/qresearch/ -  Q Research

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Embattled MP Moira Deeming resigns from Victorian Liberal Party to go independent

LILY MCCAFFREY - 28 July 2026

Moira Deeming has quit the parliamentary Liberal Party and will sit on the crossbench as an independent, putting an end to her MP’s tumultuous relationship with the party.

Ms Deeming’s resignation comes after the state executive earlier this month voted unanimously to disendorse her after she refused to apologise for making assault allegations against former leader Matthew Guy that were dismissed by police.

Ms Deeming handed in her ­retirement notice during a chaotic day at Victorian parliament on Tuesday, with Opposition Leader Jess Wilson issuing a statement about 20 minutes after it was announced Ben Carroll would become Victoria’s new Premier.

“This morning I received the resignation from the parliamentary Liberal Party from Moira Deeming,” Ms Wilson said.

Ms Deeming in a statement on social media confirmed her ­resignation and said she would sit on the crossbench as an ­independent.

“My focus has always been, and will continue to be, on representing the needs and concerns of everyday Australians,” Ms Deeming said.

“I was elected to fight for freedom, fair laws, and families.”

She thanked her supporters and said she was committed to getting rid of the Labor government.

“To save our state from ­endemic corruption, crushing debt and the rising crime crisis, Labor has got to go.

“I remain fully committed to seeing that through,” she said.

Ms Deeming was elected to the upper house for the Western Metropolitan Region in 2022.

She was expelled from the ­Victorian Liberal partyroom in 2023 but readmitted in 2024 after she had successfully sued the party’s former leader, John Pesutto, for defamation in the Federal Court.

The loss ultimately cost Mr Pesutto the leadership.

Ms Deeming again hit the headlines in March this year after Indian community leader Dinesh Gourisetty beat her for the top spot on the Liberals’ Western Metropolitan ticket in a preselection ­battle.

She was quickly returned to the top position on the upper house ticket, however, after it emerged Mr Gourisetty had provided a character reference for a friend convicted of child sex offences.

Ms Deeming was subsequently disendorsed last month after she defied Ms Wilson by ­refusing to apologise for making allegations of ­assault against fellow MP Mr Guy.

She launched legal action in the Supreme Court against Liberal state president Brian Loughnane and the party, challenging their disendorsement process, but subsequently she discontinued it.

Ms Deeming remains en­tangled in a separate Supreme Court action brought by a group of members and former members of the Liberal state executive against the party regarding its decision to loan Mr Pesutto $1.55m to enable him to pay legal costs owed to Ms Deeming.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/victoria/embattled-mp-moira-deeming-resigns-from-victorian-liberal-party-to-go-independent/news-story/e28c9462ffc4f7d258f30a0e01f8c430

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Visa crackdown and ‘real fear’ in hospitals revealed at antisemitism royal commission

BIMINI PLESSER - 28 July 2026

Sweeping reforms passed in the wake of the Bondi terror attack made it easier for the government to refuse and cancel visas for high-risk figures such as Kanye West, far-right commentators and potential terrorists, the antisemitism royal commission has heard.

Home Affairs immigration chief Clare Sharp told the commission on Tuesday that law changes, passed in January watered down the test for officials assessing visas.

Previously, Home Affairs staff assessed whether a person “would incite discord in the Australian community”, but now officials can reject or revoke a visa if a person “might” incite discord.

Ms Sharp said the wording change had allowed the government to cancel someone’s visa after they attended a neo-Nazi rally outside NSW parliament last year and also to block far-right conservative commentator Candace Owens from going on a speaking tour across Australia.

Ms Sharp said it had enabled the department “to make earlier and more risk-based decisions” and avoid the old “lengthy process” of dealing with potentially dangerous figures.

The commission heard controversial musician Kanye West’s visa was cancelled in 2025 under “good order” grounds after he made a series of antisemitic statements and released a song called Heil Hitler. Ms Sharp confirmed decision-makers had identified West’s presence in Australia as a “risk to the good order of the ­community” or a possible inciter of violence.

She also mentioned a list of “controversial visitors” created by Home Affairs to keep tabs on “high-profile individuals who are known for saying controversial things”. While being on the list did not mean someone would automatically be refused a visa, Ms Sharp said it meant the department was acutely aware of those individuals’ travel plans.

The commission also heard that antisemitic statements can now be categorised as “serious conduct”, making them a mandatory consideration for decision-makers when evaluating character grounds for visa refusals or cancellations.

Ms Sharp’s testimony followed a high-profile rabbi’s calls for a bigger crackdown on casual bigotry in Australia. Jewish House chief executive and Rabbinical Fellow of The Great Synagogue Rabbi Mendel Kastel told the commission on Tuesday morning the Jewish community was increasingly afraid to seek medical care.

The commission heard about numerous reports of doctors being “targeted, kicked off groups, abused” outside their workplaces and incidents where patients “turned on doctors”, even saying they refused to be treated by “a Zionist pig”.

Rabbi Kastel then referred to the case of two Bankstown Hospital nurses facing criminal charges over allegedly threatening to kill Israeli patients. He said it was one of several serious incidents that made his community hesitant to seek medical care.

After a video of the former nurses’ alleged comments went viral and Jewish people became “too afraid to go to hospital”, Rabbi Kastel said NSW Health asked him if they should create an alternative way for them to access healthcare.

“My answer was absolutely not. We need to make sure that hospitals are safe,” he said.

“People are concerned about going to hospital. People are concerned about putting down on their admission form that they’re Jewish.

“I’ve had people who have an Israeli accent who are afraid to sort of talk to the nurse because they’ll pick up that they might be Israeli. There’s real fear out there.”

Rabbi Kastel, who has been a chaplain at Sydney hospitals for decades, said he was hopeful change would come in the health sector.

“There is a very good culture within NSW Health, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said. “It’s a bureaucracy. It takes time, but there’s definitely a lot of positive feelings within the health sector.”

When asked whether medical staff should be asked not to wear a pin of the Israeli or Palestinian flags, Rabbi Kastel said: “Yes, I would support that.”

The rabbi also called for a bigger crackdown on bigotry and bias that doesn’t meet criminal standards, saying casual abuse was becoming far too commonplace.

“Unfortunately … people are feeling that it’s OK to say whatever they want to whoever they want, whenever they want, and get away with it because it’s not technically illegal. But it still is done to be able to abuse people, to intimidate people, to terrorise people, and that’s not OK,” he said.

“That’s something that we’re finding is becoming more normalised, and where we need to start seeing change.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jewish-australians-too-afraid-to-go-to-hospital-royal-commission-told/news-story/2e4cdacf2cef7de079f77454a2855785

Australia’s most wanted man Kazem Hamad jailed for life in Iraq

MOHAMMAD ALFARES - 28 July 2026

Kazem “Kaz” Hamad, the exiled underworld boss branded Australia’s most wanted man and the mastermind behind Melbourne’s deadly tobacco wars, has been handed a life sentence by an Iraqi court.

A court in Baghdad on Tuesday sentenced the criminal kingpin, also known as Kadhim Malik Hamad Rabah al-Hajami, on charges of drug trafficking. The ruling also orders the seizure of all his “movable and immovable assets”.

The conviction marks a dramatic end to the reign of the former Melbourne resident, who was deported from Australia in 2023 but continued to control a sprawling criminal empire from overseas. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett had previously designated Hamad as the nation’s top law enforcement priority and a national security threat, accusing him of operating a syndicate that pocketed tens of millions of dollars from the illicit tobacco trade.

A statement from Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation described Hamad as one of the most dangerous fugitives targeted by Iraqi and international judiciaries.

“The convict is considered one of the most wanted individuals by Iraqi and international judiciaries. He is responsible for importing large quantities of narcotics into Iraq and Australia, smuggling heroin, and is linked to transnational organised crime gangs involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, murder, kidnapping, extortion, and organised violence,” the NCIJC said.

The sentence was handed down by the Karkh Criminal Court in Baghdad, the same court that is investigating Australia’s most infamous ISIS operative, Tareq Kamleh.

Hamad’s downfall was triggered by an AFP operation that provided intelligence to authorities in Baghdad late last year. Iraqi security forces arrested him in January after raiding his property and seizing his assets.

From his overseas sanctuary, Hamad orchestrated an aggressive campaign to dominate Melbourne’s black-market tobacco trade. Victoria Police have linked his syndicate to nearly 200 firebombings across the state targeting rival operators and small businesses, as well as the murder of former bikie Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim and a fatal arson attack in Truganina that killed innocent house-sitter Katie Tangey.

He was also suspected of conspiring with the Iranian regime to orchestrate the anti-Semitic firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, and has been branded by the AFP as a “national security threat”.

The life sentence delivered in Baghdad effectively dismantles the leadership of one of Australia’s most destructive transnational syndicates.

The AFP said it was aware of the sentencing.

“The AFP was informed by the National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) that a life sentence had been handed down against an individual of interest to Australian authorities,” a spokesperson said.

“The AFP notes the work of our important partner. The AFP will provide further comment at an appropriate time.”

Organised crime gangs, which are engaged in firebombings and turf wars, have ruthlessly carved-out a multibillion-dollar black market as Australians purchase illicit tobacco. The black market has flourished as the federal government’s world-leading tobacco excises drive up the costs of cigarettes.

His arrest sparked infighting among the crime syndicate he was accused of leading, the AFP said earlier this year.

Ms Barrett described Hamad at the time as her “number one target”, after releasing a mugshot of him in Iraqi custody.

“I want every offender connected to Hamad or his syndicate to look long and hard at this photo,” Ms Barrett said at the time.

“And I want to be very clear - just because Hamad is in custody, the AFP’s job is not done.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke had also celebrated his arrest in January, saying: “He thought he was offshore, he was out of reach … well he wasn’t.”

Victoria Police did not wish to comment, but had acknowledged the sentencing.

After arriving in Australia from Iraq as a teenage immigrant in the late ‘90s, Hamad evolved over the next decade and a half into a professional criminal connected to prominent underworld bosses.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/australias-most-wanted-man-kazem-hamad-jailed-for-life-in-iraq/news-story/b24d8aa00268bfb9673150d3b1a2b561

—

AFP chief hails arrest of gangland boss Kazem Hamad in Iraq - 14 January 2026

https://archive.vn/4OWXq#24119726

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Inside the SAS feud driving Ben Roberts-Smith war crimes allegations and secret 4 Squadron investigation

How a clandestine unit in the elite fighting force became the centre of the campaign to bring down Australia’s most highly decorated soldier.

Aaron Patrick - 10 JUL 2026

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On a spring morning in 2018, Ben Roberts-Smith walked into the lobby of Canberra’s East Hotel, known as the “Frat House” because of its popularity with out-of-town male politicians.

Waiting for him was an old colleague from the Special Air Services Regiment. The man, who Mr Roberts-Smith came to suspect was wearing a listening device, ordered a long macchiato.

Mr Roberts-Smith asked for an English Breakfast tea.

The Victoria Cross awardee was there to save his reputation. The other man, Sergeant A, would help destroy it.

The two men represented a fissure in the elite regiment. With many of Mr Roberts-Smith’s other detractors, Sergeant A had joined the SAS’ espionage wing, 4 Squadron. Along with then Captain Andrew Hastie, now a Liberal MP, he became part of a campaign to expose alleged abuses during the long war in Afghanistan, including what they claimed were the execution of prisoners.

Mr Roberts-Smith and his closest friends were mostly members of 2 Squadron, an assault unit that won the army’s bloodiest battle of the war, the 2010 Battle of Tizak.

The victory earned the SAS its first battle honours, placing them in the pantheon of special forces operators. Over time, the 2 Squadron soldiers would be driven out of the army, forced to find civilian work or live on military pensions.

The men from 4 Squadron would be protected and promoted, including those who broke military rules by briefing journalists about their colleagues.

The conflict between the two squadrons - one designed for combat, the other for spying - became a driving force behind the allegations, inquiries and media coverage that almost ripped the storied regiment apart.

Joint Interagency Liaison Office

On that unusually warm morning in Canberra at the Frat House, Mr Roberts-Smith reached out across the squadrons for help. He had found out 10 days earlier that Fairfax Media, his nemesis, intended to try to prove in court that he executed or ordered the execution of five unarmed prisoners and civilians in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.

Mr Roberts-Smith knew that Sergeant A could help prove or disprove the accusation he ordered an Afghan man shot in 2012 in a compound where Taliban weapons had just been found hidden in a wall cavity.

Mr Roberts-Smith’s murder trial already looks like a security nightmare for the Defence Force. In addition to thousands of classified documents it will likely have to share with Mr Roberts-Smith and his civilian lawyers, the case will bring unwanted attention to members of 4 Squadron.

When Sergeant A met with Mr Roberts-Smith - after earlier holding a clandestine meeting with two of the journalists pursuing him - he was a member of an agency so secret few people outside the intelligence services have heard of it.

Based in Canberra, the Joint Interagency Liaison Office is charged with planning some of the most sensitive work in the whole government. Soldiers from 4 Squadron work alongside officials from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the AFP and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, according to military sources.

The agency’s classified work includes responding to terrorist attacks at home, planning rescue operations of Australians taken overseas and getting diplomatic staff out of war zones, the sources said.

Alpha-male culture

Within the SAS, 4 Squadron was a state secret. The government has never disclosed its function, but SAS veterans and a few published reports say it provides military muscle for intelligence officers on foreign assignments. SAS soldiers train at an ASIS facility in Swan Island, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, which can only be accessed by a single road or sea.

Since it adopted the 4 Squadron name around 2006, the unit has only sporadically appeared in the press. One embarrassing example was a 2013 incident in Kabul, when SAS soldiers and ASIS officers were drinking at a barbecue. A drunken soldier waved a pistol at an ASIS officer he would later describe as a flirt, according to a report by the ABC.

They were both sent home almost immediately.

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During the war, the squadron became an experiment in equal opportunity. About three or four female soldiers were transferred into the squadron from elsewhere in the army, according to two SAS sources. Special Operations Command, which oversees the SAS and other special forces units, believed male and female couples would be less conspicuous on undercover operations than pairs of muscular men, the sources said.

The women did not undergo the gruelling SAS entrance trials known as “selection”, which meant they couldn’t be assigned to the regiment permanently. After about five years, the experiment was abandoned for reasons that have never been made public, according to the sources.

Because of its non-combat role, 4 Squadron was never sent to Afghanistan as a group on combat operations, according to an SAS source. But members of the squadron working with ASIS in the country would sometimes join other squadrons on missions, he said.

That included 2 Squadron, which had an aggressive reputation even by SAS standards. Two Squadron’s success hunting down Taliban leaders reinforced the power of its sergeants and corporals, who led five or six-man teams known as patrols. These battle-hardened non-commissioned officers pushed back against interference from their officers, who often had less warfare experience.

“Two Squadron were known in the regiment for patrol commanders running their own strike plans and kicking everyone out of those orders,” Mr Hastie said in 2022.

Two Squadron’s alpha-male culture was epitomised by the company’s informal mascot: the prosthetic leg of a suspect insurgent man killed (allegedly in an execution) in 2009. The leg became a popular drinking vessel at the SAS bar in Tarin Kowt, the Fat Lady’s Arms, and was shipped home to the SAS headquarters in Perth where it was mounted, framed and dubbed “Das Boot”.

Rumours and factions

As the war entered its second decade, some members of the regiment felt 2 Squadron’s fight against the insurgency had become too bloody. Rumours spread that after the shooting stopped, team leaders had ordered prisoners executed, both by newly arrived Australians and Afghan government soldiers under their command.

The regiment began to split into warring factions. Several of Mr Roberts-Smith’s detractors transferred to 4 Squadron, where they could avoid the multiple deployments to Afghanistan that were financially lucrative but tough on their bodies, their family lives and, in some cases, their spirits.

Australian combat operations in Afghanistan stopped in October, 2013, when then prime minister Tony Abbott declared at the army’s base in Southern Afghanistan: “Australia’s longest war is ending.”

The fighting with the Taliban was over. The war inside the SAS was intensifying.

Within 4 Squadron, the nucleus of what might be called the BRS opposition had established itself. Among the most senior was Mr Hastie, who had spent five days in Afghanistan in 2012 learning about the war at the same time Mr Roberts-Smith was leading a team on missions to track down Taliban leaders.

