Coalition attempts to silence Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus during comments against anti-Semitism

The Coalition has attempted to silence Labor’s most senior Jewish minister while he was speaking about his actions taken against anti-Semitism.

A failed attempt to silence Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus over a speech on anti-Semitism has prompted furore in parliament, with Anthony Albanese labelling the move as “completely unacceptable”.

Mr Dreyfus, who is Labor’s most senior Jewish minister and whose great-grandmother died during the Holocaust, was speaking about his actions against anti-Semitism following the October 7 terror attacks before Liberal MP Michael Sukkar called on him to “no longer be heard”.

At the time, Mr Dreyfus had been answering a question from Mr Sukkar on recently passed laws legislating minimum mandatory sentencing terms for terror offences.

The laws were, in part, passed in an attempt to combat the rising wave of anti-Semitic attacks across Australia.

“In the past few months, I’ve stood in the shadow of the main gate at the Auschwitz death camp,” Mr Dreyfus told parliament.

“I’ve stood on the field where a music festival in Israel was turned into a bloodbath, and I’ve stood in the ruins of a burnt out synagogue in my home town.

“But those opposite have taken every opportunity since the seventh of October 2023 to politicise the trauma and the experiences of the Jewish people.”

Mark Dreyfus was answering a question on minimum mandatory sentencing terms for terror offences when Michael Sukkar called on him to be silenced. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

While the extraordinary call prompted outrage from Labor, Mr Sukkar’s motion was defeated 91 to 52.

Following the vote, the Prime Minister condemned Mr Sukkar for attempting to silence Mr Dreyfus.

“The idea that the minister should withdraw a statement is totally inconsistent with things that have been said by those opposite over a considerable period of time,” Mr Albanese said.

“(Mr Dreyfus) is someone who feels (anti-Semitism) this very personally and deeply, he was being interjected against by those opposite in behaviour that I regard as completely disorderly and completely unacceptable.”

The Coalition then attempted to get Mr Dreyfus to withdraw his comments that the Opposition was “politicising anti-Semitism”.

Michael Sukkar made the call for Mr Dreyfus to no longer be heard. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

Continuing his remarks, Mr Dreyfus called for “unity”

“I’m the son and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. I went to the commemoration of the liberation about the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a place where a million Jews were murdered, a place where my great grandmother was murdered on the 13th of October 1942,” he said.

“I say to members of this house that we’ve had a wave of anti Semitism in this country, and right now, what we need is unity.

“We need bipartisanship, and that’s the effort that our government made.”

Originally published as Coalition attempts to silence Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus during comments against anti-Semitism