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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“They want to ensure that their kids can go to school, that their littlest kids can go to child care, that they can go to synagogue and that they can worship and practise their faith in exactly the way that they have been doing for hundreds of years. This bill is a step forward in ensuring that we as a parliament take the clearest of stances to make sure that we respond to the moment, respond to the vilification and hate and say, 'Not in our name.' We say, 'Not in Australia's name.' We say that this is not the Australia that we support, that this has no place in Australia and that, in Australia, if you want to incite violence against another group, then you will face the full force of the law.”
“But what we can say is that, in the mainstream of our society, in the suburbs that we are all proud to represent, we will not tolerate this. I love this country. I love Australia. I love the fact that I am a proud Australian, and I am also a proud Jewish Australian. I'm proud of my community. I understand how much they are hurting right now. I understand that we have not yet confronted this in my lifetime. I understand that people want to see action, and that is exactly what this bill is. I understand that the Jewish community is not asking for special treatment; they are asking for safety. They are asking for the exact same treatment that they used to have and to be the same as every other member of the Australian community.”
“That is the Australia that makes me proud to be a representative in this incredible house of democracy. This bill is not one I wanted to ever conceive of, but it is an important step forward to meet this moment and to set the standards of what is and is not acceptable in this country. No person of any race, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, political opinion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status or disability should feel anything other than equality before the law, and that is what this bill does. If you are going to try to incite hatred and violence against those people, you will be charged and potentially convicted under our criminal law. We might not be able to stamp out every discussion and conversation in this country. We might not be able to restore everything overnight.”
“We say that everyone is equal before Australian law, that everyone deserves to be in this country free from discrimination and vilification and hatred, that every single person has a right to practice their faith and religion free from persecution and vilification, that every single person has a right to return to their homes safely without it being spray-painted or vilified in the way in which we have seen and that every single Australian has the right to participate fully in Australian life without the fear of being targeted for being who they are. That is the Australia that I signed up to. That is the Australia that gave my family and my grandparents a home after they were kicked out of their previous homes in Europe. That is the Australia that I believe in.”
“The question we must confront is: what are we going to do about it? How firmly will we stand together to say this is not going to happen in our name? We cannot stamp this out completely. I wish we could, and we should definitely aim for that, but what we can do is ensure that together, in this place as leaders of our country in this moment, we stand up proudly for what Australia stands for. We are a multicultural country. We are a migrant country. We are a place where we spread opportunity and we spread equality amongst all our citizens equally.”
“Unfortunately, what we have seen since 7 October 2023 is a rise in community anger and in community dissent and division, which has created a perfect cover and smokescreen for the sorts of people who want to see antisemitism brought to the mainstream. We have seen neo-Nazis marching in the middle of Melbourne, marching in South Australia and marching on the streets outside our parliaments. People who are espousing white supremacy are outside our place of proud multicultural democracy. It is an affront to what we are as a country, and we have seen these sorts of hate-fuelled ideologies and inciteful and discriminatory ideas being brought into the mainstream of society before. That is where we are right now. The question isn't whether or not we stand idly by and what our country does.”
“Antisemitism has existed in golf clubs, in theatres and in a range of institutions where Jews were excluded from even participating. The whole reason the Cranbourne Golf Club was set up was because Jewish people in Melbourne were not allowed to join Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Thankfully, that's changed. I'm not a member of Royal Melbourne and not a good enough golfer to ever expect to be one, but the point is that throughout the history of the Jewish community post Holocaust, there have been places where the Jewish community has not been able to fully participate. But on the whole Jews have been safe in Australia.”
“We're not talking about my electorate office being targeted and my staff's place of work being completely smashed in, vandalised and made uninhabitable for months. I don't want to be talking about any of that. I want us to come into this place and show unity and resolve so that we in this country target the acts of hate and violence, stamp it out, set the standards of what is and isn't acceptable in this country and show that Australia is a united force and is not going to accept what is going on in our streets right now because that's what this ultimately is about. We have seen throughout history these dark corners of the community come into the mainstream. Antisemitism has existed in Australia since its inception, since there were Jews here.”
