The special envoy seeking to dictate the nation’s speech has suggested it was her husband who was responsible for $50,000 given to far-right group Advance — and that she won’t “dictate” his actions.

Embattled antisemitism special envoy Jillian Segal has broken her 48 hours of silence, responding to the scandal that has sparked widespread calls for her replacement.

The Klaxon has revealed Segal and her husband of over 40 years, John Roth, were among the biggest funders of Advance, with their family property development company Henroth Investments donating $50,000 in June last year.

That made the group Advance’s tied second-biggest funder in the 2023-24 financial year, the most recent data.

The far-right 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”.

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

“No one would tolerate or accept my husband dictating my politics, and I certainly won’t dictate his,” Segal has reportedly said in a written statement.

On Thursday, Segal released 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,” the report states.

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

Jewish Council of Australia executive officer Dr Max Kaiser said Segal’s 20-page document “reads more like a blueprint for silencing dissent rather than a strategy to build inclusion”.

National Union of Students president Ashlyn Horton said Segal’s “Trumpian” plan undermined the independence of higher education institutions, was a “serious overreach”, and was “authoritarian”.

Segal has refused to respond to repeated requests for comment from The Klaxon since Friday, including whether she endorsed Advance’s attacks on immigrants.

The Canberra Times and Sydney Morning Herald report that Segal has issued a statement.

Yet Segal’s precise position remains unclear, with both publications citing just two sentences directly attributed to her.

“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,” she is quoted as saying.

It is not known if Segal claims to have had no involvement in the $50,000 Advance donations specifically, with the statement referring only having had no involvement in “his donations”.

It is also not known when Segal claims to have first become aware of the Advance donations.

“On Saturday, The Klaxon revealed that a company directed by Ms Segal’s husband, John Roth, and his brother, Stanley Roth, made a donation on behalf of a trust to the far-right political party, Advance Australia,” reports the Canberra Times.

The $50,000 is recorded as being paid on 27 June last year, which was two weeks before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Segal’s appointment as special envoy to combat antisemitism in Australia.

Australian Electoral Commission records show Henroth Investments Pty Ltd, “ATF” (meaning “as trustee for”) the Henroth Discretionary Trust, made two payments of $25,000 each to Advance in the 2023-24 financial year.

The family-run, private property development company is directed by John Roth, 71, and his brother Stan Roth, 71, who inherited it from their father, late property mogul Henry Roth.

John and Stan Roth did not respond to a request for comment.

Advance was the main “No” group against the Indigenous Voice referendum.

The far-right Advance runs imagery suggesting Australia is being overrun by immigrants, including claiming the nation’s “freedom, security and prosperity are under threat” because of “wide open” borders.

Last week, it posted to its 146,000 Facebook followers an image of $100 bills being sucked into a government job advertisement seeking a “Palestinian Settlement and Community Development Worker”.

In the background are masked rioters, one waving a large Palestinian flag.

“Why do we have to pay for this, exactly?” writes Advance.

Also last week it posted an image, apparently AI-generated, of brown-skinned and hijab-wearing “immigrants” queuing outside a house.

“We’re paying the price of skyrocketing immigration through housing shortages and clogged-up public services,” Advance states.

“We’re told immigration is good for the economy.

“But it turns out billions of dollars are being sent overseas by the million-plus new immigrants who have come under Albanese,” it states.

Republished from The Klaxton, 13 July 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.