Corporate Australia has taken a firm position on many issues in recent years. This is not a bad thing. Many community organisations, especially smaller ones, wouldn’t survive without support from companies such as mine and those vastly bigger in scale.
Corporate Australia is generous and, broadly speaking, is not shy of a cause. This, in my view, is a lovely reflection of the generosity of the broader Australian public.
Additionally, corporations and high-profile chief executives around Australia have taken vocal, visible and forthright positions on a range of specific social issues across the past decade. The voice to parliament, the postal survey on same-sex marriage, gender equity. There are groups such as CEOs for Gender Equity. We have Social Impact Leadership Australia. There’s Chief Executive Women. Chief executives have taken and continue to take public positions on everything from climate to mental health, domestic violence and sexual harassment.
I’m not suggesting this is a bad thing; far from it. Leadership is about many things beyond corporate governance and healthy profit, though anyone with half a brain knows these are baseline.
Leadership is about the cohesion and alignment of words with actions, the demonstrated ability to put purpose ahead of preference, and to stand on a wall when everyone else is ducking for cover.
Leadership is about tackling the uncomfortable, speaking for the voiceless, ensuring that minorities are not marginalised.
And so it was that I found myself wondering the other day: Where is the cohort of leaders from corporate Australia speaking with a consistent and united voice against the anti-Semitism that’s raging like unchecked wildfire throughout our community?
CEOs against anti-Semitism. Established? Pending. Membership? Zero.
At some level I’m conflicted because a group such as this should not be needed. But hello, Australia 2024, here we all are.
According to the 2021 census, there are fewer than 100,000 Australian Jews: 99,956 to be precise. Our Jewish friends, neighbours and colleagues make up just 0.4 per cent of the population. Australian Jews are the definition of a minority. October 7 last year was like the lancing of a boil that laid bare just how bad the problem of anti-Semitism has been in Australia for some time. It had been simmering away, largely dismissed. October 7 showed us what lay beneath and how utterly vile it is. How open and vulnerable Australian Jews are, from classroom to boardroom.
If you scoff at this premise, I would like you to consider, kindly and with a sober mind, the following facts. Last week, I visited the offices of a law firm prominent in the Jewish community in the heart of Sydney. I was greeted by two large and, frankly, appropriately intimidating security guards on duty. In 21 years of corporate life I have never seen security like it at a law firm (or any other corporate outfit for that matter), and I’ve visited hundreds.
Parents at Jewish schools don’t just contribute to building funds and the like, they pay a security levy. Think about that. They pay extra to employ guards at their kids’ school just because they’re Jewish.
When Jew Die was graffitied across the perimeter wall of Melbourne’s Mount Scopus Memorial College late last month, I had thought that might be a line in the sand of sorts. I had thought we might see more of a cohesive voice from the same corporate leaders who were so quick to take a position on various other issues.
I’m still waiting. I’m still wondering what that line might be and occasionally fret about that.
I know of many who on an individual level are demonstrating their support for the Jewish community, and perhaps many of you reading this are doing the same, having conversations behind closed doors. That kind of thing. This is not the time for quiet conversations. This is the time to stand on the wall and shout. This is the time to be counted.
The inconvenient truth is simple. It’s easy to take a principled position when most of the world agrees with you. Nobody can argue against advocating equality, for the end to gendered violence, for closing the gap. Nobody should.
But you’re not going to find anyone violently opposing these views and causes and you certainly won’t face the vile, violent and extreme tactics of intimidation of the pro-Palestinian movement. You know the ones? Masked faces, peddling hatred, fear and violence.
I was told this week of a Jewish-owned business (I won’t name it for obvious reasons) in Sydney that has endured the most atrocious and un-Australian abuse. Pro-Palestinian “activists” turned up at the premises, threw fresh dog shit at the building and shouted abuse. You can dress this up any way you like but it is hatred of Jews for being Jewish. Nothing more. Oh, and this is just one story of many.
I am perhaps provoking feelings of discomfort among some of you. I hope so. If I am, then I’m doing my job. Those of us who have studied history and who are equal parts disgusted and terrified by this wave of anti-Semitism understand the Shoah didn’t just happen. It started with the kind of behaviour the world is seeing now, the likes of which I’d never imagined seeing in Australia, in my lifetime or any other. And, of course, we all know this undermines what everyone wants at the end of the day: peace. A safe return of however many hostages may still be alive. The eradication of Hamas. A life of purpose for Jews and Palestinians, free from conflict.
This is a time in which the mirror is being held up to almost every aspect of our society. It’s a time in which everything that can be shaken is being shaken.
Some of you may think: Leave business out of it. Leave the chief executives and boards of corporate Australia to do their thing. That would be fine, except precedent has well and truly been set. There’s no pressing rewind. It’s not leadership if you pick only the convenient issues to take a position on.
The place I keep coming back to when I look at all of this with a clear mind is simple. It’s time to speak up when it counts, not just when it suits.
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