It’s our turn to have your back
'I speak on behalf of millions in New South Wales when I say that we are appalled, and we are heartbroken'
Thank you Sharri, thank you Alex Ryvchin, thank you to Sky News for organising this forum. I particularly want to thank Rabbi Wolff, for welcoming us all into this house of God.
Friends, seventy five years ago, a Jewish man stepped off a boat in Sydney Harbour, having survived the Shoah in Europe. On the next day, his second day in this land, he wrote a letter to the editor of the Australian Jewish News. He outlined his first impressions of Australia. He said:
“It’s a very peculiar feeling. It’s almost midnight. We are in Sydney. If you were born here or if you’ve been living here for many years, you might not understand these feelings Because though it is midnight, and though it’s our only second day in Sydney, we seem to be at home. Already, we start to have that sense of security as Australian citizens. We are beginning to share their confidence in their fellow citizens and what is undoubtably a beautiful country.”
I don’t think it would surprise anybody in this synagogue today to know that on his second day in this country, we already had a proud Australian.
Because for generations Jewish people have come to this country with the promise of a new life in Australia. It’s been a very simple promise. Despite centuries of horrifying violence, Australia would be different. Australia would be safe. It would be country that accepts and protects and even celebrates Jewish people. Not just providing a refuge, but offering hope, a future, and most importantly, a home.
Friends, if the events of summer have shaken that faith, if they have put that promise into question in any way, I speak on behalf of millions in New South Wales when I say that we are appalled, and we are heartbroken.
It was appalling to see the hateful scenes on the steps of the Sydney Opera House one day after October 7th, and I can tell you, I’m deeply ashamed that it happened under my watch as Premier of this state.
Last few months, we’ve seen things that we never thought we’d see in this country, certainly not in 2025. A holy synagogue, desecrated by the hateful swastika. A second of house of worship in Victoria set on fire in the hours before dawn.
To a person, these have been cowardly and anonymous attacks, conducted under the cover of darkness, designed to intimidate to bully and to threaten the Jewish people of New South Wales.
But today, we are gathered here at this summit, as one community, representing different political parties but speaking in the clearest possible terms. And that is, that this campaign of antisemitism must fail, and this campaign of antisemitism will fail.
I think it’s important that we speak about why. It will fail because the Jewish people have an inner strength that is unbreakable. It will fail because our Jewish neighbours have the vast, vast majority of people, Australians, at their back. And it will fail, because if you attempt this kind of menace, the police will track you down, they will throw the book at you, and most crucially, if the laws don’t allow for proper prosecution, then we must change the laws.
Friends, I know this has been a terrible summer for the Jewish community of New South Wales.
From our conversations, I know you’re exhausted and frustrated and justifiably angry. No one should ever have to change their behaviour because of the ignorance and bigotry of small minds of other people.
There are Jewish kids who are no longer catching the bus to school in the morning. There are Jewish kids who are hiding their school uniforms in public. And I need to say it in an unambiguous way, this is a public disgrace. This shouldn’t be allowed to happen.
We’ve got a responsibility as elected leaders as well, in fact, in particular, as the great British Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once said:
“Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone. Because the victim cannot cure the crime. The hated cannot cure the hate. The only people who can successfully combat antisemitism are those active in the cultures that harbour it.”
While there are clearly people out there who have hate in their heart, New South Wales will never be a safe harbour for the poison of antisemitism. Everyone here would know antisemitism is a particularly corrosive form of hate, it diminishes our people, it degrades our society.
As Rabbi Sacks said, it’s not your responsibility to cure this crime, it’s the responsibility of people in government and law enforcement and leaders like myself.
And I promise you I’m deeply conscious of that responsibility.
We might not be able to legislate our way out of all problems but we can establish a real deterrent, with the resources need to root out antisemitism wherever it lurks.
Friends, in our last session of parliament, we introduced new laws that target this kind of racial hatred in our community. Stronger laws which send a stark and impossible to miss message. That these are serious crimes and they must carry new sentences. That tranche includes a new offence targeting the display of Nazi symbols on or near a synagogue. And laws designed to stop people from harassing other people, or intimidating other people from recognising their religion and worshipping at religious buildings.
Because I will not allow an elderly survivor of the Holocaust to be intimidated or harassed as they celebrate the Shabbat with their community and their family.
David Ossip made the point last week that hate speech against Jewish people doesn’t ever end with words. Hate speech ends with violence. And violence undermines the bonds of trust and cohesion that we need in a civilised society.
So I hope with these laws we are attacking the hate speech, so we can stop the violence and in the process protect our society at the same time.
On that note, I do want to acknowledge the support of the Jewish community and in particular the heavy burden carried by Jewish leaders in New South Wales over the last 18 months, in particular, David [Ossip] and Alex [Ryvchin]. Perhaps the full story will be never known, but the amount of stress and strain that these two individuals and their families have had to go through in order to represent with clearness, precision and force the Jewish community in New South Wales is truly inspiring.
Across this summer we’ve relied on your guidance, information and support, as I know the New South Wales Police have too.
Thousands of people have played their part, but I do want to recognise the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies for their strength and leadership through these difficult times.
New South Wales has been the home for Jewish people, ever since eight Jews sailed here on the first fleet. Wherever you look, across our skyline, in our hospitals, through our business culture, in science and philanthropy and the arts, Australia has prospered as a result of Jewish migration.
And think about what has been accomplished. Jewish migrants, who escaped the darkest crime of humanity, didn’t just find the strength to build a new life for themselves, but helped built a modern country in the process. This remarkable contribution was summed up by Hayes Gordon, one of the great Australian directors of the postwar era, who observed of Australian Jews:
“That while it was painful beyond measure to witness great cultures burned with their books, so many were somehow able to salvage a measure of this cultural wealth and bring it with them to this new home in this vast Pacific island. They came at a time when Australia was crying out to find itself. And coming with a fresh outlook, it was often the newcomer who saw what was needed to be done, and how.”
And now, as a result, our country owes a great debt to the Jewish community here in Australia. And now it’s our turn to have your back, to destroy the poison of antisemitism that walks amongst us, to cast it off again into the garbage bin of history where it undoubtably belongs.
Chris Minns is the NSW Premier. This is the speech he delivered at Thursday’s Sky News Antisemitism Summit.
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