Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg has offered a glimpse behind the scenes of his groundbreaking new documentary ‘Never Again: The Fight Against Antisemitism’ which premiered on Sky News on Tuesday at 7pm.
Mr Frydenberg spoke to Sky News Late Debate hosts James Macpherson, Liz Storer and Caleb Bond following the airing of his one-hour special examining the “explosion” of anti-Semitism across the country.
The former treasurer reiterated his concern for the rise of anti-Semitism across Australia after October 7 and what he hoped the documentary would achieve.
In his documentary, Mr Frydenberg sat down with a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor named Egon Sonnenschein, who said he was “scared” to be a Jew in Australia.
“Egon was inspirational, he was dignified and as you can see he was eloquent. He summed up the situation facing so many Australian Jews right now,” he said.
“This was somebody who came from Europe, after the horrors of the Holocaust, was warmly embraced by this great country, and now, suddenly, into his 90s, he’s feeling unsafe and threatened.
“That’s just not on. It’s a sign, if we needed another sign, of a comprehensive failure of leadership in this country, from government, from our institutions, from law enforcement that’s seen this explosion of anti-Semitism in the last eight months since October 7.”
Australian’s on Tuesday night witnessed Mr Frydenberg became emotional and break down in tears in his narration of rampant anti-Semitism sweeping through the nation.
When asked whether he was shocked at some of the stories he had heard in the making of the documentary, Mr Frydenberg said he “certainly” was.
“When I spoke to Maggie and Josh who are in this gift shop in Thornbury in Melbourne, I heard about the death threats against their five year old, which followed Josh being doxed, he’s also a musician and their shop being vandalised and the personal trauma and pain and hate that was directed towards them that is simply unacceptable,” he said.
“And you could only feel their pain when you met with them and that was what opened the flood gates to the emotion and to the tears.”
“Judging by the response of tonight’s documentary, many many Australians have felt the same way watching what happened.”
The 52-year-old said the Holocaust survivors he spoke with were “so inspirational” despite their feeling of “fear” in the community.
“They had this inner strength but they also had fear, and to hear them have fear in their late nineties is again another sign that what has happened in Australia is just not on its un-Australian and it needs to stop.”
Mr Frydenberg was questioned on whether he thought Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s responses in the documentary aligned with his response to the protests and rallies across the country since October.
“I don’t think he’s backing up the words with action and while I’d hope he’d comprehend the gravity of the situation, I’d like to see a lot stronger action from here,” he said.
“We can’t just replay what we’ve seen from the last eight months for the next eight months. We need a reset from government.
“We need to see strong decisive leadership, because as John Howard did say in the documentary, ‘the prime minister of the day sets the tone for the country.’”
Mr Frydenberg said the “lesson of history” was bad things happen when “good people stay silent”.
“This is not 1934, this is 2024, in Australia.”
The groundbreaking Sky News documentary examined the rise in hostility towards Jewish people taking place around the world at levels not seen since the Holocaust.
More than an hour of extended interviews with John Howard, Peter Dutton, Julia Gillard, Holocaust survivors, Dennis Richardson, Nova Peris and Peter Cosgrove are available exclusively to watch online with a SkyNews.com.au Streaming Subscription.