A personal view of Australian and International Politics

Wednesday, 24 June 2026

Sunshine Coast students push back as Australia positions itself as a global AI leader.

Extract from ABC News

By Nykayla Dux

14 hours ago

Students standing with hand drawn placards and chanting against AI — Students joined the strike from various high schools across the region. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Oliver Wykeham)

In short:

Sunshine Coast Council has partnered with Google and NEXTDC to build an AI data centre in Maroochydore.

High school and university students have banded together to protest the development.

What's next?

Council is looking to capitalise on Maroochydore's proximity to the undersea cable to grow the CBD into a digital hub.

A $200 million data centre under construction on the Sunshine Coast has ignited a protest movement from students concerned about its environmental and social impacts.

The five-storey NEXTDC SC2 data centre under construction in Maroochydore city centre will become one of 162 data centres operating across Australia.

At least 90 more are planned nationwide, prompting a group of Sunshine Coast residents to call for stronger regulations as the infrastructure expands into suburban areas.

Centre pillars of building under construction at Maroochydore CBD entrance onto job site traffic control worker in forground — NEXTDC has partnered with Sunshine Coast Council and Google to construct a data centre within a new tower being built in Maroochydore. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Oliver Wykeham)

An AI data centre is a facility that houses the specific IT infrastructure needed to train, deploy and deliver AI applications and services. Data centre infrastructure uses significant volumes of water to keep machines cool.

The Greens are calling for a moratorium on "hyperscale" data centre development approvals, arguing the "energy vampires" are putting pressure on power supplies, water resources and communities.

It is unknown how many resources the Maroochydore AI site will use.

The Climate Council of Australia said in 2024-25 data centres used about 4 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 2 per cent of the electricity in Australia's main grid, the National Electricity Market (NEM).

This is equivalent to the electricity use of more than 700,000 homes.

Not everyone is keen on AI data centres.

At last week's Protect Sunshine Coast rally, organiser Ruby Dyer, 16, said her concerns extended beyond the Maroochydore facility to broader anxieties about the increasing role of AI in everyday life.

"We're wanting to show our leaders that there is a large group of people who aren't OK with the lack of regulations to hopefully put pressure on them to get these regulations put in place," she said.

Young woman holding hand painted sign reading "school strike for AI regulation" more students and signs behind her — Ruby Dyers says she was inspired by Greta Thunberg’s School Strike 4 Climate and used her Instagram to rally support. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Oliver Wykeham)

Ruby said their concerns related to the environmental impacts, misuse by "bad users", and the diminishing prospects for young people as they entered the workforce.

"There are a lot of jobs in so many different professions that are being affected, […] lost or replaced,"

she said.

"AI is doing it for them, so there is a big concern with there not being as many jobs when I go into the workforce."

University student Kate McGeechan, 19, was among the dozen young people who ditched studies and attended last week's strike outside the Sunshine Coast Council building in Maroochydore.

A pink placard hand written by student reading "your prompt isn't worth our future" with the O the planet earth — The placards are proudly handmade and share heartfelt messages. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Oliver Wykeham)

She was motivated after seeing Ruby's Instagram and believed young Australians had valid concerns about society's growing dependence on the technology.

"I think it was really admirable to be organised by these high school students," Ms McGeechan said.

She said she could acknowledge the human desire to want to automate processes, but she wanted people to carefully think about becoming reliant.

"I want people to think twice before using AI for their everyday activities, and just to remember that, at the end of the day, we're all human and we're all capable," she said.

Student standing with a placard in front of Sunshine Coast Council building — Kate McGeechan says the human brain is more powerful than any computer we have. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Oliver Wykeham)

She also questioned how increasing dependence could shape future professions.

"Are we going to have a new generation of lawyers and doctors who might not be entirely qualified to make the judgements that they're supposed to make on a daily basis?"

Ms McGeechan said.

The students are planning more action, including a social media campaign to encourage more young people to investigate regulations around AI data centres.

University of the Sunshine Coast discipline lead of technology Erica Mealy said some concerns raised by the students mirrored legitimate debates occurring nationally and internationally.

Blonde woman in floral blouse smiling standing in front of computer screens — Erica Mealy says AI factories consume a lot of data. (Supplied)

However, Dr Mealy said AI had the potential to improve lives when used appropriately, especially when it came to dirty, dangerous and undesirable work.

