Subjects: Visit to Leichhardt; Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) to be made permanent under the Coalition; Labor’s cost of living crisis; changes to the Shadow Ministry; Jeremy Neal – LNP Candidate for Leichhardt; insurance; government waste; Australia Day; Suburban Rail Loop; youth crime; QUT’s shameful conference disgrace.
E&OE.
JEREMY NEAL:
Everyone thank you and welcome to our press conference today, here in beautiful Far North Queensland. It’s really good to have Peter make the trip up today.
We’ve got some very significant announcements to make around infrastructure in Northern Australia, and I’ll hand over to my colleague, Senator Susan McDonald, to give us some details on that.
SENATOR SUSAN MCDONALD:
Well, it is great to be here in Cairns with the very energetic and hard-working Jeremy Neal, the LNP candidate for Leichhardt. It’s also terrific to have so many other colleagues here today, but particularly Peter Dutton, who is a frequent traveller to Cairns, has his holidays here in Cairns, or Far North Queensland, I should say.
Most importantly, it is important that we’re here today to talk about our announcement with regard to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. What we’re talking about is securing Northern Australia’s future. You know, that it was under a Coalition Government, after the white paper for Northern Australia, that the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility was developed and announced in 2016. This has been a terrifically successful Facility with over $4.5 billion committed to, that has resulted in 20,000 new jobs in Northern Australia, and more to come. This Facility is important, it is focussed purely on Northern Australia and its development.
So, I’m incredibly proud that it is the Coalition Government that once again commits to Northern Australia by making this Facility permanent. That means that the $7 billion – the $5 billion that was originally announced plus the $2 billion that we announced just before the last election and Labor committed to as well, and also we extended that commitment to the Cocos and Keeling Islands.
This Facility has supported agricultural projects, airport infrastructure projects, agricultural projects and now housing projects. It is an incredibly important fund because it prioritises the needs of Northern Australia. Northern Australia is important to the country because of defence commitments, because of our agricultural ability to grow more food for the rest of the world, as well as the critical minerals and traditional minerals that we mine in this part of the country.
Now it is only a Coalition Government that has seriously committed to Northern Australia, both with the announcement initially at the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund, the CRC for Northern Australia and so many other announcements and commitments that have been made. But under this Albanese Labor Government, a Government that has been weak and incompetent, it has the wrong priorities for us here in Northern Australia.
They have failed to do anything in the last three years for this part of the country, despite having a bipartisan commitment to water in the North, they failed to do anything to support the council to secure water in this town. Despite the Bruce Highway being a priority for North Queensland and Northern Australia, they failed to carry on even the most basic works in the last three years.
Northern Australia should not have to go cap-in-hand to Labor, begging for crumbs from the table, and it is only a Coalition Dutton-Littleproud Government that will continue to commit and support the security and the prosperity of this part of Northern Australia.
So, I’m very proud to be here announcing with Peter Dutton today, our commitment to making the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility permanent. It would have expired on the 30th of June, but now this means that it is ongoing and it continues to support important industries, businesses, but most importantly, the families of Northern Australia.
I’ll hand over to Peter.
PETER DUTTON:
Susie, thank you very much.
It’s fantastic to be here back in Cairns and thank you very much to Jeremy Neal, who is, I think a fantastic candidate for us, and he’s passionate about Far North Queensland, has served his state as a paramedic and has a young family. He really understands what a lot of families are going through at the moment right across the country, but in particular, here in the Far North. Families who can’t afford to pay their power bills, families who can’t afford to insure their car, families who under the Albanese Government were promised electricity bills would be down by about $275, and they’re now up by about $1,000.
Jeremy is somebody who understands the local community. He will fight for the community, and as a Member of Parliament here in Leichhardt, I think will be a champion on behalf of the local residents here in Far North Queensland, and he will bring the fight to Canberra so that he can get additional funding for his local community.
Susie McDonald, as we know, is Queensland through-and-through. She has a phenomenal background both in government, in opposition now, over her time in Parliament, as well as her time in the private sector. She understands business, she understands how to create wealth and jobs here in the Far North or right across Western Queensland. She has a great ability to listen to farmers and not just to the agricultural sector, but also to manufacturing and others who will create wealth and jobs here in Far North Queensland.
