THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS
THURSDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2023
SUBJECTS: HAMAS-ISRAEL CONFLICT, QANTAS REPATRIATION FLIGHTS.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Well, joining us live now is the Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek. Tanya, appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us, as always. I do have to start with one of your staffers, Will Simmons. He is reported to have attended a pro-Palestinian rally on Monday night. Did that happen and did he go with your approval?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, he certainly didn't go with my approval. He is a uni student who works two days a week in my office. He went to the rally. As soon as I found out, I rang him and told him he shouldn't have gone. He knows he shouldn't have gone. He's very sorry that he went. And I have to be very clear, there is absolutely no justification for the scenes we saw at those rallies in Sydney and in Melbourne with people celebrating the horror that we're seeing in Israel at the moment. It absolutely goes without saying. I watch those scenes unfolding in Israel, you know, kids at a music festival being slaughtered. The idea that anyone in Australia would celebrate that is just disgusting.
STEFANOVIC: Will Will be kept on staff, Tanya?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Oh, look, he knows he did the wrong thing. He absolutely understands that he did the wrong thing. Like many people, he is concerned about civilians in Gaza. There's a lot of kids there. But going to rallies that are hijacked, that have regularly been hijacked by bigots, anti-Semites, fascists, is not the right way to express that concern.
STEFANOVIC: But will he be kept on staff?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, he knows he did the wrong thing and he's apologised. I'm not planning to remove him from my staff. He works a couple of days a week in the electorate office. He's a 22-year-old uni student who made a mistake. He is the first to acknowledge that it's a mistake and he shouldn't have been there. I made it very clear to him that he shouldn't have gone. And he accepts that.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. There are plans for another Palestinian rally this weekend in the city of Sydney. Should it go ahead?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think it's important that the NSW Government, the police force, have said that they will not tolerate any repeat of the sort of scenes that we saw earlier in the week outside the Opera House. I think it's completely appropriate for the police to be looking for ways to prevent a repeat of those awful celebrations of slaughter. I certainly wouldn't be attending anything like that. You know, like I say, there are people who want to express that they are worried about civilians in Gaza. Hamas isn't worried about civilians in Gaza, but I know that Australians are worried about the fact it's a very young population, lots of kids there and so on. There are better ways to express that concern than going to these rallies on the weekend.
STEFANOVIC: You would have seen the pictures of the vigil in the eastern suburbs of Sydney last night, Tanya. I mean, there was a heavy, heavy police presence. You've got parts of the Jewish community at the moment that are too scared to go outside. You've got added security at schools, added security at places of worship. I mean, what has the city come to?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, it's truly shocking. And I know that there are a lot of Jewish parents who are worried about their kids going to school. Friends have told me that they're keeping their kids home. It is a terrible thing that this sort of threat would be played out here in Australia. And I really have to say that the sort of chants and behaviour that we saw from some people at the protests outside the Opera House, they have no place in Australia. And the contrast is the sombre reflection that you saw in Dover Heights. Completely appropriate expression of the deep grief and shock that people in Australia are feeling about the Hamas attack on Israel.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, they're absolutely awful. Just finally, Tanya, these repatriation flights, Qantas has got two of them going into Tel Aviv tomorrow night. British Airways has had to turn back from Tel Aviv. KLM now says it's too dangerous for its repatriation flights. So, would it not be better for Australia to send a military plane instead of a commercial airliner?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I know that the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Defence Minister and others are constantly monitoring the situation in Israel at the moment. Our first responsibility is to help Australians who are caught up in the conflict. We have obviously had discussions with Qantas about those flights that were scheduled on Friday, and we'll continue to monitor the situation closely.
STEFANOVIC: I remember Qantas doing those repatriation flights out of Egypt and the Arab Spring a long time ago. So, I mean, obviously, there's form there. They are able to do them in a hot zone. So, do you have any concerns about Qantas going into Tel Aviv this time and not needing military flights at this stage?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I'm not going to speculate about this. The best thing we can do is take the advice of our defence personnel and our intelligence specialists and make a decision that keeps Australians safe. That will always be our Government's top priority.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. That's Tanya Plibersek coming to us from Melbourne. Appreciate your time, Tanya. We'll talk to you again soon.
END
