Mark Scott concedes Sydney Uni ‘failed’ Jewish students, but Genevieve Bell and Julie Bishop not so forthcoming
Say what you like about former ABC managing director Mark Scott, the man knows how to deliver a grovelling apology.
Appearing before a Senate inquiry on Friday, the Sydney University vice-chancellor conceded his institution had hopelessly failed Jewish students and staff during months of anti-Semitic hostility on campus.
“Yes, I have failed them and the university has failed them and that is why we have made significant changes to our policy settings,” Scott said.
Admirable as it was of Scott to make that admission, the sandstone university has been hardly alone in its surrender to leadership cowardice, and certainly not the only university to witness freewheeling Jew hatred among its deranged student body.
The Australian National University provides an equally contemptible example. It hosted the longest Pro-Palestinian tent encampment of any institution in the country. Nazi gestures and overt discrimination against Jews were commonplace, and at least one very special, very confused pupil, declared on ABC Radio that terrorist group Hamas “deserves our unconditional support”.
Briefly expelled, that student is now standing for election as president of the ANU student association, on a ticket named “Globalise the Resistance for Palestine”. If you have ever wondered what a globalised resistance looks like, take a gander at what happens when Taylor Swift tries to hold a concert in Vienna.
Supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation surely amounts to a violation of ANU’s code of conduct, no? Vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell, appearing before the same inquiry as Scott on Friday, rushed behind the Privacy Act to avoid answering the question properly.
Pressed for an answer by Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, Bell responded: “I can’t imagine a world where we think it would be a good idea for vice-chancellors to determine who should run our student associations.” With that line of reasoning, its no wonder ANU has been captured by an availability cascade of pure stupidity.
Luckily, ANU’s chancellor is none other than Julie Bishop, and she’s been unusually quiet on all this mess.
Strange, too, because as deputy Liberal leader, Bishop vehemently opposed anti-Semitism on university campuses. In 2013 she advocated for the withdrawal of funding from institutions that engaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns – and, boy, have there been plenty those at ANU this year.
Promoted to foreign minister in 2015, Bishop said: “We will not hesitate to call out anti-Semitic discrimination where we see it, wherever it occurs.” But has she? She’s been louder about Myanmar and tax policy.
You think we’re joking?
Bishop has made herself amply available in recent months for these causes, both obviously dear to her heart. In April she accepted an appointment as the UN’s special envoy to Myanmar. And last Friday she appeared before a room of accountants to give a keynote address on tax reform.
And what of all that past vigour on anti-Semitism? Was it really just lip service?
Bishop hasn’t uttered a word about the events at ANU despite the deepening spiral, unlike Jennifer Westacott, chancellor at the University of Western Sydney, who bravely spoke out against hate speech on campuses in May, in this newspaper.
But not only has Bishop avoided the discussion of anti-Semitism entirely, it now appears she’s avoiding Jewish groups calling out her silence, too.
Leaders of the Zionist Federation of Australia and the Australasian Union of Jewish Students jointly wrote to Bishop on Monday, ahead of the Senate inquiry, urging her to treat Jewish safety at ANU as a priority and, more importantly, to say something.
“ANU has witnessed some of the most egregious examples of this troubling behaviour, rendering the campus unsafe and unwelcoming for Jewish students,” said the letter, co-signed by the ZFA’s Jeremy Leibler and Alon Cassuto, and AUJS’s Noah Loven and Mia Kline.
Bishop’s response?
She snubbed them with no response.
Cough up for ScoMo
Scott Morrison is obviously bracing for a courtroom fight over the next phase of the Robodebt scandal.
Or so we surmise given that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus quietly indemnified the former prime minister this week against an impending class action lawsuit.
Margin Call happened upon a note tabled in the Senate outlining terms for the commonwealth to pay the former PM’s legal bills in a forthcoming case.
The specifics name the “cost of legal representation” and “other costs related to the proceedings”, “damages or costs awarded” and “a reasonable amount payable” in the event of any settlement reached. (That last point also arrived with a caveat that any settlement would have to be “consistent with legal principle and practice”.)
Dreyfus’ office wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the indemnity, but Gordon Legal partner Andrew Grech, whose firm represented 430,000 victims in a class action case against the commonwealth, which settled three years ago, confirmed that former ministers and public servants would be appearing during the second wave of litigation commencing in October.
For perspective, Morrison’s legal bills during the Robodebt royal commission topped $460,000, so we should probably expect a comparable sum as Gordon Legal tests an argument of “misfeasance in public office” – that is, the abuse of power by a minister or public servant (who’s recklessly indifferent to the harm caused).
Claims of misfeasance were argued in the original class action years ago but dismissed due to a lack of evidence; the allegation has been resurrected now because the royal commission into Robodebt, released last year, concluded that “elements of the tort of misfeasance in public office appear to exist”.
So far, only Morrison’s legals have been authorised by Dreyfus; anyone else in the gun probably won’t be known until October 8.
More wrongs than rights at the AHRC?
A case of curious priorities over at the Australian Human Rights Commission where hand-picked appointee Giridharan Sivaraman seems to prefer playing politics over action on anti-Semitism.
Freehills partner given notice over synagogue tweet
Herbert Smith Freehills leaders have voted to remove one of its longstanding partners, Damien Hazard, over a ‘deeply offensive’ tweet targeting Jeremy Leibler.