Ex-Australian of the Year Faces Antisemitism Claim

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has again refused to condemn former Australian of the Year Grace Tame after she was accused of using a vile antisemitic slur.

Ms. Tame led the chant “From Gadigal to Gaza, globalize the intifada!” at a rally opposing the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a slogan that may fall foul of proposed NSW hate-speech laws. It was not delivered as abstract political rhetoric, but with unmistakable anger and hostility.

“Gadigal” refers to the traditional custodians of the land on which Sydney stands. The chant therefore explicitly links Sydney to Gaza and invokes the language of decolonization, not metaphorically but geographically and ideologically. Let us be clear about what was being implied.

During Question Time, Shadow Communications Minister Melissa McIntosh called on the Prime Minister to “unequivocally condemn this disgusting display of antisemitism.” Mr. Albanese declined. Instead, he offered a familiar deflection: “We need to not continually look for political opportunities from what is a devastating situation. We need to turn the temperature down.”

This refusal is revealing. Once again, Albanese’s conduct exposes the emptiness of the justifications he previously used to delay the Royal Commission, insisting urgency and procedural limits tied his hands. Yet when political pressure mounts, those restraints miraculously vanish. He had no hesitation recalling Parliament early to rush through new hate-speech laws. Urgency, it seems, is entirely selective.

Nor is the Prime Minister powerless when he chooses to act. During COVID, police were granted sweeping special powers overnight. As seen again in Sydney this week, extraordinary measures can be deployed immediately when the government deems it necessary. The suggestion that nothing can be done in the face of open incitement is simply false. It requires leadership and courage.

And when did the Prime Minister call on everyone to cool the temperature on the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Sydney Opera House, where terrorist flags and portraits of the Ayatollah were waved? How long did it take him to attend the site of the Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing in December 2024? Three days. The irony is stark when the pressure is on someone like Grace Tame.

Is he refusing to condemn Grace Tame because of his own history of leading pro-Palestinian rallies? Once again, the pattern is unmistakable: some voices matter more than others. Time and again, Albanese demonstrates that appeasing the most radical elements of the pro-Palestinian movement, the so-called “Islamic voice”  takes precedence over the safety, security and social cohesion of Australians.

Consequence from the start would have turned the temperature down long ago. Instead, rampant socialists and anti-Semites are driving the temperature high. A lack of leadership, or complicity, has raised it further. Are we to expect this rhetoric without consequence indefinitely? How many Bondis do we need before action is taken?

Teal MP Zali Steggall rushed to Ms Tame’s defence, insisting she was merely exercising free speech. But hate speech is not free speech, and glorifying violence is not a protected political right. This is the same political class that pressured the Prime Minister to reinstate funding to UNRWA, despite widespread concerns that funds would end up in the hands of Hamas. Consistency is conspicuously absent.

Grace Tame rose to prominence as a survivor-advocate for victims of child sexual abuse, after courageously challenging Tasmania’s gag laws that silenced victims while allowing perpetrators to speak freely. Her advocacy, grounded in personal trauma and legal reform, rightly earned her the title of Australian of the Year in 2021. In her acceptance speech, she spoke of marginalised groups, including First Nations people, and declared that “every voice matters.” I am guessing the voices of raped Israeli women does not matter.

Which raises a confronting question: does she understand what an intifada actually is?

An intifada is not a vague “uprising”. During the First and Second Intifadas, suicide bombers boarded buses, entered shopping centres, restaurants and nightclubs, and detonated themselves among civilians. There were mass stabbings, car rammings and indiscriminate slaughter. Thousands were killed. Is that what she is calling for in Australian cities?

The consequences of “globalising the intifada” are not theoretical. They have already been felt. The Manchester Yom Kippur synagogue attack killed two worshippers and seriously injured others last October. Chants of “Long live the intifada” were heard on Bondi Beach last September, months before the Bondi Hanukkah terror attack that left 15 dead and dozens injured.

Free speech does not entitle anyone to incite hatred or legitimise violence on Australian streets. Our laws exist precisely to deal with this and Grace Tame now represents the ultimate test of whether those laws will be applied consistently. If Albanese again refuses to act, the message will be unmistakable: supporters of Islamic extremism operate with impunity.

Imagine a protest chanting “From Melbourne to Manchester, rid the world of Muslims.” The response would be immediate and uncompromising. Arrests would follow. Deportations would be discussed. No one would be lecturing the public about free speech.

Grace Tame has become Australia’s Greta Thunberg, a moral absolutist fuelled by anger, disdain not only for Jews but increasingly for the country she lives in. Perhaps it is time she stepped back and learned some history. Israel was decolonised in 1948, a return to the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, underpinned by thousands of years of archaeology, language and burial sites of its forefathers. This war did not begin in a vacuum. It began when Hamas Islamic terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, stormed civilian communities, slaughtered men, women and children in their homes and at the Nova music festival, and subjected Israeli women to rape, mutilation and murder so extreme that some victims were identifiable only through DNA testing. This is the reality Ms Tame chooses to obscure and, by invoking the language of “intifada”, implicitly defend yet at home advocates against sexual assault. It is hypocrisy and a moral failure of the highest order, and an absolute disgrace.

Her role as Australian of the Year was meant to unite Australians, not divide them. Her chants were anything but unifying. She might be a former Australian of the Year, but the responsibilities of that title remain. On that basis, she must either return the award she received or have it withdrawn by the government.

Rhetoric has consequences. It always has. And the Prime Minister’s refusal to confront that reality is no longer defensible.