Prime Minister, welcome to NewsRadio.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Sarah.
MORICE: The first of the funerals, Prime Minister, gets underway today. Will you be going to any of them?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this will be terribly sad, and family members and the community will be farewelling their loved ones - today it begins. I've been meeting with the Jewish community, including those who have lost loved ones in this antisemitic terror attack. I've been to homes, last night we hosted at Admiralty House, the Governor-General hosted leaders of the Jewish community, including members who had lost loved ones. And it is a very, very sad time, and today will be a very difficult day. And my thoughts and the thoughts of all Australians are with those farewelling their loved ones today.
MORICE: So your thoughts are with them but you won't be with them in person?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I would attend anything that I'm invited to. These are funerals that are taking place to farewell people's loved ones.
MORICE: Prime Minister, there has been criticism and it is ramping up this week of the way the Federal Government has handled incidents of antisemitism in Australia over the past couple of years. This is what the former Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.
JOHN HOWARD, FORMER PRIME MINISTER: Not enough has been done by those who command authority and respect in our society to prevent, cauterise and denounce the spread of antisemitism.
MORICE: Now, he's not the only one saying that. The Antisemitism Envoy said there were high profile moments where the government messaging was insufficient. Prime Minister, with the benefit of hindsight, is there anything you wish you'd done differently over the past few years to deal with antisemitism?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course you can always do more. But in the very morning after the October 7th attack, I was on the Insiders program denouncing the attack, defending the right of Israel to defend itself. We went into the parliament and carried a bipartisan resolution that I think has stood the test of time. On the Monday, the day after the attack, where the Opera House demonstration took place - I did - media called for it to not go ahead, I condemned that demonstration before and after it occurred. We've been working through these issues. We have appointed the first ever Antisemitism Envoy, and Jillian Segal has been doing great work. We've strengthened legislation to address antisemitism and hateful conduct - criminalised hate speech, advocating violence, criminalising doxing, a landmark ban on the Nazi salute and hate symbols. We've strengthened institutional accountability and university reform. There's a review of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act has commenced. We've appointed the first National Student Ombudsman, it was established on the 1st of February with strong investigative powers. We're working with the Envoy as well to produce a report card that will be produced on universities for what they've done. We're funding to expand the social cohesion work of Together for Humanity in schools. We've enhanced protection of Jewish communities. We've reviewed and strengthened migration and citizenship matters and some very public deportations recently or denial of visas as well for people who've engaged in extremist rhetoric. And we've supported Jewish communities, cultural and social life, including committing $18 million to the Jewish Arts Quarter in Melbourne, funding for upgrades to the Sydney Jewish Museum, to establish a national Holocaust Education Centre in Canberra. There's more to do -
MORICE: There's a long list of things here, Prime Minister, there is no doubt. One of the things, though, you haven't done is tell us exactly what plans and recommendations within the antisemitism envoy's report that you do actually endorse.
PRIME MINISTER: I just did that. I just did that.
MORICE: So you've been through absolutely everything there. Are you fully endorsing all of it? Is that what you're saying? You're endorsing the entire report and all the recommendations?
PRIME MINISTER: I just did that. This isn't a set and forget report. What this is, is a report that will continually be worked on, that will evolve as well. We're working with the antisemitism Envoy, I meet with her regularly. We've established that office and we will continue to work through these issues. Antisemitism has been around tragically for a very long period of time. We need to continue to work on the plan to combat antisemitism. It will evolve over time, clearly, and the events of this week will have an impact as well. We need to make sure that we work right across education and promotion of the history and where antisemitism leads.
MORICE: Prime Minister, I guess we have heard what you've done here and you've given us that long list and we've been talking about education for a long time. But you mentioned there the events of this week and every day we are learning more and more about the alleged gunmen in this attack. The younger of them, Naveed Akram, long standing links to Australia's pro-Islamic State network. Now, it's been revealed that last month he and his father underwent military style training in the southern Philippines, an area long considered a nursery for ground for extremism. How did this escape the radar of our intelligence services?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, to be accurate, which is important we speak about facts. What you have actually learned is that they visited the Philippines. That is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the appropriate authorities and that information was made public so that the full transparency would be there. But that's the subject of ongoing investigation.
