Already and this is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Wednesday, the second of October. I'm Harry, I'm emma. In January, Australia banned symbols linked to terrorist organizations from being displayed in public. National police haven't charged anyone yet under these new laws, but protests over the weekend could change that. Thousands of people marched through the streets in multiple Australian cities to protest against the war in the
Middle East over the weekend. In today's deep dive, we'll look at how these protests have caused a political firestorm, sparking talk of visas, federal police powers, and an emergency sitting of Parliament. The first EMMA. What's making headlines?
Iran has launched a missile attack on Israel. Over one hundred and eighty missiles fired on Tuesday. Israeli and US officials say most of the missiles were shot down, but a number evaded Israel's missile defense system and struck buildings across the country. An IDF spokesperson said the attack would have consequences, and White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US would work with Israel in its response
to Iran. Also overnight, six people were killed in what Israeli police described as a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, Though it has not been confirmed if the two incidents are connected, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement the missile attack was in response to the killings of Hesbala's leader, Hamas's political leader, and the IRCG commander.
It came hours after Israel announced it had launched what it described as quote limited, localized and targeted raids in southern Lebanon.
Democrat Tim Waltz and Republican jdvs chants will go head to head for today's vice presidential debate. The VP hopefuls will meet in New York for what's expected to be their first and only debate with just over a month to go until the US presidential election. Sixty year old Minnesota Governor Waltz was announced as Kamala Harris's VP pick in August, following a reshuffling of candidates after Joe Biden dropped out. Trump announced thirty nine year old Ohio Senator JD.
Vance as his PEAK back in July, at the Republican National Convention. The debate, hosted by CBS News, will begin at eleven am Australian Eastern Standard time.
The Consumer Watchdog will receive an extra thirty million dollars in government funding as it continues efforts to crack down on the supermarket and retail sectors. The a trip will See will receive the funding over the next three and a half years. The money will go towards investigations and regulation enforcement. After the A Triple C launched separate lawsuits in the Federal Court against Coles and Woolworth's last week
for allegedly misleading customers over discount pricing. A Triple C chair Gina Cascottlieb said the funding boost will enable the watchdog to quote escalate a range of investigations, including in relation to potential misleading pricing claims or practices, claims about delivery time frames and costs, and businesses misrepresenting consumers' rights under the Australian Consumer.
Law and today's good News. Australian scientists SIR a step closer towards developing a breakthrough pregnancy safe epilepsy medication. Valproic acid is commonly used in the treatment of epilepsy. However, it's been linked to spinal court defects and other complications in newborns when taken by pregnant women. Now, University of Queensland researchers have identified a drug that could reverse the
harmful side effects of valproic acid. The conducted tests on lapgrown spinal cords that closely mimic the spinal cord of a fetus in the early weeks of gestation. The mini cords were exposed to a clinically approved drug called rapamycin before they were exposed to valproic acid. Rapamsin prevented the negative effects of the acid. Scientists said it means co treatment of epilepsy using both drugs could open safe access to an extremely effective treatment for women with epilepsy.
Harry on the podcast yesterday, Zara and I spoke about hez Bala. Zara gave us some background on the group based out of Lebanon, but overnight we saw the local angle for Australians with this story really pivot and so today we're talking about that Australian angle. After some protesters were seen waving flags in support of Hezbola over the weekend, So in particular the conversation. The reaction to that has
now turned to these new laws. We're going to get to that, but first of all, can you talk us through what we know about the weekend's protest action.
Yeah, So just to recap really quickly, over the weekend, the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network organized what it called a Day of Action for Gaza. It called for quote, communities, groups and individuals all around the country to stand for Gaza, where data sided by the United Nations says more than forty one thousand Palestine people have been killed by Israeli forces since October last year. So that protest was organized for Sunday and thousands of people turned out right across
the country, so Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth. So there were people who went along to the protest, taking Lebanese and Palestinian flags with them and brandishing those and calling for an end to the violence that Ew and Zarup spoke about in the pod yesterday.
Now, I just want to jump in here, Harry and reiterate as we mentioned yesterday on the podcast. It's an important distinction to make that Lebanon and Hezbola are two different entities. So Hesbola is an Iranian backed group based in Lebanon. The Australian government lists it as a terrorist organization and the government of Lebanon isn't controlled by Hesbola,
but there are Hesbela representatives in Lebanon's parliament. Back home to Australia where we had these protests over the weekend, I think it would also be helpful to understand a little bit about the representation of Lebanese people in Australia. What is the kind of diaspora like here.
