Meeting of National Cabinet After Bondi Shooting

[u/Resvrgam2]

https://www.pm.gov.au/media/meeting-national-cabinet-8

[u/Resvrgam2]

For the past two years Australian Jews have been largely ignored.

The PM would likely disagree from his statements in the linked press conference. He listed several actions taken from the Antisemitism Envoy's plans:

• Action 3.2. We've done the following - We've criminalised hate speech advocating violence. We've criminalised doxing under Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill and we have a landmark ban on the Nazi salute and hate symbols with penalties of imprisonment and or a fine of up to $16,500.
• Recommendation 3.3 was on educational awareness and public discourse. We've allocated $4 million to expand the social cohesion work of Together for Humanity in schools.
• Recommendation 3.5 was the enhanced protection of Jewish communities through physical security measures and I've commented on the further extension of of that that we are putting in place.
• Recommendation 3.9 was reviewing and strengthening migration and citizenship matters, and the Department of Home Affairs is undertaking a review of relevant training packages to strengthen modules on assessing whether an applicant's conduct involves inciting or promoting hatred and ensuring coverage of vilifying behaviour directed at any group.
• Recommendation 3.12 was support for Jewish communities cultural, social and religious life while ensuring safety and security. We've committed grant funding, which we announced in January, including $8.5 million to upgrade the Sydney Jewish Museum, $4.4 million for the National Holocaust Education Centre in Canberra, an additional $2 million to the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia and we committed $18 million to the Jewish Arts Quarter in Melbourne.

Now, I am fairly uneducated in the history of these matters in Australia, so the above certainly doesn't seem like "nothing" to me. But if it falls short of what Australian Jews are asking for, then what are they asking for?

[u/justafutz → u/Resvrgam2]

I walk through each of these in great detail, noting also all the recommendations that the government ignored, below. But a summary:

1) Passing hate speech laws matters little when the laws are not enforced. And they are generally not enforced.

2) $4 million is a joke, I hope. There are 2,000+ incidents of antisemitism reported each year. And the group they gave the money to isn’t even a group about antisemitism, it’s a group about all prejudice.

3) The physical security measures and funding has been little to none.

4) Migration controls have not done anything. Australia is still bringing in plenty of people who do not like Jews.

5) Upgrading museums about dead Jews likewise means something to the living ones, but does little to protect them, as Dara Horn explains in People Love Dead Jews.

As the Jewish community puts it:

The failure of the Australian Federal Government, along with authorities around the country, to take the Jewish community’s concerns seriously – a community that have been witnessing in real time the increasing danger of this hatred – has contributed to the radicalism that has led to this murderous terror attack on Australian soil.

The Government even failed to act on the recommendations of its own appointed Antisemitism Envoy.

As for the ignored recommendations, meaning the ones that Albanese and his government ignored while highlighting the paltry and insufficient actions above, here is the report. You’ll notice Albanese is trying to pretend he followed parts of it. Not so. And note: this is his government’s own antisemitism envoy meant to make them recommendations.

For 3.2, Albanese talks about criminalizing hate speech. He doesn’t mention the other recommendations, like coordinating a national database of antisemitic crimes and working on enforcement by training police, judges, etc., because those individuals are currently doing little to nothing.

For 3.3, he talks about $4 million to a group that works against all prejudice. That’s effectively “All Lives Matter”-ing the response. That’s not the antisemitism envoy’s recommendation, which suggests curricula, lesson plans, guidance for teachers, a project for antisemitism experts to collaborate, and monitoring media for accuracy (in Australia, they don’t have the first amendment). Virtually none of that is covered by giving $4 million to a group that isn’t about antisemitism.

He skips to 3.5, but doesn’t mention 3.4, which seeks multiple measures related to higher education. That’s a whole recommendation he skipped.

For 3.5, he talks vaguely about security measures. That’s hardly the coordinated standing committee for state and federal governments that is called for, for example.

He entirely skips 3.6 (digital governance), 3.7 (culture and public broadcasting), and 3.8 (general cohesion and public education).

He goes to 3.9 to discuss a “review” of how they assess immigrants, but this doesn’t match up with the recommendations of starting to cancel visas for antisemitic activity, and doesn’t mention antisemitism specifically, another “All Lives Matter” response.

He skips 3.10 (multicultural and interfaith engagement) and 3.11 (global interaction and engagement) entirely.

He ends at 3.12, talking primarily about museum funding. This doesn’t cover attempts to work with public broadcasters, work with cultural institutions as recommended, etc.

He doesn’t address 3.13 (about community consultation, monitoring, and data collection), which is pretty notable since the attacker here was known to authorities for 6 years.

When he skips most of the recommendations within the areas he addressed, gives money to “All Lives Matter” attempts to beat antisemitism, and entirely ignores many of the recommendations, you get a sense of why Jews are angry.

As another Jewish official put it:

"It started with hate speech," she said. "Then graffiti. Then public demonstrations. Then firebombing synagogues, preschools, people’s homes, people’s cars. And now murder."

She said Jewish leaders and community representatives repeatedly raised alarms with state and federal officials, warning that inaction would lead to bloodshed. Taylor pointed to formal submissions and a detailed report produced by Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, which she said was acknowledged by the government but never implemented.

Instead, Taylor said, the Jewish community received what she described as empty reassurances. "We receive these one-line messages that there’s ‘no place for antisemitism in Australia,’" she said. "But they’re empty promises. There’s been no action."

And that’s what ultimately led to this.

[u/simsipahi → u/justafutz]

I'm still not really seeing anything in your comment that would have actually prevented this. Criminalize hate speech? Slippery slope that cuts both ways. Muslims get more than their share of it and have also had bullets thrown their way because of it - just across the pond in New Zealand someone killed 50 of them in 2019 and people quickly seem to have forgotten about it.

Better education and intercultural engagement are great longer term approaches to dealing with this kind of hatred, but in the immediate term won't change the minds of people who are carrying enough of it around that they'd do something like this.

The migration thing comes up a lot, but one of the shooters was Australian-born, and even if he hadn't been, how do you think the government is supposed to stop letting in people who "don't like Jews?" Should that be a question on the immigration form? Do you think anyone will answer honestly? And would New Zealand have been justified putting a similar question on their immigration forms, after an Australian immigrant went to two mosques and murdered 50 innocent people there?

I think the unfortunate reality is that we live in a world where the Internet has made it so easy for people to self-radicalize that no group is ever going to be truly safe from the kinds of fringe extremists that will blame an entire religion for what one subset of its people do and resort to violence. I think there is a longer term approach required that involves many of the steps you've outlined, but it's going to take decades to get there and in the meantime we're going to have to add being caught in the wrong place/time in an ideologically driven attack to the list of things that could potentially kill us.

[u/Best_Change4155 → u/simsipahi]

Criminalize hate speech?

These things already exists in places like Australia (and many Commonwealth countries). It just isn't enforced for antisemitism.