Mr Hastie became close to a sergeant known by the pseudonym Kenneth Barber, a military fitness instructor who joined the SAS in 2001. A history buff who fought in the Battle of Tizak, Sgt Barber was convinced Mr Roberts-Smith’s Victoria Cross citation contained fabrications and the corporal did not deserve the medal. He would carry the resentment at what he saw as a deep injustice for more than a decade.

In 4 Squadron’s offices, Mr Hastie and Sgt Barber held long emotional conversations about the war, Mr Roberts-Smith and whether 2 Squadron had crossed the line on the battlefield. Mr Hastie, a committed Christian, described the talks as a form of counselling.

“Evil,” Mr Hastie said in 2022 they discussed. “We all have to deal with it.

“I believe at the time I was trying to let (him) know that you can’t - you can’t change the world yourself. You can’t be the - the single person here.”

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Going public

The headstrong sergeant didn’t take the advice. In December, 2015, he met independent journalist Chris Masters at a restaurant in Canberra.

Over dinner and drinks, he repeated a second-hand story that Mr Roberts-Smith kicked an Afghan man, Ali Jan, off a cliff in 2012 in the village of Darwan and had him shot.

Mr Roberts-Smith, who was in Darwan hunting an Afghan government soldier who had killed three Australians, denied kicking anyone off a cliff or ordering any executions. Photographs of the site would show the “cliff” was a river embankment.

Sgt Barber would later say he believed he had tacit permission from the Defence Force to share information about Mr Roberts-Smith with Mr Masters.

“When I rang the Defence Media up, they did not say to me, ‘Be careful what you talk about. Don’t talk about classified information and don’t talk about possible war crimes’,” he said in court in 2022.

Even though he was a member of 4 Squadron, and would also be assigned to the the Joint Interagency Liaison Office, according to another SAS source, Sgt Barber agreed to appear on Nine’s 60 Minutes program in 2019 and talk about Mr Roberts-Smith. His identity cloaked, he repeated the Darwan allegation to Mr Masters’ collaborator, Nick McKenzie.

At the time of the 60 Minutes interview, the allegations were being investigated by a NSW judge, Paul Brereton, on behalf of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force, which oversees military justice. Justice Brereton had started work in 2016. His report would not be published until 2020.

Sgt Barber did not seek permission from the army to appear on the show, but was allowed to remain in the SAS despite breaching military rules that strictly limit contact with journalists. “I’m not proud of it, however . . . I can’t say I regret it,” Sgt Barber said in court in 2022. “I wouldn’t do it again.”

Sgt Barber wasn’t at Darwan. He was told the cliff story by a private in Mr Roberts-Smith’s team at Tizak, who had also swapped from 2 Squadron to 4 Squadron. The private disliked Mr Roberts-Smith and resented that he had to wait three years to receive a medal for his bravery in the battle, according to evidence he gave in court.

Another member of the Tizak assault team had also moved across to 4 Squadron. A scout, he resented that a Star of Gallantry, the second-ranked bravery decoration, had been awarded to the team’s sergeant, a close friend of Mr Roberts-Smith’s.

The scout, who was also a private, confronted the sergeant about the official record of the Battle of Tizak. It credited the sergeant with saving the team’s six men, including Mr Roberts-Smith, by throwing a grenade at a Taliban machine-gun nest. The explosion either killed or stunned one of the machine-gunners, allowing Mr Roberts-Smith to charge in and kill everyone left alive, the act recognised with the Victoria Cross for Australia.

“I said to him,” the scout said in court he told the sergeant, “I don’t believe it really was, mate. You didn’t know where the grenade was going. You had no idea where you were throwing that. Show some humility.”

Sharing info at Tulip’s

Even though Sergeant A was a 2 Squadron member in 2010, he missed the Battle of Tizak. The army refused to send him to Afghanistan because he had stored photographs from military operations on a personal hard drive, which his estranged wife discovered and used to blackmail him, he said.

Transferred to 4 Squadron, Sergeant A found a supporter in Mr Hastie, who called him a “very good guy”. In early 2018, Sergeant A met Masters, the journalist, twice in Canberra.

Sergeant A later said he chose to meet at a place called “tulips” at 7.30am. Google lists one such venue in Canberra, Tulip’s Cafe in the suburb of Pialligo, located on a semi-rural back street near Canberra Airport. Unlike the Frat House, it was a discreet place to share information.

At the cafe, Sergeant A talked about a mission in October, 2012, to the Chenartu District about 100km north-east of the SAS’ base in southern Afghanistan. As soldiers in a team commanded by the then Corporal Roberts-Smith were searching a mud-brick compound, they discovered an AK-47 assault rifle, bullets and rocket-propelled grenades hidden in a wall cavity.

In the aftermath of the discovery, Mr Roberts-Smith told an Afghan government soldier to shoot an Afghan man present in the compound, Sergeant A alleged in court. By his own account, Sergeant A did not try to stop what he described as an execution, did not file a complaint or tell anyone in authority.

“I was perplexed but didn’t say anything,” Sergeant A said in court. “We . . . were like close to extraction.”

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Sergeant A said he then jogged to an open area where helicopters were going to land and return them to their base. He said he saw a visibly unhappy senior sergeant from 2 Squadron who was responsible for prisoners.

Headquarters had been notified that three or four possible insurgents had been captured, according to Sergeant A. In military terminology they were known as PUCs, for person under confinement or control.

“The PUC count has already gone in and the helos are coming in,” the senior sergeant said, according to Sergeant A.

Only two prisoners were available for the helicopter ride. It is unclear if any numerical PUC disparity was questioned by 2 Squadron’s commanders.

Exactly what Sergeant A told journalists about the Chenartu mission is unclear, but the soldier believed he was authorised to speak to them despite working in an espionage unit.

“Defence was, were aware of what was happening,” he said in court when asked if he sought permission to brief the media about military operations.

The Defence Department did not respond to a request to comment about 4 Squadron’s role or tensions within the SAS during and after the war.

Mr Roberts-Smith has denied killing prisoners or ordering anyone to. “I categorically deny all of these allegations,” he said on April 19. ”I’m proud of my service in Afghanistan. While I was there, I always acted within my values, my training and within the rules of engagement.”

The winner

Six years after the Chenartu mission, Sergeant A and Mr Roberts-Smith found themselves exchanging pleasantries at the East Hotel in Canberra. Mr Roberts-Smith had been given the evidence that would be used against him in his unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against Nine. It included a statement by Sergeant A about Chenartu that accused Mr Roberts-Smith of ordering an execution.

At the hotel, Mr Roberts-Smith handed the sergeant a copy of the document and asked if he had accused him of having a man executed. “I showed him, effectively, a redacted page with … what was attributed to him,” Mr Roberts-Smith said in court. “Shockingly, to me, at the time, he said that that’s how he saw the events of the day unfold.”

Sergeant A said he told Mr Roberts-Smith: “2012 was pretty loose” and “come on mate, you machine gunned that guy”.

After the conversation petered out, Sergeant A stood up and said, “Thanks for the coffee” and walked away. Mr Roberts-Smith paid for the macchiato.

Sergeant A is not one of the four veterans granted immunity from murder charges in return for testifying against Mr Roberts-Smith. The former soldier has not been charged over the alleged incident at Chenartu, which is one of the five counts of the war crime of murder against Mr Roberts-Smith. Lawyers involved say the case will take years to reach a trial.

As for the battle of the squadrons, it was resoundingly won by 4 Squadron. In 2020 the Chief of the Defence Force, former SAS officer Angus Campbell, decided to abolish 2 Squadron after the official inquiry concluded Australian soldiers were responsible for the deaths of 39 Afghans.

Some 2 Squadron veterans believe they are still being pursued by the Office of the Special Investigator, which has been allocated $300 million from Defence funding to investigate veterans. Some officers who were members of 2 Squadron or oversaw the unit had decorations revoked.

Mr Hastie, the Opposition industry spokesman, did not respond to questions about his involvement in the case. Mr Roberts-Smith is a former executive at the Seven television network, which is part of the same company as The Nightly.

https://thenightly.com.au/australia/inside-the-sas-feud-driving-ben-roberts-smith-war-crimes-allegations-and-secret-4-squadron-investigation-c-22561429

>>24841398

Australia records highest surge in antisemitism of any major nation with a large Jewish population

BIMINI PLESSER - 29 July 2026

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Australia has recorded a 246 per cent increase in antisemitic abuse and vandalism since October 7, 2023, marking the steepest increase of any major Jewish diaspora nation, a damning new report reveals.

An annual report released through the American Anti-Defamation League documents the rates of antisemitism across the J7, a coalition of the world’s largest Jewish diaspora communities.

The number of antisemitic incidents in Australia has increased 270 per cent since 2021, the highest of any J7 country, the report found.

Germany and the US recorded the second and third-highest increases, with jumps of 215 per cent and 131 per cent, respectively.

Annual data collected by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry – covering the 12-month period from October 1 to September 30 – shows the number of antisemitic incidents in Australia rose from 231 in 2013 to 1654 in 2025, a 616 per cent jump.

The spike included a huge jump from 495 incidents in 2023 to 2062 incidents in 2024, which ECAJ attributed to increased anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. These acts of antisemitism were predominantly assault, abuse, vandalism and graffiti, the report stated.

Australia also recorded the second-highest number of antisemitic incidents per 1000 Jewish residents in 2025. At 14.14, Australia’s rate was higher than every J7 country except Germany, which recorded a rate of 69.80 per 1000 residents.

Last year was the deadliest for antisemitic attacks outside Israel in more than three decades, the report showed. Of the 20 people killed, 15 were the innocents gunned down at Bondi Beach in December. The remaining five victims were killed in the UK and the US.

The J7 report also showed how prevalent antisemitic abuse has become on social media.

Data from Australia’s Online Hate Prevention Institute found, on average, social platforms recorded a 839 per cent rise in antisemitism after October 7, 2023. The changes ranged from an increase of 337 per cent on X to a staggering 984 per cent on Gab, a networking service known for its minimal content moderation and far-right user base.

The statistics come shortly after hearing block three of the antisemitism royal commission examined the impact of social media and tech giants on social cohesion.

The commission’s senior counsel assisting, Richard Lancaster SC, this month declared “social media companies are not sufficiently addressing antisemitism online” and called for strict regulations.

“If social media platforms are capable of inflicting harm, or are actually inflicting harm upon Australians, the laws of Australia must be capable of ­securing accountability for those harms,” he said.

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The J7 report also detailed the impact of antisemitism on Australia’s university campuses.

A survey by the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism found 67 per cent of Jewish-Australian university students and staff had been exposed to antisemitic harassment, 43 per cent reported being ignored or excluded, and 39 per cent were insulted or harassed on social media.

Only 34 per cent of respondents said they felt safe on campus, 60 per cent rated their university’s actions against antisemitism between zero and three on a scale of zero to 10, and more than half reported having no confidence in the complaints system at their university.

The report ended its section on Australia with a fairly bleak “outlook” statement but held on to hope the royal commission could spark real change, and even inspire other governments to take similar action against antisemitism.

“The outlook for 2026 is not optimistic,” it read.

“Anti-Jewish incidents, sentiment, discrimination and propaganda are expected to continue.

“It is unknown whether Jews will be murdered in 2026, as they were in 2025, but this remains a key concern.

“However, the massacre at Bondi has apparently woken up governments, police and others to the high levels of, and violent, antisemitism occurring within Australia, and this awakening may elicit serious measures to curb antisemitism.

“It is also hoped that the royal commission, due to finish in December 2026, will provide recommendations that will be effective and will be adopted by governments and others to combat antisemitism.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/australia-records-highest-surge-in-antisemitism-of-any-major-jewish-nation/news-story/5e025ef775c60c874f2231d78654ce7b

https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/j7-report-2025-was-deadliest-year-antisemitic-attacks-diaspora-over-30

>>24841398

Jewish doctors afraid to report antisemitism over fear of reprisals, commission told

MARCUS DE BLONK SMITH - 29 July 2026

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Antisemitism had driven doctors and healthcare workers to hide their Jewish identity when racism spiked in the aftermath of the ­October 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel, a royal commission has been told.

But some Jewish medical staff were too afraid to report the abuse for fear of being subjected to reprisals, the inquiry heard.

The confronting evidence demonstrated how antisemitism has penetrated hospitals and clinics that were supposed to be ­havens of judgment-free care for Australians of all walks of life and backgrounds.

Australasian Jewish Medical Federation’s Jack Green and Adam Gordon were the first to testify before the antisemitism royal commission in Sydney on Wednesday.

The commission heard Jewish doctors and healthcare professionals felt compelled to hide their Jewish or Israeli identity, while junior Jewish medical staff who experienced antisemitism in the workplace were too afraid to report it for fear of reprisals.

In his evidence on Wednesday, Dr Gordon said he set up a dedicated advocacy committee to provide support to Jewish doctors and healthcare professionals after many reported feeling “a lot of ­despair” in the workplace following the October attacks.

Dr Gordon, a gastroenterologist, said Jewish patients had also raised with him their concerns that they would be subjected to “antisemitism sentiment” when attending hospital.

In his testimony, he told the commission healthcare should be a “sacred space”, free from the “political advocacy of the day”.

“Everyone wants the healthcare system to be safe and equitable for everybody,” Dr Gordon said. “There shouldn’t be this ­additional concern placed on ­patients about where they fit in terms of the political advocacy of the day.”

Giving evidence on Wednesday morning, Dr Green, a consultant dermatologist, said no practitioner should ever “feel compelled to conceal their Jewish or Israeli identity”, and patients themselves shouldn’t have “doubts care will be impartial”.

He added his hope for the future was that no colleague was blamed for the actions of a foreign government.

JewishCare’s Lawson Broad and Ben Bolot, giving joint evidence, detailed to the commission how demand for the organisation’s services changed “quite profoundly” after October 7 and then rose “significantly” after December’s Bondi terror attack.

“From October 7, we saw an increase in people seeking support for mental health, stress-related type stress disorders,” Mr Bolot said. “Post 14 December, that changed even more significantly,” he added. JewishCare is a not-for-profit major service provider for vulnerable members of the Jewish community.

In the immediate aftermath of the Bondi massacre, the organisation fielded more than 1000 calls for help. It has since taken on more staff to meet the increased demand.

The commission heard a statement from one of JewishCare’s aged care clients – a Holocaust survivor – who, in a survey, said: “We’re not even dead yet. How can this be happening?”

Another, also a survivor of the Holocaust, said: “Ever since Bondi, I haven’t gone out unless I have to. I am worried and fearful of being attacked.

“I am heartbroken. After surviving the Holocaust in Hungary, this beautiful country, which was safe for us Jews and non-Jews, is not anymore.”

It was heard many of JewishCare’s clients had become hesitant to venture out into public spaces, while some who relied on transport services such as Uber were giving drivers fake addresses to avoid disclosing their direct location. JewishCare staff, the commission was told, also became concerned for their safety after a car was firebombed nearby the ­organisation’s office.

(continued)

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Mr Bolot, in his evidence, called for antisemitism to be recognised as a distinct trauma category within agencies, as he detailed how the organisation was now providing mental health supports to an increasing number of Jewish Australians.

“We’re seeing people present, whole families present, that have never encountered these sorts of needs before,” he said. “But importantly, people are not comfortable accessing those services that they’re aware of – mainstream providers. They want to to come somewhere that they feel safe.”

Mr Bolot added: “Every time there was a car bombing, every time there was graffiti, every time there was a flare-up, we were providing individual supports and group supports for people who felt increasingly vulnerable.”

South Western Sydney Local Health District executive officer Sonia Marshall also fronted the commission on Wednesday.

Ms Marshall said in the wake of a 2025 incident in which two former Bankstown nurses allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients, staff at the hospital “felt both embarrassed and ashamed”.

“They were vilified in the community for working in southwestern Sydney, particularly those staff who worked at Bankstown Hospital,” she said.

High-profile rabbi Mendel Kastel, in his testimony on Tuesday, said the incident was one of several that made his community reluctant to seek medical care.

