Funding threats for unis, school curriculum changes in bid to change ‘dangerous trajectory’

Universities will be rated on how they have cracked down on anti-Jewish hate, social media sites forced to combat racist trolls and teaching the Holocaust mandated in the national school curriculum under a sweeping blueprint put forward by the country’s first special envoy on antisemitism.

Funding would be stripped from educational institutions, cultural events and charities that fail to address antisemitism if the government agrees to enact the full plan delivered by Jillian Segal to address a series of antisemitic incidents, including arson attacks.

Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal wants broad support for her sweeping plan to tackle hatred of Jewish people.Credit: Dylan Coker

The recommendations would embed a controversial definition of antisemitism in Australian institutions and pose a challenge for the Albanese government, which has promised to protect Jewish Australians while safeguarding free speech.

Segal said antisemitism had become ingrained in academic and cultural institutions and flourished on social media. “We need to resolve this urgently,” Segal said in her report. “We are on a dangerous trajectory where young people raised on a diet of disinformation and misinformation about Jews today risk becoming fully fledged antisemites tomorrow.”

The report, released by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese alongside Segal on Thursday, sparked mixed reactions: praise from mainstream Jewish groups, and concern from legal figures and Palestinian activists who cautioned it could undermine democratic freedoms.

Key recommendations from special envoy’s report

• Withhold financial support from universities, programs or people that facilitate, enable or fail to act against antisemitism.
• Include terms in all public funding agreements with cultural institutions or festivals to combat the promotion of antisemitism, or lack of effectively dealing with incidents.
• Screen visa applicants for antisemitic views and affiliations, and ensure visa refusals or cancellations for antisemitism.
• Work with social media platforms to reduce the reach of people who peddle hate, including bot accounts.
• Embed Holocaust and antisemitism education in school curriculum.
• Work with governments to require the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism to be used across all public institutions.
• Monitor media organisations to ensure fair and accurate reporting about Jewish people.

Segal told this masthead that she would be a realist about changes to her recommendations but echoed calls from Albanese for the country to discuss it in good faith.

“The plan has to evolve, it’s ambitious,” Segal said. “This, unfortunately, is no silver bullet, and it needs support rather than people reacting that it’s bad and dangerous.”

Albanese said the government had already implemented some of Segal’s recommendations, would move quickly on others and consider the rest. But he did not specify which recommendations were in which category.

“I don’t want this to be partisan,” Albanese said. “I want everyone to say: ‘yep, might not agree with absolutely everything in here, but it’s something we can work with’.”

The opposition welcomed Segal’s plan and said the government should implement it. “Fighting the tidal wave of antisemitism cannot be left to the envoy alone,” shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser said. “It needs the prime minister’s commitment, not just to hear the envoy’s advocacy, but to action her policies.”

Segal’s report was created in response to a wave of antisemitic incidents in the last year, the latest an alleged arson attack at a Melbourne synagogue last week, similar to a firebombing of a childcare centre daubed with anti-Jewish graffiti in Sydney’s east in January.

It contains calls for more security but focuses on the educational and cultural spheres. Some Jewish students have said they felt unsafe around protest encampments at universities that sprang up after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Attendees have felt similar fears at festivals with pro-Palestinian speakers.

The report says people with antisemitic views should be barred from Australia, and charities that promote antisemitism should be denied the ability to receive tax-deductible gifts.

It also has a recommendation to put Holocaust and antisemitism education in the national school curriculum, and another for the envoy to monitor media organisations “to encourage accurate, fair and responsible reporting.”

It further states the media should be pushed to meet editorial standards, commitment to impartiality and balance, and “to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives”.

Cultural institutions, police, judges and public servants would be educated about antisemitism, and the envoy would push to establish agreed guidelines for festivals and arts organisations to respond to incidents.

Segal confirmed she would publish report cards on universities’ progress on addressing antisemitism, but argued it was not a move to punish institutions.

“It’s more like a carrot [similar to] when a student does really well in English but bad in maths,” she said.

Her report recommends that Australian governments should require all public institutions to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s definition of antisemitism.

The definition has been embraced by Jewish groups and some parts of the Australian government for its clarity and breadth, but attacked by critics, who argue it stifles free speech and conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Colin Rubenstein of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, a longstanding pro-Zionist group, said the report was vital, especially at a time of heightened antisemitism.

“Hopefully, the government will consider the report as quickly as possible and adopt its recommendations in full,” Rubenstein said. “The heightened antisemitism crisis in this country has now persisted for some 21 months, at terrible costs to national social cohesion, so there is no time to waste.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said he would be watching “with great eagerness” to make sure police, governments and institutions follow through on the recommendations in the plan.

The Jewish Council of Australia, a left-wing organisation formed last year, said the report “risks undermining Australia’s democratic freedoms, inflaming community divisions, and entrenching selective approaches to racism that serve political agendas.”

Barrister Greg Barns, SC, spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said the recommendations threatened freedom of speech and could result in “Draconian penalties”.

Albanese said people could express contrary views on Israel and conflict in the Middle East without resorting to racism.

“Where the line has been crossed is in blaming and identifying people because they happen to be Jewish,” Albanese said.

He cited a woman who was interviewed on the ABC last week, who appeared to justify an incident last week in Melbourne when about 20 people stormed through Israeli-Australian restaurant Miznon, breaking a window, throwing food and overturning tables.

“I saw on the ABC the other night, a woman who participated in the trashing and violence that occurred at the restaurant in Melbourne [was] justifying that. There is no justification for that whatsoever,” he said.

An eminent lawyer and businesswoman, Segal was appointed as Australia’s first special envoy on antisemitism in July last year.

Segal pledged to take on antisemitism posted to social media sites, which she and Albanese said was rampant.

“It’s an ongoing piece of work but it is work that has to be done by each country, but also by countries coming together,” she said.

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