The Australian Human Rights Commission has accepted a racial vilification complaint against Greens Senator Nick McKim and the Australian Greens over the Tasmanian senator's claim that the federal government had been "captured by Zionist interests".

The complaint was lodged by Menachem Vorchheimer, a Melbourne Jewish community leader who has repeatedly taken antisemitism to courts and tribunals. He announced the development on X on 28 October, saying the complaint had been brought under sections 18C and 18E of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.

LEGAL ACTION AGAINST SENATOR NICK McKIM & THE GREENS ACCEPTED BY AUSTRALIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

The Australian Human Rights Commission has formally accepted my legal complaint against Senator Nick McKim and the Australian Greens under sections 18C and 18E of the Racial… pic.twitter.com/pgHTodgZGO

— Menachem Vorchheimer (@MenachemV) October 28, 2026

The row began in the Senate on 20 August, during debate on an ASIO amendment bill. McKim accused the Albanese Government of being "captured by Zionist interests", and when Liberal Senator James Paterson objected, McKim turned the same line on him personally. He later withdrew the personal remark but insisted he was entitled to the broader claim.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler answered with an open letter on 23 August. He wrote that accusing Jews of "hidden or improper influence over governments" was a conspiracy given "its most notorious expression in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and "relentlessly propagated by Nazi Germany". He reminded McKim that the terrorists behind the Bondi massacre, which killed 15 people at a Chanukah celebration, had "condemned 'Zionists'" before opening fire on Jews.

"Political leaders cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for dangerous rhetoric simply by substituting the word 'Zionist' for 'Jew'," Leibler wrote, urging the senator to "withdraw your remarks and apologise unreservedly to the Australian Jewish community."

McKim refused. "Conflating 'Zionist' with 'Jew', as the Zionist Federation does, is fundamentally dishonest," he said in response, before declaring that Israel was "carrying out a genocide in full view of the entire world". Paterson accused him of promoting conspiracy theories that encourage antisemitism.

According to Vorchheimer, the senator went further and repeated the allegation, describing it as "the truth". His complaint is aimed at that republication outside Parliament, where parliamentary privilege offers no shelter.

"Criticising Israel or Zionism can constitute legitimate political debate. But political debate does NOT provide immunity for racial vilification through antisemitic stereotypes," Vorchheimer wrote. "No politician, and no member of the public, is above the law."

Vorchheimer knows the terrain. In February, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal found in his case against activist Hasheam Tayeh that leading a chant of "All Zionists are terrorists" at a Melbourne rally contravened Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act. He has also taken the Allan Government to VCAT, alleging it failed to act on antisemitism across the state.

The Greens have been here before. In December 2023, Newtown MP Jenny Leong told a Palestine Justice Movement forum in Bankstown that "the Jewish lobby and the Zionist lobby are infiltrating into every single aspect of what is ethnic community groups", adding that "their tentacles reach into the areas that try and influence power". Jewish leaders said it revived the old antisemitic image of Jews as an octopus. Leong apologised, conceding her words "had antisemitic implications", and after a complaint to the same commission she agreed to tour the Sydney Jewish Museum and donate to it, without admitting liability.

The pattern runs well beyond one senator and one state MP. For three years the Greens have treated casualty figures put out by the Hamas-run authorities in Gaza as settled fact, and have used the word genocide as though a court had ruled on it, when no court has made that finding. Just this month, Senator Mehreen Faruqi pushed a Senate motion leaning on a child death toll traced to the Gaza Government Media Office, a Hamas body, and told the chamber Israel had killed "four Palestinians per day on average" since the ceasefire, a figure drawn from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. That ministry does not separate combatants from civilians, a point independent researchers have raised repeatedly about its lists.

It is a strange kind of humanitarianism that takes a terrorist organisation's numbers on trust while dismissing every Jewish leader who warns where this language leads.

Even Labor has lost patience. At Senate estimates, Foreign Minister Penny Wong accused Senator David Shoebridge of using "misinformation to enable division" over Palestinian visa holders trying to leave Gaza, calling his conduct "unconscionable". Shoebridge now leads the party, having beaten Faruqi 7 to 4 in the party room ballot on 30 September.

The commission's acceptance of the complaint does not mean it has made any finding against McKim or the Greens. Complaints under the Racial Discrimination Act typically move to conciliation, and if that fails the complainant can apply to the Federal Court.

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