Julian Leeser accuses Australian Human Rights Commission of failing to address antisemitism

Liberal MP Julian Leeser says the human rights commission’s ‘paramount concern should be racism and Jew-hatred and prejudice faced by Australians’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Liberal MP Julian Leeser has accused the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) of being “frozen by political paralysis” in failing to address antisemitism, and criticised staff who anonymously argued its response to “Israeli war crimes” had been inadequate.

Guardian Australia revealed last month that at least 24 staff across eight teams at the commission wrote anonymously to president Rosalind Croucher at the end of January. The letter expressed “frustration at the commission’s failure to fulfil its mandate as an accredited national human rights institution in regard to Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank”. It argued the commission’s response to date had been inadequate.