THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS
THURSDAY, 7 DECEMBER 2023
SUBJECTS: Preventative detention; Hamas-Israel conflict.
DANICA DE GIORGIO: Joining me now live is Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek. Minister, thanks for joining us. Was the way the Attorney-General spoke to Olivia Caisley appropriate yesterday?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Well, it's a very heated exchange between a passionate Attorney-General who spent his whole life defending the rule of law and a journalist who was doing her job, an excellent journalist pursuing the government to get answers. It was a heated exchange, but I think the Attorney-General saying that he's not going to apologise for upholding the rule of law is a pretty standard thing to say.
DE GIORGIO: But was it appropriate, though? I mean, it has been labelled as misogynistic. Do you think it was?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it's been labelled by Peter Dutton as misogynistic, which is pretty ironic given the sort of behaviour we see, particularly from Sussan Ley every day in Question Time. Things get pretty heated, and they are, you know, in their boots and all, when you see some of our women Ministers up at the dispatch box. So, I don't know, I think it's frankly a bit rich from their behaviour to be calling out the Attorney-General.
DE GIORGIO: So, you're comfortable with the way the Attorney-General spoke to Olivia Caisley yesterday?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I think people should speak calmly whenever they can. In public life and in politics, they should speak calmly. But what you saw was a heated exchange between an excellent Attorney-General and an excellent journalist.
DE GIORGIO: This whole detainee saga has been a real dog's breakfast from the beginning. Why is Labor still passing the buck here? Why won't the Government take responsibility for it?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we are taking responsibility. We passed laws last night that allow for preventative detention based on the high-risk terrorism offender laws that had bipartisan support under the previous government. Even as late as last night, the Opposition were trying to delay the passing of those laws. Last week, the Opposition voted against stronger laws that made it illegal, for example, for people that had been convicted of offences against children to go near schools. They voted against laws that made it illegal for people who had sexually assaulted someone to approach that victim or members of their family. I don't understand why they voted against that. As soon as the High Court made its decision, we set up a task force with Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police. We put $255 million aside to make sure that these people could be tracked, to make sure that we had the resources to keep Australians safe. As quickly as we could, we introduced laws to respond to the High Court decision. It is beyond me why the Opposition have voted against those laws or to delay those laws in each opportunity they had.
DE GIORGIO: All right, I just want to ask you one final question. I want to talk about Israel. There's a cross-party delegation that is going to Israel next week, but there are no senior Albanese Ministers in attendance. Why are senior Ministers still not putting their hand up to go to Israel? Why haven't they gone yet?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, this is a privately funded study tour and it's not really appropriate for Ministers to be accepting privately funded study tours. The Foreign Minister is in frequent contact with her counterpart in Israel and with others in the region. And the Prime Minister is in frequent contact with his counterpart and others in the region. Of course, we are in a government-to-government sense talking, not just to the government of Israel, but to other governments in the region to try and reduce the conflict and bring peace.
DE GIORGIO: Presidents and Prime Ministers from around the world have gone. Where is Australia's Prime Minister and Senior Ministers showing their solidarity in Israel?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we're in frequent contact as and you know, just two weeks ago, the opposition was criticising the Prime Minister for being out of the country too often. Now they're criticising him for not being out of the country. Doesn't really make sense, does it?
DE GIORGIO: Tanya Plibersek, we have to leave it there. Thanks for joining us this morning.
END
