Labor life member warns ALP will ‘pay heavy price at poll’ over anti-Semitism

A Labor life member says the party will ‘pay a heavy price at the ballot box’ for failing to act decisively on anti-Semitism, and Jewish Labor voters will abandon Anthony Albanese.

A former Labor Party official has condemned the Albanese government’s handling of the Israel relationship and the growth of anti-Semitism domestically, saying it was a “slap in the face” for Jews that Foreign Minister Penny Wong was representing Australia in Poland at the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Labor life member Henry Pinskier, a former vice-president of the Victorian branch of the ALP, says Labor will “pay a heavy price at the ballot box” for failing to act decisively on anti-Semitism, and lifelong Jewish Labor voters will abandon Anthony Albanese at the next election.

“Labor has lost their trust and support. They cannot bring themselves to vote Labor in 2025,” Dr Pinskier wrote in The Australian.

“The Albanese government will reap what it has sowed.”

With the Prime Minister and Peter Dutton attending a Holocaust remembrance ceremony in Perth on Monday, Dr Pinskier was critical of the decision to send Senator Wong as the government’s representative to the commemoration on the site of the former concentration camp where more than one million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.

Dr Henry Pinskier. Picture: X

“This is the same ‘leader’ who, in January 2024, in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre of 1200 innocent civilians by Hamas terrorists and the taking hostage of another 250, including nine-month-old baby Kfir Bibas, refused to visit the Nova Festival site and the kibbutzim where unspeakable atrocities took place,” Dr Pinskier wrote.

“This is the same foreign minister who deploys spin in declining to condemn an International Criminal Court order seeking arrest warrants for senior members of the Israeli government based on the outrageous libel that the Jewish state is committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza, and who has ordered vote after vote in the biased UN demonising Israel.”

A spokeswoman for Senator Wong said the minister had been “an advocate for acceptance, tolerance and respect for all people, regardless of race, religion, gender or sexuality … That will never change”.

“Senator Wong believes it is important that all people, of all backgrounds and perspectives, join in marking this anniversary – to reject anti-Semitism in all its forms and maintain the determination that the atrocities of the Holocaust are never repeated,” she said.

“Australia has been one of in excess of 150 countries, including our Five Eyes partners in the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, consistently calling for a ceasefire, consistently calling for the release of hostages, consistently calling for humanitarian aid to flow.”

Police and fire forensic investigators working at a childcare centre in Maroubra which last week was firebombed in an anti-Semitic attack. Picture: NewsWire/Julian Andrews

Dr Pinskier, a former medical professional who is the founder of renewables investment fund CEP.Energy, was also scathing of Mr Albanese for waiting 15 months “after the evil disease of Jew hatred “ to call a national cabinet meeting on anti-Semitism.

“The domestic terrorists committing these outrages have been emboldened by 15 months of failure by the Albanese government to show leadership,” he wrote.

“The duty – and privilege – of being entrusted with the leadership of our country demanded that the metastasising virus of anti-Semitism be stomped on early and firmly, that the Prime Minister stand up day after day and shoulder to shoulder with premiers, not just to offer condemnatory words but put forward concrete plans to apply the full force of police resources and the law, and solemnly promise to hunt down terrorists.

“By the time national cabinet was called, the anti-Semitism genie was out of the bottle. Our community does not feel safe.”

In a message to be delivered on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Mr Albanese will say that it was a tragedy that “we are not yet free of anti-Semitism”.

“It stands in vile opposition to all we are as a nation and all that we have built, together, over generations,” he will say.

“We will not tolerate it in any form.

“It has no place in our nation, and we will combat it with the full force of our laws and with total commitment from every level of government.”