Australians ‘stuck' with a government failing on antisemitism: Chris Kenny
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared he treats leaders of other countries with respect, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him 'weak'.
The Israel-Australia relationship has fallen to pieces in the weeks since the Albanese government decided to recognise Palestinian statehood ahead of a peace deal.
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Perth Now
3 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Israeli army says first steps of Gaza operation start
Israel's military has announced the first steps of an operation to take over Gaza City and called up tens of thousands of reservists while the government considered a new ceasefire proposal to pause nearly two years of war. "We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding the outskirts of Gaza City," Brigadier General Effie Defrin, Israel's military spokesman, told reporters. A military official briefing reporters earlier on Wednesday said reserve soldiers would not report for duty until September, an interval that gives mediators some time to bridge gaps between Hamas and Israel over truce terms. But after Israeli troops clashed with Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the Israeli leader sped up the timeline for taking control of Hamas strongholds and defeating the militant group that triggered the conflict with an attack on Israel in October 2023. The Israeli statements signalled Israel was pressing ahead with its plan to seize the Gaza' Strip's biggest urban centre despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians. Defrin said troops were already operating on the outskirts of Gaza City, and Hamas was now a "battered and bruised" guerrilla force. "We will deepen the attack on Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of governmental and military terror for the terrorist organisation," the spokesman said. Israel's military called up tens of thousands of reservists on Wednesday in preparation for the expected assault on Gaza City as the Israeli government considered a new truce proposal. Israel's security cabinet, chaired by Netanyahu, approved a plan this month to expand the campaign in the enclave with the aim of taking Gaza City, where Israeli forces waged fierce urban warfare with Hamas in the early stages of the war. Israel currently holds about 75 per cent of the Gaza Strip. Many of Israel's closest allies have urged the government to reconsider but Netanyahu is under pressure from some ultranationalist members of his coalition to reject a temporary ceasefire, continue the war and pursue the annexation of the territory. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced final approval on Wednesday of a widely condemned Israeli plan for a settlement project in the occupied West Bank that he said would erase any prospect of a Palestinian state. The war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023, when gunmen led by Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities near the border, killing about 1200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages including children into the enclave, according to Israeli figures. More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war in the Gaza Strip since then, according to Gazan health officials, who do not say how many were militants but have said most of those killed have been women and children. Hamas has accepted a proposal put forward by Arab mediators for a 60-day ceasefire that would involve releasing some of the remaining hostages and freeing Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli government, which has said all the 50 remaining hostages must be released at once, is studying the proposal. Israeli authorities believe that 20 hostages are still alive. Many Gazans and foreign leaders fear a storming of Gaza City would cause significant casualties. Israel says it will help civilians leave battle zones before any assault begins. Israeli troops clashed on Wednesday with more than 15 Hamas militants who emerged from tunnel shafts and attacked with gunfire and anti-tank missiles near Khan Younis, south of Gaza City, severely wounding one soldier and lightly wounding two others, an Israeli military official said. In a statement, Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades confirmed carrying out a raid on Israeli troops southeast of Khan Younis and engaging Israeli troops at point-blank range. It said one fighter blew himself up among the soldiers, causing casualties, during an attack that lasted several hours. Israel's military campaign has caused widespread devastation across the Gaza Strip, which before the war was home to about 2.3 million Palestinians. Many buildings including homes, schools and mosques have been destroyed while the military has accused Hamas of operating from within civilian infrastructure, which Hamas denies.
ABC News
3 minutes ago
- ABC News
Who is Josh Willie, new leader of Tasmanian Labor, tasked with trying to engineer a comeback?
