‘Our country is better than that’: PM speaks during motion against antisemitism
Anthony Albanese is now standing up in the house speaking on Spender’s antisemitism motion.
As we’ve been following, the government has been under growing pressure over the spate of attacks on Jewish communities.
Albanese says the attacks and prejudice against the Jewish community have “no place in Australia,” and points to the measures the government has so far taken – including banning Nazi symbols, criminalising doxxing and establishing a special envoy on antisemitism.
Hatred feeds on ignorance, and ignorance strides in darkness. Since we fight these crimes of bigotry in the present, we are building for a better future through the light of education.
Our country is better than that, and our country is a better place because of our Jewish community.
Key events
House and senate debate antisemitism motion
We have some photos of both chambers where Allegra Spender and Jacqui Lambie have introduced a motion on antisemitism.
So far both leaders have spoken, as well as Jewish MPs Josh Burns and Julian Leeser in the house.
Lambie tells Jewish community ‘we have your back’
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie was visibly emotional in the senate, speaking on the antisemitism motion.
She was up in response to two amendments – one from the opposition that calls on the government to support mandatory minimum sentencing for terrorism offences, and one from independent Lidia Thorpe to condemn racism “of all kinds”.
Lambie says she “doesn’t want any division”.
[This] shouldn’t come down to politics. It shouldn’t come down to amendments. OK? They [the Jewish community] are feeling the hurt, and they are feeling the pressure, and, God forbid, their kids don’t even want to go to school. It’s not about politics. It’s saying, You know what, we’re here for you … we have your back.
Earlier, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi also spoke, calling out antisemitism and all other forms of racism. She points to the rise of right wing extremism.
The Greens and I have been calling out racism in all its forms before anyone in here was doing it. We’ve been calling out right-wing extremism, neo-Nazism, which is a threat to everyone in this country.
… And we are seeing the consequences of it right here, because that threat is converting into antisemitism, into Islamophobia.
Cait Kelly
Acoss welcomes ombudsman investigation into jobseeker compliance system
Following from our last post …
Acoss’s CEO, Dr Cassandra Goldie, said the system has been plagued by errors in recent years, including previous instances of confirmed illegal payment cancellations and large-scale IT problems leading to confusion and distress for people using the system.
Goldie:
This investigation into this harsh and potentially illegal compliance system is urgently needed.
Payment suspensions and cancellation have extremely harmful impacts on people, including not only the loss of income but also potential homelessness, relationship breakdown and destitution. The fact they may be happening illegally is extremely serious.
Every three months 240,000 people – over a third of people in Workforce Australia – have their payment suspended. The TCF must be urgently removed to prevent further harm to people on low incomes.
We thank the Commonwealth ombudsman for opening this investigation and stand ready to assist in any way we can.
Mutual obligations framework to be investigated
Cait Kelly
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has announced it will investigate the mutual obligations framework, with a focus on whether income support cancellations are being made in a way that is lawful, reasonable and fair.
The Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF) administered by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations was introduced in 2018 and is designed to increase job seeker compliance with mutual obligations.
After news about 1,000 income support payments may have been illegally cancelled between April 2022 and July 2024, The Australian Council for Social Services (Acoss) made a complaint about the federal government’s administration.
In response, the ombudsman has announced today it will investigate the TCF, which administers penalties to people using employment services.
The commonwealth ombudsman, Iain Anderson, said:
Noting these matters and the potential impact of the TFC on highly vulnerable people, my office will be examining the TCF to consider if cancellation decisions are being made and implemented in a manner that is lawful, fair and reasonable.
My office will be seeking information from relevant agencies. Given a parliamentary inquiry has previously examined and delivered recommendations to overhaul the TCF, my office will not seek to duplicate the inquiry. We also do not intend to duplicate the department’s own reviews, although we will monitor these.
DEWR is also conducting an internal review of the IT system and legislative framework supporting the TCF.
‘Time of national crisis’: Dutton
Coming back to the House of Representatives, Peter Dutton has also spoken on Spender’s motion:
There are people within the Jewish community that I’ve spoken to, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, but not just in Sydney of Melbourne, now across the rest of the country, who are talking about leaving our country, leaving our country. People who were born here, who know little of Israel and little of that life, they’re talking about leaving our country and going to Israel because they feel safer there.
This is a time of national crisis, and it has been brewing away and been in the making for a long period of time.
He’s followed by others in the house and in the Senate who are speaking on the antisemitism motion.
Jonathan Barrett
S&P warns state budgets have a ‘spending problem’
Rating agency S&P Global says Australian states are facing credit downgrades if they don’t curb their spending amid what it described as “lax financial discipline”.
