QUT appoints former federal judge to lead anti-racism symposium review

QUT and Macquarie Uni will be grilled by parliamentarians in a specially scheduled hearing of the inquiry into campus anti-Semitism.

Footage from a QUT event showed Sarah Schwartz, who leads the controversial left-wing Jewish Council of Australia, speaking about ‘Dutton’s Jew’.

The Queensland University of Technology has appointed former Federal Court judge John Middleton to conduct an independent review of the univer­sity’s controversial anti-racism symposium that sparked bipartisan criticism. At the centre of the fury was a slide at a pre-symposium comedy event that mocked “Dutton’s Jew”.

QUT vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil said the review would consider the content of, and the broader program surrounding, the university’s National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action.

“We appreciate that Justice Middleton has agreed to independently assess the events and activities surrounding the recent symposium and await his findings,” Professor Sheil said.

A QUT statement said it was finalising terms of the review and timeframe in consultation with Justice Middleton and committed to releasing the findings.

The “Dutton’s Jew” comment, the symposium’s list of speakers, and the proceedings of the symposium were revealed by The Australian in late January.

Speaker Sarah Schwartz, who leads the left-wing Jewish Council of Australia, has since said her “Dutton’s Jew” comment was referring “to the way that Peter Dutton conceives of Jewish people and uses us as political footballs to push his own agenda, not actual Jewish people”.

Justice Middleton served on the Federal Court from 2006 to 2022 and since joined law firm DLA Piper as a senior adviser.

This comes as the parliamentary inquiry on campus anti-Semitism scheduled a new hearing on Wednesday to hear from leadership of QUT and Macquarie University.

Macquarie employs anti-­Israel academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, who since the October 7 terrorist attacks has frequently been embroiled in controversy and at the QUT symposium bragged about bending research rules, which in turn sparked “significant concern” at the Australian Research Council.

Education Minister Jason Clare intervened in the QUT symposium, telling Professor Sheil to enforce the university code of conduct; both sides of politics criticised some of the comments out of the event.

The Coalition on the opening day of the symposium called for it to be cancelled. Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said she had made “urgent representations” to Professor Sheil to do so and called on Mr Clare to do “everything possible” to stop the event.