Latham challenges Jewish community over antisemitism in Sydney

Controversial MP Mark Latham says Australia’s Jewish community should “grow up” in the face of antisemitic incidents, including attacks allegedly linked to organised criminals and Iran, and said there are no signs of serious, home-grown hate in Sydney.

The comments came in a heated parliamentary hearing, in which Police Minister Yasmin Catley was accused of lying – and before Catley denounced her opponents for running a “kangaroo court”.

Latham, an independent MP, appeared in the NSW budget estimates hearing on Wednesday to question Catley on a range of issues, including figures she provided to an earlier hearing.

In March, Catley had said 700 antisemitic incidents had been recorded in Sydney between July 2023 and January 2025. It subsequently emerged that 41 per cent of that number were antisemitic; 15 per cent were Islamophobic; and the rest were listed by police as “other”.

Latham said that calculation meant there were about 280 antisemitic incidents, before questioning how many were serious attacks on people and property, and how many were “low level”.

“Like someone calling the police to say, ‘a car with a Palestinian flag drove past and someone yelled out something’, or mentions of Hitler, which – whether we like it or not – a lot of school kids engage in the dark humour about him,” Latham said.

Latham said he would have endured 280 attacks on himself, personally, as a public individual but was not “inventing something called anti-Lathamism”.

“Isn’t it time to tell the Jewish community to grow up and get in the real world, where they’re barracking for one side in a fierce conflict in Gaza, and there’s bound to be some pushback?” Latham said.

“But, luckily, here in Australia with our laid-back culture, [there are] no serious signs of homegrown, serious antisemitic ideology evident in Sydney.”

Catley told Latham his comment was “offensive”.

“You’re a white Australian male, so you would not know what they’re feeling.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive, Peter Wertheim, said it was Latham who needed to grow up.

“The massive increase in the number and severity of antisemitic incidents in Australia over the last two years has been well-documented, and seems to be obvious to everyone but him,” Wertheim told the Herald.

“He is simply in denial if he cannot see the abhorrent outburst of hatred against Jews that occurred on the Opera House steps in October 2023, and all the incidents that have followed, as a qualitative deterioration in our public life.

“That makes him very much a part of the problem.”

Latham later returned to the subject while speaking with Acting NSW Police Commissioner, Peter Thurtell, asking for a breakdown of the types of offences and incidents recorded by police.

Thurtell told the inquiry there were 663 offences identified by Operation Shelter, the police taskforce responding to community tensions, after the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Latham later explained his line of questioning was related to the NSW Parliament’s rushed approval of hate speech laws in February.

“We’ve been involved in legislation that a lot of MPs don’t regard as valid, and we’re trying to get to the truth of what’s gone on in our city,” Latham said.

“We’re wanting to strip it down to those that are people in Sydney acting out of antisemitic ideology, hatred of Jews… not just driving past the synagogue and yelling out something stupid, but a serious attack on property or people.”

The Minns government made it a criminal offence to deliberately incite racial hatred, punishable by two years prison or $11,000 in fines, after a wave of antisemitic vandalism, arson attacks and the discovery of a caravan stocked with explosives and directions to a Jewish synagogue.

Months later, police revealed that the caravan was a hoax by an underworld figure trying to influence a prosecution, and that more than a dozen other serious antisemitic incidents were believed to have been orchestrated by the same offshore gangster.

The revelations triggered an upper house inquiry into what became known as the “Dural caravan incident”, including who knew it was potentially false, and when, within the Minns government.

Minns acknowledged police briefed him that the caravan was more than likely the work of opportunistic organised crime gangs, rather than an act of terror from the start.

It also led to a standoff between the inquiry and five staffers working for Minns and Catley, who faced arrest after defying summons to give evidence. In the end, they relented and appeared before the inquiry.

On Wednesday, Liberal MP Susan Carter asked Catley what discussions she had with her staff about avoiding giving evidence.

“What conversations did you have with your staff about attending the inquiry into the Dural Caravan, as witnesses?” Carter asked.

“None,” Catley replied. “But I thought that you dragging my staff before your kangaroo court was outrageous.”

Carter then read statements which suggested the minister had spoken with her staff about the summons, and said she was “concerned (Catley) has lied to this committee”.

Both Catley and Carter shouted over each other.

“It’s shocking, and history will prove that you were wrong to do that,” Catley said.

“I did not say to them ‘You should not attend’.

“I said to them ‘They should not be asking you to attend’… I stand by it, and I will stand by it every day of the week.”

Last week, Australia’s spy agency ASIO revealed one arson attack on a kosher deli in Bondi Beach was orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Further attacks may also be linked to Iran, ASIO suggested, without confirming which incidents were under suspicion.

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