Dreyfus quizzed on antisemitism measures
When asked if he thought his Labor Party colleagues were doing enough to call out antisemitism, Dreyfus answered, "that's for others to judge".
When delivering the 2024 Colin Tatz Oration at Bondi Pavilion on Monday night, federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus revealed that as a Jewish politician in the last 12 months, “I’ve experienced levels and forms of attack that I have never experienced in 17 years in the federal parliament.”
Noting at the event, presented by The Jewish Independent, how public submissions will soon open to a Senate committee on a bill to make it criminal to use hate speech that focuses on particular group and encourages violence, Dreyfus was asked about another Senate committee’s recommendation against holding a judicial inquiry into antisemitism in Australian university campuses.
Dreyfus replied, “We can’t wait for a judicial inquiry . . . I’m hoping that by the time of the start of the next academic year, universities will again be safe places for Jewish students.
“And what will get us that is action by university councils, by Vice Chancellors, by the TEQSA [universities regulator], and [the involvement of Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism] Jillian Segal.”
When asked if he thought his Labor Party colleagues were doing enough to call out antisemitism, Dreyfus answered, “that’s for others to judge”.
“I’m not going to criticise my colleagues on this . . . But collectively, we have a duty to talk about this, and I don’t think it’s just members of parliament.”
Of the federal Liberal and Greens parties, Dreyfus claimed “both of them . . . are trying to get party political advantage out of a dreadful conflict that is occurring in the Middle East, and they should stop.”
Dreyfus lamented how his planned official trip to Israel for the one-year October 7 commemoration, on behalf of the Australian Government, had to be cancelled for security reasons.
“That caused me more than a bit of grief, because I was looking forward to going,” he said, adding he has relatives in the Galilee and Tel Aviv.
“If it is not safe for me to even visit [Israel], how is it like for them? It’s a shocking thing [situation].”
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