CANBERRA: Senior Albanese Government minister Tony Burke has rejected allegations of antisemitic behaviour levelled at him by the government’s own special envoy against antisemitism Jillian Segal.

The allegations were made by Ms Segal even as Mr Burke was defending her against claims that she knew of her husband’s donation to the far-right wing, anti-Labor activist group, Advance, at this year’s federal election.

A spokesperson for Mr Burke said the trouble started when ABC News Online asked Mr Burke if he believed Ms Segal (below) when she stated she was unaware of the donation.

“As a loyal member of the Albanese Government, the Minister naturally needed to defend a person appointed by the government, so he said he believed her,” the spokesperson said.

“Unfortunately, as we all know, even when you say one thing, sometimes your own physical reaction betrays the fact that you perhaps may actually hold a different view.

“That’s what happened to the minister and the initial story uploaded by ABC Online was proof of that. (main image)

“When Ms Segal saw the first version of the ABC story she hit the roof, claiming the minister’s physical appearance was clearly a deliberate effort on his part to be antisemitic by embracing an ages-old anti-Jewish trope. I believe she also wanted to immediately defund the ABC.

“But nothing could be further from the truth. There’s not an antisemitic bone in Tony Burke’s body. Everyone who nose him nose, … I mean everyone who knows him knows that to be true.

“Thankfully we found a way around the problem by appealing to the ABC to reframe and re-ask the question they were posing.

“The ABC then asked the minister: ‘Do you believe Ms Segal has rejected any knowledge of her husband’s donation to Advance?’

“That enabled him to answer ‘yes’ so that when the updated story went up online (below) the problem had disappeared.

“Hopefully that’s the last unsubstantiated allegation of antisemitism we hear from Ms Segal,” Burke’s spokesperson said.

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