TRANSCRIPT – PRESS CONFERENCE – RELEASE OF A SAFER AUSTRALIA: AUSTRALIA’S COUNTER-TERRORISM AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM STRATEGY

TONY BURKE: I just want to say a few things about what's happened overnight with respect to Dover Heights.

We've seen further examples of antisemitism. We've seen further examples of hate crimes. We've seen further examples of a form of hatred and bigotry that has no place in Australia. It is disgusting and it is part of the reason why Operation Avalite was launched last year by the Prime Minister - in a media conference with the Prime Minister, the Attorney-General and myself.

Obviously, as you'd expect, I unequivocally and the Government unequivocally condemns what has happened, the crimes that have been committed overnight. And as we saw yesterday with the first charges being brought forward under Operation Avalite, the people who are engaging in these hate crimes need to understand the crime is not graffiti. This is not graffiti. This is a hate crime with serious criminal penalties.

And we have our best agencies working to make sure that these people are hunted down so that we are in a situation to throw the book at them. Nobody should think that anything that is happening anywhere around the world gives them the right to conduct a hate crime in Australia.

And so this is condemned in the strongest possible terms. I might say, with what's happened overnight in Dover Heights, in Sydney, I'm in Melbourne now, earlier today I had my second visit to the Adass Israel Synagogue to see the long pathway there that that community has in rebuilding.

But they are in no doubt that in that rebuilding they have the full support of the Australian government and the perpetrators have no support from anyone. Operation Avalite has been established to make sure that every Australian can feel safe. Antisemitism has a deep and ugly history. It has no place and no home on our shores.

If I can now turn to the reason for the media conference having been planned - back in December, all the states endorsed our new counter-terrorism strategy to make sure that we had a strategy - all the states and territories - to make sure that we had a strategy where we had a united position to deal with the different counterterrorism strategies and countering violent extremism.

This has happened in an environment which is dynamic and which is evolving. We all saw last year, the threat alert for Australia moving from possible to probable. And of course, that was not because there was a specific organised group, that was a change, it was because the barriers to entry, the nature of radicalisation itself has changed.

The historic threats that we have always considered with respect to violent extremism and terrorism remain. But as the Director-General of ASIO, Mike Burgess, has made clear, increasingly we are also finding people who are younger. We are increasingly finding people who are radicalised faster and radicalised online. We are increasingly finding people where it's no longer a set ideology, be it what would be viewed as an extremist ideology purporting to be based on faith or what would be described as a right-wing racist ideology. It's now as well, mixed ideologies as part of these rapid forms of radicalisation.

That's meant that as the threat needs - as the threat level has evolved, the Government's response needs to evolve as well. Much of the work that we've been doing for a long time continues. The work that we do with community and faith leaders continues as does a whole lot of the work that needs to be done with our law - with our law authorities and security agencies, that all continues. But there are a number of areas where our - where our approach has needed to evolve and our approach has needed to increase. I'm very pleased that this is being done with the full cooperation and endorsement of the states and territories.

There are four main measures where we see changes. The first and the most significant is the Support Intervention Program. Previously, this was dealt with across two separate programs, but effectively this is where someone is identified as a specific risk and in those instances, we need to make sure that we have a significant increase in resources. This intervention program comes close to doubling the funds that have otherwise been available. And importantly, for all the funding that I'm referring to today, it is now ongoing. Previously, with these sorts of strategies, you have reached dates where the ongoing funding falls off a cliff. That's not to say that any government of the day would suddenly do nothing in this area, but it has made it harder to be able to keep the expert staff if they don't know the extent to which their job is going to be funded on an ongoing basis. So, all of this funding is now funded ongoing, permanently in the budget.

The second area is the Step Together Program. This is a program that has been run by NSW that will now be rolling out nationally. Effectively, this is where a parent is wanting support, where they can see a risk as to what's happening with respect to their child. Often parents in that situation, it's not at a point where you would ordinarily call the authorities, no crime has been committed, but they're wanting to call for support, to try to make sure that they are doing everything they can to get their child back on the right path. NSW have had this program which gives an option other than calling the police, and it's been incredibly successful. So, we want to take a program that one of the states has run and run well and roll that out nationally and step together will be doing that.

Our work in Southeast Asia will continue as well. We continue to fund that, both in our role as being good partners in the region and as some of you will recall, the day that I was sworn in as Minister for Home Affairs, by that evening I was in Indonesia and the following day, meeting with regional partners, making sure that this cooperation is something that is understood, is something that people know is on an ongoing basis for Australia.

