Go8 committee hands down Antisemitism Report

Australia’s eight leading universities have been handed 21 recommendations to combat antisemitism on campus, but a peak body representing Jewish academics says the report falls short of what is needed to bring about real change.

The Go8 Expert Advisory Committee on Combatting Antisemitism (EACCA), chaired by Jewish scientist Alan Finkel, released its findings on June 16.

The committee identified three overarching findings: that universities had already acted but without sufficient clarity; that improved preparedness and consistency would strengthen institutional responses within existing legal constraints; and that piecemeal or symbolic measures were insufficient.

Among its recommendations, the committee called on Go8 universities to adopt the Universities Australia definition of antisemitism and embed it in staff and student codes of conduct, establish pre-determined response frameworks for high-risk events, implement differentiated training programs for students, teaching staff and senior executives, overhaul complaints processes, and review the French Model Code on Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom in consultation with the federal government.

Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal “broadly welcomed” the report.

“The recommendations largely align with the report card process I established over a year ago,” she said.

“I now look to the Group of Eight to act on them in good faith without delay, building on the work already underway.”

The Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A), meanwhile, welcomed the report but said it lacked the specificity and accountability required to drive meaningful change.

5A CEO Alisa Pincus said the committee had failed to require that people with lived experience of antisemitism be included in program design and delivery.

“Programs developed without their perspectives are more likely to devolve into the box-ticking exercises the report says it wants to avoid,” Pincus said.

She also criticised the report for not addressing transparency around disciplinary outcomes, saying confidentiality claims had been used to prevent victims from learning the results of their complaints.

Pincus said 5A had submitted to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion a detailed, evidence-based action plan of its own, and questioned how university leadership would be held to account without an enforceable national code – drawing a comparison with the reforms to handling of sexual harassment on campus, which she said only came after such a code was imposed.

The Go8 universities are Adelaide University, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney and the University of Western Australia.