Premier Chris Minns has hosted a Chanukah event at NSW Parliament House, telling prominent members of the Jewish community they had “reclaimed” it from nationalist activists who protested against Jewish lobby influence outside the building earlier this month.
During his speech on Wednesday to Mr Minns also credited Jewish immigration for the “success of modern Australia” and promised to do everything in his power to defend the Jewish community.
New Opposition leader Kellie Sloane also spoke at the Parliament House event, saying the Jewish community had “multi-partisan support”, and both Liberal and Labor leaders had just attended the launch of a book of articles about anti-Semitism by The Australian at the Sydney Opera House.
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New footage shows about 70 members of the National Socialist Network protesting outside NSW parliament in Sydney today against the Jewish lobby’s influence on Australian politics. pic.twitter.com/FoF4DoFMgW
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) November 8, 2025
Mr Minns told the launch he came to “reclaim this space” for all Australians, government should stamp out the “poison” of anti-Semitism and educate future generations on it, and said “an attack on anyone on the basis of their culture or religion is an attack on everyone”.
He appeared alongside News Corp boss Lachlan Murdoch, former prime minister John Howard, Jewish billionaire Solomon Lew, Lowy Institute deputy chair Steven Lowy, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of the Australian Jewry Alex Ryvchin, and The Australian’s editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn.
“I’m so grateful to see so many of you here in such large numbers, because I think it sends a clear and unambiguous message that you are welcome guests, and you’ve reclaimed this house of the people of New South Wales away from the horrible racists that occupied the front of parliament a couple of weeks ago,” Mr Minns told more than 100 guests at the Chanukah event.
“We’re lucky, incredibly lucky, that many people have decided to make a new chapter in their family’s life, in their history, here in Australia. The truth of the matter is that Jewish immigration to Australia is in part responsible for the success of modern Australia, and we want to use the opportunity of Chanukah to celebrate that story.
“Of all places on God’s earth, Australia should be the place where the Jewish community feels the safest, and of course I’m deeply conscious of our responsibility to do everything in our power to protect, defend, the safety and security of the Jewish people of New South Wales.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip, who last week congratulated Mr Minns for introducing a ban on “Nazi ideology” and supported his previous “hate speech” and protest laws, praised the Premier and the Opposition while closing the proceedings.
“When the history of our community is written, it will show that the Jewish community in Australia has never had a better friend than Chris Minns,” he said, J-Wire reported.
Mr Minns said while introducing the new laws that Australians did not have freedom of speech, and a week before that demanded that all NSW MPs deny that a fake terror plot he used to pass “hate speech” legislation in February was a hoax, despite police confirming that it was.
Header image: Left, right, Mr Minns and Ms Sloane speaking at the Chanukah event (J-Wire – Instagram).
