'Free Palestine' sign may 'cause distress', federal bureaucrat tells anti-poverty campaigner

A senior government official raised concerns over a campaigner's 'Free Palestine' sign that was visible on a video call

Kristin O'Connell is a research, policy and communications advocate at the Antipoverty Centre, a non-profit group dedicated to centring the experiences of people in poverty and unemployment in public policymaking. Antipoverty Centre representatives have been meeting semi-regularly with officials at the federal Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) since late last year as part of DEWR's stakeholder consultation processes.

O'Connell says those meetings can be draining – even traumatic – for Antipoverty Centre representatives.

"Every time we go into a meeting with DEWR, it causes us psychological harm. When we talk about the human suffering of the people that we support – about how government policy is causing the destruction of the lives of welfare recipients – and they respond by telling us they have legal advice that says what they're doing is fine, it's distressing," she says. "We subject ourselves to that harm because it needs to happen and without it nothing will change."

On Wednesday, June 18, O'Connell received a text message from Fiona Dewar, DEWR's first assistant secretary and the head of employment services network, Workforce Australia for Individuals, asking to talk one-on-one over the phone. O'Connell assumed it was to follow up about a meeting they had both attended the previous day, during which O'Connell had become distressed.

Instead, O'Connell alleges that Dewar told her of an "issue" with a hand-painted sign in O'Connell's house.

The sign, which reads 'Free Palestine in our lifetime' alongside a picture of a watermelon, is positioned so that it regularly appears behind O'Connell in video calls. It is visible when she frequently meets with political staffers and departmental bureaucrats.

Dewar put her concerns in writing in an email to O'Connell later that day.

"I raise this issue in consideration of my role as a leader and providing a workspace that makes sure everyone feels they can contribute equally and openly," Dewar wrote in emails shared with Deepcut.

"I am not suggesting the sign in your background is a breach, and I respect your right to hold your views, but is [sic] something I noted as having potential to cause someone distress."

Dewar included a link to the text of the Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work) Code of Practice 2024 and the Australian Public Service Commission's Secretaries Charter of Leadership Behaviours.

"As I mentioned, my Free Palestine poster has been in the background of every online meeting I've attended from my home since 2023, including with government departments, politicians, staffers and journalists, so it was a surprising phone call," O'Connell wrote in response.

"Because this is the first time any person has suggested to me that the sign may put work safety at risk, I was looking for information from you on how you think I might be putting people at risk. Can you let me know which specific principle or section of the [Work Health and Safety] Act you think applies?"

"The below [links] reference where I draw my responsibilities from, rather than any one person putting another person at risk," Dewar wrote in response.

A DEWR representative told Deepcut that, "The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations respects the rights of all individuals to hold personal views. The Department is committed to its responsibility of ensuring a safe workplace for all its workers."

O'Connell described the exchange with Dewar to Deepcut as "bizarre".

"In the last six months, we've probably had at least half a dozen meetings where [Dewar has] been present," O'Connell claims.

"We've publicly made comment as an organisation about supporting Palestinians and the Palestinian struggle. The only philanthropists who have ever given us money have done so since October 2023. No one is confused on where we stand."

On Thursday, June 19, O'Connell raised Dewar's comments with the office of Amanda Rishworth, the employment and workplace relations minister. O'Connell told Deepcut that the Antipoverty Centre intended to put concerns about the incident to Rishworth's office and DEWR in writing.

Rishworth's office did not respond to a request for comment.

"It's so offensive to me that someone in DEWR would weaponise psychosocial harm like this, let alone for a little pink sign nestled behind my monstera that says 'free people who are being genocided'," O'Connell says.

"If this happened to me – a random person working outside the public service – I can't imagine what's going on inside DEWR. I assume public servants in general are having their speech suppressed, but how many thousands of public servants have been told they're creating a 'psychosocial hazard' over something like this?"