Subjects: Wakeley Church terror incident; Bondi Junction tragedy; the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia; Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Prices; Labor’s environmental law shambles; GST.
E&OE
OLIVER PETERSON:
I am pleased to say joining me in the 6PR studios today is the Federal Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton.
Welcome back.
PETER DUTTON:
Pleasure, Oly. Thank you.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Can you believe that we’re going to be talking about a terrorist attack in an Australian church last night?
PETER DUTTON:
It’s really heartbreaking, and I think the condemnation that we’ve seen is right. A place of worship – doesn’t matter whether it’s a church or a mosque or a synagogue, a temple – it’s a sacrosanct place. What we saw last night doesn’t have any place in our country.
I hope that the police can continue to do their work to make sure that we don’t have any repeat offences as best they can. It’s a very difficult area, particularly if you’ve got a person who is a lone actor, goes out to commit an act like this. It’s a terrible incident.
OLIVER PETERSON:
It’s been revealed the boy was known to police. How worried are you, more generally speaking, that teenagers like this boy can be radicalised and now accused of things like religiously motivated terrorist attacks?
PETER DUTTON:
I think it’s why it’s important for the leaders within the respective faith groups to step up and make sure that they can issue very clear instruction to try and take the temperature out of this community debate, particularly in Western Sydney at the moment. I think that’s really important, and they are doing that. I’ve spoken to a number of faith leaders today, and they’re very much issuing that sort of calm message across their community. Because as we know, and as the Director-General of ASIO has pointed out in years past, young people with impressionable minds can be indoctrinated online in a matter of days. It’s the constant bombardment of messages, of videos, and they can be persuaded to go out and commit a terrorist act. Now, we don’t know the circumstances in relation to this issue at the moment – all of that’s under investigation. But yes, I think particularly where you’re talking about impressionable young minds of teenagers, they’re impulsive, they’re more reactive and less mature, obviously, than people of a few years on their age. In those circumstances, it can lead to rash circumstances that really go beyond, maybe what they were contemplating.
OLIVER PETERSON:
The response by thousands of people then outside the church – the vigilantism, revenge. We had police officers with broken jaws, teeth chipped, fence palings, bricks thrown at them in their cars. Awful scenes.
PETER DUTTON:
Just terrible, just terrible. There’s no place for violence in our community whatsoever. You can disagree with what the Priest is saying or the Imam is saying, but we deal with that peacefully in our country, and we don’t want to see the police subject to these sort of attacks because they’re there to help the community. They’re there to try and keep the peace and good order. They don’t deserve to be treated like that. They’re going home to families, and they’re in a very dangerous job on any day of the week, and as we saw in Bondi, they were able to respond – that Police Inspector, she did a marvellous job, saved lives, and we should be praising the police, not attacking them.
OLIVER PETERSON:
And on that, the Bondi Junction attack Saturday. Your reaction to Joel Cauchi’s stabbing rampage?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, it’s just a terrible circumstance at a human level – each of those cases. It’s just horrible and there’s no rational thought that goes into that situation. How could it be justified in his mind? All of that has to be answered by the police, by the coroner. That’s, again, an investigation that’s underway. But there are many families who are still sitting at the hospital or sitting by the bed of a loved one in intensive care. So, our thoughts and prayers are with those people, and obviously those who are deceased, the family’s devastation will be something they never get over.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Something that a lot of people struggle to comprehend, that this is happening in Australia. And I do see the WA Premier today considering enhanced stop and search laws. Now, are these necessary for the States to consider?
PETER DUTTON:
It’s certainly the case that they should be considered. I think at a time like this or if there’s intelligence in the background that suggests that an attack like this is imminent, that that is definitely a trigger for the Premiers to decide whether the laws they have are adequate. It’s a time to look at what other states are doing, what other jurisdictions are doing, because it’s a reality.
In our country, we’ve had incredible success with the gun laws from stopping those people with ill intent to take possession of a firearm, an automatic firearm, and go and kill dozens of people. Thank God for that. Great credit to John Howard and Kim Beazley and Tim Fischer and others at the time that brought those laws in. But it gives rise to, ‘well, what weapon is then available?’, and we know with a lot of young gangs and younger people now out late at night, they do arm themselves, in some cases with knives. It is appropriate, and if that’s the advice of the police, then frankly, I think the advice should be heeded.
OLIVER PETERSON:
The Prime Minister’s indicated the so–called ‘Bollard Man’ is being offered permanent residency. Something you’d support?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes, it is. Obviously, that was an act of bravery. I think if you look at the actions of those people who were in the shopping centre, the young shop attendants, the policewoman, obviously the Inspector who was running toward that person, was obviously able to neutralise that threat – who knows how many more people could have been stabbed or killed had she not sprung into action – and had the actions of people like the brave French national who was standing at the top of the escalator with the bollard, who knows what else could have happened? There were plenty of people in there. It’s a big shopping centre. For the police to locate the individual is difficult, and in the circumstances, the quick response time did save lives. Full credit to that Police Inspector.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Out of these tragedies, can there be unification amongst Australians?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, there must be. We live in the greatest country in the world, and we need to make sure that we remind ourselves of that, particularly at times like this. It’s time for strong leadership and for the opportunity to send those unifying messages and for communities to come together. We know at the moment that the Jewish community here in Australia is living literally in fear. They have armed guards standing at schools where Jewish kids are going to each day. They’re worried about the rise of anti–Semitism. We’re obviously worried about the impact of what we’re seeing in the Middle East, and at the same time, there’s great uncertainty in our part of the world, in the South China Sea, on a daily basis, as we know, with the Philippines and elsewhere. So, it is a tumultuous period but we need to stand up and provide that leadership and provide that direction to Australians.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Two things on that: one, the Middle East situation, does that unrest contribute to some of these situations? And two, what are you calling on the Prime Minister here to stand up and do in regards to leadership?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, there’s certainly a lot of misinformation that plays out over social media in a way that it didn’t a generation ago. The information was disseminated through the nightly news or the newspapers the next day, or a telephone call with a family member from a particular part of the world. Now, it’s in real time and people react to it. We need to remind people that, in our country, we weren’t founded on civil unrest, we don’t tolerate the sort of behaviour that we saw last night, particularly in a place of worship, and that we don’t want to see a repeat of those incidents. I sent a letter to the Prime Minister today offering bipartisan support and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Prime Minister to send a very clear message that we don’t tolerate this behaviour, and we celebrate the 99 per cent of good that is in our country.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Has he accepted that?
