A second request to NSW Education Minister to release of information surrounding antisemitic post by education department employee
NSW Labor frontbencher Walt Secord has appealed directly to the Education Minister Sarah Mitchell to intervene and overturn her department’s decision to block for a second time the release of material surrounding an Education department employee who posted antisemitic comments alongside a photo of Adolf Hitler.
The matter relates to a Sydney person – a contractor with the NSW Education Department – who posted on the Australasian Union of Jewish Students’ Facebook page. The person wrote under a Hitler photograph: “It’s such a shame he didn’t finish his job”.
On September 3, Mr Secord wrote to Minister Mitchell and expressed his deep disappointment saying that it was important she acted to “restore confidence in your department’s handling of racist activity”.
This was after he was emailed and advised that the “internal review” by the Education Department stood by its August 12 decision to refuse to release the material. The unsuccessful review was released late afternoon on September 2.
Mr Secord has been trying to obtain the information after asking questions without notice in the State Parliament and applying under freedom of information laws through the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009.
Mr Secord told J-Wire: “This is a very frustrating process and it is mind-boggling that the Berejiklian Government would shield and protect a person who has engaged in racist activity. It is time for the Education Minister Sarah Mitchell to take a principled stand and release the material.
I maintain my original comments that this is political correctness gone mad. Why is the Education Department shielding an employee who posted antisemitic pro-Hitler comments? Something is deeply wrong when the Education Department is only concerned about the rights of the person who posted pro-Hitler comments rather than disciplining them. I am deeply disgusted.”
Mr Secord said if the Minister continues to refuse to release the information, he would take the matter to the State’s Information Commissioner and/or the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).
Walt Secord is deputy chair of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel, patron of the NSW Labor Israel Action Committee and Shadow Minister for Police and Counter Terrorism.
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