The apocalyptic scenes from the Middle East are distressing, as Israel and its allies become embroiled in an unthinkable broader conflict with Iran and its proxies.  I was ashamed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s speech to the United Nations abandoning Israel.  The Albanese Labor government has stoked community tension on this issue through weak leadership and Victorians are paying the cost.

Anti-war protests in Melbourne could cost taxpayers as much as $30 million after Victoria Police controlled violent protesters who threw acid and punched horses at a recent Land Forces Expo.  

All politicians support the democratic right to protest. However, protests have turned violent and federal parliament has passed bipartisan laws banning displaying symbols of listed terrorist groups or Nazi symbols. Despite this, protesters last weekend brazenly displayed the symbol of listed terrorist organisation Hezbollah, banned in Australia since 2021.

People on visas who sympathise with terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah should be deported.  Those fleeing Gaza or Lebanon should be turned back if they are terrorist sympathisers. Labor’s weak stance on border security is all about local politics–afraid of losing inner-city seats to the anti-Australian Greens. Labor’s inaction is tearing social cohesion apart. An Italian migrant complained to me this week that his family came in the 1950s and accepted Australian values, why can’t newer arrivals?

The blatant anti-Semitism we have seen at protests, in the media and online is unthinkable in modern Australia. So, what has Labor done? They have appointed an Islamophobia envoy.

Our education system has failed younger Australians.  Earlier this year former Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned that young Australians misunderstand how Israel came into existence and are developing unbalanced views, saying: “The Holocaust, of course, teaches us where antisemitism leads if it's no tconfronted. That is the history of Germany before the war. It didn't happen all at once.”

 The risk facing Israel - the only democratic nation in the Middle East - is a risk to all democracies.  Make no mistake. Australia must reject anti-Semitism.