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency chief executive Justin Untersteiner, giving evidence on Wednesday, said while health practitioners had the right to free speech, all Australians “should feel safe in accessing healthcare”, no matter their religion, race, or background.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/jewish-doctors-afraid-to-report-antisemitism-over-fear-of-reprisals-commission-told/news-story/0fa39cb0c91dcec89c31d9173f36a088

>>24810476

>>24810498

>>24841260

Musk's X says Australia social media ban crackdown undermines international law

Byron Kaye - July 29, 2026

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SYDNEY, July 29 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's X accused Australia of trying to give its internet regulator unfair information-gathering powers and undermining U.S. law with plans for tougher enforcement of a teen social media ban.

Australia's world-first law barring accounts for under-16s took effect last December, drawing criticism from social media companies, mostly based in the United States.

But the contention by X, whose parent company is Musk's just-listed SpaceX, amounts to one of the world's most powerful people injecting a geopolitical element into the debate.

The plans did not give "due regard to procedural fairness, privacy, the broader impacts on online services, and Australia's digital economy", X told an Australian senate committee.

In its submission published on Tuesday, X took aim at plans to give the eSafety Commissioner wider rights of document discovery and double a maximum fine to A$99 million ($69 million).

The changes would "compel any person outside Australia … to provide information and documents merely because they are 'affiliated' with a company," X said, a move it described as being "in clear conflict" with international legal principles.

The amendment "raises potential for a severe impact on international comity", it added, using a phrase denoting respect for a foreign country's legal system.

A U.S. congressional committee has already asked the eSafety Commissioner to testify, accusing her of imperiling American free speech.

The billionaire Musk himself called the Australian social media ban a "backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians" in an earlier post on X.

Data published by eSafety and studies since the ban have shown most Australian teenagers under 16 still have social media accounts.

eSafety has said it is preparing a potential enforcement lawsuit against five platforms but is slowed by its limited powers.

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The regulator told the panel its currently-limited power to compel documents was at odds with other regulators, making it dependent on "representations from providers about their own compliance".

eSafety also lacked power to compel documents from third-party age assurance providers hired by the platforms, establishing "significant" barriers to the progress of investigations, it added.

DIGI, an industry group representing several platforms, told the senate inquiry eSafety already had extensive enforcement powers that had not been fully tested, and urged greater clarity on whom it could demand documents from.

Google's YouTube and TikTok said in separate submissions there was no known failsafe method to weed out and block underage users.

Parliament has yet to pass the bill for greater enforcement powers. The senate committee will deliver its findings on August 25, after holding hearings.

($1=1.4397 Australian dollars)

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/musks-x-says-australia-social-media-ban-crackdown-undermines-international-law-2026-07-29/

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/StrengtheningSMMA48P

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/StrengtheningSMMA48P/Submissions

Katanning hostel rapist Dennis McKenna set to be released from jail under strict conditions

Jake Sturmer and Will Corbett - 29 July 2026

One of Western Australia's worst serial paedophiles appears set to be released from prison under strict supervision, as prosecutors argue he is a high-risk serious offender.

Dennis John McKenna abused dozens of boys in the 1970s and 80s while in charge of St Andrew's Hostel, a student boarding accommodation facility in the town of Katanning, about 290 kilometres south-east of Perth.

McKenna's brazen and repetitive offending was revealed over the course of four separate court cases between 1991 and 2015.

He was denied parole in 2024, and prosecutors have since sought to have the serial paedophile declared a High Risk Serious Offender (HRSO), which could have kept the octogenarian behind bars for the rest of his life.

In court today, the prosecution argued McKenna should be declared an HRSO, but could be released from prison under strict conditions.

That could happen as soon as November, as McKenna completes his 15-and-a-half-year sentence.

Reoffending risk 'low' despite 'distorted views'

McKenna, 81, watched on via video link from Acacia Prison dressed in a green jumper with short, thinning grey hair. He spoke only to confirm his name.

Prosecutor Brett Tooker told the court McKenna posed "an unacceptable risk that he will commit a serious offence … against a male child."

The court heard from one forensic psychiatrist who considered his risk of reoffending was "low", primarily due to his advanced age and lack of offending in the 17 years between his 1991 and 2011 jail sentences.

Forensic psychiatrist Peter Wynn Owen, who interviewed McKenna twice for around five hours over the past year, said the serial paedophile continued to "categorically" deny any offending after 1981.

"[He] attributes blame to victims, suggests victims in fact instigated aspects of the offending," he said.

"If an individual is denying offending, it suggests they are not going to be able to engage with treatment."

Mr Wynn Owen said McKenna continued to hold distorted views that in his mind minimised or justified his offending.

"This distortion … enabled him to continue to offend over a long period of time," he said.

McKenna 'knows how vilified he is'

McKenna's lawyer Joel Grinceri said he saw "no reason" why McKenna needed to see victim submissions tended to the court and didn't anticipate he would seek to view them.

"He is well aware of his notoriety in the community and he is essentially a man with no friends," Mr Grinceri said.

"His family has abandoned him and he has been in custody for many years now.

"There is, obviously, on his behalf significant trepidation at the prospect of being released in the community, knowing how vilified he is and how notorious he is in the community.

"He is scared himself in that regard."

Mr Wynn Owen told the court he had significant concerns about McKenna's proposed address following release, given he would be sharing a home with a fellow offender.

"Mr McKenna is a very isolated man and will remain isolated other than [with] this individual," he said.

"To live with another offender who is also a denier would potentially increase his risk [and] is likely to reduce his compliance with supervision and monitoring."

Victims got 'life sentences'

Among those eager to be present for the decision on McKenna's future was Kaye Anderson.

Three of Ms Anderson's five children attended St Andrew's, with Ray and Quenton both reporting they were sexually abused during their stay between 1985 and 1987.

Ray later took his own life, while Quenton died from drug and alcohol abuse.

Ms Anderson said McKenna will never be able to remedy the harm caused to her family.

"My kids got death sentences, so did others. Those kids he abused, they got life sentences.

"They never got parole; they had to live with that.

"McKenna should be the same. No release from jail whatsoever."

Whistleblower Maggie Dawkins said she too was disappointed McKenna will likely walk free.

"We're going to have probably 40 different clauses. He's got to wear one of those electronic bracelets and all that sort of stuff," she said.

"But he's still out, isn't he?

"That's using police resources that they've got to monitor all the time, when that could be better spent elsewhere."

McKenna's lawyer and the prosecutor agreed about the need to declare him a High Risk Serious Offender and that he should be subject to a supervision order.

The specifics of those conditions were being negotiated. A final decision on McKenna's future will be made at a later court hearing.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-29/wa-paedophile-dennis-mckenna-weighs-release-from-jail/106967874

https://qresear.ch/?q=Dennis+John+McKenna

>>24841398

‘Gas from the chambers’: Students’ cruel taunts at Jewish classmates revealed

Perry Duffin - July 30, 2026

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard chilling evidence of schoolyard bullying against Jewish students, including a child’s head being forced into a confined space and sprayed with deodorant to simulate “gas from the chambers”.

The royal commission this week has delved into the experience of Jewish Australians in various fields including the health system, the arts and education.

Commissioner Virginia Bell AC on Thursday heard evidence from parents speaking under pseudonyms, educators within the Jewish school systems and Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal, whose work has zeroed in on schools and universities.

Segal said she had heard of terrible incidents at schools even before October 2023. But, after the war in Gaza began, two more incidents in schools had particularly shocked her.

“I was very upset to hear of one student who had been accosted in the corridor and had his head pushed into an enclosed area and sprayed with deodorant … as if it was gas from the chambers,” she told the commission.

“Another story from a student in a school – they’d gone out to recess and when they came back the desks and chairs were all rearranged in the form of a swastika.”

Segal said it was upsetting and chilling for young people to behave in such a way, even if they didn’t truly appreciate the gravity of their actions.

“It’s necessary to think about how we inculcate in the next generation a sense of values and respect for everyone,” she said.

Segal said her office has been bringing groups together for roundtables to create, distribute and promote programs and lessons for teachers.

Thursday’s hearing began with evidence from a mother who said her child in high school was targeted with horrific antisemitic slurs and stereotypes by other students.

The woman, giving evidence under a pseudonym, told the commission her son had requested his school host an information session for year 10 students.

“We have (seen) the way vile university protesters have behaved, and we younger Jews are fearful for our future, since these are the people we will live with,” the boy wrote to the school.

The school invited two authors who spoke about their experience pushing for peace in the Middle East and family experience of the Holocaust.

The woman also said her son felt “culturally unsafe” when a teacher at school wore a “Free Palestine” badge.

“When my son saw this badge, he said to his teacher, I do not feel comfortable with you wearing that badge in the classroom because classrooms and schools are neutral territories,” the woman said.

She also said there was a difference between “antizionism” and “anti-Zionism” with a hyphen – the hyphenated version contains criticism of Israel, the other was a veil for people who wanted to eradicate Israel.

The commission heard Jewish students would have coins thrown at them, or swastikas drawn on their lockers, or their kippahs flicked off their heads.

“There were often taunts that invoked the gas chamber and statements like, ‘Hitler should have finished the job,’ and other Nazi or neo-Nazi references,” the Board of Jewish Education’s John Hamey said.

“On one occasion there were members of the public who stormed one of our school buses as it was coming to school and were chanting antisemitic slurs at young primary school children on that bus.”

The shocking thing for Hamey, he told the commission, was how the Jewish community seemed resigned to the harassment as part of ordinary life, with no consequences expected for their assailants.

Courage to Care’s Mike Zervos OAM told the commission their charity, which provides education resources, is being asked whether it is safe to send children to school wearing a uniform that identifies them as Jewish.

“I still cannot comprehend that if I just go to a meeting which happens to be in a school, a shul or a synagogue, there’s an armed guard outside it, and that’s considered to be typical, normal and acceptable,” he said.

The commission continues.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/gas-from-the-chambers-students-cruel-taunts-at-jewish-classmates-revealed-20260730-p60k1h.html

>>24885267

>>24885279

'Vindication': apology for survivors of school abuse

Nick Wilson - July 30 2026

Glen Fearnett never thought he'd live to see this day.

Fifty-four years after he was sexually abused by a teacher at a Victorian government-run school, he found himself invited to state parliament for a formal apology.

"It was quite a surreal feeling," he told AAP on Thursday, hours after Premier Ben Carroll delivered the apology on behalf of the state government.

"Vindication is pretty much top of my mind.

"What we said was happening … and it's been well and truly proven."

Mr Fearnett was a 10-year-old student of Beaumaris Primary School when he was abused by a since-convicted pedophile.

Decades would pass before he realised he was not the exception, after multiple students brought complaints about their time at the school, southeast of Melbourne.

Those accounts, largely from the 1960s and 1970s, led to the establishment in mid-2023 of a board of inquiry into historical abuse at Beaumaris and certain other government schools.

It heard from about 120 victims and other affected community members.

Its 2024 final report found perpetrators took advantage of weak regulations and a cover-up culture.

The state government accepted all nine of the recommendations, including a parliamentary apology and a truth-telling and accountability process.

Reflecting on that report and subsequent probes, Mr Carroll said it was clear the Victorian government had failed public school students and their families.

"We failed to protect you," he told the house.

"We failed to listen when you tried to disclose or explain what was done to you. We failed to act with urgency, responsibility, and care that you deserved."

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said Victorian schools had betrayed the trust placed in them by families to keep their children safe.

"It was betrayed in the most profound and life-altering of ways," she said.

She cited recent allegations of sexual abuse at Victorian childcare centres as proof child safety failures continued to this day.

"The details differ from the historical child sexual abuse for which we apologise today," she said.

"But the pattern does not."

It was the opposition leader's account of education officials failing to act on complaints when they were first raised that most impressed Mr Fearnett.

"That really highlighted the bigger issue here," he said.

"It was a systemic failure and I think that's what we've been banging on about for the last five years."

Opposition education spokesman Brad Rowswell said offences committed at government schools were as great, if not greater, than those at other institutions.

Mr Rowswell, who has played a leading role in seeking recognition for school abuse victim-survivors, said the apology was only a starting point.

"From this point, every one of us must be judged solely on our actions," he said.

Mr Fearnett knows what he went through was a crime and he and his loved ones live with its consequences everyday.

But hearing the accounts of the hundreds of students who had been preyed upon like himself, he couldn't help feeling he'd got off easy.

"I consider myself pretty lucky in the scheme of things," he said.

The apology coincided with an announcement from law firm Arnold Thomas and Becker that it was investigating abuse allegations on behalf of more than 600 former students from 350 Victorian schools.

It claimed hundreds of additional survivors had come forward since it first published a list of schools linked to its investigations in September 2023.

While the claims stretch back to the 1950s, some concern abuse alleged to have occurred as recently as 2024.

"We've been shocked to find that we are not only hearing historical allegations," said Kim Price, head of the firm's institutional abuse practice.

The Victorian government has implemented a raft of reforms to improve student safety at public schools in recent decades, including stricter vetting and checks for school staff and stronger reporting pathways.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline (13 11 14), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) and Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800).

https://www.1800respect.org.au/

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/

https://www.beyondblue.org.au/

https://www.kidshelpline.com.au/

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9320831/vindication-apology-for-survivors-of-school-abuse/

https://qresear.ch/?q=Glen+Fearnett

https://qresear.ch/?q=Beaumaris

Operation Mirani: How Australian Federal Police unravelled a sex-trafficking ring that sparked a landmark ruling

Clare Sibthorpe - July 11, 2026

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The Australian Federal Police has revealed how it exposed an international sex-trafficking ring involving an unassuming supermarket manager, leading to a national landmark ruling.

Structured like a standard corporation, the ring had a CEO, head of HR, logistics lead and office manager.

These four executives were part of a sinister machine that trafficked women and girls from Indonesia and forced them into sexual servitude in Australia. The unravelling would lead to the first child-trafficking conviction in Australia, the AFP said. Police allege that several victims were involved in the ring, working across 20 brothels and under many criminal members, but their prosecution related to one victim who came forward.

Surya Subekti was the “CEO” who travelled to Jakarta to bring a 17-year-old girl to Australia. The self-proclaimed “Batman” oversaw finances, transport and accommodation. Day-to-day, he worked as a Coles and Krispy Kreme manager.

The offshore “head of HR” was an Indonesia-based recruiter who held a litany of passports belonging to intended smuggling victims.

Elton Valentino acted as the “logistics lead”, cashing in a $50,000 annual salary for his driving role.

Then there was the “office manager”, 38-year-old Han Li.

Police raided some 20 brothels across Sydney and the Central Coast in early 2024 that they say were linked to the ring. The 17-year-old girl was taken between three of them, working 12-hour days, seven days a week, for money never seen.

On Friday, 45-year-old Subekti and 32-year-old Valentino were jailed after pleading guilty to trafficking a 17-year-old girl, who earlier described to the court how she had every movement tracked, lacked financial independence and was hospitalised due to work trauma.

Subekti was sentenced in the District Court to six years and five months’ prison, with a non-parole period of four years and five months. Valentino was sentenced to two years and eight months behind bars with release on a good behaviour recognisance release order after one year and 10 months.

Now, AFP detectives have revealed how they worked with Indonesian authorities to track the men’s transnational movements, untangle the international ring and rescue the 17-year-old girl, who had been coerced into fearing police.

Unmasking ‘Batman’

Whispers of an Indonesian sex-trafficking ring helmed in Sydney sparked years of painstaking evidence gathering.

In December 2022, the AFP officially launched Operation Mirani. Leads gained through work with agencies including the Australian Border Force and Indonesian police led them to one man: so-called “Batman”.

To identify Subekti, investigators sifted through swaths of data, mapping travel patterns, visa applications, accommodation leases and finances. It soon became clear that he played a lead role.

Once police pinned down the brothels, their task grew more complex.

They suspected, as is often the case, that the criminals would have brainwashed the women into fearing arrest due to their visa status and the nature of their work.

Detectives had to work hard to undo such manipulation and assure the women that they were legally protected from immigration offences that were committed under duress.

Officers recalled the confronting work and living conditions in the brothels, where victims were caught in a web of psychological control and financial dependence.

