TRANSCRIPT - ABC NEWS BREAKFAST - TUESDAY 11 MARCH 2025

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TELEVISION INTERVIEW 
ABC NEWS BREAKFAST
MONDAY, 11 MARCH 2025

SUBJECTS: Caravan explosives investigation, antisemitism in the Australian community, US tariffs

JAMES GLENDAY: The Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke joins us now from Parliament House. Minister, good morning and welcome back to News Breakfast. How early on did you know that this caravan plot was likely a fabrication?

BURKE: The briefings changed fairly early in the process. So, as it continued to be investigated, the Australian Federal Police have made sure that myself, relevant ministers, and obviously the Prime Minister as well, that we've continued to be kept up to date as that's progressed.

GLENDAY: So, for some time. I just want to ask you about the details of this specifically. Are all the people who have been arrested Australian citizens and are there overseas actors involved? Because we heard this suggestion very early on.

BURKE: The Australian Federal Police, in their statement yesterday, have referred to one person being overseas and the citizenship issue, right now we're dealing with the crimes themselves. There's a standing arrangement that my department has with the police, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, where whenever one of these crimes has taken place, we've asked for there to be a visa check on the, on the people to check their visa status. What's been happening so far is, and I don't have the updated information on people who were arrested yesterday, but so far, even though we've been doing the checks each time, everybody involved has been an Australian citizen and that's what we've been dealing with so far.

GLENDAY: Ok, so this person who's directing it from overseas, can you tell us anything about them? What country they're from, what nationality they are, what sympathies they might hold?

BURKE: Yeah, look, as you'll appreciate, the Australian Federal Police and the New South Wales Police, both of whom have been absolutely fantastic in all of this, they were very deliberate in what they decided to release yesterday as information and what they didn't. And the way all of this works is that, you know, we're kept up to date, but we allow the operations to be able to determine what goes public at different points. That's the reason, for example, why the briefings are always made available to the Opposition as well, because you don't want a situation where the Opposition makes stupid claims which in fact either get in the way of an investigation or work in favour of the criminals. And that's one of my, that's my chief objection to how Peter Dutton handled all this, because he deliberately avoided being briefed, even when we kept saying that he should be getting a briefing. And as a result, he was effectively reading from a script that may as well have been written by organised crime.

GLENDAY: Ok, so, I mean, we'll come to that. Now, it doesn't sound like you're going to be able to give us any more details on this plot and we'll ask Peter Dutton for a response to this. But in a case like this, do you normally go to, say, the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, to the Opposition Leader and say, look, we've got some extra information about this we think you should know. Is that normally how these things proceed?

BURKE: Well, in this case, we did that publicly. In this case, when Peter Dutton kept providing the exact lines and the exact narrative that organised crime was wanting to be out there, we kept responding by reminding him that briefings were available. And we did this publicly, the briefings were available and he wasn't seeking them. And reminding him that when he seeks a briefing, he will get it. And, you know, that was all done in the full, in full sunlight. And yet he chose quite deliberately that he wanted to make sure he could continue to make the most outrageous claims. He wanted to make sure that he could stoke the most fear. And in doing so, he was running the exact script that organised crime wanted him to run. You know, you don't deliver national security by running away from being briefed by the Australian Federal Police and ignoring the public advice that's been given by ASIO. But Peter Dutton did exactly that. Exactly that. And it's not a case of private offerings of briefings. They were made in the full light of day.

GLENDAY: Ok, you've made your political point pretty clearly. We'll get a response from the Opposition Leader on that throughout the show. I just want to ask one last one on this. The Jewish community has obviously been very, very concerned about a spate of attacks. Do you think they should be more relieved now that these arrests have been made? Or is there still kind of an undercurrent of antisemitism that's home grown within the Australian community?

BURKE: Yeah, look, there's two things here. First of all, I am glad that the extraordinary physical actions of violence that have caused so much publicity or threatened violence, you know, I wish they weren't happening at all. Now that we know what it is, then, you know, at least that is not from a deep seated hatred within the Australian community. But that doesn't change the fact that antisemitism is real. All forms of bigotry are wrong. And you can't turn a blind eye to the way people might be treated in the street, to other forms of bigotry, to people not, you know, people being reluctant to, to be publicly true to their own, to their own identity, to their own faith, because they're worried about what bigotry might come their way. All forms of bigotry are unacceptable. Antisemitism is one of them. It is completely unacceptable. And you know we shouldn't simply, because this was an action of organised crime, discount in any way, shape or form, the lived experience of people experiencing antisemitism.

GLENDAY: Just before I let you go, Tony Burke, we've only got about a minute left. On another issue, US tariffs on steel and aluminium are due to come into effect very soon. Is Malcolm Turnbull helping or not when he comes out publicly to criticise the US President?

BURKE: Look, I think your respect as Minister for Home Affairs, with everything that we've been dealing with, both with respect to the caravan and airport security at the moment, that I've been 100 per cent focused on that. I saw something in the news about Malcolm Turnbull having made a statement, but to be honest, you'll have to direct the question to someone else.

GLENDAY: I mean, he's a former Prime Minister, though. Should he just be a bit quiet?

BURKE: You're talking about an issue that you would not expect me, given my job and given the importance of the national security issues that we've been dealing with, to be across. So, I'm not going to make it up on the spot.

GLENDAY: Very briefly then, in less than 30 seconds, there's a review into Australia's spy agencies your government's received at the middle of last year. Will you release it publicly?

BURKE: The national security, the first issue is not the publicity. The first issue is keeping people safe and that's where our focus always is.

GLENDAY: I think that might be a no, but we are out of time. Tony Burke, we do always appreciate you coming on the program this morning.