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The Jewish leader calling for compulsory national service · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christinamiot.
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  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, June thirty, twenty twenty six. Teenagers who work
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  Speaker 1: fewer than thirty hours per week could share in a
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  Speaker 1: one billion dollar superannuation pot. If the Greens get their
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  Speaker 1: way in the Senate this week, they'll push the Treasurer
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  Speaker 1: to end exclusions that mean companies like McDonald's, Hungry Jack's,
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  Speaker 1: Woolworths and Coles don't have to pay super to minors.
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  Speaker 1: That story's live right now at the Australian dot com
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  Speaker 1: dot au dedicated police protection, social media accountability and national
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  Speaker 1: service for all Australians. That's how businessman and philanthropist Stephen
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  Speaker 1: Lowe says we can solve the scourge of anti Semitism
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  Speaker 1: in Australian society. The former Westfield chief says his family
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  Speaker 1: was welcomed to Australia with open arms. Now their fae'
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  Speaker 1: seeing hundreds of anti Semitic threats and abuse online every day.
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  Speaker 1: The Australian's Foreign Affairs and Defense correspondent Ben Packham is
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  Speaker 1: here in just a moment.
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  Speaker 2: I try my best to block it out. I do that,
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  Speaker 2: but it's impossible.
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  Speaker 3: It was very classic antisemitism.
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  Speaker 2: There was almost immediately an influx of hate, of abuse,
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  Speaker 2: of vilification, of Ai manipulation, and it was surreal.
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  Speaker 1: These are witnesses at the third block of public hearings
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  Speaker 1: in the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, sharing
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  Speaker 1: their experience answers of being Jewish in Australia and online
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  Speaker 1: in the wake of the October seven, twenty twenty three
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  Speaker 1: assault on Israel by Hamas militants and the Bondai terror attack.
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  Speaker 1: Addressing the Royal Commission on Monday was one of Australia's
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  Speaker 1: leading businessmen, Stephen Lowe. He's the son of Holocaust survivor
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  Speaker 1: and Westfield founder Sir Frank Lowey.
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  Speaker 3: Life has changed probably every waking moment for most Jews
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  Speaker 3: in this country.
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  Speaker 4: Stephen's father, Frank Lowey, is a survivor of the Holocaust,
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  Speaker 4: so antisemitism has been something that Stephen Lowey has been
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  Speaker 4: aware of and faced his entire life.
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  Speaker 1: Really, Ben Packham is the Australian's Foreign Affairs and Defense correspondent.
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  Speaker 4: So Stephen's grown up with that family understanding of the
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  Speaker 4: just the horrors of anti Semitism.
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  Speaker 3: My grandfather actually perished at the hands of the Nazis,
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  Speaker 3: and basically all of my grandmother's family suffer the same fate.
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  Speaker 3: So that's the environment that we grew up in.
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  Speaker 4: And in fact, obviously his family is very well known
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  Speaker 4: and very prominent in the Jewish community, and they've been
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  Speaker 4: targeted for some pretty threatening behavior and online abuse and
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  Speaker 4: all of that sort of thing, and the family's security
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  Speaker 4: team in just one recent month intercepted some fifteen hundred
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  Speaker 4: threats and abusive messages on social media targeting them, and
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  Speaker 4: it requires around the clock security operation to keep them safe.
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  Speaker 3: Personally, I don't I'm not on social media because I
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  Speaker 3: don't really want to see all of this, but I
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  Speaker 3: do certainly get a report about what takes place, and
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  Speaker 3: the fear of much of that and where that leads
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  Speaker 3: in terms of the physical safety is very much connected,
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  Speaker 3: so I do follow it very carefully from that perspective.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Lowie has made in his eighteen page submission to
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  Speaker 1: the Royal Commission several recommendations about how the scourge of
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  Speaker 1: anti Semitism might be overcome in Australian society. What's he suggesting.
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  Speaker 4: He's got a number of quite far reaching recommendations beginning
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  Speaker 4: with I think what is quite a challenging but also
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  Speaker 4: important recommendation urging the establishment of a dedicated police unit
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  Speaker 4: in each state that would be responsible for protecting the
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  Speaker 4: Jewish community and working to prevent the sorts of attacks
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  Speaker 4: that we saw at Bondai Beach last December, but also
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  Speaker 4: across the full gamut of threats and abuse that Jewish
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  Speaker 4: Australians face.
