Victorian Parliament’s condolence motion for Bondi

Victoria’s Parliament paused on Tuesday to honour the Bondi victims and call for action against antisemitism.

Premier Jacinta Allan moved that the Legislative Assembly, “tenders Victoria’s heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the 15 innocent people murdered at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025”, as well as “condemns the atrocity which stole their lives, an act of terrorism deliberately targeted at Australia’s Jewish community gathering to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah”, and “unequivocally condemns the evil of antisemitism and vows stronger action to prevent extremism.”

The Premier acknowledged the anger felt within the Jewish community as justified. “There is deep and understandable anger…. How could there not be anger? A Holocaust survivor killed on a beach celebrating Hanukkah, parents and grandparents taken from their families, the beautiful young 10-year-old Matilda murdered while sharing a moment of joy with her sister, people who had survived the worst of the 20th century only to face deadly antisemitic hatred in 21st-century Australia – how could we not be angry?”

“It is our responsibility as leaders and as governments to prevent attacks like this whether they happen in Bondi or in Ripponlea. The truth is that governments have let you down. Your fears were real. The warnings were clear and we failed, and I want you to know how sorry I am,” she said.

Ripponlea is the neighbourhood where the Adass Israel Synagogue was torched and where Jewish students were recently threatened by a vehicle.

The Premier pledged: “We stand with Jewish Victorians always…We will confront antisemitism wherever it appears: in schools, in universities, in workplaces, online, on our streets, everywhere. We do it first and foremost through the law: through tougher anti-vilification and hate speech protections, banning the signs and symbols of terror, limiting protests that prevent people from worshipping freely, and limiting protests after attacks like this one that we are mourning today.

“We do it through how government operates: requiring a social cohesion commitment when awarding grants, adopting the broadest definition of antisemitism and implementing here in Victoria every one of the recommendations from the antisemitism envoy that relates to the responsibility of state governments. And above all, we do it by setting a strong moral example: speaking up and speaking out.”

She added, “To the Jewish community of Victoria, I want to say this very clearly: Jews belong here… In this moment of your grief and fear, you are not alone. Your Parliament stands with you; your government stands with you.”

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson noted the Jewish community’s warnings about the dangers of antisemitism had been ignored:  “I acknowledge the frustration and the anger of many in the Jewish community whose deeply held fears about a violent culmination of growing antisemitism have now been realised. Many have expressed their frustration that the thoughts and prayers of leaders have felt increasingly devoid of meaning as attacks against Jewish places of worship and businesses continued to unfold.”

“The time for never again is now…  To our wonderful Victorian Jewish community: you enrich the culture of our state and have made, and continue to make, profound contributions to Victoria…  And when you voice your concerns, my team will not dismiss them out of hand with hollow platitudes,” she said.

Caulfield MP David Southwick, who was recently re-elected as Deputy Leader of the Opposition, called for urgent action:

“14 December 2025 will be known as one of the darkest days in Australia’s history. After 7 October 2023 the Jewish community saw something that I think we have never seen before. We all knew antisemitism – we have all seen it and some of us have experienced it – but for the best part of it the game changed after 7 October 2023. We knew that this was going to happen – it was just a matter of when and where. To understand what the community has been through in that time and to watch people living in fear is just beyond belief…. We have all seen it, but there is nothing more than actually living it. I say that we have to do something because it will happen again. To all those that have spoken, I thank you for that. I thank you, Premier, for your apology, but we need to recognise the evil that has come to our great Australia and the fact that 15 people are no longer with us.”

Southwick noted the deteriorating security situation for the Victorian Jewish community.

“When I first started this job, we would have celebrations down the main street. We would have Simchat Torah, the actual day on which 7 October happened. These are targeted attacks. These extremists choose when the Jewish community is celebrating at its best to try to bring darkness, to put hate over the light that we try to shine during these festivals… Hanukkah, which we used to do in Caulfield Park, is now at Caulfield Racecourse, because we can secure Caulfield Racecourse better than we can the park. The very fact that we had Ahmed who came to help during that time was because it was an open event. The Jewish community want to welcome people…  But why is it that the Jewish community needs to hide behind walls? Why is it that way?

