Turmoil elsewhere should make us grateful for uneventful campaigns

For most Australian Jews, the key issues have been the economy, climate and integrity - not skirmishes in Goldstein or Wentworth

HISTORICALLY, WHENEVER WE Jews have found ourselves at the centre of political controversy, it has rarely ended well. So as the 2022 election campaign draws to a close, we are quite fortunate that there is a broad bipartisan consensus in Australian politics that condemns antisemitism along with all other forms of racism, and that consensus appears to be maintained regardless of who forms government after Saturday.

This consensus also extends to support of the State of Israel and its right to both defend itself, and live within secure borders, although dissident voices can certainly be heard on both the broad Left and the extreme Right.

Just last week in Victoria we saw Daniel Andrews, a Labor Premier from the political Left, declare his enthusiastic support for Israel, as well as announcing that his government would legislate to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika and also adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.

So the Left can be and has shown it is supportive of local and international issues of interest for the Jewish community.

As for the federal election, from a Jewish perspective the most striking feature in Victoria is that Australia’s most prominent Jewish politician, Josh Frydenberg, is in grave danger of losing his seat. Frydenberg – federal Treasurer, deputy leader of the Liberal Party and heir-apparent to Scott Morrison – is battling to hold on to Kooyong, usually a safe Liberal seat, against a strong challenge from Dr Monique Ryan, an independent.

This is not, I hasten to say, because Frydenberg is Jewish. In fact, people in the leafy surrounds and prosperous areas of Hawthorn and Kew seem to pride themselves on their broad-mindedness in electing a Jewish successor to Sir Robert Menzies, Andrew Peacock and Petro Georgiou.

Frydenberg’s problem is that he is unavoidably associated with his leader, Scott Morrison, who is now widely regarded as toxic with progressive-minded affluent voters across Australia and in particular, inner city urban areas.

If I had to bet, I would back Frydenberg to just hang on in Kooyong. But it’s the start of the final week of the campaign and anything can still happen. Of course, if he does lose, that will not be the end of a Jewish presence in the federal Parliament.

Mark Dreyfus and Dr Mike Freelander, on the Labor side, all have safe seats and Josh Burns is tipped to hold his marginal seat of Macnamara, while Julian Leeser, on the Liberal side seems certain to be re-elected. Senator Stirling Griff, who was elected in 2016 as a supporter of Nick Xenophon, is again Xenophon’s running-mate, and has some chance of re-election.

The one Victorian seat where the Jewish community has found itself involved in controversy has been in the Melbourne seat of Goldstein, based around the affluent bayside suburbs of Brighton, Hampton and Sandringham. Here the sitting Liberal member, Tim Wilson, is facing a strong challenge from an independent, former ABC journalist Zoe Daniel.

Wilson has been a long-term and close friend of mine for nearly 25 years and I personally believe he contributes a great deal to public life and policy, even though I disagree with him on many issues.

However, the issue at hand is that both Daniel and some senior people in her campaign have in the past made comments critical of Israel and the influence of “wealthy Jewish donors”. In a seat which is approximately 7.8% Jewish, the Liberals have predictably leapt on these comments.

In response, Daniel issued a lengthy statement, saying: “I will always be a strong supporter of Israel as a Jewish State, existing within safe and secure borders. The people of Israel have a right to live free from terror – free from attacks that target innocent civilians. There can never be any justification for such crimes and I condemn them unequivocally. The word ‘Apartheid’ should not be used to describe the situation in Israel.”

On antisemitism, Daniel said: “Mischaracterisations of Jewish people, including myths such as their enjoying outsize wealth or power, must be identified immediately as the starting point for much worse.”

In April, Daniel met with Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich, who questioned her about her views, including her signing of a pro-Palestinian petition in the wake of the Gaza conflict, and the comments made by her and some of her supporters. After the meeting, Abramovich said that Daniel had “addressed each of the serious concerns that I raised with her”, and that her “regrets were sincere and heartfelt”.

A further controversy arose last week when Wilson accompanied Frydenberg and other MPs on a visit to the Melbourne Holocaust Museum. The Liberal MPs wore yarmulkes, which prompted a Zoe Daniel supporter, Rabbi Yaron Gottlieb, to tweet:

“What sort of idiotic virtue-signalling garbage is this? Why do they all have yarmulkes on? It is a museum, not a synagogue. This sums up modern Liberal Party perfectly … All bullshit photo op. No substance.”

Whether or not Wilson and co were “virtue-signalling”, this was a stupid intervention, since it politicised the Holocaust Museum, and also gave the media an unedifying story about Jews attacking each other in public. Gottlieb deleted the tweet but accused the Liberals of “using my culture and trauma as a backdrop for their campaign”.

For what it’s worth, when I was the local Member of Parliament and a Minister, I visited the Holocaust Museum on many occasions but despite being a Jew, I never felt the need to wear a yarmulke. But if others wanted to out of respect, sure - why not!

Meanwhile, in the wealthy Sydney electorate of Wentworth, Liberal Dave Sharma is also facing a strong independent challenge. Although Sharma is not Jewish, he is a former Ambassador to Israel and has a high profile in Wentworth’s large Jewish community. I also got to know Dave when he was our ambassador to Israel when I led a Cyber & Data security Trade mission.

I found him to be a thoughtful, considered and highly intelligent individual with a ferocious public policy thirst, and we have remained connected and friendly since. Ironically, Sharma defeated the previous independent member, Dr Kerryn Phelps, who is Jewish, back in 2019. Sharma’s closeness to the Jewish community provoked the actor Rhys Muldoon to tweet: “Dave ‘the fake Jew’ Sharma is calling the Independents ‘fake.’ The chutzpah!”

I thought the comment was grossly unfair to Sharma, who to my knowledge has never claimed to be Jewish (he is of Indian descent), although some people in Wentworth probably assume that he is. The Zionist Federation of Australia called the tweet “casual antisemitism”.

I’m not altogether clear on how accusing someone of pretending to be Jewish, when they are not, is antisemitic but in any case, efforts by the Liberals to beat it up into a major campaign issue didn’t get very far and were a little OTT (over the top).

For most Australian Jews, as for Australians of every other kind, the dominant issues have not been any of these fairly minor controversies. They have been (as usual) the economy, issues of integrity, climate change, health, education and the leadership qualities of Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese. When we look at the situation in much of the rest of the world, we should be grateful that our election campaigns are so uneventful.

Photo: Zoe Daniel and Tim Wilson at the Goldstein candidates forum (Darrian Taylor/Age)