Matilda.
Edith Brutman.
Dan Elkayam.
Boris and Sofia Gurman.
Alexander Kleytman.
Rabbi Yaakov Levitan.
Peter Meagher.
Reuven Morrison.
Marika Pogany.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger.
Adam Smyth.
Boris Tetleroyd.
Tania Tretiak.
Tibor Weitzen.
Mr Speaker, the minute of silence we have just observed echoes with those 15 names.
Fifteen innocent people for whom today should be just another Monday morning.
Another day in this beautiful country they loved, in the embrace of the family and friends they adored.
Another day in busy lives, rich in passion and purpose, defined by hard work and by humour.
Another day devoted to others, serving their community, nourishing their faith.
Another day of school holidays.
Instead, our Parliament comes together in sorrow to offer our nation’s condolences to the people who knew and loved them best.
We welcome all the family members and dear friends and spiritual leaders joining us here.
From the depths of grief, you have summoned remarkable strength.
You have given us a glimpse of who your loved ones were, how much they meant – and how brave they proved themselves to be.
As Rabbi Ulman put it: “the light that each of those souls brought into the world”.
As we pause in silence to remember them, we recognise that for you an unbearable silence has fallen.
The silence of laughter forever stilled.
Of footsteps in the hallway that will never come.
Of a voice that will never be heard again, except in memories held in broken hearts.
The silence of futures unlived.
The silence of a sorrow beyond words, inflicted by an atrocity beyond comprehension.
On the 14th of December 2025, Chabad of Bondi hosted hundreds of Jewish Australians for the first night of Chanukah.
They gathered at that world-famous spot, a beautiful place at the heart of their community.
And in coming together to celebrate the Chanukah message of hope, resilience and the victory of light over darkness, they were also re-affirming their identity – proud Jews and proud Australians.
From grandparents who had survived the horrors of the Holocaust and made a life and home here in Australia.
To children playing in the summer twilight.
When the gunshots began, some people in the crowd looked up to the sky, to see the fireworks.
Others thought it was balloons popping.
Then the horrific reality descended.
As we join in mourning for the 15 souls whose lives and futures were so cruelly stolen, our hearts also go out to everyone injured and traumatised.
People who will always carry scars from what they suffered and saw on that dark night for our nation.
We say to all of you who have travelled here today and to those watching at home, on your long road to healing, Australia will be by your side.
Mr Speaker, just as our nation came together one week after Bondi to light candles against the darkness, we must continue to raise our voices against the silence.
Because while the massacre at Bondi Beach was cruel and senseless, it was not random.
Jewish Australians were the target.
As we offer our love, sympathy and solidarity to everyone bearing the weight of trauma and loss, we make it clear to every Jewish Australian, you are not alone.
All Australians stand with you.
Australians were with you at Bondi Beach in those unspeakable minutes of violence and terror.
Police officers and first responders, running towards danger to save lives, backed by Hatzolah and Community Health Support.
Adults shielding children they did not know from bullets.
Lifeguards using their boards as stretchers to carry the wounded.
Café staff giving shelter to people fleeing in fear.
And passers-by performing acts of extraordinary bravery.
Mr Speaker, I have asked the Governor General to create a Special Honours List, so all Australians can nominate these heroes of Bondi for formal recognition.
Because the defining and enduring truth of that fateful Sunday is not fear or bloodshed.
It is not the cowardly antisemitic evil of the terrorists.
Nor the murderous perversion of Islam they took as inspiration.
It is the courage and kindness of people risking their own lives to save others. People I have had the opportunity to meet.
Yanky Super.
Gefen Bitton.
Ahmed Al Ahmed.
Constable Scott Dyson and Probationary Constable Jack Hibbert.
And so many more.
I have had the honour to meet with some of these heroes, to express the gratitude and admiration of our whole country.
Their bravery is inspiring and it was instinctive.
They did not need to know the names of the people they faced gunfire to help.
They did not stop to think about faith or nationality.
Their bond was more profound than that.
Their bravery was an act of shared humanity.
And that is the spirit in which Australians have responded, every day since.
Working around the clock in hospitals across Sydney.
Donating blood in record numbers.
Turning that famous foreshore into a sea of beautiful flowers.
Matching their words of love, with deeds of kindness and unity. Mitzvahs.
And in that same spirit, honouring the heroes of Bondi also means standing together against that evil that inflicted this devastation.
Standing together against hatred, standing together against division.
And working together to eradicate antisemitism, wherever it hides, whatever form it assumes and whatever weapons it wields.
Affirming, loudly and clearly, that Jewish Australians have every right to be proud of who you are.
Proud to raise and educate your children in your faith.
Proud to freely participate in the public life of our nation.
And proud that you are not just a part of the Australian story, you have helped to write the Australian story.
In government and the law, in business, education and the arts, on the battlefield and in every field of human endeavour.
Your faith, resilience, wisdom and compassion enrich our national life.
You belong here. You are respected, valued and admired.
As Prime Minister, I give you this solemn promise on behalf of every Australian.
We will not meet your suffering with silence.
We will not leave you in darkness.
We will continue to do everything required to ensure your security, uphold your safety and protect and honour your place here with us, as Australians.
Mr Speaker, amidst our grief for those killed and injured, and our gratitude to those who saved lives.
I know there is disbelief and anger too.
How could there not be?
A Holocaust survivor was gunned down in a nation that had given him refuge from the worst of humanity.
A 10-year-old girl will never have another birthday.
Terrorists, inspired by ISIS, murdered our citizens, on our soil.
In the long days and hard weeks that have followed, so many of us have thought to ourselves and said to each other:
“This doesn’t happen here, not in Australia. It’s not the Australian way.”
Bondi Beach changed that, forever.
We must face that unforgiving truth and we must learn from it.
And we must channel our anger into meaningful action to ensure an atrocity such as this can never happen again.
That responsibility starts with me, as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister.
It also belongs to each of us here in this chamber as Parliamentarians.
And it is a task for all of us, as Australians, to build social cohesion, to reject division and prejudice in all of its forms.
Mr Speaker, in the great tradition of Jewish Australians serving our nation, Sir Isaac Isaacs was Chief Justice of the High Court and the first Australian-born Governor-General.
And it was the Member for Isaacs who reminded me of the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, ‘the responsibility to repair the world’.
A mighty collective task that begins with individual good deeds, mitzvahs, as Rabbi Ulman and Rabbi Mendel have spoken with me about many times over recent weeks.
Small acts of kindness and care that add up to a better world.
That is central to the Jewish faith and it is at the heart of our Australian character too.
Knowing that our strength comes from caring for each other, respecting each other, looking after each other.
Bringing light into other people’s lives.
And recognising that kindness is an act of courage.
The courage to listen, understand, learn and change.
That is how all of us can help repair and strengthen the fabric of our nation.
How we heal and move forward in a spirit of national unity, where light triumphs over darkness.
It is how we honour the heroes of Bondi.
And ensure that the 15 people we remember and honour today, are never forgotten.
May their memories be a blessing.
