Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to begin by stating what I've already stated in the past: we have a problem with our Australian universities. It seems to me they're finding their own ideology these days. That's a matter of fact. They are beyond a joke.

Last year's Australian Jewish University Experience Survey found that 64 per cent of Jewish students experienced an incident of antisemitism during their time at university. Of these, 29 per cent reported that staff had participated and 70 per cent said that staff were present but not involved. In other words, staff just ignored what was going on. They turned their backs and didn't have the courage to deal with it. This is where our Australian universities are today. This is where they're at. Sixty-one per cent of those students said that they didn't make a complaint because they didn't think it would make a difference. Nearly half of them said they didn't make a complaint because their university wouldn't take it seriously.

I've spoken to Jewish academics and students who have told me they feel intimidated and afraid. A student has told me that she tries to hide the fact that she is Jewish and that she feels afraid every time she must walk past one of the pro-Palestinian encampments. In March this year, two Israeli academics who the University of Sydney had invited to speak on campus had to be locked in a room, with anti-Israel activists screaming at them for more than an hour while the university security people were instructed to stand by and do nothing. Also in March, Macquarie University academic Randa Abdel-Fattah said that Zionists had no right to cultural safety, and she helped to spread a leak of the private details of hundreds of Jewish artists. In late April, she and activist group Parents for Palestine organised a kids' excursion where primary school aged children led each other in chants, including 'intifada' and 'Israel is a terrorist state'.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whoa!

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. This is what is going on in our own backyard. Our values are being depleted, and people are turning their backs because they don't have the courage to stand up and stop it. That is where we're at in Australia in 2024.

This was at the University of Sydney's pro-Palestinian encampment. You did nothing. You allowed those encampments to sit outside your university and you turned your back. I don't know what you are selling in those universities, but you are not selling the values of Australians, nor do you seem grateful for the freedoms that you have been given through the blood, sweat and tears of our veterans.

Macquarie University has not condemned this academic. The New South Wales Co-President of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, Danielle Tischmann, said it's 'heartbreaking' to see the University of Sydney allow its campus to become a safe haven for preaching hatred, as she put it. She said:

It's incomprehensible that students are walking to class hearing young children chanting for violence—

in this country. There are boot camps out there for that. New Zealand is running them today. They said, 'We're going to do this.' By the way, those boot camps can be used for the deradicalisation of these kids. There's a wake-up call for you. Over on this side, for three months I've been discussing with you these boot camps, and the difference they can make to a young person's life. They have a 75 per cent success rate. They're not just about young offenders; they can be used for deradicalisation as well. Have a good look. New Zealand is onto it. Once again, you are behind. You don't want to deal with this.

A University of Queensland associate professor, Yoni Nazarathy, said he had serious incidents of antisemitism happening in front of him. These included the snatching of flags, pouring coffee on signs and using the word 'Zionist' in a 'derogatory and hurtful' manner. As he put it:

I think that the University of Queensland … is complicit with anti-Semitism … It does not mean that they're anti-Semitic, but they allow for anti-Semitism to go on campus unchecked …

Once again, no courage. So, yes, we clearly have a problem with antisemitism in our universities, because the universities do not want to deal with it.

Well, I say this to the universities: you've got to build some courage, because I can tell you now that, if I were in charge, this is what I would do. I would ask you to put the pressure on these universities. They get millions of dollars of Australian taxpayers' money, and they can't behave themselves. They need to be disciplined. They need to know that this cannot happen in this country. Because they have no courage to stand up against this, they're not carrying our Australian values, and it's probably time that your government and the minister get tough with them. I would suggest holding up their funding—their grants—until they can start coming into line with Australian values, leading by example and teaching our kids what our values are in this country. Do you over there have the courage to do that? Watch them jump up and down then, if they have no money coming in from Australian taxpayers. I can guarantee that Australian taxpayers do not want that money going in there at the moment.

I will say this time and time again: universities, you are supposed to be places of learning, you are supposed to be teaching our kids the right thing, and you are failing miserably to do so. Universities are supposed to be where the free and frank exchange of ideas begins, but they should never, ever be made safe havens for racists, and that's exactly what you are doing: you are making your universities safe havens for racists. My goodness!

So, yes, we do need a commission of inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities, and I'll tell you what: I wholeheartedly support this Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on and support the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024. I thank Senator Henderson for bringing it before us in this way, and I hope that it receives the support that it needs to. I 100 per cent endorse this private senator's bill. Let me be crystal clear: there is no room in Australian society for antisemitism, period—no ifs; no buts; zero tolerance. Antisemitism is not new, but since the terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October there has been a gradual increase in antisemitic behaviour across this country culminating in the disgraceful behaviour seen recently at our university campuses. Jewish Australians no longer feel safe in their homes, in their places of worship or indeed at their educational settings. Jewish students right now are being harassed and verbally abused at Australian taxpayer funded universities as they make their way to classes. Meanwhile some Jewish schools are resorting to hiring security guards to ensure that their students feel safe in class.

