Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says he believes antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal when she says she did not know about a $50,000 donation a trust linked to her husband John Roth made to right-wing political lobby group Advance.
Ms Segal had on Sunday distanced herself from the donation that was made public in a report by The Klaxon.
That report cited Australian Electoral Commission donation records from the 2023/24 reporting period.
Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC) records list Ms Segal’s husband and his brother Stanley Roth, as directors of Henroth Investments Pty Ltd.
“No one would tolerate or accept my husband dictating my politics, and I certainly won’t dictate his,” Ms Segal told SBS on Sunday.
“I have had no involvement in his donations, nor will I.”
Advance — formerly Advance Australia — is a right-wing lobby group that has previously accused left-leaning politicians of being “mostly on the same side as Hamas” when it comes to the war in Gaza.
“I wasn’t aware of it until the reports came out,” Mr Burke told 7.30 of the donation.
“Advance is an appalling organisation … and I have no time for that organisation at all.
“It’s a long time since we’ve been a country where you would blame a woman for decisions of her husband. And so with that in mind, I don’t think she’s answerable for her husband.
Jillian Segal has come under pressure over the donation to Advance. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
“She said she didn’t know about it, and I’ve got no reason to do anything other than believe her.”
Should universities face funding cuts?
One of the recommendations from Ms Segal’s recently released report into antisemitism is to withhold funding from universities that fail to reduce hatred against Jewish students.
Ms Segal, who was appointed to the envoy role by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year, said her plan was a comprehensive, long-term approach to combating antisemitism and introducing a strategy already in place in many other nations.
“We cannot hope to really abolish antisemitism, but we can push it to the margins,” Ms Segal said.
Asked if he felt the government would accept the recommendation to strip funding Mr Burke said that was not the goal.
“The objective here is not to be stripping funding, it’s not to be cancelling people, the objective is actually to never fall foul of the need to make sure that we’re combating antisemitism,” Mr Burke said.
“Over the last year-and-a-half, we have seen a spike in antisemitism in Australia.
“We want to make sure that students can go to university and study without being harassed and some have been harassed.”
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