Bondi is beautiful tonight. And not because of its beaches, its sunset, its people, its fun.
It's beautiful because you in your thousands, in your defiance, in your resistance and resolve, you have returned to these sands just seven days after a shocking crime, and have said to the terrorists, we are going nowhere.
This crime was an attempt to marginalise and scatter, to intimidate and cause fear.
But Jews have stood up to this intimidation for thousands of years, and so tonight, thanks to the Jewish community of Australia, on this last night of Chanukah, you have reclaimed Bondi Beach for us.
Firstly, let me say my heart is heavy for the lives that were taken here, for those who've been injured, and for the families and loved ones whose worlds will never be the same again.
I want to say this clearly and sincerely. We are deeply sorry.
We grieve with you and with humility, I acknowledge that the government's highest duty is to protect its citizens, and we did not do that one week ago.
That reality weighs on me heavily. We must accept that responsibility and use it to do everything and anything we possibly can to stop it from happening again.
Sometimes I think it's trite when Australians say, and we say it about everything, that 'we're with you.'
We say it from birthdays to work meetings to sporting heroes, that we stand with you, that we're with you, we're by your side.
I think Aussies are better at showing it than saying it, and they've done just that in the closing days of this year.
The thousands who jumped on a surfboard last Friday and paddled past the breakers to show solidarity to this community.
The hundreds of first responders, including the police, the paramedics, Surf Life Savers who ran straight into danger to protect our community.
The 40,000 people who've given blood as an act of public service, the flowers at the Pavilion, the red and yellow Surf Life Saving army.
The candles, the tears - all acts large and small, but they show Australia stands with our Jewish brothers and sisters at this time.
And I say our, because while the attack was undoubtedly targeted at Jewish people peacefully celebrating a religious festival, for every other Australian, the shock and the pain we feel is as if a member of our own family has been taken.
The sad truth is that this crime has tragically highlighted a deep vein of antisemitic hate in our community. To excuse it as an aberration or a tragic single event is wrong.
It will not do justice to the killed and wounded and will not allow us to take steps to stop it from happening again.
History shows us that antisemitism builds, starting with a phrase or a chant, then migrating to the air waves, or in modern times, onto the internet. Then graffiti on Jewish buildings, then damage to property, then arson and then murder.
In the Book of Psalms, we read, "Who is the person who desires life, who loves days to see goodness? Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it."
The psalm teaches us a profound truth. Thoughts become words, words become actions.
The danger we must confront is the deliberate incubation of hatred. This includes organisations and individuals who promote violence and division, sometimes cloaking it in ideology or even the perversion of religion. This must be confronted.
Of course, that's by government, yes, by police, but also by communities committed to the idea that an injustice committed against any of us is committed against all of us.
As the late Chief Rabbi Sacks once said, "Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone. The victim cannot cure the crime, the hated cannot cure the hate."
We cannot let the Jewish people carry this burden by themselves. It is Australia's responsibility.
We make special mention to the Chabad community of Sydney, personified by Rabbi Ulman. Rabbi Ulman, no doubt, this week, you've been gripped by your own exceptional pain, having lost a friend, a fellow rabbi, your son in law.
And yet you've been someone who's been able to find wisdom in pain and strength in suffering, and it's been an inspiration to all of us that even in this period of sadness and evil, there is work to do.
Tonight, we light the eighth and final candle of the Chanukah menorah, and it compels us to ask, what will we light tomorrow? How will we carry this light forward when the candles are no longer burning?
Civic and government leadership now has a heavy burden, security for this community, justice for the dead and the injured, and action to confront this hatred.
But the Psalm does not end with solely government responsibility. It says, "seek peace and pursue it", and that is the task of every citizen.
Peace doesn't happen by accident. It must be actively pursued through compassion, through kindness and moral courage. Government can encourage it and support it, but people must live it.
And that's why tonight, after meeting with the rabbinical leadership of Sydney, who can I just say are incredibly persuasive.
Rabbi Feldman, Rabbi Eli, Rabbi Wolff, Rabbi Benny. They're very persuasive people.
But after consultation with the rabbinical leadership of Sydney and hearing their strong views, in fact, demands for positive action.
Following what happened on Sunday, we're launching tonight a campaign in their honour and in the honour of the people who've been killed and those who are injured and all who are suffering.
The initiative is called One Mitzvah for Bondi.
For those watching at home, in the Jewish tradition, a Mitzvah is a simple but powerful idea. It's a concrete act of goodness.
Something that you do that makes the world just, more just more compassionate, more humane. The One Mitzvah for Bondi campaign is inspired by the spirit of Rabbi Eli Schlanger.
Eli was in the process of launching Project Noah, a reminder that every one of us is a child of Noah, charged with building a good world.
It invites every citizen of our state of any faith or no faith, to increase acts of goodness and kindness.
The rabbis I've spoken to in the last days have been very insistent that this is the best way of healing our country.
If hatred spreads through words and actions, then so does goodness. We can't cure hate with hate. And the lesser lesson of the Chanukah is not that there is no darkness, it's the darkness cannot extinguish the light.
So be the light in the world and may the memories of those who've been lost be a blessing to all of us.
