OSCE Chairpersonship Conference: Combating Anti-Semitism - Addressing Challenges of Intolerance and Discrimination
Statement by H.E Ambassador Ian Biggs, Australia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organisations in Vienna
10 February 2026
Chair
I thank the Chairpersonship of Switzerland for welcoming us to St Gallen and for hosting its first Chairpersonship Conference on this issue.
I am grateful to the many experts, practitioners, and civil society leaders from whom we have heard, for sharing their insights and their experience.
There is no place for antisemitism, racism, or hatred of any kind, in Australia, in the OSCE region, or anywhere in the world.
Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion or belief are central both to the Helsinki Principles and Australia’s vibrant multicultural democracy.
Everyone has a right to feel safe and be proud of who they are, regardless of their religious, ethnic or cultural background.
Chair
The thoughts of all Australians remain with the families and friends of the 15 people who tragically lost their lives in the horrific antisemitic terrorist attack at Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025, those recovering from injuries, and all those affected.
Australia is taking action to stamp out antisemitism and intolerance in all its forms.
That is an ongoing national effort, for all of us, because an attack on Jewish Australians, is an attack on all Australians.
Australia has passed laws to deal with the motivation and method of the Bondi gunmen.
We have strengthened hate crimes laws, specifically targeting people and groups who seek to spread hatred, radicalise our youth, and disrupt social cohesion in Australia.
And we have strengthened our national firearms laws, including setting up a National Gun Buyback Scheme, to improve community safety by reducing the number of guns across the nation and to minimise the opportunity of those who would seek to do harm from having the necessary means to do so.
Australia has also introduced further measures to support mental health and law enforcement, established a taskforce to ensure our education system prevents and properly responds to antisemitism, and new powers to cancel or reject visas for those who would spread hate and division in our country.
The Australian Government has also established a Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in response to the Bondi terrorist attack, to report by the end of this year.
Chair
Australia believes the OSCE can hold an important, continuing role in promoting peace, stability, and the rights of all people, in the OSCE region and beyond.
And we are firmly committed to working with our partners, and through international organisations including the OSCE, to eradicate all forms of racism, hatred and intolerance.
We encourage and welcome renewed efforts by the Chairpersonship, Autonomous Institutions and all participating States and Partners toward this end.
Thank you.