Editorial: PM must articulate the way forward after reckoning
Australians want the Prime Minister to explain openly what the problems are, and to then map out exactly what he will do about them, writes the editor.
Tightening our nation’s gun laws is absolutely one of the things Anthony Albanese must do in the wake of Sunday’s terror attack on Jewish people at Bondi.
But it is just one thing. This is a moment of reckoning for Australia – and for the Prime Minister’s leadership. Australians are looking for so much more than a re-examination of gun laws, as important as that is.
What Australians do not want is evasiveness and a bunch of shallow, if earnest, words. Fifteen innocent people were killed on Sunday. The reason was they were Jewish – or that they stepped in to help protect the lives of the Jewish people being targeted. Australians want – and will soon demand – decisive action. They will be looking to their Prime Minister for leadership. They want him to explain openly what the problems are, and to then map out exactly what he will do about them.
And yet we wait as Mr Albanese squirms. His latest effort is to insist that “anti-Semitism didn’t begin in 2022” – the year his government won the election against the Scott Morrison-led Coalition. Of course it didn’t. Nobody is suggesting it did.
But what has happened since Labor came to office that year is that anti-Semitism in Australia has become ever more blatant and emboldened. There were a recorded 1654 anti-Jewish incidents in the 12 months to September 30 this year, and nearly 2000 the year before. Compare that to an average of just 342 annually in the decade before October 7, 2023 – the day Hamas terrorists from Gaza invaded Israel, killed more than 1200 innocents and took hostages.
Some have said Australian Jews have somehow brought this growing hatred on themselves due to Israel’s ferocious response to that massacre. What nonsense.
Views on Israel’s conduct in Gaza range from righteous self-defence to all-out genocide. But those views relate to decisions by a government of another nation – and so do not remotely justify the vilification and harassment of Australian Jews who are simply going about their daily lives. And yet that is what we have seen – even here in Queensland.
Mr Albanese insists his government has taken a strong position – and action – against this growing wave of anti-Semitism. But this is nonsense. He has not been close to strong enough.
Yes, some action has been taken. By no definition could you call what has been done “strong”. Did you know, for instance, the government has adopted the definition of anti-Semitism given by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance? Likely you do not. Because while doing so is symbolically important, it is not exactly a proactive approach to stamping out anti-Jewish activities. Also, this Labor government hardly made a big deal of it. Perhaps because there are only 100,000 Jewish voters in Australia. There are one million Muslim votes up for grabs, however.
The Albanese government also did a good thing in appointing our nation’s first anti-Semitism envoy, Jillian Segel. But when she came back with recommendations for possible action, the government consigned it to the backburner. Nothing has been done in the five months since it received that report.
Mr Albanese is now making a big deal out of toughening Australia’s gun laws, as he should – considering one of the terrorists had a licence for six high-powered rifles, despite his son (the other terrorist) having been on a low-level terror watch list.
It is a worthwhile exercise. But it is not something that addresses the underlying problem here: the rise, and shocking normalisation, of anti-Semitism, at least before Sunday’s attack. Shockingly, a generic hatred of Israel and Jews was on trend in some quarters.
The federal Labor government has stood by. Increasingly anti-Semitic public rallies and marches have become a regular feature in capital cities. Demonstrators, draped in “trendy” keffiyeh scarfs, have chanted openly anti-Jewish rhetoric under the cover of their protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
Jewish leaders have meanwhile been sounding the alarm that not enough was being done to contain anti-Semitic behaviour. If left unchecked, they warned, the outcome could be deadly violence.
Tragically, they were right. It has become our national shame.
Just one example: on October 7 last year – and so a full 14 months ago – Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president Jason Steinberg wrote in The Courier-Mail of these concerns: “Even before Israel began to defend itself, far-left activists and Greens politicians escalated tensions. In Queensland, we’ve seen violent attacks against Jews, Jewish businesses boycotted, and children bullied in schools. Anti-Israel protests in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and elsewhere echo Hamas’s call for the destruction of Israel. The slogans on our streets and universities are not just anti-Israel; they are steeped in Jew-hatred, making us feel unsafe.”
Mr Steinberg wrote that a survey of Queensland’s 8000 Jews had found 60 per cent had faced direct anti-Semitism in the past year alone, and that 90 per cent felt less safe than before. He said “the fear is constant”.
And then this: “Anti-Semitism is like water slowly filling a bucket. Eventually, it overflows.” He has been proven tragically correct.
Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here
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