So according to the latest census data, there are about two hundred and fifty thousand people in Australia who have family ties to Lebanon. And so going back to the protests, this was also held on the same weekend that Israel confirmed that it the Hesbela leader, Hassan Nazraala.
So the timing of that was actually coincidental to these protests. They'd already been organized when news of that death of Hassan Israela's death in Lebanon buy an Israeli air strike emerged.
That's correct. And at these protests though there were some people who were in attendance who had taken the Hesbelah flag and they had also brought portraits of Nazraala to the protests. Now, as you also mentioned, Emma, Australia lists Hesbela as a terrorist organization. So that's how the conversation moved from considering whether those flags and portraits that were at these protests fell foul of the new hate symbols legislation that's in Australia.
Okay, So a lot has been said in the last day about these hate speech laws. They're new, A lot of people had interpreted them as meaning that these kinds of symbols band at protests. So for anyone who's missed it, can you talk us through these new laws?
Yeah, so just zoom me out a bit. Over the last couple of years, there's been some incidents involving neo Nazis at certain protests in Australia, and the most notable one involved in anti trans rally outside Victoria's Parliament last year, and that was gate crashed by a group of neo Nazis who were wearing all black. They were chanting some white supremacists slurs and slogans and they were performing the
Nazi salute and in response to those incidents. The government introduced laws to parliament in June last year to crack down on publicly displaying hate symbols. Today, the Albanezi government is taking a significant step toward sending a message that astroner is united against displays of hate. In introducing the legislation, the top law officer, the Attorney General, Mark Drafers he was referring to the neo Nazi demonstrations specifically, and the
laws focused on those Nazi symbols and salutes. But if you look at the law overall, they also ban public displays of terrorist organizations.
Okay, so we've got legislation that's kind of borne out of this trend of people bringing along Nazi flags, for example, to these far right demonstrations. But the legislation reaches further than that. So what does it reach? What does it include?
So to ban symbols linked to terrorist organizations broadens it out a lot, actually, because Australia lists thirty organizations that it considers terrorists in total. So this varies from the white extremist group called the Base which is based out of the US, to Hesbalah in Lebanon. Now, the hate speech laws say that if you carry a symbol link to one of those prescribed terrorist groups in public, you
could face a year in jail. But in addition to that, police need to be satisfied that at least one of the following situations occurred as a result of parading the hate symbol. So the first is the public displaying of the symbol spread ideas based on racial superiority or racial hatred. The second is, by publicly displaying these symbols, it was likely to motivate others to hate a person or group
because of their race. The third would be that it would be trying to advocate for hating someone based on their race or if they fall into one of the targeted groups. And finally, if it was likely to offend, insult, intimidate, or humiliate someone based on their race, their sex, their religion, or a host of other personal attributes.
Okay, So those sort of caveats, I suppose are important distinctions within the legislation. So it's not just enough to send someone to jail for publicly displaying one of these symbols. That symbol also has to meet one of those situations. But I suppose it's quite complicated, because how do you define the specifics of being offended or insulted or intimidated. It's pretty vague, right.
It's pretty complicated. And the reason that there is those prescriptions and those conditions under the law is so that somewhere like a school that's teaching a class about Nazi Germany in the nineteen thirties and forties wouldn't come under these legislation for showing a Nazi flag.
Okay, So a museum is not going to be charged with a federal offense if they have some kind of paraphernalia because of historical and educational purposes.
That's right, and that's what these law is meant to defend. But also it wants to prosecute anyone that is trying to to motivate some form of hatred as a result of publicly displaying these symbols. So these laws were passed in January this year, and since then there have been two incidents that we know about in New South Wales and Queensland that were called into question based on the new laws. So those investigations, though they were conducted by
the state police, they didn't involve the federal police. And that's where we get into what happened over the weekend because it's the first time that the AFP have been called in to look into something that might have fallen foul of these new hate symbol laws.
Okay, so then under the new laws, and given what we saw over the weekend, and there are photos and videos that show people attending the protests or bit a small number of people out of thousands attending these protests holding what appeared to be Hesbella flags images of the Hesbala leader who died in the Israeli strike. So was anyone arrested over the weekend?
