News and politics live updates: Hanson to lift media ban after ‘fair go’, Marles minimises housing slump

Royal Commissioner Virgina Bell has had to interrupt a lawyer for a Palestinian group after her line of questioning strayed into broader Middle Eastern history and detailed military action rather than focusing on the Royal Commission’s terms of reference around anti-Semitism and social cohesion.

Counsel for the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) Ragni Mathur had disputed SW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip’s claim that a protest at Sydney Opera House had been a celebratory affair, insisting Israel at that point hadn’t launched widespread retaliatory action to the Hamas October 7 terror attack.

Commissioner Bell had to step in during Ms Mathur’s cross examination to remind the hearing that the high profile probe wasn’t focused on exploring the hostilities of the Middle East “in greater detail” but rather focus on anti-Semitism in Australia.

“Ms Mathur, I don’t think you’re going to get very far with this line,” Ms Bell interrupted her.

“The witness has acknowledged that it is a very contested history.

“That there have been innocent Palestinian lives lost, just as innocent Israeli lives lost.

“I understand the matters that you wish to canvas, but the witness isn’t in a position to do more than possibly agree that that is a fair reading of a portion of the United Nations Commission report, that can be referred to in submissions.

“I do think that we’ve gone as far as we can with this line of questioning.”

An Australian Jewish group has criticised pro-Palestine protesters for advertising a rally against Israel “while women were still being raped, while children were being kidnapped, whilst families were being burnt alive”.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip has condemned an activist group for calling a rally at Sydney’s Opera House on October 9 as “pretty shocking” and “insensitive” during his testimony to the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion.

The rally in NSW came just days after a Hamas terror attack slaughtered about 1200 people, primarily Israeli citizens, and took more than 240 people hostage on October 7.

Mr Ossip had included in his submission that the rally was called before Israel had launched a widespread retaliation to the Hamas attack and suggested in his verbal evidence on Tuesday that some people attended to celebrate the October 7 attack.

“I can’t judge the motivations of everyone who attended but I think it’s fair to say that there were quite a few people there who were celebrating,” he said.

During cross-examination by the counsel for the Palestine Action Group Dominic Toomey SC, Mr Ossip was handed advertising for the event and asked if he believed it was celebratory of the terror attack.

Mr Ossip couldn’t say that the advertising explicitly indicated a celebration of the deadly attack but insisted that actions of attendees, including shocking chants and flag burning, had been anti-Semitic and organisers should take responsibility for that.

“It is quite extraordinary timing for that rally to be promoted on the evening of October 7, whilst the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas were still underway,” Mr Ossip said.

“This this post would have gone out while women were still being raped, while children were being kidnapped, whilst families were being burnt alive.

“And the Palestine Action Group thought that that was an appropriate time to hold a rally for a free Palestine.

“It’s impossible to avoid the connections between the events of October 7.”

David Ossip has described NSW Police’s decision to tell Jews to stay away from the CBD rather than stop a pro-Palestine protest at Sydney’s Opera House as “extraordinary and outrageous”.

Police had issued the Jewish community a warning to stay away after indications that a planned pro-Palestine protest at the town hall intended to march to the Opera House following a decision by the government to project the Israel flag on its sails.

Mr Ossip, who is the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president, described the protest an “international disgrace” citing the decision to call it after Israelis had been slaughtered at a music festival as insensitive.

“The protests achieved international notoriety because you had protesters proudly screaming ‘F the Jews!’, ‘We’re the Jews!’.

“One individual screams out, ‘I’m going to kill them all’.

“There were flares being thrown at the police.

“There were flags being burned.

“It was a scene of international disgrace and infamy.

“It’s amongst the clearest examples of anti-Semitism we’ve seen over the past two years.

“I can’t recall any group, particularly any religious or racial group, ever being provided advice that they should avoid their own city CBD for their own safety and well-being.

“I thought it was quite an extraordinary and outrageous admonition from police.

“It was effectively the police saying we can’t keep your community safe.

“And as I said in my statement, in my view, it was effectively the police transferring control of the CBD to the protesters.”

The head of New South Wales’ peak Jewish body says many Australian Jews struggled to “eat or sleep” after the October 7 Hamas terror attack and described people celebrating it on home soil as “unfathomable”.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip described how the community responded to the deadly attack and the moments after leading up to a controversial pro-Palestine protest at the Sydney Opera House on October 9 while appearing before Australia’s Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion on Tuesday.

