Federal Labor MP Josh Burns says he has no faith in social media platforms taking action to stop hate against Jews as he detailed antisemitic attacks levelled at himself, his staff and his partner, Victorian MP Georgie Purcell.
As the first MP from the Albanese government to front the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, Burns, who is Jewish, said he had largely given up on reporting online examples of antisemitism to social media companies because complaints are ignored.
Appearing on Tuesday, Burns said Purcell, who is not Jewish, had also been subjected to “ferocious” abuse and receives the same attribution of blame for the actions of Israel as he does, but there is an added “layer of misogyny and violent sexualisation”.
In one X post, shared in his submission to the commission, Burns was called a “Nazi/terrorist supporter” and Purcell was compared to “Eva Braun” – the partner of Adolf Hitler. Another example shown at the commission included a post about the birth of the couple’s daughter, labelling Purcell a “Nazi c—” because she had been “knocked up by a Zionist”.
“It’s weird knowing they have to take abuse because they’re in a relationship with you – it’s an awful feeling … Georgie is not Jewish, obviously her partner is, her daughter is … it’s something she’s had to walk into and confront and she should never have had to do that,” Burns said told the commission.
“I feel extremely guilty that she has to face this.”
Burns told the commission he had reported 44 posts on Instagram and Facebook since November 2021, with just three removed, nine receiving an acknowledgement of receipt, and the vast majority “not responded to at all”.
“You lose faith in the reporting processes – I certainly don’t report everything I would otherwise, because I don’t think anything is going to be done about it,” Burns said.
Burns told the commission that Instagram “knows when I was looking for a new high chair for my six-month-old”, so it should be able to “do a better job of making it a bit safer online”.
He said he had reported accounts to the eSafety Commissioner, but its powers only allow intervention if the poster is vilifying an individual, not to deal with attacks on Jews as a group of people.
Burns said content moderation was “a heavy thing to wear”.
“My staff are kind and caring people and don’t want to see this all day … the social media companies rarely return a call or report an outcome … [a complaint] just disappears into a black hole. It’s exceptionally frustrating [and] I’d be lying if I said I had great faith in the social media companies to manage this – I don’t.”
Burns said social media companies “bear a huge responsibility for some of the toxic nature in which our political debate has descended”, and the online world had become “the biggest arena of antisemitism we’re seeing on a daily basis”.
The MP also detailed an arson attack on his St Kilda electorate office in June 2024, which forced nearby residents to be evacuated in the middle of the night and left businesses along the street without internet access for a week.
“It was pretty reckless and pretty dangerous,” Burns told the commission. Windows were smashed, horns were drawn on Burns’ face, and slogans were spray-painted including “Zionism is fascism”. Fires were also lit at the front of entrance to his office.
Following the attack, he was shocked by the hatred directed towards his staff, most of whom are not Jewish.
“The main thing I felt was really for my staff, this is their workplace. I felt like we were lost … how is this part of the democracy that we hold dear? How is this adding to the debate? How is this going to solve anything in the Middle East?”
More to come
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Alexandra Smith is a senior writer and former state political editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
