Subjects: The Coalition’s commitment to real action to address the anti-Semitism and extremism crisis; the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership; nuclear energy; Labor’s cost of living and energy crisis.
E&OE.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks everyone for being here today. I’m really pleased to be joined by James Paterson, our Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and for Cyber Security.
It’s clear to all Australians that the Prime Minister’s weak leadership has led to a very divisive period in our country, and we have been saying for a long period of time now that the anti-Semitism has always been there in a society like ours, but it really has been exacerbated over the course of the last 13 months.
The Government’s initial response to the protests on the steps of the Sydney Opera House was completely and utterly inadequate, the protests that went on for months and months at our university campuses was a demonstration of hatred – not just towards students – but academics and other visiting fellows, etc., and the discrimination, the blatant racism that we’ve seen against people of Jewish faith and heritage has been obvious on a daily basis. Thousands of cases of people who have been targeted in their businesses, in their communities, in their places of worship, and that is thoroughly unacceptable.
So today I announce that stronger action and national leadership will be brought to the table, and a Dutton Coalition Government will act from day one to fix Labor’s law enforcement crisis through a number of policy measures – and I’m going to ask James to outline some of those.
We will be creating a dedicated anti-Semitism Taskforce led by the Australian Federal Police, by ASIO, by the ACIC, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the Australian Border Force and state police. It will look at the historic complaints that have been made since October 7 last year in relation to doxing matters and in relation to blatant acts of discrimination and racism online, and threats that have been made to people of Jewish faith in our country. It will strengthen the provisions of section 501, the character test under the Migration Act, which will be targeted at those people who are non-citizens, who will be deported for their conduct, which is deemed to be anti-Semitic, and it will provide an opportunity for us to say in a very clear voice, unequivocal to the Australian people, that we will not tolerate racism of any description and we will not tolerate anti-Semitism in any form.
Our position has been clear from day one and we will work with the Australian Federal Police, and my expectation is that when the next election takes place and we form a government, the Australian Federal Police will have done the preparatory work to stand up this Taskforce on day one.
I’ll ask James to go through a little more of the detail and then I’m happy to take some questions.
JAMES PATERSON:
Thanks Peter.
As Peter said, the Prime Minister’s failure to lead and his weakness since the 7th of October has directly led to the tragic events that we saw at the Adass Israel synagogue on Friday morning.
The Jewish community and the Opposition have been crystal clear for 14 months now. If the Prime Minister doesn’t show moral leadership and take real action on the anti-Semitism and extremism crisis in our country, then there will be terrible consequences, and those worst fears have been realised.
What we need is strong action, not just words, not just platitudes, but action. We need the law to be enforced, and that’s why a Dutton Coalition Government will establish this new AFP led Taskforce with our key intelligence and security and law enforcement agencies to crack down on this crisis and enforce the law, because when you fail to enforce the law, when there are no consequences, then extremists become emboldened.
In addition to this new Taskforce, which as Peter said, we expect to be up and running from day one, we will also be issuing a new Ministerial Direction to the AFP to call on them to prioritise anti-Semitism, including any outstanding complaints and unsolved crimes against the Jewish community since the 7th of October, including doxing, the public display of terrorism symbols, incitement, harassment and other offences; and critically, this will also include the re-evaluation of any decisions to not proceed with charges over the last 14 months.
We’ll also be directing the Anti-Semitism Taskforce to refer any visa holders involved in acts of anti-Semitism for immediate cancellation of their visas and deportation. We will amend the section 501 of one of the character provisions of the Migration Act to ensure that this anti-Semitic contact is captured by the law and will apply retrospectively for all acts of hatred towards the Jewish community since the 7th of October, and in addition and finally, we’ll also deliver the $32.5 million security funding package that’s been requested by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. But critically, we will do so without any strings attached, and that includes funding armed guards at schools and synagogues and other community centres.
The Albanese Government has only agreed to fund unarmed guards and this is very important, because it’s sending the perverse signal to Jewish schools and community centres and religious centres, that instead of having armed guards as they have right now, that they should downgrade their security at these community centres and have unarmed guards.
A Dutton Coalition Government will ensure that the Jewish community has the protection it needs, and that this extremism crisis which has fested in our country, is tackled and addressed.
QUESTION:
The Taskforce – how big would it be? Like how many officers would you want on it? And can you just talk us through why all those different agencies?
