Subjects: Visit to Ingleburn; Labor’s attacks on the Australian salmon industry; Labor’s cost of living and energy crisis; Middle East tensions and the ramifications around Australia; Labor’s inaction on public safety and anti-Semitism allows Hezbollah hate symbols onto the streets of Melbourne and Sydney; the Prime Minister’s weak leadership.
E&OE.
JENNY WARE:
Good morning. Wonderful to be down here in Ingleburn this morning – the heart of South Western Sydney. I’m really, really happy to welcome Peter Dutton and also Jonno Duniam down here to Huon, premium Tasmanian salmon.
They do a wonderful job down here with packaging salmon straight from Tasmania and we’ve seen today a busy workforce of over 120 people. They are well and truly a local success story and the employers of many locals down here in South West Sydney, in Ingleburn.
So Peter, I want to welcome you to this part of Hughes and thank you for being here.
JONNO DUNIAM:
Thank you.
Well, it’s great to be here with Jenny Ware, the local Member. Now, it might be Tasmanian salmon, but it is Hughes’ jobs that are supported by this great product. One hundred and twenty jobs here directly through Huon Aquaculture, but then you’ve got all the contractors, the logistics operators, the truck drivers, etc., all depending on businesses like this.
When this Government, who says they’re the friend of the worker and they want to see a future made in Australia, are making decisions that make it impossible for businesses like this to carry on, then we’ve got a problem. It is this Labor Government that has put a big question mark over the future of the salmon industry in Australia, along with mining and forestry and farming.
In Tasmania we’ve got salmon farms on the west coast which don’t know whether they’re going to be operating after Christmas or not. Tanya Plibersek, at the behest of the Greens and the Bob Brown Foundation, is considering whether to rip out that industry from that part of the world, killing off salmon in Australia as an industry. In Tasmania alone, it employs 5,000 people and across Australia there are many, many more jobs as we see here today.
This is the problem with this Government, they talk a big game, they say all the right things, but when the rubber hits the road they are nowhere to be seen. Tanya Plibersek has been sitting on a decision that impacts on this business and others like it for over 12 months now. A Coalition Government would never have let this happen and we will introduce laws that will change this situation and rectify it forevermore.
So, I’m proud to be a part of Peter’s team standing up for industries like this and making sure that jobs in this sector and others like it – mining, forestry, farming are all protected because they’re all part of our economy and they’re what we need to have a strong and vibrant Australia into the future.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Jonno, thank you very much.
Firstly, I want to say thank you to the team here at Huon for showing us around, walking through the factory, looking at the processing taking place, obviously it’s a premium product that’s being developed here and it’s in demand not just for Australian consumers, but also it’s a big export market for our country as well.
To Jenny Ware, thank you very much for having us in your electorate. One hundred and twenty jobs on this site alone and they’re families that are putting their kids through school, they’re paying their mortgages or their rent, they’re living their life because they have a steady income from this business.
As Jonno pointed out before, it’s not just the salmon industry that’s under threat with this Government. The renewables only policy is driving up the cost of electricity, which obviously is a very big input cost into a business like this – cold storage is a very significant part of keeping the product fresh and ready for market and the costs continue to grow exponentially.
There’s also this sovereign risk issue that the Government’s creating where there is great uncertainty about the future of the salmon industry on the west coast in Tasmania. There’s no replacement jobs – once the industry closes down, there’s nothing there in those communities. Jonno has done an amazing amount of work with the local communities and advocating for stability and for decision making by the Federal Government so that people can make investment, the industry can continue to grow, because if those people move out, having lost their jobs, the local school closes, the local industries aren’t supported, the cafes and the restaurants and the other industry within those regions just don’t have the jobs to replace those that are lost.
