source : the age
In Australia we have been justifiably proud of the standard of medical care that was delivered without fear or favour. Our system in the past has reflected Australian values of equality, and a fair go for all.
Why does this matter so much in healthcare? Because healthcare runs on trust, and antisemitism wears that trust away.
Each of us relies on the health system, often at our most frightened and vulnerable. A patient needs to trust the person caring for them. A nurse or a doctor needs to do their work without being made a target for who they are.
When antisemitism reaches a clinic, a ward or a professional body, the harm is real. Jewish practitioners and patients have experienced hatred just because they are Jewish for some time, often without much protection and with little confidence that their concerns would be heard.
That’s why the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism and committed to a set of practical measures alongside it. These are important steps, and AHPRA deserves credit for taking them. They are also, plainly, a beginning rather than a destination. The level of antisemitism in our health system is frightening for Jewish Australians and concerning for anyone who believes in Australian values.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition has been part of Australia’s approach for years. The country endorsed it in 2021, under a Coalition government (supported by the Albanese opposition at the time), and every government since has stood behind it, with a re-endorsement by the government this year. It is the definition our public service works to, and one trusted by governments around the world and by the representative organisations that speak for Australia’s Jewish community. In choosing it, AHPRA has done the right thing.
It is worth being clear about what that definition is, because it is so often misunderstood, and sometimes misunderstood on purpose. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition is contextual and carefully drawn. It does not silence debate about Israel, the Middle East or any other contested question.
It expressly protects criticism of the kind levelled at any country, and it leaves room for the full range of legitimate political argument. What it identifies is hatred directed at Jews, not opinions about a government’s policies. Read honestly, it is a tool for recognising antisemitism, not for policing discourse. That is precisely why an organisation can adopt it with confidence. As Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, my office earlier this year released a handbook that explains these issues and makes it clear that it is a useful tool for government regulators to adopt.
Many Jewish doctors and nurses will read these measures with hope, but also with understandable caution. Trust that has been worn thin is not restored by an announcement. It is restored by real action: by an amended complaint process that ensures complaints are handled fairly and transparently, by patterns of abuse recognised early, by people feeling genuinely safe at work. AHPRA’s steps lay a foundation. The building is still ahead, and it extends well beyond one agency to the whole of the health sector.
The measures AHPRA proposes are sensible and, indeed, essential. AHPRA is reviewing its framework for vexatious notifications, so the complaints process stays fair to everyone who comes before it. It is creating an advisory panel that includes practitioners who have lived through complaints driven by antisemitism. And it is backing independent research to understand the true scale of the problem. These are important actions, and they will be judged, rightly, by their results.
It is important to recognise also the challenges presented by the highly federated and fragmented nature of our healthcare system. The responsibility rests not only on AHPRA but also on state medical boards, hospitals, the Australian Medical Association, medical colleges and unions.
The real question is larger than any single definition, body or panel. It is how we, as a nation, take the heat of overseas conflicts out of our health workplaces altogether, so that a hospital or surgery is a place of care rather than a stage for political battles or expression. The answer is not to police what people believe. It is to insist that the clinic, the ward and the staffroom stay safe and professional for everyone, patients and practitioners alike, whatever they think about events overseas. Depoliticising these workplaces protects the Jewish nurse and the Muslim doctor at the same time, it protects the patient who simply wants good care.
That is the spirit of what AHPRA has committed to: to confront antisemitism alongside every form of racism and discrimination in healthcare; to hold the line clearly against hatred in order to deliver care for everyone.
So, I offer AHPRA credit and support for steps that matter. And I offer a reminder that the measure of all this will be the safety all people, including Jewish Australians, actually feel at work and in care. That work is only beginning, but it is urgent, and I look forward to seeing and supporting it through.
Jillian Segal is Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism.
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Jillian Segal is Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism.
