‘It is a whole of society approach’
At the core of the plan, on which Segal will report to government annually, is education.
Jillian Segal is confident she will receive the support needed from government to implement her plan to combat antisemitism, but she has cautioned it is a multi-year plan that requires a whole of society approach to try and educate people about antisemitism.
Australia’s antisemitism envoy sat down with The AJN this week to talk through each point of her plan, describing the response to it as “enormous” since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke joined her at its launch last week.
“It’s been very positive from the Jewish community and I’ve been really heartened by the support from all major communal organisations commending me on the plan and offering their support,” she said.
“So it’s excellent that it seems to have hit the needs of the community, but some of the responses from the media online have been extremely disappointing. There’s been a lot of misrepresentation of the plan and also attacks against me as a way to try and discredit me and hence discredit the plan. I suppose that is a sign that the plan is really needed.”
When Albanese was asked by The AJN at the press conference why it took another arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue to adopt some of the plans, he simply replied, “Well, it didn’t.”
Segal clarified that the plan had been in the works for the past nine months and that it was an unfortunate coincidence that it was launched so soon after the attacks on the East Melbourne Synagogue and an Israeli restaurant nearby.
“On the other hand, I think those events in Melbourne made it ever so much clearer that it’s desperately needed and I think that the government understood that as well,” she said.
Albanese also said some parts of the plan have already been adopted, while others will be “carefully considered”. But Segal said it’s not a matter of government saying “we’ll adopt this and we won’t adopt that”, because some points are not necessarily for government to take on.
“There will be contributions to making some of these recommendations work from different ministers, so some of it will come from the Education Minister, and will be dependent on how he sees some things evolving. Some will come from the Arts Minister, some will come from the Attorney-General,” she said.
“It’s a matter of working with each of them and their advisers to see what is doable.
“I will lead many of these initiatives, but it will need the support not only of the federal government, but of state governments who have the responsibility for education and policing. It will also need the support of corporate Australia, of other parts of the community, of cultural institutions and leaders. It is a whole of society approach.”
At the core of the plan, on which Segal will report to government annually, is education. Holocaust education at school level has already been extended from one to four years in New South Wales and Segal would like that to be similarly extended across other states.
At university level, there will be a partnership with Monash University’s Centre for Jewish Civilisation in relation to extending that education to other universities. It is not meant to shut down free speech, but rather encourage civil debate over hate and violence.
“The plan references the fact that we are going to develop a university report card on a number of criteria as to what they’re really doing that’s appropriate to counter antisemitism,” said Segal.
“There’s been a lot of concern about the Office of the Envoy trying to get greater powers to strip funding out of organisations. That is a complete misrepresentation of the plan. The plan is to work in all these areas, including schools, more general education, universities and the cultural space. If there is an absence of progress, or particular institutions that are absolutely intransigent, the government has the power to no longer fund, or reduce funding, to all these organisations.
“The philosophy of the plan is that public funding should not be used to promote hate against the Jewish community.”
Segal believes that while her plan is an ambitious one, it is also a positive one that is well within Australia’s capacity to deliver.
“I think Australians generally want everyone to live in peace,” she said.
“They do not want to see discrimination against any of the community’s minorities, because they realise it might be the Jewish community now, but then it will be another minority community.
“With the support of government, I think we can manage to push antisemitism to the margins. We’re not going to get rid of it, because it’s a sort of endemic virus that infects society, but we can push it to the margins and ensure that it’s no longer accepted as normal.”
Segal hopes the Jewish community can take heart from the fact that there is a plan and that many organisations and institutions are committed to working together to deliver it.
But she also encourages each individual member of the Jewish community to play their part in educating the wider community about antisemitism.
“Every member of the Jewish community can help by reaching out to a non-Jew,” she said.
“Bring friends, bring colleagues and neighbours in, and talk about Jewish life and the Jewish world. Tell your friends that hatred is really unnecessary and only breaks bonds in society that we need to have in place.
“Obviously people need to feel safe enough to do that, but engagement and discussion of what people can do together, what they have in common, is an important contribution.”