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News.com.au
18-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Catholic Church selling Melbourne terraces opposite St Patrick's
The Catholic Church are preparing to offload a series of East Melbourne properties in a divestment expected to top $16m that could put apartments opposite St Patrick's Cathedral. The Melbourne Archdiocese are parting ways with a group of four terrace houses designated for commercial use along Albert St, opposite the prominent cathedral. In a statement, the Archdiocese said 'The Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is offering these properties for sale as they no longer serve a purpose aligned with the current mission priorities of the Archdiocese'. 'Proceeds from the sale will be directed towards advancing key Archdiocesan initiatives.' The properties were acquired by the Catholic Church over a lengthy period, with records showing one of the addresses at 402 Albert St sold to them for $507,500 in May, 1993. Properties at 404 and 406 are also being sold, as is a combined site at No. 384-388. While no expected price has been disclosed, industry sources have indicated a sale in the vicinity of $3.5m-$4m for each terrace individually would be feasible for the three neighbouring sites at 402-406 Albert St. The larger address at No. 384-388 was sold to the church for more than $13m in 2020. Coupled with even a modest increase to the value of No. 384-388, it could bring the total close to $25m. The three neighbouring sites from 402-406 are also being billed with development potential as a series of luxury residential homes. Stonebridge Property Group's Julian White, Max Warren, Dylan Kilner and Chao Zhang are handling the sale. Mr White said they expected to deal with a mix of owner occupiers and developers for the four properties over the coming month, and wasn't ruling out interstate and even international interest in the properties. 'There hasn't been anything on the market like this in the suburb for a long time, so they are a pretty cool opportunity,' he said. 'They are very special properties, and this precinct is the best part of East Melbourne.' The properties include 384-388 Albert St is at the corner of Lansdowne St, a double-storey terrace with a mezzanine that comes with 1087sq m of space as well as onsite parking. 402, 404 and 406 Albert St also have carparking available onsite, but have been billed with potential to be transformed into a luxury residential development. Proposals around the property's sale mention nearby apartment complexes including Mirvac's Eastbourne development, which stands at 13-storeys tall opposite the Fitzroy Gardens — but on a significantly bigger 8200sq m site, making a similar height less likely. Individually, each of the three properties covers a space of about 400sq m, with a 1100sq m combined building area. Charter Keck Cramer's Jessica Crossland and Tom Byrnes are acting as transaction advisers for the sale. Mr Byrnes is also the transaction adviser for the Myer family's landmark Toorak listing at 62 Clendon Rd. The historic house, known as Cranlana, has a $96m-$105m asking price.
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
It can happen here: For Jewish Australians, being relentlessly targeted is not just frightening — it is exhausting - ABC Religion & Ethics
To many people, the events of last Friday — specifically, the simultaneous attacks on the Australian Jewish community on the Sabbath eve — felt like a turning point. To this broader sense, I want to add my voice, not as an echo, but as a caution. I am a writer and policy analyst, a trained Holocaust educator, a descendant of the Shoah. I am also the daughter of a proud, Melbourne-born Australian, the sister of a former senior member of State Parliament, and a dual Australian-Israeli citizen. These aren't just biographical details — they are essential facts that shape how I see this moment. They give me a perspective that bridges lived history, national identity and political reality. I've both witnessed and taught the dangers of hate, the courses that it runs (sometimes shrewdly), how silence enables it, how democracies can erode when it is ignored and when truth is avoided. I have also spent almost equal parts of my adult life in Australia and in Israel. On Friday, 4 July 2025, around 5:45pm our family lit candles — the two regular ones in readiness for our Shabbat meal, plus an additional Yahrzeit candle to commemorate the fourth anniversary of my father's passing. At the same time, a group of 20 men, women and children sat down to pray before their meal, across town inside the East Melbourne synagogue. A view of the damaged entrance of East Melbourne Synagogue, following an arson attempt on Friday, 4 July 2025. (Photo by Alex Zucco / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images) Our traditional Friday night tranquillity was disrupted by the news of an attempted arson attack on the front door of the 150-year-old synagogue on Albert Street, and that congregants were forced to flee through a back door. As you'd expect, word travelled quickly across Jewish homes in Melbourne. I was outraged — but, as strange as it may seem, I was also relieved. Relieved that my father, Lou, had not lived to see this. That he didn't have to witness another attack on the Australian Jewish community, just six months on from the destructive firebombing at the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea — this time, at his favourite synagogue, the oldest in our state and set in the heart of the city. East Melbourne Synagogue has long hosted Jewish lawyers at the annual ceremony marking the start of the legal year. Dad, a lawyer himself and father to Victoria's former Attorney-General, loved nothing more than the ritual of the legal gathering in the renaissance building. Not long after, we learned of a violent protest that had taken place at a local Israeli owned restaurant, Miznon in Hardware Lane — with protesters chanting the same murderous slogan, 'death to the IDF', that was recently shouted from the big stage at Glastonbury. The protesters brought Kristallnacht into the streets of Melbourne, as my friend the artist Nina Sanedze aptly described the scene. My father, Louis Pakula (1940–2021), aged 26, pictured here at his graduation from the University of Melbourne in 1966. (Supplied: