Hon Patrick Gorman MP Talks on Sky News First Edition

PETER STEFANOVIC, HOST: Patrick, good to see you this morning. Let's just start, but we'll talk about the interim report after this, but I just want to, because it's fresh, these pictures that we've seen overnight. Your response to what you've seen so far this morning?

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think firstly, we're all still reacting to the horror of the Kumanjayi Little Baby, being taken from all of us and from her family. And I read her mother's statement this morning, and it's just absolutely heartbreaking.

And so I say that because I think every Australian understands the anger that is on the ground. Every Australian understands the fury that people have about what has happened, a child murdered, a defenceless child. I saw the words from the Northern Territory Police Commissioner saying that, of course, we do need to make sure that justice can be done, and the police doing the work at the moment to put all the evidence together so they can press formal charges. We need to let them do that work.

And of course, violence is not how we respond to something like this. We respond by letting justice be done. And I think every Australian, given the horrific things that we have seen, every Australian wants to see justice done.

STEFANOVIC: Well, at least these are the pictures here, Patrick and I put the question to the Commissioner about whether this was street justice that wanted to be enacted here. And it seemed as though that was the point. I mean, it certainly seemed like at least for a while it was out of control.

GORMAN: I will have to take what the Commissioner and others who are on the ground said. Obviously, what I believe is that everyone, whether they be a police officer, a paramedic, someone working in an emergency department, deserves to be able to go to work safely and come home safely. And so I'd just encourage everyone, despite the really intense anger - it's very understandable - I would encourage everyone to let justice be done through our formal system.

STEFANOVIC: Just finally, is there enough resources up there? Are you satisfied there's enough resources? Would anything more need to be provided at all?

GORMAN: Oh, look, those conversations happen between police ministers and police business council. We can, of course, always listen to our Northern Territory counterparts about what they need and what support they need from the Commonwealth.

STEFANOVIC: Sure, okay, well the Chief Minister is, as Matt pointed out short time ago, heading to the region today and to have a look for itself how things are. Now, let's get to this Interim Report and a couple of notes I want to ask you about. So the Commissioner yesterday pointed to this significant decline in funding for counter terrorism, and this all happened as the threat level was raised. So how do you square that circle?

GORMAN: We have increased funding for counter terrorism and for our agencies year on year, and you can see that in the budget.

STEFANOVIC: As a whole though, yes, I accept that that's as a whole. But as she pointed out, for counter terrorism, specifically, it's dropped significantly.

GORMAN: The nature of the challenges Australia faces have changed, in terms of the work that needs to be done at a community level. But I would note that that funding has increased every year. And I encourage your viewers go and look at the budgets. You can go and see them online, and you can see that funding for those agencies increase over time. We've got another budget in just under two weeks, and we'll continue to invest in keeping Australians safe.

STEFANOVIC: But was that an oversight, the fact that counter terrorism funding has dropped?

GORMAN: Well, if you look at the funding again, I encourage your viewers,

STEFANOVIC: But you're talking about, the whole, yeah, not counter terrorism specifically, which has gone down. I mean, that's a big factor here.

GORMAN: But if you look at the types of threats that we face, they have increased significantly. We have done that. We have been really upfront about that. We increased the terrorism level. And I think the important thing when it comes to the Royal Commission is that we've said when it comes to all of the recommendations, that we'll accept all of those recommendations, that we will act on them, work with the states and territories. That is the appropriate way to work through this. We didn't want a Royal Commission to tell us that everything that there was no changes necessary

STEFANOVIC: Well you didn't want a Royal Commission in the first place.

GORMAN: We have supported a Royal Commission. We have set it up. And I remind some of your viewers, there are people out there who said that we wouldn't even see this Interim Report on time. It came in on time, and that's an encouraging thing, because it means that we will have the information as soon as possible to act upon National Security Committee met yesterday to go through those recommendations, and we've adopted them.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, does this funding need to be restored, though? To counter terrorism?

GORMAN: We take advice from agencies. We resource those agencies to make sure they've got the resources they need to keep Australians safe.

STEFANOVIC: Alright. Post-2022, you gut the Home Affairs Department, shifted agencies to the A-G's portfolio, ASIO was stripped out, a decision that was reversed by Tony Burke. I mean, with all of that said, has it been a bit of a dog's breakfast?

GORMAN: I have dealt with a range of these agencies, as have many of my colleagues over time. If you look at the report, I sat and read the report yesterday in detail. It says that the agencies themselves said that whenever there is a change of machinery of government, there are some small levels of administrative burden, but that it did not stop them from doing their job. And I think it's really important that those changes, when they change from Minister to minister or portfolio to portfolio, it's really clear in the report, it did not stop them from doing their job of keeping Australians safe and monitoring the threats. And there are, unfortunately, in the world we live in right now, there are too many threats.

STEFANOVIC: Well, we'll get to that right now, actually, and we'll have to close out on this point, Patrick. But as the UK, you might have noted that it's boosted its threat level to severe overnight, right? So the Commissioner also pointed to the fact that the Jewish community, our Jewish community is now facing a heightened risk because of Iran. So are you prepared now, or prepared in a better way for a potential other attack or newer attack?

GORMAN: The threats that have been towards the Jewish community in Australia have been too much for too long. We obviously have an important role when it comes to calling out antisemitism wherever we see it, but also we've got an important role in making sure that we do address the threats as they are right now. We take advice from our security agencies about that, obviously, what's happened in the United Kingdom and the reasons that they've had to up their terror threat level - very shocking and very concerning.

We will continue to take advice from agencies about our levels. That is what we have done. That's what happened in 2024 and we increased the level here in Australia. And we were really open with the Australian people about that. The Prime Minister stood up, spoke to the Australian people about the reasons that we made that decision, just as he did yesterday with the release of this Royal Commission report.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. Patrick Gorman, we'll have to leave it there. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for your time. Good to see you here in the studio.