University anti-Semitism report due date means it’ll ‘never see light of day’

The due date the Albanese government gave for an inquiry into campus anti-Semitism falls after the latest possible day the parliament must be dissolved before the election, complicating whether and how it will be presented to parliament.

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson during a Senate committee into a bill to establish a judicial inquiry into campus anti-Semitism. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire.

The Coalition has accused the government’s university anti-Semitism inquiry of being “shockingly inadequate and a farce”, suggesting the March 2025 deadline, close to when an election is due, would likely mean the final report “never sees the light of day”.

Given the next federal election must be held by mid-May next year, the Parliamentary Library says parliament must be dissolved by March 12 at the latest. This falls before the March 31 due date the Albanese government has given the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights to hold an inquiry and report to parliament on campus anti-Semitism.

“The reporting date is a grubby attempt by Labor to ensure the committee’s report never sees the light of day,” opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said.

Jewish organisations also blasted the Albanese government for choosing to refer an inquiry to a parliamentary committee instead of establishing a judicial inquiry, as those groups had previously urged.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said another parliamentary inquiry would not “cover any new ground or turn up any new evidence”, following a Senate committee earlier this year that looked into a Coalition-led bill to establish a campus anti-Semitism judicial inquiry.

“No clear explanation has been given of what it might achieve,” co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said.

“It will not get to the bottom of how much funding various universities receive from autocratic foreign governments or their front organisations, and for what purposes. Only a judicial inquiry with full powers has any real chance of forcing universities to divulge this kind of information while showing zero tolerance for any political grandstanding.”

Senator Henderson lashed the late March reporting due date and the government’s decision to opt for an inquiry before a parliamentary committee instead of a judicial inquiry.

“This inquiry is a gross insult to Jewish Australians because it ignores the advice of the government’s anti-Semitism envoy, Jillian Segal, and representatives of every major Jewish organisation who strongly back an independent judicial inquiry into anti-Semitism at Australian universities,” she said.

“Since 7 October 2023, Labor has repeatedly failed to take the necessary action to combat campus anti-Semitism. That is why so many Jewish students and staff no longer feel safe at university.”

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus hit back at Senator Henderson but did not address the due date issue she raised.

“Senator Henderson has spent months exploiting anti-Semitism for political gain,” he said. “It’s time she stopped.”