Antisemitism row costs environmental group $285,000

The Ballarat City Council has upheld its decision to terminate a $285,000 grant to a local environmental organisation after the group initially refused to remove a board member who made antisemitic statements on social media.

Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions (BREAZE) lost the funding on February 20 when it declined to remove board member Mary Debrett, who had posted controversial statements deemed antisemitic by the council.

Among Ms Debrett’s social media posts were claims that “Israel is a stain on the planet,” that “antisemitism is a response to Jewish behaviour and a rejection of Jewish supremacy,” and that Israel was “a rogue nation committing genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

BREAZE President Peta Guy has strongly defended Ms Debrett, claiming the comments were taken out of context and “were in fact, speaking to the genocide, and the majority of the things … were actually directly in line with resolutions in force with the City of Ballarat.”

Guy insisted the statements had “not any intent to be antisemitic about it, with an intent to talk about the behaviours of people killing innocent people.”

According to Guy, Ms Debrett had already resigned from the BREAZE board in line with what city of Ballarat had requested, but the funding was cancelled anyway.

When asked by The AJN if the controversy could have been avoided if Ms Debrett hadn’t made those comments, Guy responded: “It could have been avoided if she was never born. It could have been avoided if Twitter didn’t exist. It could have been avoided if there was no genocide.”

Following the termination, BREAZE requested a review, triggering a dispute resolution process which has now concluded with the organisation accepting the original decision.

“BREAZE has recently advised the City of Ballarat that it now accepts the original termination decision and does not wish to progress the matter to the next step of the dispute resolution process,” said Ballarat Mayor, Councillor Tracey Hargreaves.

State Legislative Council member Joe McCraken told the AJN he supported the council’s decision.

“I’m pleased that the City Council investigated the matter when it was first raised. The comments which I’ve seen online [are] not things that I think are appropriate. So I think they made the right call,” Mr McCraken said.

When asked about antisemitism in regional areas, McCraken emphasised the importance of confronting it.

“Regardless of where it is, you’ve got to take a stand against it when it’s seen. When an organisation like BREAZE receives public money from taxpayers, they’ve got an obligation to make sure that their governance arrangements, their board, meet the requirements that are stipulated in the funding agreement.”

Guy criticised the council’s handling of the situation, claiming “It’s been handled appallingly by city of Ballarat. It’s ended up with damaged reputations all around when much better things could have been done but were not done.”

The $285,000 grant was originally intended to fund net zero projects in the Ballarat area.

The AJN has attempted to contact Mary Debrett for comment.