PETER DUTTON:
Oh, I’m sure he has. I haven’t heard back from him, but no doubt, he would appreciate the gesture. We’re very happy to work closely with him. I had a briefing today from the AFP Commissioner and the Director-General of ASIO, and we’ll provide whatever support the Government needs. If there are additional laws that need to be passed through the Federal Parliament, we’ll work with them as closely as we can.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Before we went to the commercial break, you just heard the Greens dominated Committee and Nick McKim, the Senator there, claiming the Woolies boss, Brad Banducci, could face jail if he wasn’t going to answer questions properly today. Do these sorts of statements undermine the Inquiry?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I just think it’s a stunt. The sad part about that is that the Inquiry is really about how we can help families reduce their price for goods at the supermarket and to try and help them out, you know, when they get to the supermarket and realise that they can’t afford what they’ve got their grocery basket.
The Greens are grandstanding here. They’re a political party and I think they do themselves and the Parliament a disservice. We want to ask legitimate questions about whether farmers are being paid at the appropriate rate. We want to understand why prices of some goods have gone up and other prices have gone down. We want to understand why the Government’s ‘renewables only’ policy is driving up the prices, not just for families, but for small businesses, of their electricity bills and their gas bills. They’re the sorts of questions that should be asked in the Senate Inquiry, not an opportunity to get your mug on the nightly news. That’s childish.
OLIVER PETERSON:
The environmental laws – there’s now a suggestion that the EPA could have the power to stop projects if Tanya Plibersek’s new laws are able to go through the Parliament. How would this affect projects, particularly here in WA?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Oly, I think this is one of the greatest anti-WA bills I’ve seen from a Labor government. We saw Roger Cook make a huge misstep when he first became Premier, and I think Anthony Albanese was about to make exactly the same bad move.
We know that in our country it takes 16 years for a mine to be approved now, which is a disaster. We need those minerals and we need the export revenue, we need the royalties. We know that companies here in WA, particularly in the mining sector, prop up the Australian economy. They contribute an enormous amount – about two in three tax dollars paid in our country are paid by those businesses and the mining sector more generally.
I think Tanya Plibersek here has probably got a bit ahead of herself. They had all of these secret and silent consultation processes where nobody was allowed to speak about what they’d been briefed on. If it’s such a good act, why not tell the public about it and trumpet it? Instead, now, the Prime Minister will probably delay it until after the election. But I think people from WA know if they vote for the Albanese Government at the next election, they’re going to get this crazy overreach environmental law at the next election, which will basically bring new mines to a halt, it impacts on developments otherwise, and it would have a huge negative impact on jobs and economic productivity in WA.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Is this mining tax 2.0?
PETER DUTTON:
I think it’s very close to it. If only we could understand just how bad it is. I know a lot of people have been consulted about it, and we know that people are really petrified about what it would mean. It would stifle development in Western Australia, around the country obviously, but it would have a disproportionate negative impact here in WA. And I think that’s why Anthony Albanese’s pulled it.
It’s at the core of what they believe. They tell people in WA they support mining, and when they get back to the east coast in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne, the Prime Minister and Tanya Plibersek are there trying to win Green votes to preserve their seats. They sell WA out on a regular basis, and they’ve done it again in relation to this bill.
OLIVER PETERSON:
Okay. It’d be remiss of me not to ask a federal political leader in WA a similar question about the GST, though, Peter Dutton. Will you still commit to WA’s share of the GST? Not say one thing here in Perth, but something else in Brisbane or Melbourne or Sydney. Are you on board with WA’s share of the GST?
PETER DUTTON:
I committed to it in the first press conference as Leader when I came to WA. Happy to commit to it on each occasion, each visit, because I don’t see WA as a cash cow like I think the Prime Minister does.
I think the economy is in all sorts of strife at the moment, and families feel it in their budget. They’re paying more for everything. The Government’s policy on energy – far from delivering a $275 decrease in their power prices – has jacked power prices up. It’s every element in the supply chain. I don’t think we should be penalising WA for the success of the economy here, for the entrepreneur that goes out and puts his or her house at risk, creates a business, employs fellow Australians. We shouldn’t be looking for an opportunity to tax them more. I want to see WA grow because if we can grow our economy and grow the resources sector here in WA, that’s good for the whole economy.
OLIVER PETERSON:
It’s good to see you here in Perth today, Peter Dutton. We’ll get you back soon.
PETER DUTTON:
Look forward to it, mate. Thank you.
[ends]