Our multicultural ideals must be upheld to avoid national tragedy

Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese must be wary of the anti-Semitism crisis in Australia.

With the federal election rapidly approaching, it is an unfortunate reality that the nation’s anti-Semitism crisis will be one of the salient issues of the 2025 campaign.

It’s an issue that matters not only to Jewish voters but to many other Australians who care about law and order, as well as rehabilitating what had been our multicultural success story. Nobody wishes this wasn’t the case more than Australia’s Jewish community.

The anti-Semites, and their oft-naive helpmates, must be given their due.

One can’t say they haven’t been creative in their ways of dishing out the world’s oldest hatred or finding new avenues to escalate the feelings of alienation and anxiety experienced by the Australian Jewish community.

The anti-Semitic volcano began erupting outside Lakemba Mosque a mere 24 hours after Hamas’s slaughter of about 1200 people in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

This was followed on October 9 by the hateful rally in front of the Sydney Opera House. It has been spewing bile ever since.

A council worker removes anti-Semitic graffiti from the wall of the carpark at the Mount Sinai College in Maroubra. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Anti-Semitism – and violent anti-Zionism indistinguishable from anti-Semitism – has been everywhere: on university campuses; at rallies in the CBDs of major cities every weekend, occasionally even in front of synagogues; in arts circles, where Jewish professionals are doxxed and harassed; in a daily parade of graffiti, stickers and posters; in a successful arson that claimed one synagogue and attempted arson on another; in the burning down of a childcare centre; in a hoax bomb plot designed to spread communal terror; and more. Much more.

Soberingly, for all the anti-Semitic incidents that have made headlines, the country’s top intelligence official has said we have almost certainly just scratched the surface.

The recent exposure of murderous anti-Semitic threats by Australian healthcare workers was shocking. Even more shocking was that some groups in our society excused them. Yet focusing on healthcare alone is too narrow; what that incident showed is that anti-Semitism left unchallenged can and will manifest itself in every sphere of life.

NSW nurses and midwives rally in mid-February after the shocking healthcare workers’ anti-Semitism threats. Picture: Elizabeth Pike

Anti-Semitism does not stop at the boundaries of any electorate and it makes sense that efforts to stop it are more effective when pursued in a bipartisan fashion.

It is thus welcome that the Albanese government has shown more urgency and determination in confronting our anti-Semitism crisis in recent weeks and months.

Unfortunately, this improvement follows a record in which the consensus in the Australian Jewish community has been that the government at times had been overly defensive and flat-footed in handling this unprecedented crisis.

Therefore, the opposition has not been unjustified in pushing the government to confront the 17-month anti-Semitism crisis in a more effective and timely manner.

At the end of the day, the onus rests on our elected leaders, and this government cannot escape the reality that Australian Jews are experiencing the worst anti-Semitism in living memory. Worse, most of the Jewish community feels the government exacerbated the situation by constantly questioning Israel’s lawful efforts to fight a war against a foe that intentionally puts civilians at risk and embarking on a dramatic shift away from Australia’s longstanding bipartisan position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This shift, however unintentional, effectively rewarded and emboldened anti-Semitic extremists.

NSW Premier Chris Minns discusses the Dural caravan plot with media on January 29. Picture: Richard Dobson

We hope the election will see greater two-party consensus in the fight against anti-Semitism, including agreement not to allow the increasingly extreme Greens, who have been effectively enabling anti-Semites who operate under the guise of anti-Zionism, to derail these important efforts.

Any genuine fight against anti-Semitism is entirely incompatible with a future government relying on votes from a party that makes the Orwellian argument that no demonisation of Israel or Zionists can ever be considered a form of anti-Semitism, as the Greens frequently do.

For that reason, Anthony Albanese should rule out forming a government with the Greens if the government’s recently improved record on confronting the anti-Semitism crisis is to be seen as serious and sincere.

But it is important that both our major political parties recognise that this is indeed a crisis.

Australia’s unique model of multiculturalism that underpins our tolerant, stable and cohesive democratic society has never been more under threat since it was first developed back in the 1970s.

Australian multiculturalism emphasises not only one’s rights, designed to safeguard cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, but also the overriding responsibility to respect and maintain core Australian values – such as the rule of law, mutual respect and tolerance, and equality of the sexes. This vital responsibility element too often is ignored.

With the correct balance between rights and responsibilities, Australian multiculturalism is a framework of policy and institutions aimed at ensuring harmonious intercommunal relations while deterring and marginalising racial vilification, hate speech and incitement to violence.

The policy framework of Australian multiculturalism, including critically the responsibilities it entails, has not been adequately enunciated and enforced by our leadership in recent years.

It certainly has not been protecting the Jewish community during the past 17 months. Yet the unravelling of Australia’s model of multiculturalism would be a national tragedy.

This should – and doubtless will – be an important consideration for many Australians as we go to the polls this time.

Colin Rubenstein is executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. He was a member of the initial Council for Multicultural Australia, 2000-06.