Labor-led committee ‘ignores’ Jewish Australians, calls for parliamentary inquiry into campus anti-Semitism

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus should ‘immediately’ direct a parliamentary joint committee to investigate university anti-Semitism, a Labor-led Senate committee has advised.

Pro-Palestinian students hold a sit-in in May at Melbourne University's Arts West building. Picture: Martin Keep / AFP

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

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus should “immediately” direct a parliamentary joint committee to investigate university anti-Semitism, a Labor-led Senate committee has advised.

The Coalition and the Greens issued dissenting opinions on the Labor report. Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson and Senator Paul Scarr maintained their call for a more powerful judicial inquiry into campus anti-Semitism.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi opposed any inquiry, saying claims of widespread anti-Semitism at university protests were a “gross misrepresentation of the peaceful and welcoming nature of the protests” and accused the Coalition of playing “political games”.

The Coalition and Jewish community organisations have blasted Labor for not agreeing to their calls for a royal commission-style inquiry.

In a hearing for the Senate committee process that led to this report, University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott admitted he had “failed” Jewish students and staff.

Labor committee chair Nita Green acknowledged a “rise in anti-Semitism in Australia, including on university campuses” and that university responses had been “woefully inadequate”.

In addition to an inquiry on campus anti-Semitism conducted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Senator Green also recommended that the universities, in collaboration with the industry regulator and the special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, “urgently review their complaints processes”.

Senator Green lashed those who minimised the experience of Jewish students and staff.

“Those who described the experiences of Jewish students and staff as merely occasions of ‘discomfort’ or ‘offence’ when challenged with differing opinions, or as an unfortunate consequence of the “stupid” or “idiotic” actions of other students, fail to recognise the fear many Jewish students and staff have experienced at university, and the very real harm done to those who have been ­victims of anti-Semitism,” the ­report reads.

A spokeswoman for Mr Dreyfus said the government was “now considering the recommendations of the report and will respond in due course”.

The Coalition senators wrote that it was “untenable that Jewish students have been forced to choose between their education and their safety” and repeated demands for a judicial inquiry, saying “the time for further parlia­mentary inquiry has passed”.

“A further parliamentary inquiry, even with the best of intentions, has neither the resources, capacity nor powers to undertake this important work,” the report reads.

The Coalition senators said legislation should be passed to make all Australian public universities accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism or provide reasons why they did not adopt it.

They also went further than Labor Senator Green’s proposal on university complaints policies and instead recommended that the special envoy to combat anti-Semitism be directed to develop “best-practice” university policies and procedures to combat anti-Semitism and that the government consider how these can be best implemented, including any necessary legislative changes.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser – whose lower house bill to establish a judicial inquiry into campus anti-Semitism was blocked by Labor – blasted Labor for not backing a judicial inquiry and accused the party of having “deserted the Jewish community”.

“Labor has ignored the calls of Jewish students and staff,” he said. “They have ignored the calls of every major Jewish organisation in the country and the recommendations of the special envoy to combat anti-Semitism who was recently appointed by the Albanese government.

“Labor is running out of excuses to oppose a judicial inquiry given such an inquiry is not opposed by either the Australian Human Rights Commission or Australia’s universities. Indeed, a great irony is that Sydney University vice-chancellor Mark Scott took this process seriously, but Labor hasn’t.”

He said a parliamentary inquiry would treat Jewish Australians like a “political football”.

A spokesman for the Australasian Union of Jewish Students said that while the organisation supported a judicial inquiry, it hoped that “a parliamentary inquiry will bring much-needed accountability for what Jewish students have endured”.