QUT anti-racism symposium organiser urged people to act on doxxed Jewish creatives

QUT Carumba Institute executive director Chelsea Watego urged people to isolate Jewish Australian creatives days before the leak burst into public consciousness.

Queensland University of Technology Carumba Institute’s executive director Chelsea Watego.

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The Queensland academic behind a controversial university conference dominated by anti-Israel activists urged people to act against hundreds of Jewish Australian creatives and isolate them, just days before it was revealed they had been targeted in a mass doxxing.

The Queensland University of Technology Carumba Institute’s executive director, Chelsea Watego, said on her radio show last February that a WhatsApp group leak of over 600 Jewish creatives was “worth a read … and of course we should be doing something about it”.

That WhatsApp group leak had yet to burst into public consciousness, when social media figures started sharing a link to a folder with those details and Jewish leaders raised the alarm. That leak ultimately accelerated the government’s legislation criminalising doxxing.

The revelations come after widespread condemnation of an anti-racism symposium at QUT last week, hosted by Professor Watego’s Carumba Institute. QUT vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil was forced to apologise for a speaker’s “Dutton’s Jew” comment at a pre-symposium comedy event.

This QUT anti-racism symposium is not the first time Professor Watego has been embroiled in controversy. She lost a racial discrimination complaint in 2022, which she lodged after her arrest in 2018 outside a nightclub where she drunkenly called police officers “white c..ts”, The Courier-Mail reported at the time.

She was charged with obstructing police and failing to leave a licensed premises. The charges were reportedly dropped and she instead pleaded guilty to using obscene language in a public place and was fined $80.

Professor Watego reportedly refused to leave the Beat nightclub despite being asked to leave 15 times, after which she was escorted out by security. An argument broke out between Professor Watego and a bystander who had said something to her with “racial connotations”, and when police arrived the bouncers told them she needed their attention.

Jim Chalmers on Monday said it was “completely unacceptable what we saw at QUT”.

“I think to be fair, the vice-chancellor of QUT has also acknowledged that with her apology,” the Treasurer said.

“There is absolutely no place in any Australian university or any Australian community for anti-Semitism.

“I think particularly on today’s anniversary (International Holocaust Remembrance Day), it’s especially important that we make sure that we wipe out and stamp out the scourge of anti-Semitism wherever it exists, and the universities obviously need to be part of that.”

Professor Watego, during the February 5, 2024 broadcast, said she was sent the exported group chat and directed listeners to artist Matt Chun’s newsletter.

After reading through and reacting to parts of the logs, Professor Watego took aim at the figures in the group for being “silent” during some of the group chat correspondence.

“There are some academics in the group chat who have published works about Indigenous peoples and been the authority on Indigenous principles,” she said.

“Why were they silent?

“These white anthropologists who have published and made careers on being the experts on our culture had nothing to say in this group chat about any of this.

“And if you’re blackfellas working with these ones, you need to stop.”

She recommended to listeners that “it’s worth a read, those of us who have access to it”.

“And of course we should be doing something about it.”

Co-host David Singh, who also works at the QUT’s Carumba Institute, questioned how some figures in that group chat could claim to be “anti-racist”.

“Many of them profess to be advocates for social justice,” he said.

“And never has it been clearer to me this idea of progressive except Palestine in this moment.

“Many claim to be anti-racist, indeed have celebrated work that we’ve been involved in, and yet they’re a part of this group.”

When contacted for comment, a QUT spokesman said the university would not make further comments on the anti-racism symposium until it had finalised its review.

“As previously indicated, QUT has undertaken to conduct an independent review of the National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action symposium and associated events hosted by the Carumba Institute,” he said.

“The terms of the review will be finalised this week but we will make no further comment on the symposium or the Institute until we have received the review recommendations.”

Separately, QUT chancellor Ann Sherry appeared to have commented on the symposium in a private message that was publicised online.

In the message, the authenticity of which was confirmed by the university, Ms Sherry said Sarah Schwartz, the speaker who made the “Dutton’s Jew” comment, was nominated by the University of Melbourne, where she works as a part-time lecturer, to attend the symposium.

“The conference has as its theme anti-racism … the content that has appeared online was delivered by Sarah Schwartz from the Jewish Council of Australia,” Ms Sherry wrote.

“She was nominated by Melbourne University to be a panellist in the anti-racism discussion. I also share your view that the racism we are seeing in Australia is terrible and seeds hate. It is not OK.

“The university will be reviewing this gathering and its content.”

A QUT spokesman said “partner universities were invited to send speakers for consideration to be included on the full symposium program, but this is not a formal nomination process”.

However, when contacted for comment, a University of Melbourne spokesman denied the claim.

“The University of Melbourne did not nominate Sarah Schwartz to attend the event,” he said.