00:01This new report from the Special Envoy builds on a previous report she released in July last year
00:07and comes a couple of months ahead of the final report of the Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism
00:13and Social Cohesion being handed down. Now, Gillian Siegel has identified what she said
00:18are emerging threats as well as existing threats around anti-Semitism that have intensified
00:25in recent months. Now, she did actually single out progressive modern, what she's saying,
00:30modern progressive anti-Semitism as the most pervasive form of anti-Semitism facing Australia
00:37right now. Here she is. I think it is a very serious threat because it occupies middle Australia
00:44in many cases, many institutions, rather than being seen as extreme on the extreme right,
00:51like Nazism or the extreme left. It's being seen as quite acceptable. It's got an acceptable face to it.
00:58And we need to understand that that still is anti-Semitism. Now, in this new report,
01:03she outlines a number of measures that she's proposing would help tackle this evolving threat
01:09of anti-Semitism. She's suggesting support for Jewish artists that she says have been excluded
01:16from the arts and cultural sector. She wants to see grants that would help those people be re-engaged.
01:22She's also suggesting tougher restrictions on protests. Bans on face masks are one measure that
01:29the Victorian government has also already pursued, as well as exclusion zones around protests. And she's
01:35also called for a further oversight of visa processing. The Department of Home Affairs is already
01:41being given training around detecting anti-Semitism or looking for anti-Semitism when it's vetting visa
01:47applicants. But she wants a new group or a special agency set up within the department that would
01:55retrospectively look at already approved visas. Now, this report has already got some level of
02:02political reaction. The Greens leader, David Shoebridge, has been rather critical. He says
02:06it's a missed opportunity to find consensus.
02:09And what we need is a consensus around defeating anti-Semitism. But that is not helped by saying
02:17when people criticise the appalling actions of the Israeli military in Gaza, when people criticise
02:24the tens and tens of thousands of children and women who have been killed and maimed, that is not
02:30helped when that's tried to be silenced. And there are efforts to conflate that, that human rights
02:36concern, that basic rights concern with anti-Semitism. We're also seeing the rise of the far right,
02:44the rise of openly anti-Semitic neo-Nazis in our community. And where is the focus on that?
02:51Where is the focus on that that is out there openly in our community? That is a hateful response
02:57response that I would have thought would be front and centre of the response and report from the
03:01envoy. But it's hard to find that in the report. Others, however, have welcomed this report. The
03:07peak body for the Jewish community, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry has welcomed it and
03:11says it's a courageous report. And of course, we await the handing down of the Royal Commission's
03:18final report, which will be delivered a few days after the 12-month date on from the Bondi terror attack.
03:26So, do not forget, we shall know. So today does the
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