TRA NSCRIPT – RADIO INTERVIEW - ABC SYDNEY WITH HAMISH MCDONALD-TUESDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2025
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Hamish McDonald interview with Minister Tony Burke
ABC Radio Sydney 702
Tuesday 25 February 2025
Topics: citizenship ceremonies
HAMISH MCDONALD: Tony Burke is the Minister for Home Affairs. Very good morning to you, Tony.
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Hi, Hamish.
HAMISH MCDONALD: I'm not sure how much of that you caught. Would you like to respond to Dai Le's assertion? She describes your position on this, that you did invite her personally, to quote her as a BS lie.
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Yeah, look, it's. It's a bit sad. I know exactly what I said. I know I said that she was welcome. If she's got a different recollection of the conversation, I'm not sure how much further we can take it. Certainly, the concept where she says, did she get a personal letter addressed to her? Well, no. Only two people got that in each, everywhere, which was whoever the local member of Parliament was for where the ceremonies were being held and whoever the- you know, the- well, in each case, in NSW case, a Coalition Senator. And that's following the code that the department follows and they were the two that were officially sent out. But, you know, none of it gets away from the fact that…and this is why I'm not wanting to engage too much with the negativity of it… these events are the least political events you go to in your lives. No one talks about parties, no one talks about policies. People talk about Australia. And, you know, a Liberal Senator turned up to one of the ones in Adelaide. She was straight on the podium speaking. The Liberal - one of the Liberal mayors had accepted. I actually introduced him. Turned out he wasn't there, but I thought he was, and introduced him to speak. These are above politics events.
HAMISH MCDONALD: But Dai Le says that actually. So, your defence of this, right, is that she's not the local member. You invited the local members. But as she points out, there were Labor MPs from other areas that were there. Why were they invited and not Dai?
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Well Dai was the only one who I had a personal conversation with where I indicated she was welcome. But obviously, she says she doesn't recall me saying that part. And so the other members of Parliament would have had verbal, you know, would have been told verbally it was on.
HAMISH MCDONALD: Verbally by who?
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Well, I expect by my office. The personal conversation that I had, I hadn't been having with my colleagues, but I certainly had with Dai. But as I said--
HAMISH MCDONALD: What did you say?
MINISTER TONY BURKE: That she was welcome.
HAMISH MCDONALD: Right. Specifically to the Homebush event.
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Yeah. But, you know, she says she doesn't recall that. That's life.
HAMISH MCDONALD: But can you help us understand, though why verbal offers were made, possibly by your office, to Labor MPs from other areas to this event in Homebush, when, as you've pointed out, these are not political events?
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Oh. Because if you have the local member there, like, not everybody's come. Some have come, some haven't. Some have come because they've known people personally who are becoming citizens and have come along for that. We had a Liberal mayor there last night who didn't want to speak at one of the ones in Melbourne, where I am now, who was there to support her partner who was becoming a citizen. So, people are there for a range of issues, but the department does the official invitations following the code, and then we do additional. You know, I presume that the Liberal senators who've been notified have been letting their colleagues know about it as well. It's nice when members of Parliament come. There's a number of Liberal members where I've looked at the list and thought, oh, hang on, I think that council might be in their area.
HAMISH MCDONALD: Should you have made sure that Dai Le was formally invited or at least knew that she had an invitation?
MINISTER TONY BURKE: I think it's really important that you follow the code. And that's what the department's done. The code says the local member, someone from the other side of politics, and all of the mayors. And I've got to say it's – yeah, other councils where I heard in the interview the claim that, oh, the invitation was only to the mayor, not to the deputy mayor. Strathfield Council, at one of these ceremonies…
HAMISH MCDONALD: She did say, show me the piece of paper. Is there a piece of paper anywhere that would demonstrate that she was invited?
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Oh, that demonstrates the mayor was invited. Yeah--
HAMISH MCDONALD: But not her. But not Dai--
MINISTER TONY BURKE: No, no, no. But, Hamish, other councils have sent the deputy mayor when the mayor couldn’t come. And I think with Fairfield Council, it's fair to say that the mayor and the deputy mayor work pretty closely together. So, I find it hard to believe that the mayor received the invitation and the deputy had no idea. And across the country, mayors, when they haven't been able to come, have sent their deputies or sent other councillors to represent them.
HAMISH MCDONALD: I do need a very brief answer on this. The opposition seems to be asserting that you're doing these mass citizenship ceremonies to add voters in critical marginal seats in various parts of Sydney before the election, are you?
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Not at all. They're across the country. One of the biggest groups, one of the Sydney ones I went to was from Sutherland Shire, which is, you know, hardly marginal seat territory. We had the Hills District, had something like 350 people. This is based on where the backlog exists. And, yeah, I'm sorry that there's a public debate that's happening in this way because big citizenship ceremonies have happened before. They happened after Covid under the previous government, when there was a backlog. There's a backlog now, and people are turning up to one of the most momentous days in their lives.
HAMISH MCDONALD: Tony Burke, thanks very much.
MINISTER TONY BURKE: Great to talk.
HAMISH MCDONALD: That's the Minister for Home Affairs.