THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
AM AGENDA WITH LAURA JAYES
THURSDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2025
SUBJECTS: GOVERNMENT ACTION ON ANTISEMITISM, NUCLEAR POWER.
LAURA JAYES: Welcome back. Well, two nurses have been stood down and now there is a police investigation into this antisemitic rant at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney.
Joining me now is the Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Tanya, thanks so much for your time. We know there’s a police investigation. We’ve heard some very strong words from Chris Minns and the Health Minister saying these two people will never work in the health system again. But I think there’s a lot of members of the Jewish Israeli community at the moment that think if it’s these two nurses who have such strong views, how many others in the health system might share those views. What should be done to allay their concerns?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, I think the New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and the Health Minister Ryan Park have acted swiftly and decisively, and I think it’s completely appropriate to say that these people have no place in the New South Wales health system. The sort of rants that we saw, completely grotesque – to think that anybody would say or think such things, but particularly offensive coming from health professionals who are trained to and paid to care for people.
I guess one of the things that should reassure patients is how quickly the New South Wales government has acted and how quickly the nurses – the Nurses Union have come out and said this has no place in our profession, this is offensive to all of us. I believe there’s a rally on today. I know that this will be shocking for the vast majority of – well, for every normal nurse and health professional to see this sort of rhetoric. It is completely unacceptable.
JAYES: It just shows that some people keep their views private. This was, I think, almost a lucky find. This is from an Israeli influencer who posted it on his social media. What should be done to weed anyone out of the health system or, indeed, the public system at all, who share these views? Who do we need to accept that – you just can’t do that, there’s always going to be that risk?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, I don’t think you have to accept that at all. I think it’s really important that we continue to say in one united voice as Australians that this sort of hate speech is completely unacceptable. It’s completely unacceptable in Australia. And I think, you know, you asked earlier, Laura, should the Jewish community be afraid. I’m not surprised that many people in the Jewish community are afraid when they see this sort of rhetoric coming from health professionals. We have to, in every instance stand up, speak up and say this rhetoric has no place in Australia and we will use the full force of the law against people who engage in hate speech like this.
And that’s why we have as a government, banned the display of Nazi symbols. It’s why we’ve criminalised doxing. It’s why we’re working with police at federal and state levels with Operation Avalite. It’s why we’ve put extra money into protecting schools and synagogues and $100 million extra into countering violent extremism. We have to do whatever we can, different levels of government working together but, most importantly as well, Laura, I think the whole of the Australian community saying this will not stand in Australia, this sort of hate speech will not stand.
JAYES: There has been some view in the Jewish community that this type of antisemitism has been allowed to flourish – notwithstanding all of the measures that you’ve just been through that this government has implemented – but the way the Labor government and the Israeli government’s relationship has fallen apart and, you know, the way Australia has voted in the United Nations, that that all has a feedback loop that gives a message to both the Jewish and anti-Jewish community. Do you accept that?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, no, I don’t accept that, Laura, because we have always been strong defenders of laws and strong measures to prevent this sort of hate speech. When the previous Liberal government tried to weaken section 18C of the Race Discrimination Act to make hate speech easier, we had an Attorney General at the time who said people have got a right to be a bigot, you know, the frontbench now – Peter Dutton and others – were voting for and supporting the weakening of hate speech laws under the previous government. We stood up against that and we stopped it.
Since coming to government we’ve criminalised the display of Nazi symbols and we’ve criminalised doxing, again, something that Liberals voted against. So people should not look for, you know, what people say about this; they should look at what parties have done. In every instance where we’ve had the opportunity of strengthening laws against hate speech, we’ve taken that opportunity. And we’ve invested, as I said earlier, in giving police the resources they need to discover this sort of racist, antisemitic rhetoric and pursue and prosecute the people who are engaging in it. Look at what people do. We have been strong on this.
JAYES: Yeah, I think the point is made, though, that, yes, that’s all well and good, what is being done here, but it’s what is further afield than that, a bigger, meta message and, you know, as simple as voting the way Australia has voted in the UN. Do you think that has any affect, or do you accept that it does?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, just to be clear on our UN voting record, we’ve continued the votes that Australia has taken even under the time of John Howard and we’ve voted with the majority of other countries. Our essential position is that there should be a two-state solution. Some people find that controversial, but we believe that Israel has the right to exist behind strong internationally recognised borders but that the Palestinian people have the right to hope for a state of their own one day. That’s what a two-state solution means. And our position on that hasn’t changed in many, many years.
JAYES: Okay, let me ask you about two areas in your portfolio. I’ll get to paper straws in a moment, but first I wanted to ask you about nuclear and the huge amounts of water that it uses. Do you think that matters given nuclear is clean?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, water matters a lot. I mean, we’re the driest inhabited continent on earth. Nuclear uses 40 per cent more water than coal. Peter Dutton is saying he’s going to generate more power on the coal-fired power station sites that he’s selected for his nuclear reactors. So on his own numbers we would need three times as much water as is currently being used on those coal-fired power generation sites. Basically what that means is an extra Sydney Harbour’s worth of water every year. And what we’ve seen in Europe on those dry years are reactors having to scale down their electricity production during drought and hot years because the water is just not available. Where would the extra water come from? Do we take it from agriculture? Do we take it from industry?
JAYES: Yeah, right.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Do we take it from drinking water? Do we take it from the environment? This is just one more unanswered question from Peter Dutton about this nuclear plan, which essentially is really a plan just to keep coal going longer and put an extra 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution into the atmosphere. It’s more expensive. It will take forever, if it’s ever built. The states don’t want it, and now we’ve looked at the water use, we know that we don’t actually have the water for his plan either.
JAYES: Yeah. All right. Just quickly- paper straws. Do you like them?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Like, honestly, Laura, some people need a straw to drink because they’ve got limited use of their hands or they’ve got some other health condition. I just like drinking out of a glass. If you do need a straw, of course it’s preferable to have something that’s not going to live in landfill or end up in our waterways for decades or centuries to come.
JAYES: Well, you're very low maintenance. You don’t need a straw. I prefer one. I don’t like the paper ones. But I’ve seen a pasta straw, so I’m just going to leave that there and I want someone enterprising to start making them here in Australia. Tanya Plibersek –
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Honestly, there’s some great new ones. There’s all sorts of, you know, cornstarch and so on that actually do biodegrade that are a bit tougher than the paper straws. If you really need a straw.
JAYES: Well, bring it on. Or just remain low maintenance like Tanya Plibersek. Thanks so much for your time. We’ll see you soon.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thanks, Laura.
END
