Program: PM announces envoy to address anti-Semitism

Sally Sara: Hello and welcome to The World Today. It is Tuesday the 9th of July. I'm Sally Sara coming to you from Gadigal Land in Sydney. Today, fresh debate over addressing crime in Alice Springs after another snap curfew. And the 13 year old tech whiz from regional New South Wales balancing school, his own business and university studies.

Hamish Leahy: I go to a regular school day like normal kids do throughout the week. And after school, I'll do my homework for the regular school. And then I'll go online and watch the lecture files and do the quizzes and courses for University of New England. I love coding, so that's why it's worth it.

Sally Sara: The Prime Minister has announced the appointment of a new anti-Semitism envoy in Australia. Anthony Albanese says it's in response to an increase in attacks against Jewish people. Sydney lawyer and business executive Jillian Segal will take up the role. Political reporter Nicole Hegarty has been following the announcement and joined me a short time ago. Nicole, good afternoon. What has the Prime Minister announced?

Nicole Hegarty: Good afternoon, Sally. So we've heard from the Prime Minister. He's announced a new anti-Semitism envoy and the person to fill that role is Jillian Segal. She's a business person and a lawyer based in Sydney, well respected within the Jewish community and more broadly. So she's the one that's been picked to fill this new role which has been created in light of a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism following the start of the Israel-Gaza war on October 7 last year.

Sally Sara: Well, let's have a listen to what the Prime Minister has had to say.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: Australia can be a microcosm for the world. In my community in Marrickville, you have people of Jewish, Islamic, Greek, Orthodox, Hindus, Buddhists, all living side by side, enriched by our diversity, benefiting from the culture, the language, the food, the dancing, the music, the celebration of what we have built here in Australia. What's clear is that we can't take that for granted. What's clear is that we continue to reinforce the need for social harmony and that's what today's announcement of Jillian is all about.

Sally Sara: That's the Prime Minister there. What do we know, Nicole, about how this role will actually work?

Nicole Hegarty: Well, we're yet to see the full details. Jillian Segal saying that she'll need to take up the position first to see exactly how this will operate in practice. But the theory is here that there will need to be a greater focus on education as well so people learn what is and isn't okay and the impact of some of their statements, particularly on the Jewish community. She says that a lot of this anti-Semitism spreads or stems from false and misleading comments that really damage the fabric of the community. That damage is exacerbated, particularly given the significant suffering that the Jewish population has suffered through globally.

Sally Sara: Well, let's have a listen to what Jillian Segal had to say.

Jillian Segal: Anti-Semitism erodes all that is good and healthy in a society. As such, it poses a threat not just to the Jewish community, but to our entire nation. Anti-Semitism is an age old hatred. It has the capacity to lie dormant through good times. And then in times of crisis, like pandemic, which we've experienced, economic downturn, war, it awakens. It triggers the very worst instincts in an individual to fear, to blame others for life's misfortunes and to hate. And it is often based on misinformation, on inaccurate rumour. And it can spread from individual to individual to contaminate the collective, damaging life for the entire community and leading to violence, as we have seen.

Sally Sara: That's Jillian Segal there, who's been appointed as the new anti-Semitism envoy in Australia. Nicole, how does this political picture fit together? Of course, we had the news last week that Senator Fatima Payman was stepping away from the Labor Party to become an independent. There have been a lot of concerns raised from communities supporting the Palestinian people and pointing to the death toll of Palestinians under the Israeli military campaign. How does this all fit together politically?

Nicole Hegarty: Well, that's right. The Prime Minister in particular was quick to say that they are going to announce a similar role focusing on cracking down on Islamophobia as well. So that was an inevitable question when they announced this role. Would there be something similar to address the concerns of that community as well? It does fit into a bigger picture about the government trying to strike that correct balance between not leaning too far towards supporting one group over the other as these tensions continue to flare. The government saying that they are taking a measured response and continuing to call out any actions which result in death or injury to innocent lives in the Middle East.