And the final thing is we now have improved pathways for our consultation, our development, our evaluation of all of these programs. The shift to the extent to which radicalisation, for example, is happening on gaming platforms. There's a whole lot of changes that are evolving and evolving fast. And to make sure that the consultation, development and evaluation is happening at pace and in the most effective way is a very significant part of making sure that we are keeping Australians safe.

Some of the materials and some of the campaigns that have been run, such as, for example, the Escape, Hide, Tell process for the recommendations for anybody who finds themselves at risk with respect to terrorism, in terms of the pathway of what to do, that material has not properly been made available to people through multicultural communities in the way that it should be. And certainly, disability access hasn't been fully available with respect to that messaging. Those campaigns will now be rolled out in a way that makes sure that information that is there to keep Australians safe is made available appropriately to every Australian.

If I finish with this, simply to say the title of the strategy is exactly what this is all about. It's about having a safer Australia. There are forces internationally and occasionally domestically that seek to jeopardise the security of Australians. When things go wrong and crimes are committed, then the police and other agencies go in. But there are times where we get an opportunity to know where there is a heightened sense of risk. And these counter-terrorism policies and policies for countering violent extremism are all about making sure that no stone is left unturned in making sure that we can keep Australians safe.

JOURNALIST: There's been, Minister, now a spate of attacks on Jewish property, synagogues, there’s vandalism almost every week. There seems to be something quite unique occurring. There is quite obviously something that has not been seen before. You're talking generally about extremism, which is obviously important, and it's a broader issue in antisemitism. What do you have to say about what's occurring right now, specifically towards the Jewish community? Where is it emanating from and is there anything the government can - does the government have any power to do something quite urgently to get on top of?

TONY BURKE: There are two areas and I think it's important for people who might not engage directly with the Jewish community to have an understanding of what's happening beyond the crimes that hit the news. The crimes themselves and the hate crimes that we're talking about today are being dealt with by the police, are being dealt with strongly and have the backup of Operation Avalite in terms of making sure that we have the full cooperation of all the relevant agencies to make sure that we're assisting there.

But I don't want anyone to think that the crimes that hit the news are the only problems being faced by the Jewish community in Australia. It is also the case that beneath the surface of what might be the most ugly and the most high profile of these forms of bigotry, like all forms of bigotry, it doesn't stop there. It continues when students are abused in the street for their school uniform, it continues where somebody questions whether they are going to have trouble getting a rental property based on their name. These forms of bigotry happen in a way that don't necessarily make the news, but they are brutal, they are unacceptable, they have no place in Australia. And part of the reason that I opened my statement today, even though, you know, launching the counterterrorism strategy is one of the most significant things that a Minister for Home Affairs does, the reason I didn't even open with that, is to make very clear that part of keeping people safe is for people to understand there is a direct line between bigotry, between hate speech and between acts of violence.

In opposition I spent a lot of time making sure that the government of the day did not weaken our protections against hate speech. Looking back now, it is extraordinary that that was even a debate, because most Australians now are saying, are those protections strong enough? But people, the minority of people who are giving voice to these forms of bigotry need to know that the views they are putting have no place and no support in this country.

JOURNALIST: Do you think there needs to be tougher penalties for things that have been happening in Melbourne, in the city? Do you think there needs to be tougher punishments?

TONY BURKE: We have already significantly increased the punishments and what I am looking forward to is when those new laws that we've put in place start to find their way through the courts. The police have to make sure, and I respect the role of the police with respect to making sure that they are gathering all the evidence so that they have the best possible prosecutions. Two years ago, it was not unlawful to perform a Nazi salute. You didn't have the, the federal - at a federal level. You didn't have federal laws against the use of hate symbols and symbols of terrorist organisations. Now, those laws were introduced. They were introduced for good reason. I have full support, I fully support our security agencies in implementing those and understand that they go through a process of gathering all the evidence. But those penalties are serious because hate crimes are serious and hate symbols are one of the ugly tools that are used to try to make some Australians feel unwelcome and unsafe.

JOURNALIST: Minister, you mentioned that this morning you again visited the Adass Israel Synagogue. Do you know whether anyone is under investigation for that arson attack and whether they're a dual or foreign citizen and why we still haven't seen any charges made?

TONY BURKE: I'm not going to go further into the, into any of the actions of the police other than to echo the comments I made earlier about I completely respect their processes in making sure that by the time they press charges they do so with the maximum levels of evidence and understand that completely. I will say there is a routine process that I have established with my department that whenever there are clear examples of these forms of bigotry, whether they be from white supremacist organisations or for other forms of thugs, my department always contacts, and it's lately been either the New South Wales or the Victorian police, and just reminds them that when they do apprehend people or where there are people who they have an interest in, could they please check the visa status of them and inform us?

