Source: Australia Government Statements 2
Holly Stearnes, Host: Joining me live now is Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Thistlethwaite and Nationals MP Michael McCormack. Thanks for your time today, Minister. I’ll start with you. Why didn’t the Prime Minister attend the first funeral for the victim of the Bondi terror attack? If he says he stands with the Jewish community, why wasn’t he there?
Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Foreign Affairs and Trade: Obviously we do stand with the Jewish community. I’ve lost members of the —
Stearnes: Actions speak louder than words.
Assistant Minister: Yeah, I’ve lost members of the community that I represent. Peter Meagher, a very well-respected member of Randwick Rugby Club and I attended a vigil service for him on Monday afternoon with players and officials from the rugby club. Little Matilda, the ten-year-old girl that tragically passed away, was a student of a public school in my electorate and I was there yesterday consoling the teachers, the parents and obviously the students. It’s a great tragedy and we’ll do all we can to support the Jewish community in our area. I’ve established a working party with leaders of the Jewish community, with the local police and elected representatives and we’re meeting every couple of days to do everything that we can to support that community.
Stearnes: I’ll just get, Matt, your response, Michael, sorry, rather your response to that there?
Michael McCormack, Member for Riverina: Well, he should have been at the funeral, and he should go to each and every one of the 15 funerals. This is such tragedy. And look, I respect what Matthew has just said. Matthew is a man of integrity, and he is a good person, I’ll say that. And he would be like we all are mourning for those beautiful, innocent lives lost. But what the Prime Minister also needs to do is recall Parliament. Let’s not even beat around the bush here. The Labor members, they know to use their travel entitlements, I hate to say so, for crying out loud, let’s go back to Parliament. Let’s put some good recommendations. We’ve got Jillian Segal, her 13 recommendations. Let’s discuss firearms if we need to. I don’t think the firearms laws need changing. Certainly, we do need a real time decision and between the ASIO, between AFP and between State police. We do need that register to look at that. That’s been put in place by National Cabinet. But let’s get back to Parliament for God’s sake. Even if it’s Christmas Day. Christ was a Jew after all. We owe it to the 15 beautiful people lost, we owe it to the nation, we owe it to the world. But we certainly owe it to the Jewish community.
Stearnes: Minister, I do also want to thank you for coming on to Sky News because we’ve put in numerous requests to members of your party who have not come on and won’t face our questions. So, I do acknowledge that, and I really appreciate you joining us in this tough time and I also want to reflect as well and acknowledge the loss that you’ve experienced too. But as we just heard there, we need action here. People don’t want words, they want action. When will Parliament be resumed? What changes are being made today, now?
Assistant Minister: Obviously we’re looking at a number of measures. There’s work going on through the National Cabinet on gun law reform. We appreciate that. There are a number of recommendations from the Jillian Segal report that we need to work through. Some of those have already been implemented. The changes to law enforcement actions, criminalising the use of Nazi symbols, salutes, doxing, increasing the penalties associated with that sort of stuff. Some of the educational changes around the education curriculum, the importance of teaching the Holocaust and antisemitic messages, being able to identify those and to stamp those out, and indeed the national security measures. But there are further work that’s required and there’s work going on at the moment. When the Parliament is going to sit, I can’t tell you at this stage, but we’re certainly working on bringing those measures to Parliament as quickly as possible.
Stearnes: Minister, I mean the question that many people have is, yeah, I mean, Matt, the question many people have, I’ll just jump in here Michael, can you look at the faces of the families burying their loved ones, the parents of 10 year old Matilda, and say that your government did everything in its power to eradicate antisemitism? I hear what you’re saying, we’re working on this now, why wasn’t this done months ago? This is not new, this is not a surprise.
Assistant Minister: I appreciate that people are grieving and I acknowledge that there’s a lot of anger there. From the moment after October 7 when the Parliament sat, the Prime Minister moved a very powerful and strong motion in the Parliament condemning the October 7 attack and committing our government and the people of Australia to combat and stand up to antisemitism. That was a bipartisan motion. It was seconded by Peter Dutton. Since that time we’ve worked as hard as we possibly can to try and combat and stop antisemitism, including taking actions such as those under Operation Avalite of expelling the Iranian ambassador from Australia, listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation. Locally, in my area, I’ve stood up an Operations Shelter group to work with the local Jewish community and the local police to try and protect them. All of the law reforms that we have undertaken. But we do appreciate that there is more work to do and we stand ready to do that work.
Stearnes: Michael, your response to that?
McCormack: Well, we managed to recall Parliament in December 2022, when Labor wanted to rush through its energy proposal, which obviously became legislation. So, if we can recall the Parliament for that, for Christ’s sake, surely we can recall Parliament for this. This is far too important. We have the whole nation numb. The whole nation is mourning. The whole world’s focus is on Australia right now. And if people didn’t listen to Josh Frydenberg’s powerful emotive words, then they should. And certainly around dinner tables tonight, families should get together and listen to his words, listen to that speech and adhere to those words. This is a time of national leadership and it’s about time we showed some. It’s about time something was done to help the Jewish community and to help get our nation back together and healed properly. Recall the Parliament. Do it now.
Stearnes: Minister, yeah, I mean, Minister, what do you say to that? When will Parliament be recalled? We want answers now. Why do we have to keep waiting to jump through the red tape? Why can’t anyone give us an answer to these questions? People want answers and deserve answers. Will you tighten immigration? Will you ban protests where hate has been allowed to fester, where people hold terrorist flags and chant death to the Jews? Will you sanction these hate preachers that are still operating in our country? What will your government do now? We need leadership at this time.
Assistant Minister: We’ve already acted to strengthen hate speech laws, both at a State and a Federal level —
Stearnes: They haven’t been enacted. Who has been punished for this? Who’s been sanctioned?
Assistant Minister: They have been enacted. And there have been arrests and prosecutions for antisemitic attacks in Australia —
Stearnes: Who? How many?
Assistant Minister: And there have been many prosecutions and arrests for antisemitic attacks in Australia. And I also point out, as I mentioned earlier, that our government took the very strong action of expelling the Iranian ambassador from this country, effectively shutting down their operation here in Australia, and, of course, listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation. Now, we got that advice from ASIO and we acted within hours of receiving that advice that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had been involved in antisemitic attacks in Australia. So, when we get the advice, we act as quickly as we possibly can and we understand that there is more work to do and that work is going on at the moment, and we’ll act as quickly as we possibly can to make sure that we do everything we can to keep the Jewish community and the wider community in Australia as safe as possible.
Stearnes: Matt Thistlethwaite, as I said before I do appreciate you coming on to —
McCormack: Labor members can find their way to sporting events and concerts and use travel entitlements to do so. Recall the Parliament. Now get on the phone to Anthony Albanese and tell him, implore upon him. It’s too important not to, my friend, it truly is. We need to go back. We need to discuss this. We need to show leadership to Australians, to all Australians, but particularly to Jewish Australians. Please, I’m begging you.
Assistant Minister: We’re working as quickly as we possibly can.
Stearnes: We’ll have to leave it there for today. Matt Thistlethwaite, I really appreciate both of your time. Matt Thistlethwaite, thank you for coming on to answer some tough questions. Michael McCormack as well. People want change and they want it now. Thank you both for your time.