PETER DUTTON:
Simon, we’ll take the advice of the Australian Federal Police Commissioner. So far we’ve been denied a briefing from the AFP Commissioner and the Director-General of ASIO. We had requested that straight off the back of the bombing of the synagogue. I have been frankly just dumbfounded by the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office has refused to provide that. Now, it has been arranged with the AFP Commissioner for this afternoon, but still not granted for a briefing from ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess.
Obviously James and I have worked in this area before and we have – particularly in the Home Affairs Portfolio, I was the Minister there – I was able to bring together groupings and taskforces to respond to particular incidents and events. So it will take whatever resource is required and we’ll take that advice from the AFP Commissioner.
So it’ll depend on how many of the matters have been resolved to the satisfaction of the AFP and how many matters need to be revisited. But I’d make it very clear, whatever the resource requirements and whatever the cost, they will be met and it will be a very substantial Taskforce that will provide reassurance to all Australians, that we don’t discriminate against people on the basis of race, or religion.
QUESTION:
So can I just clarify – you said you requested a briefing with the AFP, was that initially denied? But now it’s been granted for this afternoon?
PETER DUTTON:
Initially denied, and then we followed up again with the Prime Minister’s Office, and it has been granted for this afternoon. We’ve still…
QUESTION:
Is that appropriate, given that they’re only…
PETER DUTTON:
I think it’s completely…
QUESTION:
They’re only meeting with Victoria Police Counter-Terrorism Command this morning as well?
PETER DUTTON:
To be honest, Simon, I’ve never seen anything like it. The fact that the Counter-Terrorism Taskforce and the AFP weren’t engaged immediately at the Prime Minister’s direction, I just think is without precedent.
It was obvious from the start that this was a terrorist attack. Now, we wanted the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police obviously to conduct their initial investigations, but the way in which the Prime Minister has dragged his feet on this and finally come to a position, at least in part – although he’s open to changing it, it seems – they’re lost days, I mean lost hours in an investigation can result in evidence being destroyed, in people fleeing the country.
The fact that federal authorities weren’t engaged immediately for the bombing of a place of worship, a synagogue – particularly given the level of anti-Semitism that we’ve seen in the country over the last 13 months – is quite astounding.
As I say, we still haven’t been granted an audience with, or a meeting with the Director-General of ASIO, which I also think in the circumstances is completely inappropriate.
QUESTION:
Our terrorism units, though, they still haven’t declared this a terrorist act. I mean, that’s what they’re obviously looking at this morning in the meeting. Do you think it’s dangerous that politicians have come out and decided to call it a terrorist act before our terrorism units have even done that?
PETER DUTTON:
I just think it’s dangerous that the Prime Minister’s been so weak for all of his time in office. When the events took place on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, the Prime Minister should have been out very clearly to the Australian Federal Police, to the Premiers. I wrote to the Prime Minister in November of last year urging him to conduct, or to convene an urgent meeting of the National Cabinet to discuss the concerns raised by Australia’s Jewish community, about their safety following the 7th of October terrorism attacks against Israel. That letter was never responded to. So I think what’s happened here is that our Prime Minister has made our country less safe and that much is obvious.
What should have happened from the start is that the Prime Minister should have been upfront with the Australian people, and I think now there’s still an opportunity for the Prime Minister to stand up and say he’s made a mistake.
What the Prime Minister’s been motivated by here is domestic politics. He has been seeking votes from the Greens in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne, and as a result, he’s decided to discard the interests of the Jewish community and he’s made our country less safe. We’ve spoken about escalation. It was entirely predictable that there was going to be an attack on a mosque, or on a school, or some other place of gathering.
The armed guards at Jewish schools are there because of the threat level, they’re not at Christian schools, they’re not at Islamic schools, they’re not at other schools of other faiths. That is the level of threat that is faced by the Jewish community – and it’s been exacerbated by the Prime Minister’s incompetence – and frankly, he should have been leading this call in the hours that came after the bombing of the synagogue.
QUESTION:
Do you think that the police have taken too long to label this a terrorism incident?
PETER DUTTON:
Look again, I’ve had the great fortune of being the Defence Minister, the Home Affairs Minister, the Immigration Minister, I’ve sat around the National Security Committee for long enough to see good Prime Ministers and bad, and this Prime Minister has not provided the leadership to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, to ASIO. The job of the Prime Minister is to take control at the times of a national emergency, and this is an emergency for the Jewish community. You can see the response from the Jewish community rightly, to Jacinta Allan and to Josh Burns and others.