Sally Sara: That's Nicole Hegarty there, one of our reporters at Canberra Parliament House.

Well, after the first night of a new curfew in the uptown of Alice Springs, there's fresh debate about the causes of crime and possible solutions. Under the 72 hour curfew, both adults and children are barred from entering the town centre between 10pm and 6am. And while many community leaders support the curfew, they're concerned that the measure isn't being backed up by long term solutions. Gavin Coote reports.

Gavin Coote: Another snap curfew following another crime wave, and many in Alice Springs are worried about what's next.

Jordon Humphreys: We're getting to a point where you can't ignore it anymore. Now there are people getting hurt. There are police officers off duty getting hurt.

Gavin Coote: Jordon Humphreys runs a youth advisory role with Alice Springs Town Council and was 2024 Young Achiever of the Year in NT. He thinks the NT government had little choice but to bring in a new curfew this week following a series of violent incidents, including an alleged attack on four off duty police officers by a group of young people.

Jordon Humphreys: The people who attacked those off duty police officers, they didn't know they were police officers. And that's what makes this so scary, is that it can happen to anyone. It doesn't matter who you are.

Gavin Coote: It's the second time in three months authorities have imposed a curfew on the town. In April, the three week curfew was sparked by an attack on an Alice Springs pub and a brawl involving up to 150 people. The latest curfew has led locals like Jordon Humphreys to question just how much of a circuit breaker the measure can provide.

Jordon Humphreys: Given the circumstances last time, it was absolutely necessary. It was out of control. It was the worst I'd seen in Alice Springs in years. This time, it isn't the worst I'd seen in Alice Springs in years, but the sheer amount of crime that had happened in the last 72 hours from yesterday, it was absolutely outrageous. It was disgraceful. And just the behaviour that we saw, a curfew definitely needed to be put in place. But this sets a really dangerous precedent and it makes me really nervous about the whole curfew legislation going forward. Because if these curfews can be put in after small spikes in crime in Alice Springs, I don't believe that they should be put in at all if that's what it's going to take.

Gavin Coote: Northern Territory Police say they made no arrests last night in relation to the new curfew laws. And Armani Francois, who's an Indigenous support caseworker in Alice Springs, wants a greater focus on fixing the underlying causes of crime in the region.

Armani Francois: I'm a Central Eastern Arrernte young woman and a lot of the crime and a lot of the stuff that's happening in town isn't necessarily Arrernteyoung people. These are people from outlying communities around Alice Springs. And it's really sad because they have nowhere to go. They're potentially stranded. A lot of the other town camps don't apply to them because that's not their kinship groups or their family groups. So they'll just run amok in town and not have any way to get out. And that's currently what's happening in Alice Springs.

Gavin Coote: The federal minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, says the social problems will only be solved with the government and community working together.

Linda Burney: But I want our listeners to put themselves in the shoes of a young Aboriginal person living in a town camp in Alice Springs. Let's say they're 15 years old and it is very difficult for them to see a future. And the issues in Alice Springs have been a long time in the making.

Gavin Coote: She's pointing to the government's $250 million package over four years to bolster resources for police, domestic violence and youth services. But many in Alice Springs argue they've yet to see any evidence of these benefits. The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians is Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. She agrees more needs to be done to improve town camps in Alice Springs.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price: The children that are vulnerable, they should be allowed to grow up in environments that aren't harmful for them and that aren't dysfunctional. Unfortunately, a lot of kids are being left in these circumstances because of the ideological view that they are Indigenous and shouldn't be necessarily removed. There's stigma attached to that. But, you know, I've been saying for years that these kids need to be able to have the same rights as all other Australian kids and be brought up in environments where they're being cared for.

Gavin Coote: The curfew is set to expire tomorrow, with an extension requiring the approval from the NT police minister.

Sally Sara: That's Gavin Coote.

