The Australian Human Rights Commission is considering a complaint that alleges Peter Dutton discriminated against Palestinians and Muslims in public comments after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks and during the subsequent war in Gaza.
The complaint, coordinated by the law firm Birchgrove Legal, includes allegations that “Palestinian-Australian, Arab-Australian and Muslim-Australian complainants” reported feeling “dehumanised … and humiliated as an ‘Other’ who does not and should not matter to Australia” as a result of some of the Liberal leader’s public commentary.
The complaint also alleges that “as a national political leader” some of Dutton’s commentary has “created an environment of permissibility not only for hatred and racism directed at Palestinian-Australian, Arab-Australian and Muslim-Australian complainants but also other Australians who express solidarity with Palestinians, leading to many reports of feeling intimidated not to attend rallies in support of Palestinians and not to express support”.
The complaint was lodged in late November and accepted for assessment by the human rights commission in January, the firm said.
The lead complainants are the president of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, Nasser Mashni, and the academic Prof Peter Slezak, who is Jewish.
The complaint lists numerous public comments by Dutton – some made at public events or in media interviews – which it alleges show racially discriminatory behaviour by:
“justifying or otherwise failing to condemn violence against Palestinian civilians by Israel in likely breach of international humanitarian law”;
“erasing the human rights and equal dignity and worth of Palestinians by denying crimes and atrocities committed against them”;
“and conflating Palestinians as being terrorists or terrorist sympathisers”.
It alleges racially discriminatory treatment of Jewish people in some of the public commentary by “conflating Jewish people with Israel’s conduct and putting Jewish people in the way of hostility, discrimination and even violent harm”.
Dutton has consistently supported Israel throughout the Gaza crisis and called for stronger action in response to antisemitic attacks in Australia. He has acknowledged in comments not cited in the complaint that “some Gazans will be people of good character, potentially able and willing to integrate into a democratic nation and subscribe to its values”, and that some “despise” Hamas, while calling for Australia to restrict the granting of humanitarian visas to Palestinians fleeing Gaza without thorough background checks.
A Birchgrove Legal spokesperson said the firm was confident it could demonstrate Dutton’s comments that were cited in the complaint had contravened the Racial Discrimination Act.
“We need to demonstrate that everything he did was not reasonable and not in good faith and we think he has made that easy for us because he’s been quite relentless and persistent in his commentary,” they said in a statement.
Section 18C of the act states that it is unlawful for someone to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person based on their race. The complaint also cites section 9 which makes racial discrimination unlawful.
Mashni in a statement accused Dutton of “encouraging Australia to flout international law and withhold empathy to the human suffering occurring”.
Dutton’s office did not respond when contacted for comment. The AHRC said it was “unable to provide comment on any cases in relation to our complaints and handling arm”.
The commission does not investigate all the complaints it receives. But if it does investigate, it tries to resolve the matter by conciliation.
If that fails, the complainant can take action in the federal court.
In March, Birchgrove Legal sent a request to the international criminal court to consider investigating Anthony Albanese, other members of the government (Penny Wong, Richard Marles and Clare O’Neil) and Dutton for alleged complicity in genocide over Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The prime minister dismissed that request as having “no credibility”.
