Gag bid during Shoah speech
In fiery, emotional scenes in Parliament on Monday, Dreyfus condemned a bid to gag him while referencing the Holocaust.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has told The AJN he wants an end to “grotesque politicisation of the trauma and the horrific experiences of the Jewish people since October 7”.
In fiery, emotional scenes in Parliament on Monday, Dreyfus condemned a bid to gag him while referencing the Holocaust.
During a debate on the Hate Crimes Bill, Dreyfus was grilled by Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley over his earlier stance against minimum mandatory sentencing.
The attorney-general told Parliament, “No government has done more to combat the abhorrent and shocking rise in antisemitism than this government,” listing the Nazi salutes ban, and criminalising doxxing, glorifying terrorist acts and possession of violent extremist material.
Dreyfus focused on his Israel visit and attending the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation. “I have stood in the shadow of the main gate at the Auschwitz death camp, the site of a music festival that turned into a bloodbath and a [firebombed] synagogue in my own home …”
At that point, reportedly at leader Peter Dutton’s prompting, manager of opposition business Michael Sukkar rose on a point of order, and the Speaker, Milton Dick, cut off Dreyfus, prompting the attorney-general to tell Sukkar, “You are disgusting.” Dreyfus said, “I do not need the leader of the opposition or any of those opposite to tell me what antisemitism is or how seriously I should take it.” Sukkar responded, “I move that the member no longer be heard.” But Sukkar’s gag motion was defeated 91–52.
Resuming his speech, Dreyfus continued, “I am the son and the grandson of Holocaust survivors. I went to the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz … the place where a million Jews were murdered, a place where my great-grandmother was murdered … And I say to members of this house, we have had a wave of antisemitism in this country right now … We need bipartisanship, and that is the effort our government made to build the [Hate Crimes] Bill that was passed by this Parliament last week.”
The gag bid was described as “completely unacceptable” by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and a “disgrace” by independent senator Jacqui Lambie. However, Dutton defended it as “proportionate.”
Dreyfus told The AJN, “I never thought I’d see the day when a Liberal leader would try to silence a Jew for speaking about antisemitism in the Australian Parliament. This is one of the most shocking things I have witnessed in my time in Parliament. We need to put an end to the wave of antisemitism in this country and the only way that will happen is if there is unity and bipartisanship.
“It’s time for the grotesque politicisation of the trauma and the horrific experiences of the Jewish people since October 7 to end.”
The row simmered again on Tuesday when Dreyfus denied claims by Dutton that the attorney-general had apologised to Albanese over his words to Sukkar.
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