From tolerance to terror

I put to the Prime Minister that Dennis Richardson – one of Australia's most distinguished security professionals, the former head of ASIO, the former secretary of Defence, the former secretary of Foreign Affairs, the former Australian ambassador to the US – said the statement that "from river to the sea, Palestine will be free" was a very violent statement that had no place on our streets.

Prime Minister, that this is what Dennis Richardson said, and you agreed. You said it had no place on our streets. Yet what have you done, Prime Minister? Nothing, nothing.

And people are allowed to parade on our streets with Hezbollah, Hamas, ISIS flags and signs that say "Jews are Nazis", "Zionists are terrorists". Where are the prosecutions? Where is the action?

Prime Minister, what other country do people in Australia call for the abolition of other than the state of Israel. The answer is none.

Prime Minister, what other country in the world are people allowed to call for the abolition of, no other country except the state of Israel?

Well I can tell you, I won't accept it. And the people here will never accept it.

Fourth, stop the protests. For 2½ years, we have put up with daily protests which have become incubators of hate.

There's a ceasefire in the Middle East. Israel launched a defensive action against a listed terrorist organisation that took more than 1200 innocent lives and hundreds of Israelis hostage, and you have allowed these protests to go on unabated for 2½ years, destroying businesses and now destroying lives. Stop the protests.

Fifth, invest in education.

When I did the documentary on anti-Semitism, I interviewed Julia Gillard. She said one of the reasons for the level of hate rising in our country was because young people didn't have the information, the understanding, the knowledge of either the history of the Holocaust or the history of the Middle East.

Across Australia, there is some Holocaust education, but it's piecemeal, it's un-coordinated and it's different according to different states.

You are the Prime Minister of Australia, and the history of the Holocaust is that bad things happen when good people stay silent. So it's up to you not to sprinkle a bit of money around Holocaust education after a horrific terrorist attack but to take the initiative now with wholesale, wide-scale reform to our education system.