"Leave humans the creativity, leave humans the great thinking and the research advances and take away some of the stuff that's really irritating for us,"

she said.

Dr Mealy said the proposed Sunshine Coast facility could deliver significant benefits to the region and rural Queensland, such as advances in remote health care.

Queensland's first regional data centre was built in Maroochydore in 2021, which is close to the construction site of the new data centre.

In a statement to the ABC, a Sunshine Coast Council representative said partnerships with NEXTDC and Google were designed to secure long-term economic growth and digital resilience for the region.

They said the key benefits would be more reliable connectivity for cloud services, data transfer and digital operations, including supporting modern AI systems.

The representative said the SC2 facility would be carbon neutral but did not answer specific questions from ABC on environmental assessments.

Australians financially supporting families in war-torn Lebanon say they have no other option.

Extract from ABC

By Zena Chamas

Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

35 minutes ago

Sue holding up a sign at a protest to stop the bombing in Lebanon. The sign is written in Arabic. — Sue Badreddine sends money to her family in Lebanon while also managing rising costs in Sydney. (Supplied)

Sue Badreddine "can't sleep" worried about her brother and family members trapped by the war in Lebanon.

Thirty of the 55-year-old's relatives in Lebanon's south moved into a one-bedroom house after Israeli air strikes destroyed their homes.

Their village, Kfar Kila, is one of about a dozen villages along Lebanon's southern border that were levelled by waves of Israeli bombardment over the past two-and-a-half years, according to Reuters.

Her family now rely on Ms Badreddine for financial support, and she's spent thousands this year alone to help them survive.

"As soon as I get my pay cheque, I say, 'OK, this is for us, and this is for Lebanon'," she said.

A photo of Sue (Far right) with her family pictured behind them in Lebanon. — Sue Badreddine (far right) with her family in Lebanon. (Supplied)

The community services officer from Sydney was already financially stretched from rising living expenses over the past few years.

But Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, which have intensified since February, have added more financial and emotional strains on her life.

"When someone passes away [in Lebanon], it's very hard to go to the funeral," she said, adding it's "too risky" to leave during the bombing.

She's not alone in feeling the stress.

Several Australians in the Lebanese diaspora, which makes up nearly 250,000 people, told the ABC they send money to help their families afford everyday essentials, such as food, medicine and baby formula.

Like them, Ms Badreddine has struggled to keep afloat while also supporting her loved ones.

An old photograph of Sue with her sisters in Lebanon. — Sue Badreddine (middle) with her sisters at a beach in Lebanon. (Supplied)

"It's every single week. And here [in Australia] I don't own a house, I rent. So I have to pay for my rent, for our bills, for our petrol as well. I'm working, but it's not even enough for us,"

she said.

She said many of her family members have been unable to work because of the war, and necessities they once could afford were now out of reach.

Ms Badreddine helps pay for her brother's medications, the rest of the family's rent, water, gas and electricity costs.

She said it was "very hard" to keep up with costs and has relied on donations from friends and family.

"The people there just want to have bread to eat and milk for the kids, and medicine for the elders," she said.

Cost of living up to 'five times' higher

Inflation in Lebanon had risen to 17.26 per cent in March, the highest it's been since 2024, mainly due to transport prices fuelled by higher fuel costs following the US-Israel war against Iran.

The war has also disrupted the supply of goods inside the country, according to the United Nations' ⁠World Food Programme (WFP).

The price of vegetables has soared by more than 20 per cent and bread prices have increased by 17 per cent since March ⁠2, WFP said.

Ms Baddreddine said her family had told her that bread can cost up to "five times" what it used to from some retailers in the south.

"Babies go without formula because they just can't find any," Ms Badreddine said.

Rent has also surged in areas in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, as families flee from the south and the Beqaa Valley for safety, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

UNHCR spokesperson in Lebanon Dalal Harb told the ABC the country has been facing a deepening humanitarian crisis.

"Many simply cannot afford housing anymore, especially those displaced who had already lost their belongings, their savings and many of their livelihoods," Ms Harb said.

