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Witnesses at royal commission subjected to ‘ugly antisemitic attacks’ after appearing, commissioner says

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The royal commissioner, Virginia Bell AC SC, says Jewish witnesses have been subject to “ugly antisemitic attacks” after giving evidence of their own experiences of antisemitism.

The fourth block of hearings in Melbourne this week is examining the lived experiences of antisemitism on Jewish students and academics, including the response of universities to combat it.

Opening the hearing on Monday, Bell drew attention to the provisions of the Royal Commissions Act, which makes it an indictable offence to inflict any damage or disadvantage on a person on account of their evidence.

Four academics and students are giving evidence under a pseudonym on Monday. Also appearing is a co-convener of Students for Palestine and education officer at the National Union of Students, Yasmine Johnson, the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Hugh de Krester, and Josh Keller of the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism.

A Jewish student who is appearing under the pseudonym Liat has told the royal commission she lost her friends after the 7 October Hamas terror attack because of her Zionism. After the 2023 terrorist attack, she said she lost the vast majority of her non-Jewish friends. In one instance, someone at a theatre afterparty told her, “we’re not friends anymore, you’re a Zionist”. Liat said you could critique Israel without being antisemitic but she hadn’t seen “examples that accuse Israel of doing things without playing on those [antisemitic] tropes”.

She says she was called a “baby killer” and “genocide supporter” by students who were part of the Australia National University’s pro-Palestine encampment. In one instance a protestor connected to the encampment, who wasn’t a member of the university, performed a Nazi salute.

She says she felt “physically unsafe”, and called out two particular chants they used as being antisemitic: “There is only one solution, intifada, revolution” and “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”. She also says the use of the word intifada is “in reference to historical events … which involved the murder of Jews”. Pointed to the fact some proponents of the term “intifada” aren’t calling for violence to Jewish people but to the liberation of Palestinian people she says: I think they should use a different word.

A tutor and PhD candidate at UNSW says students performed Nazi salutes towards him during a business class. Appearing before the royal commission under the pseudonym ACJ, the academic said he was teaching a class for international students at UNSW College that had nothing to do with Nazism in 2024 when four students stood up and performed the salute.

He said he was “incredibly shocked, and offended, and threatened” by the display. “My grandparents had survived the Holocaust, the Nazis … murdered a huge proportion of my family. And so when someone does a Nazi salute at me it feels like they want to kill me.”

He said he wasn’t sure if the students knew he was Jewish, but it seemed clearly directed. The academic reached out to his direct supervisors, noting it was a crime to perform a Nazi salute in New South Wales and that he intended to go to the police.

He said the students were initially issued a formal warning. NSW Police then carried out an investigation, he said, and the students were suspended and required to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum. He asked for the students to be removed from his class and was refused due to timetabling.

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Government plans crackdown on social media algorithms

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Labor’s plan to crack down on social media algorithms faces significant opposition in federal parliament, with opposition leader Angus Taylor warning against efforts by the government to “censor” free speech online.

Communications minister Anika Wells is expected to release draft legislation creating a digital duty of care for social media users in Australia as parliament returns this week. Among new rules being considered are functions requiring popular social media platforms to allow users to turn off algorithms controlling the content in their feeds, and to better identify problematic or illegal content to protect vulnerable users including children.

Labor said they want to better protect social media users from being fed content that reinforces dangerous stereotypes and behaviours, including in areas around body image, women’s safety and child protection. Opt-out options for algorithms would give users the choice to make their social media feeds only feature content from friends and groups they choose to follow.

Fines of more than $100m would be created for breaches, with new powers given to the eSafety commissioner and researchers to investigate compliance by big platforms. Prime minister Albanese is expected to spruik the plan at the United Nations general assembly in New York later this month.

But Taylor told News24 on Sunday the government should focus on fixing problems with its under 16s social media ban before taking on new rules like the digital duty of care. The shadow home affairs minister, the outgoing Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, likened the government’s plans to dumped anti-misinformation legislation introduced during Labor’s first term in government, stating that it is going to impede on people’s rights and freedoms.

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AI and virtual interpreters providing on-demand Auslan services in regional areas to replace in-person ones

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In an attempt to fill the void, virtual services of Australia sign language interpreters, apps and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly being used to bring translation services to regions that struggled to find them in the past.

But the move is having an unintended side effect, as the few registered Auslan interpreters living and working in regional areas say they are suddenly finding themselves out of work.

Live captioning is a form of AI software that records and writes out spoken conversations in real time to help users with hearing impairments access these conversations. It does not include translating responses from Auslan to spoken language, which is why captioning is not always appropriate.

Virtual interpreters can work remotely, appearing on a screen to translate what they hear via a live feed, and often working at a lower cost than in-person translators. Many interpreters said having options was good, but the effect on interpreters was not.

One interpreter said the demand [for in-person Auslan interpreters] has always been there, and especially for rural and regional people, but she said agencies were unwilling to pay travel costs and were reluctant to prioritise in-person interpreters over virtual ones.

Many organizations focusing on helping the hearing impaired also explained that not all interpreting jobs are suitable online, and If a customer’s first preference is an in-person interpreter then they will do everything possible to provide one.

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One Nation pushes for early super access for Australians paying rent or mortgage

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Australians with a mortgage or paying rent would be given a choice to divert a portion of their superannuation to their take-home pay for up to three years under a One Nation proposal.

Under the policy, the full 12 per cent compulsory super contribution would still be paid by employers, but 3 per cent would be paid directly to a person by the super fund if they opt in. The payments would also remain subject to the concessional tax rate of 15 per cent, rather than the higher personal income tax rate.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said the average full-time worker earning about $90,500 would get an extra $2,300 in their pocket each year. That works out to about $44 a week, which Hanson said would provide “breathing room”.

Health Minister Mark Butler said changing those settings would be an “absolutely terrible plan” and pointed to the Morrison government’s experiment with allowing people to access more of their super during the COVID pandemic.

But Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume dismissed the proposal as nothing more than a “headline” and said One Nation had questions to answer about how the policy would interact with a person’s super balance or their concessional caps. Nationals MP David Littleproud also said there was a serious risk of “unintended consequences” of the proposal, including the potential for higher inflation.

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