US President Joe Biden is refusing to make way for a younger candidate in the presidential race. Mr Biden says he's not going anywhere despite concerns over his age and cognitive ability. His opponent, Donald Trump, is enjoying increasing support in the polls, but many Americans don't want to vote for either candidate. Whit Ayres is a Republican pollster and president of North Star Opinion Research.

Whit Ayres: If the election were held today, Donald Trump would win in a landslide in the electoral college. Joe Biden has become somewhat weaker, which means that the Trump margin has grown modestly. The problem right now for Joe Biden is not the current polls, but what the polls will look like a week or two or three from now if he stays in the race. He has huge doubts throughout the entire country and especially in the Democratic Party about whether he's capable of handling a rigorous campaign, much less four more years as president of the United States.

Sally Sara: How hard will it be for Joe Biden to get his campaign messages through when this question is dominating him at the moment?

Whit Ayres: It will be almost impossible. I think that he has major, major problems persuading most Americans that he's not really suffering from dementia.

Sally Sara: What does this mean for Donald Trump, do you think? Has he changed his tactics? He seemed a little more disciplined and a little quieter in a way and left this space for Joe Biden to deal with this question at the moment.

Whit Ayres: That's exactly what he's done. He's been far quieter than he normally is and has done far less communicating than he normally does. So I think that he's been playing it smart when the other party's coming apart at the seams, just keep your mouth shut and keep the focus on them. Pretty clear that if Joe Biden is the issue, Donald Trump will win. And if Trump is the issue, that Joe Biden will win. So he's trying to keep the focus on Joe Biden right now.

Sally Sara: What do we know about how many genuinely undecided voters there are right now?

Whit Ayres: If you take a poll, there are not that many undecided voters, but there are millions upon millions of dissatisfied voters who don't like either one of the major choices they're facing. 85% of Americans would change out one or both of the candidates for president if they could. So that tells you that there's a great deal of dissatisfaction about the choices that Americans are currently facing for president.

Sally Sara: How does that compare to what you've seen before, these what have been labelled the double haters, those who don't want either candidate?

Whit Ayres: They are growing as a group, and that is particularly true in light of the disastrous debate performance by Joe Biden.

Sally Sara: What is really surprising you about the numbers at the moment? Are there things, trends that you haven't seen before to such an extent?

Whit Ayres: What's surprising me at the moment is not so much the numbers, but the fact that Joe Biden has not said that he is going to withdraw from the race. It's very, very difficult to conceive of him lasting through a rigorous campaign, much less the next four years as president.

Sally Sara: What does some of the qualitative data tell you about what's in the minds of voters at the moment?

Whit Ayres: That they're worried, they're frustrated, they're upset, and they really don't like having these two people as their choice for president.

Sally Sara: That's Republican pollster there, Whit Ayres, who's the founder and president of Northstar Opinion Research.

Russia has launched a barrage of missiles at five cities across Ukraine, striking civilian infrastructure and killing dozens of people. Rescuers are combing through the rubble of Ukraine's largest children's hospital, which was struck in the attacks. The United Nations has condemned the strikes and Ukraine is looking for more support at this week's NATO summit. Alexandra Humphries reports.

Alexandra Humphries: As night falls, rescuers continue searching through the debris of Ukraine's largest children's hospital. Cranes and diggers clear rubble, searching for victims. Emergency workers use sledgehammers to break through. The blast interrupted and contaminated heart surgeries, while cancer patients were wheeled into the street to continue their treatment. Mother Tetyana was inside the hospital with her daughter when it was hit.

Tetyana: We came here to the hospital just five minutes before it all happened. We managed to get to the paediatric ward. I don't know, it's a nightmare. I don't even know if it was a missile that hit or fragments of a missile.

Alexandra Humphries: The hospital's been partially destroyed in a wave of missile strikes directed at major cities across Ukraine. The coordinated assault hit residential areas, killing at least 36 people and injuring many more. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to retaliate. The United Nations Security Council has called an emergency meeting. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the attacks. His spokesman is Stephane Dujarric.

