Jillian Segal’s husband is…an anti-racism advocate

EXCLUSIVE

ANTHONY KLAN

The husband of antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal — who Segal has suggested was responsible for $50,000 given to far-right group “Advance” — is a public anti-racism advocate.

The Klaxon can exclusively reveal John Roth, and his brother and business partner Stanley Roth, are official, public signatories of an “Australian leaders” pledge against racism.

The pledge is “in support for an Australia” where “all citizens are treated with respect, inclusivity and dignity”.

“We are leaders from diverse industries and professions across Australia,” it states.

“We are unequivocal in our resolve that racism in all its forms is deplorable and abhorrent.

“We cherish the Australian way of life; one which celebrates acceptance, cultural diversity and the values of a modern tolerant democracy,” the pledge states.

John Roth and Stanley Roth appear prominently on the first page of the signed pledge, which is named “Australian Leaders Say No to Antisemitism”.

“We are unequivocal in our resolve that racism in all its forms is deplorable and abhorrent” — Leaders’ Anti-Racism Pledge

 

The brothers are the two directors of family property development company Henroth Investments, which directed a $50,000 payment to Advance “on behalf of” the family’s Henroth Discretionary Trust.

That made it the tied second biggest funder of Advance in the 2023-24 financial year, the latest data.

Advance aggressively spreads hateful material, racist tropes and bigoted imagery to hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, including suggesting that immigrants in detention are “rapists, paedophiles and murderers”.

Segal, has suggested — but not definitively stated — that her husband John Roth was responsible for the $50,000 payment to far-right group.

She is steadfastly refusing to say if she was aware of the payment, if she is a beneficiary or a trustee of the Henroth Discretionary Trust — or even if she denounces the highly divisive Advance.

 

Responding to The Klaxon’s expose, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Immigration Minister Tony Burke have also pointed at John Roth as having made the $50,000 payment to Advance, despite providing no evidence.

“Advance is an appalling organisation, and those who fund it are not acting in the cause of social cohesion,” Burke told The Sydney Morning Herald Monday.

“Advance is an appalling organisation, and those who fund it are not acting in the cause of social cohesion” — Tony Burke

“But another of the forms of bigotry that we are fighting is misogyny, and there is no way I am going back to the 1950s and blaming a woman for the actions of her husband.”

Questioned about The Klaxon’s expose, Burke told ABC’s 7.30 Monday that Segal had not disclosed the $50,000 Advance payment before being appointed antisemitism envoy last year.

He said the first he knew of it was from the media.

 

John Roth, a successful property developer, who has been married to Segal for over four decades, has made no comment since the scandal broke Saturday.

He, his brother Stanley Roth, and Segal have not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Klaxon.

The far-right Advance claims the Indigenous Welcome to Country is part of a secretive plan by “elites” to “delegitimise Australia’s history”; it spread division ahead of Anzac Day, where the Indigenous welcome was booed; and it directly targets Palestinians with bigotry.

Advance was the main “No” group against the Indigenous Voice to parliament, and aggressively spread disinformation, division and racism ahead of the October 2023 referendum. That included a full-page racist advertisement in the Australian Financial Review, for which the newspaper subsequently apologised.

 

The Australian Leaders Say No to Antisemitism pledge states its signatories are “unequivocal in our resolve” that “racism in all its forms is deplorable and abhorrent”.

“Whether directed towards Jewish Australians, Muslim Australians, Asian Australians, Indigenous Australians or any other minority, we will not tolerate such conduct in our workplaces and firmly reject it in our communities,” it states.

Segal did not respond to a series of written questions Tuesday, including whether it was her position that “the $50,000 paid to Advance from family trust, the Henroth Discretionary Trust” was paid by her “husband, Mr John Roth”.

 

Segal also did not respond when asked whether she “endorses or distances” herself from Advance.

John Roth did not respond when asked whether he “was responsible for directing the $50,000 to Advance”; whether Segal was “aware of this payment to Advance”; and when Segal “first became aware of this payment to Advance”.