As a conservative I believe in free speech. I support free speech and, of course, freedom of assembly. But with free speech comes a duty and a responsibility. It is not to be misappropriated. The right to protest must not be a cover for intimidation. It shouldn't be a cover for racism or indeed for religious discrimination. Free speech and the right to protest are not to be used to stir up hate and spread division, but that is exactly what is going on. That is exactly what we're seeing at university campuses with these encampments.

With a sense of the incredulous, I have watched the Left search for its moral clarity on antisemitism in Australia—the manoeuvring and the hesitation, the ambiguity and the self-doubt. This is not a time for such moral indecision. Now is the time to call out antisemitism when we see it and to call it out when we hear it. As observed by Greg Craven in a column in the Australian on 11 May:

Why are people who endlessly propound human rights—

that's what we hear from the Left all the time—

revile racism and foster gender diversity so negatively obsessed—at best—with one of the smallest, historically most persecuted minorities in the world?

Why indeed.

Where has the university leadership been during this time of crisis on their campuses? Why have they been so silent and so quiet? Why have they been so slow to act and call out and condemn the antisemitism that's occurring on the very campuses that they administer? By way of example, on the St Lucia campus at the University of Queensland, the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was flown at the Gaza solidarity encampment. The PFLP has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States Department of State. It's been that way since 1997. It's also considered a terrorist organisation in the EU and in Canada. But there, at the St Lucia campus, the PFLP flag is proudly flying alongside the Aboriginal and the Palestinian flags. This was on the same day a rally locked down two buildings at the university after the protesters stormed the buildings. Meanwhile, over at the University of Sydney, the Gaza solidarity encampment has school aged children chanting 'intifada' against Israel and calling Israel a terrorist state.

These institutions are supposed to be settings of academic enlightenment and educational attainment, centres of critical thinking and beacons to society representing the pinnacle of higher education. Yet the silence of university administrators in failing to condemn these antisemitic activities can only draw one conclusion: they condone the radical actions of their students by allowing these protests to go on in the way that they are. It needs to be called out. This bill needs to be supported. Is it any wonder why Jewish Australians are increasingly feeling unsafe and isolated in their own country? The activists' behaviours on campuses, like those that I have highlighted, only fuel a heightened sense of concern and insecurity. I note that, at long last, at least one university has decided to take action. Deakin University in Melbourne has committed to taking action and clearing the encampments. Other universities must do the same. The time for being idle has passed—it's long passed. There needs to be more respectful debate on matters currently unfolding in the Middle East. Chanting slogans such as 'intifada' and 'river to the sea' while conducting other provocative activities at university encampments is not the way forward.

During recent Senate budget estimates, I spoke about having met several Jewish students who had come to see me to express their deep concern about what was happening on their university campus. These students were from the university just down the road here, at the ANU. The ANU has a proud record.  It has nearly 7,000 residential students, many of whom are Jewish and Israeli. The ANU has one of the largest percentages of residential students of any other university in Australia. But, over the past few months, it's become a site of pro-Palestine and anti-Jewish encampment.

Each morning, students walk out their front door only to be confronted with protesters camped out on their front lawn. This isn't just any place for them; this is their home. They don't have the benefit of being able to go home to retreat to the comfort or protection of their family and their household. This is where they live. They are putting up with this encampment and these protests and racial taunts every time they walk out their door. The administrators of the National University have a responsibility to ensure that those students are cared for. Every student should be protected, particularly those young students who are in their homes. They live on campus and can hear the taunts. The encampment is just outside their door! It's unbelievable! It needs to be called out.

This bill needs to be supported so that we can properly examine this issue and so that an inquiry can be set up to properly engage on this issue to see the extent of this happening. These stories should drive us to support this bill. We need an inquiry. This is not the Australian way. Our Jewish and Israeli students deserve much more. These students are 18, 19, 20 years old. They're just kids, basically. They shouldn't have to deal with this kind of horrible racial and religious rhetoric.

The ANU showed it was able to move the encampment from where it was. The encampment was in the hub of the campus, where the tavern and the student services are. They moved it from there, but they didn't move it because that's where Jewish students interact and that was where they were going to be confronted by this social and emotional harm; they moved it because there was a fire risk. That's right; they should move it if there is a fire risk—absolutely, move it on. But why didn't the ANU consider the safety of those students living on campus during the weeks this was going on? They weren't just there for their contact hours. It was their home! Where was the consideration of their emotional, social and mental safety? None of that was considered. Come on, administrators of universities. You need to take this issue seriously. Students should not have to put up with this.

