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The government’s plan to tackle antisemitism · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christan
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  Speaker 1: amiet It's Friday, July eleven, twenty twenty five. Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Albanizi will travel to China this weekend for meetings
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  Speaker 1: with President Xijinping, Premier Li Chang and National People's Congress
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  Speaker 1: Chairman Jao Luji. To read the latest from our reporters
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  Speaker 1: on the ground in China, visit the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot a U. Universities who fail to combat antisemitism on
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  Speaker 1: campus could be stripped of funding, and border force officials
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  Speaker 1: will be trained to spot anti semites. Those are some
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  Speaker 1: of the sweeping recommendations made by Special Envoy Julian Siegel
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  Speaker 1: in her plan to tackle Australia's antisemitism crisis. Today we
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  Speaker 1: unpacked the plan, almost a year in the making. If
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  Speaker 1: you walked from Melbourne's lush Fitzroy Gardens, behind Victoria's old
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  Speaker 1: Parliament House building and towards the city's ornate Royal Exhibition Building,
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  Speaker 1: you'd pass by the historic East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation. Consecrated
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven, it's the oldest synagogue in the
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  Speaker 1: southern capitol and it's here that around two hundred local
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  Speaker 1: Jewish families come to worship. But last Saturday, this sacred
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  Speaker 1: place became the target of a vile antisemitic attack. A
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  Speaker 1: Melbourne synagogue has been hit by an arsen attack as
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  Speaker 1: adults and children were having a Shabbat meal inside. Those
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  Speaker 1: congregants had barely escaped the blaze through the synagogue's back entrance,
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  Speaker 1: when just streets away, an Israeli owned restaurant was stormed
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  Speaker 1: by anti Israel protesters who through chairs enchanted death to
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  Speaker 1: the IDF. Last weekend's attacks are the latest in a
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  Speaker 1: string of anti SMA metic atrocities reported since Harmas militants
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  Speaker 1: from Gaza invaded southern Israel on October seven, twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: slaughtering fifteen hundred innocent men, women and children and taking
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  Speaker 1: another two hundred and fifty hostage. In all, two thousand
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  Speaker 1: anti Semitic incidents have been reported across Australia in just
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  Speaker 1: under two years. Now. The government says it has a
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  Speaker 1: plan to end the scourge of antisemitism in Australia for good.
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  Speaker 2: The plan is grounded in Australian values, it's proactive, and
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  Speaker 2: it's adapted to our federal legal framework. And it's not
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  Speaker 2: a symbolic document. It's an action plan and it addresses
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  Speaker 2: antisemitism in many places in our laws, classrooms, universities, media workplaces,
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  Speaker 2: online spaces and public institutions.
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  Speaker 1: This is the Special Envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Siegel.
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  Speaker 1: For the last nine monthnths or so, she's been working
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  Speaker 1: on a wide ranging strategy, which she launched on Thursday
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  Speaker 1: alongside Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi.
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  Speaker 3: Any Semitism is an evil scourge and there is no
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  Speaker 3: place in Australia for any Semitism. The kind of hatred
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  Speaker 3: and violence that we've seen on our streets recently is
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  Speaker 3: despicable and it won't be tolerated and I want those
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  Speaker 3: responsible to face the full force of the law.
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  Speaker 1: The plan includes a handful of measures broadly targeted at education, immigration,
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  Speaker 1: and cultural activities.
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  Speaker 2: We have to embed age appropriate education into our school curricula.
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  Speaker 2: We need to support professional development of teachers and public servants.
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  Speaker 2: We need to promote cultural understanding, back trusted voices online
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  Speaker 2: and encourage responsible media reporting. But education is the key.
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  Speaker 1: Under the plan, Siegel says, a nationally consistent approach to
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  Speaker 1: teaching about the history and modern forms of antisemitism will
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  Speaker 1: be rolled out. Universities will be subject to report cards
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  Speaker 1: that assess their ability to combat antisemitism through systems and policies,
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  Speaker 1: and institutions that don't act on bigotry displayed by staff,
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  Speaker 1: students and artists could be stripped of funding. Border Force
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  Speaker 1: officials will be trained to identify and deport people who
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  Speaker 1: exhibit antisemitic behaviors. Cultural institutions and events organizers will also
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  Speaker 1: lose financial backing if they fail to deal with antisemitism effectively,
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  Speaker 1: and Australia's public institutions and all levels of government will
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  Speaker 1: adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism. Here's
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  Speaker 1: the Australians.
