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.