This bill will establish a commission of inquiry to examine instances of antisemitic activity on campuses both before and after 7 October. It will consider whether the response of university leaders, regulators, representative organisations and others has been adequate. I am pointing out to you today that it hasn't been. Let's have an inquiry and check that.

In closing, when laying out the cornerstone for the future site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in October 1988, which I was fortunate enough to visit in Washington, President Ronald Reagan said:

We must make sure that from now until the end of days all humankind stares this evil in the face, that all humankind knows what this evil looks like and how it came to be. And when we truly know it for what it was, then and only then can we be sure that it will never come again.

The ongoing persecution of Jewish students on university campuses across Australia cannot be tolerated, and I urge every senator in this place with every fibre of my being to please support this bill. Let's do the right thing. Let's ensure that protests are able to occur but not in the way that they are. We shouldn't be seeing what we're seeing on our campuses. Please support this bill.

Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024. I commend my friend in this place Senator Henderson and my friend in the other place the member for Berowra for their work on this incredibly important matter. Before I turn to the matter of university campuses, I want to reflect on this point. As honourable senators would know, Julian Leeser is my good friend. I have worked closely with him for many years in his service of the people of Berowra. Julian has had to deal with many things that other members and senators would never think of, particularly during election campaigns. I particularly remember the 2019 federal election when our campaign office was vandalised and defaced with antisemitic symbols. After that we had to lock ourselves in for our own safety. In 2019, in Sydney, we had to lock ourselves in our campaign rooms for our own safety.

Julian is a proud Jewish Australian, and, as a result, he is targeted by hate and intimidation. This is something that Jewish Australians right across our country sadly have to deal with. But the clear message from the Jewish community is that this is the worst that it has been in living memory. The level of discrimination that Jewish Australians are facing at the moment is extraordinary. It is the worst that I have seen. At its crux, this bill is responding to some disgraceful behaviour that we have seen on our university campuses. What we are seeing is a group within our society who are facing untold amounts of discrimination on the basis of their race at Australian university campuses, places where young Australians go to learn so that they can better contribute to our society.

Unfortunately we have seen a clear lack of appropriate action from this government. A commission of inquiry, as proposed in this bill, is in stark contrast to the Albanese government's establishment of a racism study led by the Australian Human Rights Commission into various forms of racism—a study led by the AHRC rather than action now. This study is a woefully inadequate response to campus antisemitism. The AHRC doesn't have the independence, powers or personnel to adequately deal with campus antisemitism. To make matters worse, the AHRC will not hand down its final report until after 30 June next year. That's the priority which this government gives this problem. The report is not even due until after the next federal election. This further reflects the government's weakness in combatting antisemitism on university campuses.

We're also concerned that the AHRC is not fit to run such a study, as we revealed in Senate estimates. It has failed to expressly condemn the Hamas terrorist attack, and its employees include individuals under investigation for antisemitic slurs published on social media. Let's think about that. It's important to also note that the AHRC does not have the confidence of the Jewish community. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the Australian Union of Jewish Students, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, and the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism all reject an inquiry led by the AHRC and support a judicial inquiry.

For a government that speaks frequently on the importance of consultation and co-design in social policy, it makes me wonder why they are listening to Australia's Jewish community. Education minister Jason Clare, who should be throwing the book at university vice-chancellors, has done very little here. He has failed to directly condemn the kids' excursion at Sydney University that encouraged young children—let's think about this—to chant anti-Israel slogans such as 'Intifada' and to participate in a march calling Israel a terrorist state. This is a school activity. This is a children's activity, on an Australian university campus. These are children.

I think this is something the education minister needs to reconsider. He suggested that terrorist slogans like 'Intifada' and the slogan 'River to the sea' mean different things to different people. Well, they mean very bad things to Australia's Jewish community. The minister continues to draw a false equivalence between antisemitism and other forms of racism, such as Islamophobia. The minister has also failed to condemn university encampments which are fuelling antisemitic and incitement.

These are Australian government funded campuses. Can we think about this? We are funding these campuses that allow this behaviour to continue unchecked. The coalition has consistently called out the minister for weakness of leadership, raising concerns that he has not shown the moral courage that is needed. This is a time for strong and clear leadership. I understand that the minister has concerns in relation to his own electorate. That's a separate matter and should not be a consideration here.