Through patient, trauma-informed communication, detectives gained the trust of a brave 17-year-old girl who was crucial to their prosecution. She revealed that she had signed a contract in Jakarta, only to arrive in Sydney in January 2024 to find her passport confiscated and pay withheld.

“It is now difficult for me to trust other people as I am fearful my experiences will be repeated,” she later told a Sydney court in a victim impact statement.

“I can no longer feel what it is like to be happy.”

Proving forced labour, intent and exploitation is difficult as the bar is set exceptionally high.

Subekti’s defence team capitalised on this, arguing that because the minor had signed a contract and travelled willingly, her involvement was “non-oppositional”.

However, Judge Nicole Noman said that a child cannot legally consent to sexual exploitation in Australia and that the girl was exploited. Subekti had made a deliberate, financially driven move from running a visa business to a sex-work business. The judge noted that Valentino showed genuine remorse, while Subekti, whose “offending was undoubtedly intentional and planned”, did not.

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One detective, granted anonymity to speak about the investigation, said that victims’ experiences were often undermined.

“Proving that someone’s not free to leave is that key element of the forced labour legislation,” the detective said. “It’s difficult because it’s very subjective and up to the individual of what a reasonable person would believe.”

A major turning point in the empire’s collapse came when Valentino broke ranks. Judge Noman said that the child-trafficking charges would probably not have been established except that Valentino walked voluntarily into a police station and disclosed the offending, including the victim’s age.

On the same day that Subekti was arrested, Indonesian police raided the home of a Jakarta-based recruiter who was found with several passports of women due to travel to Australia. Six women were prevented from leaving Indonesia.

Meanwhile, “office manager” Han Li had more serious charges withdrawn before receiving an 18-month good behaviour bond and $1000 fine for immigration breaches.

Overall, as part of the larger Operation Mirani, seven victims were removed from sexual exploitation in Australia and Indonesia, and 22 human trafficking assessments were made. While police would like to see more sex-trafficking convictions, often their priority is saving the victims from further harm, and they work with non-government organisations to ensure continued support.

Detectives emphasised that sex trafficking does not usually fit the stigma of someone physically chained under the stairs. Instead, it often relies on psychological control, financial duress and complex manipulation – tactics that are difficult to spot – and to prove.

AFP Commander Brett James said that sophisticated human-trafficking syndicates prey on vulnerable people for financial gain by exploiting language barriers, migration pathways and economic vulnerability, echoing the investigation and prosecution difficulties.

“These guilty pleas are testament to the courage of the victims and the persistence of investigators who worked relentlessly to uncover the full extent of the criminal enterprise,” James said.

As for people who feel trapped in sexual servitude, the Mirani detectives had this message: “We are here to help.”

—

The AFP continues to work closely with domestic and international partners to identify, disrupt and prosecute individuals and organised crime groups involved in human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices.

Anyone who suspects they, or someone they know, may be experiencing exploitation, forced labour or human trafficking is encouraged to contact the AFP.

Foreign workers and temporary visa holders should not be afraid to seek help if they believe they are being exploited while in Australia. If you suspect that you, or another person, is experiencing, or at risk of, forced labour, or someone you know is being exploited, help is available. Call 131 AFP (237) or report via the AFP website.

https://www.afp.gov.au/

Anyone with information relating to potential immigration offences or suspicious activity is encouraged to submit a report through Border Watch. Reports can be made anonymously.

https://www.abf.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/borderwatch

If you have immediate concerns for your safety, or the safety of another person, or there is an emergency, dial Triple Zero (000).

If you, or someone you know, is exploited at work in Australia, visit the Work Right Hub for more information and support.

https://www.redcross.org.au/workrighthub/

The Support for Trafficked People Program is a key component of Australia's response to support victims of human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices. If you or someone you know is being exploited, help is available. For information and confidential advice please contact Australian Red Cross. Call 1800 113 015 or visit the Red Cross website.

https://www.redcross.org.au/migration/support-for-people-impacted-by-modern-slavery/

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/how-police-unravelled-a-sex-trafficking-ring-that-sparked-a-landmark-ruling-20260709-p60e34.html

https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/syndicate-members-jailed-child-trafficking-operation

>>24813561

>>24866694

‘We couldn’t let her story end there’: Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s brother on the year since her shocking death – and why he’s still fighting in her name

She was the young girl in that infamous photograph with Prince Andrew, and the best-known survivor of Jeffrey Epstein. As Virginia’s explosive posthumous memoir continues to reverberate, her brother Sky Roberts and his wife, Amanda, talk about her final tragic months.

Emine Saner - 19 Jul 2026

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A British prince was arrested at 8am and was stripped of his title; ambassadors, politicians and numerous other high-profile men lost their prestigious jobs; millions of files relating to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released and a US president remains under scrutiny. So much has happened since the death of Virginia Roberts Giuffre in April last year, and the posthumous publication of her memoir Nobody’s Girl six months later, detailing for the first time the full story of her abuse by Epstein and his associates. “This year has been extraordinary,” says Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s younger brother. “I just wish Virginia was here to see it.”

He is determined that there will be many more advances to come. Giuffre had become one of the most recognisable survivors of Epstein; in the midst of grief, Sky and his wife, Amanda, have become accidental advocates. “She paved the way, and we want to keep paving that road forward for other survivors out there,” says Sky.

They’re speaking from their home in Colorado, in a room filled with photographs and mementoes, such as the butterfly motif that Giuffre adopted for her cause. They haven’t done interviews from this room before. “I see her all around me,” says Sky, who apologises for getting “teary-eyed sometimes, so just bear with me”. They have got two children, and have a background in retail management and property investing, not politics. “We got thrust into it, within months [after Giuffre’s death], we were in advocacy work,” says Sky. “A lot of it was driven by a sense of purpose. Virginia used to say, ‘How do you turn pain into purpose?’ And I couldn’t allow her story to be narrated by people that didn’t either know her or really understand who she was.”

They are about to relaunch Giuffre’s organisation Soar (Speak Out, Act, Reclaim), and are campaigning to get Virginia’s law passed in the US, which would remove the federal statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases, as well as maintain the pressure to release the rest of the Epstein documents and keep him and his associates in the public consciousness. All this against a government – and a president named numerous times in the files – that appears to be doing everything it can to make the whole thing go away. “We always had the expectation to support Virginia when she was ready to move forward with her nonprofit,” says Amanda. “We didn’t expect to do it without her. It became this idea of we couldn’t let her story end there.” Doing it without Giuffre, who died by suicide, says Sky, “it’s a giant hole in your stomach and in your heart”.

In public consciousness, Giuffre is both the smiling girl in that infamous photograph, the then-Prince Andrew’s arm around her waist, and the formidable woman speaking up, often outside court houses, on behalf of survivors of sex trafficking. Her memoir revealed her to be someone resilient, who overcame unimaginable abuse going back to childhood. Her last months revealed her to be someone complex, who still struggled, and whose life had, once again, collapsed. At the time of her death at the age of 41, she was separated from her husband and had not been allowed to see her three children. Sky and Amanda don’t have contact with them, though Amanda says she hopes they can be a part of Giuffre’s work and legacy “when they’re ready”. There is an ongoing battle over her estate.

“It’s complicated,” says Sky, “and this is why you can never fit a survivor’s story into a neat box, it doesn’t exist that way.” When Giuffre told him she would be writing a book about her life, she warned it would be hard to read, because part of it is his story, too. “I remember Virginia saying to me, ‘If I’m going to tell my story, I have to tell all of it.’ That’s one of the hardest parts, because you grow up hoping or looking at your parents as heroes, and it was like this … ” He pauses, trying to find the words and failing, because there are none. “It was this painfully tragic sort of feeling.”

(continued)

>>24891776

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Several years ago, she had told Sky and their older brother, Danny, that their father had abused her – both had young daughters, and she couldn’t bear the thought of them not being armed with the information. Reading a fuller extent in her memoir, alongside all the other abuse she suffered, “I just wish that I could have told her … ” Sky breaks down. “I wish I could have told her how proud I was, because that takes so much courage, and I know it was hard for her. It’s necessary to understand how all the other things that play into it, because [our father] was the first person to abuse Virginia. She was so brave, because she said, ‘If I don’t tell my whole story, then I’m not showing the weaving of how this actually works’, and how you get groomed from a very young age all the way up until, really, the ending of her life.”

The family lived on a modest farm in Loxahatchee, Florida. Virginia was the middle of three; Danny, from her mother’s previous marriage; and Sky, born five years after her. “I was the legit annoying little brother, but she was just a one-of-a-kind person from a very young age,” Sky says. “She was really the one that always looked out for me; Virginia always had that motherly instinct. She was so fun to be around. She was just a joy. She could make you laugh in a heartbeat, but the reason I think she was such a strong advocate as well is because she was always a protector. It’s clear why, now, when you read Nobody’s Girl. You understand what she went through. I always remember her basically shielding me from any evil that could potentially touch me.”

Giuffre writes that her father started sexually abusing her from the age of around seven. She alleged that her father had threatened to kill Sky if she told anyone; years later, Epstein would do exactly the same, throwing down a photograph taken of her younger brother on his way to school.

Sky doesn’t have a relationship with his father, who has denied all the allegations and who wrote to Amy Wallace, the journalist who co-authored Giuffre’s book, to say: “Just to straighten this out, I never abused my daughter.” Sky is firm: “I always say I wholeheartedly believe my sister. Virginia has been proven to be a truth-teller time and time again.” It sickened him, Sky says, when their father came forward in the media to talk about Giuffre after her death and suggest she had not taken her own life. “That was another huge motivator for me,” he says, of the decision to step up and speak for his sister.

As a child, Giuffre had been a keen reader and a girl who loved climbing trees and exploring the Florida wilderness around their home; she loved animals and had wanted to be a vet. But by her early teens, she was truanting from school and emotionally unstable. The other horrors Giuffre was subjected to, all before she was 16, are almost too much to list – being raped by two boys while unconscious in the back of a car, followed by time at a treatment centre for teenagers that was later shut down for the mistreatment of the young people who were supposed to be in its care. When she ran away, she was picked up by a man who raped her at gunpoint; then, hours later, traumatised and bloodied by a kerbside, was picked up by another man, Ron Eppinger.

She was 15 and abused by Eppinger – who would later plead guilty to sex trafficking – for around six months. When she was back with her parents in Florida, her father, a maintenance worker at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, got her a job there. That was where she met Ghislaine Maxwell – in Giuffre’s telling, Maxwell spies her from her limo like a shark stalking its prey – who introduced her to Epstein.

Wallace says, “You had to understand what had happened to her at seven, eight and onwards to understand why, when she meets Epstein at the age of 16, she doesn’t just run for the hills – she ends up staying in their orbit for more than two years.” Like Sky and Amanda, the ghostwriter has found herself an advocate for Giuffre. We speak while she is in the UK to discuss the paperback release of the book. It angers her when people suggest that Giuffre stayed with Epstein for the lifestyle – and, later, supposedly saw a financial opportunity when she took settlements – when in reality she had been a vulnerable and desperate child, repeatedly damaged by the adults around her. “When you’re seven and you’re given the message from somebody very close to you that your worth on this planet is to serve at the sexual pleasure of them, that erodes your self-worth, and it makes you think that’s the way the world works.” Wallace pauses briefly. “Which in her life it really did.”

(continued)

>>24891779

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Sky was about 11 when his sister became involved with Epstein and Maxwell – too young to be anything other than impressed that she was travelling, and meeting celebrities. “I remember her telling me certain people that she had met. I look at those people very different now.” He was also too young to know she was suffering, and, anyway, he says, “Virginia had a way of being able to put the veil up if she needed to.”

When Giuffre started speaking out – the birth of her third child, a daughter, had compelled her, as had Epstein’s lenient plea deal in 2008 – she was vilified online and in parts of the media; when she filed a civil lawsuit against the then-Prince Andrew in 2021, settling for a reported £12m the following year (made without admitting liability), she was portrayed as a liar and a money-grabber. “When you come forward, and you’re denied believing from authorities and public, and you’re scrutinised, it is a reinjury,” says Amanda. “A lot of the time she had to just keep pushing through that, telling her truth and hoping the truth would come to surface.” Giuffre would turn off social media and the news, Amanda says, “compartmentalise herself and say, ‘Right now I’m just going to put this away, lock it up, and I’m going to be a mom, and I’m going to laugh, and I’m going to spend hours on the phone talking, and not talking about Epstein.’”

Sky smiles and says, “This is where Virginia’s character came into play, because she was always the one that would say, ‘If you tell me I can’t do it, watch me.’ Virginia was hellbent, and it doesn’t mean that it didn’t affect her. She was a survivor warrior, and she felt compelled to tell the story, because so many others couldn’t, and she had that protector mentality of ‘what’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong’. When she was in the trenches, she was full force. I wish she was here to see how vindicated she is from all of the years of work she spent.”

When the Guardian published extracts from Giuffre’s memoir in October, it added to mounting pressure on Prince Andrew, who gave up his titles days before the book was published. (King Charles officially stripped him of his HRH style and his prince title the following month.) Giuffre didn’t live to see the global impact of the release – still partial at this stage, and heavily redacted – of the Epstein files, the outpouring of support from readers, and the disgrace of Prince Andrew, among many other ramifications. That last one, especially, “was a victory which Virginia deserved to be here for”, says Amanda. “It was such a moment of vindication for her.” Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now, has always denied meeting Giuffre, and has raised the possibility the photograph of them together was faked, but Maxwell’s emails to Epstein appear to confirm they did meet. In February, Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, with allegations he had shared confidential information with Epstein in his role as trade envoy. He was released and has not been charged, but Thames Valley police also made it clear they were looking, separately, at claims a woman (not Giuffre) had been taken to Windsor for “sexual purposes”.

Thames Valley police are reportedly planning to travel to the US to speak to Sky and Amanda, which the couple won’t comment on, but Sky says: “We very much support the Thames Valley police. I think they’re doing a fantastic job, and we need to give them a little bit of grace right now – they’re kind of building that plane while they’re flying it, because [investigating a senior royal has] never been done before.” Or it has, he says, allowing himself a smile, but that was nearly 400 years ago and it didn’t turn out well for Charles I.

They have spoken previously about their disappointment that the king didn’t meet them and other survivors on his visit to the US earlier this year (there is a possibility they will come to the UK this year).

When Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested, his brother King Charles said: “Their majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been and will remain with the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.” Should Britain’s royal family have acted on Mountbatten-Windsor sooner? “That’s the difficult part,” says Sky. “How long have they known about these allegations? Was there any sort of cover-up? I don’t know, but I do know this has been going on for a very long time. Epstein was convicted in 2008, and these men and people in power continued to be involved in his world. It’s important to keep asking those questions.”

(continued)

>>24891781

4/6

So far, as Wallace points out in her new epilogue to the book, not a single person accused of abuse has been arrested (Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking; Epstein died by suicide in 2019 awaiting trial). Preparing to write the epilogue, Wallace typed out everything that had happened since Giuffre’s death; the list ran to seven pages. “So much has happened, not all of it is [because of] Virginia’s book,” says Wallace. “It’s partly because of really brave and relentless advocacy on behalf of the other survivor sisters and others. But it’s also because I think people really care about this issue.”

Less than a month after the book came out, in the US a near unanimous vote passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which led to the publication of documents. “They realise their constituents don’t like the idea of wealthy, privileged people abusing less privileged, less powerful people, many of them underage, and getting away with it. Which is what, in the United States, they’re still doing,” says Wallace. The day before we speak, the US Department of Justice was still refusing to release unredacted documents.

Wallace says it is “brazen, this administration’s refusal to do what’s right. It’s shameful.” She, Sky and Amanda want to see the rest of the files released, with the names of the victims redacted and the potential perpetrators named. As it stands, it goes against what was agreed in the act, says Wallace. Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has said the country should move on from Epstein. “They want it to be over. Who that ‘they’ is, and who’s the one really saying that, is it Trump himself?” says Wallace. “I have no knowledge of that, but Blanche used to be Trump’s personal lawyer. Some people even speculate that they started a war in Iran to try to change the subject, and, guess what, they haven’t succeeded, because people across the ideological spectrum care about this issue, and they keep on caring about it.”