“I've spoken to the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, and he has spoken to me and advised me about the sort of work he's doing to try and support his community as well. I think that is an important objective. I fully support that as well. It is not a competition, and we want to stamp out all forms of hate. But that's not why I came to this place. I want to see Australia restored, so we're not talking about the division in our society, and we're not talking about how people are being targeted—we're certainly not talking about childcare services being burnt down. We're not talking about schools being spray-painted with graffiti. We're not talking about cars and caravans being found with explosives in them. We're not talking about synagogues in my electorate being burnt down.”
“But when I came into this place, I had visions on policies around housing, climate change and energy. I want to see mental health support for people in this country improved. They are the passions that I have, as well as ensuring that opportunity is spread across this country for migrant families just like mine who came to this country. It wasn't to be facing the rise in antisemitism like we have. I would also make this point—and I know this has been a point of great contention and sadness and frustration for some people—vilification is not a competition. Hatred is not a competition. If there's any form of hatred, we all lose. I know there are people who will be protected by this legislation who have not had as much media attention but still are extremely fearful at the moment, including the LGBTIQ community.”
“Whether we end up supporting that amendment or not will be a collective decision, but, personally, I wanted to say that—though I will accept the collective decision of the government—here and now, I think the amendments moved by the member for Wentworth show a real dedication to representing her community. It is what her community wants, and they can rightly be grateful for her efforts in this. I wish we weren't here, in this place, talking about vilification and hate speech. I can't even begin to tell you that that is the last thing I wanted to do when coming into this place. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to my community. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to the people who have seen the most unimaginable pain over the last 15 months.”
“I want to also mention the member for Wentworth, who has put forward an amendment that I think is absolutely worthy of consideration. I understand these are complicated negotiations and that there are a range of considerations that we do and do not have control over as backbenchers in the parliament, but I wanted to put it on record that I know the member for Wentworth has witnessed the community that she is the representative of—and the community that is the sister community to mine—go under such intolerable pain and hurt and fear. She has come to this place with a suggestion around how to ensure we lift the standards of how we talk to each other and how we show the standards of hate, discrimination and vilification are removed.”
“Right now, a lot of the potential harm that is done is done under civil legislation. This is a significant step forward towards criminal penalties. I understand there are discussions going on across the parliament around the final formation of this bill. I would make the point that, with this bill, we want to make sure we are doing a couple of things. One is that whatever we agree to as a parliament, it sticks—that the legislation is not one that is repealed from government to government but that all sides of politics are committed to upholding a standard of stamping out hatred and division in our society, together for the future. We don't want this to be a political contest. I know the Attorney-General is leading those negotiations at this current moment with the coalition and with the crossbench.”
“It is not possible to do that when people are afraid in the ways I have seen of late. We need to fix this. I said in the other chamber that we need to fix this, and this bill, the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024, is an important step forward in saying what is acceptable by law in this country and what is not. As it stands, this bill is an important step forward that says: 'If you want to create violence and attack someone on the basis of a component of their identity, that is against the law. That will be against the law, and there will be a criminal penalty that will be attached to that act.' That does not exist in Australia right now—that, if you want to incite violence against particular groups, you could be charged by the police and put in prison.”
“We saw it in the heightened sense of conflict and the heightened sense of division within Australian society. Unfortunately, what we have seen not only in Australia but in other Western countries around the world is that, as a repercussion of those tensions and of those legitimate anxieties people are feeling being played out in illegitimate ways, the Jewish community of Australia has been the target of a rise in antisemitism that has frankly rocked my community to its core. It has rocked the Jewish people of Australia to their core. This country is a country that has built so much confidence, prosperity, freedom and opportunity and has enabled people to contribute to this wonderful country of ours. But it is not possible to do that when there is vilification. It is not possible to do that when there is hate.”
“I remember where I was on 7 October when the news came in of the potential terrorist attacks in Israel. No-one really had any sense of what was going on at the time; no-one understood the scale. It was only as the hours unfolded that we started to understand exactly what had happened. I don't want to focus this speech on the Middle East, but I do think it's important to start there because that was the turning point of things changing here in Australia. I do think that was a turning point where tensions were heightened in Australia and where people started to judge each other and to turn on each other based on what their views were on this particular conflict. I think that we didn't see the human sides of each other and that we took sides against each other. We saw it on our streets.”