Joshua Barton Willie, a 41-year-old former primary school teacher, is the new leader of Tasmanian Labor. Mr Willie, from Labor's left faction, became leader after a party meeting on Wednesday — the day after former leader Dean Winter led a failed no-confidence motion in Premier Jeremy Rockliff's Liberal government. Mr Willie did not front the media after becoming leader — instead issuing a press release thanking Mr Winter for his service. "It is a great honour to be elected leader of the Tasmanian Labor Party," he said. The Tasmanian Labor Party spent the majority of Wednesday locked in leadership discussions, with Mr Willie emerging as elected leader, and Janie Finlay his deputy, with both appointments unopposed. The party's dominant left faction had earlier that day held a meeting where Mr Willie won a ballot against fellow Clark MP Ella Haddad to become the left's leadership candidate. Labor has spent 11 years in Opposition, and at the last election experienced its worst-ever result in the state with just 26 per cent of the primary vote. Mr Willie's profile on the Tasmanian Labor page describes him as "a proud University of Tasmania alumnus, holding a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science and Journalism and a Bachelor of Teaching". Married with three young children, Mr Willie was a primary school teacher in Hobart's northern suburbs before being elected as the Labor member for Elwick in the Tasmanian Legislative Council, serving from May 2016 to February 2024. At the 2024 state election, Mr Willie stood for the House of Assembly in the Hobart metropolitan seat of Clark and was successful. In the previous government he served as Labor's Shadow Treasurer, Shadow Minister for Cost of Living and Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. At his inaugural speech to Tasmania's lower house in May 2024, Mr Willie began with an Acknowledgement of Country, followed by an admission his move from the upper house might be seen by some as "moving out of the frying pan and into the fire". Mr Willie spoke of his grandparents from the electorate of Bass, "Alf and Mary", who ran a 132-year-old "fourth-generation" family engineering business. "I am a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a teacher, a member of parliament and always a learner. I approach every day, wanting to make a difference. That is how I came to be here." In 2017, Mr Willie wrote for NewsCorp about the pain of losing his father Mike and advocated for people to sign up for organ and tissue donation, which his father had done after a family conversation. Mr Willie comes from a family of teachers and is an advocate for public education. Both of his parents trained as teachers. "I know education is a tool of social justice and a vehicle for opportunity," he has said. "Tasmanians, in our regions, need to have equal access to opportunity, equal access to education and skills and training to make their communities stronger. Mr Willie said he chose teaching as a career path "to make a difference" in communities, and saw politics as an extension of that goal. In his maiden speech as an MLC, Mr Willie said his middle name "Barton" was a family name initially chosen by his great‑great‑grandmother for her son in honour of Australia's first prime minister, Edmund Barton. "I do not think my parents could ever imagine … I would end up in parliament myself," he said at the time.
SBS Australia
3 minutes ago
- SBS Australia
No propeller, no crew: How drone technology could impact global conflicts, under the sea
In a warehouse south of Perth, rows of sleek yellow gliders are being built for a purpose that seems deceptively simple: monitoring whales. But they may soon have a second life in defending the nation. The acoustic sensors fitted inside these autonomous vehicles can detect the vocalisations of migrating humpback pods. Offshore gas operators, under pressure from those critical of the oil and gas industry to limit noise during critical migration periods, rely on this data to stop drilling when whales pass nearby. A yellow underwater glider undergoes buoyancy testing. Source: SBS News / Christopher Tan "These unmanned underwater vehicles can stay at sea for three to four months on a single battery charge," Mike Deeks, a former Australian Navy submarine commander who now heads the company making the drones, Blue Ocean Marine Tech Systems, says. "They don't have propellers. They move by changing their buoyancy, which means they require very little power." Initially used to measure water salinity and temperature for Defence, the new generation of "locus gliders" can operate in swarms of hundreds, even thousands, by communicating with one another, and even land on the seabed to covertly monitor activity. "We can go to places where other naval or air force assets can't," Deeks said. "And very quietly, gather intelligence." AUKUS and the 'poorer cousin' of submarines The emergence of underwater drones coincides with Australia's most ambitious defence project in decades — the AUKUS security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom. AUKUS has two pillars: nuclear-powered submarines (Pillar 1) and advanced defence technologies such as artificial intelligence, hypersonics and autonomous systems (Pillar 2). Deeks believes underwater drones fit squarely into Pillar 2. But he is blunt. "Pillar 2 is in some ways the poorer cousin of Pillar 1," he said, arguing that funding, support and progress aren't moving quickly. That critique is echoed by defence analyst Malcolm Davis from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. "We are not moving fast enough on either pillar, to be honest," he said. A computer simulation