Official opening of the JHub and Holocaust Education Centre
Acknowledgements omitted
I am here to thank you.
A Jewish community who has built and enriched Australia.
Every single person in this room has made this building a success.
Tonight is a celebration of the people and community that made this happen.
We celebrate on the land of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar Nation.
We have walked past the beautiful tribute to William Cooper.
We each carry his message of antiracism.
Carry his message of a world where Jewish people are free from hate, free from persecution.
And tonight we gather on land that was purchased by those who came before us.
A Jewish community who door-knocked across the suburbs in the 1950s to raise the money to purchase and build on this site.
One of those doorknockers was Joe Berinson.
He went on to become the Member for Perth and a Federal and State Minister.
Joe Berinson was here at the opening of the former centre in 1973.
One of the Parliament’s strongest voices for basic human decency.
As Joe said in a heated debate:
“I am only interested in the substance of the problem and the substance is antisemitism, racism, prejudice.”
And it is an honour to follow in his footsteps and be here tonight.
And tonight we gather on land that was purchased by those who came before us.
A Jewish community who door-knocked across the suburbs in the 1950s to raise the money to purchase and build on this site.
One of those doorknockers was Joe Berinson.
He went on to become the Member for Perth and a Federal and State Minister.
Joe Berinson was here at the opening of the former centre in 1973.
One of the Parliament’s strongest voices for basic human decency.
As Joe said in a heated debate:
“I am only interested in the substance of the problem and the substance is antisemitism, racism, prejudice”
And it is an honour to follow in his footsteps and be here tonight.
I remember the first time I heard about the determination to build a new, safe, community centre.
Sitting at Joan Hillman’s home in Dianella as a new local candidate.
The kindness of that invitation to dinner with Joan and Jewish community leaders will always stay with me.
And the vision stayed with me too.
Since championed in ever more challenging times by Geoff Midalia and now Michael Levitt.
And this truly is a bipartisan achievement.
I am pleased to see Former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg here.
We sat in a small cafe in Melbourne the days after October 7.
He gave me advice about the challenges ahead.
It was a sad time.
And we talked about looking forward to both being here one day for the official opening.
And this project presented a big problem for the Federal Government.
It was not completed on time.
It was completed early.
I thank Jonathon Silbert for the call where he told me that the Infrastructure Department would have to bring forward their payments.
Because the build was ahead of schedule.
Not something the Commonwealth has to deal with very often.
But we had to, and we did.
As a result the Prime Minister was able to visit last year.
And announce that the Commonwealth would provide operational funding for the Holocaust Institute’s Education Centre.
I thank Sol Majteles for his belief that child by child, human by human we can eliminate hate.
Eliminate terror.
And build the world we all deserve to live in.
That’s what we do tonight.
Once again, congratulations to those who have helped make tonight possible.
And thank you to everyone who will deliver on the vision of the JHub in the years ahead.