best friend—she's found a gold mine in Goldstein over there! The shadow treasurer said those exact words, because, once upon a time, there were Liberal Party members who used to actually listen to the needs of the constituents that they represent.”
“I now ask leave of the House to present a copy of my statement. Leave granted. I present a copy of my statement. Sitting suspended from 18:15 to 19:30”
“On behalf of the committee, I thank the Auditor-General and the Parliamentary Budget Office for their work in the support of the parliament and our committee. I also thank the former deputy chair of the committee, Senator Matt O'Sullivan, for his service. I thank the current deputy chair, my fellow committee members and the secretariat, who are extraordinary people, and they have worked very hard this year in their detailed consideration of these budget measures. I also want to finally thank Ms Rona Mellor, who was the Deputy Auditor-General and who has retired after 11 years in the ANAO and many more in distinguished public service of our country. Her explanations of very complex issues to our committee have been a great help. She's a great person, and I wish her well for the next chapter. On that, I thank the House.”
“These are not the views of the committee alone. Recommendation 16 of the recently tabled Independent post-election review of the Parliamentary Budget Office , commissioned by the committee and conducted by the highly respected Dr Martin Parkinson, states: The PBO's resources should be rebased to ensure it can continue to effectively meet its legislative mandate and deliver high-quality and timely outputs … A further recommendation of Mr Parkinson's review, recommendation 19, is: … the Government should provide dedicated resourcing to the PBO to support core maintenance and security within its ICT and data environment, as well as ongoing innovation, recognising that the PBO's requirements are outsized relative to its size.”
“Finally, to support its operational independence, the committee supports the replenishment of the PBO's special appropriation back to $6 million, requiring a top-up of just over $4 million. The replenishment of the PBO's special appropriation fund has been supported by the committee over many years. The PBO continues to draw on these funds, which are a vital resource for managing unexpected financial risks and safeguarding the PBO's operational independence. The PBO makes a significant contribution to the parliament and to parliamentarians right across this chamber, and thereby to the democratic process, by providing valuable and vital information and analysis to parliamentarians to better inform public debate. The committee is concerned that this function will be seriously eroded if the PBO's current funding shortfall is not addressed.”
“Also supported by the committee is the PBO's request to increase its election-year funding, from $500,000 to $1 million, to cover the actual costs of delivering its mandated election reporting. The E lection c ommitments report is a key PBO function, assisting parliamentarians to prepare campaign platforms. The $500,000 election-year funding boost to cover the cost of this extensive analysis, including four supplemental staff, has not been subject to indexation or adjustments since the PBO's established establishment in 2012. This amount is unsurprisingly no longer adequate to resource this important and mandated activity, and it is indicated by the PBO as a core reason for its current and ultimately unsustainable operating losses.”
“The PBO informed the committee that the average turnaround time for its costings analysis has increased from 15 to 24 days, reflecting a year-on-year heightened demand for this service and the growing complexity of the work involved. The PBO has further reported that requests from parliamentarians were 40 per cent higher in the first six months of this parliament than for the comparable period in the last parliament. The request to add 10 staff to the 44 current ongoing employees at the PBO is fully supported but also acknowledged by the committee as a significant increase. We will continue to monitor the outputs and effectiveness of PBO, going forward, to ensure that its staff levels are appropriate.”
“In conclusion, the funding of the ANAO continues to be of serious concern to the committee, as it threatens the robustness of the vital audit function that this agency conducts for the Commonwealth. The committee regards the reports of the Auditor-General as a crucial driver of efficiency and effectiveness throughout the public sector. On the Parliamentary Budget Office, the committee endorses the PBO's 2026-27 budget proposals, which include additional ongoing funding of $1.9 million a year, equating to $7.5 million over four years. The PBO has indicated that this increase is required to sustain its level of service, including 10 additional staff to manage costing models and adequate resourcing of essential ICT systems.”
“These fees are estimated to total approximately $15.9 million in 2025-26 and are currently returned to consolidated revenue. The committee accepts and sympathises with the fact that these fees have increased by far more over the past decade than the appropriation funding to the ANAO. However, committee members expressed concerns that returning these fees to the ANAO could produce unintended incentives that would undermine the perceived integrity and neutrality of the ANAO. These include the raising of such charges beyond what is reasonable in circumstances of funding pressures and the potential for prioritisation of activities that generate fees over those that are important but not revenue raising.”
