Jim Chalmers stands by anti-Semitism special envoy Jillian Segal

Jim Chalmers has stood by the special envoy to combat anti-Semitism in the face of calls for her to resign.

Special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal. Picture: Thomas Lisson

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Jim Chalmers has stood by the special envoy to combat anti-Semitism in the face of calls for her to resign, after a company associated with her husband reportedly made a donation to conservative campaign group Advance.

Henroth Investments, a company on which anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal’s husband is reportedly listed as a director, made a $50,000 donation to conservative campaign group Advance in 2023-24.

Ms Segal said she had “no involvement” in her husband’s donation. “No one would tolerate or accept my husband dictating my politics, and I certainly won’t dictate his,” she said.

“I have had no involvement in his donations, nor will I.”

This comes days after Ms Segal launched her plan to combat rising anti-Semitism, flanked by Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

The Lebanese Muslim Association has called on Ms Segal to resign and Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi said her position was “becoming untenable”.

“You cannot be the face of a national strategy against hate while your own family trust donates $50,000 to Advance Australia – a far-right lobby group notorious for spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric, vilifying pro-Palestine voices as terrorist sympathisers, and accusing political opponents of siding with foreign adversaries,” the Lebanese Muslim Association, one of the country’s largest Muslim community organisations, said.

“Segal’s defence – that she had ‘no involvement’ in the donation made by her husband’s family trust – is not a justification; it is an evasion.”

The LMA said Ms Segal could not “credibly lead efforts against anti-Semitism” in light of the donation. “If she will not resign, the government must act,” it said. “Keeping her in this role sends a clear, dangerous message: bigotry is only worth confronting when it suits the politics of the day.”

Responding to this demand, the Treasurer said the donation was a “matter for the envoy”.

“We are taking substantial steps to crack down on this disgraceful escalation in anti-­Semitism that we’re seeing in our society,” he said. “We’re already taking a number of steps, and the envoy has provided us with some suggestions and ideas, proposals for what else might be considered.

“We’re working our way through that.

“But when it comes to donations made by her husband to that organisation, she’s addressed this publicly on the record, and I see that as a matter for her.”

Senator Faruqi similarly accused Advance of being a “dangerous far-right organisation responsible for spreading racist, anti-immigrant, and Islamophobic disinformation and hate”.

“The Prime Minister has questions to answer as to what due diligence was conducted prior to Ms Segal’s appointment and whether an investigation is being conducted into any perceived conflicts of interest under the APS Code of Conduct,” she said.

“These revelations just add to the problems of an anti-Semitism report that does more to stifle free speech than to protect minority groups. Ms Segal’s position is fast becoming untenable, and the whole system of ‘envoys’ is redundant when we already have a Race Discrimination Commissioner empowered to combat all forms of racism.”

Advance was a leading campaign group for the No vote during the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum.

Advance hit back at the accusation it had spread “racist, anti-immigrant, and Islamo­phobic disinformation and hate”.

“We won’t be lectured to by an extremist who refuses to condemn an internationally recognised terrorist organisation,” executive director Matthew Sheahan said. “Faruqi is responsible for untold hate and division in this country since the October 7 terror attacks on Israel.”