Australians outraged at antisemitic ‘Dutton’s Jew’ speech at university

An Australian university is under fire for including a lecture with “disturbing” antisemitic messages in a conference on fighting racism.

The “National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action” at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) on Wednesday included a talk by Sarah Schwartz, an executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia. The organization, founded last year, strongly opposes Israel’s policies regarding the Palestinians.

During her presentation, Schwartz showed a slide onstage mocking Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton, a known supporter of Israel. In a video from the talk leaked on X, she displayed a cartoon character captioned “Dutton’s Jew,” which was labeled with characteristics like “Hates Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims” and “Thinks of antisemitism as the only form of racism.”

“The reality is that for Dutton and his ilk, us Jews are the perfect avatars for peddling racism, Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment,” Schwartz said in her talk.

Some of my friends used secret recording devices to film this insane “anti-racist” conference at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

This is their section on Jews. “THE RIGHT WING USE JEWS AS THE PERFECT AVATAR FOR PEDDLING RACISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA”… pic.twitter.com/gqeLpHdJpM

— Drew Pavlou ???????????????????????? (@DrewPavlou) January 23, 2025

Jewish leaders have been incensed at the talk. The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies called the lecture “perverse and disturbing” in a statement on X, and called on Education Minister Jason Clare to sanction the university.

Dutton, meanwhile, called the event a “disgrace.”

Responding to the incident, QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Sheil said in a statement “I understand why the presentation has caused significant offense, and I am sorry for the hurt caused to anyone within, and outside, the QUT community.”

“I will undertake to review the circumstances of this presentation and take any action necessary,” She added, “It is equally important that this is done in a way that is respectful and safe.”

Shwartz defended her speech on social media.

In my presentation, I referred to Dutton’s racist conception of Jewish people as ‘Dutton’s Jew’ – Dutton’s racist conception of Jews, not actual Jewish people,” she wrote. “Only opportunists could wilfully misrepresent my point, which is that Peter Dutton is exploiting the rise in antisemitism for political gain.”

“My speech was part of a comedy event making fun of racists,” she concluded. “If we didn’t laugh we’d cry.”