Melbourne Holocaust Museum Launch of "Critical Thinking is Critical”

Melbourne, 22 August 2024

Thank you for inviting me to join you tonight.

To all involved in the museum – thank you for your important work and to Minister Stitt and the Victorian Government – thank you for supporting the museum’s important work.

I acknowledge the Bunurong / Boonwurrung people and their continuing connection to the lands and waters here and around us.

I started as President of the Human Rights Commission just three and half weeks ago. 

For the two years before that I was the CEO of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the first formal truth telling inquiry into injustice against Aboriginal people in Victoria.

The work at Yoorrook was a privilege to be part of. It profoundly changed me.

It helped me to better understand the depth of the injustice that happened in these lands we now call Victoria - and the intergenerational trauma that has flowed from it.

It helped me to understand how past injustice impacts the present. 

And it underscored the importance of truth telling.

Truth telling so that we acknowledge the wrongs that were done.

So that we can attempt to redress them.

So that we learn from the past and make sure we do not repeat the same mistakes.

The Holocaust Museum’s goals share similarities with this truth telling work.

The Museum is a custodian of the truth of what happened in the Holocaust.

It honours the six million Jewish people who were murdered.

It pays tribute to the strength and resistance of those who survived. And I acknowledge survivors present here tonight.

It shares the lessons of the past so that the horrors are not repeated. 

The work of this museum is more important now than ever. 

We are seeing increasingly polarised and fractured public debates that view the world through atomised group ideological perspectives and that ignore our common humanity.

We are seeing a sharp rise in Antisemitism - in prejudice, discrimination and hate speech – in our schools, our universities, workplaces, in shops, on social media and beyond.

We have seen people in Australia justifying and even celebrating the brutal murder of Jewish people in the October 7 attacks.

We have seen a rise in anti-Semitic graffiti including on schools.

We’ve seen Jewish students being targeted because of their identity.

We’ve seen the regurgitation of antisemitic tropes.

It is dangerous and harmful and must be condemned. 

Prejudice and discrimination corrupts our society.

It harms people’s sense of identity and self-esteem.

It creates stigma, shame and fear.

It damages people’s health and wellbeing and denies them full participation in life. 

Left unchecked it can lead to violence.

We must address prejudice and discrimination – or put in a more positive way – we must respect and value difference. 

The modern human rights movement arose in response to the horrors of the Holocaust and World War 2. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, is one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

Its first article declares that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. 

In doing so, it says to every one of us, no matter who you are, or where you are: You have value, you matter and you deserve dignity and respect. 

Coming after slavery, colonisation, eugenics, genocide and more, this statement of our common humanity was vital. 

The Declaration then goes on to list 30 articles or rules to protect human rights – from the right to life, the right to freedom from discrimination, the right not to be detained unfairly, freedom from torture and mistreatment, rights to vote, to education, health and housing and so on.

Governments around the world must respect these rights because of the mere and vital fact that we are human. 

And we all have a responsibility to protect and respect the rights of others.

Human rights are the blueprint for a decent, dignified life for all.

Human rights are the key to creating the kind of society we all want to live in.

The values at the heart of the work of this museum – humanity, kindness and fairness – are human rights values.

I studied the Holocaust at university through the arts faculty and visited this museum through my human rights law course in 1997.

It left a deep impression on me.

I’m glad the Victorian Government is supporting this project to amplify the work of the museum and help to address antisemitism, vilification and hate speech.

We must remember so that we learn from the past and build a better future together.