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.
While his motivation is pure and the cause good I would like to hear the emails
Did he use threats at all?
Your last paragraph says a lot.
Also, I wonder whether Susan Templeman could help Mackell now seeing as she never complained about his contacts with her.
Him getting the summons means her office reported him and hope to make an example of him.
This seems likely to be a slam dunk case of political speech which is Constitutionally protected.
