Topics: Antisemitism in Australia; President Trump executive orders;

07:20AM AEDT
22 January 2025


Bridget Brennan: Simon Birmingham, who is live in Adelaide. Good morning to you.

 

Simon Birmingham: Good morning, Bridget. Good to be with you.

 

Bridget Brennan: Always good to talk to you. We’ve just been speaking with Sarah Schwartz from the Jewish Council of Australia, speaking about her concern over the rise in anti-Semitism in Australia. What would your message be to Jewish Australians this morning, Simon Birmingham?

 

Simon Birmingham: Well, our message to Jewish Australians needs to be very clear that they are loved and valued members of the Australian community, that all Australians should be aghast, appalled and stand against anti-Semitism. Now our concern as a Coalition is how long it took for the Prime Minister to call this national cabinet meeting. Peter Dutton wrote to Anthony Albanese all the way back in November 2023, suggesting and calling for a national cabinet meeting to seek to address anti-Semitism, to consider how enforcement of our laws could be strengthened, how sentencing concerns could be addressed, how our Jewish community could be given more support. And it took from November 2023 until January 2025 for Anthony Albanese to act on that very sensible request from Peter Dutton. That was at that time seeking to ensure anti-Semitism, didn’t get out of control, didn’t rise and didn’t escalate into the type of acts that sadly we have seen undertaken in recent times.

 

Bridget Brennan: And so, what specific steps in October 2023 or after that do you think could have been made to prevent the types of attacks that we’ve seen? Is it realistic to assume that an earlier national cabinet meeting could have prevented this rise in anti-Semitism?

 

Simon Birmingham: Bridget, there are a number of steps. There’s, of course, the type of moral leadership and language that is essential. But there are also some of the practical things. And the reason for seeking a national cabinet meeting was to engage the states and territories to make a single national value statement to our Jewish community and to all Australians about that type of respect that’s necessary to stamp out anti-Semitism. But also, because the states and states and territories are the leads in law enforcement to ensure the coordination of those efforts around enough effort going into enforcement, enough focus around the types of laws and penalties that are applied to ensure that there are strong deterrence and consequences. To make sure that nobody thinks this is something they can get away with. But of course, also that civic leadership, that national leadership by all of Australia’s heads of government to make clear that this should not be occurring in the first place.

 

Bridget Brennan: What lasting damage do you think Simon Birmingham has been done to our sense of social cohesion in the last 15 months?

 

Simon Birmingham: It’s distressed me enormously when I’ve engaged with many Jewish Australians and their communities to hear of their concerns, to hear some of them say that they think they would be safer, and that they are considering moving their families to Israel, a country that’s been at war, rather than feeling safe here in Australia. That shows how deeply felt those concerns are, and it’s why it’s so important that we do everything possible to get this evil, long-standing scourge of anti-Semitism back in the bottle. To tackle the immediate problems in those areas of law enforcement, but also to tackle some of the broader issues, such as at Australia’s universities, and ensuring that effective definitions of anti-Semitism are applied at those universities, and that they are then effectively enforced and upheld in terms of appropriate standards.

 

Bridget Brennan: Yeah, I was also speaking also to Ed Husic’s point that he’d like to see a drop in Islamophobia as well, and that many faith leaders are just worried that particular faith communities especially don’t feel like there is a sense that they are coming together. What practical steps do you think need to be taken for unity from people from all faiths right now?

 

Simon Birmingham: At a time now, when we are seeing a long-awaited ceasefire occurring in Gaza and the release of some of those hostages held by Hamas. It is an opportunity for leaders of different faiths to come together and to demonstrate to their communities. The willingness to stand together, to respect one another, because respect is ultimately at the core of that. And so, whether they are business leaders of different faiths, political leaders of different faiths, or religious leaders of different faiths, that demonstration of mutual respect and mutual support is so important, I think, to try to bring about the cohesion and harmony we all wish to see.

 

Bridget Brennan: Just briefly, before I let you go overnight, we’ve heard that President Trump has signed orders to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organisation, the Paris climate agreement. How should Western nations approach a second Trump presidency? And is there a responsibility for our nation to speak out when actions such as this are taken that really weaken our global cooperation in big pillars of foreign affairs?

 

Simon Birmingham: Bridget, firstly, nobody should be surprised by many of the steps taken because these are the things Donald Trump said he would do as president, and he is getting on and doing them as president.

 

Bridget Brennan: And do you think that they are good step?

 

Simon Birmingham: Well, from an Australian perspective, there are two things we have to manage our equities with the United States, our closest security alliance partner, and our equities with other countries around the world. And it’s important we do manage both of those. A Dutton Coalition government would be confident in the way that it dealt with the Trump administration and seeking to ensure that Australia maintain the type of economic and security ties with the US that are so beneficial to us, but of course, continue also to work with our valued partners around the rest of the world in areas of important cooperation and collaboration, such as the tackling of HIV, the tackling of tuberculosis, the types of things that we do in near neighbours like Papua New Guinea. Work and do important work on that is aided by some of the work of the World Health Organisation.

 

Bridget Brennan: Simon Birmingham, always great to chat. Have a nice day.

 

Simon Birmingham: Thanks, Bridget. My pleasure.

 

[ENDS]