The Prime Minister’s taken a decision that his Government will prioritise Green voters and their issues in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne, and we’re working hard for outer metropolitan areas, for regional areas, and for remote areas right across the country. If we do that, we can grow the investment into places like Cairns and Far North Queensland, and I’m really proud of the announcement that we’ve made today in relation to the extension of this Facility, because, as Susie points out, tens of thousands of jobs are created and sustained through investment that we can make and we can leverage that investment from the private sector to create additional wealth right across Northern Australia.
I’m also very pleased today to be joined by David Coleman and Melissa McIntosh, who are here with me, and I want to make some announcements today in relation to some changes to the Coalition frontbench.
David Coleman, who has been an exceptional Shadow Communications Minister, will take up the position of Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. He has a great depth of experience in the private sector as well as in the Parliament, and he has a great affinity with and respect from many of the communities, the ethnic communities, within his local community. He’s done a great job as Shadow Minister for Communications and he takes up this very important role at a time when we see Penny Wong and the Government trashing relationships with Israel and with other countries. It’s time for us to have a change of government in this country and get our country back on track, and part of that is to rebuild international relations and David Coleman will be able to do exactly that.
I’m very pleased to announce that Melissa McIntosh will be joining the Shadow Cabinet in the role of the Shadow Minister for Communications to replace David. Again, Melissa has done an incredible amount of work in the energy space. Energy affordability is a key priority for us. It’s one of our 12 points that we’re going to implement to get our country back on track, and she’s done a huge body of work in relation to Western Sydney as well, she’ll retain that title.
I’m also very pleased to announce today that Senator Claire Chandler will join the Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy, and also the Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts. Claire is a passionate Tasmanian, she is certainly somebody who has contributed significantly to our team and to the unity that we’ve had over the course of the last two-and-a-half years, which has put us in a very strong position to contest the next election, and I congratulate Claire on her appointment.
I’m also very pleased today to announce that Jacinta Price, who has done an amazing body of work in Indigenous Affairs and obviously led the debate along with Warren Mundine and others in relation to opposing the Voice to save our country from the Prime Minister’s attempt to divide our country over the Voice and waste $500 million, and Jacinta Price will take additional responsibility into account. She, as I say, has done a fantastic job in Indigenous Affairs already, but she will take on the important role of Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency.
There is a lot of waste that’s been generated over the course of the last two-and-a-half years – $6 billion a year spent on 36,000 new public servants in Canberra, that is of no assistance whatsoever to the people of Cairns and the people of regional communities who want additional investment. I think the work that Jacinta will do, which will come under the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio in government, will be to find Labor’s waste. We can start with not having another $500 million Voice referendum that was designed to divide our country. We can start with the waste that Labor’s presided over, which will help us reduce inflation and therefore reduce interest rates, which is what the Reserve Bank Governor has been advising the Government, but obviously that advice has been ignored.
I’m very pleased to announce that Tony Pasin will join the Shadow Ministry and takes on the role of Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety. Again, Tony is a champion from South Australia. He’s done a lot of work in this infrastructure space already and worked very closely with Bridget McKenzie and his other colleagues.
Julian Leeser is going to rejoin the Shadow Ministry as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs. Again, Julian is a person with a great deal of capacity. He’s somebody who has worked very hard in his local community, but for his country as well, and he has been particularly active, as we know, in the fight against anti-Semitism, and like many Jewish Australians, has been completely and utterly bewildered by the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership when it comes to the fight against anti-Semitism.
Matt O’Sullivan from Western Australia is going to join the Shadow Ministry as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Education. Again, a very significant contributor, Matt has some fresh thinking and ideas to bring in to the portfolio of education, and he will work closely with Sarah Henderson as the senior Minister in that portfolio and I think we’ll do a fantastic job – he’s well accomplished in the private sector, and has done a great job on behalf of West Australians in the Senate.
The Shadow Ministry is an important body to bring together. We have to bring together a diversity of talents, and we have so many people who are talented on the backbench, on the frontbench, who are worthy of promotion.