Tammy Reznik) 21 months of incessant marches on the streets of Australian cities, using slogans that call for the destruction of the Jewish state and the eradication of the Jewish people, would have done my father in. I doubt he would have believed it possible, having grown up in the heart of post-war Australia's multicultural experiment during the 1950s and 60s. His children were raised as beneficiaries of that Australian ideal: long road trips, larrikin humour, the local primary school in a melting pot neighbourhood — layered, always, with the sounds of Yiddish and the weight of Jewish tradition and memory. Like many Jews born in the generation after the Holocaust, we lived in its shadow. Of the three kids, I was the one who took that legacy most to heart. I visited the camps where family members were murdered, walked hallowed ground, breathed the history. I was the one most drawn to Zionism — initially, to the idea of a different type of Jew, resilient and resourceful. My dreams were realised when my sister and I first visited the land, as starry-eyed twenty-somethings, and later when I met the Israeli man who would become my husband and the father of my children. My older brother took a different path: a Jew in politics, though more often in footnotes than in headlines. He moved through the Union movement and public life with his Jewishness tucked quietly in the background. And all these different expressions of life as Jewish people were possible in this land down under. Though far from being some utopia, Australia was the land of the fair go. This was the mantra that I heard daily in my job at the Holocaust Museum, as heroic survivors described to students the welcome that they received in Australia, the 'farthest place from the horrors of Europe'. Australia was also the first of the Western powers to welcome refugees from the Second World War, and thus became home to the second largest survivor population per capita, after Israel itself. Police arrive on the scene at Miznon, an Israeli-owned restaurant in Melbourne, which was damaged after being targeted by protesters, on Friday, 4 July 2025. (Photo by Ye Myo Khant / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images) In all those years of educating tens of thousands of students, the most common question I heard was: Do you think it could happen again? Could it happen in Australia? My answers would vary, but they usually incorporated on the factors that led to the rise of Nazism — economic downturn, societal division, widespread resentment, scapegoating, and so on. But that was then, right? Could society once more allow for the erasure of Jewish people from every level of society and every rank in public service, even those who had filled them with such dignity and devotion? I am ashamed to admit, however, that I didn't see this coming. The cancellation of Jews from cultural spaces, the doxxing of hundreds, possibly thousands, a genuine feeling of unsafety in my own city. And then there were the scenes of celebration following Hamas's wanton killing spree on 7 October 2023, with some of my fellow citizens evidently exhilarated by the deeds of these 'freedom fighters'. And then came the graffiti on Jewish homes, the torched cars, the targeted businesses, the threats to Jewish politicians, the university encampments, the burning of synagogues. In the nearly two years since the terror attack on kibbutzim and communities in southern Israel, the West's decent into the latest wave of antisemitic hatred has shocked Jews to the core. For many of us, the sheer volume of antipathy being directed at us is not just disappointing and frightening — it is exhausting and bewildering. Jewish university students, including my own children, discover that are expected to be the defenders of Israeli policy, and face intimidation from angry groups of students who have no desire to listen. They are forced to dissociate themselves with our homeland, deny themselves certain truths to fit into certain spaces, and feel increasingly as though they are strangers on their own campuses. This is an experience that has been shared by other Australian Jews in other areas of life: hiding religious jewellery, staying away from certain postcodes, needing to remove identifying symbols. Just last Sunday, after the terrible events on 4 July, I joined with fellow Melburnian Jews at a 'solidarity' rally on the steps of State Parliament. After the rally concluding and I was making my way back to Flinders Street Station, I found myself rolling up the hostage poster that I had been carrying and tucked it into my bag. Why? I no longer felt safe in the city that I called home. Special Envoy Jillian Segal and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attend a press conference on Thursday, 10 July, for the release of Segal's antisemitism plan. (Photo by Dan Himbrechts / AAP) On Thursday, the Australian federal government was handed a landmark report recommending tougher measures to tackle antisemitism — including defunding universities, revoking visas and increasing oversight of cultural institutions. Written by Special Envoy Jillian Segal, the report responds to the surge in antisemitic incidents since the 7 October Hamas attacks. The report recognises what many in the Jewish community have long known: this is no longer about isolated incidents; it is systemic and hence demands a 'whole-of-society response'. It calls for urgent reforms across education, immigration, media and online platforms to drive antisemitism to the margins of society. While it cannot repair the damage that has already been done, this report represents a welcome development. Nevertheless, most of the Jewish Australians I know remain on high alert. We await to see whether the Prime Minister will commit to implement the Special Envoy's recommendations. The Jewish people are well versed in the practise of resilience; but if we continue to live in a constant state of fight or flight, many may, in fact, choose flight. And I don't mean this in the figurative sense. Many will seriously contemplate packing up and leaving for Israel. It would be a major blow if Australia allowed itself to continue down this path of lawlessness and unsafety, with the departure of the Jewish people as the consequence. Tammy Reznik is a Melbourne based writer, commentator, certified educator and policy analyst.
