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Dutton’s dog whistle – why the grandstanding on antisemitism

by Michael Pascoe | Feb 5, 2025 | Comment & Analysis, Latest Posts

What’s the political payoff for Peter Dutton’s all-the-way-with-Israel stance? The number of Australians identifying as Jewish is relatively few. Michael Pascoe reports there is a more subtle dog whistle at work.

As you may have noticed, Peter Dutton never misses a chance to grandstand on antisemitism or back Israel’s government without reservation.

When it was a simple matter of Australia being consistent with long-standing bi-partisan policy in a United Nations vote, Dutton hyperbolically claimed Labor had “completely abandoned the Jewish community”.

Now, every antisemitic attack, from graffiti to firebombing to the explosives caravan, is an occasion for a fulminating opposition leader or his surrogates to claim Anthony Albanese is responsible for it.

I was expecting something like this in Parliament’s first Question Time: “When did the Prime Minister obtain cans of black spray paint, and where are they now?” and I wasn’t far wrong.

Channeling Trump: dark motives behind Dutton’s Gaza dog whistle

Enter Michaelia Cash

Dutton left the initial slurring to his new Senate leader, Michaelia Cash. (Yes, Senator Cash has been promoted, which says plenty about the available LNP talent.)

“Minister, when will you acknowledge that the antisemitism crisis in Australia has been fuelled by the Albanese government’s consistent actions against Israel on the world stage?” Cash asked Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.

And when did you stop beating your wife? Stay with me and I’ll come back to Wong’s answer.

Cash’s attempt to dump an empty petrol can on Labor’s doorstep was up there with the media and political beat-up over NSW police wanting to keep their covert caravan operation covert.

Speaking of which, Team Dutton used its manager of opposition business, Michael Sukkar, to go the spray paint.

Sukkar, to be forever remembered as the Minister for HomeBuilder, the single worst Morrison Government COVID stimulus policy, played Sisyphus pushing the caravan up the hill, asking when the Prime Minister when he was advised of said caravan.

Albanese let it roll back down on the grounds of national security, “This isn’t some game, and it should not be about politics.”

The deadly graffiti

It’s a given that the graffiti is dreadful, perpetrated by scum, an embarrassment for us all, that the fire-bombings are appalling, and the caravan is very deeply worrying, deserving of all possible police action and stiff sentences, but dealing with them remains mainly a state police jurisdictional matter.

For all the posturing, the Australian Prime Minister, whether Dutton or Albanese, can’t do much beyond emphasising the availability of federal resources, can’t do more than is being done, though they can make it worse for the very base motive of political gain.

The immediate advantage for Dutton is to burnish his desired image of being tougher and harder than Albanese, Laura Norder’s champion, being a “strong” leader while never missing the chance to call Albanese “weak”.

But there is a more subtle dog whistle at work as well.

The unspoken corollary of Dutton wrapping himself in the Israeli flag is disdain for the Palestinian flag and “Arabs”, as the Israeli right-wing calls Palestinians. That further whistles, no doubt unconsciously on Dutton’s part, as negativity about Muslims.

And that’s where there is an ugly political payload to mine.

Social cohesion

 The Scanlon Foundation takes Australia’s social pulse each year. The 2024 survey published in November found our cohesion at its lowest point since the series started in 2007 and, by inference, for a long time before that.

As The Jewish Independent reported, multiculturalism is falling, and suspicion of religions not your own is on the rise.

While antisemitism dominates the headlines and is given a sharp edge by history, it is far from our social norm. As the Independent put it, negative attitudes towards Jewish people had increased but they were still low, up from 9% in 2023 to 13% in 2024. That’s about the same percentage as for Hindus and Sikhs.

Negative attitudes towards Christians also increased a little, from 16 to 19%.

Poll claims almost half the world’s population, 20% of Australians antisemitic

Playing the Muslim ‘card’

The main story lies elsewhere. The proportion of Australians with either “somewhat negative” or “very negative” attitudes towards Muslim people jumped from 27% in 2023 to 34%.

And running with “one in three Australians” doesn’t show the extent of the political divide when it comes to prejudice.

The Scanlon Foundation found 51% of people who describe their political orientation as right-wing have a negative attitude towards Muslims compared with 25% who claim to be left-wing.

The political carve-up for negative attitudes towards Jewish people scored 16% on the left and 11% on the right.

That’s how the anti-Muslim dog whistle pays off. Blown beneath the blaring horns of being loud and proud with Netanyahu,

it resonates with just over half of the LNP base while being seen as pro-Jewish concerns few.

Until October 7 and the Gaza war, attitudes towards Muslims had been steadily improving for five years, down from 40% negative in 2019 to 27% in 2023.

The backward dog whistle

Blowing the dog whistle, using the antisemitic attacks to cast shade on Muslim people, has taken our attitudes backwards. And that works just fine for anyone wanting to stir up the right-wing vote.

If one was to take a truly darkly cynical view, channelling Steve Bannon, it would be deeply disappointing that the evidence so far on the antisemitic attacks points more towards your common-or-garden variety of neo-Nazis and halfwits.

Oh well, every little bit helps.

Earlier, speaking on a motion condemning antisemitism, Labor MP Linda Burney called out the LNP:

“Leadership is understanding that these antisemitic acts and acts of racism divide people. They hurt people. They stay with you. And let me tell you, I can speak from personal experience about that.

“So instead of trying to make this a political issue, instead of trying to paint one side one way and one side the other, why don’t we show the Australian community an act of bipartisanship, an act of not accepting what’s been going on, an act that will provide to the Australian people that we are one in rejecting racism, in rejecting antisemitism and in rejecting hate in this country that is required by this parliament, not what we are seeing now, where there is the attempt to sow division here.”

Back in the Senate, an impartial observer would judge Wong proceeded to wipe the floor with Cash, but the LNP’s tactics aren’t concerned with impartial observers.

Wong concluded, “It isn’t helpful to conflate Australian Government concerns and Australian community concerns about the scale of loss of life in Gaza or UN votes with antisemitism.”

Unless, of course, you’re pursuing a more divided country for the sake of votes and are happy to stir up the racist muck to be found at the very bottom of the pond.

Antisemitism in Australia – The West Report

Michael Pascoe

Michael Pascoe is an independent journalist and commentator with five decades of experience here and abroad in print, broadcast and online journalism. His book, The Summertime of Our Dreams, is published by Ultimo Press.

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