MORICE: The ABC has heard from an investigator within the Australian Joint Counter Terrorism Team that they believe that the gunman did undergo military style training. Of course, we've also learned though that neither of them were on a terror watch list, which you have pointed out a number of times this week. But, of course, the father of this pair, he did get a gun licence quite legally, even though that gun licence came four years after his son came to the attention of ASIO. We're wondering, do the people who issue gun licences check with ASIO if potential applicants live with or are related to people who've raised red flags with intelligence agencies in the past? And if they don't, why don't they?
PRIME MINISTER: And that's precisely why on Monday, one of the issues that will be examined is whether criminal intelligence can be accessed by state and territory governments over the issue of gun licences. You have a federal body, ASIO, and one that deals with international issues, ASIS. Licences are issued by state authorities and we need to examine the way that the system works, any flaws in it, and fix it. That's precisely why I called National Cabinet together on Monday.
MORICE: So has our intelligence systems, have they let us down here? Have they missed something?
PRIME MINISTER: Well quite clearly, quite clearly it has, there have been real issues. We need to examine exactly the way that systems work. We need to look back at what happened in 2019 when this person was looked at, the assessment that was made. We need to look at the way the Commonwealth and State agencies interact and we need to make any adjustments that are necessary to the way that our intelligence, security agencies, police agencies, all interact with each other. The National Cabinet was bringing together Premiers and Chief Ministers to do just that.
MORICE: Moving on to the next issue that seems to have got a lot of airtime this week and that is the dealing of gun licences. And in the wake of the attack on Sunday, you have announced an intention to tighten gun laws. Some people are cynical of your motive, I know the former Prime Minister, John Howard, is one of those. Yesterday he said he doesn't want this debate to be used as a pretext to avoid the greater debate about antisemitism. He's probably not alone in that thought, Prime Minister. How do you respond to that?
PRIME MINISTER: I respond to that by saying that the NSW Premier, Chris Minns, announced at a press conference on Monday a tightening of gun laws. Gun laws are only as strong in Australia as the weakest state gun laws because they are implemented by state and territory governments. Therefore, common sense tells you that we need a national approach, which is why state and territory leaders were brought together to do that. That is just one issue that is being dealt with. Premier Minns has said he'll bring the NSW Parliament back early if it is possible to do so, to strengthen gun laws in New South Wales. But what we don't want is gun laws in NSW that are stronger than gun laws in the surrounding jurisdictions because that will lead to gaps in the system. One of the things that my government has done at the end of 2023 is to have the first ever National Firearms Register. Now, we provided more than $160 million to do that with more than $100 million granted to states who in many cases still have paper records of their licences. Now, if you have a paper record, you obviously can't, without digitisation, check across state boundaries. And that arose precisely from the murder of the two police officers in Queensland by one of the sovereign citizen motivated people there, that tragic occurrence. And at that time it was agreed by the National Cabinet in the last meeting of 2023 to do that. I don't want there to be gaps in the system, which is why I want to see that occur. Now, that isn't a substitute for action on antisemitism. There's a common sense position that we shouldn't allow just New South Wales to act alone.
MORICE: I know that David Littleproud, the Nationals leader, has said what we saw on the weekend isn't the result of a gun problem. It's the result of an ideology problem. By talking about the guns, are we deflecting from the ideology problem we have?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, you're the one raising the question about the guns, with respect. I've spoken about the ideological problem. This was ISIS inspired extremist ideology leading to a terrorist act that has resulted in tragic consequences for the Jewish community in Sydney with an attack taking place at an iconic destination. I have made that front and centre. That is the main issue here. But we can't get around the fact that also the fact that a fellow was able to get a gun licence, have six guns, four of which were used in this attack, someone living in the suburbs of Sydney in Bonnyrigg.
MORICE: Prime Minister, we appreciate your time on what has been a dark week for Australia. Thank you for joining us on NewsRadio.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Sarah.