On 28 May 2024, the coalition announced that a coalition government would use provisions of the migration act to cancel visas of any student protestors found to be involved in spreading antisemitism or supporting terrorism—and rightly so. That should pretty much be a given, shouldn't it? Under section 116 of the act, the ministers for Home Affairs and Immigration have significant powers to cancel the visas of any person who is or may be a risk to the health, safety or good order of the Australian community or any segment of the Australian community. Section 501 of the act gives ministers the power to do so if visa holders show contempt or disregard for the law of our country or human rights, including terrorist activities and political extremism and for vilifying a segment of the Australian community or inciting discord in Australia. These laws already exist. Yet there is no evidence that the Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O'Neil, or immigration minister Andrew Giles have cancelled one student visa under the significant powers available to them under the Migration Act. Why? Why have they not acted? How much longer will Jewish students have to fear for their safety when they go to classes at university before this government acts? Let me repeat that: how long do they have to fear for their safety before this government acts?

Australia respects the democratic right to protest and free speech. But we will not tolerate racism, antisemitism or the public support for a terrorist organisation like Hamas. Australians are witnessing a failure of leadership from this government and some university authorities, which have profoundly failed to combat antisemitic hate and vilification on campus.

Senator Henderson's private senator's bill before the Senate today mirrors the private member's bill introduced into the House of Representatives by the member for Berowra, Mr Leeser, on 3 June 2024. He has been a leading voice in our parliament in fighting to combat the scourge of antisemitism. I thank Senator Henderson for her work on this as well.

It is regrettable that, despite multiple invitations to endorse this commonsense bill, this government has provided no public acknowledgment of or support for the proposal. They have completely ignored it. I think it's called 'ghosting'. This government has provided no public acknowledgment of or support for the proposal. Members of the coalition have directly reached out to the Attorney-General, inviting him to discuss this bill and this issue. He has not responded, despite promises to do so. On behalf of coalition senators, Senator Henderson has taken up the fight for a judicial inquiry by way of introducing this bill into the Senate. We note with concern that the Assistant Minister for Education, Senator Chisholm, said in budget estimates that the government would not support a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses. Why? I especially ask why given that, in this time, the situation at many universities has become worse. This government needs to act.

The situation at universities includes the endorsement of the horrific actions of Hamas by some academics and students and classroom invasions where those who don't support activist causes are photographed and vilified for evidence, like something from the 1930s. Think about it. If you don't do what they want and you don't stand with them, they'll take your photo and use it for something down the track. It's extraordinary. It's absolutely extraordinary, and it's happening on Australian university campuses, taxpayer funded campuses. In the face of this weak leadership from the Albanese government against antisemitism on campus, the coalition will keep fighting for what is right. The coalition will not tolerate universities becoming a law unto themselves.

Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak in support of this private senators' bill—Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024—to establish an instituted judicial inquiry into antisemitism on university campuses. I think the term 'antisemitism' can confuse Australians sometimes, but antisemitism is simply another form of prejudice or discrimination on the basis of race. It's particularly in this instance directed against the Jewish people and the Jewish faith, but it is as worthy of condemnation and as worthy of this parliament's attention as any other form of discrimination.

Unfortunately, many people, including in this chamber, seem to have a blind spot when it comes to this form of discrimination. They will be virulent and condemnatory, and rightly so, of any other form of prejudice or discrimination they see arise in Australian society, but when it comes to antisemitism, which is directed against a particular part of the Australian community—the Australian Jewish community—these same voices often fall silent. We have seen this far too often in this debate.

Let's remember what the 7 October terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel involved—the massacre of some 1,200 innocent people, families, women, children and the elderly, and the abduction of some 240, who were taken to Gaza and continue to be held by Hamas. Large numbers of those hostages have since been killed. A number still remain in captivity. These were crimes of a truly barbaric fashion. Young children dancing at a music festival fled for their lives. Some 354 of them were killed that day. More were taken hostage. Others were hiding in a safe room, lying on top of their children, trying to protect them from Hamas gunfire. Bodies were defiled and mutilated. Women were the victims of horrific sexual assault and abuse. All of this has been well documented.

But, strangely enough, after these atrocities the only form of discrimination and prejudice we have seen surface in Australia has not been directed at Hamas or their fellow travellers or ideological supporters; it's been directed at the victims of these terrorist attacks—Israel and the Jewish people. And, undoubtedly, since 7 October we have seen what is truly a horrifying and unprecedented outbreak of antisemitism here in Australia.

We saw it begin with the shameful protests, if you can call them that, on the forecourt of the opera house on Monday 9 October, a day that was meant to allow Jewish people and other people who sympathise with Israel and the victims of that terrorist attack to gather together in solidarity—not in malice and not with ill will towards anyone, but in solidarity with and remembrance of the victims of 7 October. That event was hijacked by people who instead sought to glorify and celebrate the horrific acts perpetrated by Hamas. We saw that on the night that the opera house was lit up with the colours of the Israeli flag—at the same time, I'd point out, that the Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel Tower, Number 10 Downing Street and the Washington Monument were. All these other international capitals were able to respectfully honour the victims of that attack. Instead, in Australia, we had a mob descend upon the opera house, we had police forces tell Jews to stay at home and we had people burning Israeli flags, chanting hateful slogans and wishing ill will not just towards Israel but to Jewish Australians as well, uttering phrases which have been the subject of a number of police investigations but in which you could only detect malice and ill will.

