Australia’s race discrimination commissioner has warned there is limited detail in how Jillian Segal’s plan to combat antisemitism would be implemented, and said he would work with her to ensure it does not restrict fundamental rights and freedoms.
Giridharan Sivaraman has responded to the antisemitism envoy’s 20-page plan, released last Thursday, which made a range of recommendations, including withholding government funding from universities that “facilitate, enable or fail to act against antisemitism” and monitoring media organisations “to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives”.
The government has said it would defer its response to the recommendations related to universities until a report from the special envoy to combat Islamophobia was handed down in August, and a broader review into racism at universities was released by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in December.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sivaraman said he welcomed a comprehensive national approach to addressing all forms of racism – including antisemitism – and said critical actions must be taken to “ensure safety and freedom from discrimination for Jewish communities across the country”.
But he also pointed to concerns with Segal’s recommendations.
“While Ms Segal’s report outlines a range of issues, it contains only limited detail on how proposed actions would be implemented. I note concerns have been raised about the human rights implications of her recommendations. The Commission has requested a briefing from the Special Envoy to further discuss her proposed reforms and these implications.
“The Commission will engage with Ms Segal as well as the Australian Government to provide expert advice on the human rights implications of Ms Segal’s proposals to ensure any measures under consideration don’t restrict fundamental rights and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and the independence of important institutions.”
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Sivaraman noted that some of Segal’s priorities aligned with the commission’s national anti-racism framework, including recommendations for reforms across Australia’s education, media and social media sectors.
The framework, launched in November, stated “current approaches to anti-racism are ad-hoc, disjointed, and often ineffective”. Its overarching recommendations focused heavily on racism towards First Nations people.
The framework recommended changing the Racial Discrimination Act so that employers and service providers needed to take active steps to prevent racial discrimination from happening in the first place.
“This would be a significant reform that would address many concerns raised in the Envoy’s report,” he said.
The day after the report was launched, Sivaraman said he would be “carefully considering” its contents.
“I hope to work with the Special Envoy to determine how we can best support the Jewish community to address antisemitism,” he said in a social media post on 11 July.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, have not indicated which parts of the plan the government would take up, but Labor sources downplayed the prospect of terminating university funding. It was widely expected the government could focus its response on the education and prevention measures in Segal’s plan.
The Coalition has endorsed Segal’s plan, but also not nominated specifically which measures it would support. In comments to Guardian Australia,
the shadow home affairs minister, Andrew Hastie, urged the Labor government to focus on a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at universities, a visa crackdown and a dedicated law enforcement taskforce.
Australia’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, will deliver a report to Albanese in early August containing his recommendations for combating Islamophobia in Australia.
An AHRC review into racism at universities is due to be released in December.
Guardian Australia asked Segal how extensively she was working with Sivaraman and how much her work overlapped with that of the AHRC but did not receive replies.
This story was amended on 17 July 2025. An earlier version said the human rights commission would release its review into racism at universities in October, based on information provided by the commission. The commission has since said the review will be released in December.