Sometimes, says Sky, “you feel you’re pushing a boulder up a giant mountain. Our Department of Justice is supposed to bring justice for the American people, and in this specific case for people around the world, [but] they are prohibiting different entities from being able to get the files from them – different departments in the UK, different state legislations, like New Mexico and in New York.” It feels, he says, as if they are “actively shielding and covering up for the rich and the powerful. I would challenge the people of the UK and the United States and around the world not to look away. We know that crimes were committed in the UK. I think parliament should open up a public inquiry, so that if the United States isn’t willing to keep this moving forward, then at least the UK can keep bringing a sense of justice for survivors. We have to keep the pressure on, because this is the moment where we set a precedent across the world that money and power do not buy you a different set of laws any more.”

The wealth and glamour around Epstein could be sensationalist. Giuffre’s book helped to humanise his victims, says Sky. It’s why he and Amanda always take copies of it when they speak with lawmakers. The feeling is shifting, he says. A meeting with James Comer, the chair of the House oversight committee that is reviewing the federal investigation of Epstein, went well, says Sky. “We sat in that room with him, with other survivors, and really reached him on a level we weren’t expecting. I think he was so much more open than he had ever been.”

Throughout the four years they worked together, whenever Giuffre called, Wallace made sure to answer the phone. “There was a loneliness to this experience for her.” It was important, says Wallace, “that she could feel like she trusted me, not just with her secrets, but emotionally trusted me, that I cared about her, and very quickly I did. She’s a very easy person to love, very generous, very smart, very selfless in terms of her motivations for doing all of this.” It would have been easier to keep her head down, says Wallace. “And she was determined to be clear, not just about who had hurt her and what it was like to be a young person in that web, but also to tell other victims of sexual exploitation, ‘You’re not alone. I struggle too, I continue to struggle.’”

(continued)

>>24891782

5/6

Wallace and Giuffre became close, and she made two trips to Giuffre’s home in Australia, spending around a month there in total. Did she seem haunted? “When she was doing things with her kids, she didn’t,” says Wallace, “but she talked a lot about this voice within her that would say, ‘The world would be a better place without you in it’, and that’s a voice that comes from being made to feel worthless from a very young age. We just kept trying to get her help and get her treatment.”

Giuffre insisted that a suicide attempt she had made in 2022 be mentioned in the book. “I remember her saying, ‘If I make my life look too rosy and, like, yes, I was abused, but then I got married, had kids, and I won a few settlements, so now I’m not poor, and now my life’s great … I would create more shame in other survivors. And that’s not the truth. I struggle every day.’ She really understood, because of what she’d gone through, how she needed to describe herself honestly in order to be really of service to other victims.”

She was open, to a point. Giuffre had told Wallace that her husband, Robert, had assaulted her in 2015 but explained it away – they were under pressure, they were being hounded by the paparazzi. “Virginia asked me not to write it in because of their kids, and because she said, at the time, ‘We’ve really worked hard to get past it.’” When Wallace went to stay with the family in October 2024 to finalise the book, she says she didn’t see any signs anything was wrong. But “in January, she called me, so upset, and she said it [a physical assault] happened again. I stayed on the phone with her for a long time, made sure she was safe, offered to call her older brother and her mom, which I did.”

Wallace told her they didn’t have to publish the book at that point, and that Giuffre needed to focus on her health and family. In March, Giuffre was hospitalised after a road accident. She died the following month. Wallace says journalists in Australia, where Giuffre had lived since the mid-00s, are looking into her last months, and whether she was failed. Her husband had made allegations against her and taken a restraining order against her that prevented her seeing their children; he claimed she had violated the order (which Giuffre denied).

“Being separated from her kids was just … ” Wallace pauses. “She couldn’t bear that. All she wanted to talk about in the weeks before she died was, ‘Can you find out how the kids are?’ It was heartbreaking. I think one of the ways people try to heal from their own pain or their own terrible childhoods is by making a new family of their own that hopefully is healthier and better. So it wasn’t just that she missed her kids, it was that they were an essential part of her being OK, and she’d been cut off from them.”

That her husband was portrayed as almost Giuffre’s saviour in her memoir rankled with Sky and his family. In April last year, weeks before her death, Giuffre made a statement to People magazine saying she had experienced “domestic violence in my marriage”. “Those are the silent battles in survivors’ back yards,” says Sky. “I think that was one of the hardest parts for us, that we knew that there was another battle.” Giuffre’s siblings didn’t want her book to be published as it was, and Sky says there was “a lengthy back and forth” with the publishers. Eventually, the two parties agreed on a preface, written by Wallace, acknowledging the alleged domestic abuse.

Giuffre’s family asked the Western Australia police commissioner to open an investigation into her claims of domestic abuse, and last month the police agreed to a review. Sky is sure his sister was failed by the system at every turn, throughout her life. He had been with her in Australia since her accident, overlapping briefly with their older brother, who had flown out a couple of weeks before.

“Virginia was still herself all the way to the last day,” says Sky. He was the person who found her, he tells me through tears – for all the conspiracy theories around, he wants it to be known he’s convinced she took her own life. “I think a survivor’s journey is complicated, and why she made that decision I will never fully understand,” he says when he calms himself. “It’s also why we fight so hard, because there doesn’t need to be more Virginias out there who have the systems work against them for so long.”

(continued)

>>24891784

6/6

When Giuffre died, Wallace was devastated, but not entirely surprised. “I knew that this lived in her, but I was still shocked and heartbroken. She’d always been so resilient, she’d always bounced back. I remain sad. I wish she were here for a million reasons. She should be getting the emails I’m getting, that Sky and Amanda are getting, from readers. She should be watching the worldwide response to her book, and what it set in motion.”

The main reason Giuffre wanted to write her memoir was to help other survivors of sexual abuse. Wallace had told Giuffre that writing it would also set her free. She could lay out the awful details, and refer anyone to her book – she wouldn’t have to keep explaining herself. She could devote herself to advocacy work, her children, her animals. “Part of the tragedy for me is that she almost got to that finish line,” says Wallace. “And then she just couldn’t keep going.” This new life, of advocacy work and politics, and speaking about his sister’s trauma, isn’t what they expected, says Sky, but he says he and Amanda are inspired by his sister’s example. “Without her in this, it’s losing the ultimate warrior in this fight,” he says. “There’s this pain that you’re always going to have, but you use that to power you forward as well.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/19/virginia-giuffre-abuse-jeffrey-epstein-andrew-mountbatten-windsor-sky-roberts-brother-year-death

>>24813561

>>24866694

>>24891776

Giuffre family hits out at Obama lawyer who called Epstein victim ‘not credible’

Kathryn Ruemmler says Virginia Giuffre’s sex trafficking allegations lack sufficient detail

Poppy Wood - 30 July 2026

1/2

Virginia Giuffre’s family have hit out at a prominent Democratic lawyer after she claimed the Jeffrey Epstein victim “lacked inherent credibility”.

Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as White House counsel to former US president Barack Obama, testified to Congress that she thought Giuffre’s sex trafficking allegations lacked sufficient detail.

In closed-door testimony delivered earlier this month and published on Wednesday, Ms Ruemmler said: “There were allegations that she made that were, I believed based on my experience as a former prosecutor and as a defence counsel, that were of such a nature that they were – they lacked inherent credibility.

“Typically, when someone says, I was sex trafficked to someone, they say who, when, where, not multiple world leaders, multiple foreign presidents.”

Ms Giuffre’s family reacted furiously to the remarks and said Ms Ruemmler was “the only person who lacks credibility”.

Sky Roberts, the brother of Giuffre, who took her own life last year, and his wife Amanda Roberts, accused the Goldman Sachs lawyer of “trying to get people to believe she didn’t know Jeffrey Epstein was actively engaged in sex trafficking”.

“To attempt to cast doubt on Virginia, whose bravery was the reason so many other survivors stepped forward, resulting in more than 50 people from having to step down from their positions of power, is reprehensible. She should be ashamed of herself,” they said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

“Kathy Ruemmler enriched herself while girls and young women suffered and had their lives destroyed because she enabled their abuser. Shame on Goldman Sachs for keeping her in its employ.”

Giuffre triggered a royal crisis in 2015 after she accused Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell of trafficking her to London in 2001 to have sex with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

She alleged in her memoir Nobody’s Girl, which was published posthumously last October, that she had sex with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor on three occasions when she was 17. The former prince vehemently denies the claims.

Giuffre also accused Epstein of subjecting her to years of physical and sexual abuse after Maxwell recruited her in 2000, when she was 16 and working at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida resort.

She claimed Epstein also shopped her around to have sex with his high-flying friends – naming among others – Jean-Luc Brunel, the French model scout who died in his cell while awaiting sex trafficking charges in 2022.

(continued)

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Ms Ruemmler told Congress’s House Oversight Committee that she never saw “any evidence suggesting that [Epstein] was abusing women or girls”, but that she had later come to realise he “was a masterful liar”.

She also acknowledged in testimony made public on Wednesday that she had accepted gifts from Epstein during their six-year friendship and “sometimes irreverently” exchanged emails with him.

The lawyer resigned as Goldman Sachs’s chief legal officer last month, where she was paid $25m (£19m) a year, after details of her relationship with the sex offender came to light. She remains at the investment bank as a temporary adviser.

Ms Ruemmler is one of a number of high-profile figures to have voluntarily testified to Congress in recent months as part of its investigation into Epstein, including Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and most recently Jes Staley, the former chief executive of Barclays.

The House Oversight Committee is seeking testimony from Todd Blanche, whose nomination to become US attorney general has garnered fierce backlash from Epstein victims.

They claim that he mishandled the release of the Epstein files through poor redactions of names and contact details – a task he was delegated as US deputy attorney general – and by failing to publish the full stash of documents.

Mr Blanche also conducted an interview last summer with Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking charges in relation to Epstein in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

She was moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas a week after her meeting with Mr Blanche.

It has prompted concerns among victims that Maxwell could eventually be handed a presidential pardon.

The US Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to declare its opposition to any such move. Introduced by Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat from Nevada, the resolution stated that Maxwell “should not be granted a presidential pardon or any form of clemency for her crimes with Jeffrey Epstein relating to the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors”.

The resolution added: “The Senate stands with the victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking and affirms its commitment to justice, accountability, and the protection of children.”

Republicans refused to object to the move, which is non-binding and largely symbolic, meaning they effectively allowed it to pass.

A spokesman for Ms Ruemmler told The Telegraph: “As Ms Ruemmler told the committee, she had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity by Epstein and there is not a shred of evidence to suggest otherwise.

“Ms Ruemmler would never turn a blind eye to any criminal activity and if she had seen or heard anything to suggest that Epstein was harming women or girls, she would have taken action to stop it.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/07/30/lawyer-obama-claims-virginia-giuffre-not-credible-epstein/

https://www.semissourian.com/world/former-obama-counsel-kathryn-ruemmler-to-testify-in-epstein-probe-4c07d345

>>24841260

>>24841277

>>24881172

>>24885258

French lawmakers expected to approve social media ban for under-15s

AFP - 21 Jul 2026

Parliamentarians from the upper and lower houses reached a compromise on the bill's text on Monday, paving the way for a vote on its final adoption, which is expected to pass despite criticism from parties on the left.

"Tomorrow, France will become the first country in Europe to introduce a digital age limit to better protect our children online," French Digital Minister Anne Le Henanff said on X.

President Emmanuel Macron has championed the law as a flagship reform of his final term in office and pledged to enforce it by September, meaning another element of the bill, a mobile phone ban in secondary schools, would be in place by the beginning of the school year.

The social media rule is expected to be rolled out in two stages, the first blocking under-15s from creating new accounts from September 1. The ban would apply to existing accounts from January 2027, according to the text.

Lawmakers agreed on the need for regulation, as warnings have multiplied over the harmful affects of social media on children.

France's public health watchdog last year said platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram were detrimental to adolescents, particularly girls, though it was not the sole reason for their declining mental health.

The two chambers had disagreed on approach, however.

French Senators had opted for a two-tier system distinguishing between blacklisted platforms flagged as harmful to a child's development, and those that could still be accessed with parental consent.

But the lower house's broader approach demanding social media platforms refuse new users under 15 and suspend accounts belonging to children under that age prevailed.

Exceptions are provided for sites such as online encyclopaedias and educational platforms.

EU role

The blacklisting system would have taken more time, including fresh consultations with the European Commission on the criteria, and carried a "small risk" of non-compliance with European law, said centrist senator Catherine Morin-Desailly, in charge of the bill in the upper house.

The EU itself has been mulling a social media ban since a push by member states, including France, Greece and Spain, for limiting access.

Last week, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said children should have "phased and gradual access" to social media.

Enforcement of regulations will also face the challenge of setting up effective age verification systems.

Lawmaker Laure Miller told AFP platforms will be expected to integrate "the tool or tools" of their choice for this purpose, with various options available or in the works, including an age-verification app unveiled in April by the European Commission.

After Macron's government suspended a flagship pensions reform last year, a social media ban could be his last major domestic change before he steps down in April 2027.

With the law's adoption, France would join a growing list of more than 20 countries that have taken steps toward regulating children's social media access.

In December last year, Australia became the first country in the world to require TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other top sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, or face heavy fines.

https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/french-lawmakers-expected-approve-social-022114000.html

>>24841260

>>24841277

>>24881172

>>24885258

>>24891907

Most Australian teens still on social media three months after under-16 ban began, study finds

Christine Chen and Byron Kaye - July 31, 2026

SYDNEY, July 31 (Reuters) - More than 8 in 10 Australian teenagers were still using social media three months after the government's landmark ban on the platforms for under-16s took effect because the tech firms failed to implement effective age checks, the country's internet regulator has found.

In a study published on Friday, eSafety also found most children aged between 10 and 15 were using social media just as frequently in March as they had before the ban came into force on December 10 last year, while parental awareness of their habits decreased.

Children's continued social media use took place even as account ownership declined to 42% from 52%, with "statistically significant" reductions across YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok in particular, the report said.

"Most under-16s who had social media accounts before commencement were able to either retain them or create new ones at the three-month mark, with social media platforms' failure to implement effective age assurance measures cited as the main reason," eSafety said in a statement.

Australia introduced the world-first ban because of concerns about the impact of social media on the mental and physical health of children and young people. Its implementation is being closely watched by many nations that have since sought to introduce their own curbs.

Before the ban, nearly 86% of children surveyed reported using at least one age-restricted platform. Three months later, that figure remained above 81%, the report said.

About 58% of teenagers reported using social media daily or more often, barely down from roughly 60% before the ban, it found.

The report showed minimal change in "sports and physical activity, arts and music, spending time with friends and family, and attendance at community events".

TEENS SAY THEIR AGES NOT CHECKED

Around half the children who retained their accounts said platforms had not checked their age, the most common reason they were able to stay on the services.

Others said their accounts listed them as aged 16 or older or that age-checking systems had incorrectly determined they were older.

The findings broadly matched snapshot data eSafety published in late March.

After the March update, eSafety announced it was investigating possible non-compliance by five platforms: Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and Google's YouTube.

The government said in June it would double the maximum penalty on tech firms that failed to uphold the ban, and strengthen eSafety's information-gathering powers.

"While eSafety has observed some improvements by industry since its March social media minimum age update, concerns remain about the compliance of the five platforms named at that time," the regulator said.

Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The report, prepared by a global advisory panel of university researchers, compared data collected from more than 4,000 children and families before the ban started and three months later.

It is the first report to be released as part of a two-year study to evaluate the outcomes of the world-first ban.

While some children surveyed before the ban took effect said they expected negative mental health effects, more than 65% said the ban had had no impact, the data showed.

The report also noted an increase in children's use of messaging platforms and online gaming.

The number of children using Reddit rose from 6% to more than 9%, with or without an account, noted the report. Reddit, which is included in the ban and challenging its inclusion in the High Court, was not immediately available for comment.

The ban could also be creating unintended consequences, including a decline in parental awareness of children's use of social media, the report said.