A homeless man sits on a curb along a street in Beirut. — A homeless man sits on a curb in Beirut. (Reuters: Mohamed Azakir)

The conflict and regional instability have driven up prices of essential items like wheat, fuel, and food, making it even harder for households to meet their daily needs, she said.

"For a population that was already grappling with one of the worst economic crises in its modern history, this is pushing more people into poverty and vulnerability."

'Repeated displacement' for 1.2 million

During the past two-and-a-half years of war, parts of the Beqaa Valley, south Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the country's capital, Beirut, have been hit by Israeli air strikes, decimating family homes and displacing 1.2 million, about 20 per cent of the population, according to UNHCR.

Alin, a two-months-old displaced baby girl, lies in her cradle at a makeshift encampment. — A two-month-old displaced baby girl lies in her cradle at a makeshift encampment in Beirut. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported that during this war, bombing by Israel has killed 3,526 people and injured 10,733.

Tens of thousands of families live in increasingly overcrowded collective shelters, while some are sleeping in schools, mosques, in their cars or even on the streets, according to the UNHCR.

Israeli strikes and displacement orders have caused a constant state of fear among those living across the south of Lebanon and Beirut, according to Ms Harb.

"Watching their neighbourhoods come under threat, their loved ones killed and injured, and their lives uprooted overnight," she said.

A woman stands with children next to piles of rubble from destroyed buildings in south lebanon. — Destruction in Deir Qanoun al-Nahr, Tyre district, southern Lebanon. (Reuters: Aziz Taher)

Last week, before an interim peace agreement between the US, Israel and Iran, the Israeli military issued a widescale evacuation warning for residents of at least 30 towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

Israeli forces have occupied swathes of southern Lebanon, and Israel said it is seeking to dismantle infrastructure owned by the Iran-backed Hezbollah on its borders.

But Ms Harb said, despite repeated ceasefire announcements since mid-April, "the violence has not stopped," with civilians bearing the brunt.

"For many, the reality today is one of repeated displacement, loss, and growing uncertainty about what comes next," Ms Harb said.

A woman wears a traditional beige Lebanese dress. The Lebanese flag appears on the right hand side. — Sue Badreddine fundraised tens of thousands to help the people of her village, Kfar Kila. (Supplied)

Support from afar

Earlier this month, Ms Badreddine came up with a plan: a fundraising dinner to help people in her village.

About 280 guests attended the event, raising $30,000 to support those most in need.

"However much they can afford, it doesn't matter … $10, $5. They all count," she said.

Members of the VLCC meet with government representatives to discuss the Lebanon crisis. (Supplied)

Victorian Lebanese Community Council (VLCC) spokesperson Michael Kheirallah said for many Lebanese people the war was not a distant political event, it was "deeply personal".

He says, while many in Australia send money to help cover food, rent, medicine, education and rebuilding costs, "the emotional burden is immense".

"Many Lebanese Australians spend their days checking messages, making phone calls, and sending money to relatives who have lost homes, jobs, businesses, or access to basic services,"

Mr Kheirallah said.

Fundraising events organised by the VLCC have brought together Victoria's vastly diverse Lebanese community to help families deal with ongoing costs.

"The Lebanese diaspora has become a vital lifeline during times of crisis," he said.

Greens say visa pathways are a 'system that fails'

Like many in the diaspora, applying for visas to reunite with loved ones to escape the dangers of war is a costly and, in many cases, disappointing affair.

Ms Badreddine applied for her sister to immigrate on a family-sponsored visa, which was costly and time-consuming.

Family-sponsored visas are estimated to cost between $5,000 to $8,000 according to the Department of Foreign Affairs website, a non-refundable fee.

"She was rejected," she said.

Her brother's wife, who lives in Lebanon, and worked as a nurse, also had her work visa application rejected, and her two children's visas followed.

Senator David Shoebridge, the Greens spokesperson on home affairs, said the federal government "had failed the Lebanese Australian community".

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Morrison government offered fast-tracked humanitarian visas to those fleeing the conflict.

But the same offer has not been extended to those affected by the war in Gaza, nor the recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

David Shoebridge stands with his hands open flanked by his Greens colleagues — David Shoebridge has spoken out in favour of humanitarian visas for Lebanese people fleeing war. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

"At best, Labor offer tourist visas as a pretend solution only to then refuse the visas because many people coming from Lebanon are not coming as tourists but fleeing the war," Mr Shoebridge said.

