E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
MELBOURNE
FRIDAY, 15 MARCH 2019
 
SUBJECT: Christchurch mosque attack.

BILL SHORTEN, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Australians and New Zealanders are brothers and sisters. So today, we mourn for our New Zealand brothers and sisters.
 
We feel their pain. We grieve with them.
 
There is so much that we still don't know about this senseless, evil act of murder. But it is chilling in its callous preparation, it is horrifying in the scale of death and injury.
 
This was an attack on a mosque. It's a form of a church, it could have been a synagogue. This is an attack on worshippers practising their faith innocently. An attack on any religion is an affront on all religions. It is an affront on our common humanity.
 
Today, as we try and make sense of this, I particularly feel for the Islamic Australian community who must be feeling very, very, very concerned and upset.
 
I also feel for all the parents who are going to try and explain this to our children tonight.
 
But what we need to do in explaining this, is heed the wise counsel of the New Zealand Police Force: do not watch the footage, that is what the bad people want us to do. Do not share the footage, that is what the bad people have sought us to do. Do not let this into our lives.
 
This is not normal, do not make this violence normal. Evil is never normal, evil is never part of daily life.
 
And we must do everything we can to unite and prevent this happening again.
 
ENDS