Latest news with #AustraliaPalestineAdvocacyNetwork
SBS Australia
24-04-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
SBS News in Easy English 24 April 2025
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with . Coalition leader Peter Dutton has vowed to reassess the security clearance of Palestinians in Australia who have been granted visitor visas after fleeing Gaza. Mr Dutton will also recognise West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network says the policies would suppress what they have described as valid critiques of Israel. But Mr Dutton says it's about being tough on border security. DUTTON: "Our nation is the greatest in the world, and we welcome migrants coming to our country. We have the most successful migration program, but we're not going to compromise on those settings which provide screening on people coming in from a war zone." REPORTER: "Those people from Gaza though were vetted when they exited the Rafah border crossing by Israel, and then Home Affairs as well, so do you not trust our security agencies or our allies?" DUTTON: "Well, we'll take and advice and - but we'll conduct proper security checks." A man has been charged over a data breach that hit the New South Wales court system earlier this year. The 38-year-old man is accused of accessing the state's JusticeLink system which holds files for thousands of cases. But Acting Attorney-General Ron Hoenig says no personal information has been detected online or on the dark web. He also says no one protected by apprehended violence orders has been identified as being at increased risk of harm. Santos has been given final approval for its multi-billion dollar Barossa gas project, after years of delays and fervent opposition from environment groups. The green light has come from offshore oil and gas regulator, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority - or NOPSEMA. Gas is now expected to flow from the Adelaide-based company's six wells in the coming months from its site off the coast of Darwin. Pipeline work on the controversial project had been halted in late 2022, after a court challenge from three Tiwi Island elders that the company eventually won last year. The latest snapshot of the Great Barrier Reef has found widespread bleaching across the northern regions of the marine park. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's newest report says the bleaching is largely because of prolonged exposure to higher-than-average water temperatures. The report has emerged at the same time as a survey from the International Coral Reef Initiative. Caribbean Steering Committee co-chair Melanie McField says that report shows 84 percent of the ocean's reefs have experienced harmful bleaching. "We've just reached 1.5 degrees (Celsius) in the ocean and you see the repercussions... It's unprecedented... very alarming. So I think people really need to recognise what they're doing, you know, by the inaction. It's the kiss of death for coral reefs." The New South Wales government has pleaded with residents to get vaccinated against the flu. The call comes on the back of figures that show an uptick in influenza B cases this year, particularly in school-aged children and young adults. Public Health Association of Australia chief executive Terry Slevin says many people think the flu is a minor illness. But Health Minister Ryan Park says influenza can be very serious. "It is absolutely imperative that we do what we can as we track towards what is likely to be a difficult flu season. What we're observing in North America and Europe is a challenging flu season that they've come out. That normally trends for us in a similar way, so we can expect a significant impact on the community over the coming months." Food charities have reported a surge in people coming to them for help - including families with two incomes. 77 percent of the hundreds of free food providers surveyed in the OzHarvest network say they have seen an increase in people seeking food. But just over half of them say they have had to turn people away. Australian Council of Social Service CEO Cassandra Golding has told Channel 9 not enough is being done to help people in that position. "Food has become a really discretionary item for far too many people. Wow. We're still waiting to see what the major parties will offer. Well, look, we are still waiting for the major parties to offer to help people who are out there with the least." A group of First Nations youngsters from Western Australia have finished one of the world's most gruelling treks. Nineteen teens have hiked the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea as part of a leadership development program. 16-year-old Stanis Jack from Kalgoorlie was among the group. He says they were retracing the path followed by Australian soldiers to repel the Japanese army's advance on Port Moresby in 1942. "I've learned a lot from Kokoda. Leadership is one thing - talking to people and encouraging them. Then the other one is never giving up, always giving your best in everything you do."
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Sick of being ignored': galvanised by Gaza, Australian Muslims aim to exert new political power at the election
In elections gone by, Az Fahmi volunteered for Labor's home affairs minister, Tony Burke, in her electorate of Watson in Sydney's south-west. Now she wants change. 'Enough is enough. We're sick of being taken for granted. We're sick of being ignored,' says the campaign volunteer, who works in communications. 'For the first time in a very long time, you're seeing our community really become invested in the electoral process, and starting to believe that there is hope for change.' Sara, 39, who asked for her real name to be withheld, agrees. The clinical researcher who lives in Caroline Springs, in the Victorian electorate of Gorton, says this election feels different. 'I think this is the first election that I'm going to be walking into with a really keen understanding of how the government will be supporting the Muslim community with the challenges that they're facing,' she says. They are two Australian Muslims who are mobilising as a result of a war fought thousands of kilometres away. Israel's bombardment of Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, has galvanised a political shift among some of Australia's 650,000-odd voting-age Muslims who do not feel represented in Canberra. 'There is no question that the Palestine issue is way bigger than politicians realise,' says Nasser Mashni, the president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (Apan), which is leading the Vote with Palestine campaign. But the conflict is far from the only issue affecting the diverse community. Healthcare, housing and cost of living are all flashpoints – when Fahmi travels to other parts of Sydney, Watson's inequalities sharpen, she says. 'Gaza was the catalyst, but the sentiment was always there: we had been marginalised and silenced politically on major issues,' says Ghaith Krayem, the national spokesperson for the Melbourne-founded advocacy group Muslim Votes Matter (MVM), which has hundreds of volunteers working on the campaign and thousands signed up to staff polling booths across 10 electorates on 3 May. 