News.com.au
10-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Anthony Albanese announces quick action to combat anti-Semitism scourge
Anthony Albanese has vowed quick action to tackle the scourge of anti-Semitism after a second Melbourne synagogue was hit in an arson attack. The Prime Minister said the attack on the East Melbourne Synagogue had 'no justification … whatsoever'. 'What's more, the idea that somehow the cause of justice for Palestinians is advanced by behaviour like that is not only delusional, it is destructive and it is not consistent with how you are able to put forward your views respectfully in a democracy,' he said. 'It undermines our multiculturalism and one of the things that I regarded as Australia's strength is that we can be a microcosm for the world that shows that people in my local community overwhelmingly live side-by-side of Jewish, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, that is a strength of our society.' The special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal found that anti-Semitism had 'risen to deeply troubling levels in Australia' in her report to the government. Ms Segal also called for a review into hate-crime legislation, including 'provisions relating to not only incitement and vilification and prohibitive symbols, which we have, but actual hatred and the speaking of hatred and demonstrated hatred'. While the report has yet to be published, it's expected to contain recommendations to reduce anti-Semitic displays at universities and online platforms. Mr Albanese said there was 'no place in Australia for anti-Semitism' and recommendations in the report would be 'carefully' considered and 'implemented quickly'. 'There are a number of things that will require work over a period of time. Part of the recommendations is that we will receive an annual report and part of that will be an assessment of progress on these issues as well,' he said. Ms Segal described anti-Semitism as 'one of the world's oldest hatreds' and said the rate of incidents in Australia had increased by more than 300 per cent in the past year. 'That includes threats, vandalism, harassment and physical violence,' she said. 'We have seen cars being torched, synagogues being torched, individual Jews harassed and attacked.' Mr Albanese has faced renewed pressure over his government's handling of anti-Semitic attacks after a synagogue was set alight on Friday. Australia's national security agency, ASIO, and the Australian Federal Police are probing the incident as well as a subsequent protest at an Israeli-owned restaurant in the CBD a few hours later. Friday's attack drew condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who demanded Mr Albanese 'take all action' to end similar crimes. A rise in anti-Semitic attacks, including in Sydney and Melbourne, has plagued Mr Albanese since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7, 2023. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan this week pledged to support Hebrew congregants in Melbourne through the government's recently announced 'anti-hate taskforce'. Home Affairs Minister Tony Bourke said the report was an 'absolute core objective of the government'. 'We all wish we could have a plan for the obliteration of anti-Semitism,' he said. 'History has a very different and sad message, but this is about pushing it absolutely to the margins because this form of bigotry is absolutely an attack on Australia.' Speaking earlier on Thursday, Sussan Ley said she had not been briefed about the report; however, she mentioned the 'emotional' interactions she had with the Hebrew congregation at the East Melbourne Synagogue days after it was firebombed. 'I hope that there has been dialogue between the Prime Minister's team and Jewish Australians. That is the most important dialogue that I hope for,' she said, noting Mr Albanese had yet to visit the place of worship. 'I hope he sits down and has those conversations that he needs to have with Jewish Australians who have experienced something that is truly horrific and that is not a protest but is pure hate and hate cannot be excused or explained away or somehow set aside.
