Labor MP Josh Burns has told the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion that his partner, Victorian Animal Justice MP Georgie Purcell, faces vile antisemitic abuse because of her relationship with him, with the attacks compounded by misogyny.
Abuse directed at witnesses
The inquiry heard that witnesses to the commission are being subjected to threatening abuse, with data showing how factual reports quickly transform into conspiracy theories online. While there was a spike in antisemitism after the Bondi terror attack, a “huge spike” in anti-Muslim hate was also recorded.
Burns told the commission that he and his office receive thousands of abusive messages, but Purcell is targeted due to her association with him. He is Jewish; she is not.
Examples of abuse
Burns provided examples of abuse he received, including being called a “genocidal Zionist” and suggestions that an attack on his office was an inside job. Comments directed at Purcell included: “You root a Zionist. You can’t be trusted.”
“The language in the examples reveals how antisemitic abuse directed at Georgie is compounded by misogynistic, often violent and sexualised commentary – directed at her because she is a woman,” Burns wrote in his submission.
Purcell also collated abusive comments sent after she gave birth to their daughter, including: “Shut the fuck up. You got knocked up by a Zionist, you Nazi cunt.”
Impact on staff and family
Burns told the inquiry about the impact of antisemitism on his staff after his office was vandalised, noting more than 1,000 phone calls and 10,000 abusive social media messages. He said “probably one of the hardest things” was to have someone you love get abused.
He called for better enforcement of the Online Safety Act and improved action by social media platforms, stating: “Instagram knows when I was looking for a new high chair for my six-month-old. They can do a better job of … making it a bit safer online.”
Witnesses targeted
Tahli Blicblau, chief executive officer of the Dor Foundation, told the inquiry that witnesses giving evidence about antisemitism were “subjected to more of it”. “They were targeted and abused online, at volume and across social media platforms,” she said, adding that this applied to both Jewish community figures and those testifying under pseudonyms.
She provided 275 examples of such posts, among “many, many hundreds more”, including explicit calls for violence and murder, dehumanising language, degrading abuse, admiration for Hitler, Holocaust glorification, and conspiracy theories about witnesses being crisis actors.
Online hate trends
Research presented to the commission found that before the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, there was a “very low baseline rate of hateful content targeting Jews” on X (formerly Twitter). After that attack, the level increased and has stayed elevated.
Both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate spikes after major events and remain high, the research found. After the Bondi attack, there was a “small spike in the anti-Jewish hate”, but “it represented a huge spike in volume of anti-Muslim hate”, said associate professor Dr Matteo Vergani from Deakin University’s Tackling Hate Lab.
Vergani’s team also found that real incidents reported in the media are then circulated on social media. “So online hate is triggered by offline incidents,” he said. He suggested that tracking trends could provide a cost-effective way to intervene or prevent hate without “censorship and other hard and draconian interventions”.