"This dynamic may have implications for help-seeking behaviours and the identification of online harms, as reduced parental awareness could limit opportunities for support or early intervention," it said.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/most-australian-teens-still-social-media-three-months-after-under-16-ban-began-2026-07-31/

https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/early-insights-from-esafetys-comprehensive-evaluation-project

https://www.esafety.gov.au/research/social-media-age-restrictions-evaluation/early-days-early-insights-three-months-report

https://www.esafety.gov.au/sites/default/files/2026-07/Early-days-early-insights-SMMA-evaluation-three-months-July-2026.pdf

>>24648876 (pb)

>>24665978 (pb)

>>24688842 (pb)

‘Bike boy’ Ryan Meuleman to plead guilty to burglary and theft charges

LILY MCCAFFREY - July 16, 2026

“Bike boy” Ryan Meuleman, who is suing former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews for defamation, will plead guilty to criminal charges of burglary and theft, his lawyer has told a court.

But Mr Meuleman will remain behind bars in relation to a separate criminal case against him, in which police allege he stole a car with a child inside.

In the Dandenong Magistrates Court on Thursday, Mr Meuleman’s lawyer, Savannah Westwood, told the court a criminal matter involving charges against Mr Meuleman relating to burglary and theft had been resolved and should be marked as a plea of guilty.

Details of the alleged offending or any plea deal struck with the prosecution in that case were not revealed on Thursday.

In a second criminal case against Mr Meuleman, police allege a child under the age of 10 was inside a $50,000 white Kia Sportage when Mr Meuleman stole it on May 3 in Pakenham in Melbourne’s southeast.

That same day, Mr Meuleman allegedly gave a false address and a fake name to a police officer who questioned him about the theft of the car.

The next day, Mr Meuleman proceeded to commit carjacking while on bail, according to the charge sheets.

Ms Westwood told the court Mr Meuleman had made the prosecution an offer, and had received a counter-offer, regarding the second criminal case.

But Ms Westwood said she had not yet had the opportunity to speak with Mr Meuleman about the counter-offer and the matter remained unresolved.

Both criminal cases were adjourned to September 1.

Mr Meuleman became known as “bike boy” when, as a teenager in 2013, he was seriously injured in a collision with a Ford Territory driven by Mr Andrews’ wife, Catherine.

Mr Andrews, opposition leader at the time, was also in the car.

About 13 years on, the fallout from the incident continues, with Mr Meuleman in the middle of legal action he lodged against the couple in the Federal Court, alleging they defamed him in a 2024 media statement.

The latest orders in the Federal Court action, made on July 10, included a requirement that Mr Meuleman provide a written update to the court and Mr and Ms Andrews as to his custodial status.

Mr and Ms Andrews are defending the Federal Court defamation claim and have always denied any wrongdoing in relation to the 2013 collision.

Victoria Police investigated the incident and never laid charges.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/bike-boy-to-plead-guilty-to-burglary-and-theft-charges/news-story/065dc476513fb43182d0f409e95cd193

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Ryan Meuleman: Man injured in crash with Dan Andrews’ car in 2013 charged over alleged carjacking

LIAM BEATTY - July 29, 2026

A man suing former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews is fighting to be released from custody after he was charged over an alleged carjacking.

Police allege Ryan Meuleman, 28, was caught attempting to carjack a woman, with twins in the back seat, outside a Melbourne laundromat on May 3.

Mr Meuleman appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, seeking bail to check into a 12-week residential rehabilitation program in regional Victoria.

Outlining the police case, Detective Senior Constable Sean McIntyre said it was alleged a couple and their two young children attended a Pakenham laundromat to pick up washing about 9.40pm.

While the man was inside, Mr Meuleman allegedly climbed into the front seat and put the car in drive.

Constable McIntyre said the woman allegedly began wrestling with Mr Meuleman, who was pantsless, over the gearstick and “began screaming to alert her husband”.

It’s alleged the man ran back to the car, punched Mr Meuleman through the open window and dragged him from the car to the front of the laundromat where he held him down until police arrived.

Constable McIntyre said Mr Meuleman allegedly provided a false name of “Crew Thompson”, appeared to be drug-affected, and was deemed unfit to be interviewed.

He was also allegedly on bail for burglary and theft charges related to a commercial property at the time, the court was told.

Aged 15, Mr Meuleman suffered serious injuries in January 2013 while riding a bike after a collision with a Ford Territory being driven by then-Labor opposition leader Daniel Andrews’ wife Catherine.

Mr Andrews and the couple’s three children were in the car. No charges were laid following an investigation by Victoria Police.

Mr Meuleman, who spent 11 days in hospital after the crash, has long alleged the vehicle crashed into him, while the Andrews’ have maintained the cyclist struck their car.

The incident was referenced in court by Mr Meuleman’s lawyer Tom Smedley who argued it had left a lasting impact on his client’s mental health.

“Ryan identified this period as a significant turning point in his life,” he said.

“He identifies his substance use has been a longstanding coping mechanism connected to unresolved psychological distress and trauma.”

Mr Smedley said Mr Meuleman had spent the past 87 days in custody and was keen to participate in the rehabilitation program.

The bail application was adjourned to a later date after magistrate Phillip Goldberg expressed concern about the security arrangements at the rehabilitation facility, noting it did not have a program to observe people overnight.

Mr Smedley sought further time to identify if security arrangements could be put in place, such as an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.

In unrelated proceedings, Mr Meuleman lodged legal action against the Andrewses last year, alleging the couple defamed him in 2024.

At the time, Mr Meuleman was suing his former lawyers Slater and Gordon, alleging they failed to act in his best interest when negotiating an $80,000 compensation settlement with the Transport Accident Commission.

The case ended without going to trial in April 2025 with a confidential settlement his lawyers described as “too good to refuse”.

But during the legal proceedings, the Andrewses issued a joint media statement in September 2024 saying, among other things, that they weren’t party to the lawsuit and “did nothing wrong”.

Mr Meuleman alleges the statement carried the imputation he was lying about the collision and was seeking to gain financial benefit based on his false claims.

Mr and Ms Andrews are defending the lawsuit and the case is expected to return to court later this year.

Mr Meuleman will return to court to continue his bail application on August 5.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/ryan-meuleman-man-injured-in-crash-with-dan-andrews-car-in-2013-charged-over-alleged-carjacking/news-story/7e4f5a9172cd99cfda975fc0ede2c19e

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>>24892108

Former police chief Kel Glare to present new Daniel Andrews crash evidence to top cop

Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Kel Glare will personally deliver a new brief of evidence to current chief Mike Bush on the Daniel Andrews “bike boy” crash.

Seb Costello - July 20, 2026

Former police commissioner Kel Glare is due to hand over a new dossier of information on the so-called “bike boy” collision involving Daniel Andrews to the current force chief Mike Bush on Tuesday morning.

Mr Glare has arranged to personally deliver the information – collected by private investigators over the past four years – to Mr Bush’s office at Police HQ on Spencer Street.

“I expect action. I think I’ve got a fairly good idea about what’s worth following up and what isn’t,” Mr Glare said.

In January 2013, a Ford Territory carrying Mr Andrews and his wife Catherine collided with 15-year-old cyclist Ryan Meuleman at Blairgowrie.

Meuleman was left fighting for his life and spent ten days in hospital where he lost part of his spleen.

Uniformed police members who attended the collision on the day were later disciplined for not conducting breath tests.

The new dossier includes interviews with witnesses who attended the scene soon after the collision, but were never spoken to by police investigators.

Mr Glare will also deliver the findings of the late traffic expert Dr Raymond Shuey, who investigated the collision before his death in 2024.

Dr Shuey’s report disputed the version of events provided by Mr Andrews, concluding that Ford Territory was travelling at speed at the time of the collision.

“I knew Ray for a very long time,” Mr Glare said.

“Ray was one of my assistant commissioners. I regarded him as a tremendous colleague and a good friend. I agree with every word he wrote in that report.”

Repair records from a local panel beater and Mr Andrews’ phone log also form part of the brief.

Mr Glare ran Victoria Police for five years from 1987 to 1992 and said he admired Mr Bush.

“I think Mike’s doing a really good job under difficult circumstances. I was chief commissioner when the state was bankrupt. I couldn’t get any extra resources. The situation has really repeated itself years later. The state’s bankrupt again. That puts the chief in a very difficult position” Mr Glare said.

Mr Meuleman, who is suing Mr and Mrs Andrews in the Federal Court for defamation, is currently in custody amid several criminal charges.

It is understood that Mr Meuleman is considering his options regarding the Federal Court defamation action as he battles for his freedom.

He is due to appear at Dandenong Magistrates Court later this month over carjacking charges.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-victoria/former-police-chief-kel-glare-to-present-new-daniel-andrews-crash-evidence-to-top-cop/news-story/03a3faa5c1392862e791885ce40db301

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Pole dance studio sued for $30,000 after refusing transgender dancer membership in women-only space

RACHEL BAXENDALE - July 23, 2026

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A Gold Coast pole dancing studio has become the latest front in the battle for women’s rights to ­single-sex spaces, with an applicant who identifies as a transgender woman suing the owner for $30,000 in damages after being refused membership.

The case has parallels with the Tickle v Giggle case in which the Federal Court found Sall Grover, the founder of the female-only Giggle app, discriminated against transgender woman Roxanne Tickle, as well as with the Lesbian Action Group’s case against Australian Human Rights Commission, which refused to grant a Sex Discrimination Act exemption to allow the group to hold a “lesbians born female only” event.

Nomes Witney, owner of Helensvale and Coomera-based business Queens of Pole says she was holidaying with her family in February when the complainant attended a free trial class, run by another staff member at the studio, which advertises prominently on its website that it provides a “female-only environment”.

“My staff member called me and said, ‘Hey, this just went down. I wasn’t sure what to do so just ran the class normally’,” Ms Witney told The Australian.

Ms Witney said the complainant had “disclosed partway through the class that they identified as a woman”, and that the presence of a biological male had “shifted the vibe” of the female-only group, with other attendees, who included a mother and young adult daughter, becoming “visibly uncertain”.

“They tried to make their shorts longer than they were, that sort of thing,” she said. “Usually we have a really high success rate for membership conversions from trial classes, but this particular class, radio silence.”

In March, the complainant ­attempted to apply for membership, registering with an incomplete profile and stating that they were female. “I sent an email saying we were unable to accommodate the trans community at this time,” Ms Witney said.

Two days later, on March 12, the applicant complained to the Queensland Human Rights Commission, but Ms Witney was not notified until April 22.

The commission sought to mediate, forwarding Ms Witney a damages letter from the complainant at 1pm on Monday, July 13, ahead of a conciliation meeting set for 9.30am the next day.

It is the first time since Ms Witney established her business nine years ago that she has had a transgender person attend a class or attempt to gain membership, with Queens the only pole dance studio in the area offering classes exclusively for women, and others nearby advertising themselves as open to “all genders”.

The conciliation last week failed and the matter is now headed to the Queensland Civil and ­Administrative Tribunal, with Ms Witney not prepared to offer the complainant membership on the basis that she does not believe ­allowing a biological male to attend female-only classes is fair to other clients or staff.

“I’ve spoken to my staff. I myself come from a domestic violence and sexual assault background, and there are staff and clients with a similar history,” she said.

“I asked, ‘What are we thinking? Do we have the resources available to accommodate this person?’, and it just came down to the fact that the standard of class we would be able to deliver wouldn’t be the same.”

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Ms Witney said her client base ranged in age from a 14-year-old girl to a woman in her late 60s.

“We’re about offering the opportunity to exercise alongside other women and grow stronger,” she said.

“Having this women-only space to do that in isn’t saying all men are bad men. It isn’t about politics or hostility against gender ideology, it’s about being able to let our hair down without the male gaze.

“We have our wardrobe malfunctions and we don’t want them when we have a biological male in the room. The whole vibe shifts, even if that person identifies as female.”

It emerged in the conciliation meeting that the complainant is a US citizen who has been in Australia for less than a year and has applied for a suppression order preventing their identification in connection with the proceedings.

When The Australian emailed the taxpayer-funded community legal centre representing the complainant to seek comment, Basic Rights Queensland responded by stating that it had ­applied for non-publication orders “solely for the purpose of preserving our client’s safety”.

“We ask that The Australian does not publish any article until resolution of the substantive ­application, so to not undermine or offend any application or order made by the tribunal,” the lawyers said. “Short of this, we kindly ask that any article does not identify our client by name or by otherwise providing details that would make our client identifiable.”

On its website, the legal centre proudly declares that 72 per cent of its clients “identify as female”.

The Queensland Human Rights Commission said it was unable to comment on specific cases, but in response to questions regarding the conflict between women’s sex-based rights and those of transgender people, commissioner Debbie Platz said: “Every person living in Queensland, regardless of sex, sexuality, gender identity or sex characteristics, is entitled to equal treatment, safety, and respect.”

“The Anti-Discrimination Act provides that a person must not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender identity, or sex characteristics by treating someone unfairly or imposing an unfair term or condition when providing goods or services, accommodation, education or at work,” Ms Platz said.

“This means excluding a person on the basis of their gender identity could amount to unlawful discrimination, unless an exemption applies.

“There are some circumstances when discrimination based on a protected attribute is allowed. This can include excluding particular groups from a service. For example, it is not unlawful to restrict accommodation to women who have experienced domestic violence.

“Neither ‘women’ nor ‘sex’ is defined by the Anti-Discrimination Act. Sex may include people who identify as that sex.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/pole-dance-studio-sued-for-30000-after-refusing-transgender-dancer-membership-in-womenonly-space/news-story/0bc20a1759653c77203a0a77dbb02f75

https://www.facebook.com/7NEWSQld/videos/its-a-lawsuit-thats-sparked-fierce-debate-over-who-should-and-shouldnt-be-allowe/1576594277477312/

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Women’s advocates demand law changes after pole studio sued over women-only rule

RACHEL BAXENDALE - July 24, 2026

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Women’s advocates say the case of a Gold Coast pole dancing studio owner who is being sued for refusing membership to a transgender applicant highlights the urgent need for legislative reform to protect women-only spaces.

The Australian revealed on Thursday that Queens of Pole owner Nomes Witney is being sued for $30,000 in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal after refusing membership of the female-only studio to an applicant who identifies as a transgender woman.

The case has parallels with the Tickle v Giggle case in which the Federal Court found Sall Grover, the founder of the female-only Giggle app, discriminated against transgender woman Roxanne Tickle, as well as with the Lesbian Action Group’s case against Australian Human Rights Commission, which refused to grant a Sex Discrimination Act exemption to allow the group to hold a “lesbians born female only” event.

Ms Grover and LAG were on Friday joined by Women’s Forum Australia and the Women’s Rights Network Australia in rallying behind Ms Witney to call for changes to the federal Sex Discrimination Act. Barrister Megan Blake, who has been involved in representing Ms Grover and LAG, is also acting for Ms Witney.

The women’s calls came as the Labor Party passed a resolution at its federal conference in Adelaide in support of “the LGBTIQ+ community in having agency over their health decisions”, but did not discuss the conflict between women’s rights and those of transgender people.

They also followed Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Debbie Platz stating that neither “women” nor “sex” is ­defined in that state’s Anti-Discrimination Act, and that “sex may include people who identify as that sex”.

Ms Grover, who is pursuing her own High Court appeal, said it could not be that the intention of gender identity laws “was to erase women and every protection we need on the basis of sex from law”.

“As more and more women come under attack from gender identity laws and ideologically captured human rights commissions, it only highlights that the current legislation isn’t working,” she said.

“Unless, of course, this was this intention. In that case, the Labor government needs to explain why they made a decision, by stealth and without a single democratic process, to destroy women’s sex-based rights.”

The Lesbian Action Group said it stood with Ms Witney and her right to continue operating a successful women-only business.

“Women-only fitness and movement classes … are places where women build confidence, improve their physical and mental wellbeing, recover from trauma, form friendships and simply enjoy being themselves free from the male gaze,” LAG said.

“For many women, particularly survivors of male violence and abuse, knowing that only women are present is fundamental to feeling safe. That environment is immediately destroyed when a man enters the space.

“The threat of crippling financial penalties and years of litigation has the potential to ­destroy a successful business, up-end a woman’s life and send a chilling message to every other woman considering providing ­female-only services.”