The report, by S&P’s credit analyst Anthony Walker, found state budgets are under pressure from a slowing economy, rising community expectations and increasing infrastructure needs:
While states have high credit ratings and have collected record tax revenues since the pandemic, they have failed to rein in pandemic-size spending, choosing instead to prioritise voter-friendly expenditures.
While all Australian states have high credit ratings of at least AA, any downgrade would increase the cost of their borrowings, weighing further on their debt loads.
State governments around the country are grappling with increased budgetary demands due to cost-of-living pressures and an increasing population. At the same time, there are demands for spending restraint to help avoid triggering another surge in inflation.
Walker said states have a “spending problem”, given revenue flows have been strong.
States insist they are making ‘difficult decisions’ or ‘hard choices’.
At the same time, spending continues to rise rapidly, and new projects are regularly announced.
Resource-rich WA has an AAA rating, the highest among Australian states and territories, while Victoria’s AA is the lowest. The AA+ rating of NSW, Tasmania and ACT is on negative watch, which means they are at risk of downgrades.
‘Our country is better than that’: PM speaks during motion against antisemitism
Anthony Albanese is now standing up in the house speaking on Spender’s antisemitism motion.
As we’ve been following, the government has been under growing pressure over the spate of attacks on Jewish communities.
Albanese says the attacks and prejudice against the Jewish community have “no place in Australia,” and points to the measures the government has so far taken – including banning Nazi symbols, criminalising doxxing and establishing a special envoy on antisemitism.
Hatred feeds on ignorance, and ignorance strides in darkness. Since we fight these crimes of bigotry in the present, we are building for a better future through the light of education.
Our country is better than that, and our country is a better place because of our Jewish community.
Liberal and Labor MPs back Spender’s motion
Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, is seconding Spender’s motion. His office in Melbourne was vandalised last year.
He urges all members of the house to come together and support the motion, and says all Australians deserve to live “without fear”.
The first step is to listen to the Jewish people of Australia they hold the collective memory of microaggression[s], a hate of words, of acts of vilification and discrimination, and they understand the history of antisemitism. And we cannot allow history to fester and to get out of control even more.
He’s followed by Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who is also Jewish, who accuses the government of allowing antisemitism to “flourish”.
We have a domestic terrorism crisis in this country the sort of which Australia has never experienced.
… I will not cop criticism to standing up for my family, my community, or the country I love, in the face of a government that has constantly let down the Jewish community and every law-abiding Australian.
Spender formally puts forward motion on antisemitism
The house has now resolved to allow Allegra Spender to put forward her motion. It’s the same as Lambie’s motion in the Senate, which states:
That the house:
1. Deplores the appalling and unacceptable rise in antisemitism across Australia, including violent attacks on synagogues, schools, homes and childcare centres;
2. Unequivocally condemns antisemitism in all its forms, as we condemn all similar hatred directed to any groups in our community; and
3. Resolves that all parliamentarians will work constructively together to combat the scourge of antisemitism in Australia.
Spender says:
Australia has, for many years, offered a safe haven. Now, parents and grandparents are genuinely wondering if they can continue to build their lives here. It broke my heart last year when a mother told me that her preschool aged daughter was proudly taking part in a Hanukkah celebration and the only thing she could think of was she’s so happy to be Jewish. She has no idea how many people hate it.
Spender is also pushing for amendments to the government’s hate crimes bill.
Sukkar takes aim at PM for not showing leadership after Spender’s antisemitism motion
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Allegra Spender’s motion was designed to be a unifying moment for the parliament but divisions are flaring before the debate has even started.
The new manager of opposition business, Michael Sukkar, has criticised the fact an independent – rather than the prime minister, Anthony Albanese – was moving the motion.
Why on earth the prime minister is not in here showing leadership and moving this motion after the summer we have had is an absolute outrage.
Opposition senate leader Michaelia Cash is now speaking, following Penny Wong.
They’re speaking on a motion from independent senator Jacqui Lambie on antisemitism.
The motion states that the senate “deplores the appalling and unacceptable rise in antisemitism”, condemns antisemitism and urges parliamentarians to work together to combat antisemitism in Australia.
Cash says:
The Jews of Australia are currently living in fear. There are people who don’t want their children to go to school on a daily basis. There are people who wake up every morning and wonder, ‘is it going to be me when I leave my house today?’
Wong speaks on antisemitism in Australia
Over in the Senate, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, is making a statement on the rising number of attacks on Jewish communities.
This has been so distressing for so many Australians, because we are a nation that welcomes different races. We are a nation that welcomes different religions. We are a nation that welcomes different views.
… It is important and appropriate that today across the chamber, we stand together to unequivocally condemn antisemitism in all its forms, just as we should condemn hatred in all its forms directed at any group in our community.
Article by:Source: Krishani Dhanji
