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January 23, 2025
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied removing Senate President Sue Lines from Australia's delegation to the 80th anniversary of liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, amid scrutiny of her past comments about Israel.
"The reports were bizarre and wrong," Mr Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
"The person leading the delegation to Auschwitz is our Foreign Minister, Penny Wong."
A leaked internal Home Affairs email published by Sky News on Wednesday, understood to have been sent in December, identified Senator Lines as the head of the Australian delegation.
Mr Albanese told reporters: "I have no idea where that came from ...I approve our international travel. Penny Wong will lead the delegation, accompanied by Mark Dreyfus, our Attorney-General."
He hit back at criticism of the government's handling of escalating anti-Semitism, saying: "We've been active from day one." "I tell you what is of some concern, is people who seek political advantage from what is a traumatic circumstance," Mr Albanese said.
Critics have seized on Senator Lines' past criticism of Israel, quoting her accusing Israel of "apartheid" and being the orchestrators of "a cruel system".
It is unclear whether the bureaucrat who sent the email made an error, or if the Home Affairs department was simply engaged in forward planning without having all the details about the delegation.
Former Senate president and Liberal senator Scott Ryan represented the Morrison government at the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation in 2020.
Opposition Home Affairs spokesperson James Paterson said the government was "being tricky in their explanations about this."
"It's there in black and white ... She very clearly was leading the delegation at one point," Senator Paterson told Sky.
"It's likely that the government subsequently realised that was not a good decision based on the backlash and they are scrambling now to say that they had a different plan.
"But they can't give a straight answer about why she appeared as the head of that delegation."
A senior government source not authorised to speak publicly said the decision to send senior ministers to the 80th anniversary was made with the understanding that it would be a "very important milestone in the current climate, both globally and domestically".
Senator Wong and Mr Dreyfus announced on Wednesday that they will travel to Poland to attend the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on January 27.
Asked about the Home Affairs email, Senator Wong told reporters in Washington DC the decision that she would go to Poland with Mr Dreyfus had been made around Christmas time and communicated "after the shutdown".
"Can I say more broadly about why this is so important?" Senator Wong said.
"Particularly given that we've seen some of the anti-Semitism at home. It is a reminder of what occurred during World War II.
"The hatred, prejudice, the dehumanisation and the murder of over a million people and a million Jews [at Auschwitz] was something humanity should never forget. It tells us something about where hatred leads.
"So I'm very honoured to be able to go with Mark and others."
Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia Jillian Segal, appointed in July, will join the official Australian delegation in Poland.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Senator Wong and Mr Dreyfus - who is Jewish - said the world "must never allow the memory of the Holocaust to fade."
"It is vital that the lessons of the past continue to be learnt to ensure this never happens again," the statement said. "What happened at Auschwitz and during the Holocaust is a reminder of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice and the need to remain vigilant against a repetition of the atrocities perpetrated there."
An estimated 1.1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz, almost a million of whom were Jews, before the camp was liberated on January 27, 1945.
About 27,000 Holocaust survivors and their families migrated to Australia after World War II.