A video has resurfaced of former premier Daniel Andrews saying Victoria wouldn’t have such harsh restrictions on free speech if not for the Jewish community.
Mr Andrews made the comments in a speech at the Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre in Caulfield, Melbourne, in August 2021, to celebrate a major security upgrade of the building paid for by the state and federal taxpayer. Mr Andrews made three $500,000 pledges, while the Morrison government contributed $1 million.
Then-federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is Jewish, also spoke at the event, which was attended by Liberal Senator James Patterson and Labor MP Josh Burns, whose office was recently firebombed by far-left terrorists.
In his speech Mr Andrews, who became notorious worldwide for his human rights-violating Covid restrictions including the world’s longest lockdown in Melbourne, congratulated Jewish leaders for their help developing Victoria’s controversial hate speech laws.
Here’s a video of Dan Andrews when he was the Premier of Victoria stating that if it wasn’t for the Jewish community Australia wouldn’t have some of the strictest hate speech laws in the world. pic.twitter.com/fRMOmDq5j5
— vetements (@vetementsiaga) July 10, 2024
“We would not have some of the world’s best anti-discrimination laws in this state if it were not for the Jewish community,” he said.
“We would not have some of the best anti-vilification laws in our country, and indeed the world, if not for the leadership of the Jewish community. And the list goes on and on.”
Victoria’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 outlawed engaging in conduct that “incites hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule” of a person on the grounds of race or religion, but the state government is planning to toughen those laws later this year, with the full support of the opposition.
An inquiry held during Mr Andrews’ premiership recommended extending the existing laws to protect homosexuals, those who claim to be a gender that they are not, and the AIDS afflicted, as well as lowering the thresholds for civil and criminal vilification.
Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick, who is also Jewish, demanded the laws be fast-tracked in December last year after nationalist activists marched through Ballarat with a banner reading “Australia for the White Man”.
The video of Mr Andrews praising the Jewish community for helping to craft the anti-vilification laws re-emerged on social media after Prime Minister Albanese appointed Jewish lawyer Jillian Segal as Australia’s first Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism.
During his announcement Mr Albanese promised to also appoint a special envoy for Islamophobia, but is yet to do so.
Anglo-Celtic advocacy group the British Australian Community criticised the creation of the new roles, saying it ignored institutional racism against White people.
BAC president Harry Richardson told Noticer News: “The truth of the matter is, that neither Muslims nor Jews face institutional racism in Australia. The only group that does, is the White British and European descendants who built the nation.
“Anglo-Celtic Australians are under attack from governments, in the form of replacement-level immigration, affirmative action, and indoctrination of schoolkids against their ancestors.
“Once again we see clearly that there is an ethnic hierarchy in Australia and traditional Australians are at the bottom.”
Ms Segal’s first trip as Special Envoy will be to Argentina for an event held by the World Jewish Congress, which drew attention just this week for comments made by President Ronald S. Lauder in a speech in 2019.
Mr Lauder said in his address to world leaders that harsh new laws were needed to stop anti-Semitism: “Laws must be passed, severe, tough, real laws that will put these hatemongers away in prison for a long time.”
At the time of the 2021 Census there were 99,956 Jewish people in Australia, less than 0.4% of the population.
