High steaks: Labor MP Ed Husic says Israeli govt must be held to account
Australia’s first Muslim cabinet minister Ed Husic discusses war in the Middle East, anti-Semitism … and talking about his dating life with the PM in this High Steaks interview with Angira Bharadwaj.
NSW
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When Ed Husic leaves politics, he wants nothing left unsaid.
“I just don’t want to be one of those politicians after the event looking back or writing some memoir that says maybe I should have spoken up more,” he tells me over lunch at The Marsden Brewhouse.
“Modern politics doesn’t always like that.”
The conversation that follows reveals Husic’s passionate thoughts on an issue that is felt strongly in his community: the war in Gaza.
“I feel as strongly about the terrorists who caused the death of 3000 people on September 11, as I do for the people that are responsible for the deaths of 40,000 Palestinians,” he says without hesitation.
Unlike many of his colleagues whose views on the Israel-Hamas war are formed in carefully worded media statements, Husic is candid.
On my way to meet the Industry and Science Minister — Australia’s first federal Muslim minister — I drive past a house with a large Palestinian flag proudly planted in the front yard.
We are in the electorate of Chifley, home to both Husic and me, and a part of Sydney where Ed is a lot more likely to stand for his Edham than Edward.
It’s also a part of Sydney that feels passionately about the loss of civilian life in Gaza.
Like Husic’s own Bosnian parents, many who live in this multicultural seat feel strongly about families that are forced to flee their homes to escape war.
“I think the sanctions are an important part for people that are doing the wrong thing, the Israeli government I think will need to be held to account,” he says.
His comments come after Labor placed sanctions on Israeli settler group Hilltop Youths, which is not a government body.
When I ask him if he means these sanctions should extend to the government — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu — he says “we should be open to it”.
“The prime minister will need to be held to account for the conduct of the conflict,” he says. “The tenor in the campaign is set from above.
“This is just wrong … people will have to be held to account for the scale of that killing.”
Husic insists he also feels for Israelis who will never see their children again on account of Hamas or those who have lived in fear of terrorism from the militant group.
“I’ve always spoken about the need to hold Hamas to account, I’ve always put myself in the shoes of Israeli parents who can never see their kids again after what Hamas did,” he says.
“But equally, I don’t think Palestinian mums and dad and particularly kids should cop the brunt of the retribution.”
When pressed about the rise of anti-Semitic hate speech in Australia amid the ongoing war overseas, Husic downplays the influence of radical Islamic preachers.
“The extremes on either side of this debate will not be the one to speak for the middle,” he says. “If there are people who are being radical on this to gee people up, you’re not going to get too far.”
Husic suggested we meet at his friend and former Liberal minister Craig Laundy’s Western Sydney pub The Marsden Brewhouse — a venue we have both frequented.
He opts for the sirloin steak while I choose the vegan schnitzel — an unusual order for High Steaks but that’s what happens when a vegetarian is put in charge.
Husic’s friendship with Laundy is not surprising, the 54-year-old is also close to former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Labor colleague Josh Burns. Both Frydenberg and Burns are of Jewish faith and have been vocal about Hamas’ horrific bloodshed in Israel on October 7.
Husic says he has “spoken up for years against anti-Semitism.”
“I was really worried after Christchurch (with) what was happening in terms of the rise of the far right. And that type of extremism that was targeting both people, the Jewish and Muslim faith,” he says.
“My friends in the Jewish community … can judge me on my record, I’ve spoken up on that. (I will) always fight to make sure that they are free from anti-Semitism, just as I do in terms of Islamophobia.”
Despite their warring faiths, Husic is protective of his younger Labor colleague Burns, recounting how he offered to give Burns a speaking spot on the issue of Gaza because “his voice needed to be heard”.
He’s also protective of another friend, rogue Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman, who drew the ire of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for quitting the party over its stance on Gaza.
In the fraught days leading up to Payman’s resignation, senior Labor sources repeatedly pushed back at the narrative she had been abandoned.
All of them privately told The Telegraph that Husic had been crucial in trying to support the young Muslim politician and keep her in the tent.
“It was a really tough time for Fatima. It weighed on a number of us those events in Gaza,” he says. “I’m not here to judge her on that.
“There is also a generation difference, I’ve cracked 50 … the next generation is looking at things differently, they don’t want to accept the rules.
“I wish she never left, I wish there were more voices in and not out.”
The pair has not spoken since Payman quit but he hopes they will reconnect when the emotions die down.
Despite his support for Payman, he says he could never have done what she did because he owes a lot to the party that championed him to become the first Muslim cabinet minister.
“Twenty years ago, when I first started, Labor gave me a start,” he says.
“When I didn’t win in 2004, they still gave me another go … I just couldn’t do that to a party that had given me so much.”
With a grassroots movement brewing across Western and Southwest Sydney and targeting MPs including himself and his colleagues Tony Burke, Jason Clare and Chris Bowen, Husic is not concerned about the impact of the Muslim Vote, likening it to any other form of voter backlash in the lead up to an election.
“Look at Tony Burke, he has fought so long for a Palestinian state, made sure it was a feature of our national platform and fought for it on the floor of state and federal conferences,” he says.
“Are you really going to chuck out people who have been standing and fighting for that cause for years?”
Much of our conversation is sombre, with Husic becoming emotional when describing the bombings of refugee camps in Gaza, but he lights up when the subject turns to his upcoming wedding to Fiona Scott, who is chief of staff to independent ACT senator David Pocock.
“I still remember having to tell the PM … I never expected, to be frank with you, to have to talk about my dating life with the PM.”
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