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  Speaker 4: Richard Ferguson, So the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of
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  Speaker 4: antisemitism as broad. It is strong, but there are many
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  Speaker 4: critics of Israel and people in the Muslim can unity
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  Speaker 4: who feel that the definition is so broad that it
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  Speaker 4: includes criticism of Israel as being anti Semitic and therefore
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  Speaker 4: limits their own free speech. But the problem has been
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  Speaker 4: that criticism of Israel has been laden with anti Semitic
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  Speaker 4: tropes about secret control, shadowy figures, the sort of things
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  Speaker 4: that have been used against Jewish people for centuries. So
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  Speaker 4: this has always been the problem, which is that criticism
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  Speaker 4: of Israel does not equal anti Semitism, but criticism of
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  Speaker 4: Israel is so often overladen and resorts to antisemitism. And
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  Speaker 4: this is the problem that people who say their critics
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  Speaker 4: of Israel not all of them are anti Semites, but
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  Speaker 4: some of them are clearly taking things in an anti
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  Speaker 4: Semitic direction and are leading others into antisemitic directions.
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  Speaker 1: One thing the Special Envoy isn't pushing for or in
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  Speaker 1: this plan is a judicial review of antisemitism on university campuses,
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  Speaker 1: which is something that's been floated over the last year
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  Speaker 1: or so. Why doesn't it appear in the action plan
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  Speaker 1: that was unveiled on Thursday.
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  Speaker 4: Well, one of the reasons is essentially it's very hard
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  Speaker 4: for the Labor Party to back a judicial review into
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  Speaker 4: antisemitism when they spent two years telling everybody it doesn't
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  Speaker 4: need to happen. Now the argument from the government has
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  Speaker 4: been whereabout action, not more reviews, not more inquiries. And
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  Speaker 4: there is pretty significant action, very significant action recommended by
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  Speaker 4: the Special Envoy, so in many ways that's probably what
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  Speaker 4: a judicial inquiry would tell the government to do. Anyway, However,
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  Speaker 4: Jillian Siegel does say that if things continue as badly
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  Speaker 4: as they have on Australian campuses, there will be a
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  Speaker 4: need for a judicial inquiry, so it almost keeps it
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  Speaker 4: in the back pocket of the government if this plan
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  Speaker 4: does not work. Along with combining the federal and state
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  Speaker 4: police task forces on anti Semitism, currently the government does
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  Speaker 4: not want to merge them, but this review by Jillian
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  Speaker 4: Segul says you may have to do that in six
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  Speaker 4: months to a year's time if everything else we're doing
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  Speaker 4: doesn't work.
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  Speaker 1: This plan represents about nine months of work by Jillian Siegel.
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  Speaker 1: She's consulted widely with experts in community groups to formulate
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  Speaker 1: what is a quite far reaching strategy. Does it go
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  Speaker 1: far enough?
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  Speaker 4: Do you think many people in the Jewish community, Kristen
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  Speaker 4: do feel like if this plan is implemented, and the
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  Speaker 4: word if is very important there, then it will work.
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  Speaker 4: Many of Jillian Siegul's points are quite similar to a
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  Speaker 4: report by the Executive Council of Australian Jury that was
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  Speaker 4: unveiled at the Sky News Anti Semitism summit. So there
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  Speaker 4: is a lot of hope and there's a lot of
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  Speaker 4: goodwill out there in the Jewish community for the federal government,
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  Speaker 4: which there has not been since the October seven massacres.
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  Speaker 4: Lots of people feel that Anthony Albanesi has not had
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  Speaker 4: a handle on this issue. Even if his heart's been
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  Speaker 4: in the right place, he hasn't been able to be
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  Speaker 4: the leader they need.
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  Speaker 5: Today they feel very differently.
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  Speaker 4: They feel he was strong, he was eloquent, he was
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  Speaker 4: on their side, but now they will hold him to
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  Speaker 4: account on actually getting this plan implemented.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, the government has a plan now what On Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi pledged to carefully consider the measures
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  Speaker 1: proposed by Special Envoyd Gillian Siegel in her plan to
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  Speaker 1: combat anti Semitism, But he wouldn't be drawn on which
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  Speaker 1: of those measures his government will implement.
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  Speaker 5: Or when.
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  Speaker 3: Will now carefully consider the report recommendation. So there's a number
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  Speaker 3: of things in here.
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  Speaker 5: That we are doing.
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  Speaker 3: As a number of things can be implemented quickly, there
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  Speaker 3: are a number of things that will require work over
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  Speaker 3: a period of time. What we'll do is work constructively
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  Speaker 3: with the Envoy.