“You don't need your credit card, like the Leader of the Opposition wanted when he wanted to put a GP tax on every single family who wanted to go and see their doctor. All we wanted was for you to bring your Medicare card, and we would make sure that a doctor and a GP—”
“One of the things I'm most proud about is the urgent care clinics we have set up around the country. I remember that before the last election, before the honourable member for Bennelong joined us in this house of democracy, I joined a whole range of nurses at the ANMF in Victoria, where the Leader of the Opposition at the time, now the Prime Minister, announced that we were going to establish 50 urgent care clinics around the country. This was going to mean that there would be walk-in centres. You wouldn't have had to make an appointment; all you would have had to do is walk in, and all you would have needed to do is bring your Medicare card, and you would have been able to see a doctor.”
“A lot of work has gone into it from the secretariat. I thank the deputy chair and all of the committee members. I commend the report to the House.”
“The committee recognises that there are a number of important measures in this bill to enable further transparency around democracy; however, there were still questions around whether or not this would disproportionately impact certain candidates and whether or not this would indirectly disadvantage particular groups of people standing for election. As such, the committee has drawn some human rights concerns to the attention of the parliament. Finally, the committee has also considered a response from the minister regarding the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Communications) Bill 2024 and has made a recommendation to amend the bill to assist its human rights compatibility. I encourage all members to consider the report closely. It is the first scrutiny report of 2025. It is a long one.”
“The committee considers that the measures do not appear to be compatible with multiple rights and considers the compatibility of measures may be assisted with the act amended, but as the bill has now passed it makes no further comment. It also considers that it remains unclear that legislative instruments providing for the imposition of visa conditions, including ankle monitoring and curfews, are directed towards a pressing and substantial issue or accompanied by sufficient safeguards. The committee has also considered a response from the minister regarding the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Reform) Bill 2024, which seeks to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 to introduce gift caps and electoral expenditure caps, reduce the donations disclosure threshold and increase public funding to incumbent parties and candidates.”
“The bill, now act, provides for the cessation of certain bridging visas where a third country has given a noncitizen permission to enter and remain in that foreign country. It also expands circumstances in which the minister may determine that a protection finding would no longer be made in relation to a person. It provides for the disclosure of criminal history information, including to foreign countries, and it amends the requirements relating to the imposition of visa conditions on certain bridging visas. These measures limit multiple human rights, including the rights to liberty, freedom of movement, non-refoulement obligations, privacy and effective remedy.”
“The committee has previously concluded that the use of restrictive practices on persons in aged care raises significant human rights issues, particularly on the rights of persons with disability. The committee reiterates these concerns and notes that among other matters there is no requirement in the instrument to provide for supported rather than substituted decision-making. Much depends on unknown safeguards and state and territory legislation. As such, the committee has made a few recommendations to amend the quality-of-care principles and to inform future consultation. The committee has also considered a response from the minister regarding the Migration Amendment Bill 2024 and related instruments.”
“I'm pleased to table the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights report entitled Human rights scrutiny report: report 1 of 2025. Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e). by leave—In this report, the committee has considered 15 new bills and 284 legislative instruments. It has commented on two bills and three legislative instruments included in its examination of three bills. In this report, the committee commented on the Quality of Care Amendment (Restrictive Practices) Principles 2024. This instrument extends the operation of arrangements for substitute decision-makers to consent to the use of restrictive practices on persons in aged care by a further two years.”
“The lord mayor and I have been out there many times to look at the different options and to work with other layers of government, and I'm really pleased that we are getting this done for the people of Southbank so there is more open space for them. I might even go down there and have a few shots on the new basketball courts when it's built.”
“If you come down into Southbank, heading towards the city, on the northern side of City Road there is currently a big undercroft which is basically just an old taxi rank. It's quite poorly lit, and it's a bit of an eyesore and a concrete jungle. We are going to completely change and refresh that whole area. We're going to put in basketball courts, an open space, park benches and a little recreational area. It's going to be there for the people of Southbank and anyone coming to visit our beautiful gateway into the city and our arts precinct to come and enjoy. This is a really good project. It's another example of partnering and getting things done with local government.”