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  Speaker 3: This sitsts with you all of the time, and it
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  Speaker 3: sits with many, I'm sure Jewish people who would be
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  Speaker 3: considering every word and every step of every day because
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  Speaker 3: these threats sort of hover over us and we're just
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  Speaker 3: one family. So I can imagine if you multiply this
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  Speaker 3: not just by other prominent families, but all Australian Jews
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  Speaker 3: and many I'm well aware of it been subject to
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  Speaker 3: even more disturbing online threats than this. So this is
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  Speaker 3: an issue that we live with it really every day.
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  Speaker 3: But the most concern is protecting against the physical threat.
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  Speaker 4: That would be backed up by education for police officers
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  Speaker 4: in those units, a whole command structure around that, requirements
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  Speaker 4: for sort of intelligence sharing with the AFP and AZO,
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  Speaker 4: and also a sort of protective services element that would
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  Speaker 4: provide a visual and highly response force that would protect
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  Speaker 4: Jewish sites such as schools and synagogues and attend community events.
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  Speaker 4: And Stephen Lowey is very or He makes the point
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  Speaker 4: quite firmly that these police really need to have a
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  Speaker 4: deep level of understanding of what it is to be
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  Speaker 4: Jewish in Australia and the history of anti Semitic threats,
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  Speaker 4: and not just be sort of rotated through these units,
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  Speaker 4: but be sort of permanently placed in them and have
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  Speaker 4: a lot of interaction with the community, get to know
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  Speaker 4: them and really work with them to protect this community
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  Speaker 4: which faces levels of abuse that no other community in
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  Speaker 4: Australia faces. And Stephen says that if in any other
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  Speaker 4: community did face this sort of levels of threats and abuse,
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  Speaker 4: then it just would not be tolerated.
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  Speaker 1: Is there the capacity within our police forces to enact
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  Speaker 1: something like what Stephen Lowey is suggesting him?
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  Speaker 4: Look, if there was ever a time that this could happen,
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  Speaker 4: I think it is now and resourcing will be an issue,
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  Speaker 4: But the Royal Commission, I expect will take these recommendations
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  Speaker 4: very seriously. I'm sure that similar recommendations will be made
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  Speaker 4: by other Jewish leaders. I think something is definitely required
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  Speaker 4: in this space because as we saw in Bondai, yes
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  Speaker 4: there was some police presence during the day, but it
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  Speaker 4: was not seen at the time as an event that
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  Speaker 4: was really under threat of an attack. It wasn't placed
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  Speaker 4: at the same level as some of those high holy
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  Speaker 4: days that are celebrated by the Jewish community. And I
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  Speaker 4: think it's also a pretty reasonable request that the police
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  Speaker 4: who do this work have an understanding of what it
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  Speaker 4: is like to be a Jewish Australian and they understand
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  Speaker 4: the history of anti Semitism and the types of threats
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  Speaker 4: that that can lead to.
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  Speaker 1: Australia's intelligence capabilities have been under scrutiny since the terror
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  Speaker 1: attack on December fourteenth. The work done by the former
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  Speaker 1: intelligence chief Dennis Richardson has been essentially sidelined by Virginia
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  Speaker 1: Bell's Royal Commission. I guess it's the same question, is
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  Speaker 1: it feasible for these types of reforms that Stephen Lowe
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  Speaker 1: has suggested in his submission to the Royal Commission to
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  Speaker 1: be enacted?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I mean, I think whether it's a will, there's
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  Speaker 4: a way, and it remains to be seen what Royal
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  Speaker 4: Commission of Virginia Bell will recommend but in saying that,
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  Speaker 4: I think there is a high level of political will
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  Speaker 4: around a lot of this stuff at state and federal
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  Speaker 4: level certainly now, and if those recommendations were made ultimately
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  Speaker 4: then I feel that staten federal governments would make it happen.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Lowe has also made a recommendation that is I
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  Speaker 1: think unique in what we've seen so far in the
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  Speaker 1: Royal Commission. Tell me about what he says about national
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  Speaker 1: service for Australia.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, this is an interesting idea and also a challenging
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  Speaker 4: one I think politically. But he talks about the incredible
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  Speaker 4: freedoms that Australia offers, but also the responsibilities that being
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  Speaker 4: a member of Australian society carries. And his idea to
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  Speaker 4: strengthen social cohesion, which has really been tested of late,
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  Speaker 4: is to create a program of national service for young Australians. Now,
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  Speaker 4: this wouldn't necessarily be military service, although it could be,
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  Speaker 4: and the idea is that young people would work together,
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  Speaker 4: encounter people from many different walks of life and different
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  Speaker 4: cultures and gain an understanding of their fellow Australians and
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  Speaker 4: also give back to the community more broadly. Now, the
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  Speaker 4: last time Australia had anything like this was during the
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  Speaker 4: Vietnam War. It was a different time and there was
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  Speaker 4: a war going on obviously, So look, I think this
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  Speaker 4: would be a difficult policy for or a government to enact,
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  Speaker 4: certainly if it was compulsory, but there may be models
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  Speaker 4: that are slightly less onerous, or perhaps a voluntary scheme
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  Speaker 4: or some other way of enacting it. I certainly think
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  Speaker 4: it has the potential to improve relationships between different communities
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  Speaker 4: and perhaps sort of get some disgruntled or sheltered Australians
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  Speaker 4: out there and helping them to understand what it is
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  Speaker 4: to be an Australian citizen. It's effectively a sort of
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  Speaker 4: CIVIX education idea on a bigger scale. Obviously, it would
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  Speaker 4: have to have bipartisan support, I think, to get off
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  Speaker 4: the ground.
