Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne And The Lobby

Inner West Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne has doubled down on his attack on pro-Palestinian activists at the Council’s last election meeting before the Local government elections on September 14. 

Byrne’s attack echoes an astroturfing campaign supported by right-wing and pro-Israel groups targeting the Greens in inner city electorates.

With Labor narrowly controlling the Council by one vote, the election loomed large over the meeting. It also coincided with a campaign backed by right-wing pro-Israeli groups to eliminate Greens from several Inner Sydney Councils. 

In August, Labor Councillors voted down a motion for an audit of whether any Inner West Council (IWC)  investments or contracts benefit companies involved in the weapons industry or profit from human rights violations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The motion that was defeated had also called for an insertion of a general ‘human rights’ provision in Council’s investment policy. 

With similar motions having been passed at the City of Sydney and Canterbury/Bankstown Councils, many had expected the motion to pass in what is supposed to be one of the most progressive areas of Sydney. It could have been a first step towards Inner West Council joining the worldwide BDS (boycotts, disinvestments, and economic sanctions) campaign to pressure Israel to meet its obligations under international law.  

Last week, Portland Council in Maine became the fifth United States city to join the campaign this year while the City of Ixelles in Belgium announced that it has suspended its twinning agreement with the Regional Council of Megiddo in Israel.

When the motion failed, some Palestinian rights campaigners booed and shouted ‘shame’ at Labor Councillors as they sat silently in the chamber. The meeting which had nearly reached its time limit of five hours was then adjourned.

Mayor’s Alternative Motion Passes

Byrne’s alternative motion was debated at last week’s meeting. It restates the Council’s existing policy and Federal Labor’s current stance that calls for a ceasefire and a two-state solution. 

This alternative motion was passed by Labor Councillors with the Greens and two Independents voting against it. Both Independent Councillor Pauline Lockie and Greens Councillor Liz Atkins argued that they were opposing the motion because it did not do or change anything.

The Mayor spent most of his speaking time attacking those involved with protesting at the August meeting. He described their behaviour as “unacceptable, undemocratic, and disrespectful”. There is no doubt that the behaviour at the meeting breached the rules of meeting behaviour at some times.

But then Byrne made a much more shocking and unexpected allegation. He said that the “worst element” of the behaviour was that “local Inner West citizens who happened to have a Jewish sounding name, when their names were read out by me because they’d registered …to speak, I think all of them were booed and hissed just because their names happened to sound Jewish.” 

This claim is deeply disturbing. If true, such behaviour would definitely be antisemitic and racist. But the question is: did such behaviour actually happen? Or does this allegation feed into Byrne’s misleading narrative that had fuelled false News Corporation reports that protesters stormed the meeting. In fact, the protesters had been invited to the meeting by the Mayor. 

Misleading Claims

This reporter was present throughout the meeting and did not observe anything similar to what the Mayor alleged happened.

Later in the meeting, the Mayor repeated the allegation that the “booing and hissing of people” based “on the fact that they had a Jewish-sounding name constituted antisemitism”. Retiring Independent Councillor Pauline Locker intervened: “Sorry, point of order, That isn’t actually what happened. …It wasn’t based on their Jewish name.”

But Bryne insisted, “That’s not a point of order – that is what happened. It is what the record shows occurred as does the media reportage.”

Other Councillors also distanced themselves from Byrne’s allegation. Independent Councillor John Stamolis also said that although he could not judge how the Mayor or other Labor Councillors felt on the evening, he could not agree with Byrne’s description or that it described what other Councillors or members of the public experienced on the evening. 

Greens Councillor Liz Atkins said that there were different perceptions of what happened on the night. Her perception was that the “booing and hissing” was in relation to support for the substance of the Greens’ motion for an audit of investments rather than an attack on people who spoke against it. She also said that credit should be given to pro-Palestinian activists who themselves encouraged people to listen quietly. 

This reporter asked Rosanne Barbero, who also was present throughout the meeting, what she observed. Barbero was the recipient of this year’s Multicultural NSW Human Rights Medal, recognising her lasting and meaningful contribution to human rights in NSW. She is also a member of the Inner West Multicultural Network and has helped the Council develop an anti-racism strategy. 