The community is a peace loving community, they’re engaged in everyday life here in Victoria, in New South Wales, around the country. They’re booing and jeering Labor politicians at the moment and they’re speaking with one voice of condemnation and they’re not doing it lightly. Many of them have been members of the Australian Greens Party, or the Australian Labor Party and they have been completely disgusted by the Prime Minister’s inaction and inability to keep them safe and to stare down the violence and the activities that we’ve seen on the streets and that we’ve seen at university campuses, that we saw on the steps of the Opera House. That’s why the Prime Minister should have stepped up and provided definite direction from day one.
QUESTION:
Do you have faith in today’s meeting that Victoria Police and the AFP will declare this a terrorist act? And if they don’t, what’s your response to that?
PETER DUTTON:
I have the utmost faith in our authorities, and I appointed Reece Kershaw to the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, and I’m sure he’ll work – I’m sure he does, has been doing since the bombing – I’m sure he will conduct himself professionally, as the AFP always does.
QUESTION:
Is it really fair to put Josh Burns in with that? I mean he was standing with James at the synagogue six hours after it was firebombed. He lost his voice, he couldn’t, you know, but he was standing there with his community. He’s Jewish himself. Is it really fair to put him with that?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Josh is a nice guy, but Josh lost his voice long before the weekend. Josh hasn’t stood up to a weak Prime Minister, and the job for a Labor MP is to stand up to a Prime Minister who has put political interests of the Labor Party ahead of our national security interests.
When people were brought in from Gaza, people who hadn’t had the security checks undertaken on tourist visas – that’s when Josh Burns should have been speaking up. Josh Burns should have been speaking up when the protests took place at the Opera House. So I don’t doubt Josh Burns’ intent, his passion, but he’s part of a political Party here which is the problem.
I just can’t believe that Julia Gillard, or Kevin Rudd, or Paul Keating, or Kim Beazley, or Bob Hawke would have conducted themselves the way that the Prime Minister is right now. It’s to the detriment of our country, and you can see the public responses to which I referred, and that was the reality. I’ve seen the video of it – and that’s the reality of what we saw over the weekend.
QUESTION:
Just on this, what you’re setting up, would there be an ability where the AFP could come in and take over an investigation from state police?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, those protocols are in place now where there obviously are Joint Taskforces in the counter terrorism space that operate, and there are protocols that are in place that the AFP and VicPol and other authorities will adhere to. So we’re not proposing…
QUESTION:
Is there thresholds though, that could change?
JAMES PATERSON:
The other point to add, Simon, is that a number of these offences are federal offences. So there are offences for incitement to violence, there are offences for using a carriage service like the internet to menace and harass, the public display of a listed terrorist organisation symbol is a federal offence, and so the Federal Government has a responsibility for ensuring that those laws are enforced, and the Prime Minister has failed to do so.
He hasn’t made the Government’s expectations to the AFP clear that he wants to see this law enforced, and it’s being violated every weekend. You see it at those rallies – Hezbollah flags, Hamas flags, symbols of listed terrorist organisations. That’s a crime. No one’s been prosecuted.
QUESTION:
Obviously Victoria has its own legislations around this as well. Do you think the state laws haven’t been strong enough here? Obviously it was prior to October 7 that we saw plenty of Nazi action within this state. We are only going to be looking back to October 7 under this Taskforce that you’ve announced. Should it be going back further?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, I think it’s very clear the difference in leadership between, say, New South Wales and Victoria. In New South Wales, they’ve got a permit system, they’ve got move on laws, they’re not permitting these kind of rallies to take place at places of worship, but the Victorian Government under Jacinta Allan has let this get out of control. I mean there’ve been multiple violent rallies outside synagogues. That should never happen in our country, and it shouldn’t have taken a crisis like a synagogue being blown up for her to realise how serious this is.
So we will lean in very hard from the federal level and make our expectations clear, not just to the AFP, but to state police and others and state Premiers, that we expect a law to be enforced to the full extent possible.
QUESTION:
In regards to the visas as well, do we have any numbers in terms of how many people might fall into this category that you’ve referred to of people that have conducted anti-Semitic acts, that have come in under visas that could eventually be deported under this?
JAMES PATERSON:
We don’t have the benefit of the briefings. Only the Government has that, and Tony Burke has talked a big game in this area, but what has he actually done? How many visas has he actually cancelled? It is impossible for me to believe that not a single person on a visa visiting our country hasn’t been involved in these protests, has been involved in this anti-Semitism. But I think the problem here is a lack of will, and a lack of desire to act.
Tony Burke has to understand that he’s the Minister for Home Affairs for all Australians, not just some Australians, and it is extraordinary to me that we are now on the fourth day following this crisis and we have not seen Tony Burke. He has not stood up, he has not done a press conference, he’s not done a media interview, he has not visited the synagogue. Do you think this would have been his response if it was a mosque that was firebombed and not a synagogue?