I’m pleased to advise also that the Shadow Minister for Energy, Ted O’Brien, will take additional responsibility as the Shadow Minister for Energy Affordability and Reliability, and Kerrynne Liddle is going to take on additional responsibilities in her portfolio for Indigenous Health Services.
Michael Sukkar is going to assume the role of Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives, and Michael’s done a fantastic job in his portfolio of trying to come up with the policies which will help fix Labor’s housing crisis, and he’s done fantastic work.
I also want to commend the work of Senator James Paterson in the Home Affairs portfolio. Many Australians wouldn’t have known James a couple of years ago, but most Australians will know him now as a straight-shooter, and as somebody with a great intellect and capacity to communicate. He’s very significantly a part of our national security team. He is going to join the Leadership Group as part of the changes that I’m make today.
So, I want to congratulate all of those colleagues and thank them very much.
They join the Shadow Ministry at an incredibly important time. We’re only a matter of weeks, it would seem, away from the Prime Minister calling an election. The personal attacks will continue from the Prime Minister because the Prime Minister doesn’t have anything by way of achievement over the last two-and-a-half years to talk about.
The Prime Minister for the last couple of months – so effectively the last six months of his term – has been talking about what he might do in a second term of government, but no Australian can tell you what he’s done in the first term. Interest rates are up 12 times, food, electricity, insurance, all up double digits, and families are really struggling with cost of living crisis that Labor’s created through their budget decisions, with no end in sight.
The Reserve Bank Governor has given advice to the Government about the amount of debt, the amount of spending that’s taking place and of course that hasn’t been heeded.
The Liberal Party, the Coalition has an incredible capacity to manage the economy, to clean Labor messes. That’s historically what we’ve done and it’s what we’ll do again after we win the next election. If we work hard, we can win seats across the country. We can retain the great seat of Leichhardt, and we can do that with an incredible candidate, in Jeremy Neal, and in part because of the announcement that we make today, that has been led by Senator Susan McDonald, and we can say to people right across the north of the country, that we have a real desire, a real priority to support you.
I’m now going to ask David and Melissa to make a couple of remarks and then I’m happy to take questions.
DAVID COLEMAN:
Well, good afternoon. I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for appointing me to this role, which is a great privilege. I really want to thank Simon Birmingham. Simon Birmingham has done an extraordinary job as the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs in speaking out in Australia’s interests, in holding the Government to account. He’s a person of the highest integrity and principle. He’s done a wonderful job, he’s going to be greatly missed, and we thank him for everything he’s done, not only for the Coalition but for the country.
I believe that Australia is the greatest nation on earth and a big part of the reason why we are such a great nation is our embrace of political and democratic freedom. These are the biggest ideas in history and we should always embrace and support them. It’s so important that we work with like-minded partners around the world to share our values of democracy, of freedom: nations like the United States and so many others who are great partners of Australia. Of course, it’s also extremely important that we work across the Indo-Pacific region, working with partners to promote peace, to promote stability and prosperity right here at home in our region.
It’s also really important that we harness the great strengths of multicultural Australia. The cultural heritage of Australians touches every corner of the earth, and that’s a wonderful thing for our country, and it’s also a great asset. We can make use of those connections, of those relationships across the globe to help advance the interests of Australia. It’s something that is very important that we do, and something that we’ll certainly do under a Dutton Coalition Government.
It is a great privilege to be appointed to this role and I now look forward to taking it on.
Thank you.
MELISSA MCINTOSH:
Thank you very much. Firstly, of course, to thank Peter for this extraordinary opportunity in picking up the Shadow Portfolio in Communications. It’s great that David, who has led the charge, is here today as well. I just want to say something about the Communications Portfolio. The Albanese Labor Government, in particular the Prime Minister, has either been slow to the party or not doing anything at all comes to communications.
It was Peter – and I’m saying this as a mother first and foremost – it was Peter’s leadership ensuring that our young kids, across Australia, do you not have access to the damaging things on social media. The harm that it is causing, particularly girls, Australia-wide, it breaks my heart as a mum. I know this first-hand. I know that every single parent that drops their kids at school every day just hopes that when they come home they haven’t been subject to online bullying and content that is severely inappropriate. So, it was Peter that said that any child under 16 in this country will not be able to access any form of social media platform. What did Labor do? Not much. Eventually they said that is something that we should do – of course it is. Of course it is. Every parent thinks that.