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LAG said Australian law “must change”.

“The 2013 amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, which added gender identity as a protected attribute, have in cases like this been weaponised against women,” the organisation said.

“Human rights bodies and tribunals in Australia continue to prioritise gender identity over sex-based rights.

“In our successful Federal Court case against the Australian Human Rights Commission earlier this year, Justice Moshinsky found that the Tribunal hearing our appeal against the Commission’s refusal to allow us to hold lesbian-only public events had erred by placing decisive weight on discrimination against trans women instead of undertaking the balancing exercise required by the Sex Discrimination Act.

“The Australian Human Rights Commission’s temporary exemption guidelines, which influenced that decision, were also found by the Federal Court to be ‘deficient’.

“Parliament must restore women’s ability to establish and operate female-only businesses, services and community spaces without fear of legal action.”

LAG called on the Labor Party, having amended the SDA in 2013, to act to “stop those provisions being used to undermine women’s rights”.

“It is also time for Australia’s human rights institutions to return to their proper role,” the organisation said.

“They should apply the law impartially, not act as advocates for any particular ideology.

“The Sex Discrimination Act does not elevate gender identity above sex, and women should no longer be expected to sacrifice their rights while human rights bodies and tribunals continue to treat it as though it does.”

Women’s Forum Australia CEO Rachael Wong said Ms Witney’s was “the latest case to highlight the urgent need for Australian governments to restore clear legal protections for women and girls on the basis of biological sex”.

“Women should not be dragged through courts and tribunals every time they seek to provide a space or service designed specifically for women,” Ms Wong said.

“How many more examples do we need of women being punished for defending biological reality and sex-based rights before our governments recognise there is a problem and fix it?

“It is profoundly misogynistic that women are being compelled to accept men’s claims to be women at the expense of their own rights.

“Female-only spaces exist because women and girls have legitimate needs for privacy and safety. Laws that undermine those spaces while penalising the women who provide them are failing women.”

Women’s Rights Network Australia said Ms Witney was “yet another woman finding herself in legal trouble because the Sex Discrimination Act elevates gender identity in ways that undermine women’s sex-based rights.”

“Women should not face complaints, legal proceedings or financial ruin for providing female-only services. Yet this is becoming an increasingly common consequence of the law as it currently stands,” WRNA said.

“The Albanese Labor government must urgently amend the Sex Discrimination Act to restore clear protections for women’s single-sex businesses, services and spaces.

“Women should not need lawyers or courtrooms to defend the simple right to provide services exclusively for other women.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/womens-advocates-demand-law-changes-after-pole-studio-sued-over-womenonly-rule/news-story/0e27a153ed546c499115f336ccb52210

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COMMENTARY: How many court cases against women does the government need before fixing the law?

SALL GROVER - July 28, 2026

Across Australia, women are being punished for knowing what a woman is, for creating women-only spaces, wanting women-only sport, and for building businesses that cater to that simple biological fact. Rights we held from the start of the Sex Discrimination Act in 1984 have been ripped away without our consent and it’s destroying women’s livelihoods one complaint at a time.

It happened to me. For almost five years I’ve fought just to run a woman-only social networking app. Giggle was designed as a space for women, adult human females, to connect without males. Before men started claiming to be women, that was non-controversial. Then came the Tickle v Giggle Federal Court case and appeal. The courts ruled against us. The Australian Human Rights Commission sided against biological reality. Now I face the High Court to defend the obvious: men are not women.

Last week the same pattern hit Queens of Pole, a women-only pole fitness studio on the Gold Coast. Established in 2017, it has operated for nine years as a private, safe space for women. Founder Nomes Witney built it for women who need privacy, dignity and freedom from male presence – women from different religious or cultural backgrounds, survivors of trauma or those simply preferring to train with other women.

A man who registered as “female” attended one class, then applied for membership. Queens of Pole declined him under its longstanding policy. Two days later a complaint was lodged with the Queensland Human Rights Commission. Conciliation failed. The matter is before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. He wants $30,000 in damages.

It cannot be that a man who claims to be a woman can walk into a woman-only business, demand access and, when refused, pursue five-figure compensation while dragging the owner through tribunals, destroying the reason the business exists. How is this progress? Last week also brought Kirralie Smith’s latest loss in the NSW Supreme Court, where her appeal against a vilification finding over social media posts about males in women’s football was largely rejected. She has been ordered to pay $95,000 in damages and publish a court-ordered statement. At the same time the WA government is in court fighting to stop a violent male prisoner who has self-identified as a woman from being transferred to a women’s prison after a tribunal ruled in his favour. Who could have warned them this would happen? Well, the women who have been telling them for years that this is the logical conclusion of gender-identity laws.

The federal Sex Discrimination Act once protected women on the basis of biological sex. Amendments, state laws and judicial reinterpretations have inverted reality, turning sex-based rights into optional extras that must yield to gender identity. Women who notice this – and act on it – are punished. The pattern is clear and accelerating. Men who claim to be women now wield institutional power over women. They can demand entry to female-only spaces and, when refused, mobilise human rights commissions and courts to treat a man’s self-identification as superior to a woman’s boundaries. Federal and state governments watch and do nothing, leaving women to fight alone while our rights and businesses are dismantled.

Queens is not an outlier. It joins my case and the ongoing battles by the Lesbian Action Group. Each time a woman-only space defends its boundary, the machinery of the state is used against it. The complainant need not prove harm beyond being told no. The business owner – woman – must instead prove why females deserve privacy from males even when they declare themselves women. That inversion is not equality. How many more human rights complaints are queued up to destroy women’s lives and livelihoods? How many court cases must women endure before governments restore the sex-based protections that were never supposed to be destroyed? Women are not the aggressors for wanting spaces free of males. We are simply defending the reality that made sex discrimination law necessary in the first place.

The longer this continues, the clearer the message: in Australia, a man’s claim to womanhood now outweighs a woman’s right to exclude him. That is not progress. It is institutionalised misogyny dressed up as human rights. The government has the power to fix the law.

The only question left is how many more women must be punished before it does.

Sall Grover is founder and chief executive of Giggle and an accidental women’s rights advocate.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/how-many-court-cases-against-women-does-the-government-need-before-fixing-the-law/news-story/a0784d8e26b942cace568306626fafee

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COMMENTARY: Australian law on gender identity splits from US and UK on women’s rights

CHRIS MERRITT - July 23, 2026

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Thanks to Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the US Supreme Court there can no longer be any doubt that Australian law is an outlier on one of the most contentious issues of our times.

The highest courts in the United States and Britain have both ruled that the gender identity of men who honestly believe they are women does not trump women’s rights.

Australian law is heading in the opposite direction – and in doing so it has parted company not just with the US and Britain, but with reality.

As the Giggle v Tickle decision in the Federal Court makes plain, men in this country who honestly believe they are women and have “transitioned” are now in an extraordinary position. The law can require others to treat them as though they really are women.

The US Supreme Court’s decision on gender identity is known as West Virginia v BJP and follows last year’s ruling by the UK Supreme Court in a case known as For Women Scotland.

The British court determined that a “gender recognition certificate” does not change a person’s legal sex, which is determined by biology.

Men who identify as women deserve compassion and protection from discrimination. But the clear direction of British and American law is that they remain men.

Justice Kavanaugh’s judgment in the US Supreme Court should be required reading for Australian governments that have equivocated about how to respond to this issue.

The court ruled six to three that West Virginia’s law preventing biological men from taking part in women’s sport did not violate the US Constitution’s equal protection clause.

Separate sports teams based on biological sex were reasonable because of the inherent physical differences between men and women.

It also ruled unanimously that it did not violate a civil rights law known as Title IX which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or setting.

These decisions mean Australia is out of step with the approach in Britain and the US. So how did this happen?

Did parliament really intend to enact a law that sent Australia in such a radical direction? Or were these consequences known and ignored?

Thirteen years ago when the Gillard government removed the definition of “woman” from the Sex Discrimination Act, parliament appears to have had no idea this would lead to such an outcome.

It was not mentioned in the second reading speeches of Mark Dreyfus who was attorney-general at the time, or that of George Brandis who was shadow attorney-general.

Nor is there any mention in the explanatory memorandum to the bill that made the change that transsexual women could sue unless they are treated as women. This is despite the fact that such a warning has been found in a 2013 Senate committee report.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that parliament was not fully aware of the impact of what it was doing.

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Gillard’s recent statements about the impact of removing the definition of “woman” give credence to this explanation.

“If you look at the parliamentary debates in the changes to the Sex Discrimination Act in 2012, you’ll find that the issues you’re referring to were not raised by anyone because they simply weren’t a matter of public discourse the way they are today,” Gillard said.

“So, it was a different time. It wasn’t something squarely before the parliament at the time the legislation was being amended,” she said.

The bottom line is that Gillard now accepts that the most radical consequence of this change was not put squarely before parliament.

That can only mean that parliament had no intention of making such a major change.

Yet there still seems to be insufficient appetite in Canberra to set things right.

One day before the West Virginia decision, Labor and the Greens blocked the first of two moves that would have corrected parliament’s oversight.

Pauline Hanson got nowhere when she tried to have the Senate consider her Sex Discrimination Amendment (Acknowledging Biological Reality) Bill.

One day after the West Virginia decision, the Senate gave similar treatment to Michaelia Cash’s Sex Discrimination Amendment (Restoring Common Sense and Recognising Biological Sex) Bill.

The High Court will soon consider this issue as part of a special leave application in the Giggle v Tickle case. But it’s a big ask to expect the High Court to inject common sense into a statute that was mangled by parliament – albeit unintentionally. The real solution rests with the legislature – which is why the judgment in the West Virginia cases deserves a wider audience.

Justice Kavanaugh wrote that many athletic organisations in the US as well as state governments had recently acted decisively to prohibit biological males from participating in women’s sports.

“In 2025 the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) prohibited biological male students, including those who identify as female and have taken hormones, from competing on women’s teams,” the judgment says.

“The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee followed suit, likewise prohibiting biological males from competing in women’s sports.

“More recently the IOC similarly limited Olympic participation in women’s sports to biological females.

“The IOC did so in order to ‘protect fairness in such sports and events, as well as safety’.”

But in Australia, the land of the fair go, a law based on an oversight means women’s rights are being sacrificed for a goal that was never properly considered by our elected representatives.

Chris Merritt is vice-president of the Rule of Law Institute of Australia

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/australian-law-on-gender-identity-splits-from-us-and-uk-on-womens-rights/news-story/b9ac51e46d971bc5d0dee23386086671

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COMMENTARY: The trans lobby says it saves kids. The evidence says otherwise

BERNARD LANE - July 25, 2026

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Health Minister Mark Butler put youth gender clinics on the national agenda in January 2025 when he asked the National Health and Medical Research Council to develop the first official countrywide treatment guideline. Interim advice from that inquiry is expected before the end of August.

Is there any good evidence for suppressing the naturally timed puberty of gender-distressed minors? What are the risks?

Politicians underestimate the pent-up disquiet over this alarming and improbable medicalisation; children as young as 10 can start puberty blockers. Many in the mainstream stay silent; they have seen critics of “gender-affirming care” abused, harassed and deprived of their livelihood.

One Nation has led the campaign for an inquiry into pediatric medical transition and Liberal leader Angus Taylor has promised to amend the Sex Discrimination Act so single-sex spaces for women and girls can be restored.

The same idea in the Tickle v Giggle case operates in our children’s hospitals: gender identity, unmoored from biological reality, overrides reproductive sex. Young children exposed to gender ideology in school, on social media or at home may come to believe they are the opposite sex. No wonder they seek hormone suppression drugs at the first signs of the “wrong puberty”.

Almost all those begun on blockers are expected to go on to opposite-sex hormones meant to be taken lifelong. The risks include sterilisation, sexual dysfunction, cognitive deficits, cardiovascular problems and brittle bones.

Health authorities in progressive countries such as Finland and Sweden have commissioned “gold standard” systematic reviews of the evidence for treating youth gender distress with blockers and hormones. They found the evidence to be weak and restricted these hormonal interventions.

The 2020-24 UK Cass Review inspired bipartisan support for confining puberty blockers to a clinical trial. Queensland and New Zealand have adopted policies to cease new hormonal treatment.

Yet what is regarded overseas as a medical experiment is still available as a routine intervention throughout most of Australia. These treatments follow a de facto national guideline from the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

Unknown effects

That document, found to be lacking in rigour by the Cass Review, tells clinicians that psychosis in a minor is not necessarily an obstacle to medical transition. It seeks to dispel concern about tweens being medicalised by claiming puberty blockers are reversible, when the RCH gender clinic has admitted that the effects on the still-developing adolescent brain are unknown.

Given all that, do we really need an NHMRC guideline before switching to caution? Surely the NHMRC review will align with overseas reviews and find the evidence too weak for routine use of blockers and hormones. Or will the goalposts be moved?

Gender clinicians used to claim they were preventing suicide attempts. Now they say the unproven mental health benefits are secondary and it’s a success if hormonal and surgical treatment brings about predictable changes to the body.

The trans medical lobby has welcomed the NHMRC guideline project. It makes one wonder what assurances have been given behind the scenes. Last year, when Butler announced the project, his assistant minister, Ged Kearney, took to social media to insist this was “not a national inquiry”, which is the great fear of gender clinics. She said: “We expect all children to have continuity of care.” Does this mean no interruption to blockers and hormones?

Kearney chaired the government LGBTIQA+ health advisory group, which included two leaders of ACON, the former AIDS council. ACON functions as a trans lobby and has set up a clinic in Sydney to offer hormones to minors.

Butler does seem worried about gender clinics. In December 2024 he sought an “urgent” briefing from health officials. That advice was to cover the safety of puberty blockers, the case for a pause or ban, and a possible review of the evidence and clinical guidelines. Why the urgency? The request for advice was made a day after news that Butler’s UK Labour counterpart, Wes Streeting, had announced a ban on routine prescription of blockers.

“The Cass Review made it clear that there is not enough evidence about the long-term effects of using puberty blockers to treat gender incongruence to know whether they are safe or beneficial,” Streeting said.

“That evidence should have been established before they were ever prescribed for that purpose. It is a scandal that medicine was given to vulnerable young children without proof that it was safe or effective, or that it had gone through the rigorous safeguards of a clinical trial.”

So, not a culture war after all?

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Whatever Butler’s intentions, the NHMRC project involves conflicts of interest. The RCH gender clinic’s Ken Pang sits on the guideline development committee, whose scope includes a “comprehensive review” of that clinic’s de facto national guideline; Pang is one of its four authors. And the NHMRC is part of a health sector where gender ideology, often courtesy of ACON, is endemic.

In Senate estimates last December, chief medical officer Michael Kidd was present when Liberal senator Alex Antic was asking why the nation was slow to follow other jurisdictions in restricting puberty blockers. Kidd mentioned the NHMRC guideline project and declared: “Puberty blockers, as we know, can be lifesaving care for many young transgender people.” We can’t know that, according to numerous systematic reviews. If we did know, why ask the NHMRC to review the evidence base?

Antic and other Coalition conservatives have voted in favour of One Nation motions for a gender clinic inquiry. Senator Andrew Bragg is among the Liberal moderates who have helped block an inquiry. This division no doubt contributes to the lack of a detailed and forthright Coalition policy on pediatric medical transition.

It may seem obvious to defer to the doctors. But the story of gender clinics is the failure of “experts” to protect clinical, professional and scholarly norms from distortion by identity politics.

No good evidence

The trans medicine lobby, as well as its enablers in health professional associations and the bureau­cracy, have coached politicians to reject any inquiry into youth gender transition as a culture war likely to trigger suicide attempts. There is no good evidence for this reckless claim; a recent comprehensive Finnish study suggests that suicide risk is driven by mental health comorbidities, not gender distress.

Does Bragg subscribe to the “transition or suicide” narrative put to parents of gender-distressed children? In March 2023, he tweeted: “Gender dysphoria is a sensitive issue for a vulnerable community. It should not be used as a political wedge. Bashing up on minorities is not the answer to any question the nation faces. The Senate was right to vote down another One Nation motion on gender dysphoria.”

