April 15th
Zoe Daniel, the independent candidate for the seat of Goldstein, has apologised for a series of comments made by her and members of her team that Jewish community leaders deemed offensive.
Goldstein, a blue-ribbon Liberal seat held by Morrison government assistant minister Tim Wilson, has a substantial Jewish population, with 6.8 percent describing their religion as Judaism at the 2016 census.
In the past week, stories in News Corp publications have highlighted actions and statements by the Daniel team, including a 2017 ABC article in which Daniel wrote that then US president Donald Trump had declared Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in part, as way of “satisfying his wealthy Jewish donors”. Also highlighted were social media comments by Daniel’s campaign manager, including a 2020 post that “Hitler altered reality with drugs & [PM Scott] Morrison uses religion”.
This week Daniel met with Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dr Dvir Abramovich, who told The Age the independent had apologised, including for the 2017 article.
Daniel, a former ABC foreign correspondent, confirmed this. “Yes absolutely. I did apologise. I am deeply sorry to have caused any further pain or concern among our Jewish community, and to see the weaponisations of Jewish trauma for political gain.”
Read the article by Royce Miller in The Age.