(JTA) — A financial adviser in Australia unleashed a series of curse-laden anti-Semitic tweets at the country’s Jewish assistant treasurer.
James Howarth, the head of Retirement Wealth Advisers based in Brisbane, ripped Josh Frydenberg on Sunday for his proposed law that would cut upfront commissions for financial advisers, news.com.au reported. Howarth was immediately reprimanded for his remarks, which were full of anti-Semitic stereotypes.
Among other things, Howarth called Frydenberg a “tinkering Jew” and joked that he had ordered hundreds of “Central Planning Jew” punching bags.
“What a c*** sucker. First plan of action was to regulate insurance salaries,” Howarth tweeted. He added: “The F*** Frydenberg movement is picking up steam. Free Markets or Central Planning Jews.”
Frydenberg’s proposed plan would decrease the cost of life insurance policies and slash the upfront commissions for financial advisers in half by 2018, news.com.au reported.
“This nasty, personal and derogatory language is not becoming of a financial adviser, let alone anyone else, and is completely over the top,” Frydenberg told the Australian on Sunday.
Australia’s human rights commissioner, Tim Wilson, called Howarth’s comments “disgusting and outrageous,” news.com.au reported. Australian human rights lawyer George Newhouse called the incident a “disgrace to all Australians.”
“It is deeply troubling that Mr Howarth has injected race and religion into a legitimate public discussion, and has employed hateful descriptions that play into classic anti-Semitic charges of powerful Jews controlling and wanting to centralise financial markets,” said Dr. Dvir Abramovich, the head of Australia’s B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission.
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