Senator Lidia Thorpe defends controversial QUT symposium in anti-Semitism row

Firebrand independent senator Lidia Thorpe has defended a controversial Queensland University of Technology conference that featured a “Dutton’s Jew” cartoon and left a Jewish academic in tears.

Senator Thorpe, appearing at an inquiry into anti-Semitism at Australian universities, said she attended the National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action, organised by QUT’s Carumba Institute last month, and “everyone was excited”.

“I went to the symposium, it was amazing,” she said.

“Everyone was excited … we were connecting.”

The event is now subject to an internal QUT investigation, launched by vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil, following complaints of allegedly anti-Semitic conduct from speakers and attendees.

Jewish academic Yoni Nazarathy attended the event at the Brisbane Convention Centre and claimed he was subjected to “co-ordinated humiliation” from the other attendees.

On the night before the symposium, a slide titled Dutton’s Jew was presented at a satirical “Greatest Race Debate”.

The slide, from left-wing Jewish Council of Australia executive director Sarah Schwartz, suggests conservative-minded Jews who support Opposition Leader Peter Dutton hate “Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims” and think of “anti-Semitism as the only form of racism”.

Senator Thorpe asked Ms Sheil, who was testifying before the inquiry, if she believed conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism “undermined genuine efforts to combat racism”.

“It’s not my area of expertise, I’m a chemist,” Professor Sheil responded.

Anti-Zionism is the belief that the state of Israel should not exist.

Senator Thorpe also said there was “immense pressure” on scholars who “oppose racism and genocide”.

Professor Sheil said it was the role of her university to “protect our staff, our students and to ensure our scholars, regardless of their views, have an opportunity to pursue their scholarship”.

The inquiry, led by Labor MP Josh Burns, is drilling into the explosion of anti-Semitic sentiment across Australian universities that erupted after the Hamas terror attacks on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.

Professor Sheil told the inquiry the facts and circumstances surrounding the symposium would be investigated, with a report expected in eight to 12 weeks’ time.

She said she intended to accept the report’s recommendations “in full”.

Professor Sheil said she was made aware of the symposium and the speakers on her return to work on Monday, with the conference held across Thursday and Friday.

She said she had received correspondence from some members of the public expressing concerns about some of the speakers before the event.

Liberal MP Henry Pike asked whether she considered disinviting some of the speakers and she said she had not out of concern with complying with the university’s 2019 freedom of speech policy.

“I did not because at that point, my judgment was that there would have been, potentially, other concerns about freedom of speech and academic freedom of expression,” she said.

Before Professor Sheil, Macquarie University vice chancellor Bruce Dowton appeared before the committee, with members hammering him on the behaviour of Macquarie academic Randa Abdel Fattah.

Dr Fattah has made controversial statements on the Israel-Gaza war since October 7.

Mr Pike said Dr Fattah changed her social media profile photo to that of a Palestinian paratrooper on the day after the October 7 slaughter.

Dr Fattah has also said publicly “if you are a Zionist you have no right or claim to cultural safety”.

Mr Burns asked what action the university had taken against Dr Fattah, and Professor Dowton replied “no specific action has been taken about any staff member”.

He also said repeatedly he would not comment on specific individuals in a public forum out of concern for legislated privacy rights.

He said all universities were trapped in a “dilemma” on the issue of anti-Semitism because Australian law had not clearly defined what constituted anti-Semitism, what constituted “cultural safety” and whether anti-Zionist sentiment was a form of racism.

“(It) is ultimately a matter to be defined at law, and in Australian law at the moment, we have inadequate help in the law in defining what anti-Semitism is.”