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Segal is a lawyer and a former long-time company director, including of banking giant NAB.

She issued her vague, two-sentence statement on Sunday, 48-hours after The Klaxon contacted her about the $50,000 payment to Advance from her family trust.

Her statement, provided only to select media outlets, is the only comment Segal has made since the scandal broke Saturday.

“No one would tolerate or accept my husband dictating my politics, and I certainly won’t dictate his. I have had no involvement in his donations, nor will I,” it states.

It does not definitively state John Segal was responsible for the $50,000 Advance donation; it does not state Segal was unaware of the payment; it does not state whether or not Segal approved of the payment being made; and it does not state her position regarding Advance.

 

Last week Segal delivered a A 20-page report calling for funding to be cut from universities, charities and cultural bodies if they “enable or fail to act” against “antisemitism”.

“Antisemitism has risen to deeply troubling levels in Australia,” Segal’s report states.

“This has been driven by…manipulated narratives in the legacy media and social media and the spread of extremist ideologies.”

 

Segal’s appointment as “Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia” was announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on July 9 last year.

That was two weeks after $50,000 is disclosed by the Australian Electoral Commission as having been directed to Advance by Henroth Investments.

 

More from The Klaxon:

July 16: Government must explain over Segal: Peak Muslim bodies

July 14: “Segal must resign” – Top Muslim body

July 13: Jillian Segal “won’t dictate” to husband over $50,000 to “Advance”

July 12: Jillian Segal and husband funding far-right group “Advance”

 

Henroth Investments is the family property development company directed by John and Stanley Roth, which they inherited from their late father Henry Roth.

Closer analysis of AEC the disclosure shows the money was directed to Advance by Henroth Investments but that it was “lodged on behalf of” Henroth Discretionary Trust.

 

Trusts provide high levels of secrecy and there is no database that registers a trust’s trustees or its beneficiaries, with those documents held by the trustees, the beneficiaries, and their lawyers.

One typical use of a discretionary trust is to minimise tax within a family, by making all family members “beneficiaries” of the trust, and pooling the income that is earned by all members, both reducing the tax paid by the highest income earners and reducing the overall tax payable.

The Klaxon’s expose has prompted widespread calls for Segal to resign or be sacked from her taxpayer funded role as antisemitism envoy.

 

“Jillian Segal’s position as Australia’s Antisemitism Envoy is no longer tenable,” the Lebanese Muslim Association said in a statement Sunday.

Segal’s response suggesting her husband was responsible was “not a justification” but an “evasion”, said Association secretary Gamel Kheir.

“You cannot be the face of a national strategy against hate while your own family trust donates $50,000 to Advance Australia — a far-right lobby group notorious for spreading anti-Muslim rhetoric, vilifying pro-Palestine voices as terrorist sympathisers, and accusing political opponents of siding with foreign adversaries,” he said.

 

Fronting ABC’s 7.30 Monday, Bourke falsely claimed that Segal had “said she doesn’t know about” the $50,000 to Advance.

“It was revealed last week that the husband of antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, gave money to the controversial and divisive right-wing lobby group, Advance Australia,” said reporter Sarah Ferguson.

“To be clear, she did not make the donation and she is not responsible for him, but she has not criticised it.

“Were you blindsided by that?,” Ferguson asked.

“I wasn’t aware of it until the, until the reports came out,” responded Burke.

“She said she didn’t know about it, and I’ve got no reason to do anything other than believe her” — Tony Bourke

 

Regarding the $50,000 payment, Bourke falsely stated: “She (Segal) said she didn’t know about it”.

He added: “And I’ve got no reason to do anything other than believe her”.

“It’s a long time since we’ve been a country where you would blame a woman for decisions of her husband,” Bourke said.

“And so with that in mind, I don’t think she’s answerable for her husband.”

Do you know more? anthonyklan@protonmail.com

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Editor, The Klaxon