released in 2018 shows a Russian nuclear-powered underwater drone being launched from a submarine. Source: Supplied / RU-RTR Russian Television/AP "There has been a degree of risk aversion and caution that is slowing down the delivery of those technologies into an actual deployed capability." Davis says armed underwater drones will likely operate alongside submarines within the next decade. "What the future undersea battlespace looks like for Australia is a mix of nuclear-powered, but not nuclear-armed submarines, together with underwater drone capabilities," he said. Lessons from Ukraine While aerial drones have already reshaped the war in Ukraine, the undersea realm remains an emerging frontier. "One of the most innovative breakthroughs in recent warfare has been what's known as autonomous systems — or more commonly, drones," Davis said. A Ukrainian pilot prepares drones on an attack mission on a frontline near the city of Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region, in late July. Source: EPA / Sergey Shestak According to the BBC, Ukraine has also pushed the boundaries at sea. Naval drones such as the Magura V5 — an uncrewed surface vessel capable of carrying 250kg of explosives and travelling at 80km/h — have sunk or damaged several Russian warships in the Black Sea, forcing Moscow to relocate much of its fleet away from Crimea. But Davis warns the West faces challenges around how the drones are used. "We have to be very focused on rules of engagement and laws about conflict and how we use these autonomous systems to avoid risk to civilians," he said. The government's stance on underwater drones The federal government says underwater drones are central to its future defence strategy. A defence spokesperson told SBS News the 2024 National Defence Strategy outlines plans for "an integrated, focused force" that will deliver a Navy with enhanced strike capability across the sea, air and land domains through the introduction of uncrewed underwater and surface vehicles. Planned investments, the spokesperson said, include "large and extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicles to undertake stealthy, long-range missions in high-risk environments, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and strike." The Magura V5 naval drone operates on the water's surface. Source: Getty / Global Images Ukraine The government maintains that both pillars of the AUKUS pact are on track, with Pillar 2 — focused on advanced technologies — already yielding results. "Pillar 2 is already delivering capability benefits faster than any partner could achieve alone ... especially in areas such as autonomous and uncrewed maritime warfare," the spokesperson said. That message was reinforced at a defence industry press conference in Perth on Wednesday, where Defence Minister Richard Marles was questioned on the urgency of adopting autonomous systems. "Autonomous warfare drones in every respect, including in the sea, is obviously a focus of our innovation efforts across the Defence Force," he said. "We've seen the nature of warfare change dramatically in Ukraine and we are very mindful of that. We are learning lessons from that, and it is very much informing the way in which we are thinking about what capabilities we need to apply in this space." Defence Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy at a Perth press conference on Wednesday, announcing support for a local engineering firm while highlighting Australia's $10 billion investment in drones and autonomous defence systems. Source: SBS News / Christopher Tan Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the government was investing heavily in the technology. "We've allocated over $10 billion to expenditure on drones, counter-drone technology and autonomous systems," he said. "The truth is countries around the world are investing in both crewed and uncrewed systems to work with each other because they do different things and they work best together." WA locals protesting nuclear But while defence leaders in Perth have this week descended for the National Nuclear Submarine Conference, protesters chanting outside warned of another danger — nuclear escalation. Stop AUKUS WA organiser Leonie Lundy said the deal lacks social licence and said the Australian Submarine Agency has misled people about the exact nature of low-level nuclear waste to be stored in the state as part of the AUKUS deal. Protesters outside the National Nuclear Submarine Conference in Perth warn against AUKUS, expressing concerns over nuclear escalation and the storage of low-level nuclear waste in Western Australia. Source: Supplied / Stop AUKUS WA "We were promised a public meeting five months ago, to express our concerns and get answers. "We're fed up with being strung along and lied to." Greens WA MLC Sophie McNeil urged Australia to adopt an independent foreign policy and warned against turning Western Australia into a nuclear submarine base. Others raised broader concerns including the potential of making local communities a nuclear target. The deepening race beneath the waves Back at his shed, Deeks insists his company's technology will never replace nuclear submarines, nor will it be armed. Instead it will complement them — doing the "dull, dirty or dangerous" jobs. But as production scales up from dozens to potentially thousands of underwater drones, Australia is entering uncharted waters — with the recent rise in tensions in the Indo-Pacific region. Whether seen as a breakthrough in maritime surveillance or a step towards an uncertain future, one thing is clear: the battle for the seas may increasingly be fought beneath them — quietly, invisibly, and with machines.
