Topics: Israeli President Herzog’s visit to Australia, anti-Israel lobbyists, Liberal leadership

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CHRIS KENNY: Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury, Dave Sharma, senator for Liberal senator for New South Wales, as well joins us from Canberra. Dave, thanks for joining us. Um, I was just wondering, what you might think of this story that I've shown at the top of the program. The Jewish Council of Australia, an organization, a small organization that you would know well, publishing through The Age and Sydney Morning Herald what it says are 600 Jews against the visit to Australia by Isaac Herzog. It turns out that some of these names are just obscenities in Hebrew, others are people who are That's other are, are historical figures. And I've just interviewed David Slade who together with his, his wife, Tammy, was listed in those ads, never was any permission sought from them, they gave no permission, and they are fully supportive of the president's visit. Isn't this typical of the anti-Israel lobby trying to talk up dissent in the Jewish community?

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DAVE SHARMA: Yeah, it's appalling but it's not surprising. I mean, when I saw those full-page advertisements, my sense was it didn't stack up and I certainly know that it's not the view of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community in Australia. Uh, the Jewish Council of Australia's got a well-known track record of trying to set itself up as a sort of a spokesbody, if you like, for the Jewish community to unsuspecting journalists who see the name and think they must speak for the Jewish community. They don't at all. They're a fringe group. They're entitled to their views but they shouldn't purport to be representing the mainstream body of opinion in the Jewish community when clearly they don't. And this debunking of their campaign by, uh, names of people who are dead, uh, swear words and obscenities in Hebrew and then people who've come out publicly on your show and said, "I never signed up to this," just shows you this was a, this was an information operation that was, has been debunked.

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CHRIS KENNY: Yet our national broadcaster has said that ad demonstrates that large sections of the Jewish community are against the visit. That wouldn't be your experience, would it, the Australian Jewish community as a former ambassador to Israel?

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DAVE SHARMA: No, it's absolutely not true. And, you know, look, people are allowed to be against the visit, I've got no problem with but people shouldn't be purporting to represent the views of other people saying that the Jewish community is divided about this or opinion is evenly split. It's not. Uh, overwhelmingly the Jewish community, uh, was, you know, traumatized of course by the Bondi terrorist attack and they would be taking comfort and, uh, solidarity from Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel's visit to Australia right now.

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CHRIS KENNY: Are you expecting Angus Taylor and others to resign from the Shadow Cabinet tomorrow or Thursday?

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DAVE SHARMA: I'm afraid I've got, I've got no particular insights to offer. I can tell you, Chris, I'm not running for the leadership, that's an exclusive. But the ambitions and aspirations of others I'm afraid I can't speak to. I have no insight to offer. I've been in Senate Estimates today with the Department of Finance and Services Australia. Now I'm trying to do my job which is to hold the government to account and I'll leave the intriguing to others.

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CHRIS KENNY: All right, fair enough. You can't really lead the show from the Senate anyway, but if the right person gets up maybe they'll make you Shadow Foreign Minister. We will see. Dave Sharma, thanks for joining us. He'd be fantastic in that job, he's got so much expertise and experience in the area.

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