: The Prime Minister of Australia joins us. Mr. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Welcome to Triple M.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good to talk with you, Anthony. Although it is a difficult time that Australians are going through and that the Jewish community in particular is going through.
MAROON: So, that's the first thing that strikes me with you, is you are a Sydney boy, you know, how do you feel?
PRIME MINISTER: I feel heartbroken that this could happen in our great nation. I went to school with many of the kids at Christian Brothers Bondi Beach, finished at Year 10 and they all came to my school, St. Mary's Cathedral, in Year 11 and 12. I played rugby league in the eastern suburbs comp against Bondi United and North Bondi RSL. And I spent so much of my younger years down on Bondi Beach. And for this to happen at such an iconic Australian location has of course been broadcast around the world. But my first thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones, have lost friends in this terrorist attack motivated by hatred and antisemitism that we saw on Sunday night. That is not the Australian way.
MAROON: Prime Minister, it would seem to me that in Australia we have pretty stiff gun laws. But you had the Cabinet meeting yesterday and into last night. What has come out of that?
PRIME MINISTER: I think we need to do more. We need to stand up the National Firearms Register sooner. The fact is that the state jurisdictions that issue gun licences can't talk to each other. In some states, they still have paper registrations, so we need to digitise that so that there can be greater cooperation across state boundaries. We need to have additional use of criminal intelligence associated with firearms licensing. I think we need to consider other measures as well, including whether there's a need to limit the number of firearms to be held by any one individual. The father in this case had six guns at his home in Bonnyrigg because he was a member of a local gun club. Is there really a need for someone in Bonnyrigg to have six guns that could then be misused, as they were on Sunday night? We need to look at whether Australian citizenship should be a condition of holding a firearm licence and also look at some of the customs issues of what can come in. These gun laws were introduced by the Howard Government, a great initiative where John Howard showed courage back in 1996. But a lot has changed since then. So, things such as 3D printing and other technological advances we need to look at as well.
MAROON: You know, Prime Minister, you mentioned these two bastards from Bonnyrigg. I don't feel like - I feel like as a tax paying citizen of Sydney that I don't know enough about this one that has survived. Where is he? I mean, I know you can't tell me where he is. Do we know any more about his condition? Is he going to face the music?
PRIME MINISTER: He certainly will face the music. He's in hospital. He was operated on yesterday. But he's certainly under very close police guard. Obviously the authorities are waiting to question him and to try to get to the bottom of this. A lot of information is known already about him and his father who live at Bonnyrigg but hired a place at Campsie. There were the six guns. Four were found at the scene, two were at Campsie. There's other material has been seized by the police and agencies. Whether it be in the car that they took to Bondi or whether it be at their home in Bonnyrigg or at this place that they hired in Campsie.
MAROON: Prime Minister, we often see footage of, you know, world leaders right around the world and where they are and what they were doing and how they were when they got this awful information that affected their nation. Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you found out all this?
PRIME MINISTER: I was at The Lodge in Canberra, and I was preparing for a Cabinet meeting which we hold on Monday mornings. And I was going about a quiet Sunday night. And the news, of course, came through in, in chunks. First it was that there was a shooting. It wasn't the news that there was the mass murder that we saw took place. Some of the information, as always happens at times like this, is not correct. There was concern that someone had dropped these two people off and that ended up not being the case. So, there was concern at one stage that someone was on the loose and, you know, bit by bit it came through. We met pretty quickly. At nine o'clock we had an emergency meeting at the National Security Committee, and I got the Australian Federal Police, ASIO, ASIS, all of our security agencies together, their heads of Home Affairs Department and ministerial colleagues together in Parliament House as this news of this tragedy unfolded.
MAROON: And we mentioned, you know, that - I talked about world leaders and it's obviously stuff that's made the front page of, of newspapers right around the world. Have you had much to do with world leaders from, from other countries?
PRIME MINISTER: We have. We've received very supportive messages of condolence and solidarity from everyone from President Trump to Prime Minister Starmer in the UK, to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon just next door in New Zealand, President Macron in France, the Chancellor of Germany Merz, have all reached out. As well as some former leaders as well, who I have a relationship with over the years, have all reached out to express their condolences. Of course, the rise of ISIS more than a decade ago now, the world has been grappling with extremism and this hateful ideology, which tragically would appear to be the motivation of these two people turning to terrorism and engaging in this atrocity. And at the same time, we are seeing Australians as well, helping out in their own way. Yesterday there were long queues right across Sydney to donate blood, for example. There are neighbours reaching out to neighbours at what is a difficult time. Yesterday, when we had the National Cabinet, the Tasmanian Premier made the point, Jeremy Rockliff, that this would be triggering for people who went through Port Arthur or who had relatives who lost their lives in that mass shooting as well. Certainly, Australians want to spread love rather than hate. And people reaching out to members of the Jewish community as well. This is an act of terrorism aimed at creating fear in the community. But Australians are brave. Australians will continue to engage in a way which reflects who we are. This needs to be a moment of national unity and saying, we will not allow hate to win. We won't allow this to divide us.
MAROON: All right, Prime Minister, you've got a busy schedule. We've got to wrap this up because you've got a meeting to go to. So, look, all the best here. The next month, we'll put politics aside, we'll wrap our arms around the Jewish community, and you have a great Christmas, and we'll talk to you soon.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much Anthony.