So I think the Government is doing an enormous amount of damage to the economy at the moment. Households know that they’re going backwards under this Government. People are working harder and yet they can’t pay their bills, they’ve had 12 interest rate increases under this Government – and interest rates have gone down in New Zealand, in Canada, in the United Kingdom, in the United States and they should have gone down here by now as well. People are paying hundreds of dollars more each month in their mortgage repayments, than what they need to. But unfortunately the Government’s taken decisions, that the Reserve Bank Governor has warned about, of spending too much money in the economy and that has driven inflation in this market and we’ve seen the results with interest rate increases.
Now, obviously the situation in the Middle East continues to be of concern to everybody at the moment. I condemn absolutely the actions of Iran overnight in their attacks on Israel. Israel is the only democracy in that part of the world. I think the way in which the Prime Minister has responded, or has not responded here has made it more precarious for us here in Australia as well.
On October 9, there were demonstrations on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. The anti-Semitism that was on display there that night has only compounded every day since then – the months and months of protests that we’ve seen at university campuses, on weekends, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, but elsewhere. That has given rise to a level of comfort for these supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah. It’s unacceptable and it increases the level of danger in our own community.
As we know, the Prime Minister should be standing up as the United States has stood up overnight, as the United Kingdom has, as Canada has, to condemn the actions and to make sure the decisions are made to keep us safe here in Australia as well.
I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, given the attacks overnight, should Australia urgently declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organisation?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, that’ll be a decision for the Director-General of ASIO to make a recommendation to the Government and we would support whatever recommendation is forthcoming. We’ve certainly spoken a lot about whether there is that outcome and we would support decisions that the Government made based on the advice of the Director-General of ASIO.
QUESTION:
And the Government’s messaging this morning has been, ‘Israel should still seek a diplomatic solution to a ceasefire’. Do you think that that is still possible at this point, or is it too late?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think every reasonable Australian at the moment is looking to their Prime Minister for leadership and what they’re seeing is weakness. Our Prime Minister should stand up as the British Prime Minister has, as President Biden has, as Prime Minister Trudeau has, to condemn the actions of Hezbollah.
The proposal that the United States has – that Australia has walked away from – to try and provide some support and stability in the north of Israel on the border – why the Prime Minister has rejected that? I don’t know. It seems to me that the Prime Minister and Penny Wong at the moment, are making decisions that are of political benefit to them domestically, but which are not in our national interests, and I think they should stand condemned for that and I think most Australians would be of that same view.
I think we need to recognise that Israel is under attack from multiple fronts. When people say ‘River to the Sea’, and this chant that has now become the norm in the protests that we’re seeing on university campuses, or on the streets of our capital cities; what they mean when they say that is that they want to drive people physically into the sea, they want to exterminate the people of Israel.
Now, we have stood with Israel for a long time, they are an important ally for us, and it is very important for us to stand up for the values that Israel represents in the Middle East as well, and that the Prime Minister has walked away from a bipartisan position adopted by every one of his predecessors, I think reflects very poorly on the Prime Minister. I think, frankly, the Prime Minister needs to reassess his judgement here because it’s not in our country’s best interests. He’s harming our international relations, and I think the call that Penny Wong has made in relation to Israel has been, I think, the most reckless foreign affairs decision in our generation.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, how far does Israel’s right to extend itself extend? And does that include sending troops into Lebanon? And then as a second to that question, does that extend to retaliating to Iran given the latest strikes overnight?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, that’s an issue for Israel. Israel has been very clear that they’re not going to be subject to attack and nor should they be. They’re a democracy, they’re a society like ours, they believe in freedom of speech, they believe in adherence to the rule of law – adherence to the rule of international law – and to see them under attack would be no different than seeing the United States, or the United Kingdom, or Canada under attack, or France, or Germany.
Nothing was happening on the 6th of October – I’ll just make this point: when Hamas decided to go in and slaughter 1,200 people in the kibbutzes and at the music festival, it was an act of savage brutality. These people are terrorists, and Hezbollah, and as we know with Hamas, they organise terrorist hits. Women and children die as a result of their bombings, and Israel has an absolute undeniable right to protect and defend herself.