‘I Did Not Witness Any Racist Comments’

Barbero confirmed that she was present throughout the meeting and said, “I did not witness any racist comments. The meeting was recorded so the evidence of that is easy to verify.”

So this reporter took her advice and went to the evidence in the webcast which provides a public record of what occurred. The soundtrack is clear. A listener can pick up when comments are made by audience members but not necessarily the content of them

Bryne has alleged speakers against the motion were booed when their “Jewish sounding’ names were announced. Our analysis shows none of the five were booed or abused in any way when their names were announced. There was in fact silence. 

Five speakers identified themselves as Jewish. Four spoke against the motion and one in favour. Two of the five were heard in complete silence, one with some small applause at the end. 

One woman who spoke in favour of the motion and whose grandparents were in the Holocaust was applauded and cheered at the end of her speech. 

One man was interrupted by several comments from the gallery when he said the motion was based on “propaganda and disinformation” and would lead to a lack of social cohesion. He related experiences of anti-semitism when he was at school in the Inner West 14 years ago. At the conclusion of his speech, there were some boos.

One man who had not successfully registered was added to the speakers list by the Mayor. Some people in the public gallery objected to this decision. The Mayor adjourned the meeting for three minutes and the speaker was then heard in silence. 

The speakers in favour of the motion, most of whom had Palestinian backgrounds and relatives who had suffered expulsion from their homelands, concentrated on the war crimes against Palestinians and the importance of BDS motions. There were no personal attacks on speakers against the motion. In response to a Jewish speaker who had argued that the solution was peace initiatives, one Palestinian speaker said that he wanted ‘liberation’ not ‘peace’.

Weaponising Accusations Of Anti-semitism To Shut Down Debates

Independent Inner West Councillor Pauline Lockie warned other Councillors this week about the need to be careful about weaponising accusations of race and antisemitism to shut down debates. Like Barbero, Lockie has played a leadership role in developing anti-racism strategies for the Inner West.  

There are three serious concerns about Byrne’s allegations. The first concern is that they are not verified by the public record. This raises questions about the Mayor’s judgement and credibility.

The second is that making unsubstantiated allegations of antisemitism for the tactical purposes of winning a political argument demeans the seriousness and tragedy of antisemitism.

Thirdly, there is a concern that spreading unsubstantiated allegations of antisemitism could cause harm by spreading fear and anxiety in the Jewish community.

The most provocative speaker on the evening was not one of those who identified themselves as Jewish. It was Reverend Mark Leach who introduced himself as an Anglican minister from Balmain. When he said that no one could reasonably apply the word ‘genocide’ to what was occurring in Gaza, several people called out comments.

Given the ICJ finding that a plausible genocide is occurring in Gaza, this was not surprising.  Darcy Byrne then stopped the meeting and gave Leach a small amount of further time to speak. Later in his speech, Leach described the motion itself as “deeply racist” because it held Israel accountable above all other states. (In fact, the motion would have added a general human rights provision to the investment policy which would have applied to any country.) Reverend Leach was booed at the conclusion of his speech. 

One speaker later said that she could not understand how this Christian minister would not accept that the word ‘genocide’ could be used. This was not an antisemitic or racist comment. 

The Council Meeting

Throughout the debate, Byrne avoided the issue that the motion only called for an audit. He also used his position of Chair to directly question councillors. The following exchange occurred with Councillor Liz Atkins:

Mayor: Councillor Atkins, can I put to you a question? I have received advice that councillor officers are unaware of any investment from the council that is complicit in the Israeli military operations in Gaza and the Palestinian territories. Are you aware of any?

Atikins:  No. That’s why the motion asked for an audit of our investments and procurements.

Mayor:  I’ll put one further question to you. The organizers of the protest outside the chamber and the subsequent overrunning of the council chamber asserted in their promotion of the event that the council was complicit in genocide. Is that your view?

Atkins:  I don’t know. Until we do an audit, Mayor … Can I just take exception with the point of view that they overran the meeting? You invited them all in, and not one of them tried to get past a simple rope barrier.

Mayor In Tune With Better Council Inc Campaign

This debate is happening in the context of the hotly contested election campaign. The Mayor is understandably preoccupied with the impending poll. Rather than debating the issues, he finished the debate by launching an attack on the Greens which sounded more like an election speech than a speech in reply in support of his motion.