“The events of 7 October, the Hamas atrocities in Israel, had a profound psychological impact on the Jewish community, not New South Wales, but Jews worldwide.

“The images that we saw of terrorists going house to house and butchering innocent civilians, I think it really brought to the fore a lot of intergenerational trauma.

“Because in those images we saw resemblances of what had happened to our ancestors in pogroms or the Holocaust, or tragedies that should have been fallen in the community previously.

“I think the entire community, and myself personally, we were deeply shocked, traumatized, struggled to sleep, struggled to eat at that time.

“So, the fact that the New South Wales government on October 8, made the decision to light the opera house … It was a source of reassurance and comfort for the community.

“It was a tremendous signal of solidarity, and it was in keeping with the lighting of monuments across the world in solidarity with the innocent victims in Israel.”

The Northern Territorys’ Chief Minister has rejected claims of politicisation in the case against Federal Labor MP Luke Gosling who has been charged with assault.

Last week, Mr Gosling’s lawyer Marty Aust said there was a “real concern that there’s a degree of politicisation in relation to how this matter is being handled”, a claim which NT Police rejected.

Asked about the matter on Tuesday, Country Liberal Party Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro also hit back at the suggestions, saying police do an “incredible job indepdentenly and with integrity”.

“These matters are now before the courts, and it’s entirely a matter for the process to take its place,” she told reporters.

New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll is trailing significantly behind Opposition Leader Jess Wilson as the state’s preferred leader, according to new polling, despite a bump in Labor’s overall popularity.

Polling commissioned by The Herald Sun in the days after Jacinta Allan resigned as premier last week shows Mr Carroll’s stewardship translates to a two percentage point lift for Labor, to 25 per cent.

The Freshwater Strategy polling indicates the Coalition has lifted three points to 30 per cent since June, while One Nation has slipped three points to 22 per cent.

On a two-party preferred basis, the Coalition leads Labor 52 to 48.

Victorians head to the polls on November 28.

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Pauline Hanson says the ban she imposed on the ABC and The Guardian at a One Nation event on Monday in Melbourne will be lifted once the minor party is given “a fair go”.

Pointing to a previous dispute with the ABC as an example, Ms Hanson said the ban she announced during a One Nation’s event to appoint some of its Victorian candidates would not be permanent.

“I did it in 1996 for nine months with the ABC and finally they started doing fair reporting,” Senator Hanson told 3AW.

“It won’t be forever and a day but it’s like putting out a message – give us a fair go.”

Queensland has appointed Thomas Bradley as its 28th

governor.

Justice Bradley will replace Jeannette Young when her term ends in November. He was elected to the Court of Appeal in March last year after serving as a Supreme Court Judge since 2018.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli described Justice Bradley’s legal career as a “distinguished” one.

“Justice Bradley …. Will bring experience and honour to his appointment as Queensland’s Governor,” he said.

Justice Bradley said the appointment to Governor is an honour.

“I call to mind all we have in common as Queenslanders: the joy we share in each other’s successes and the comfort we give in each other’s sorrows. I am reminded that, in communities large and small, we are part of a common endeavour.”

He will be formally sworn in on November 1.

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie says he is unfazed by One Nation opening a branch in his West Australian seat of Canning, calling the move “expected”.

The minor party has planned to launch the branch in Mandurah, south of Perth, on Saturday in what will be the first non-Labor West Australian seat in its crosshairs.

Mr Hastie said on Tuesday he was “not worried” and noted One Nation had opened branches in all of his neighbouring electorates.

“Everyone who comes in this job has to have a sense of their political mortality, and if this is the end, this is the end,” he told News24.

“You do your best, and it’s up to the Australian people.

“We’re also a democracy, so I don’t have a problem with any political party starting a branch.”

with NCA Newswire

There are fears hundreds of Qantas jobs in Australia could be moved offshore after the national carrier revealed it was in talks with digital technology and management consulting firm Accenture about outsourcing back office roles.

It is believed the jobs could be sent to India as Qantas chief technology, AI and transformation officer Rachel Yangoyan launches Project iQ to cut costs and bring more AI technology into the airline.

It is understood roles across its finance, marketing, human resources and other administrative jobs have already been identified as possibly suited to outsourcing.

A Qantas spokesman said talks were only in an early stage, no formal agreement was in place and no decisions have been made.

“Like all organisations, Qantas has been looking at ways to accelerate the use of technology and AI to help us modernise the way we work and deliver better outcomes for our customers and our people,” he said.

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