So I'll start in New South Wales police said that they have arrested a twenty two year old man for alleged assault during the protests in the Sydney CBD, but he's now been released and there's an investigation underway, So that's not related at all to these hate symbol laws. What we have been hearing about and what the AFP have confirmed, is that in Melbourne, the AFP have been referred to six reports of crime that have been made to them about questions over whether someone was displaying or
chanting something linked to a terrorist organization. Now there's nothing we really know. In addition to that, at this stage.
So the AFP are looking into six reports in relation to displays of potentially banned symbols at these protests. What about the response to this more broadly, what have politicians been saying?
Well, you're right to talk about politicians. It did get political really really quickly. So the Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke issued a statement after the protests saying that there was quote a higher level of scrutiny if anyone is on a visa, saying the government had the power to cancel a visa of anyone who was seeking to incite
discord by potentially displaying these symbols of hate. So I think it's important to say here that we just don't know if anyone attending these protests were actually visa holders from overseas as well, and the AFP hasn't publicly released that information either, and Tony Burke has clarified that no visas have been canceled at this stage.
Yeah, I think this is a moment from the protests or the aftermath that seems to have really dominated headlines, this talk of canceling visas. But that implies that there were visitors to this country who attended these protests and did the wrong thing. And as you mentioned, we really don't know.
No one's confirmed that. No authority has confirmed that. Tony Burke didn't confirm that. The AFP haven't come confirmed that. So it's exactly right. We just don't know what.
About Peter Dutton, the Opposition leader, because I know he has weighed in on this one. What's he said?
So Peter Dutton made a suggestion that the Federal Police, which are the agency that's prosecuting the hate symbols that had been displayed in public, they needed more powers to prosecute or if there was a bit of questioning about their ability to do their jobs, that the government needed
to close that loophole by passing legislation immediately. So he was actually calling for Parliament to sit straight away to be recalled as an emergency sitting if the government did come to the conclusion that the laws needed to be strengthened.
And so this is kind of coming off the back of some comments from the AFP following the protests that some people had suggested were a little bit confusing that there seemed to maybe be a bit of confusion within the AFP itself about what met that threshold for those federal laws to be prosecuted. So Dutton is suggesting Parliament sit immediately to strengthen the laws, make it easier for federal police to make arrests in relation to those laws. How would that happen?
So the Parliament would have to be recalled, So all parliamentarians would have to go back to Canberra because they're on a break, that's right, But they are actually expected to return to Camberra next week. But he saw it as such a matter of urgency that he was suggesting that the Prime Minister had the capacity to tell everybody to come back a week early at least to pass these strengthen laws. Now the government doesn't look like it
will be rashing back to camber at this stage. In a statement to TDA, the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said, the government quote has faith in our police forces to enforce the law. And you talk about that confusion there with the AFP, and I think it's a very valid point, and part of it is because these are just such new laws. There's no precedent that they can draw on
to establish a way in which they can prosecute. There's no established wisdom among the AFP on how to go about finding potential hate symbols out in public at a protest, and so this is definitely new ground for them, and I think what Peter Dutton was really wanting to confirm was there's just no confusion whatsoever. We're not talking about Nazi symbols that might be in a classroom when there's
a lesson on Nazi Germany. Necessarily we're talking about a listed terrorist organization and the potential for those symbols appearing at a demonstration to incite hatred. And so I think Peter Dutton was really at pains to say there can't be any confusion on the police's power to prosecute if they're convinced that that falls foul of the new hate symbol laws. The political debate around this is all also
not likely to go away. We've heard from both Coalition and Labor MPs who have said that this is a concerning trend if there are people attending these protests with hate symbols potentially, and we can expect to hear a bit more about it next week when Parliament regimes. There will be plenty of robust debate on the floor of both chambers. I can be almost certain of that.
Yeah, and as you mentioned, this is uncharted territory in terms of stress testing these new laws. And I think one of the reasons that there is so much public interest is whatever happens from here will probably set the agenda for protests and demonstrations to come. Protesting is an important part of any democracy, but you do want to make sure that people who attend protests feel safe, that members of the community don't feel intimidated by symbols that
are brought to those protests. So really really interesting stuff here and we will as always keep a very close eye on what comes next and keep you updated on The Daily Ods. Harry, thank you so much for explaining it to us. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Ods. Don't forget to follow or subscribe wherever you are listening to us, or if you're watching us over on our YouTube channel. We will be back again tomorrow, but until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calcottin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present,