Interview with Natalie Barr, Sunrise

2 October 2024

NATALIE BARR: Well, let's get more on our breaking news now, Iran has launched a large scale ballistic missile attack on Israel in what it says is a retaliation for the killing of top Hezbollah and Hamas leaders. It's unclear just how much damage these attacks have caused in Israel, with no Israeli casualties reported so far, Israel's defense forces have responded though, saying they are prepared to “defend and retaliate”, against the Iranian attack in a timely manner for their take. Let's bring in Housing Minister Clare O'Neill and Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume. Good morning to both of you. Clare, we'll start with you. Do you know roughly how many Aussies are still in the region and what we can do to get them out?

CLARE O'NEIL: This is a hugely concerning development overnight, and the Australian Government utterly condemns this escalation of violence from Iran. We'll use our powers within international forums to try to bring, you know, as much as we can pressure for a ceasefire in the region. But you're right. Of course, our main focus today is going to be Aussies who are stuck in the Middle East and trying to do everything we can to help protect them. As you know, for some time, the Australian government has been advising Australians not to travel to Lebanon, and for those there in Lebanon to get out as quickly as they can. Unfortunately, there are some still, roughly 15,000 Australians still in Lebanon, and the Australian Government is doing what it can to assist those people, but we say very clearly to Australians who are in Lebanon, this is not a safe place for you to be. Please get on commercial flights if you have those options available, and we'll continue to work with those Aussies, because we want to keep all of our citizens safe at a time like this.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah, do you know whether the government will be putting on any kind of extra flights?

CLARE O'NEIL: Nat, we'll do everything we can to support Australians who are stuck there in the conflict, and we've already started that activity. So there was a flight last night where the Australian Government supported Australians to leave the region, and another one tonight. So that's about 100 seats that have assisted Australians out of the region. There are still commercial options available for Australians in Lebanon. And I'd say again, I urge Australians, who are there, if you're an Aussie watching and you've got a family member there, get that person on a plane back to safety. This is not the place you want to be right now. There's a real tinderbox environment there at the moment, and we don't want our citizens in harm's way.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah, exactly. 200 ballistic missiles launched on Israel by Iran overnight. Jane, we've seen tensions spill out on the streets back home, of course, including some people carrying Hezbollah flags in public. Others have held services to mourn the loss of the terror group's leader. Do we need to rethink our laws around all of this back here?

JANE HUME: Sadly, Nat, we have already rethought our laws, and in fact, it is now an offense under the Commonwealth Criminal Code to be carrying those flags or symbols that display the symbols of terrorist organisations like Hezbollah. That's a concern here, and police should be taking action where they can for those that are clearly supporting terrorist organizations on our own streets. I think that's an expectation of all Australians. My biggest concern is for Monday's planned protests. That is a very important day for many people in Australia, particularly our Jewish community, who will be acknowledging a day which is the one year anniversary of the largest loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust. The fact that there are protests that are planned for those days, both in Sydney and Melbourne, should be of great concern to all Australians, but we would expect that police will be doing everything they can to make sure that there is peace on our streets and that there is no one that is actively inciting violence or that is trying to intimidate Australian citizens.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah, and we've had the AFP Deputy Commissioner actually say it's not enough to just hold the flag of that terror leader. They have to be inciting others to use violence.

JANE HUME: Then laws should be changed.

NATALIE BARR: Yes, okay, that's the key, and we're going to be talking a lot more about that in coming days. Moving on, a major report on racial discrimination at the ABC has been published. The Independent Review showed that systemic racism is right through that network, including pay discrepancies and within the recruitment process. Clare, were you surprised by these serious allegations that the chief of the ABC has apologised for?

CLARE O'NEIL: Yeah Nat, I was really surprised actually. You know, we have really high standards for our national broadcaster, and I think that's absolutely appropriate. This is a broadcaster that has as a absolute legislative requirement that they're meant to represent and support all Australians, and to hear this kind of behavior. I was genuinely incredibly shocked. One thing I would say is I'm really glad that they've made this report public. I'm glad that the managing director of the ABC has made that public apology to staff, and it's good to see an organisation taking this seriously. But yeah, some of the things in that report were just absolutely horrendous reading, and it mustn't have been much fun for even the people who are at the end of that conduct so great that it's public. But yeah, absolutely shocking allegations there.

NATALIE BARR: Yeah, Jane in the report they spoke to, apparently, 120 current and former staff members, only one had not personally experienced racism within the ABC has that come as a surprise to you?

JANE HUME: It does come as a surprise, and I think I'd support Clare in her statements there, everybody has the right to feel safe and respected at work, and we cannot allow for racism to exist in our national broadcaster.

NATALIE BARR: What do we need to do?

JANE HUME: That's a question for the national broadcaster and their senior management, they're the ones that are going to have to respond to this, we'll be interested to see what their response is and something I'm sure that we'll be asking questions about it in Senate Estimates in the coming weeks.

NATALIE BARR: Okay, we thank you both this morning. See you next week.