Since that time we've seen Jewish individuals, many of whom have no public profile and many of whom have expressed no political opinion or public opinion whatsoever on this conflict, doxxed—that is, had their personal and private details released with a view to them being harassed, being targeted on social media and having their businesses boycotted. We've seen the hijacking of theatrical productions to express a political statement in places like the Sydney Theatre Company and elsewhere. We've seen religious services disrupted, notably in Melbourne. We've seen property vandalised at Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne and many other places. We've seen the boycott of Jewish owned businesses. And, of course, on university campuses, we've seen similar things.

If this sort of behaviour were targeting any other group of Australians—if it were targeting Coptic Christians, Muslim Australians, the Australian Chinese community or the Australian Filipino community—we would be, in this chamber and outside, united in our condemnation of this and equally repulsed by it. We would be as one as a society in calling out this sort of unacceptable behaviour and in taking resolute action. Instead, when we are dealing here with one of the oldest, most persistent and most virulent forms of discrimination, many of us have fallen silent.

On university campuses in particular, many of us have spoken to Jewish Australian students, and we know how unsafe they feel. We know that they are avoiding classes. We know that, if they are attending universities, they're seeking to give the encampments a wide berth. We know that, if they ever wear Jewish insignia such as the Star of David, they're not wearing it today. If they—heaven forbid—wear a kippah, a head covering, they are certainly not wearing that. If they are wearing anything that suggests their Jewish faith or even some element of solidarity with Israel, they are removing that.

The recent survey by the Australasian Union of Jewish Students—which was conducted, in fact, in August 2023, before these October 7 terrorist attacks—already revealed that Jewish students had personally experienced antisemitism on campus. That has only been exacerbated—multiplied, really—by the events since. I was in Israel several weeks ago, and a fact that far too few people know about Israel is that Israel's population is about 20 per cent Arab Palestinian. They are full citizens who enjoy the same rights and who attend university in the same proportions as Jewish Israeli students. You haven't seen any protests there. You haven't seen the majority, the Jewish Israelis, organising encampments or protests on campuses which have Arab academics and Arab students. You haven't seen Arab students harassed, you haven't seen Arab students deterred from attending lectures and you haven't seen them vilified or persecuted. In fact, communal relations between Israel's Jewish and Arab Palestinian communities have been, in some ways, improved as a result of this attack because of the solidarity they all feel with the victims.

So why are we seeing this on Australian campuses, our own university campuses? Not only have we seen encampments at places like Monash University and the University of Sydney, but we've also seen Jewish academics have their classes disrupted, be denied entry to their offices and be subjected to other forms of hate and intimidation. We've seen academics at places like Macquarie University actually join the encampments, take children to the encampments, encourage and urge that no Jewish Australian be allowed to have a safe space and encourage the targeting of them on social media and in other forms. I accept that universities face a difficult task in balancing freedom of speech and freedom of expression on campus. I've met with a number of vice-chancellors in my home state of New South Wales and discussed these issues with them. I think some of them have handled it better than others, frankly, but what I've heard consistently is that they have been looking for some leadership on this issue from the federal government, and they have found that leadership to be profoundly lacking.

You'd be aware that a number of university vice-chancellors wrote to the Attorney-General some months ago, seeking his legal advice, particularly around phrases like 'from the river to the sea', but the Attorney-General pushed it back on them and said, 'It's up to you to figure this one out.' Rather than telling universities to clamp down resolutely on this and to make sure campuses, whilst tolerating free speech, remain a safe space for everyone, where students of all faiths, denominations, race and ethnicities can attend without fear, we've seen the Minister for Education not only fail to issue firm directions to the university vice-chancellors but equivocate about phrases like 'intifada' and 'from the river to the sea'. Jason Clare, the education minister, said that such things can mean 'different things to different people', a comment which was rightly disowned and condemned quite quickly by the Prime Minister.

But we've seen too much of this, too much moral equivocation, from those in government, who are expected to set the moral tone of the nation, and, frankly, we've seen too many bothsidesisms. It's rare that you hear anyone in government condemn antisemitism without in the same breath condemning Islamophobia. Theoretically, yes, of course they should be condemned together, but, practically speaking, we're only seeing demonstrations of antisemitism on Australian streets, in Australian civic life, in Australian artistic institutions and on Australian university campuses. Of course, if we see an outbreak of Islamophobia or if I become aware that Muslim students are hesitant about wearing the hijab in public, feel intimidated about attending university classes and are being victimised, harassed or doxxed, I will condemn it just as much as anyone else in this chamber will. But here we are dealing with only one form of discrimination directed against only one sort of people.

