Envoy appointment delayed ‘for political reasons’

In a damning personal submission to the Royal Commission, Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Daniel Aghion accused the federal government of holding up the appointment of Australia’s first antisemitism envoy “for political reasons to demonstrate even-handedness”.

The submission, lodged on June 14, offers a detailed account of correspondence between Jewish community leaders and the government, and charges that until the Bondi Beach terror attack, Canberra’s response to rising antisemitism was “tentative and reactive”.

In December 2023, weeks after becoming ECAJ president, Aghion travelled to Canberra with ECAJ immediate past president Jillian Segal and co-CEO Peter Wertheim to present the idea of an antisemitism envoy to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was receptive.

“In January 2024, the federal government responded to me to the effect that they would agree to our proposal, if an Islamophobia envoy were also appointed,” Aghion wrote. He advised this was acceptable, provided the two roles were not filled by the same person, because “the sources of antisemitism and Islamophobia are different … and tackling those two forms of racism requires different knowledge bases and skillsets”.

By Easter 2024, no appointment had been made. Aghion says government representatives told him the delay was because they were taking longer than anticipated to identify a suitable Islamophobia candidate.