Penny Wong’s calls for unity tainted by anti-Semitism ‘politicisation’ row ahead of Holocaust memorial

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has called for unity ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp at a time when Australia is grappling to contain a rise in anti-Semitism.

But Australia’s high-level visit to the sombre occasion in Poland has been tainted by a domestic row over the politicisation of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

Senator Wong, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal are leading an official delegation to Poland to join survivors and other dignitaries, including King Charles, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, which remembers the six million Jews murdered during World War II.

Auschwitz was central to the Nazi campaign to eradicate Europe’s Jewish population and around 1.1 million people were estimated to have been killed in the camp before it was liberated by Russian soldiers on January 27, 1945.

“We are here to say, never again, never again. To stand with others across the international community and say, never again,” said Senator Wong.

“I would say at this time, we have to stand together — across beliefs, across political difference, across politics — we have to stand against prejudice and hate and antisemitism in all its forms.”

Mr Dreyfus, whose great-grandmother, Ida Ransenberg, was murdered at Auschwitz in 1942, condemned the “shocking” rise in anti-Semitism in Australia and around the world since the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.

“We’ve all got to work together, and that’s government, community, every part of the community has to work together to make sure that antisemitism, events of antisemitism, conduct that is antisemitic, violence that’s got an antisemitic association, all of that has to end,” he said.

But his appeal against politicising the Holocaust and anti-Semitism triggered a backlash in Australia over its implied criticism of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

“It’s been grotesque … to see the rise in anti-Semitism since October the 7th, but it has been equally grotesque to see attempts being made to politicise either commemoration of the Holocaust or combating antisemitism. We need to get politics out of this,” he said.

Coalition foreign affairs spokesman David Coleman hit out at his response as “a very unfortunate statement.”

Describing the Holocaust as “the worst event in human history,” he told Sky News Australia “should be proud as a nation that we were part of the fight against the evil of Nazism.”

But he called out the Attorney-General for equating the grotesque nature of anti-Semitism with criticism of “Labor’s appalling conduct on these matters.

“It’s just a disgrace. We have seen from the Labor Party a terrible politicisation of these issues. We’ve seen the Labor Party be weak on anti-Semitism,” he said.

Liberal senator Jane Hume also lashed out.

“Where has Mark Dreyfus been all this time? He’s been part of a government which has seen the greatest rise in antisemitism that this country has ever seen,” she told Sky.

The Coalition and the Government have been at loggerheads over an alarming spike in anti-Semitic attacks in Australia, with Labor coming under fire for its slow response — a charge it strongly denies.

Around 50 Auschwitz survivors will stand next to world leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the poignant ceremony on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza, is not attending and the country is being represented by Education Minister Yoav Kisch.

At a press conference in Poland, Senator Wong sidestepped a question on US President Donald Trump’s overnight statement about ‘cleaning out’ war-torn Gaza and urging Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians.

“I would simply say this; we all want the ceasefire to hold, and we all want a path to peace and security for all peoples in the Middle East,” she said.