“We are going to be working with the council on the extension of the pier leading into the foreshore, upgrading that area so it's a far more seamless and beautiful part of St Kilda. We'll be complementing the state government's work to redevelop the pier. It's another example of us working with other layers of government, getting the right projects, getting buy-in and upgrading our beautiful part of Melbourne. The last local project that I want to mention and that we're delivering for the people of Macnamara, also part of our Thriving Suburbs Program, is our partnership with the City of Melbourne. We have a new lord mayor of the City of Melbourne, and I congratulate Lord Mayor Reece on his recent election. This project is something he and I have been speaking about and working collaboratively on for a long period of time.”
“I was very pleased to welcome the minister for infrastructure to Macnamara to announce as part of our Thriving Suburbs Program that we are going to partner with the City of Port Phillip and the Victorian government to upgrade the next part of the St Kilda pier. Over summer, you may have seen images of the St Kilda pier in Melbourne absolutely chockers. It has been redeveloped, and there is a fantastic swimming area. There is a big amphitheatre around it. If you haven't been to Melbourne recently and you want to come on a hot day and go for a walk, go to the St Kilda pier; it is much cooler than I am! It's a great place, and you'll love it. It has a great atmosphere and there are so many people everywhere. Also, if you come to the pier at the right time, you can see some of our beautiful little penguins as well.”
“Let's just stop and think about that for a second. The university was given a piece of land for free. They are the custodians of an early education centre. I would've thought that Swinburne would value that they are getting market rate from the community childcare centre, and yet they are squeezing them out to try and sell the land off to the highest bidder and redevelop it so that they can get every dollar out of this site. The approach that they are taking is a very, very poor reflection on Swinburne. They don't need to go down that road. They can stop everything, and they can work with us to try and ensure that the future of the Windsor Community Children's Centre is secure. We are also doing a whole lot of other work around Macnamara.”
“It's such a wonderful part of Melbourne. It's diverse. It's full of great small businesses and cafes, and to go down Chapel Street in Windsor is to experience some of the best hospitality, food and restaurants in Melbourne. This childcare centre is also an outstanding childcare centre. It has an exceeding rating and is one of the few exceeding early education centres. It provides high-quality care, and the community-run parents organisation that runs this community centre is just extraordinary. The staff are extraordinary and dedicated to their work. They are hardworking early educators and they deserve to be supported. But, right now, Swinburne University of Technology were given the land that the childcare centre is on for free by the Victorian government, and they are choosing to rezone that land to make a profit.”
“We need to make sure our Public Service respects and takes their own work seriously and we need to make sure that people have an opportunity to serve in our Public Service from all different walks of life. Canberra can be an isolated place, and we want to make sure people come to the Australian Public Service with a whole raft of experiences, backgrounds and wisdom to create and craft a better government. I also want to talk about one of the projects that I've got going on in my electorate, which is the Windsor Community Children's Centre. This is a community childcare centre in a new part of my electorate. Windsor was previously part of the Macnamara electorate, but then we handed Windsor to the electorate of Higgins. Now I'm very pleased that the Australian Electoral Commission has brought Windsor back into the electorate of Macnamara.”
“It's about making sure that people from different faith backgrounds, people from different ethnic backgrounds, people with different genders, people from a whole different mixture of life experiences, people with a disability and First Nations people—a whole range of different people who bring their own expertise and their own life experience—are able to provide frank and fearless advice to the government. This policy is straight out of a very conservative playbook that we're seeing right around the world in Western countries right now, and I would say that Australia doesn't need these sorts of culture wars. We need a strong Public Service and a diverse Public Service.”
“Let's take a moment and actually understand what that means for not only the potentially thousands of jobs—I'm not sure of the exact number of Public Service jobs that the Leader of the Opposition wants to cut. But having diversity and equality inclusion in the public sector isn't just about ensuring that the Public Service is thinking about its workforce and being an example of the sort of workplace that we want to set in Australia; it's also about making sure that our Public Service actually looks like and thinks like the Australian people.”
“I really thank the Midsumma Festival committee and crew for putting on such a great festival, and I know all the restaurants and small businesses, all the cafes and the bars, up and down Fitzroy Street were absolutely chockers. This is one of those events that brings a lot of people to our electorate. I actually think that the timing of the pride march was really important this year, with the opposition's recent flurry of election commitments including the uncosted long-lunch policy that will potentially cost Australian taxpayers $10 billion for businesses to get tax deductions on their long lunches. Another policy that the Leader of the Opposition threw out there without much thought or consideration, as he often does, was his policy to cut the DEI staff in the Public Service.”