The second thing, which we are still waiting for from the Albanese Labor Government, is in regards to gambling advertising. Peter said about two years ago now – that is two years ago – that gambling will not be played on any live sport. So, if you’re at home enjoying any form of sport, your kids shouldn’t have access to seeing gambling ads. So, Peter very quickly said under a Coalition Government that he leads, there’ll be no gambling during the watching of live sport.
The final thing I want to say on the Communications Portfolio is in regards to Labor’s terrible misinformation bill that, thankfully, because of the pressure that Peter put and the Coalition put on Labor – and pretty much every single Australian across this country – Labor wanted to censor Australians and wanted to censor free speech in this country. What makes Australia such a great democratic nation, is our ability to have free speech. Thankfully, that bill is now dead thanks to the leadership and the work of Peter Dutton and to David Coleman as well. So, I’m really pleased to take up the Shadow Portfolio in Communications.
I just want to say something about Western Sydney. I might be in Cairns today, but my heart is in Western Sydney. We’ve been taking the fight to Labor this whole term. The Albanese Labor Government cut $2 billion of infrastructure funding away from the people of Western Sydney. And then they tried to hoodwink us. They repackaged that funding and put some of it back thinking that we would be grateful. I’m so pleased that Peter has already made significant announcements around infrastructure upgrades right across Western Sydney, including a $500 million announcement, just last week in the seat of Werriwa, which will see an important Western Sydney airport road upgraded that is now faced with potholes because Labor just doesn’t care. So thank you very much, Peter. I’m looking forward to taking up the fight, of course to Western Sydney and being in Shadow Cabinet and taking up this Communications Portfolio.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Mel. Thank you very much.
Happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Let’s start on your refreshed Shadow Cabinet. Why has it taken so long to do this?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, a couple of things. Obviously, we knew that there was a reshuffle coming with the Government, with Bill Shorten essentially resigning because he can’t work with Anthony Albanese, and we wanted to see whether or not there were machinery of government changes, and we could respond after that.
It’s always difficult when you’ve got such talent, though. When you see that David and Melissa here today, Susie McDonald and others who are in the Ministry now and others who are knocking on the door, it’s a question of weighing up those priorities, and what we’ve done today is bring together a group of people, this increases the number of women in Cabinet to 11, and we have, I think, a huge opportunity to really take the fight up to a bad government.
We have to win the next election because, as you know, a minority government led by Mr Albanese, along with Adam Bandt, would be a disaster for the economy. When you look at the wrecking ball that was the Labor Party here in Queensland and if you look at what’s happening still in Victoria. Labor just can’t manage money and that’s why 27,000 small businesses have gone broke over the course of the last two and a half years. It’s why the bad times will continue on if Labor’s re-elected.
I just say to every Australian: are you better off today than you were when Mr Albanese was first elected? I haven’t found an Australian yet who can answer that with a ‘yes’ or a positive response and that’s why we need to clean Labor’s mess up and get our country back on track.
QUESTION:
On some local issues, Warren Entsch has some passion projects that he leaves behind in his retirement. We’ve got the Daintree microgrid, functioning insurance pool, Cairns Marine Precinct. Are these going to be followed up through if you are elected?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’ve been great mates with Entschy for a long period of time and, as was mentioned before by Susie, I used to work in Townsville and would come up regularly to Cairns for the weekend or to catch up with mates and I’ve holidayed here with my family. I know Cairns and the region very well. It’s a great part of the world, and in part, that’s the case because of Warren Entsch’s leadership and what he’s been able to do as a local Member, as a Minister, even back in the Howard years, and he’s been a great source of advice and friendship to me over a long period of time. So, I know of his passion for many projects and Jeremy will continue that work and that legacy and build on it. There is a lot that we want to do for the local community and we can only do that if Jeremy Neal is selected as the replacement for Warren Entsch.
