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Austin Mackell spent four months emailing and phoning his Blue Mountains federal MP, Susan Templeman, pressing her to speak publicly against the war in Gaza, beginning with the killing of fifteen Red Crescent and Civil Defence paramedics.

On 25 July 2025, Templeman published a statement calling what is happening to Gaza’s children “indefensible”.

Mackell left a thank-you voicemail that morning and stopped.

On 6 February 2026, however, six months after the final voicemail, but only three days before the visit of Israeli president Herzog to Australia (the occasion of a massive crackdown on Palestine activism) he was served with a notice to attend court, charged with using a carriage service to menace harass or offend.

  • sodium_nitride [she/her, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    1 hour ago

    I was really surprised to find out that Australia had a “social cohesion squad”. Did some digging and look

    Policing the enemy within is an article that describes this state repression institution

    Some choice quotes from it:

    Social cohesion has been a constant concern of PM Anthony Albanese and his cabinet. It’s too been an issue raised by state and territory ministers, including the premier of NSW. Yet, one of the key concerns of authorities over the last 24 months has been the nonviolent pro-Palestinian antigenocide movement, and such peace activists are not usually a concern of antiterror officers.

    Krissy Barrett was formally made AFP commissioner on Wednesday last week, at the same time as the federal police announced the new NSI teams were already out on the beat and charged with hunting down extremists, who don’t fit neatly into the regular category of terrorist.

    “Under my leadership, the AFP will have a laser focus on disrupting crimes that undermine our sovereignty, our democracy, our social cohesion, our financial institutions, our future prosperity,” Barrett told the ABC on 8 October. “We have seen a changing operating environment for us, as law enforcement, as the AFP here in Australia.”