Josh Frydenberg calls for all of Australia to stand up to anti-Semitism after Penny Wong ‘failed’

Josh Frydenberg said Penny Wong has “failed” and branded the Greens “despicable”, as he called for bi-partisanship to lead Australia out of a surge in anti-Semitism.

The former Liberal treasurer received a standing ovation after speaking without a script at The West Australian’s Leadership Matters Event at Crown Perth where he described the attacks that have targeted the Jewish community as “unprecedented” and “unAustralian”.

“Jews in this country have never seen a tension or a conflict between their faith and their citizenship, until the aftermath of October the 7th,” he said.

“We have seen social cohesion undermined, we have seen our security undermined, we have seen our society undermined.”

Mr Frydenberg said the world was facing a “pivotal” moment in history and an “age of the strongman” that required “strategic and strong” leadership in Australia.

OCTOBER 7 AFTERMATH

Mr Frydenberg described the anti-Israel protest that celebrated the Hamas massacre on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on October 8 as an attack on the entire Australian community and said uncomfortable questions must be confronted.

Describing a phone call from another parent, asking “in a quivering voice” whether he should send his children to a Jewish school, Mr Frydenberg asked how Australia got here.

“How could that happen in our country? That a primary school kid and his parents were worried about sending their children to school, a school that has permanent armed guards outside it’s front door.

“I told him that I’d be sending my son and daughter to school. But that was just the start.”

POLITICAL REACTION

“It happened because our leaders, political and civil, did not stand up when they should have,” Mr Frydenberg said.

He praised WA Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti, who was in the audience, and Premier Roger Cook for their “principled stance” against anti-Semitism, but said the Albanese Government and police reacted too late to protests at the Sydney Opera House and firebombings in his home town Melbourne.

There was impromptu applause, when Mr Frydenberg repeated former Prime Minister John Howard’s comment that he would have called a bi-partisan press conference with Kim Beazley on October 8.

“But that did not happen, we heard from our leaders double speak, we heard from our leaders equivocation,” he said.

“We saw a failure from our leaders to take the steps that they needed to take to keep our community safe. In fact, the first words from Penny Wong on October the 7th were calling for Israel’s restraint, weeks before Israel had even responded, when the blood wasn’t even dry.

“What goes into your head as a foreign minister of this country to say that? (It’s) a very warped view of the world.”

Mr Frydenberg said bi-partisanship on foreign affairs was lost and a “fellow democracy” in Israel was abandoned in its hour of need, after the murder of an estimated 1139 people by Hamas and the capture of more than 200 others held hostage.

ISRAEL’S RESPONSE

There was no mention of the disputed death toll in Gaza since Israel declared war in response, but Mr Frydenberg said differences of opinion must not ignore the fact that Hamas started the latest round of a decades-long conflict.

“Every loss of civilian life in Gaza is a tragedy, as it is in Israel,” he said.

“You may have a different opinion about how the war was carried out, but what you cannot have a different opinion on is how this war started, who carried it out and why there needs to be the response. And we need moral clarity.”

He rejected Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories as justification for the Hamas invasion on October 7 and insisted Israel’s response was not comparable to genocide.

“It should be sending an alarm bell in everyone’s head and the blood libel that Israel is an apartheid state and that Israel is a genocidal state must be tackled head-on,” he said.

“In Israel, there are Arabs on the Supreme Court, there are Arabs in the Parliament. It is not an apartheid State.

“If you know that when Israel handed back Gaza in 2005 there were just over 1 million people an today there are over 2 million people, you know it’s not genocide.”

WHERE TO NOW?

Confirming he has received multiple death threats, Mr Frydenberg said he chose to speak out because “if not now, when? And if not me, who?”

Mr Frydenberg said “courage and conviction” was the key to bridging the divide in Australia and urged everyone to stand up to anti-Semitism, praising the Government’s “belated” action to establish a task force, declare a synagogue firebombing terrorism and increase security funding.

“But when you’ve got a leaking boat you can’t just keep scooping the water out,” he said.

“You need to plug the leak. And that’s what Australia needs to do, we need less reactive measures and more proactive measures.”

He described educating the younger generation as the key, but criticised the soft touch of some Australian universities on student protesters.

“Houses of learning that became hotbeds of hate,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“Freedom of speech and academic freedom, these are not absolutes. The first responsibility of a university leader is to create a safe space for its staff and its students to learn and that hasn’t happened in many of our campuses across the country.”