I have no hesitation in cancelling visas where people are making clear that they have values that have no place in Australia and I have refused visas and cancelled visas where people have been showing these forms of bigotry.

JOURNALIST: Are you seeking or have you received a briefing on the Alex Ryvchin alleged attack from last night, the Sydney vandalism?

TONY BURKE: I have spoken to Mr. Ryvchin, but I will leave it to - I have spoken to him and in that conversation he made very clear to me what he thought was the most important thing to be said and I think in the comments that I've been making, I've been echoing that.

JOURNALIST: Has anything emanated from the conversations the Prime Minister had with Jacinta Allan and Penny Sharpe on Monday? Do you expect any further policy or law enforcement action in coming days or weeks to address the very immediate issue?

TONY BURKE: I don't have anything to add at this media conference.

JOURNALIST: I'll just ask more generally about the anti-Semitism problem. Do you have a sense based on briefings or your own judgement, where the - what is giving rise to that kind of sentiment in the community? Do you have a particular concern about what's happening in some small segments of the Islamic community, perhaps in your seat, or in fringe elements of the pro-Palestinian protest movement, do you have a broad sense of where it's coming from?

TONY BURKE: I think in each example, whether it's examples of communities like the ones you described in the question, or whether it's from white supremacist groups, it's coming from a fringe and it's a fringe that at the moment is behaving as though it is emboldened and

JOURNALIST: By what?

TONY BURKE: Is behaving as though it is emboldened and is in for a rude shock when the full force of the law is brought down on them.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, let me just ask you on the events in the Middle East, is Australia going to accept more Palestinian refugees and boost aid to help rebuild Gaza, is that something that you're looking at?

TONY BURKE: Look, what I'll say today is we welcome the prospect of the ceasefire. We're watching closely on some of the comments that have been made overnight as to whether there could be delays. We want to see a situation where the conflict is brought to an end and every hostage is released. We want all of those things to happen. But I think for the exact point we're at at the moment, I won't be able to go further than that.

JOURNALIST: Just one quick one. Nasser Mashni this week and various other Islamic leaders have questioned why there is not as much focus on hate crimes towards the Islamic community. Do you share a sense that the political media establishment in Australia has a double standard on this issue?

TONY BURKE: I learned a long time in my job that someone in my job is in a hiding for nothing when we provide commentary on the media. Media provide commentary on us. That's how it works, whether we like it or not. Certainly, for my own part, though, I can say, wherever bigotry has come from, I don't hesitate to call it out. And I will say to the credit, and I should have said this earlier, when you made the reference to some of the organisations in my part of Sydney, when the bombing of the Adass Israel synagogue happened, they did not hesitate for a minute before they issued their statements - or firebombing, I should say - they didn't hesitate for a minute before they issued their statements of condemnation.

And the condemnation was completely unequivocal. And when my part of Sydney resisted through public marches through our streets, resisted attempts previously to lower protections on hate speech. You had rabbis, you had the Grand Mufti, you had priests and Buddhist leaders walking through the streets of Lakemba together. This is what represents my part of Sydney. It's what represents most of Australia, I've got to say. Wherever these sorts of forces come from, they are always a fringe and they need to be told in the most unequivocal terms, which I think is exactly what I've been doing today and my whole career, their views have no place in Australia.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct]. Is it incumbent on Islamic leaders in the mainstream of the Islamic community, as well as the protest leaders, to more forcefully call out people on those fringes in Islam?

TONY BURKE: Well, they - they very forcefully have called out in this moment the evil of antisemitism, and they've done it continuously. And it hasn't taken a phone call from me. The messages start coming through of their statements. I make sure that whenever I receive them I forward them directly to Jillian Segal so that she's aware - sometimes she's got them before I have. I think some people underestimate the extent to which there is a level of unity against hate speech. I'll go through my life in Australia without ever being a target of it. That's not the case of the people I was with today. It's not the case of neighbours in my street and every Australian, I think we have a really simple view in Australia that people think there is a decent obligation to get along with each other. And the people who want to bring hatred, who want to bring bigotry, the people who want to bring the sort of ugliness of the antisemitism we're talking about today. You know, sometimes they try to wrap themselves in the Australian flag as though this country has something to do with them. Those views don't belong here. They don't belong one bit. I'll leave it at that.

JOURNALIST: Just on Gaza, what will Australia do about facilitating the return of people here in Australia seeking asylum if the ceasefire holds -

TONY BURKE: No, no. As I've said, all I'll say at the moment is where we're at in terms of welcoming the ceasefire, watching with concern some of the reports about potential delay. Thank you very much.