Stephane Dujarric: Directing attacks against civilian and civilian objects is prohibited by international humanitarian law and any such attacks are unacceptable and must end immediately.

Alexandra Humphries: Lesia Vasylenko is a Ukrainian MP whose son was operated on in the children's hospital last year.

Lesia Vasylenko: Just to give you an idea of its significance, children who would be injured by Russian artillery attacks, Russian missiles in the zone of combat in cities like Kharkiv and the Donetsk region and the Luhansk region, they would be taken to this hospital to be operated on. This hospital would give them the chance to survive.

Alexandra Humphries: Moscow denies targeting civilians and claims to have hit military targets.

Lesia Vasylenko: Russia was shooting high precision missiles onto a city, a densely populated city, the capital Ukraine, in the peak hours of the morning when people would have been either in their jobs or going into their jobs. Children would have been in nurseries, kindergartens and parents and children would have been going into hospitals for treatments or consultations.

Alexandra Humphries: The attack comes on the eve of a three-day NATO summit in Washington. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited to attend with further support for Ukraine high on the agenda. Rose Gottemoeller was NATO's Deputy Secretary General from 2016 to 2019.

Rose Gottemoeller: They are gunning for NATO membership, full scale membership, but they're not going to get it at this summit. What NATO is instead extending is what is being called a bridge to NATO membership, which means that, for example, NATO will be establishing an office in Ukraine, it will be establishing a NATO set of activities to train and provide assistance.

Alexandra Humphries: NATO leaders are expected to pledge additional financial support to Ukraine at the summit, while members including the United States are likely to offer more weapons, including Patriot air defence systems.

Sally Sara: That's Alexandra Humphries.

The Victorian Government is proposing sweeping changes to the regulation of fertility technologies such as IVF, a counselling service for donor conceived children wanting to meet their biological family and the provision of public education is set to be scrapped. The move has come under fire from some families and medical experts who say that both services provide unique and vital support. Rachel Clayton reports.

Michelle Galea: It was the first time we met her at the Melbourne Zoo and then up here that was the last time we got to see Amber.

Rachel Clayton: Six years ago Charlie Galea met his half-sister Amber for the first time. His mum Michelle had used a sperm donor to conceive Charlie and applied to the Victorian regulator to get in touch with any half-siblings. She didn't anticipate how emotional the journey would be.

Michelle Galea: It was a traumatic time for us and I wasn't sure how my son was going to cope with it.

Rachel Clayton: Victoria is world renowned for the specialist donor-linking counselling that Michelle and Charlie relied on. State law currently requires it be available and free for people wanting to meet their donor parent or child. The law also requires the regulator provides impartial public education about fertility treatments such as using donor sperm or eggs and IVF. But both counselling and education are about to be taken out of the Act as the Victorian government overhauls reproductive health regulation.

Sarah Lensen: This sort of information, particularly from a trusted and independent resource, is really crucial.

Rachel Clayton: That's Sarah Lensen from the University of Melbourne who has published research that found 83% of IVF clinic websites made unsubstantiated claims about treatments.

Sarah Lensen: The stakes are high so there's a lot of emotional and financial investment from patients in fertility treatment processes and that can make them vulnerable to misleading information.

Rachel Clayton: Cal Volks is a former donor-linking counsellor at the regulator and says taking the service out of the Act is a mistake.

Cal Volks: I'm really worried that we would be placing people at risk. It helps the applicants to the central register navigate the complex psychological and emotional aspects of donor linking.

Rachel Clayton: Rebecca Kerner from the Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association says she's unsure who was consulted about the proposed changes.

Rebecca Kerner: How did they come about making these decisions? There seems to be a lack of procedural fairness in this.

Rachel Clayton: Victoria is one of two jurisdictions worldwide where parents can apply for information about their child's family and donors can track down their offspring. Sometimes shocking people in adulthood with the news they were donor conceived.

Rebecca Kerner: That can be an incredibly confronting experience.

