THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
AM AGENDA WITH LAURA JAYES
THURSDAY, 30 JANUARY 2025
SUBJECTS: ANTISEMITISM
LAURA JAYES, HOST: Let's go to Member for Sydney, Minister Tanya Plibersek, now. Thanks so much for standing by. It was an important media conference to exhaust and get all the questions and the most fulsome answers we possibly can. But what do you think about the police and the Premier's response here? And what do you say to the Jewish community this morning when they thought the worst of it perhaps was the burning down of a childcare centre in Maroubra? Now a caravan of explosives and the fact that there wasn't a detonator in this caravan, Tanya, will be very cold comfort this morning.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Look, of course it is alarming for the whole Australian community to see the discovery of these explosives and most particularly for the Jewish community. I was at a commemoration of 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz last night at the Great Synagogue, and there's no starker reminder of what happens when antisemitism runs unchecked than thinking back on the Holocaust.
That's why we support the work of the NSW Government and the NSW Police. It's why we're working so closely with them, with the Australian Federal Police setting up Operation Avalite. It's why we've put an extra $50 million into protecting synagogues and Jewish schools. It's why we've criminalised the Nazi salute, it's why we've criminalised doxxing, it's why we've got stronger hate speech laws before the Parliament at the moment. We're very hopeful that the whole Parliament will vote for those hate speech laws. I mean, when Peter Dutton was the previous Home Affairs Minister, he didn't criminalise the Nazi salute, he didn't criminalise doxxing. In fact, he voted against the criminalising of doxxing just months ago. And he was one of the main voices arguing for weakened protections against hate speech with Section 18C of the Race Discrimination Act. I really do think this is a time for both major parties, the whole of the Australian community, to make it very clear that anti-Semitism is completely unacceptable in Australia, that we will give the police all the support they need and all the resources they need to hunt these people down.
The final thing I'd say about this, Laura, in my electorate, the Newtown Synagogue was vandalised, as you know, and I was very grateful to the NSW Police who found two people, made two arrests very quickly within about a week of that happening. I think it is very important to support the police in their work and it makes perfect sense that some of those investigations have to occur without, you know, providing daily updates to the public about where the investigations are. If you're tracking down criminals, your job is to track down those criminals. And some of that has to happen in a way that's confidential so that you can catch them. That makes perfect sense to me.
JAYES: Yeah, it does and it will make perfect sense for many of our viewers. But many of our viewers also are Jewish and they are feeling at the moment. They're going through their day-to-day lives and they have an inordinate amount of fear and it is not unfounded. What do you say to them? What should they do?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I agree, I agree with you.
JAYES: Should they be comforted by these covert policing arrangements?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I am not surprised that people are frightened and particularly people who have an understanding of the horrific toll that antisemitism has taken in history. Millions of lives lost during the Holocaust. Six million lives lost. You know, that stain has carried through subsequent decades. No wonder people are frightened. We know what happens when antisemitism runs unchecked in a community.
But what I do want to say to people is that no effort will be left undone by our government and by the other levels of government as well that we are working closely with. We are supporting our police, and our security and intelligence organisations to chase down, arrest and prosecute every criminal involved in this because we are determined that the Australian community will be safe for everyone. For everyone.
JAYES: Members of the Jewish community don't feel supported by Labor. They seem to be, you know, more supportive of Peter Dutton and the strong statements he has made publicly in recent months. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course, and this is not directed at you personally, but is there now some regret within Labor that perhaps you should have acted more strongly when these antisemitic attacks first started to happen 15 months ago? Should you have taken it more seriously? Should you have had more foresight into just the threat of fear that would run through this community?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I guess I would urge people not to have a look at what Peter Dutton is now saying, but what he has done. So, when he was the Home Affairs Minister for four years, he was part of a government that argued to weaken hate speech laws in this country. He could have banned the Nazi salute, as we have done. He could have banned doxxing, as we have done. We've also, as I mentioned, put $50 million into upgrading security for schools, synagogues and other Jewish buildings. Look at what we have done. Operation Avalite with the Australian Federal Police. At every stage, we have given our security and intelligence organisations the powers and the resources they need to combat antisemitism.
I think, you know, it would be a really good sign if Peter Dutton now made clear that he will also vote to strengthen laws against hate speech in Australia. Those laws are before our Parliament. It would be very good to see that he will be voting for those in a bipartisan way, because this is a time when the Jewish community doesn't need to see people trying to make political profit out of this, but sees our major parties, in particular, coming together to say all of us, all of us, find this upswing in antisemitism horrifying and completely unacceptable.
And Laura, the final thing I'd say is there's not one view in the Jewish community. We've got a lot of, you know, members and supporters who are Jewish and they know the long history that the Labor Party has in combating antisemitism. This is not something that we've started doing in the last six months or the last two years. This is something that for decades Labor has been 100 per cent clear of. We find antisemitism and any kind of bigotry completely unacceptable.
JAYES: Yeah, you're right. They're not one homogenous group and there are varying views. But I would, if I could put, you know, a blanket statement out there, and that's to say I think there is a majority of members of the Jewish community that wanted to feel more supported, perhaps wanted stronger words of support, not just actions, from the Prime Minister himself. Do you think there's an opportunity for Anthony Albanese to put stronger statements out there and tell the Jewish people that they are supported?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I think the Prime Minister has been very strong on this. Just a few months ago I was with him at the Jewish Museum, which is in my electorate, and we were announcing an $8 million funding boost to make sure that more people can understand the history of the Holocaust in Australia and understand - I mean, the other thing the Jewish Museum does is explain what an incredible contribution, a strong contribution Jews have made to Australian life in so many different fields. But actually helping more people understand what happened during the Holocaust and the impact that that has had is a really important part of combating antisemitism as well.
It continues to shock me how many people don't know the history of the Holocaust. It shocks me that there is - and this isn't just young people, this is, you know, all ages seem to have missed the fact that there was industrial scale murder in Europe of more than 6 million people during the Second World War. And somehow that's been brushed from history. And Colin Tatz, who is an amazing academic who worked very closely with the Holocaust Museum, made a really important point. He said this didn't come down from outer space with Hitler in the 1930s, antisemitism has existed in our societies for hundreds of years. And so, it is so vital that as governors, we stand together, the three levels of government across the political spectrum. We say with one voice, this will not be tolerated in Australia. Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Australia. We will strengthen our laws. We will resource our police and security agencies to make sure that we stamp this out and the criminals that are behind it will be caught and they will be prosecuted.
JAYES: Minister, what you just said there is incredibly articulate and powerful and I would say, it’s been better put by you in just those few minutes this morning than the Prime Minister or any other senior minister this morning. Do you think you get it, perhaps more than some others do?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Oh, Laura, I think we've spoken as one voice as a government, and we've spoken as one voice with the NSW Government saying that we will not tolerate this behaviour.
JAYES: Thanks so much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it. We'll speak again soon.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thank you, Laura.
END