"We have heard from the clear call for Australia to help fund emergency relief in Lebanon. Israel has levelled entire villages where Australians have family and deep connections; it's not business as usual with this war, and the government needs to respond."

In a statement sent to the ABC, a Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said people intending to travel to Australia from Lebanon were not limited to one visa pathway and the government recognised the importance of family reunification.

"There are provisions to prioritise Family visa applications with circumstances of a compassionate or compelling nature on a case-by-case basis. Requests for priority processing of Family visas are common, so the threshold for giving priority is high," they said.

The statement also added that Australia's Humanitarian Program was designed "primarily to assist people who have left their home country because of persecution or severe human rights abuse and who have no options for return to their home country or integration in the country of refuge or for resettlement in another country".

UN commission of inquiry says Israel committing genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting children.

Extract from BBC

8 hours ago

David Grittenand

Stephanie Hegarty

EPA File photo showing Palestinian children looking out from their family's destroyed house following an Israeli air strike, in Shati refugee camp, northern Gaza (29 October 2025) — About 30% of those killed in the Gaza war have been children, according to the UN commission of inquiry

A UN commission of inquiry says Israel has deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, as well as war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

A new report alleges that Israeli authorities and security forces have "deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children", and that the killings continued even after last October's ceasefire in Gaza.

The commission says it has reasonable grounds to conclude that those acts "form part of a deliberate strategy to destroy the future of the Palestinians in Gaza by targeting their children".

Israel's foreign ministry said it "utterly rejects" the commission's report, calling it a "libellous sham" and "a propaganda piece as outrageous as its previous ones".

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

At least 73,035 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including more than 21,280 children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Its three-member expert panel does not officially speak for the UN.

Last September, the commission accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. A report said there were reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five acts of genocide defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention had been carried out by Israeli authorities and security forces. Israel strongly rejected that report, calling it distorted and false.

The commission has previously concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other grave violations of international law on 7 October 2023, and that Israeli security forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

Last October, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire as part of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war.

Since then, both sides have accused each other of violating the truce repeatedly. Gaza's health ministry says more than 1,020 Palestinians have been killed, among them 265 children. The Israeli military says four soldiers have also been killed.

On Tuesday, the commission of inquiry said in a statement released together with the report that "the intense scale and systematic nature" of Israeli military operations in Gaza had continued, resulting in "unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children".

"Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with continued disregard by Israel for the ceasefire and for the protection owed to Palestinian children under international law," said Srinivasan Muralidhar, an Indian jurist who chairs the commission.

"The protection, care and survival of Palestinian children are inseparable from the Palestinian people's right to self-determination," he added. "By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future."

The commission's new report says Israel has targeted Palestinian children in Gaza directly by shooting at their vital organs using precision weapons, such as quadcopter drones and snipers, and by using high-impact weapons in strikes on residential buildings, schools, and displacement camps crowded with children.

Israel is also legally responsible for failing to protect Palestinian children from being targeted by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, it adds.

The report also says that children in Gaza and the West Bank, especially adolescent boys, have been "arrested, tortured, and ill-treated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities", and that it has documented "incidents of sexual and gender-based violence targeting Palestinian children, often during arrests or in detention".

Israeli attacks on neonatal and paediatric hospitals in Gaza have meanwhile "systematically dismantled children's access to life-sustaining care, undermining their survival as a protected group", according to the report.

It also accuses Israel of using starvation as a method of war, and warns that restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza have "produced acute and chronic malnutrition among children in Gaza, removing the basic conditions necessary for their survival".

And it alleges that through attacks on schools, mass displacement and enforced closures, Israeli authorities have "systematically disrupted children's ability to learn, thereby sabotaging the intellectual and social foundations of Palestinian society itself".

The Israeli foreign ministry condemned the report, saying the commission was a "fundamentally flawed mechanism whose very purpose is to single out and vilify Israel rather than seek the truth".

"It completely erases Israeli children who were brutally murdered, kidnapped, and targeted by Hamas, while ignoring Hamas' cynical use of Palestinian children as human shields and pawns of war," it added. It accused the commission of lacking "any credible verification mechanism for its claims".

