A Palestine activist has been charged with a criminal offence, faces 5 years in jail and has driving restrictions on his Uber for pestering his local MP over Gaza with email.
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.
Police assessed the conduct three times while it was happening, explicitly describing it as non criminal.
The last of these assessments, where an AFP officer told Mr Mackell “I genuinely don’t see you as a criminal, I see you as someone who is passionate about the cause” and asked him to “continue to be mindful,” was via phone on July 24. Austin recorded the call and posted it to instagram immediately.
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. The last item in the prosecution’s own brief, as evidence of a crime, is that message, which is Austin thanking her and her staff and wishing them well.
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.
In June 2025, an AFP officer stood at Austin Mackell’s Katoomba door and told him, on video, “we understand there’s no offences here”. Eight months later, the AFP charged him. More here.
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.