'None of that existed 18 months ago and it wouldn't have worked if there wasn't, within the community itself, a need that wasn't being fulfilled.' Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter More than a quarter of Watson's population was Muslim, according to 2021 ABS data – the seat has had a drastic redistribution since the 2022 federal election, but without radically altering its population mix or its notional Labor majority of just over 15%. The same applies to neighbouring Blaxland, 31.7% Muslim on the 2022 boundaries and safely held by Labor's education minister, Jason Clare, now with a notional 13% margin. Calwell, in Victoria, has a Muslim population of 23.8%, with the ALP's Kuwait-born Basem Abdo hoping to succeed the retiring incumbent, Maria Vamvakinou. Its boundaries have changed only slightly, and Labor's estimated margin remains similarly comfortable on 12.4%. Those three seats are respectively being contested by Muslim independents Ziad Basyouny, Ahmed Ouf and Samim Moslih, who are endorsed by both MVM and the unconnected grassroots group The Muslim Vote. Sheikh Wesam Charkawi credits that national collective – which he helped set up in Sydney – as sparking the broader groundswell, which Fahmi says is community-led and has women as its centre. Pro-Palestinian sentiment – which has had a noticeable impact on elections in the UK and the US in the past year – is likely to be concentrated in some of the country's largest Muslim populations, but Mashni and Krayem both believe it extends well beyond those postcodes. 'Palestine has never had a greater constituency,' Mashni says. 'And increasingly, the constituency … is not Arab or Muslim. It is Australian. Palestine is a vote winner. Australians understand the concept of the underdog and will always side with an underdog.' Muslim Votes Matter aims to upset the status quo in Bruce, Wills (both Victoria), Sturt (South Australia), Cowan (Western Australia), Moreton (Queensland), Banks and Werriwa (New South Wales), as well as Blaxland, Watson and Calwell, with an operation led by polling booth-level data from the past two elections, Krayem says. In Watson and Blaxland, reports of defaced corflutes on both sides of the contest and threats of violence have marred a campaign that has largely been conducted online. But underpinning disparate and sometimes unaligned groups – some of whom have radical views – is a uniting sentiment: 'It's very clear that Muslims do not feel represented,' says Amin Abbas, a Palestinian organiser and executive board member of Apan. On the ballot, this translates to what he calls a 'more considered' choice as voters try to understand party positions and align them with their own. He predicts a shift from the major parties towards independents and minor parties, but does not expect Muslim votes to go to the Liberal party via preferences, given its pro-Israel stance. Jamal Rifi, a Lebanese Australian general practitioner in Belmore, wrote in The Australian earlier this month that he 'knows' candidates backed by what he called 'the Muslim Votes political party' were 'helping the Liberal party' and did not represent the broader Muslim community. Both Clare and Burke were more locally engaged than the newcomers, he suggested. But Krayem says MVM does not support any particular party, with both Labor and Liberal-held seats in its sights, and that it is 'highly unlikely' its advocacy would lead to an increase in Liberal votes. Instead, the group hopes to break the 'unquestioning loyalty' some sections of the Muslim community have to certain political parties. The process is as much about building a political advocacy group as it is about raising awareness, he says. Sign up to Afternoon Update: Election 2025 Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key election campaign stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'We're providing that platform for community to have its voice heard in a way that it chooses to have its voice heard,' he says. 'It's a message to the parties themselves, but it's also a message to individual members of parliament: you represent your constituents and, if you have ignored a key concern for 18 months, don't expect that they're going to support you.' Whether that message sways results in a meaningful way at this election is not his main focus. 'For us, really, the work will start after the election. We're not going away. The political establishment has to get used to the fact that we are here and we are going to be loud around the needs of our community.' One of those 'needs' is to tackle rising rates of Islamophobia. Nora Amath, the chief executive of Islamophobia Register Australia, says she has tried to draw attention to skyrocketing rates of Muslim-targeted hate without any consistent support from the government. 'This silence is not just disappointing, but really dangerous,' Amath says, referring to the health, social and economic impacts of racism. 'The election is a test. Will our leaders finally treat Islamophobia as the critical issue that it is, or will they continue to look away?' The community's secret weapon might be its age. The median age of the Muslim population in Australia is just 28, according to the 2021 census, a full 10 years younger than the general population. Fahmi says it is time for the old guard to step aside. Amath says she sees young Muslims looking at individual candidates' values rather than to traditional party allegiances. For the first time, she says, 'the Muslim community has been energised to really understand where their votes go, to understand that it has people power'. Ouf and Basyouny are both drawing from that energy. 'There is no other primary outcome, we are going to win,' Ouf says. 'If not, we would have done something that's never been done, which is marginalise the seat for the first time in its history. This will not be the end for us.' Basyouny has much the same message. Winning is his priority, achieving a substantial swing a 'secondary measure of success'. But he says even if he doesn't win his team's efforts will have been worthwhile. 'There's been more investment in the community the last five weeks than there has been in the last 20 years. This is the first wave of political activation – this is far from over, this is just the beginning.' Clare, the 'kid from western Sydney', remains determined. 'I work my guts out for my community every day and I don't take anyone's vote for granted,' he says. 'I never have and I never will.' Burke was contacted for comment. No matter how votes fall on the day, the fact that Australian Muslims are recognising themselves as a political force is 'a big change in and of itself', says Mashni, who in the past has criticised his community's lack of political engagement. 'I'm absolutely a believer that my constituency should be engaged in the democratic process,' he says. 'And if the Labor party looks like them, they should join it, make it better. If the Greens look like them, join and make it better. If the Liberals look like them, join and make it better. And if they want to run as an independent or support an independent, fantastic: do that.'