Rachel Clayton: It was also critical for Michelle and Charlie. Two years after discovering he had a sister, Amber died following a terminal illness.

Michelle Galea: And some people were like, oh do you really want to get involved in that sort of relationship? Do you really want to connect Charlie?

Rachel Clayton: But she says the counsellors understood.

Michelle Galea: They were just really respectful. It's such a specialised field. I've never been able to find anyone else that I can talk to.

Rachel Clayton: The government says counselling is no longer needed because donor procedures are becoming normalised. Michelle strongly disagrees.

Michelle Galea: Our family dynamic is definitely not normalised. The government really needs to rethink what they're doing.

Sally Sara: That report there from Rachel Clayton.

Studying at high school and university simultaneously might sound like a nightmare, but it's a dream come true for a 13-year-old computer coder in regional New South Wales. Hamish Leahy is undertaking a Bachelor of Computer Science while completing Year 8 and taking on his first commercial clients. James Paras reports.

James Paras: Hamish Leahy has never had to wonder what he wants to do when he grows up. The 13-year-old from Armidale in northern New South Wales has known for more than half his life he wants to be a computer coder.

Hamish Leahy: Coding is basically talking to a computer using a language that it understands. So we speak a language like English, but computers can't understand plain English, so we have to use a coding language such as Python or HTML to tell the computer what we want it to do.

James Paras: It's no ordinary hobby for Hamish. When he discovered his coding interest, he took learning it very seriously. He started with basic tutorials on YouTube at age 7, but eventually enrolled in online courses with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hamish Leahy: They have all the courses and video files online, so I just watched all the lectures through and then I took the quizzes and the final exam and I passed that with a distinction and that was how I did MIT. Harvard was pretty much the same process and from both of them I get certified certificates of completion.

James Paras: A certificate from Harvard may sound like the peak of a six-year obsession, but Hamish Leahy has embarked on a new challenge, enrolling in the University of New England's Bachelor of Computer Science while he completes year 8 at a local high school.

Hamish Leahy: Regular school day like normal kids do throughout the week and after school I'll do my homework for the regular school and then I'll go online and watch the lecture files and do the quizzes and courses for University of New England. So it's pretty much like a university degree on top of going to school. Yeah it is a university degree on top of going to school, but I love coding so that's why it's worth it.

James Paras: His subject choices reflect his belief in the growing importance of artificial intelligence.

Hamish Leahy: I chose AI and machine learning because it's one of the biggest and most upcoming fields and it will massively impact everyone's daily lives.

James Paras: His mum, Rechelle Leahy, says she still wants her son to enjoy teenage-hood.

Rechelle Leahy: My role is also to make sure that he doesn't over-commit himself, so he's still, like he said, in year 8 at high school and that school is the most important piece for him at the moment and as long as he can balance the study workload with the university as well then we're happy for that to continue on.

James Paras: She says it's occasionally been an expensive exercise.

Rechelle Leahy: We just kind of work away at it to find the funds. That's sort of the only thing that we have to do but now that Hamish has his own clients he's pretty keen to continue helping to pay for some of those courses as well which is wonderful for him.

James Paras: Those clients include Henry Moore who runs a local coffee shop. He says Hamish is developing an app for the cafe to allow customers to order their coffees in advance.

Henry Moore: Hamish has been known to my business partner for a very long time. She actually looked after him when he was a kid so yeah, she's known him forever, known his mum, they're good family friends so we knew he was a pretty smart kid and we thought, you know, if anyone's going to be able to create us an app it's going to be him.

James Paras: It's just one of several projects he's got on the go.

Hamish Leahy: I feel good with my clients. They're all very flexible. I mean they chose a 13 year old so they kind of expect a bit of flexibility. My goal with it is to build up a client base so that I can eventually start my own company in software development and that is a good place to start.

Sally Sara: That's 13 year old computer coder Hamish Leahy ending that report from James Paras. And that's all from the World Today team. Thanks for your company. I'm Sally Sara.