As we know, Labor, whenever they get into a regional area, they do nothing. It’s not a priority for them. Under Mr Albanese, who’s been the leader of the hard left of the Labor Party for the last couple of decades, his priority in this election, which is shown every day through their policy, is to people who are Green voters or potential Green voters in inner city Sydney and Melbourne. The Prime Minister has essentially thrown his hands up and given up on working class families.
Now, the Coalition, the Liberal Party and the National Party, the LNP, we are the party for the blue collar worker going into this election. We can do more to help those families as they struggle to deal with the bills that are piling up. They just can’t see any blue sky and I want to make sure that we can have a much better future for them and for their children.
QUESTION:
The reinsurance pool targets straight to the [inaudible] of cost of living. It hasn’t really delivered any tangible results at this stage, is that something that can be fixed?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, look, we’re happy to look at ways in which we can improve any of the schemes. I think insurance is a real problem in this country at the moment. I think there are many families who have seen exponential growth in the cost of their premiums. There are businesses that we were speaking to in the Grampians the other day who just can’t get insurance and that means they can’t settle transactions when they’re buying a property or selling a property. The bank won’t extend finance facilities unless there’s an insurance premium in place to offset some of that risk if there’s a catastrophic event. It has a devastating effect, because, in the end, if those businesses aren’t viable, they’re not employing young families, and those young families aren’t able to pay their mortgages and pay their grocery bills, etc..
So, we’ll look at ways in which we can provide further support to people from Far North Queensland families and across the board, but don’t forget, when Warren Entsch first took up this fight, people were facing ridiculous premiums in relation to a townhouse or couldn’t get insurance at all. I really commend Warren for the passion that he had, and I listened to him on many occasions in relation to the insurance issues that have been a real ongoing problem in Far North Queensland. People are worried about what the weather might do over the next few days, or few months, as well and there’s a lot of things to be concerned about.
So we’ll do whatever we can to provide support to people in this part of the world.
QUESTION:
Will it be called the Department of Government Efficiency like in the US if you win Government?
PETER DUTTON:
No. It will come within, as I said before, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. I want it to have a coordinating role across government. I think there are efficiencies to be achieved in the way that the Government is delivering some of the services out of Canberra, which at the moment are clunky, and I want to make sure we’ve got more money for frontline services.
If we want more money for our paramedics and our ambulance officers, like Jeremy, and if we want more money for our hospitals and our doctors, and if we want more money to be spent on services instead of public servants in Canberra, then we have to look closely at where Labor’s built up the numbers.
Why would Labor add 36,000 public servants in Canberra when we can’t afford to put groceries on the table in this country for many families at the moment? Well it’s because they want to please the unions. I’m not interested in pleasing the unions. The unions have an important place in our society, but my priority is families that have been hurt by the Albanese Government.
I want to make sure that we can reduce and cut inefficiencies and waste so that we can deliver more frontline services.
QUESTION:
How will you be spending Australia Day? And will you be attending the National Citizenship Ceremony in Canberra?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, as I’ve done for more than 20 years now, I have a citizenship ceremony in my electorate and I’ll be attending that. Also as part of that, we have the Dickson Australia Day awards as well. It’ll be a great celebration.
I just say to all Australians, that we live in the best country in the world, and Australia Day is an opportunity to celebrate exactly that. The days of being ashamed of Australia Day in our country are over if we elect a Coalition Government. They will continue if an Albanese-Greens Government is elected, because that’s the debate that the inner city Greens want to have and that’s the debate that the Prime Minister is very sympathetic to. We are not. We respect our Indigenous culture. We have the utmost respect for people with Indigenous heritage, but whether you have somebody in your family tree who can go back 60,000 years in our country, or 60 years, or 60 days, it doesn’t matter. We’re all equal Australians and there are millions of Australians of migrant heritage, some who will live in Berrinba and here in Cairns or up in the Atherton Tableland, right across the country who came here with nothing, and we should celebrate them this Australia Day, we should celebrate the troops at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville just down the road. We should celebrate those people who have worked so hard to make our country so great.
I am incredibly proud of our country and what we’ve been able to achieve. We are the greatest country in the world. If we can change the government at the next election, we will get our country back on track and we will restore pride where, at the moment, it’s been replaced by apology and by a narrative which is just not conducive to us being our best selves. That’s why I see it as an absolute priority to protect and defend Australia Day and every day in this great country.