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  Speaker 1: Richard, As you said, Anthony Albanese's government has been under
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  Speaker 1: fire for its flat footed response to Australia's anti Semitism
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  Speaker 1: crisis over the past couple of years. Really, what does
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  Speaker 1: the release of Jillian Siegel's plan tell you about the
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  Speaker 1: attitudes within labor towards this issue now?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think Dennis Shanahan, are a National editor, puts
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  Speaker 4: it the best and has peace for the Australian today
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  Speaker 4: that there has been one obvious shift since the February
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  Speaker 4: anti semitism summer a note, which is that liber won
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  Speaker 4: the election and won it handlely, and it won the
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  Speaker 4: election not just against the Liberals, who obviously ran very
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  Speaker 4: hard on the anti Semitism crisis, but they defeated the Greens,
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  Speaker 4: and they defeated the pro Palestine independence in Western Sydney
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  Speaker 4: and other seats like that where they were running anti
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  Speaker 4: Israel and at many times anti Semitic campaigns. Now, of
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  Speaker 4: course he will say, I've always been committed to this.
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  Speaker 4: I've just been working on this plan. Everything I do
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  Speaker 4: is thorough and considered. I don't rush anything. But this
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  Speaker 4: plan has come out several days after you get more
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  Speaker 4: attacks against Jewish people in Melbourne, and it has come
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  Speaker 4: out on the other side of an election where the
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  Speaker 4: threat of the pro Palestine Greens has been defeated.
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  Speaker 1: Just lastly, rigid, what's been the response of Jewish leaders
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  Speaker 1: to the plan released on Thursday.
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  Speaker 5: Look incredibly welcoming.
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  Speaker 4: A lot of people are really welcoming in this plan,
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  Speaker 4: saying it's really strong, it's speaking to the points that
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  Speaker 4: we've been concerned about for a long long time. But
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  Speaker 4: Alex Ripchin, who was the architect of the fifteen Plan
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  Speaker 4: that came out of the Anti Semitism summit in February,
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  Speaker 4: he has also written for the Australians saying at times
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  Speaker 4: it seemed the government treated the anti Semitives and crisis
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  Speaker 4: as a nuisance rather than a moral imperative. The only
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  Speaker 4: real question was whether their approach was driven by ideology
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  Speaker 4: or hard political realities.
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  Speaker 5: Are both.
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  Speaker 4: What he says now is that you know, the Prime
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  Speaker 4: Minister and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke have shown that
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  Speaker 4: they get it. They understand the extreme anti Israel activists
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  Speaker 4: or not freedom fighters or piece next they are a
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  Speaker 4: threat to us all. But what Alex Richtin also says
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  Speaker 4: is this plan will be judged by the success of
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  Speaker 4: its implementation. It's not just federal governments you need to act.
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  Speaker 4: It's the state governments. It's the unis, it's the schools,
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  Speaker 4: it's the social media platforms. It's all of us to
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  Speaker 4: combat anti semitism. But Alex Richin says, this does not
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  Speaker 4: get the federal government off the hook or abrogate its
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  Speaker 4: central role in guiding our country back to somewhere better
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  Speaker 4: than we are now. It has to lead the fight
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  Speaker 4: back and that was the one thing in that pressor.
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  Speaker 4: Both the Prime Minister and the Home Affairs ministers struggled
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  Speaker 4: to say what exact actions will be implemented by the
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  Speaker 4: end of the year. Now, of course, many of the
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  Speaker 4: things that are in the report the government is already doing,
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  Speaker 4: for example, when it stopped Kenny West coming into the
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  Speaker 4: country because of the once iconic now disgraced rappers, you know,
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  Speaker 4: absolutely horrific down you know, fall into rank anti semitism
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  Speaker 4: and Hitler worship, and they pointed to that. But they
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  Speaker 4: did struggle a little bit to say what exact actions
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  Speaker 4: from this report will be. We'll see six months a
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  Speaker 4: year's time, and that's that's where.
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  Speaker 5: They're going to have to do more work with the
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  Speaker 5: community on that.
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  Speaker 4: But apart from that look widely the Jewish leaders believe
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  Speaker 4: that he is.
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  Speaker 5: He has really stepped up to the mark.
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  Speaker 1: That was The Australian's Richard Ferguson. To read our experts
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  Speaker 1: analysis of the Albanesi government's plan to tackle anti Semitism,
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  Speaker 1: and for all the nation's best news, sport and politics,
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  Speaker 1: visit the Australian dot com dot au