SUBJECTS: Special Envoy’s Plan to Combat Antisemitism; AUKUS
JULIA BRADLEY, HOST: Welcome back. Joining me live now to discuss this big news day is Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration Matt Thistlethwaite, and Shadow Minister for Science and Cyber Security, Melissa Price. Thank you so much for joining us on Sky News. Matt, I want to start with you. This announcement this morning from the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal. A lot of points shared. What did you see as the standout measures and do you have any indication of whether the government will take immediate action on any of them?
MATT THISTLETHWAITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION: Yeah it's an important report and we thank Jillian Segal for her very detailed work. I've had a quick look at the report this morning. There's fifty very detailed recommendations that the government will work through in our normal course. Some of them involve working with the States, with our educational institutions, with the eSafety Commissioner, and we'll seek to work through those recommendations with those individuals. They also point out some of the actions that the government's already taken to combat antisemitism, the legal reforms that we've made, the changes to hate speech laws, even the fact that we already use the migration system to stop people coming to Australia who've expressed extreme antisemitic views. So, we'll continue to make sure that we do our best to keep Australians safe and that they can feel that they can practice their faith and be part of a multicultural Australia.
BRADLEY: On that border issue, it did sound like Jillian Segal was warning the government to take a tougher stance on that. She said to me a short time ago that we've got the laws in place, but it's about enforcing them.
ASSISTANT MINISTER: We do have the laws in place. Section 501 of the Migration Act allows the Minister to deny a visa or to cancel a visa if someone seeks to vilify a group within the community. And our government has done that. There have been visas that we've denied to people because they've expressed extreme antisemitic and indeed extreme Islamophobic views. So, we've used that power and we do it to ensure that we keep Australians safe and that we're not bringing in individuals that can promote discord in the Australian community.
BRADLEY: Melissa, a big focus was around universities cracking, down on people that voice antisemitic views there, possibly withholding funding. Also, Jillian Segal saying we've got to get serious about protests that get too out of hand. And we saw that in Melbourne over the weekend. What did you make of the measures announced?
MELISSA PRICE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: I mean, imagine being one of those families in that restaurant or in a synagogue when those attacks happened over the weekend. Can you imagine that? How traumatic that must have been? Worried about your children, what was going to happen next. So, I think the Jewish community has been rightly to criticise the current government and has been concerned that we've had just a lot of talking and understandably so when an antisemitic attack happens, we all come out, we all get in the media and we talk about how terrible it is and how we need to do something. And I think it is high time that there is some action taken and so that our Jewish community can feel safe. At the moment, they don't feel safe, whether they're at school, university, going to the synagogue, going about their business, practising their faith. All the things that we expect all Australians should be able to do without being subjected to some sort of attack. So, welcome, the Coalition welcomes the report today. Let's hope it's not a report that sits on a shelf. The Prime Minister should listen to the Special Envoy. He recruited her, he appointed her, so please take her seriously. And I think we need to get to the point where we have action and that our Jewish community can finally feel safe again.
BRADLEY: Matt, the Federal Government's been criticised for a long time for being too slow to act on this issue compared with leaders like the Premier here in NSW, Chris Minns, at least in terms of rhetoric, getting out on the front foot after those large scale incidents. Have there been. Has there been a slow response here?
ASSISTANT MINISTER: No, I completely reject that. And going to the point that Melissa made. Those attacks on the weekend in Melbourne were insidious and the important thing is that the perpetrators were caught. And the perpetrators were caught because we were able to use CCTV footage that was installed as a result of some funding that was provided by the Albanese Government for the Jewish community to upgrade their safety. The patrons were kept safe because the door to the premises was reinforced. That reinforcement came about as a result of funding that was provided by the Albanese Government around safety. So, Melissa talks about action. There's action. There's the Albanese Government taking action to keep Australia's Jewish community safe. And we've acted as quickly as we possibly could through close to $70 million dollars worth of funding, changes to laws, to keep people safe.
BRADLEY: Well, hopefully those recommendations get adopted too today. On another matter, just quickly, Matt. We hear reports that the price of AUKUS submarines may go up as a result of this US review. We could be made to commit them to help the US at the event there's a conflict over Taiwan. Does this make the Prime Minister's upcoming trip to China pretty awkward?
ASSISTANT MINISTER: Look, that's speculation in a particular media outlet. We're confident that AUKUS remains strong and will be maintained. Obviously, the US Is undertaking a review, as the United Kingdom recently did. But as a result of the United Kingdom's review, they've agreed to move into AUKUS even stronger and committed to it. And I'd also like to point out that the defence relationship between Australia and the United States has never been stronger. At the moment you've got the annual rotation of US Marines through the north of Australia, their three month training exercise that they do in conjunction with the Australian Defence Force, record numbers of marines, record numbers of equipment and hardware that's being deployed to Australia in cooperation with the Australian Defence Force. In another week's time, Operation Talisman Sabre starts where we exercise together with the United States and other allies. So, if you look at what's actually going on on the ground between our defence forces, the relationship's never been stronger.
BRADLEY: We're about to run out of time. But Melissa, just quickly, former US official Jennifer White. She says the only card Australia might be able to play here to try and stave off these threats is increased defence spending. Should we be open to this?
PRICE: Well, the Coalition went to the last election with a 3% GDP defence spend. But I do want to make the point on AUKUS. There's a lot of talk about what the cost might be. But 2027, the expectation is, then we will have US and UK nuclear powered submarines almost based in Western Australia. That's only two years away. If we don't get this right, if our Australian government doesn't put its shoulder to the wheel together with the state government in Western Australia and get that part of AUKUS right, that is the first step, then we can almost kiss goodbye having our own fleet of nuclear powered submarines. This is a test and that's what I would like our government, our Defence Minister and our Defence Industry Minister to focus on now.
BRADLEY: Matt, Melissa, thank you for your time.