Israel's leaders have consistently rejected allegations of genocide, and say its military's operations in Gaza have been conducted in self-defence, to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and to secure the release of Israeli hostages.

They have also insisted that Israeli forces have operated in accordance with international law and take all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israeli forces of genocide, but it could take years to reach a conclusion. Israel has called the case "wholly unfounded" and based on "biased and false claims".

Two girls shot in Gaza - BBC pieces together what happened and looks at dozens more child shootings

Bowen: UN commission report on genocide is blunt indictment of Israel's actions in Gaza

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says

UN inquiry accuses Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children.

Extract from ABC News

By Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran in Jerusalem

Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

9 minutes ago

A young child looking through a makeshift tent's window. — The report says Israel's use of "large-yield bombs" were designed to cause "maximum casualties". (Rueters: Mahmoud Issa)

In short:

A new report by the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory accuses Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children.

The Israeli government is condemning the inquiry and rejecting its findings, labelling the report "deeply flawed" and full of "errors and distortions" designed to push a "politically-driven anti-Israel narrative".

The commission says the use of "large-yield bombs" that killed children "in such high numbers" indicated intentionality.

A United Nations inquiry has accused Israel of deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children in Gaza, including by shooting directly at "their vital organs" using drones and snipers.

The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, has detailed instances of alleged crimes against Palestinian children since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

It has accused Israeli forces of committing genocide, war crimes against children, including wilful killing and intentionally targeting civilians, and crimes against humanity including aged-based persecution.

"The Israeli government and security forces have deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children, irreparably destroying the sanctity of childhood, including family ties, identity, innocence, safety and future," the inquiry said.

"The commission found that much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group."

Benjamin Metanyahu speaks at a press conference and looks quizzically to his left — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied the report's claims. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun)

The Israeli government condemned the inquiry and rejected its findings, labelling the report "deeply flawed" and full of "errors and distortions" designed to push a "politically-driven anti-Israel narrative".

It further accused the inquiry of "ignoring Israeli victims" of the deadly October 7 attacks by Hamas where 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage.

The commission said it had previously reported on the impact on Israeli children, but the Israeli government said it was nothing more than a passing reference to their experience.

Commission says killings 'intentional'

The commission said around 30 per cent of the Palestinians in Gaza killed between October 2023 and October 2025 were children — higher than previous conflicts in the strip.

It also said the use of "large-yield bombs" was designed to cause "maximum casualties".

"This indicates that such attacks, which killed children in such high numbers, were intentional," the report stated.

"The commission concludes that children were intentionally targeted collectively because the Israeli security forces considered the civilian population as a whole to be associated with Hamas and other armed groups."

It said it had "investigated and documented cases demonstrating a consistent pattern of children being deliberately targeted by the Israeli security forces in Gaza".

One of the cases it referred to was the killing of a family of seven and two paramedics in January 2024. Among them was five-year-old Hind Rajab, whose name has become synonymous with the plight of children in the war-ravaged strip.

Her body, along with the remains of the rest of her family, were recovered 12 days after they were attacked in Gaza City.

The commission disputed the insistence of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that it was nowhere near the scene of the attack, and accused soldiers of deliberating obstructing rescue attempts despite knowing that children were in the car.

A young girl posing in a denim jacket and novelty sunglasses. — Hind Rajab was in a car with family members attempting to flee Gaza City but ended up in the path of Israeli tanks and fired upon. (AFP: family handout)

In another case, the commission accused Israeli forces of using a sniper rifle to shoot a 15-year-old boy who had been waving a white cloth as his family tried to evacuate a building in Khan Younis in January 2024.

The boy was shot three times, with the commission saying the last two shots "were likely meant to ensure that he was dead".

His 20-year-old brother was also killed after rushing to his body.

'Gaza is full of terrorists'

The commission also listed comments from Israeli politicians, likening Palestinian children to terrorists as indicative of a broader cultural concern.

It quoted member of the Knesset (MK) and deputy speaker Nissim Vaturi saying "Gaza is full of terrorists and every child born there is already a terrorist, from the moment of his birth" in January 2025.

Remarks from another MK, Merav Ben-Ari, were also listed.

