What we learned: Monday 7 October
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
Tony Abbott tells Canberra rally 7 October attack perpetrators ‘should be utterly destroyed’
Federal government ‘makes no apology’ after Iran summons ambassador
Albanese calls on Fatima Payman to hand Senate seat back to Labor
Mona’s Ladies Lounge seemingly denies reports the installation will close next month
Thank you for spending your day with us. We will be back tomorrow to do it all again.
Updated
Dutton: 'today we pray for the hostages still held by Hamas'
The leader of the opposition, Peter Dutton, drew a loud cheer from the crowd when he took to the stage and faced the 12,000-strong crowd.
He said that antisemitism had taken grip since the “horrors and heartbreak” of 7 October.
“That day of depravity, the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust, awoke and exposed an antisemitic rot afflicting western democracies,” he said, describing it as the “most shocking period of our country in my lifetime”.
He said “river to the sea” wasn’t “just a rhetorical chant of radical university students. It is a stated intent to wipe Israel and the Jewish people off the map.”
He said that there had been a vacuum of leadership in Australia in the wake of 7 October, referencing antisemitic chants heard on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on 9 October last year.
The last 12 months constitute one of the most difficult periods for Jewish Australians in our nation’s history. So in the interest of moral clarity, let me be clear, Israel has every right to defend its territory and its people from existential threats, from Hamas, from Hezbollah, from the Houthis and from the Iranian regime, which sponsors them all.
Together today we pray for the hostages still held by Hamas. Together today we grieve for the families who have lost those dearest to them.
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