The narrative pushed by the government’s critics in the opposition and the media is that there’s an innate resistance to doing anything about antisemitism within the government, as demonstrated by its failure to implement the recommendations of antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal. In fact, key elements of Segal’s report simply cannot be implemented lawfully.
For example, Segal proposed that she — not the independent media regulatory body ACMA — monitor media agencies and “assist” them to meet editorial standards. That would be a draconian and unprecedented interference in a free press that drew no comment from the usual suspects in the Coalition and News Corp, usually quick to denounce any government role in further media regulation, such as the ill-fated misinformation bill proposed by this government, or the newspaper self-regulation mechanism proposed by the Gillard government.