People have been driven out of the north of Israel and are now occupying areas in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, etc. They want to return back to their homes, and on the 6th of October, they were living there in peace, and now we’re seeing Iran attack, which has escalated this sad story quite dramatically.
QUESTION:
Just on October 7, if New South Wales Police fail to block pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney, how should police respond? Should they go out and arrest people who turn up?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, I’d really pay credit to the New South Wales Premier, who I think has shown leadership in relation to this particular issue, and I think that’s recognised in the Jewish community as well. I hope that Victoria can follow suit with the New South Wales Police application to the court to stop what would be a grotesque gathering to celebrate the death, the slaughter of 1,200 people in Israel. That is not an anniversary that should be celebrated and people shouldn’t be triumphant, people shouldn’t be celebrating the life of a terrorist in Nasrallah, otherwise.
So, I think there needs to be an understanding of the Australian values and our way of life. We don’t discriminate against anyone. Hate is not a part of our society, but to see people standing up celebrating a terrorist who has been responsible for thousands of deaths, and to see preparations in place to celebrate the anniversary of 1,200 people being slaughtered – including pregnant women, some of whom are still held in a tunnel network in Gaza – it has no place in our society, and the Government should be doing – at a state and federal level – the Government should be doing everything they can to stop these protests from taking place.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, has the Government offered for security agencies to give you a briefing on the latest developments in the Middle East and at home? And when was the last briefing that you had?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’ve had a briefing with the Director-General of National Security only a couple of weeks ago when we were in Canberra, and we had a broader discussion, obviously, around the Middle East as well as on other topics.
I’ve asked my office to arrange for briefings from the Director-General of ASIO and Defence, if the Government deems it appropriate and also the head of ASIS as well.
So, I’m very happy to take any briefings the Government offers. I had a conversation with the Prime Minister on the weekend and I was sent a piece of intelligence in relation to – which is at a fairly high level, but nonetheless, I appreciated that update as well.
QUESTION:
And I know you can’t elaborate on what those briefings contain, but what’s your situation on the situation here in Australia given this escalation in the Middle East?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, the Government has to show strong leadership here because if people don’t know boundaries, if we’re going to continue to see the sort of anti-Semitic conduct that we’ve seen in our communities, then there is going to be an escalation here domestically as well.
People can go to a mosque, we encourage people to practice their religious beliefs freely in our country. It doesn’t matter what religion people practice, but going to a mosque, or going to a gathering in a public area to celebrate the life of somebody who was responsible for a terrorist organisation, somebody who had provided leadership to death squads and to the slaughter of women and children, that has no place in our community, and the Prime Minister should be making that very clear.
The Prime Minister talks a lot, he says a lot, but he never does anything, and this is the latest example. He needs to step up and needs to provide support to our police and security agencies to make sure that we can have peace and security in our own country.
QUESTION:
Do you think that the Federal Government should be doing more like putting on charter flights to get Australians out of Lebanon and out of the region more broadly?
PETER DUTTON:
Well again, about two months ago, I asked for a briefing from the Government in relation to what their evacuation plans might be. When we evacuated people from Kabul, we staged people in Al Minhad, as you’ll recall, we ran proper security checks on people before they were boarded on flights to come back to Australia. So, obviously the Australian Government has an obligation to assist Australian citizens and to the credit of the Government, they’ve been advising people to leave Lebanon over recent weeks and I hope that people have listened to that advice because obviously now there are restrictions on air travel. But there is a plan in place, as the Government advised us, to be able to evacuate people.
The thing that I impressed upon the people who were able to brief us from DFAT, and from Home Affairs, was that we need to make sure that people who are coming out of a very difficult part of the world, haven’t been involved in activities that could be a threat to our national security and that we know with certainty who is coming to our country. I was given the assurance that that would take place.
Let’s hope that there’s not a repeat of what we saw with people coming out on tourist visas, because that was completely unacceptable and people should heed the advice of the Government to leave on the commercial flights that are available as soon as possible.
Alright. Thank you very much.
[ends]