After nine months of sitting on his hands, Education Minister Jason Clare has bowed to Coalition demands to take action over @Macquarie_Uni academic, Dr Abdel-Fattah, whose anti-Israel activism is being supported by a taxpayer-funded $870,269 research grant. This is more weakness of leadership from the Albanese government. Australian taxpayers should not be funding activism or hate speech under the guise of so-called research. That is why I wrote to the minister last April requesting he intervene and withdraw this grant. Despite Dr Abdel-Fattah encouraging children to chant anti-Jewish terrorist slogans at a @Sydney_Uni protest, appearing to support the Hamas terrorist attack, being involved in the Jewish doxing scandal and denouncing Israel’s right to exist, Jason Clare disgracefully did nothing. @arc_gov_au and @Macquarie_Uni also failed to take this seriously - their investigation was a farce and they found no basis to act. Now that Dr Abdel-Fattah has admitted to ‘bending rules” on her ARC grant and refusing to cite “anybody who has remained silent over Gaza”, finally we see some action. This research fiasco shows Labor’s decision to remove ministerial discretion from taxpayer-funded research grants was grossly irresponsible and not in the national interest. An “anti-racism” symposium at @QUT provided Dr Abdel-Fattah and other activists with the opportunity to spread anti-Jewish hate and division which is why I pre-emptively asked vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil to cancel this event. It is a terrible indictment on the Albanese government that anti-Semitism continues to fester and flourish at Australian universities. theaustralian.com.au/nation/……