Key eventsThe Coalition and a few crossbench politicians including Jacqui Lambie, Ralph Babet, One Nation, Rebekah Sharkie, Bob Katter, Zali Steggall, Allegra Spender and Andrew Gee have written to the prime minister calling for a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at universities.ShareSarah Basford CanalesLidia Thorpe commends Fatima Payman for ‘speaking honestly from the heart’ in Palestine commentsIndependent senator Lidia Thorpe has weighed into the furore over Labor senator Fatima Payman, who yesterday accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, using the politically charged phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.Earlier on Thursday, the Coalition and Labor voted together on a motion condemning the phrase, which passed 56 votes in favour and 12 against. Payman was not present for the vote.In a statement to Guardian Australia, Thorpe criticised Labor for its “appalling” treatment against its own backbench senator, accusing the party of silencing its members.
They should be ashamed. [Payman] was speaking honestly from the heart about something important she cares about. I commend her for that … more Labor MPs should be speaking out on this issue, and so many others. And they should be allowed to cross the floor. People voting next year should remember this. A vote for Labor is a vote for a candidate that will be silenced and forced to give up their values.
Thorpe also disagreed with suggestions the phrase is inappropriate, as the prime minister Anthony Albanese earlier said, or synonymous with terrorism, instead saying it was a message of unity and peace.
But politicians and some in the media have twisted these words and made them out to be something they’re not, for political points. It’s disgusting and shallow politics … we should be worried that politicians are trying to police political speech and what people choose to wear. Soon enough they’ll be banning watermelon from the parliament cafe. And we should be alarmed that politicians are choosing to condemn an anti-apartheid message.
Read more about the issue:ShareUpdated at 11.02 CESTDevelopment of Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic emblems and branding under wayWork has officially begun on Brisbane’s Olympic and Paralympic brand strategy and emblems design, AAP reports.It will be the key to the self-funded organising committee’s plan to not only showcase the Games but sell them to sponsors.“The development of the brand and emblems is a crucial element in promoting our Games globally in the years to come,” committee president Andrew Liveris said.The daunting assignment has been tackled by a consortium of local and global creative agencies – plus three university students.Luke Woods, Isabella Eurell and Charlee McKinnon have been selected after a state-wide invitation for First Nations university and Tafe students to join the official design team as paid interns.Brisbane 2032 brand director Rebecca Masci (left) and creative agency VML Brisbane’s Adam Kennedy (right) look over designs with interns Charlee McKinnon, Isabella Eurell and Luke Woods. Photograph: SUPPLIED/PR IMAGEBrisbane 2032 brand and digital engagement director Rebecca Masci backed the trio to become valued team members.“These First Nations interns are going to get the chance to work on the secret sauce that makes the Brisbane 2032 brand and what we present to the world come 2032,” she said.Eurell, 19, said she applied after her family “kind of egged me on to do it”.“I thought it would be great to be a part of something like this and put my own two cents in,” she said.“I think it is important to incorporate our culture and our traditions, especially First Nations people, but also mix it with modern day and how we are now.”Woods, 25, and 20-year-old McKinnon will join her on the four-month internship.ShareUpdated at 10.28 CESTLuca IttimaniPro-Palestine rally at ANU in support of student protesters camping on campusFurther to our earlier post on the Australian National University directing pro-Palestine students to vacate their encampment, protestors rallied around the tents on Thursday to show solidarity with the students.A crowd of 300 marched from the camp to the university’s management offices, with students joined by dozens of workers from the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union and the National Tertiary Education Union.Lachlan Clohesy, secretary for the National Tertiary Education Union’s ACT division, said the university was “pressuring students to give names of their alleged co-conspirators”, after staff invited the seven to identify other protestors at a meeting on Wednesday. He said:
This is the sort of stuff you would see in a star chamber or Stasi interrogation, not a modern Australian university.
The march was also attended by dozens of ANU lecturers and tutors, waving flags and chanting with the crowd. Guardian Australia spoke to some who asked not to be named. One said:
We’ve trained some of these students and we are proud to see that they’re taking a stand fearlessly against genocide.
Another gave some academic analysis of the ANU’s motto, Naturam Primum Cognoscere Rerum:
‘First to understand the nature of things’, that is the motto of the university. So it’s inspiring to see a group of students leading the way in knowing the nature of things, at a point at which the university is selectively blind.
People march during a rally at a Gaza solidarity encampment at ANU in Canberra today. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShareUpdated at 10.03 CESTLuca IttimaniANU to ‘explore appropriate action’ if student protesters don’t leavePro-Palestine students at the Australian National University will be directed to vacate their on-campus encampments, after the university on Wednesday asked seven protesters to leave the camp.In a letter sent to the seven students on Thursday afternoon, deputy vice-chancellor Grady Venville said she was “concerned about the health and safety of participants within the encampment”. The letter continued:
I am issuing a direction … for you to vacate the encampment and remove all your personal belongings from the encampment by the end of Friday 17 May.
Similar directions will be issued to all those identified as residing in the encampment.
Nick Reich, who was one of the seven directed to vacate, denied there were health or safety issues and said the group was still discussing their response with the dozens of other students in the camp. He said:
We’re undecided as to whether we personally leave the camp, but the camp as a whole is not going anywhere.
They sent down health and safety representatives to have a look at the camp earlier. We brought in our own health and safety representatives from the [Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union] to have a look and they said the camp is very much up to scratch.
