The Australian Human Rights Commission has accepted a complaint against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
The group legal action complaint - organised by Birchgrove Legal law firm - was filed under Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act 1975 and accuses him of discrimination and inciting racial hatred.
The group is comprised of ten complainants, including Jewish Professor Peter Slezak and Palestinian-Australian Nasser Mashni and is being represented by Solicitor Moustafa Kheir.
The allegations specifically outline that “Palestinian-Australian, Arab-Australian and Muslim-Australian complainants” reported feeling “dehumanised … and humiliated as an ‘Other’ who does not and should not matter to Australia” due to public commentary from Dutton.
Additionally the complaint states that Dutton has been responsible for the “endangerment of Australian Jewish people through the deliberate conflation of the State of Israel with Jewish identity, which has seen a rise in Antisemitism”.
Kheir said overall the complaint referenced 25 individual incidents where Dutton had engaged in racial hatred and discrimination.
The complaint was lodged in late November, before being accepted by the AHRC.
At the time of publishing Dutton had yet to respond publicly.