“It's very inclusive, but it also has a really serious point behind it—this year is 30 years since the beginning of the pride marches. The original pride march took place because LGBTIQ Australians were facing vilification. They were facing stigma, and people wanted to have a public demonstration of pride and of coming together to say: 'We are proud of who we are. We're proud of our community, and we want to celebrate our diversity and what makes us who we are.' I was proud to join them. I've marched every single year for probably the last 10 years. I should really count back to when the first time was. It is such a special time in St Kilda, and I really love it.”
“Strap yourselves in folks, because the electorate of Macnamara is such a wonderful electorate, and am I going to take you on a journey around Macnamara! Am I going to take you on a journey around the place where I live, that I grew up in and that I love so much. On the weekend Macnamara was absolutely alive, with the Midsumma Pride March going straight through the heart of St Kilda. It was a very glittery, fun and wonderful event, where thousands and thousands of people flocked to Fitzroy Street, which is the nightlife capital of St Kilda. I'm sure the honourable member has haunted those parts in his time, back in the day. An honourable member: Steady on! The pride march in St Kilda really is everything that makes it wonderful. It's exciting. It's fun. It's very welcoming.”
“Every single Australian demands and deserves the right to be safe, to be able to live in their homes without fear and without worrying about intimidation, harassment or violence, especially for something as simple as who they are. I'm a proud Jewish Australian and I will continue to stand against antisemitism in all of its forms.”
“Over the summer, I spent countless hours holding our university vice-chancellors to account to ensure that students who return to university have a safe place to go from day one. But we need to do more. We are going to work together this week to create new laws to outlaw hate and incitement. We need to protect people from that. Antisemitism is a wicked problem. It has existed for thousands of years and it has always been there in Australia, but it has lain dormant. It has always been in the corners of our society. Well, it is not anymore. It is up to each and every member of this House to stand firmly and strongly against it and to do whatever is in our power to ensure that Australia is a safe place—because it is not just the Jewish people who are watching; it is all of Australia.”
“I will work with anyone, and I have stood with anyone in the past, in order to ensure that we present a united voice on this, that we confront this together and that we restore Australia together, and I would urge all members of the House to join us in coming together to send the clearest of messages that we will not fight, because the fight is not in here; it is for the Jewish people of Australia. This is personal. I want this to end. I want this all to end. I dread turning on my phone and looking at the news and seeing another attack. We want this to be over, so we need to commit ourselves and take full responsibility for taking this on and doing whatever is in our power to combat it. Now, we have increased security, we have banned Nazi salutes, we've criminalised doxxing and we've appointed a special envoy to combat antisemitism.”
“Some of the tropes that we have seen in this country are ones we've seen before. Some people target the Jewish community because of some sort of response to what's happening in the Middle East, some because they believe in the myths of Jewish power and control, and some just under the false banner of racial supremacy. None of these tropes are new, but the common thread is conspiracy, dehumanisation and hatred, all of which have existed throughout history. We've been kicked out of our homes before. Our homes have been targeted. But today we say, 'Not here. Not in Australia.' We cannot let antisemitism become a partisan issue. It has never existed on a political spectrum. There are things that I disagree with the Liberal Party about, but not this.”
“My grandparents came to this country looking for a safe haven for the Jewish people, and over the last six months we've seen cars set alight, we've seen synagogues burnt down, we've seen Jewish homes and businesses marked and we have seen childcare centres being burnt down—our littlest Australians. Why? What is the common thread? They are all targeted towards the Australian Jewish community. But we must fix this and we must work together until Australia as we know it and as we grew up in is restored. The first step is to listen to the Jewish people of Australia. They hold the collective memory of microagression, of hate, of words and acts of vilification and discrimination, and they understand the history of antisemitism. We cannot allow history to fester and get even more out of control.”
“I second the motion. I thank the number for Wentworth for bringing forward the motion. I know that we both feel a deep sense of responsibility for the two largest Jewish communities of any electorate in this country, and I thank her for bringing this to the House. Last year, when I saw my office with horns on top of it, I thought, 'Surely, this is as bad as it can get.' My staff came to work with antisemitic graffiti all of my office and are completely shattered. But the truth is that the last six months have been like no other I've experienced in this country.”