QUESTION:
The Prime Minister has a plan to inject $10 billion to revive Melbourne’s stalled Suburban Rail project. Do you do you back that plan?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I’d just wait and see what the Prime Minister says in the fine print here, because the Prime Minister’s promised money for infrastructure for years and years and years for Victorians and has never delivered it.
Now, the Prime Minister’s had two and a half years to deliver these projects. Nothing has happened. In fact, the Prime Minister cut billions and billions of dollars – $30 billion worth of infrastructure from the forward pipeline.
The Prime Minister promises a lot, he delivers little. That’s why the personal attacks take place, because the Prime Minister doesn’t have a good story to tell. He can’t tell you about his achievements in the last two-and-a-half years, because he’s wasted $500 million on a divisive Voice, he has wasted money on employing extra bureaucrats when he should have been helping families and small businesses, and he’s made decisions which have made it really hard for Australians to pay their grocery bill, their insurance bill, and their mortgage each week.
So we’ve got a lot of work to do to clean up Labor’s mess and we’ll invest in infrastructure, including in Victoria, but I would look at the fine print of what the Prime Minister’s announcing and we’ll have more to say about our support of infrastructure programmes which are incredibly important.
QUESTION:
Youth crime is a major issue here in the Far North, obviously. How will your government, if you’re elected, support the state government in this fight?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I want every Australian to know that we have it as an absolutely priority to make sure that we have safer communities and a safer country.
As the Home Affairs Minister and Minister for Immigration, I cancelled the visas of about 6,300 serious criminals. These are people who have committed rape or murder or been involved in drug trafficking, and when you see on the news or when you experience yourself, a home being broken into, generally, it’s to fuel a drug habit. We need to make sure that we can give the resources that are required to the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Border Force and our intelligence and national security agencies otherwise, so that we can come down hard on those criminal syndicates and networks. We do that in a way that the Labor Party can’t. As we’ve seen with the fight against anti-Semitism, the Prime Minister tries to walk both sides of the street and tell everyone what they want to hear, instead of making the hard decisions which are in our country’s best interests.
So, we will keep Australians safe and we will do whatever it takes to make sure this country is safe and secure. We have put forward a plan, as you know, to roll out uniform national laws in relation to knives. We’ve done a lot of work with the Beasley Foundation and the Beasley family to look at that model – and full marks to Premier Crisafulli who’s implemented that model. Young people shouldn’t be carrying knives. Let’s be serious about it. What on earth would justify a 15 year old carrying a hunting knife at 3 o’clock in the morning down the main street of Cairns and along the Esplanade or wherever it might be. There’s nothing that can justify that, and the laws should be in place to stop it from happening because only bad can come from it. That’s why, if we win the next election, we can clean up Labor’s mess. Labor has been so weak on law and order and crime. It wasn’t just Steven Miles and Annastacia Palaszczuk, but Anthony Albanese as well. We’ll get our country back on track by making sure we take the decisions to keep our people safe.
QUESTION:
The head of the Jewish Council of Australia has accused you of politicising the Jewish community at conference at QUT. What do you make of her comments and the cartoon on you that was shown?
PETER DUTTON:
Well what do you know about that organisation? It’s a question from Canberra, I understand, but this is a hard left wing organisation and what has taken place on the campus of the Queensland University of Technology is a disgrace.
It’s a disgrace what we’ve seen on university campuses across the country and the Prime Minister’s sat on his hands and done nothing about it. Quoting extremists is not reflective of the 99 per cent of the Jewish people in our country who would condemn that individual that you just quoted.
I think there is an absolute necessity for us to provide a country which is safe for all Australians, not to discriminate against people of Jewish faith, not to allow the racism to flourish and anti-Semitism to flourish, as the Prime Minister has. We will do, as I say, whatever it takes through the mandatory minimum sentencing that we’ve announced, through the additional support that we will provide, by way of legislation to our agencies, to stamp out anti-Semitism in our country.
Racism, anti-Semitism has no place in a country that I lead and I’ll make sure that is an absolute priority from day one.
Thank you very much.
[ends]