Liberal MP Julian Leeser accuses human rights body of going ‘AWOL’ on Israel

Liberal MP Julian Leeser has accused the human rights commission of an ‘aberration of duty’ in failing to condemn the October 7 attacks.

Julian Leeser has attacked the human rights commission over anti-semitism.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser has accused the human rights commission of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism and committing an “aberration of duty” in failing to condemn the October 7 attacks, declaring that it had gone “AWOL” since Israel’s war on Hamas began.

One of parliament’s most senior Jewish MPs, Mr Leeser launched a scathing attack on the Australian Human Rights Commission for declining to publish any material specifically condemning anti-Semitism following the Hamas terror attack, questioning why it existed if it failed to take a stand against ­“racism and prejudice”.

Mr Leeser criticised the body for being “frozen by political paralysis” in the face of an alarming rise in anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish Australians, decrying an AHRC statement following a pro-Palestine rally at the Sydney Opera House, which raised concerns the rights of protesters were being infringed.

His remarks came as Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned Israel would continue to lose support from its allies if it did not change course in the Gaza conflict, with many people “horrified at the loss of innocent life”.

In a speech he will deliver at the Cook Society on Wednesday warning against the threat of “21st century Nazism”, Mr Leeser is calling for the AHRC to be put on notice, arguing taxpayers should not be funding a government agency that turned a blind eye to “racism or prejudice”.

“I want to be clear, if an institution charged with protecting Australians from racism and hate is not fulfilling its mandate, then Australians should question why it exists in the first place and whether it is doing the job it should be doing as it is currently constituted,” he said.

“To that end, we should put the AHRC on notice. I believe Australians will not tolerate the continued funding of government agencies and programs charged with building social ­cohesion, turning a blind eye to racism or prejudice.”

Australian Human Rights Commission president Rosalind Croucher. Picture: Matthew Syres

Mr Leeser described the AHRC’s response as the “most complete aberration of duty” in the wake of the October 7 attack, arguing it was a well-resourced institution with 200 staff and $43m in funding a year.

“Since the pogrom on October 7 and the resultant 738 per cent increase in anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish Australians detailed in a report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the human rights commission has become frozen by political paralysis that has made the commission fearful of acknowledging and engaging with the anti-Semitism that Jewish Australians are facing,” he said, adding: “The AHRC has gone AWOL.”

Mr Leeser, who resigned from the opposition frontbench over his support for an Indigenous voice to parliament, said the government had been projecting a “false equivalence” between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

Leeser campaigned for an Indigenous voice alongside Labor ministers. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

He raised concern that the Albanese government had donated $50m in funding to be split between Jewish and Islamic groups for security measures, with the Muslim community instead spending their funds on “fighting Islamophobia”.

Mr Leeser argued that 70 per cent of 145 prejudice-based crimes reported to Victoria Police had been anti-Semitic, while only 8 per cent had been ­Islamophobic.

“The government has stopped being unequivocal about anti-Semitism – always having to add the word Islamophobia as if they are embarrassed about defending Jewish Australians, or as if there is an invisible ledger needing to be balanced,” he said.

“Instead of moral clarity, we are getting perverse outcomes.”

Mr Leeser also blasted those on the left, including the Greens, for imposing a “false standard” on Jewish Australians to condemn the Israeli government’s war on Hamas – a standard he said had not been applied to any other group.

He debunked the belief that Jewish people were privileged, arguing that his people had been “refugees throughout the entire world just two generations ago”.

Mr Leeser said Hamas had used Palestinians in Gaza as a “human shield” and its members were now seeking to escape by blending in with refugees, calling on the government to ensure Australia’s borders were not infiltrated. “Australia can’t get this wrong,” he said.