In Australia, one of the secrets to our success as a nation is that we have been able to bring together, and people this nation with, individuals of vastly different backgrounds, different traditions, different religions, different ethnicities and, in many cases, different value systems and mould them into one. If you were to conduct an experiment and say, 'We're going to set up a new country, and there will be an old and existing civilisation, and we're going to bring people from all corners of the globe, from all different backgrounds, from different socioeconomic strata and with different professional skills, different life experiences, different religions, different faiths and different ethnicities and put them all together,' most people would think you were creating a recipe for social division and disharmony.

We've succeeded in spite of that because we've firstly demanded that everyone become Australians—that is, adopt, accept and promulgate Australian values. Whilst remaining true to their own heritage, their Australian identity must take primacy, and adherence to Australian laws and values must take primacy. We've also been very resolute in not allowing the importation of foreign conflicts and the tensions they bring into Australia. We are failing on this score right now because we have allowed people whose emotions can understandably run high as a result of the conflict in the Middle East to bring those emotions into Australia and to use them to target their fellow Australians.

Australians all enjoy—and this is one of our joys as a nation—equal civil and political rights. They should enjoy equal rights to be free from discrimination and harassment, equal rights to express their political opinion without intimidation or fear and equal right to go about their lives—to conduct businesses, to study at universities, to attend artistic productions and to identify themselves as of a religion or a faith. Our Jewish Australians certainly deserve those rights, but those rights have been eroded over the events of the last several months and what we have been seeing, frankly, in Australia is redolent of 1930s Germany.

Antisemitism in Germany began with schoolteachers and academics being harassed in university campuses and forced to leave their jobs, and with Jewish students being forced away from universities. It then escalated into the targeting and boycotting of Jewish businesses, property defacement, harassment and intimidation. We have been seeing all those same precursors here in Australia. In 2024 Australia we are seeing pictures that are redolent of 1930s Germany. That should be alarming to all of us because it is making one community of Australians feel unwelcome and unsafe—a community of Australians who, incidentally, have made a massive contribution to Australia in all spheres. Some have come from some of the most humble and fearful backgrounds, many of them Holocaust survivors, and have helped build this nation. Not only are we endangering their own lives and eroding their rights as Australians but we're risking the very social fabric of our nation by failing to stand up to this.

I support this private senator's bill because I believe it will give the guidance to university vice-chancellors that they need to deal with this issue resolutely.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make some supportive comments in relation to Senator Henderson's private senator's bill. It concerns me that one of the consequences of us living through a period where the country has a low level of ambition and has seen a failure on addressing division in our own community, is that minority groups have been treated unfairly.

This has been a very difficult time to be a Jewish Australian. Since October 7 it would have been one of the most difficult minority groups of which to be a member. That is a great shame for our country because the mark of a good society is how it treats minority interests.

We are all Australian and we are all able to take pride in our country, but the mark of how we treat minorities is so terribly important. It was with great shame and embarrassment that after the October 7 attacks on Israel—the greatest loss of life amongst Jewish people since the Holocaust—that we saw the scenes of celebration in Sydney at the iconic Sydney Opera House. Fancy that, celebrating the deaths of people, of our fellow humans. That was a real low point. There has been, I have to say, regrettably, a huge spurt of antisemitism throughout our community since October 7. It is undeniable that the threats against Jewish people for the crime of being a Jew have not been properly investigated and subjected to enforcement. I'm very disappointed that the state criminal code in my own state of New South Wales has not been enforced to protect people who have been vilified and threatened just for being Jewish. This is a great shame. Right now, the lesson from history is: don't think it will end with the Jews. It will spread and metastasise, and this is a huge failure of leadership and of law enforcement to be specific about it.

This bill, of course, deals with a judicial inquiry into antisemitism in our university campuses, and we know this has been a major problem for students, academics, teachers and staff at universities. It has been well documented that the University of Sydney completely capitulated to the demands of the activists on campus and has subjected the university's governance and investment arrangements to activists, who can pore over the internal affairs of the university.

This is another example of Israel being treated very differently to other countries around the world. We hear a lot from the crossbench, particularly in this place, about Israel, but we don't hear a lot about Russia and other countries. The reality is that there is a strong equivalence between what is happening in Ukraine and what has happened in Israel. We hear a lot about how the war is going in Israel, and everyone in this place feels for our fellow humans and the loss of life, but we also fear and feel for the people who are living through a similar conflict about borders and security in Ukraine.

