January 30, 2025
CHRIS KENNY: Now, the New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, who you just saw, said yesterday when he was told about the caravan and explosives discovery, and he said he was told about it the day after police found it 11 days ago now. But the Prime Minister has refused to say when he was briefed.
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ANTHONY ALBANESE: I get briefed regularly by the national security agencies. We don't talk about operational matters. Obviously.
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KENNY: That's a strange response, and I sought reaction from Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson.
JAMES PATERSON: Well, there's no good reason not to give that answer, Chris. When Chris Minns was asked the same question at his press conference last night, he directly answered the question, and he said that he was briefed by the New South Wales Police the next day. So the question is, given that we know that the AFP was engaged, given that we know that this is a joint counter-terrorism operation, when was the Prime Minister briefed? Was he briefed on the same day as Chris Minns? And if so, what action did he take in response to this? Did he convene a National Security Committee of Cabinet? What measures did they put in place to protect the Jewish community and all Australians? What reassurance did that provide the Jewish community based on their knowledge of this incident? Or if in fact he was not briefed, then we need to understand why. Because if the New South Wales Premier knows that the Prime Minister should surely know.
KENNY: Yeah, it is intriguing and we'll wait and find out more about that. I am fairly intrigued also by the attitude of the Federal Labor government to what's happened. I think that's been betrayed a bit today by a comment repeated three times by the Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. He says that this latest episode shows that the fears of Jewish Australians are not always unfounded. Is he saying that the fears are often unfounded?
PATERSON: I think, Chris, that's the only interpretation that you can make from those comments. If someone's fears are not always unfounded, then at the very least, sometimes their fears are unfounded. And did it really take an incident as bad as this for Jim Chalmers to realise that the Jewish community had very good reason to be concerned? Wasn't the firebombing of a childcare centre enough? Wasn't the firebombing of a synagogue enough? Wasn't the firebombing and graffiti of cars and houses enough? Wasn't all the threats of violence and chants of death to Israel and the Jewish community? Wasn't the waving of the flags of listed terrorist organisation, weren't all those things enough to have well-founded fears? I think this is an extraordinary slip-up by the Treasurer and he should do the decent thing and say that he misspoke if indeed he did misspeak.
KENNY: Well, it's sickening and it's deeply worrying. You could go back to October the 8th and say we had Islamists on the streets of Lakemba in Sydney celebrating the atrocities as a day of triumph in Australia. Why would your fears not be fully founded on that very day more than 15 months ago? Now, I've been very critical of the Government for its lack of rhetoric. They haven't pushed back against this stuff hard enough since October the 8th, since the day afterwards, back in 2023. I don't know how they catch up on that, but is there anything else they need to be doing now when it comes to police action, security action or, indeed, new laws?
PATERSON: I think there's plenty of things that they could do and should still do. But I agree, I'm not sure this government is going to do it. Here's a couple of ideas that we provided for them that they've not taken up. Mandatory minimum sentences for Commonwealth terrorist offences of at least six years would send a strong message of deterrence to these people. It would also keep them off the streets to protect the community and give a sense of justice to the victims of these attacks. They could also have mandatory minimum sentences for the public display of listed symbols, symbols of listed terrorist organisations, because people are behaving with impunity in relation to that. They could make sure that state and federal police and our national security agencies are working seamlessly together. They could fix our federal anti-incitement legislation, which had a bill before the Parliament last year that would have gone some way to remedying it. And the Opposition offered our support to facilitate it, but no passage of that legislation was sought. That's just a couple of suggestions that we've made. I can keep going though. They could actually deport some of the people who are on visas and engage in this rhetoric. There's just so much that needs to be done, Chris.
KENNY: Yeah, absolutely. Look, a lot of this hatred, the antisemitism we've seen, the rising tide of it now for more than 15 months. A lot of it cannot be divorced from the political debate. Now, surely, in this country, people should be able to debate the Middle East issue. You can criticise Israel, I think around the margins, I suppose, as to how it defends itself. But when you have so much political rhetoric and so much protest action, I suppose, uncorrected or uncriticised, that portrays Israel as the aggressor, that fails to call out the Islamist terrorist aspect of Hamas and portrays them instead as freedom fighters. Then it's little wonder the hatred towards Jewish Australians builds up. And I think this is where Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong and others have been absolutely absent without leave.
PATERSON: I completely agree with you, Chris. The Albanese Government has not only been weak and ineffectual in their response to the domestic antisemitism crisis, but in some ways, they've contributed to it and fuelled it by their own behaviour and their own actions. Let's remember that the Prime Minister implied that Israel deliberately murdered an Australian aid worker, Zomi Frankcom, when it subsequently turned out to be just a terrible mistake, a tragedy that shouldn't have happened, but not a deliberate murder. The Foreign Minister compared Israel to authoritarian states like China and Russia. Our Home Affairs Minister, our Education Minister and our Industry Minister have basically been running their own personal foreign policy, and they've repeatedly accused Israel of being guilty of genocide or other crimes against humanity, including collective punishment. It is no wonder, then, when we know that antisemites draw no distinction between the state of Israel and the Jewish community here in Australia, that they have been emboldened. They've been emboldened on this government's watch because of this government's actions.
KENNY: And indeed, this is something that the Israeli Government has pointed out itself.
PATERSON: Exactly right. And bilateral relations between Australia and Israel have never been at a lower point than they are today. And that's a problem for all Australians because Israel is our most important intelligence partner outside the Five Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement they provided actionable intelligence on multiple occasions, which has prevented attacks on Australian soldiers in the Middle East and domestic terrorist attacks here. And we want that relationship to be strong. But it's been trashed on this government's watch, not least of which by our votes for extreme one sided anti-Israel motions at the United Nations.
KENNY: Very worrying times. James Paterson, thanks so much for joining us.
PATERSON: Thank you, Chris.
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