ECAJ statement on the measures announced by the Prime Minister today.

Attrib­ut­able to ECAJ President Daniel Aghion KC:

We are still burying our dead and pro­cessing our pain and grief, so a defin­it­ive response to the measures announced by the Prime Minister today will need to wait.

In the interim, we acknow­ledge that the measures appear to reflect recom­mend­a­tions that have been made repeatedly over the last two years or more by the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry and the Antisemitism Envoy. We will need to see the details before making an assess­ment as to whether the measures are likely to live up to their billing.

This suite of measures can only be regarded as a first step, but it is an essential one.

We warned of the risk of not dealing with antisemitism in this country promptly and effect­ively after October 7. It is an absolute tragedy that it has taken a massacre of Jewish and other Aus­trali­ans for that step to be taken.

The Prime Minister acknow­ledged that more could have been done to protect Jewish Aus­trali­ans. We agree. The history of antisemitism is that it can only be dealt with by prompt and effective lead­er­ship, and a strong response. Until today, that is what has been lacking.