Subjects: Shocking UNRWA revelations of involvement in October 7 attacks; the Prime Minister’s lack of leadership; anti-Semitism; Australia’s Terrorism Threat Level.
E&OE.
LAURA JAYES:
Let’s go live now to the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, to talk to him about multiple issues. Opposition Leader, thanks so much for your time.
First of all, can I ask you for your reaction to this development we’ve just seen out of these UNWRA staff being fired by the UN because of their involvement in the October 7 attack?
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning Laura.
It’s obviously a very significant revelation, and not one that will come as a surprise to many people. It should cause the Albanese Government to reconsider their involvement, their engagement, their funding of UNWRA. It’s completely and utterly unacceptable that a UN agency would have employees involved in, or alleged to have been involved in, the October 7 tragedy.
I’d like to see more information, as I think as most Australians would because Australian taxpayers dollars are being given to these organisations with an understanding that they’re going to provide aid and support to people who are in need. If that turns out not to be the case, then I think the Government really has a lot to answer to here.
We’ve called for them before not to provide this funding through this organisation, but they’ve chosen to go with their own bad judgement.
LAURA JAYES:
This is not acceptable at any level, but UNWRA does employ thousands upon thousands of people in that conflict zone – it does important work. If it was not to be funded by countries like Australia, who would pick up that slack?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Laura, there are many ways that support can be provided, but providing it to an organisation that is discredited and has employed people, or has – I mean, we’re nine months down the track here, 10 months down the track, and if these people are still an employee, we were given assurances upfront that nobody was involved in the October 7 atrocities, and this is a complete breach of faith. I think people are rightly angry, as I say, because we’re talking about taxpayers dollars here.
LAURA JAYES:
Yeah, absolutely.
You’ve just been to Israel, you’ve met with Benjamin Netanyahu, you’ve seen the attack site for yourself. Of course, there is growing concern about this wider war and where it ends up, were you able to express your solidarity with Israel, but also, did you have any concerns about the escalation, or path on which Israel is on?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Laura, Australians had a choice to make when we saw the 9/11 attacks in the United States – a couple of thousand people lost their lives and the United States rightly went after a listed terrorist organisation, Al-Qaeda.
When Israel was attacked by a listed terrorist organisation, in Hamas – Hamas crossed the border, literally gunned down women, children; still to this day, there are over 100 people who are held captive in tunnels. Hamas hide their guns, their bombs and their victims, their hostages within populations at hospitals, around schools, within residential areas. That’s exactly what we get from terrorist organisations. We saw the treatment of women by Al-Qaeda, and they have no regard for human life whatsoever. Hamas has no regard for the life of Israelis, nor does it for the life of Palestinians.
So, I think this is a test for our country to stand up for our values. I think it’s a test for the West, and I think when we see an ally under attack, like we saw in the case of 9/11, or like we saw on the 7th of October in Israel, it’s our obligation to stand with somebody of shared values. I certainly expressed those sentiments when I was in Israel.
LAURA JAYES:
How would your Government be different to the Albanese Government in terms of support for Israel?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Laura, we would be like each of Anthony Albanese’s predecessors – both Liberal and Labor – where there has been strong support for Israel for the reasons that I’ve just outlined, but for many more. We know that we’ve received intelligence from Israel that’s thwarted terrorist attacks in our own country. I have zero tolerance for the anti-Semitic conduct that we’ve seen in our country. The Prime Minister has allowed, through his passive approach and his weak approach, for the university campus demonstrations to continue on.
So, in my Government, Israel would have a more reliable ally, the reliable ally that we were under Bob Hawke, or Paul Keating, or under Kevin Rudd, or under John Howard, or under Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott. That’s the sort of ally that we would be. The departure from that by this Prime Minister, I think has jolted Israel, and I think it has jolted the Jewish community here in Australia.
We’re talking to people who survived the Holocaust, have been here since 1945, and in 2024 feel unsafe in our country for the first time. You need to ask yourself the question, ‘why is that the case?’. It’s the case because of the way in which the Prime Minister’s had this passive, almost accepting approach to the violence that we’ve seen and the continued prolonged demonstrations on university campuses, outside electorate offices, and marches in the streets each weekend to this very day.
LAURA JAYES:
We’ve seen the war also foment tension online. We saw the terror threat raised to Probable yesterday. But there are multiple fronts now.
One of those fronts that I found most interesting has come out of Covid. There’s the conspiracy theorists, the anti-vaxxers, who are finding support in dark corners of the internet. What does this say to you about – and I know we can all be perfect in hindsight, Covid was unprecedented – but what does it say to you about government overreach, and government, essentially, controlling people’s lives and the effects that that can have?
PETER DUTTON:
Well Laura, there’s no doubt for when you speak to friends and family in Victoria, for example, there is a long tail and a huge mental impact on young people, in particular young girls. The talk of massive increases in relation to mental health needs, etc., and many families tie that back to the very significant heavy hand of Daniel Andrews with the lockdowns in Victoria.
None of that, though, should give rise to the sort of conduct that you’re referring to. I would say to anybody in our community, whether it’s within your friendship group, your family group, the work group, whatever it might be, where you see somebody’s behaviour changing, regardless of their motivation, or if they’ve changed radically their thoughts about society and government, etc., you need to report that information to ASIO, or to the Australian Federal Police as a matter of urgency. The Director-General of ASIO needs to be taken seriously when he gives his words of advice yesterday.
LAURA JAYES:
Yeah, he will, and he’ll be giving those words once again on this programme in just half an hour’s time.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, we appreciate you coming to us live from Perth today.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks very much Laura. Thank you.
[ends]