QUESTION:
Are you saying that anyone on a visa who went to those protests and didn’t display, say a flag, could be subject to this?
JAMES PATERSON:
No, of course not. Peaceful process is permissible in this country, but anyone on a visa who’s involved in promoting anti-Semitism, or glorifying terrorism should have their visa cancelled and they should be deported without any remorse or any hesitation.
QUESTION:
Do you know if there is ever an ability for there to be a federal law to prevent people rallying, protesting, outside a place of worship? Or is it only state?
PETER DUTTON:
I think, as you are seeing in the debate now, there’s a response from New South Wales, as James points out, and Victoria now has…
QUESTION:
And Victoria last night put out something saying they’re considering it.
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah, at sort of one minute to midnight, or frankly, one minute past it, the Victorian Government now thinks that they need to do something as well. So obviously the power is vested in the constitution with the states.
If there’s, again, we don’t have the benefit of constitutional advice from the Solicitor-General, but if there’s a Commonwealth response possible, we’re very happy to consider strengthening the laws. But I contend that the laws are sufficient now in terms of incitement, and in terms of display of symbols, etc., they just haven’t been enforced.
I think the agencies ultimately take the direction from the Ministers and the Prime Minister, and if they think the Government’s soft pedaling, or they think they’re just there to enforce peace as opposed to the rule of law, then they respond accordingly.
It should be very clear that after the next election, if there’s a change of government, there will be a very definite directional change in relation to how these matters are investigated and prosecuted in the courts.
QUESTION:
What day this week will you reveal your costings on the nuclear policy?
PETER DUTTON:
Simon, I know you’re a patient man…
QUESTION:
At times.
PETER DUTTON:
We’ll release it…
QUESTION:
Will it be this week?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes, it’ll be this week.
Look, I think the response, when you look at 65 per cent of young people – 18 to 34, who are supportive of nuclear because they know, as President Macron and President Biden and others have said, we’re not going to reach our net zero by 2050 targets without nuclear. That’s why there’s strong support, particularly from younger people, but increasingly from Australians of all ages.
We need to firm up the renewables that we’ve got to the system, but at the moment we’ve got blackouts and brownouts that will become a feature of our energy system under Labor. That’s why manufacturing closures are up 300 per cent over the last two years.
So there is a much better way, and the Government obviously signed up to AUKUS for the nuclear propulsion system. That legislation is already through the Parliament with bipartisan support. So in terms of the timing issues, which Labor always raise, we can condense the timing issues very quickly if there’s a bipartisan position – which I believe that there can be and I think behind the scenes, many Labor Members are strongly supportive of nuclear, including Peter Malinauskas, the Premier in South Australia.
So I think there’s a much better way to bring our prices down, as opposed to continual price increases under Labor for your electricity, and also we can provide stability and a decarbonisation that we committed to with our global commitments, and we’ll release that detail this week.
QUESTION:
Just quickly as well, obviously the CSIRO’s report has come out and said that with the new information they’re taking into account, those costs are still up to double to put nuclear in over renewables and gas. So will the Coalition be pushing prices?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’d just point out a couple of things, the assumptions and the methodology have been disputed before…
QUESTION:
But they were changed after that first happened.
PETER DUTTON:
They were disputed before, and do you know what? They haven’t even seen our plan yet, and yet they’re out bagging it.
It just looks to me like there’s a heavy hand of Chris Bowen in all of this. I don’t think people want to see that. I think what they know from Chris Bowen at the moment is that he’s wrecking the energy system and that’s wrecking the economy, and that’s why families are facing food inflation and higher prices when they go to the supermarket.
I’d just say though, that I think – and I think this is important to point out – in Ontario where nuclear constitutes 60 per cent of the energy mix, people are paying 18 cents a kilowatt hour, in South Australia at the moment, people are paying 56 cents a kilowatt hour. In Tennessee, with over 44 per cent of nuclear in the mix, still with renewables in the mix, they’re paying 18 cents per kilowatt hour. We are paying the highest cost in the world, yet we’ve got an abundance of natural resources, and this Government doesn’t seem fit to provide that support.
I mean, there are ideological reasons and I mean, why have they taken their position on a number of fronts in their public policy decisions? Because they’re trying to please the Greens and this is wrecking our economy, and it is making it harder for families who are really struggling under the Labor Party at the moment.
Thank you very much.
[ends]