Audience jeers over comment

Religious freedoms and a heated discussion on anti-Semitism dominated last night’s Q&A.

Rachael Jacobs clashed with Liberal MP for Goldstein Tim Wilson.

Religious freedoms and a heated discussion on anti-Semitism dominated the ABC’s Q&A last night, with an angry audience erupting after a panellist referred to Israel as an “apartheid state”.

Rachael Jacobs, primary education lecturer at Western Sydney University clashed with Liberal MP for Goldstein Tim Wilson, after a member of the audience asked how Australians should approach the threat of anti-Semitism.

This week’s panel also featured Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus, Professor of indigenous Studies Marcia Langton and Paul Kelly, who is the Editor-at-Large at The Australian.

Anti-Semitism

Tensions escalated after a member of the audience pointed out that the Jewish community faced a “dual threat” from the far right and from extremists.

Tim Wilson said it had to be dealt with from the top.

“I don’t want to see any further discrimination in our country, be it racist discrimination or other forms of discrimination. We’ve got to do what we can to deal with it … it’s something that has to come from the top,” he said.

How should Australians approach the growing local threat of anti-Semitism? #QandA pic.twitter.com/GcDamw4rJF

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 27, 2019

Mr Wilson then pointed out the Greens supporting the BDS motion (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) was a “direct attack” on the Jewish community.

“I’m going to need to jump in there,” Ms Jacobs interjected.

“Firstly, I don’t actually think that’s Greens policy, I’m happy to be corrected if I’m not true but boycotts are not about anti-Semitism,” Ms Jacobs said.

She said anti-Semitism was about “targeting an Israeli state that is inflicting an apartheid regime,” which was met with furious jeers from the audience.

“You can jeer all you want but Palestinians have the right to live and go about their lives as do Israelis,” Ms Jacobs said.

Mr Wilson hit back at her.

“I need to say very directly that Israel is not an apartheid state,” he said as the audience erupted in applause.

Professor Langton said Australia needed to make it a criminal offence to deny the Holocaust, just as Europe did.

“When I saw those lunatic fascists in Melbourne on St Kilda Beach giving the Hitler salute in our city and Fraser Anning was with them, I was just enraged that there is no law to stop that,” she said.

“When our senators voted for Pauline Hanson’s idiotic resolution ‘It’s OK to be white’, which is a Ku Klux Klan slogan, I felt sick.”

“To this day I’m going to find it very, very difficult to be civil to the people who voted for that resolution in the Senate and this movement has brought disgrace to our parliament. This filth is in our parliament.”

Religious Freedoms

The panel was asked aboutreligious freedoms and the prospect of removing the exemptions to the Discrimination Act that currently safeguard a person’s ability to practice their faith without being discriminated.

What will the Liberal party take to restore ‘religious freedoms’ in Australia? #QandA pic.twitter.com/56F6MH2dDK

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 27, 2019

The federal election was described by Schools Australia as the most “critical for religious freedom in living memory”, which The Australian’s Paul Kelly pointed out that it saw the loss of voters in faith-based electorates.

Tim Wilson, Federal Liberal member for Goldstein was asked how soon the Prime Minister will appoint a Religious Freedom Commissioner, which he said would have to be done through “a piece of legislation”.

“I don’t know the time frames on that,” Mr Wilson said.

Rachael Jacobs and @TimWilsonMP discuss the line between community values and religious freedoms #QandA pic.twitter.com/q7JT7iXCAY

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 27, 2019

“It is a bipartisan commitment to remove the exemption that presently exists for lesbian and gay students in religious schools. It’s a promise that Mr Morrison made to the people of Australia during the Wentworth by-election, that the exemption would be removed. It’s a promise, like many promises, Mr Morrison has made and hasn’t yet kept.”

Paul Kelly said the Labor Party had a “wake-up call” with religious voters turning away from the party.

“I think that essentially what’s happened is Chris Bowen has issued a wake-up call to the Labor Party. I think Mark Dreyfus probably doesn’t accept that call. He says correctly that the Ruddock review said that religious freedom was not in peril.”

Mr Dreyfus hit back saying Scott Morrison needed to bring in legislation on religious freedoms before it could be debated.

“When the PM says he will remove an exemption that’s been in the Sex Discrimination Actprotecting religious schools in respect of lesbian and gay kids in their schools, he will remove it and needs to bring legislation to the parliament so it can be debated.”

“He never did. When he does, we’ll debate it, we’ll debate it in a respectful way and debate it after consulting with absolutely everybody that’s affected.”

Liberal voters “shamed” by the left

The next question was from a young Liberal voter who said she was being “shamed” by the left and asked if anger and shaming was a defining part of contemporary politics.

Mr Wilson said it stemmed from a “dishonesty” in climate change policy.

“It comes from dishonesty where people repeat that there will be no action on climate change, even though we’re smashing our Kyoto targets and meeting our Paris targets and have a comprehensive plan to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

“The reality is there are some people who are just bullies. And they don’t tolerate people having different frameworks of thinking or different priorities and you see a lot of that on social media, particularly from extreme voices on the left.”

Marcia Langton said there was an “incivility” in Australian politics.

Are Liberal voters being shamed by the left? Is anger and shaming a defining part of contemporary politics? #QandA pic.twitter.com/zcGabzcKhX

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 27, 2019

“Yeah, sure, I feel like swearing at people and getting angry about some issues but in debating with others, some very important issues, it’s important to be rational and debate others in order to be persuasive and reach a better outcome.”

“A lot of young people are terrified about climate change and, yes, they have good reason to be afraid. However, what they really need to do now is put the pressure on the right people … Not on other people who voted in a way that makes them unhappy.”

Mark Dreyfus said Labor would “dust itself off” and push the government for proper action on climate change.

“That’s what Labor’s going to be doing to the Government that’s been elected to get proper action on climate change,” he said.

“I happen to think there’s a climate emergency but I won’t attack Brittany (questioner) because you voted for other reasons.”

Kelly said the most unfortunate results of the election were that divisions in the country on Climate change were getting deeper.

“This was a fascinating election because essentially you’ve got a very significant difference in policy between the Government and the Labor Party and Bill Shorten essentially tried to fundamentally change the politics of climate change,” he said.

Indigenous voice recognised

With Ken Wyatt’s appointment as Minister of Indigenous Australians, a member of the audience asked whether Scott Morrison was going to hold on to the referendum on an indigenous voice in the constitution as a “bargaining chip” for a future election.

Mr Dreyfus said it would be possible to hold the referrundum in the next term of parliament.

Does Ken Wyatt’s appointment as Minister of Indigenous Australians suggest the PM is open to establishing an Indigenous voice to Parliament within this term? #QandA pic.twitter.com/TLT1ej8S9T

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) May 27, 2019

“We did commit at the election to doing a referendum for the Voice, from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, in the next term of parliament. We think it is possible to do it,” Mr Dreyfus said.

“Mr Morrison has at least accepted that it should happen. It’s just that he’s not prepared to put a time table on it. We think he should. We think if you want to make something happen you have got to put a time table on it.”

Kelly said the fundamental issue with the referendum was that the indigenous voice needed to be defined.

“You can’t put a referendum to the Australian people about putting a voice to the parliament in the Constitution without the Australian people knowing what the nature of the voice is,” he said.