The seven students are not yet facing disciplinary action and an ANU spokesperson said the university was giving them the opportunity to follow the direction. The spokesperson added:
If they choose not to, the university will explore appropriate action under its policies and procedures.
The ANU encampment in Canberra. Photograph: Luca Ittimani/The GuardianShareUpdated at 10.10 CESTUniversity of Melbourne deputy vice-chancellor warns of ‘more forceful route’ if camps don’t endCaitlin CassidyThe University of Melbourne says both an occupation of its Arts West building and ongoing encampments on South Lawn “must end” as tensions rise between protestors and management.Speaking on ABC Melbourne, the deputy vice-chancellor of the university, Michael Wesley, said both encampments were “compromising with the ability of the university to use those facilities” and must be disbanded. The Students for Palestine camp has been established on the campus peacefully since late April.Wesley said more than 24 hours after the Arts West building was occupied by activists, the university was talking “constantly” with Victoria police about how to bring the situation to an end.
We’re giving people time to reflect on the consequences that continuing to disregard university instructions might have on their candidacies if they’re students, on their work if they’re staff … there could be criminal charges if they continue to defy the orders of the university and the orders of Victoria Police.
He added he hoped it wouldn’t lead to a violent removal but if protestors refused their demands “we will have to go down the more forceful route”.Asked whether the university would uphold the protestor’s demands, including divesting from Lockheed Martin which has ties to Israel, he replied:
We will not be doing that … supporting Australia’s national security aligns with the public good.
ShareUpdated at 10.09 CESTHere’s the full story on NSW premier Chris Minns sacking parliamentary secretary Anthony D’Adam over criticism of the police’s handling of a pro-Palestinian protest.ShareUpdated at 09.29 CESTPalestine advocacy group ‘alarmed’ by Senate motion over ‘river to the sea’ sloganThe Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) says it is appalled at the motion that claimed the “river to the sea” slogan was “frequently used by those who seek to intimidate Jewish Australians via acts of antisemitism” passing the Senate today.APAN said it was a contortion of the words of a liberation movement that is advocating for “an end to Israeli apartheid in Palestine and for the global values of freedom and equality for all, represents dangerous anti-democratic overreach on the part of both the major parties”.APAN President Nasser Mashni said:
Our liberation cry, “from the river to the sea” is a call for equal rights and justice for all.
We are alarmed that the Australian Senate has today taken this step to try and silence the Palestinian justice movement, and to shore up Zionist Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.
It’s in this context that we applaud Senator Fatima Payman for her humanity, courage and commitment to the principles of international law, particularly at a time when we’re seeing the space for public debate and public political action chipped away at by our two major parties.
ShareUpdated at 09.22 CESTCaitlin CassidyUniversity of Melbourne in ‘ongoing discussions’ with police on how to break up protest campThe University of Melbourne is in “ongoing discussions” with police on how to break up a pro-Palestine encampment at Parkville’s Arts West building.In a video distributed to Guardian Australia, deputy vice chancellor of the university, Michael Wesley said the university’s patience was “now at an end” more than 24 hours after students defied requests to cease occupation of the building.“Students have a right to protest, but that is not a blank check. They have crossed a line when they have occupied the Arts West Building … the occupation is now seriously disruptive and seriously intimidating.”Wesley said students and stuff had breached the university’s codes of conduct and would face police action “if necessary”.
If those codes of conduct are contravened, as they have been now, the people who are carrying them out, will face disciplinary action and police action, if necessary. We are in ongoing discussions with the police. They are advising us about how we keep this situation under control and they are giving us advice about how we might move forward to end the protests in the occupation.
ShareUpdated at 09.01 CESTSarah Basford CanalesLiberal senator denies referring to Fatima Payman as a ‘terrorist’Liberal senator Hollie Hughes says she did not refer to Labor senator Fatima Payman as a “terrorist” during Senate question time this afternoon.Hughes told Guardian Australia she said “you are supporting terrorists”, which she withdrew shortly after.The NSW Liberal senator denied she had directly referred to Payman as a “terrorist” as some senators, who do not wish to be named, sitting in the chamber at the time alleged.Hughes was overheard interjecting numerous times while the opposition pressed the Labor government over whether it had asked Payman to withdraw her comments.Payman, a first-term senator, on Wednesday accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, using the politically charged phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.Guardian Australia has contacted Payman for a response.ShareUpdated at 09.02 CESTCaitlin CassidyUniversity of Sydney does not call on protestors to dismantle campsThe University of Sydney will not call on protestors to dismantle their pro-Palestine camps amid growing tensions between students and management at universities in Melbourne and Canberra.The vice chancellor of the University of Sydney, Mark Scott, wrote to students and staff on Thursday reiterating the university upheld the right of its community to express their views on Israel and Palestine so long as they did not “unreasonably infringe on the rights of others to come to campus”.Scott said the university would continue to take a “reasonable and proportionate approach” to any alleged misconduct on a case-by-case basis, “consistent with our approach of de-escalation”.He said disciplinary action had been taken against some individuals who had deliberately covered their faces in a manner intended to conceal their identity, not identified themselves upon request and interrupted classes. Another instance of counter-protests engaging in allegedly intimidatory behaviour towards the encampment was also being investigated by police.
Around the world, we have seen universities and encampments come to mutually-acceptable agreements following good-faith dialogue. The concerns of the encampment … are worthy of consideration, but we can only progress towards any resolution through genuine two-way discussions and I hope that both the students and the NTEU will accept our offer to meet next week.
Campers at the University of Sydney in support of Palestine. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The GuardianShareUpdated at 08.49 CEST



Source link