Thursday, 5 October 2023

Brighton Secondary College

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (17:05): (363) My adjournment is to the Premier, and the action I seek is that the Premier provide an ex-gratia payment to Liam Arnold-Levy as recommended in the judgement in the Brighton Secondary College antisemitism case. Just a few weeks ago the Federal Court handed down a damning verdict which found that the staff and the Victorian government were negligent in their duties to protect Jewish students at Brighton Secondary College from vile bullying and antisemitic abuse. Whilst the other students involved – Matt, Joel, Guy and Zack – all received an appropriate level of damages and compensation, technicalities in the case meant that Liam received just a fraction of this amount. In her judgement Justice Mortimer highlighted the perceived unfairness of this outcome and also invited the government:

… to consider making an ex gratia payment to Liam, commensurate with what the Court has found was the damage he suffered, and commensurate with the compensation awarded to the other applicants.

Let me be clear on the damage he suffered – damage that the Victorian government failed to protect him from. From year 7 onwards Liam was subjected to verbal and physical bullying so vile it goes beyond comparison. He was called a ‘Jew boy’ and a ‘skull boy’, he was told to ‘burn in the oven’, he had coins thrown at his feet, he had Nazi salutes performed at him, he had his kippah ripped off his head and even had his head kicked while he was wearing his kippah. According to the court, years of abuse went almost completely unchecked by the staff and the Department of Education. Not only was the Victorian government negligent in its duty to protect these students from abuse, it then decided to go and spend $5 million in legal fees to try and silence these boys, forcing them and their families to relive this trauma. I believe the least the government can do is come to the table, do the right thing and make a fair payment to Liam and unreservedly publicly apologise to the boys and the community as per the recommendations of the court.