The attempts to change Australia's foreign policy, I think, are obvious to everyone. Australia is part of the liberal democratic alliance, and it is very important that we maintain fidelity to that alliance, because if we give up on the security of one of our partners then how can we expect our partners to support us? That is a very important point for us all to reflect upon. If Australia that had been attacked in the way that Israel has been, would we honestly expect that our government would take no action to defend the lives of Australians? I think the answer to that question is no.

This bill would establish a process where a judicial inquiry would be able to get to the bottom of what has happened at the universities. The universities have been in the main, I would say, indolent and weak. I call out the University of Sydney for particular attention here, because their capitulation to these activists sets a very worrying precedent.

As I said at the start of my remarks, we have always been a country which has protected minority rights and interests. In relation to Jewish Australians, after the Second World War Australia went out of its way to ensure that Jewish people who had fled the Holocaust and Nazi Germany could be resettled in our country. These people, in the main, have gone on to make an outsized contribution to our country. It is very important that, in protecting those minority interests, we set and maintain a standard that would apply to all Australians, so I say to all my colleagues here in the Senate: we need to tread very carefully here because, if we set a standard whereby one group or one minority interest is not worth preserving and protecting, then what message are we sending to everyone else?

I think it is absolutely disgraceful that it has had to come to the point where the Senate is effectively considering stepping into the shoes of the universities, who have failed to protect Jewish students and teachers. It has been a very hard time to be a Jewish Australian, and I think that is a great shame for us all, particularly given the history of this country, as I say, in resettling Jewish people after the Second World War, but also given our outsized role in establishing the State of Israel after the Second World War and the role that 'Doc' Evatt and other people in the labour movement played in making sure that that happened.

I have to say that I think that if Bob Hawke were still with us we would have been in a much stronger position to be able to repel some of these terrible things that have happened. Leadership is about calling out poor behaviour and ensuring that it is not repeated. I think we've now had eight or nine months of appalling behaviour happening in our community and attempts to change our foreign policy for the worse. This has been allowed to run and run. Leadership is about calling out poor behaviour, correcting it and then endeavouring to bring us all together. There is far too much division in Australia and too little ambition.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of this private senator's bill, the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024 (No. 2), and I congratulate my dear friend and colleague Julian Leeser MP for his role in relation to advocating for this and also, of course, Senator Sarah Henderson, who has been at the forefront of this debate. I'll make a number of points in relation to my contribution.

What I want to do at the start is respond to the point which has been made by some members who've spoken against this bill. They ask: why have an inquiry that looks just at the rise of antisemitism in our universities and at how universities have managed that issue? I say this to you: quite simply, our Australian Jewish community is asking us, the Australian parliament, to convene this inquiry. When any part of our community—our society—exhorts us to establish an inquiry into issues relating to their victimisation and to the intimidation and harassment of that group and looks to us, the Australian Senate, to lead the way and to set up a judicial inquiry with appropriate powers and appropriate impartiality to look into an issue that is of particular concern to them, I think we have a moral obligation to reflect very, very carefully on that request, wherever it comes from.

I want to quote from the representatives of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which is the federal representative body of the Jewish community in Australia. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry is the peak body. This is what they've said in relation to this private senator's bill:

A judicial inquiry, as originally called for in May by Mr Leeser, would allow Jewish students and staff to give evidence in a closed hearing, without having to fear reprisals from the fanatical fringe of anti-Israel or Jew-hating students, or victimisation from anti-Israel and antisemitic faculty members. There would be no opportunity for political grandstanding by any party, and the sole focus would be on getting to the truth.

I'll just focus on some elements of that statement made by our Jewish community in calling for this inquiry, calling for this bill to be passed. There is a fear that, if Jewish students and staff are not provided the opportunity to give evidence in a closed hearing, they will be subject to reprisals and further intimidation. This is very sobering. I say to those opposite: you should carefully consider your position before you vote against this private member's bill, because the Australian Jewish community is calling for this judicial inquiry into antisemitism on our campuses and how our universities are managing this issue. That's the first point.

The second point I would like to make is that, on the same day that Julian Lesser MP announced his intention to bring forward his bill, I attended my old university, the University of Queensland, at the invitation of the organisers of Camp Shalom to engage in a silent protest with them in response to the antisemitism they were seeing on my own university campus. I participated in that night-time silent protest. We went silently to the building of the office of the vice-chancellor and held up signs that simply said, 'Keep us safe.' That's all the Jewish students and academics were seeking: a commitment from the university to keep them safe. Even in the course of us engaging in that silent protest, there was vile abuse directed at the students and the faculty members participating. Even in the course of that silent procession, there was vile abuse. I commend all the participants in that silent protest for their discipline in terms of ensuring that they didn't do anything to respond to that vile abuse. There was dignity in that silence.