Why should a vulnerable community be exposed to experimental treatments with no clear evidence of benefit? Who is keeping open the future choices for these kids? How can a child consent to loss of fertility? Why is same-sex attraction being converted medically into a heterosexual simulation? And it’s not “bashing up minorities” to consider an inquiry into how these treatments bypassed clinical governance checks and became routine in children’s hospitals.

The international trend towards cautious treatment policy has strengthened since Bragg’s tweet. Now the opposition has qualified its support for the NHMRC guideline project. In a statement to The Australian on Wednesday, opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston, a Liberal moderate, said the Coalition had supported the project at the outset “because decisions of this magnitude, made about children, must rest on rigorous, evidence-based clinical advice”.

“That support wasn’t a blank cheque,” Ruston said. “Given how significantly the international landscape has shifted, Australians need confidence that there is not just a light-touch update of the current guidelines. It must be grounded in well-conducted systematic reviews of the evidence base, and the reasoning and evidence (should be) made public alongside the advice, not released after the fact.”

Bernard Lane is a former senior journalist with The Australian and publishes the Gender Clinic News Substack.

https://www.genderclinicnews.com/

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/the-trans-lobby-says-it-saves-kids-the-evidence-says-otherwise/news-story/39eb3cadb8018cb814675593b6e5d7a9

https://qresear.ch/?q=Bernard+Lane

https://qresear.ch/?q=Cass+Review

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US anti-hate chief slams Anthony Albanese’s ‘fecklessness’ after Bondi Beach attack

JAMES DOWLING and BIMINI PLESSER - July 29, 2026

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The leader of the most high-profile Jewish body in the US has urged Anthony Albanese to progress past his “fecklessness” post-Bondi by embracing social media reforms suggested by the antisemitism royal commission and lobbying for an international regulator on tech giants.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive and national director of the American Anti-Defamation League, in an exclusive interview with The Australian, has lobbied for a global watchdog on social media platforms akin to international conventions on maritime law after the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion earlier this month foreshadowed sweeping social media reforms, including a potential licensing framework with enforceable conduct rules for companies that would hold their ability to operate in Australia at stake.

Mr Greenblatt, speaking ahead of a visit to Australia, has been chief executive of the ADL for 12 years after serving in the Democratic administrations of presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Advocating his vision for the future of tech regulation, he suggested a model that could inoculate middle powers from well-funded tech giants based outside their jurisdictions acting with impunity.

“These entities are companies with private ownership, and yet they operate like utilities with massive public reach that requires equal access. So I think one of the things you need to do in Australia and the US is we need a kind of collaboration,” he said.

“Much like we have the International Atomic Energy Administration and we have other entities that do things like maritime law … I think you need mechanisms because these companies are global in nature.

“Our current models aren’t built for this, and we need a massive and rapid rethink because the corporatisation of our societies is not a good thing.”

The royal commission in its third hearing block focused on the corrosive impact social platforms have had on social fabric, institutional trust and antisemitism and made clear it was pondering policy recommendations that would upend the local approach to tech regulation.

It called multiple witnesses to discuss the viability of a digital duty of care, licensing agreements that would require platforms to seek registration to operate in Australia and an enforced definition of online hate.

The commission’s senior counsel assisting, Richard Lancaster, made clear the inquiry was set to recommend new standards for tech giants.

“The social media companies are not sufficiently addressing antisemitism online. Regulatory obligations must be imposed on them because they are not taking care of the problem themselves,” he said.

“If obligations are imposed on social media platforms, they must be capable of being enforced in Australia. If social media platforms are capable of inflicting harm, or are actually inflicting harm upon Australians, the laws of Australia must be capable of ­securing accountability for those harms.”

Mr Greenblatt said the royal commission’s illustration of antisemitism through its hearings put a clear burden on the Albanese government to decisively pursue the implementation of its findings and recommendations.

“Getting the online environment in check seems to me a very smart place to prioritise,” he said. “It has such a totalising effect on all these other factors, amplifying them, accelerating them.

“These hearings are demonstrating how antisemitism (has) permeated all parts of your society: education, workplaces, healthcare, the media, the arts and, of course, online. We see some parallels in the US and in other liberal societies and other open democracies.

“Your commission is demonstrating the totality of the problem and its scope. It feels similar. I think obviously the real test is implementation.”

(continued)

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The December 14 massacre at Sydney’s Bondi Beach exposed “the Prime Minister’s fecklessness” and a broader pattern of delay, Mr Greenblatt said, foreshadowing meetings during his visit with government officials.

“In the early days after the incident, he showed sympathy on the one hand and sort of struggled on the other hand to call this out as what it was,” he said. “It was quite startling.

“The special envoy’s (Jillian Segal) plan in Australia had existed months before Bondi. Speed and follow-through on the new recommendations are really what matters.

“The issue of social cohesion is an issue in all these places, where you find governments trying to hold things together and somehow feeling like marginalising the Jewish community is part of that process.

“People like me outside of Australia are looking to your country now for leadership to see if it meets the test.”

Mr Greenblatt’s interview was conducted during a trip to commemorate the 1994 Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina community centre bombing, in which 85 people were killed in Argentina, another country within the J7, a coalition representing the world’s largest Jewish diaspora communities.

“It’s pretty remarkable that I’m here to commemorate that incident 32 years ago, and then I’ll be in Australia in a couple weeks, where the incident at Bondi Beach was so shocking, so horrifying,” he said.

Complicating Australia’s formula for social cohesion was the increase in political polarisation evidenced by the rise of One Nation – a challenge familiar abroad.

“Australia may be on the front end of this, but if we don’t get these forces in check, they will overrun your society the way they are overrunning the UK, overrunning the US and overrunning other places,” Mr Greenblatt said.

“Where political polarisation starts, in the end extremists are empowered. When people flee from the middle and end up on the fringe, the loudest voices end up with a degree of force that they didn’t have before.

“I certainly don’t think we can legislate our way out of hate. You can interrupt and arrest an extremist planning to shoot and kill 15 people at a beach party. That doesn’t stop antisemitism per se – you really have to change hearts and minds.”

New data released through the ADL shows antisemitism remains far more prevalent than it was before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, with Australia recording the highest increase in antisemitic incidents out of all J7 countries.

The nation recorded 1654 incidents in 2025, 246 per cent more than 2022, despite numbers dropping by 20 per cent from 2024 to 2025.

The J7 report stated 15 of the 20 people killed in antisemitic attacks globally in 2025 were those gunned down at Bondi.

It also showed the alarming rate of antisemitic abuse on social media. On average, social media platforms recorded an 839 per cent rise in antisemitism after October 7, 2023. While those levels have since dipped, the data shows rates remain far higher than they were in 2023.

“2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks around the world outside of Israel in over three decades,” Mr Greenblatt said.

“Australia’s had the sharpest increase in violent incidents (of antisemitism), but stopping this is not like there’s a quick switch. It requires us to protect people in the short term and keep them safe, improve the climate in the medium term and change the culture in the long term, and that demands education.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/us-antihate-chief-slams-anthony-albaneses-fecklessness-after-bondi-beach-attack/news-story/3126700c540f02e358d652b06ebe25a2

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COMMENTARY: I was shot at Bondi. Then the algorithm turned my attack into fodder for conspiracy theorists

ARSEN OSTROVSKY - July 30, 2026

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It has been said that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”. In the age of social media, algorithms and artificial intelligence, that old adage no longer captures reality. Today, a lie doesn’t simply travel faster than the truth. It travels at the speed of an algorithm.

I know this first-hand. In late June I appeared before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion to recount what happened after I survived the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.

While I was still in hospital recovering from surgery to remove bullet fragments from my head, AI-generated images portraying me as a “fraud”, a “crisis actor”, and the attack as a “false flag operation” were already spreading like wildfire across X, YouTube, Telegram and other platforms.

Instead of recovering with my family, we found ourselves confronting a relentless torrent of abuse, threats and incitement.

The deepfakes did more than spread lies. They sought to erase my experience, transforming me from a survivor of terrorism into the subject of a global conspiracy theory, thereby exposing my family and me to further abuse while I was still recovering in hospital.

Despite being comprehensively debunked by major media organisations, many of those videos and posts remain online today, continuing to be viewed, shared and amplified.

And despite repeated requests, the platforms refused to remove much of this demonstrably false content, while most of those responsible for creating and co-ordinating the campaign have never been publicly identified.

This should concern every Australian because when algorithms reward engagement with such dangerous falsehoods it is not only individuals who are targeted but public trust itself becomes the casualty.

My experience was deeply personal. But it also exposed something much bigger: in the digital age, hatred no longer spreads organically. It is recommended, amplified and monetised by social media platforms whose business models reward engagement, regardless of its consequences.

When algorithms recommend and amplify hatred, dehumanisation and conspiracy theories, they do not simply threaten one community but corrode the trust, civility and shared values on which social cohesion itself depends.

Words also have consequences and algorithms turbocharge those consequences. So, when hatred is left unchecked or actively recommended to millions online, it normalises prejudice, dehumanises entire communities and ultimately leads to violence.

That is why we should stop pretending that what happens online somehow matters less than what happens in the real world.

If someone stood outside a synagogue, school or shopping centre screaming antisemitic abuse, glorifying terrorism or spreading malicious lies about the victim of a terrorist attack, we would rightly condemn it. In many circumstances, police would become involved.

Yet somehow, when precisely the same conduct occurs online, it has become too easy to dismiss it as merely “content”, “engagement” or the unavoidable cost of life in the digital age.

This should not be normalised.

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Particularly troubling in my own case was YouTube’s conclusion during the commission hearings that a video spreading malicious conspiracy theories about me and the Bondi terrorist attack did not breach its hate speech or other policies, although the company did acknowledge that if Australia’s laws changed it could reassess its position.

That exchange is particularly telling because if some of the world’s largest technology companies refuse to remove demonstrably false and harmful content under their own policies, and the eSafety Commissioner is unable to do so, parliament indeed should seriously consider whether the law ought to compel them to do so.

As counsel assisting, Richard Lancaster SC, observed in his closing arguments during the block of hearings on online antisemitism: “If social media platforms are capable of inflicting harm, or are actually inflicting harm upon Australians, the laws of Australia must be capable of securing accountability for those harms.”

In that regard the royal commission may also wish to examine whether stronger statutory obligations – including private rights of action for individuals and minority groups targeted by co-ordinated campaigns of online hatred – are warranted, particularly where platform failures place personal safety at risk.

Technology companies can no longer hide behind the facade that they are merely passive conduits for other people’s speech.

Their algorithms decide what billions of people see, consume and act on, while propelling extremist and dangerous narratives to audiences that would never otherwise encounter them. With that extraordinary reach must also come an equally profound sense of duty and responsibility.

But regulation alone will not solve this problem or rebuild social trust.

The royal commission was established in response to a crisis affecting Jewish Australians. But its significance extends far beyond one community.

Antisemitism has always been an early warning sign that something deeper is going wrong within a society.

What starts with Jews rarely ends with Jews.

The lesson from Bondi is not simply that hatred exists. It is that hatred left unchecked, whether on our streets or online, has consequences.

Australia cannot afford to learn that lesson twice.

Arsen Ostrovsky is the head of Sydney office of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council and a survivor of the Bondi Beach terror attack last December.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/i-was-shot-at-bondi-then-the-algorithm-turned-my-attack-into-fodder-for-conspiracy-theorists/news-story/e05251682cca7a58859c3c7733381ee7

https://aijac.org.au/op-ed/i-was-shot-at-bondi-then-the-algorithm-turned-my-attack-into-fodder-for-conspiracy-theorists/

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Prosecutors’ appeal gets nurses’ alleged ‘kill’ threat video returned to evidence

BIMINI PLESSER - July 31, 2026

Commonwealth prosecutors have successfully overturned a judge’s decision to exclude from evidence a video of two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening to kill Israeli patients ahead of their criminal trial.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh and Ahmad Rashad Nadir made global headlines last year after Israeli influencer Max Ilinsky – who has also been known by the last names Veifer and Ilinski – recorded them allegedly threatening violence against Israeli patients at Bankstown Hospital. In the video, Mr Nadir allegedly suggested he had sent Israeli patients to “hell” while Ms Abu Lebdeh allegedly claimed she would “kill” Israelis rather than treat them.

Last month, NSW District Court judge Michael McHugh SC declared the viral clip was inadmissible and could not form part of the evidence against the nurses, as it was unlawful for Mr Ilinsky to have recorded and shared the private conversation.

Two weeks after the controversial decision was handed down, the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions lodged an appeal with the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal to overturn it.

The matter appeared before Supreme Court judges Anthony Payne and James Emmett, and Chief Judge at Common Law Natalie Adams on July 24.

A commonwealth prosecutor told the judges the video should be reintroduced into evidence because without it, a jury could not reach a fair and fully-informed decision at trial.

“In the absence of the video, the crown case is indeed very, very much weakened,” he said.

The prosecutor also reminded the court that when Mr Ilinsky recorded the conversation, he was in Israel, where it’s legal to do so.

Mr Nadir’s barrister, Greg James KC, said regardless of where Mr Ilinsky was at the time, the conversation he recorded occurred, at least in part, in NSW and should be subject to local law.

The barrister said the video could not be allowed to be used as evidence, as it was recorded “clandestinely”, or at least without overt permission.

On Friday, Justices Payne, Emmett, and Adams granted the prosecution’s appeal, overturning Judge McHugh’s decision to rule the video out of evidence.

With the video reintroduced into evidence, the prosecution will be able to use both the footage and Mr Ilinsky’s testimony in their case against the nurses when their trial begins on August 31.

Most of Judge McHugh’s original judgment about the video was suppressed and only limited reasons for his decision were released publicly last month. The reason for the suppression was not aired in open court.

Judge McHugh found evidence ­obtained illegally should only be allowed into court if “the desirability of admission outweighs the undesirability of admitting evidence that has been obtained in such a way or ways”.

The former Bankstown Hospital nurses have both pleaded not guilty to using a carriage ­service to menace, harass or offend, and Ms Abu Lebdeh has pleaded not guilty to an ­additional charge of threatening violence to a group.

They have been stood down from their jobs by NSW Health and issued a two-year ban from working with NDIS participants.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/prosecutors-appeal-gets-nurses-alleged-kill-threat-video-returned-to-evidence/news-story/e1420672ff2746af376dd061d165e030

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Kawsar Abbas and Zeinab Ahmad: Mother and daughter plead not guilty to enslaving Yazidi girl for Islamic State

MOHAMMAD ALFARES - July 31, 2026

A mother and daughter accused of enslaving a young Yazidi girl in Syria during the height of the Islamic State Caliphate have pleaded not guilty to serious slavery offences.

Kawsar Abbas and her daughter, Zeinab Ahmad, entered their pleas during a brief committal mention at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Both women will now stand trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria next month, kicking off Australia’s first prosecutions for crimes against humanity.

The pair were arrested after a dramatic return to Melbourne from the squalid Roj detention camp in northeast Syria.

Bail was extended for Ms Abbas ahead of the trial, while Ms Ahmad remains in custody following a denied bail application in June by Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan.

While on bail, Ms Abbas was charged with possessing a slave, using a slave and engaging in slave trading, with each count carrying a maximum term of 25 years imprisonment.

Her daughter faces two charges that relate to the enslavement of the same alleged victim.

A police summary delivered by Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning during the bail hearings detailed the shocking testimony of the alleged Yazidi victim, who the pair allegedly helped keep in their Syrian home after she was purchased by Mohammed Ahmad from a slave market.

Police allege Ms Abbas travelled from Melbourne to Syria in 2014 with three of her children after the Islamic State had declared its caliphate and after attacks on the Yazidi people had begun. Police allege she later lived under ISIS rule while her husband and sons fought for the organisation.

Among the matters relied upon by police are allegations that Ms Abbas encouraged her mother - who she resides with now - to join her in Syria because they were “on the right religious path”.

Ultimately, she was granted bail and released into the community under strict conditions.

Her daughter was denied bail after Ms Hannan found that she posed an unacceptable risk to the community.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/mother-and-daughter-plead-not-guilty-to-enslaving-yazidi-girl-for-islamic-state/news-story/62307b21d5feb2470fa5bc09ba8775ab