Source: Australia Government Statements 2
Sally Sara, Host: Pat Conroy is the Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and Defence Industry and joins me now. Minister, welcome back to Breakfast.
Pat Conroy, Minister for Pacific Island Affairs: Thanks for having me, Sally.
Sara: You’ve just heard Shadow Frontbencher Andrew Bragg talking about the Muslim community and following up on these remarks from former Prime Minister Scott Morrison. What do you make of the comments?
Conroy: I found the entire approach really problematic and troubling. As Mel was saying to you, we’ve been very clear that these acts were committed by people who believed an extreme perversion of Islam, and to try and hold the entire Islamic community responsible for these acts, I think is anti to social cohesion. It’s incredibly unfair and it’s not a recipe for taking this country forward. We’ve passed even stronger hate laws. We would have passed vilification laws if we’d had the support of the Coalition. So, for now, for Liberal Party politicians, both former and current, it’s just incredibly hypocritical and troubling.
Sara: Were you surprised by the remarks from Scott Morrison that have been made overnight and this reaction this morning from Andrew Bragg?
Conroy: Well, Mr. Morrison is a private citizen. He’s entitled to his own views. But for Senator Bragg to essentially back them in, I think just demonstrates that the Liberal Party is incredibly divided on this issue, like they are on many issues – and they’re not focused on serving the interests of the Australian people.
Sara: What’s the Government’s message to the Muslim community?
Conroy: Our message is that you’re incredibly valued Australians. That some of the earliest people condemning the vile attacks in Bondi were leaders of our Muslim Australian community and that will continue to support their right to practice in peace – like we support the right of Jewish Australians, Christian Australians, Buddhist Australians, to pursue their religion as long as all laws are followed. And as the Prime Minister said in his remarks, these two people were adherents to an extreme perversion of Islam.
Sara: Are you confident that the new and existing laws are enough to deal with preachers who may deal in hate speech?
Conroy: Well, they are the strongest Australia’s ever seen, and I think that’s the important point. But we’ve been very clear that we would have liked to have gone further in those laws, but we did not have the support of the Parliament – and so we’ve strengthened the laws and they will obviously provide greater protections. But we were very clear that we would have liked to have gone further.
Sara: The comments that have been made by Andrew Bragg a short time ago, do you see those comments as Islamophobic in any regard?
Conroy: Oh, look, I’m not going to get into that. I’m not a commentator. But I think you and your ABC colleague were right to point out the hypocrisy and inconsistency of those comments compared to the actions of the Liberal Party last week.
Sara: Let’s move on to other issues. The Prime Minister is visiting Timor Leste. What’s the PM hoping to achieve from this trip?
Conroy: Well, he’s hoping to build on an already strong relationship with the people and Government of Timor Leste. They’re one of our closest neighbours. We’ve got incredibly strong links to the country, both through our shared history, but also through current events. We’re the biggest development partner of Timor Leste. I’ve been there looking at projects where we’re investing in the health and education of the Timor Leste people. We’re also got over 5,000 Timorese workers in our Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme. And those remittances from Timorese workers in Australia and elsewhere are the largest non-oil contributor to the Timor Leste’s economy. So, this is about strengthening our people-to-people linkages as well as our economic future together.
Sara: And what’s the broader picture here? Last year the Federal Government secured a number of significant agreements with our neighbours in the Asia Pacific, including a security treaty with Indonesia and a mutual defence treaty with Papua New Guinea. How is the Government looking to build more relationships across the Pacific this year?
Conroy: Well, this is one of our key focuses. The Pacific is critical to our future. Our prosperity and security depends upon the prosperity and security of the Pacific region and Southeast Asia, particularly places like Indonesia and Timor Leste – and we want to be the strongest partner. And that’s why you’ve seen incredibly significant diplomatic achievements, whether it’s the Treaty with Indonesia, the Alliance with PNG or the treaties with Nauru and Tuvalu. These are all part of a government that takes our foreign policy and national security responsibility seriously. We’ve been rebuilding relationships over the last three years, and Prime Minister Albanese’s visit to Timor Leste is another important step in that. He’s done a huge amount of work in the region, travelling and meeting with leaders and building those connections that are critical – and it stands in stark contrast to the sort of politicisation and sort of immature approach that the Coalition Government took when they were in power for these relationships.
Sara: Late last year, Mr. Albanese went to Vanuatu to sign a $500 million agreement. But he was unable to secure a deal in that visit. What’s the current status?
Conroy: Well, we’re still working through some of the details around that agreement, around some of the implementation arrangements, but we’ve got a great relationship with Vanuatu and we’re working hard to deepen that even further. We’re the biggest development partner to Vanuatu – we’ve got a strong security relationship there.
Sara: Is that proposed agreement dead? Is it not going to get up?
Conroy: No, we’re continuing to work through it with the Government of Vanuatu. Some of their parliamentarians had concerns around the implementation of particular aspects of it, particularly around infrastructure – and we’re working through the details to give the Vanuatu Government and the Parliament comfort about that. But this is part of our broader approach there. Our treaties, Tuvalu and Nauru, our alliance with PNG, we’ve started discussions of a treaty with Fiji – these are all about building an even stronger and closer link to the Pacific region. We’ve been very clear that we’re in a permanent state of contest for interest in the region and we intend to work very hard to be the number one partner of these countries because quite frankly, that’s what we should be doing from an economic, national security and moral point of view.
Sara: Pat Conroy, thank you for joining me this morning.
Conroy: Thank you.