ABC News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Federal Government to reveal anti-Semitism plan
Isabella Higgins: A broad new blueprint for combating anti-Semitism will be handed to the Federal Government today. It's been crafted by the anti-Semitism envoy, Jillian Segal. It's been a year in the making and follows last week's alleged arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue. The recommendations are expected to include new proposed laws and relate to migration, policing and education. Political reporter Tom Lowrey joined me earlier. Tom, what's expected to come from this plan? Tom Lowrey: Isabella, it's expected to recommend some substantial and really quite sweeping changes in some areas, some of which would require the government to legislate, which gives you an idea of the seriousness here. Jillian Segal was put in this job more than a year ago in response to some fairly high-profile incidents of anti-Semitism. We've seen some since, like the attacks against the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne a year or so ago and another attack on an East Melbourne synagogue only a few days ago as well. There has been some government change along the way as well, like mandatory minimum sentences that were brought in for terror and hate offences. But these recommendations from the anti-Semitism envoy, Jillian Segal, are likely to go towards things like building better knowledge of Jewish culture, particularly in schools. Others might go to areas like migration, policing, even public broadcasting has been one that's been mentioned too. There's other work as well that's informing this. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has had a 15 point plan for anti-Semitism. It's been pushing for months. Some of these recommendations might have been informed a bit by that sort of work. That's gone to ideas like removing the charity status from groups that promote racism, banning some protests at universities as well. Miss Siegel's plan is expected to be broader than that, but we'll see all the details when it's handed down a little later on today. Isabella Higgins: And Tom, there is a separate push for tougher hate speech laws. Tom Lowrey: Look, this is quite interesting. This has been coming from the independent MP, Allegra Spender, along with some others for quite some time. She's been pointing to what she calls a loophole in anti-vilification laws, saying there are strong laws against inciting violence, drawing a link between someone's speech and a violent act that has occurred. But where that violent act hasn't occurred or hasn't occurred yet, she says that speech, that hate speech isn't being fully policed. The laws aren't quite strong enough there. That's where she wants to see some change. Here's a bit of what she had to say on that. Allegra Spender: We still don't have national laws that stop hate speech. Really the speech that seeks to increase and incite hatred and vilification across our community. We have laws against hate crimes, but not just the speech. And I think that that is still a significant gap. Tom Lowrey: Allegra Spender says this would help not just the Jewish community in dealing with anti-Semitism in the community more broadly, but also protect other groups like LGBT groups as well. Isabella Higgins: Tom Lowrey reporting there.
The Guardian
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labor to move quickly on special envoy's plan to combat antisemitism
The federal government will move quickly to adopt new recommendations from the special envoy to combat antisemitism, with a suite of measures expected to include education and online safety in response to the arson attack at a Melbourne synagogue. Jillian Segal is expected to appear alongside Anthony Albanese at an event on Thursday to present recommendations urging the government to take stronger action against abuse toward Jewish Australians. A package of suggestions, developed by Segal in consultation with Jewish community organisations, is likely to include issues around online abuse and better education for children around the modern face of antisemitism, going beyond historical lessons about the Holocaust. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The government may not commit to implementing all of Segal's advice, but some Labor sources believe some suggestions – which were being finalised and circulated on Wednesday – may be adopted quickly. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the government was working on a major response. 'We've got an important piece of work coming, but I don't want to pre-empt that,' he said on Wednesday. 'Obviously we are incredibly concerned about antisemitism in our society, and some of these recent attacks are disgusting.' Albanese said on Tuesday that he would have 'more to say … in coming days' on his government's response to the fire set at the East Melbourne synagogue last Friday. He pushed back on calls for a national cabinet meeting, saying the government had met requests from the Jewish community 'expeditiously'. Some Jewish community leaders have been eager for the government to commit to a more comprehensive package of structural changes, such as to education and policing, rather than simply putting more funds into security and CCTV. The Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, visited the Melbourne synagogue on Tuesday and said she believed police authorities should meet to discuss a more coordinated response. Writing in the Guardian, the Labor MP Josh Burns, a member of the Jewish community, said: 'The government that I am a part of needs to be open to doing more, but we can't legislate away bigotry and hatred. 'It is not up to those outside the Jewish community to tell us what is and isn't antisemitism, or to define what makes us feel unsafe.' Spokespeople for Segal and Albanese declined to comment ahead of the release of the envoy's advice. But sources inside Labor and the Jewish community said they expected at least some of Segal's recommendations would be influenced by a 15-point plan set out by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) in February. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion That plan, which was endorsed in full by the former opposition leader Peter Dutton earlier this year, and again by Ley on Tuesday, includes a call for the federal government to declare antisemitism a national emergency. That would involve establishing a joint counter-terror taskforce; uniform policing guidelines and training on antisemitism; greater focus in the national education curriculum and a public awareness campaign; a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at universities; banning student encampments and cracking down on campus protests. Some more complicated proposals from the ECAJ's list include revoking the charity status and funding of charities if they promote racism or antisemitism, amending the Migration Act to provide for antisemitic conduct to be grounds for visa refusal, conditioning government grants to festivals and artists on their not promoting racism, and regulating social media algorithms. Jewish community and government sources said they did not expect all those proposals would be put forward, or accepted by the commonwealth. Government sources said they were open to ideas, but that while some of the ECAJ proposals could be adopted, not all of them would be feasible. The education minister, Jason Clare, has already signalled he was open to updating school curriculums. Several Labor sources, and one leading Jewish community group, said they were keen to see schools teach about modern issues of antisemitism, not just focus on the Holocaust. The ECAJ co-chief executive, Alex Ryvchin, said he was eager to see the government's response.