I subsequently wrote to the vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland, Professor Deborah Terry, and told her about what I had witnessed on my university campus. I also conveyed to her the fact that Camp Shalom, the Jewish camp on the University of Queensland, was subject to vile acts of intimidation that very night after I left. I read a heart-rending email from a student at that university who was in the camp with his two-year-old son about the impact of that on his two-year-old son and how heartbreaking it was for him. That was on my university campus. I also referred to the fact that there'd been a terrorist flag flown on the university campus, the flag of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP has been declared a terrorist organisation by a number of our closest allies. They're responsible for aircraft hijacking, kidnappings, assassination and murder—absolutely despicable. A terrorist flag was flown on my university campus. There was also the incident relating to intimidation of a UQ academic where a protester went into their office and urinated in their office and called on them to resign. We have seen it all—swearing, flag stealing and sign tearing. We've seen all of it.

Then what did the University of Queensland do? It entered into an agreement. It gave a commitment to the protesters who are in the other encampment. It issued a statement of commitment dated 1 June 2024 to those other students. In that commitment that goes for three pages—I have it here—it doesn't even mention antisemitism. They couldn't bring themselves to even mention antisemitism. That's my university. In the context of this debate, they couldn't bring themselves to even mention antisemitism. It's absolutely disgraceful.

This is what Camp Shalom member and liaison for the Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism, Yoni Nazarathy, said. These are the words of a Jewish academic at my university:

… seems like a commitment for keeping the door open to more harassment, vilification, hate speech, and anti-Semitism on campus. The university has had a very slack response to a series of hate and vandalism events on campus during the past month.

With this, the statement negotiated with the anti-Israel camp has no explicit mention of anti-Semitism—

extraordinary—

and opens the door for a series of more demands from anti-Zionist protesters.

As such, the contributors to Camp Shalom have agreed to physically set up the camp on campus during the graduation days, July 8 to 12, in protest.

Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies President Jason Steinberg said the university's decision to acquiesce to the protesters was absolutely abhorrent. He said:

What they've done is opened the door for anti-Israel, anti- Semitic activists to change the policies of the university … which was already an unsafe place for Jewish people; now it's an even more unsafe place.

Following that, alumni of the University of Queensland have written an open letter to the Chancellor of the University of Queensland, Mr Peter Varghese, and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Terry. The letter says:

Whatever anyone's view about the current war between Israel and Hamas terrorists, there is no excuse for bringing the hatred of that war into Queensland. That's what the anti-Israel supporters on your campus are doing in Queensland—they are directly attacking Jewish staff and students through their words, graffiti, posters and violent acts.

One of the signatories to that letter—and I commend him for it—is previous Chief Justice and Governor of Queensland, Paul de Jersey, an outstanding Queenslander. He has raised this issue as a former Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and as former Governor of Queensland. This is an issue of grave, grave concern to the Jewish community in Queensland and to the Jewish staff and academics at the University of Queensland.

I call upon the Labor party to reconsider its position if for no other reason than because the Jewish community of Australia is calling for this bill to be passed. How can you stand in the way of a bill calling for a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on our university campuses and the management of that policy? How can you stand in the way of that inquiry when the Australian Jewish community is united in calling for it?

I commend the mover of the bill, and I certainly look forward to supporting it.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (NT, Country Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand to support the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024 (No. 2). I was brought up in a household with a parent who was a history teacher who taught me the importance of understanding not only our nation's history but also world history, because our history teaches us what we should do in order to avoid atrocities from occurring. We, as an entire world, understand what the Jewish people have endured through world history. Yet, here we are, in Australia, in 2024, where there has become a huge rise in antisemitism throughout our democratic nation and, of particular concern, in our education institutions. Universities are supposed to be a place of learning, challenge, academia and safety, where our young people can learn within an environment where everyone is treated equally and where they don't have to be subjected to racism or prejudice.

In our past we have been victim to terrorism. If we can all think back to the Lindt Cafe incident not so long ago. Following on from the Lindt Cafe incident, our Australian community was encouraged to ensure that we did not subject our entire Muslim community to any kind of prejudice. However, that same attitude or respect has not been applied to our Jewish community in this country, and, most importantly, in our universities.

I would hate to think what would happen if the same sorts of behaviour were projected towards Indigenous students. Imagine that. Imagine the outcry, the uproar and the calls of racism that would take place. But for some reason in Australia in 2024, it has been acceptable for terrorist flags to be flying out the front of our universities and for terrorist chants to be used at the front of our universities.

Let's look back to history, shall we? It really wasn't that long ago, in 1926, that the Nazi Party founded the National Socialist German Students' League. Part of their role was to foster ideological training of young people on university campuses. This is where it all begins. If we don't stand up and recognise the signs now as to where this can all go, then we are not learning from history.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Nampijinpa Price, the time for consideration of private senators' bills has expired. You will be in continuation when debate resumes.