MPs face the community

Labor Member for Kingsford Smith Matt Thistlethwaite reiterated the government’s commitment to the IHRA antisemitism definition during the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) plenum on Tuesday night.

Thistlethwaite was joined on the Zoom discussion by Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender and Member for Bradfield Nicolette Boele. Members of the community were able to submit questions, with Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Peter Wertheim moderating the discussion.

Asked if the government still endorsed the definition, Thistlethwaite responded, “We’ve continually endorsed that definition since prior to the 2022 election.

“That position hasn’t changed. I know that the University of NSW, in my electorate, thankfully, has endorsed that definition, and we’ve encouraged other organisations to do that as well.”

The three parliamentarians also addressed Special Envoy Jillian Segal’s antisemitism report, with both Spender and Boele saying they had followed up with the Prime Minister about the government’s response.

Thistlethwaite said the government would respond.

“There’s a number of actions that the government needs to respond to that we will do in due course, and we’re working through those recommendations now,” he said.

Addressing antisemitism at universities, Spender cited her work with Friends of IHRA co-chairs Josh Burns and Julian Leeser in encouraging higher education institutions to adopt the IHRA definition.

“I’ll be honest, I am concerned that universities like ANU and UTS seem to be backing away from having an antisemitism definition,” she said.

She said she also planned to meet with Burns and Leeser to discuss the recommendations made by the parliamentary inquiry into campus antisemitism chaired by the former, “To make sure that those those actions are being implemented.”

Boele, meanwhile, expressed the need “to have antisemitism education and Holocaust education more broadly, at every level of education right across Australia”.

Thistlethwaite also addressed the government recognising a Palestinian state saying that when Australia supported the 1947 partition plan, “Australia recognised two states”.

“We should grasp this opportunity to try and bring this almost century old, conflict to an end,” he said.

“And the best way that our government believes to achieve that, working with like minded partners in the international arena like Canada and the United Kingdom, is for them to have two states, internationally recognised borders that people can live behind, securely and safely.”

Boele was also asked to clarity her apparent equating of Israel hostages and “Palestinian detainees” in a recent statement.

“Yes, they are not the same by a long shot, and I do thank community members for being very clear about that with me,” she said.