There is a story about the sectarianism of the 1960’s and it relates to a former Chief Justice of NSW, Jim Spiegelman, as he was starting out on his professional life.
Spiegelman, who was later Principal Private Secretary to Gough Whitlam, went to his first Labor Party branch meeting. Greeted by one of the old stalwarts, he was asked, “are you a Protestant or a Catholic?” To which Spiegelman replied “I’m a Jew”, the man replied “yes, but are you a Protestant Jew? Or a Catholic Jew?”
I’ve told this story many times and it always brings a smile to audiences, and in some ways it’s humorous – but behind the humour, the issues of sectarianism are very serious.
Sectarianism in the period before the 1970’s separated our society between Protestants and Catholics. It denied people social and economic opportunities and divided Australia. One of the great achievements of Australia was the breakdown in those sectarian attitudes.
Sectarianism was alive in the Labor Party, but it was also alive in the Liberal Party. It was one of the things that Sir Robert Menzies most strongly stood against. As Menzies said “Sectarian strife is the enemy of freedom of worship, it’s not its friend, it’s the denial of Christianity, not its proof”.
The sectarianism of those days seemed to be a thing of the past. But unfortunately, it’s reemerging in different forms, especially in the political parties of the left.
In the Greens, antisemitism has reached fever pitch. Many Jewish supporters of the Greens have left the Greens heartbroken, alienated and betrayed by the rampant antisemitism that is now an ideological obsession of that party. Greens MPs refuse to vote for motions condemning antisemitism. They refuse to condemn the October 7 terrorist attacks or call Hamas a terrorist organisation. The Greens are a truly racist party. They are a lost cause.
Currently there is a war on for the heart and soul of the Labor Party. The latest battle will be fought this weekend.
Nick Dyrenfurth is a great Labor figure, an author and Labor Party speech writer. He is the Executive Director of the John Curtin Research Centre, an organisation that celebrates one of Labor’s greatest leaders. He is also Jewish.
Dyrenfurth has been one of the key people within the Labor Party trying to keep Labor to its tradition, going back to the days of HV Evatt, of supporting the State of Israel and supporting the Australian Jewish community.
But at the recent Victorian ALP conference, when he spoke against what he described as “extremist and divisive Pro Palestine motions”, Dryenfurth was heckled throughout and told to “sit down, Zionist.” He says the word Zionist is now “the extreme left code word for Jew.” But worse, Dryenfurth was repeatedly called a “mutt” – in other words a dog.
The denial of Nick Dyrenfurth’s humanity, the denial of the humanity of Jewish people in the Labor Party is a cancer that has been allowed into that party.
This weekend the Labor Party gathers for its annual NSW conference. There will be similar anti-Israel motions and probably similar abuse hurled at Jewish Labor members.
Conference delegates that want to see Labor as a party of government who reject antisemitism should have their smartphones at the ready, to hold the Corbynites who want to propagate antisemitism to account.
The leaders of State and Federal Labor should look to their British cousins and the consequences that befell those who refused to address a scourge that defined British Labour and its leadership.
In 2019 the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission’s said its analysis of antisemitism in Labour “points to a culture within the party which, at best, did not do enough to prevent anti-Semitism and, at worst, could be seen to accept it”.
Those revelations were enough to see Jeremy Corbyn suspended from the party he once led and reviled by his former colleagues.
Corbyn’s successor Keir Starmer took a strong position. He recognised the extent and seriousness of antisemitism in British Labour. He let the sunlight in, tackled the perpetrators head on and has worked to restore faith with Jewish voters. Starmer’s approach should be instructive to Labor’s leaders here in Australia.
The question for Anthony Albanese is whether he will be true to what he said to the Jewish community at the synagogue at St Kilda on 11 October last year when he said “many of you will fear a rise in antisemitism here at home. I want to assure you that kind of hateful prejudice has no place in Australia. Our country is better than that and our country is a better place because of you and your community and my government is committed to keeping the community safe”.
Unfortunately, those fine words have not been matched by actions. But the Labor Party conference this weekend is a test for Anthony Albanese and Chris Minns. Are they prepared to stare down the Corbynite Left? Or will they be held hostage to them?
This is a fight for the soul of the Labor Party and ultimately a fight for the soul of our State and Federal governments.
