Israeli President Isaac Herzog is due to arrive in Australia today, invited by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to meet bereaved members of Sydney’s Jewish community, despite being the official representative of a genocidal state.
Herzog was once a political opponent of Israel’s far right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and campaigned for a two-state solution, but his views appear to have hardened in recent years. His role is largely ceremonial, roughly equivalent to our governor-general, which has protected him from the wrath of the International Criminal Court, unlike Netanyahu, who stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine.
Late last year however, an independent UN Commission of Inquiry found that Isaac Herzog’s conflation of Hamas with the ‘entire nation’ of Palestine – in terms of responsibility for the 2023 attacks on Israel – did amount to inciting genocide.
He’s also been photographed with frontline troops, and signed shells destined for Gaza, not exactly the actions of a peacemaker.
Dangerous
Herzog says he’s here to correct the ‘brainwash campaign’ that’s been going on against both Jews and Israelis, while the Jewish Council of Australia said his visit ‘risks entrenching the dangerous and antisemitic conflation between Jewish identity and the actions of the Israeli state. This does not make Jews safer. It does the opposite.’
It’s hard to see how the arrival of Isaac Herzog is going to do anything positive for those who are still grieving in Bondi, let alone the wider stability of Australian society, with major protests expected for every day of his visit here.
Speaking of instability, the federal Coalition are sitting together again, which has momentarily staved off the spectre of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. The long game of Hanson’s backers though, to push Australia rightwards at the expense of immigrants and genuine battlers, is going very nicely.
Sussan Ley’s days appear to be numbered, along with some of the seats of her frenemies in the Nationals. Electoral failures Tony Abbott and John Howard have been emboldened and are giving unwanted advice to anyone who points a microphone at them. Anything to distract from the sins of the mega-rich pulling the strings.
Election funding
Australians were granted a small, delayed glimpse of those string-pullers last week with the Australian Electoral Commission’s analysis of where the money went in the years leading up to the last federal election, with a record $880 million being raised and spent, up from $704 million in the previous cycle.
It remains perfectly legal to lie in political advertising in this country, so who were the biggest spending liars in 2025?
Peter Dutton’s Coalition topped out with $212 million in expenditure, proving that money can’t buy everything, while Labor spent $160 million and the Greens $40 million. Clive Palmer spent $54 million on himself, and the other independents collectively spent $29 million.
The Liberals’ big bucks came from Pam Wall, Oryxium Investments (part of a complex web of companies owned by the Lowy family), DoorDash Australia, Fox Group, Meriton Property Holdings, Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and Pratt Holdings.
Cardboard king Anthony Pratt also threw a lot of money at Labor, along with $3m from the Mining and Energy Union, $500,000 from Fox Group, and contributions from state branches, plus $4m from Labor Holdings.
In recent years there have been recurrent, large donations to both major parties from Sportsbet/Flutter, Tabcorp, the Lottery Corporation and Responsible Wagering Australia, all of which came with no strings attached, of course.
New entity Coal Australia contributed about twice as much to campaign groups as Climate 200, alcohol interests spread their investments to both parties, and Gina Rinehart’s company underwrote right wing astroturf organisation Advance to the tune of $895,000.
The Greens declared $600,000 of union money from CEPU, and over $500,000 from Gold Coast gambler and mathematician Duncan Turpie.
More than $138 million of ‘dark money’ (including sums that fell below the disclosure threshold) was also washing around in 2024-25, including $75 million to the Liberal Party, and 79 per cent of the donation money which flowed to One Nation.
It’s important to note that these AEC figures don’t include cash for access payments, and are 19 months old in some cases.
New election funding legislation will be in effect before the next federal election, which will disproportionately help the major parties, while failing to stamp out the influence of sectors such as gambling, fossil fuels, hospitality and aviation, with many loopholes remaining.
Real-time disclosure of political donations, as promised by Albo and friends way back in 2022, remains nothing more than a mirage.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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