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  Speaker 3: But I remain hopeful that because of the basic decency
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  Speaker 3: of the vast majority of Australians, and because of the
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  Speaker 3: work of this Commission, our future as a country can
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  Speaker 3: return to what it used to be the best place
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  Speaker 3: in the world to live for Jews and everyone else.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up Stephen Lowe's plan for ending anti Semitism on
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  Speaker 1: social media just lastly been Stephen Lowey has also suggested
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  Speaker 1: that social media giants like Meta, which owns Facebook and
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  Speaker 1: x be compelled to remove anti Semitic content from their platforms.
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  Speaker 3: I firmly believe that they should be subject to the
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  Speaker 3: same regulation and rules that more traditional media has. I'm
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  Speaker 3: sure this is a matter for the Commission to consider,
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  Speaker 3: but it's very disturbing that this can occur, often anonymously,
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  Speaker 3: sometimes not almost unchecked.
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  Speaker 1: And then when the Albanese government is seen to be
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  Speaker 1: very strong on social media in particular, the e Safety
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  Speaker 1: Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has set some very high expectations
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  Speaker 1: for how those companies operate within Australia. But on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, the government was accused of being flat footed
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  Speaker 1: both on its response to the growing anti Semitism crisis
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  Speaker 1: in Australia generally and in calling for a Royal Commission
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  Speaker 1: to be established. So this block of hearings in particular,
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  Speaker 1: which is looking at this social media issue, how does
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  Speaker 1: that play for the Albanezy government politically?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, look, the social media giants definitely do have
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  Speaker 4: a responsibility here. I think the sort of torrent of
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  Speaker 4: hatred that we see on these platforms people basically often
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  Speaker 4: encoded language, often not calling for the destruction of Israel,
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  Speaker 4: for the killing of Jews. All of this sort of
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  Speaker 4: thing is it's completely abhorrent. However, it is also going
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  Speaker 4: to be a challenging issue for the government, particularly the
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  Speaker 4: Labor government, which counts among its supporters large number of
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  Speaker 4: people who support as A Palestine, and many of them
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  Speaker 4: some pretty hardline views on Israel and who often don't
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  Speaker 4: distinguish between their views on Israel and their views towards
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  Speaker 4: Jewish Australians, which can be very distressing for our Jewish community.
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  Speaker 4: And so I think it becomes a question of you know, well,
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  Speaker 4: certainly for the government, it will become a question of
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  Speaker 4: you know, where does it draw the line. Now, there's
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  Speaker 4: been some hate speech laws enacted, but a lot of
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  Speaker 4: those have not been fully implemented even in the real world,
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  Speaker 4: much less the digital world. So all of this stuff
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  Speaker 4: is challenging, and it becomes particularly challenging when you have
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  Speaker 4: to rely on the social media giants who will probably
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  Speaker 4: I expect to talk about free speech and so on
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  Speaker 4: when you're relying on them to police it. So I
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  Speaker 4: don't think it's beyond the ability of our policymakers and
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  Speaker 4: the tech companies to deal with this, but getting there
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  Speaker 4: is going to be perhaps not such an easy task.
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  Speaker 1: Ben Packham, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Ben Packham is The Australian's Foreign Affairs and Defense correspondent.
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  Speaker 1: You can read all the latest from the antisemitism Royal
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  Speaker 1: Commission right now at the Australian dot com dot au