Mike O’Connor: Australian Human Rights Commission study ignores plight of Australia’s Jews

A study into anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and First Nations people at uni will steer the focus away from rampant attacks on our Jewish population, writes Mike O’Connor.

The Albanese government can now rightfully claim to hold the Australian and very possibly the world record for the shortest inquiry ever held.

Announced in the federal budget by Treasurer “Grinning Jim” Chalmers, the inquiry was to be held into racism in the wake of the outcry that has followed the anti-Semitic camps calling for the destruction of Israel that have been set up on university campuses around the country and the racist, genocidal hate speech propagated by demonstrators calling for the destruction of Israel.

Barely had the beating of drums and the sounding of trumpets heralding the Treasurer’s every-child-wins-a-prize budget subsided when the inquiry had vanished.

Poof! Gone!

Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

It disappeared faster than $1300 blown on a night on the pokies in anticipation of a federal-state energy rebate.

In its place appeared a study to be carried out by that monument to navel-gazing, the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Now you see the inquiry, now you don’t.

If only rising prices, housing shortages and excessive immigration could be made to disappear so easily.

This study, however, will not focus on the shameful racism being demonstrated against Jews, but instead, as announced by Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman, will look at “anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and the experience of First Nations people in the university sector’’.

Pro-Palestine protests at Sydney University. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Pardon? How did we get from rampant anti-Semitism – pass the keffiyeh will you, the latest in fashion accessories for the intellectually bereft – among our allegedly well-educated elites to the experience of the First Nations people in the university sector?

Mr Sivaraman described the study as “research’’.

“Our research will be centred on people’s lived experiences, with a strong focus on First Nations students and staff,’’ he said.

“We will take a robust independent approach that is trauma-informed, providing the government and higher-education sector with recommendations that help us understand where things currently stand, and how they can be improved.’’

The strong focus should be on anti-Semitism.

People’s lived experiences?

What, pray tell, is an unlived experience?

What a staggering waste of public money – $2.5m if you were wondering – that will be spent on a ”study” or on “research”.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Swift

How long will it take to complete?

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare, who has singularly failed to bring the universities that he funds to heel on this issue, said he expected to receive it by June 30 next year.

This was news to Commissioner Sivaraman, who apparently favours a more leisurely approach to such matters and expects it will take a least twice that long for him and his merry band, already funded to the tune of about $23m a year, to carry out their study.

The study is a joke, a sad, shameful joke designed from the outset to steer the focus away from racist-fuelled attacks on Australia’s Jewish population and shows a disturbing lack of moral fibre at the very pinnacle of our federal government.

Mr Clare said the Universities Accord had recommended the study, which would “help to make our universities safer places for students and staff’’.

What a crock. It is up to the universities to keep their campuses safe for all members of its staff and student body and they have manifestly failed to do so.

The minister also said there was no place for “hate or intimidation or intolerance’’ anywhere in Australia.

Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

According to the Albanese government, the answer to the intimidation and intolerance screened nightly on TV screens is to hold a two-year study into how First Nations people are getting along at uni, examine Islamophobia, of which there is no evidence, and then, almost as an afterthought, address the very real issue of anti-Semitism.

It has been left to federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson to show some integrity and negotiate crossbench support for a Senate inquiry.

“I have no confidence the AHRC can deliver the immediate and urgent solutions that Jewish university students and staff deserve,” she said.

As for Indigenous students, from this year all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Australia are guaranteed a Commonwealth-supported place at a university of their choice when accepted into their chosen course of study.

According to the Group of Eight, representing the country’s leading universities, Indigenous students are 18 per cent more likely to complete their degrees than non-Indigenous students, which would indicate that their “lived experiences” at uni are quite positive.

If the racism now on display is allowed to continue unchecked, we will pay a heavy price in the years ahead.

Originally published as Mike O’Connor: Australian Human Rights Commission study ignores plight of Australia’s Jews