“I was on my way to the Hanukkah event. It is probably one of the best times of the year, I have got to say, because we get up and we light the Hanukkiah on the first day. It gets raised up on this big platform and we celebrate and sing and dance, and it is so joyful. Well, that crane was never lifted and that Hanukkiah was never lit on the first day of Hanukkah – it was abandoned. It was abandoned at Caulfield Racecourse because we could not continue. Over the eight days where there was meant to be light and happiness and celebration of Hanukkah, it was hard to smile. It was impossible to smile. We lit the candles each and every day, but each one of those candles had a different meaning.”

He recounted his visit to Sydney to pay his respects to the mourners.

“On the morning of the eighth day, I attended with Rabbi Sufrin and Rabbi Gorelik and a number of members of the Jewish community. Rabbi Sufrin leads the Russian Jewish community on Carlisle Street. We got on a plane to spend time with the Russian community, many of whom had lost their loved ones. Over a thousand people attended that event. Nearly half of those were from a Russian-speaking community. Many of those who were murdered were from the Russian-speaking community.

“We got on the plane and Rabbi Sufrin handed me a kippah, and he said, ‘When you get to the religious events, wear one of ours’ – it is very territorial; each shul has their own kippah – ‘Wear the Carlisle Street one.’ I got on the plane and I put the kippah on my head and I said, ‘For the day, I’m going to walk in the shoes of an Orthodox Jew – on the plane, in Bondi, at the airport, everywhere – and understand what it is like.’

“That moment we spent together visiting Rabbi Ulman, who was the leader of that community, whose son-in-law Rabbi Eli was murdered and who organised that event. We got there for the morning prayers. Rabbi Eli’s son, who had lost his dad, was saying the prayers – a teenage boy, 14, saying the prayers. Rabbi Eli had five kids. The youngest was two months old and was in hospital with shrapnel. His wife was also injured. They are the light; they are the ones that organised this event. Rabbi Ulman had to bury four people on the Friday. Many of the 15 people were from his congregation, people he went on to bury, while at the same time losing his son-in-law, the Rabbi from Chabad in Bondi.

“People today have mentioned Reuven Morrison and Sheina Gutnick, who has been such an inspiration in telling the story of her dad. It is so important to talk about people that stood up against evil. He fought with a brick, took 11 bullets and kept fighting. Reuven Morrison came to Australia to escape persecution. He married Leah, and he fought to have that synagogue built. He fought to ensure that those that needed it would have it, and he would not put his name on the wall. He would just make sure that a community member, somebody that was suffering, would be supported through the community, because that is the kind of person that Reuven was.

“The list goes on. When we visited the many families during the day in Bondi, we visited the family of Tibor Weitzen, a 78-year-old automotive engineer from the Soviet Union who died shielding others, including his wife Eva. We went to Tibor’s family home, and Hanna and her husband Mishel were actually from my synagogue, Hamerkaz. They had lost their dad, and days on they could not recognise their father because of the damage that was done to him by those terrorists. He needed to be identified by the clothes that he was wearing. That is what those evil people did. One of his grandchildren was days from giving birth, and she has now given birth. That grandchild will never meet Tibor.

“We finished the day by going to St Vincent’s Hospital to visit family members. We had been to people’s homes, we had been to Bondi, we had laid flowers, but then walking around the hospital I was not sure of that feeling of walking around a hospital when people were being operated on. As a member of Parliament I did not feel right being there. The rabbis there all of a sudden got a call that we needed to go up to the top floor because Ya’akov had just come out of an operation. Ya’akov is the son of Boris Tetleroyd, who died at 68 years of age. His son Ya’akov was shot and had just come out of an operation. Ya’akov had his shoulder blown apart, and he had just had an operation. He woke, and there were 10 or 11 of us standing at the door. The first thing that he said is, ‘I need you all here to say prayers for my dad.’ And I knew why we were there, because in the Jewish custom you need 10 men for a minyan, and we were there at that time to be able to say prayers for his dad. He put the Bible in the hand that was literally blown apart. He held that Bible, those fingers moved and with such passion he said prayers for his father, who is no longer with us. That memory will stay with me forever.”

Southwick called for more action to counter antisemitism: “We have to do better. The simple thing is we have to do better. We have spoken about stronger laws and the protests that go on every week. We have spoken about Holocaust education, which is so important. We have got kids that are going out there on the football field and calling kids ‘dirty Jew’ at the ages of seven, eight and nine. Why is that happening? Kids are not being educated. We are not doing the job that we need to do as leaders, and we have recognised that, but we have got to all come together and do something about that.”