Tuesday, 18 June 2024

 James NEWBURY (Brighton) (13:41): I move, by leave:

That this house requires the Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Standing Committee to inquire into, consider and report, by 31 December 2024, on the impact on social cohesion of the deep antisemitism that exists in Victoria. Particularly the committee should consider:

(1)   pleas by the community, including the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, that the level of antisemitism has reached a point where the time for listening is over and the time for action is here;

(2)   that despite the state government accepting 34 recommendations to increase anti-vilification laws three years ago only one of the recommendations has been implemented;

(3)   Victoria Police findings through Operation Park that between 7 October 2023 and 11 June 2024 197 ‍alleged criminal incidents occurred relating to the Middle East conflict and that of those incidents:

(a) 88 reports, 44.7 per cent, related to antisemitic incidents; and

(b) of the 47.2 per cent where a direct motive was not clear, 87, or 93.5 per cent, were politically motivated by opposition to Israel’s Gaza policy;

(4)   the recent community security group findings through the Jewish community incident reporting on university campuses that 50 antisemitic or anti-Israel incidents are now occurring on campus each week, up from 11 over the entire year of 2023;

(5)   the ongoing incitement of violence and hatred towards Jewish people, including the recent public graffiti on a Jewish school despicably stating ‘Jew die’;

(6)   the need for stronger move-on laws, which Labor stripped away in 2015, to enable police to keep the peace and protect faith communities and others across our community from harassment;

(7)   the need for greater legal protections against doxxing of Jews following the social media profiles, pictures and occupations of 700 Jewish Australians being shared online; and

(8)   the behaviour of taxpayer-funded Victorian government staff, including the Victorian Public Sector Commission advisory board member Tasneem Chopra and Victorian Multicultural Commission’s commissioner Mohamed Mohideen.

Leave refused.