“The efficiency dividend, or ED, has been a principal driver of the ANAO's periodic supplementary funding requests. The ANAO's base funding is currently $10.3 million lower than it would have been if the ED had been removed 10 years ago. Removal of the ED from audit institutions has occurred in other jurisdictions, including New South Wales and New Zealand. The committee did discuss the precedent of removing the ED for the ANAO, while keeping it for other government agencies, and has noted that the priority of the JCPAA is an increase in the ANAO's baseline funding. The remaining component of the ANAO's proposed funding model is the retention of fees that it charges to corporate Commonwealth entities, companies and subsidiaries.”
“It will also be more difficult in this circumstance for the ANAO to maintain robust IT systems, respond to growing cybersecurity threats and utilise modern auditing tools. The committee also supports the ANAO's proposal for a scalable framework that ties performance audit funding to the growth in Commonwealth expenditure. The Australian government's expenditure over the past decade has grown more than twice the rate of the appropriation available to the ANAO for performance auditing. The committee agrees that such a scalable system would ensure proportionate audit coverage that is also capable of addressing the increasing complexity of the modern Commonwealth. The committee continues to support the removal of the efficiency dividend from the ANAO—another plank of its sustainable funding model.”
“The long-term financial position of the ANAO continues to be uncertain, and this has troubled the JCPAA for some years. The past five years have seen the ANAO record average annual operating losses of around $5 million, with a projected loss of $4 million in 2025-26. This has a significant limiting effect on the Auditor-General's ability to provide a robust accountability mechanism for the activities of executive government on behalf of the parliament. The components of the ANAO's model include, first and foremost, a projected increase of $10.5 million per annum to its base funding commencing in 2026-27. This is supported by the committee as a priority. The ANAO will find it increasingly more difficult to meet its statutory obligations and the expectations of the parliament without this increase.”
“This statement on behalf of the committee, in advance of the budget being handed down, is an important transparency measure that informs the parliament and the public on the adequacy of the resourcing of both the ANAO and the PBO. The committee considers both agencies to be vital in supporting the work of this parliament and in strengthening the integrity and transparency of public administration. We have carefully scrutinised the ANAO's and PBO's draft budget estimates for 2026-27, subject to further review of the costings and final estimates which may be agreed with the Department of Finance. There are four parts to the ANAO's request in the upcoming budget which are the stated guiding principles for its proposed sustainable funding model.”
“I wish to make a statement on behalf of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit concerning the draft budget estimates for the Australian National Audit Office and the Parliamentary Budget Office for 2026-27. On behalf of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, I present this statement on the draft budget estimates of the Australian National Audit Office, the ANAO, and the Parliamentary Budget Office, the PBO. The committee is required, under the Public Accounts and Audit Committee Act 1951 and the Parliamentary Service Act 1999, to consider the draft budget estimates of the ANAO and PBO respectively and to make recommendations regarding these estimates to both houses of parliament.”
“My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General please update the House on the work of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, including its recently published interim report?”
“It's all well and good to be strong in a press conference and it's all well and good to call your political opponents weak, but what actually matters is that we are strong in this place and that we put legislation in place in order to protect the communities who are affected by it. The Jewish community also has said that the vilification clauses shouldn't just be around race and that they should go to everyone because everyone deserves equal protection before the law, and of course that is true. No-one should suffer vilification. No-one should suffer hate. No-one should suffer because of incitement. It is just an absolute shame that we come in here today and the full suite of laws aren't what they should be, because the Liberal Party refuse to support the very things that they said they supported.”
“But it is not an excuse to then not try to do everything in our power to confront it, today and tomorrow and into the future. We all have to be humble about this. The fact of the matter is that, even late last night, a bunch of Jewish kids in my electorate who were dressed in religious Jewish garb were chased down the street and screamed at just for being who they are. Incitement, vilification and hatred—all of which would be criminal offences had the Liberal Party been willing to support what they said they were willing to support when they were inside a synagogue.”