Byrne said, “Some councillors are unwilling to condemn what was overt anti-Semitism.” This is a heavy accusation. All Councillors are strongly opposed to antisemitism. The record does not show any overt antisemitism.

Byrne went on, “But the more troubling thing is that there’s a large number of candidates running at this election who if elected will be making foreign affairs and this particular issue, one of the central concerns of this council. This will result in a distraction with services going backwards and rates going up.”

In fact, the record shows that the Greens are just as focussed on local issues as any other Councillors. Even at last week’s meeting, Councillor Liz Atkins brought forward a motion about controversial moves to install a temporary cafe at Camperdown Park that would privatise public space and for which there had been no consultation. 

Byrne’s message pitting concern about broader issues against local concerns is in tune with the messaging of a recently formed group called Better Council Inc that is targeting the Greens throughout the Inner West and in Randwick and Waverley.

Placards saying, “Put the Greens last”, and “Keep the Greens Garbage out of Council” featuring a number of Greens candidates have gone up across Sydney. Some claim that the Greens are fixated on Gaza and ignore local issues. 

Better Inc’s material is authorised by Sophie Calland. She is a recently graduated computer engineer who told the Daily Telegraph that “she was a Labor member, and that Better Council involves people from across the political aisle – even some former Greens.”

She described the group as a “grassroots group of young professionals” who wanted local government officials to focus on local issues. “We believe local councils should concentrate on essential community services like waste management, local infrastructure, and the environment. That’s what councils are there for – looking after the needs of their immediate communities.”

Targeting The Greens

On Saturday, Randwick Greens Councillor Kym Chapple was on a prepoll booth at which a Better Council Inc. campaigner was handing out material specifically recommending that voters put her last. Chapple tweeted that the Better Council-woman didn’t actually know that she was a Councillor or any of the local issues in which she had been involved.

“That does not look like a local grassroots campaign. It’s an attempt to intimidate people who support a free Palestine. Anyway, it feels gross to have someone say to put you last because they care about the environment and local issues when that’s literally what you have done for three years.” She then tweeted a long list of her local campaign successes.

Better Council’s election work is strongly supported by  a group spearheaded by none other than Reverend Mark Leach, who spoke at the Inner West Council meeting. Leach is one of the coordinators of the pro-Israel right-wing Christian group Never Again is Now. The group is organising rallies around Australia to campaign against anti-semitism. NeverAgainisnow has used its Telegram account to recruit and urged its supporters to join the Better Council campaign. There are no formal links between Better Council and NeverAgainisNow and Better Council Inc spokesperson Sophie Calland has stated that her group does not support extremism.

Mark Leach works closely with his daughter Freya Leach, who stood for the Liberal Party for the seat of Balmain in 2023 state election, and is associated with the right-wing Menzies Institute. 

Mark Leach describes himself as “working to renew the mind and heart of our culture against the backdrop of the radical left, Jihadist Islam, and rising authoritarianism.

His own Twitter account shows that he embraces a range of right-wing causes. He is extremely anti-trans, supports anti-immigration campaigners in the UK, and has posted a jolly video of himself with Warren Mundine at a pro-Israeli rally in Melbourne. Mundine was a No campaign spokesperson for the right-wing group Advance Australia during the Voice referendum. Leach supports the Christian Lobby and is very critical of Christians who are campaigning for peace. 

And. of course. antisemitism exists. The problem is that Leach’s version of antisemitism is what international law and human rights bodies regard as protesting against genocidal war crimes. For #NeverAgainisNow, these atrocities are excusable for a state that is pursuing its right of ‘self-defence”. And if you don’t agree with that, don’t be surprised if you find yourself branded as not just ‘antisemitic’ but also a bullying extremist. \

One week before the local government election, Better Council Inc. was holding a Zoom meeting to organise 400 volunteers to get 50,000 leaflets into the hands of voters at next Saturday’s local election. This may well be just a dress rehearsal for a much bigger effort at the Federal election where Advance Australia has announced it is planning to target the Greens. 

Wendy Bacon was previously the Professor of Journalism at UTS. She is an award-winning journalist. She is a long-time supporter of the Greens and the BDS.