Nation’s descent into darkness must stop – now

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg will present a Sky News documentary on anti-Semitism called Never Again. Picture: Sky News Australia.

Bad things happen when good people stay silent.

This is the lesson from the explosion of anti-Semitism in Australia since October 7 last year.

As Australia’s Jewish community has been targeted, intimidated and violently attacked, our leaders have stood idly by and failed to act.

The complete absence of moral clarity, courage and conviction from our governments, our universities and our Human Rights Commission has been shameful.

This descent into darkness must stop, now.

Our leaders need to wake up and comprehend the gravity of the situation and take strong and decisive action before it’s too late.

This is the lesson of history. Those who fail to heed this lesson are doomed to repeat it.

This is why I joined with Sky News for the documentary Never Again: The Fight Against Anti-Semitism. I wanted to use my voice to ring the alarm bell and show my fellow Australians what is happening in our country and the damage being done.

It is said anti-Semitism is a light sleeper but after October 7 it is violently awake. Nowhere was this more apparent than on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, our national icon.

The rape, torture, beheadings and murder of more than 1200 innocent people by Hamas on the other side of the world unleashed within hours a baying mob chanting “F..k the Jews” on our city streets.

Josh Frydenberg visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem

It was like nothing we had ever seen before. But there was more to come.

A riot in Caulfield, a largely Jewish suburb in Melbourne, was triggered by false claims Jews had burned down a local burger shop. As protesters took to the streets, Jewish families were left frightened in their homes and were prevented from visiting their place of worship on the Sabbath.

The doxxing of 600 Jewish creatives including award-winning artist Deborah Conway destroyed lives and livelihoods as performances were cancelled, businesses vandalised and death threats made.

The only sin of these Jewish creatives was to wrap their arms around each other after some of their employers and fellow artists abandoned them.

And the list goes on.

Boycotting a local business simply because the owner happens to be Jewish.

Campus camps of hate that have made our universities unsafe spaces for Jewish students.

Daily harassment that has led Jewish schools to discourage their students from wearing the uniform or indeed Jewish symbols outside the school ground for fear of their safety.

These are not isolated incidents but a pattern of unacceptable conduct by Australians that is un-Australian.

How did we get to this?

The answer is in the reckless indifference of our leaders. I don’t think for a moment that our Prime Minister, our premiers, chancellors, vice-chancellors, police commissioners or Human Rights Commissioners are anti-Semites.

To the contrary I think they respect the enormous contribution Jewish Australians have made to strengthening every aspect of our democracy and society.

But in nearly every case of anti-Semitism in Australia over the past six months our leaders have looked the other way hoping the problem would go away, in the process equivocating or even justifying their inaction.

Take, for example, university leaders who wrote to the Attorney-General seeking legal advice on the phrase “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea”.

The phrase calls for the abolition of the State of Israel. It has been described by Australia’s foremost intelligence and security expert Dennis Richardson as a “very violent statement” to which the Prime Minister agreed, saying it had no place on our streets.

What more encouragement from our Prime Minister and security experts do our university leaders need to act, to do the right thing even if it leads to significant pushback?

After all, that is what leadership is. Taking risks, making choices, standing up to be counted.

It was galling to hear the vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, Mark Scott, defend what is happening as simply free speech, drawing comparisons with demonstrations during the Vietnam War and on the issue of nuclear disarmament.

He just doesn’t get it.

Free speech does not give a free pass to hate speech and intimidation and harassment directed at a particular group in our community.

The vice-chancellor even went on to say he was reluctant to involve police because the experience on American campuses had shown this had led to even more anti-Semitism.

Such an inversion of the truth, such a sophistry, demeans the role he holds. The police were called in to the US campuses to reassert authority after the violent anti-Semites had run amok, destroying property and turning the campus into a crime scene.

It’s time our university leaders learnt you can’t appease the mob, for such weakness has become provocative, emboldening those who seek to disrupt and destroy.

The documentary explores not just the events that have taken place in Australia since October 7 but also the personal impact it is having on so many people, young and old.

In my Sky News documentary, I interview a number of Holocaust survivors who speak powerfully about the frightening parallels in what they are seeing today and with their own past.

To hear them speak about being fearful as Jews living in Australia is another proof point, if we needed one, of the failure of our leaders to combat the rising tide of anti-Semitism.

Australia’s longstanding relationship with Israel is also explored in the documentary. It has been an article of faith that here in Australia the relationship has enjoyed bipartisan support, with former Labor leader Doc Evatt playing a key role at the time in Israel’s formation as president of the UN General Assembly.

Josh Frydenberg in Be'eri Kibbutz, in southern Israel, where more than 100 people including Australian grandmother Galit Carbone were murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Unfortunately, that bipartisanship is no longer present, with Australia on countless occasions since October 7 failing to support its fellow democracy in its hour of need.

Support for the bilateral relationship is so important for Australia in terms of security and intelligence, not to mention the people-to-people links that should be enduring. It must be seen from a perspective that goes beyond who ever holds the prime ministership at that particular time in our respective countries.

Unfortunately, that is not the case and it is to the detriment of Australia’s national interest as much as it is for Israel.

Just as 9/11 changed the world, so will October 7. It has ushered in a period of instability and conflict in the Middle East and lifted the lid on ancient hatred, on anti-Semitism, here at home.

To counter the violence and limit the damage to our social cohesion our leaders across the board need to reset. Replaying the play book of the past eight months won’t cut it. More action and less talk are required.

It’s not just in the Jewish community’s interest that anti-Semitism is defeated, it’s in Australia’s interest. For what we have seen take place on our streets and on our campuses since October 7 is contrary to our values and what makes us so proud to be Australian.

Josh Frydenberg is the former treasurer. Never Again: The Fight Against Anti-Semitism premieres next Tuesday at 7pm AEST. Stream at SkyNews.com.au or download the Sky News Australia app.