"Children in Gaza brought [their own killing] on themselves," the report quoted her as saying just over a week after Hamas's deadly attacks on Israel started the war in Gaza.

The commission said attacks on medical facilities in Gaza, including where children and newborns were receiving treatment, added further evidence to its case.

Beyond that, the commission said Palestinian children in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both under Israeli occupation, had also surged during the period it investigated.

"Israeli military operations, arrests and detention, checkpoints, raids, settler violence, and constant surveillance have terrorised children and created a pervasive sense of hopelessness among children," the report concluded.

"Israeli policies have produced a constant situation of diffused, ambient terror, that does not require constant bombing to remain effective.

"Mental harm has become intergenerational, producing a distinctive "occupied psyche" in which the freedom to play, imagine, hope, and develop an identity has been eroded."

'False and distorted narrative'

In response, the Israeli government published an 18-page document picking apart the commission's findings and labelling them as "factually unsubstantiated" and lacking "any legal authority."

"In its effort to manufacture a false and distorted narrative that Israel acts with the intent or policy of deliberately harming Palestinian children, the commission consistently disregards the well-documented efforts taken by Israel to alleviate civilian harm and to facilitate humanitarian aid," the response said.

"It likewise ignores Hamas's deliberate strategy of exploiting the presence of civilians and of commandeering humanitarian aid for military purposes, and its direct responsibility for the resulting harm inflicted upon the civilian population in Gaza.

"These deficiencies recur throughout the report and ultimately reflect more on its authors than on Israel."

It accused the commission of trying to paint Israel as the "ultimate villain," and said many of the examples it referred to as evidence of alleged Israeli crimes were based on allegations and unsubstantiated testimony from people on the ground.

A large number of tents, seen from a distance. — The report says Israeli policies are fostering "intergenerational" mental harm among Palestinian children. (ABC News)

Israel also accused the commission of glossing over the conduct of Hamas in terrorising the population in Gaza.

"Hamas has systematically recruited and exploited Palestinian children as fighters, messengers, tunnel workers, and human shields — including for intelligence-gathering, the planting of explosive devices on roads, and direct attacks on Israeli forces," the response said.

"This is not a peripheral issue in a report about children — it is central to it."

It highlighted the plight of the Bibas family, 9-month-old Kfir and his 4-year-old brother Ariel, who were taken hostage along with the parents on October 7, 2023.

Their father Yarden was the only member of the family to return to Israel alive.

Israel has accused Hamas of murdering the children, while Hamas has said they were killed in an Israeli air strike which hit the place they were being held in Gaza.

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

Issues that swung elections: the dramatic and inglorious fall of Joh Bjelke‑Petersen.

Extract from The Conversation

Joh Bjelke-Petersen with his wife, Flo, on their wedding day in 1952. Bjelke-Petersen made an ill-fated bid for PM in 1987 that ripped the Coalition apart. Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd/Wikimedia Commons

Published: May 3, 2019 12.06pm AEST

With taxes, health care and climate change emerging as key issues in the upcoming federal election, we’re running a series this week looking at the main issues that swung elections in the past, from agricultural workers’ wages to the Vietnam War. Read other stories in the series here.

Johannes (Joh) Bjelke-Petersen’s reign as Queensland’s premier began in 1968 and came to a dramatic and inglorious end 19 years later with the Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption. He is still Queensland’s longest-serving premier, but he leaves a complicated legacy. For many, he is remembered most for his rigid control of over all areas of government and his anti-democratic stance on public protests.

Bjelke-Petersen governed the state as leader of the Country Party (which later became the National Party) until his downfall in 1987.

In May that year, the ABC television programme Four Corners aired the first public allegations of organised crime and police corruption in Queensland. Bjelke-Petersen would hang on to office for only a few more months before being forced to step down.

The Fitzgerald Inquiry, launched in the aftermath of the Four Corners programme, continued for another two years, uncovering a deep and systematic web of corruption that implicated many at the highest levels of Queensland government and the Queensland Police Force.

For Bjelke-Petersen, not only was his career as a state premier over, but so, too, were his national ambitions. In early 1987, Bjelke-Petersen had launched an ill-fated “Joh for PM” campaign in a brazen attempt to challenge then-Liberal Party leader John Howard as head of the Coalition, then run against Prime Minister Bob Hawke in that year’s federal election.

