Subjects: Khaled Sharrouf; citizenship; Medicare levy to fund NDIS.
E&EO…………………………………………………………………………………………..
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Peter, good morning to you.
PETER DUTTON:
Morning Karl.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
How certain are we Sharrouf and his sons were killed?
PETER DUTTON:
Well there's a high level of probability, but we just don't know. Obviously it's difficult when these sort of events occur in places like Syria and Iraq – they're war zones –and we're awaiting confirmation. As I say there's a high level of confidence, but this guy's been like a cat with nine lives. There have been reports of his demise and his death before which have been proven obviously to be wrong. So nobody will mourn his passing though I can assure you of that.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
What about his 11 and 12 year old sons, any regrets about killing his kids?
PETER DUTTON:
Well it's a terrible thing to see any child killed or targeted. It's horrific to see parents taking their children into a war zone like that. Everybody has seen the footage of young kids in that family holding up severed heads and you can only imagine what they've been indoctrinated with otherwise. So none of these situations are easy and if parents are taking kids into a war zone then frankly it's hard to imagine what other outcome they could have imagined for their children.
It's a horrific circumstance, but Sharrouf is a significant threat to our country, to our community and he would have been a significant threat had he returned to our country as well.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
The kid side of things is tricky for you. Australian intelligence led to the strike, is that right?
PETER DUTTON:
We haven't commented in relation to the intelligence as you would expect, but the Coalition – that is us working with United States and other partners – people are targeted and the reality is that we do want to defeat ISIL because we don't want that ideology spreading back to countries like ours because it results in terrorist attacks and that is not what we want obviously.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
What about his other kids? Will you let them back into the country?
PETER DUTTON:
We don't know the status of the other children and other members of the family. Obviously it is difficult to, as I say, get the intelligence out of a war zone like Syria and we'll wait to see what evidence there is in relation to where they are or their status, but at the moment we don't have that information.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay moving on. Justice Minister Michael Keenan, is he British or not?
PETER DUTTON:
He's not. He's been pretty clear again this morning. I think there's a high level of excitement within some parts of the media at the moment Karl. I think the fact is that – and Michael said this himself – he was born in Australia, his father was born in England, but Michael renounced his…any British citizenship before 2004 when he came into the Parliament. He's been very clear about that and as he said this morning, he's provided that advice already to the newspaper that ran the story this morning.
So I think cooler heads need to prevail and frankly I think Australians want us to be talking more about energy cost, the cost of living pressures on families, keeping people safe. They're the sorts of priorities that we should be concentrating on instead of being distracted by these side issues.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Can you imagine anything worse than waking up British?
PETER DUTTON:
Well my uncle was a Ten Pound Pom when he came out and we used to tease him merciless – in fact he lost a lot of his hair, I used to tease him as a kid growing up – and as it turns out he has more hair than me, so I cop it from him all the time
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I suppose waking up a Kiwi is worse...
PETER DUTTON:
Well I give this to my wife all the time because both of her parents were born in New Zealand.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Wow, aren't you a patchwork quilt. Are you sure about your heritage?
PETER DUTTON:
Mine goes back a few generations here. Kirilly thinks it's a bit dodgy, but I think its okay…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Alright, good on her. Now just finally, an important issue, Medicare levy, is it going to go through today? And what's the deal with the crossbenchers? If the rise in the Medicare levy is delayed, I mean how are you going to fund the NDIS?
PETER DUTTON:
Well we have to fund the NDIS. There's no sense pretending that we can have these programmes, but we can't pay for them. Our budget's no different to a household budget or small business budget. We need to be able to pay the bills and if the country's expectation is – which I think it is – that we should be providing support to people with disabilities, we need to pay for it.
So obviously the Treasurer and no doubt others in the Senate are negotiating at the moment, so we will wait to see, but it is designed to fund a very important programme and hopefully we can get a deal.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
British and Kiwi heritage, anything interesting there at all in your heritage?
PETER DUTTON:
Maybe back to convict at some stage…
KARL STEFANOVIC:
…Queenslander…
PETER DUTTON:
I come from Queensland.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Oh there you go, that's enough. Good on you Pete. Thanks very much.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks mate.
[ends]