Former Greens candidate Julian Burnside has denied that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is anti-Semitic, as he accused Victorian MP Tim Smith of using parliamentary privilege to spread “lies” about him in state parliament and revealed he recently had fellow Josh Frydenberg challenger Oliver Yates over to his house for a glass of wine.
Coalition frontbencher Mr Smith used an adjournment speech last week to accuse Mr Yates of being a “nasty liar” and link him and Mr Burnside to an “anti-Semitic” citizenship challenge to the Treasurer’s ability to sit in federal parliament.
Mr Smith received across-the-aisle support from state Planning Minister Richard Wynne, who said he had raised an important matter “in relation to the question of anti-Semitic motivations by some people seeking to undermine the federal Treasurer.”
Mr Burnside hit back on Twitter over the weekend, saying Mr Smith had “misused his parliamentary privilege by suggesting that I am involved in a s. 44 challenge against Josh Frydenberg, and that I am anti-Semitic.”
“Both are lies,” the human rights lawyer tweeted. “He doesn’t dare say either thing without the protection of parliamentary privilege.”
Climate activist Michael Staindl last month launched a challenge under section 44 of the Constitution aimed at establishing whether Mr Frydenberg inherited Hungarian citizenship through his mother, Erica, who fled the Holocaust.
Mr Yates, who concedes he knows Mr Staindl “through his community work” has attempted to publicly distance himself from the push.
Read the article by Rachel Baxendale in The Australian.