His bid for power split the federal Coalition. Capitalising on the internal dissent of the Opposition, Hawke easily won the 1987 election, holding onto the prime-ministership for another four years.

Bjelke-Petersen ends interview prematurely after questions about Fitzgerald Inquiry.

An ill-fated run for federal office

Hawke’s win in the 1987 election had been far from inevitable. The Coalition had actually been ahead in the polls for much of Hawke’s 1984-1987 term. However, internal divisions, typified by the rivalry between Howard and Andrew Peacock over the Liberal leadership, put pressure on the party. Tensions were further stoked when Bjelke-Petersen announced his intention to enter the federal arena.

In January 1987, when Bjelke-Petersen announced that he intended to run for parliament, he assumed that his success in Queensland could be duplicated at the federal level. Fresh from a win in the state election the previous year, he and his backers did not acknowledge the distinctive set of circumstances in Queensland that had given rise to his long time in office.

His bid for PM did make a brief splash in the national media, drawing further attention to the deep ideological rifts within the federal Coalition. Howard, leader of the Liberals, and Ian Sinclair, leader of the Nationals, struggled to contain the division caused by Bjelke-Petersen’s ambitions. The discord reached a breaking point at the end of February 1987, when the Queensland National Party decided to withdraw its 12 federal MPs from the Coalition in support of Bjelke-Petersen’s efforts. The Coalition formally split soon after.

Hawke seized on the Coalition’s infighting and quickly called an election on May 27. Bjelke-Petersen was not even in the country at the time, having gone to the United States. Outplayed and dealing with increased coverage of corruption and dissent in Queensland, Bjelke-Petersen swiftly abandoned his plan to run for prime minister.

By the end of the year, Howard’s Coalition was fatally divided. Labor was returned to government and increased its majority in the House with 86 seats to 43 for the Liberals and 19 for the National Party.

The win allowed Hawke to take his place in history as the party’s longest-serving prime minister.

Bjelke-Petersen meets with fellow Queensland politician Russell Hinze. Both figures left office amid allegations of corruption. Wikimedia Commons/John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland/ Queensland Newspapers Pty. Ltd.

A tarnished legacy in Queensland

The failings of the Bjelke-Petersen government in Queensland extended far beyond the arrogance that saw him attempt an ill-conceived move into federal politics.

Under his leadership, Queensland was not democratic. His government exploited the state’s electoral gerrymander, which over-represented rural electorates at the expense of urban ones. The state’s unicameral parliament meant the checks and balances a second house would have provided were absent.

Bjelke-Petersen also relied on a police force rife with corruption to prop up his government. Dissenters faced brutalisation at the hands of police when they took to the streets. A repressive set of laws that banned protests meant taking to the streets could result in time in prison. For too long, the media were silent about the corruption taking place in the state.

Journalist Evan Whitton called Bjelke-Petersen “the hillbilly dictator” in reference to his carefully cultivated parochial style of leadership. Yet, Bjelke-Petersen was guided by a shrewd political awareness. He styled himself as a defender of a unique Queensland sensibility and scorned the more progressive southern states. He was not opposed to using fear and prejudice for electoral gain.

His treatment of LGBTIQ issues provides one strong example. During the 1980s, the Bjelke-Petersen government made efforts to prevent gay and lesbian teachers from being employed and gay students from forming support groups. When the AIDS epidemic reached Australia, his government demonised LGBTIQ individuals. As most other Australian states decriminalised sex acts between men, Bjelke-Petersen’s government attempted to introduce anti-gay licensing laws and criminalise lesbianism. In 1986, the Sturgess Inquiry into Sexual Offences Involving Children and Related Matters was used by the government to further ostracise gays and lesbians and turn the public against them.

The Bjelke-Petersen era provides a cautionary tale. It is difficult to imagine any other premier maintaining his or her position for this long again. His ill-fated bid for federal politics also reveals the impact that egomaniacal and divisive figures can have on political parties.

Bjelke-Petersen may not have been the only factor behind Hawke’s 1987 win, but his intervention certainly did Howard no favours – and deepened a rift in the Coalition that took years to mend.