Mark Dreyfus dumped from cabinet

There will be no Jewish member of Parliament on a federal government frontbench for the first time in 15 years, after Mark Dreyfus was dumped as attorney-general over the weekend.

News reports emerged late last week that intent Labor factional negotiations, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, would see Dreyfus discarded from the ministry in favour of second-term Hawke MP Sam Rae. Muslim MP Ed Husic was also dropped.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said Dreyfus deserved kinder treatment from his party.

“As federal attorney-general in the Albanese, Gillard and Rudd governments, and in other cabinet positions, Mark has been a safe pair of hands and a key intellectual leader,” Aghion said.

“In close consultation with the Jewish community, he initiated important legislative reforms to make our anti-incitement laws more workable, and to ban the public display of Nazi and terrorist symbols, the Nazi salute and the trade in Nazi memorabilia.

Lauding Dreyfus’s role in providing $57.5 million in security funding for the Jewish community and saying Dreyfus’s depth of understanding of these issues as “second to none”, Aghion said it was “regrettable that internal factional politics, rather than any considerations of merit”, led to his ouster.

“We thank Mark for his friendship and his service to Australia, and wish him well for the future,” Aghion added, while also paying tribute to Husic.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said Dreyfus’s departure represented “a significant loss to Australian public life”.

“Mark Dreyfus has made an enormous contribution to the government, particularly in the area of national security, and has supported the Jewish community in its time of need,” he said.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein congratulated Dreyfus “on his long and devoted service to his party and the nation”.

“He has always been attentive to our community’s needs and concerns, for which we are very grateful. His legacy as attorney-general includes important and badly needed reforms to anti-incitement legislation and significant enhancements to communal security, and his term in office will also be remembered for his warm bridge-building visit to Israel representing the government this past January,” Rubenstein said.

“It is clear he lost his portfolio due to factional politics, and this loss should not in any way undermine the great respect he earned for his meritorious contributions to Australia as a Minister.”

Jewish Labor MP Mike Freelander slammed the decision to dump Dreyfus as “pathetic” last Wednesday, according to the Daily Telegraph.

He said he told a Labor Right faction meeting that “there was an ill wind blowing through this Parliament, and the effect of which we won’t know for some time, but I thought that we should be ashamed of ourselves for what we’ve done”.

As attorney-general, Dreyfus oversaw the passing of a slew of legislation aimed at combating hate and keeping the Jewish community safe including the Criminal Code Amendment (Hate Crimes) Bill 2024 passed in February, and a doxxing ban in November 2024.

During a National Press Club address in July 2024, Dreyfus said singling out Israel and applying a standard to Israel that they do not apply to other countries “absolutely can be” antisemitic.