Burns wants changes by next year
Josh Burns MP, who is Jewish, told The AJN he's working to have reforms in place by February, targeting improvements in universities' complaint processes.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities is pushing for urgent reforms before students return to campus in 2025.
In a recent hearing, the chair of the inquiry, member for Macnamara Josh Burns, intensely questioned University of Melbourne Provost and interim Vice-Chancellor Professor Nicola Phillips about an incident involving Professor Steven Prawer, a physics academic who oversees the university’s relationship with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The inquiry heard that after a group called Unimelb for Palestine posted Professor Prawer’s phone number online in September, his office was subsequently invaded by protesters on October 9.
Despite the serious nature of the incident, Professor Phillips was evasive when pressed about the perpetrators’ university affiliations.
Burns challenged her response, highlighting a pattern of what he perceived as minimal consequences for those involved in antisemitic incidents.
“We now have a situation where a university professor’s personal phone number was put online, in a clear incident of doxxing. His office was then taken over, and now we’re told, because of privacy reasons, we can’t identify whether or not they’ve even got associations with the university … everyone’s still at the university. Everyone’s still participating fully,” he said, questioning the effectiveness of the university’s disciplinary process.
Burns told Professor Phillips that those people who took part may have had a formal warning, but it didn’t seem to have any impact on their future studies.
“It seems like the university is saying a lot but doing very little. Is there any proof to the contrary?,” Burns asked.
Professor Phillips claimed disciplinary proceedings had been initiated but repeatedly declined to confirm whether the office invaders were students or staff, citing an ongoing investigation with Victoria Police.
Burns, who is Jewish, told The AJN he’s working to have reforms in place by February, targeting improvements in universities’ complaint processes and creating a clear definition of antisemitism.
“I feel as the chair of the Human Rights Committee that this is an issue that obviously is deeply personal to me, but one that I am bringing my judgment and my sense of what is and is not antisemitism in a way that doesn’t conflate things that aren’t antisemitism,” he said.
“I think it’s entirely appropriate for Jewish people to be involved in this, in fact, I think it’s essential that we are involved in this and leading this reform.”
The inquiry has already heard evidence from multiple universities and is accepting submissions until the end of December, with recommendations to be presented directly to the Attorney-General and cabinet.
Jewish groups had pushed for a judicial inquiry to be held into antisemitism at universities, but a government-led Senate committee instead referred the issue to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights.
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