Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): I would like to begin my contribution today with a story. It is a true story, a story about my father-in-law. His name was Joel Margolis, and he was born in 1920 in Białystok, Poland. Joel was 19 years old when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. He was living in Warsaw with his mother, Anja, father, Myrim, and younger brother, George. They were Jewish. The fear of German aggression had been steadily growing over the preceding years as Joel finished his final years of high school and was preparing to enter university, but on 1 September 1939 those fears became a reality. Things changed very quickly in the days and weeks that followed. The Polish military were unprepared for the speed and force of the German advance. On the first day of the invasion the German air force bombed civilian targets, a deliberate attempt to terrorise and frighten the Polish people buttressed by a relentless propaganda campaign to convince Germans that Jewish people were less than human.
In the terrifying frenzy of that first week Joel and his family scrambled for survival. Warsaw had undergone heavy bombardment since the first hours of the war, and the German forces were closing in fast. They knew they had to get out. They had managed to meet some Russians in Warsaw who had a truck. The problem was that no-one had any fuel; it had all been sequestered by the Polish army for the war effort. This is where Joel’s now famous ingenuity came in. The family owned a tannery where Joel worked part time making leather products. Joel’s early interest in science meant he knew which solvents from the tannery to mix together to make just enough fuel for the truck. They piled in—Joel, his father and mother, his brother, his uncle Munya and aunty Nadja, their baby, Joan, and the Russians—and they drove north.
My husband tells me about some chilling close calls along the way, like when a Russian battalion stopped the car and interrogated them but ultimately let them pass, or when his father overheard the Russians deliberating on whether they should just abandon the family—or worse—to save themselves. Eventually through luck or fate or circumstance they made it across to Lithuania and Latvia, ultimately taking a plane to Sweden, going onto the UK and finally boarding a ship, the SS Orontes, to Australia. When Joel arrived in Fremantle he kissed the ground in thanks for having left troubled Europe behind. The family settled in Melbourne, where they set up a tannery and began making boots for our soldiers.
Joel read physiology and medical textbooks in his spare time and, after going in for an interview, was accepted on the spot to study medicine at Melbourne University. Joel Margolis went on to become an exceptional researcher in medical science, developing key methods to improve the efficacy of blood transfusions for haemophiliacs, which dramatically improved the prognosis for these patients. His methods are now used around the world. He published over 60 medical and scientific papers and founded one of the country’s first biotech companies. Joel’s love of science and pursuit of knowledge never left him. He knew six languages and was an extraordinary musician, and even when a stroke in his final years left him unable to speak, he could still be found consuming books on quantum physics. Sadly, I did not get a chance to meet this gentle, thoughtful, humble and inquisitive man who escaped the Nazis and made such a remarkable contribution to modern science and medicine. He died less than a year before I met my husband, and for those doing the maths, Joel was 63 and his wife, Margo, was 39 when my husband was born—so it is safe to say that Joel also had some charm. Looking at pictures of my father-in-law I can see a clear resemblance to my own daughters, and I know that his story will always be a part of theirs.
For every story like Joel’s there are so many who were not given the chance to live and love and contribute as he did. We have heard some of them today. The Holocaust saw the Nazis and their collaborators systematically murder around 6 million Jews across Europe, around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. Many of Joel’s uncles, aunties and cousins did not make it, and we only know fragments of their stories. Generations later, regardless of whether we have personal stories or not, the weight of that atrocity has never left us. It bears down on humanity as a constant reminder of the harm that humans are capable of inflicting on one another—genocide, the end product of hate that is so deep that it cannot even see another as human. When we see the Nazi symbol brandished in revelry at this hatred and these crimes, it is not just an innocuous symbol, it is an attack on our very democracy and our freedom.
Frighteningly and disturbingly, we have seen a rise in right-wing extremism in this country. We cannot pretend that it is not happening. Antisemitism, violent extremism, terrorism—these are real threats which ASIO has identified. In recent years this has become more and more organised. Far-right groups have latched onto the pandemic to propel their hateful message and to actively recruit, often targeting vulnerable, disaffected and disenfranchised members of our community. For our Jewish community this is very close to home, and other speakers have outlined some of the horrifying incidents which have occurred right here in Victoria. Increasingly we are also seeing Nazi symbols used to communicate hatred and cause harm to other groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the LGBTIQ community as well as other racial and religious groups. This type of intimidation is completely unacceptable in our society, which is proudly democratic, diverse, multicultural and multifaith. We hold our cultural diversity close to our hearts, and the use of this symbol to erode that is offensive to every single one of us.
This is not a debate about free speech. The bill contains exemptions for the use of the swastika symbol under a range of appropriate settings. We know this symbol is deeply significant to the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain communities, where it signifies peace, prosperity and blessings. These communities should not have to pay for the past when a sacred sign was twisted to become a representation of hate and bigotry. That is why this bill makes it very clear, particularly in the preamble, that there are specific exemptions for genuine religious or cultural uses of the swastika, and I am pleased to see in this bill a commitment to a community education campaign around that. There are also appropriate exemptions for academic, artistic, scientific and other uses, but the public display of the Nazi symbol to maliciously intimidate our community is not something we can abide.
As I said, this is not about free speech. The Nazi symbol does not propose a different point of view or a different policy position. It is not one side of a debate. The Nazi symbol is an end to all debate. It extinguishes debate. It says, ‘You are less than human, and you have no right to exist’. No argument around freedom or agency can stack up against the harm caused by this hateful symbol. Freedom does not mean freedom to oppress, it does not mean freedom to vilify, it does not mean freedom to terrorise. The Nazi symbol and the extremist elements who wield it are corrosive to our democracy, and it has no place in Victoria.
This is an important bill and one which I wholeheartedly support. It is a first for Australia, and we should be proud that here in Victoria we are taking a stand to legislate this ban. Once in effect, anyone who intentionally displays the Nazi symbol in public for malicious reasons faces penalties of up to almost $22 000, 12 months imprisonment or both. It is a historic moment, a moment in which our government sends a clear message to those who seek to divide, intimidate and harm our peaceful way of life. With this bill we condemn this behaviour and we say, ‘You don’t get to show off your hatred. You don’t get to make others fearful. You don’t get to glorify violence and tyranny and genocide, not in this state, not ever’. Let us ban this symbol. I commend this bill to the house.
