Rod Levis is a first-generation Australian, the son of Iraq-born Jews who fled Baghdad in the late 1930s. On Thursday, he became the 16th Australian Fashion Laureate, honoured for his work as founder and chairman of womenswear brand Cue Clothing Co, now in its 55th year in business.

“My family left Baghdad when the Jews were moved out,” Mr Levis said on Thursday morning ahead of the ceremony. “And to see that nearly 100 years later we are seeing demonstrations in the street, in Sydney, shouting ‘kill the Jews’ is disgusting. To allow fireworks to celebrate Hamas, a terrorist organisation, is disgusting.”