Dutton says Coalition measures would ‘stamp out antisemitism in our country’
The opposition leader Peter Dutton is now speaking to reporters, and said that antisemitism is a “national scourge” and has “created this national crisis.”
He argued that the prime minister was “playing politics with this issue because he sees political advantage in some Green seats by abrogating his priority to Jewish Australians.”
Dutton said the measures – which includes the six-year minimum sentences – would provide the “will to stamp out antisemitism in our country and to send a very clear message that that is not going to be tolerated in any form whatsoever.”
And that will happen from day one.
Key events
Man charged after alleged offensive behaviour forced domestic flight to turn around
A Cairns man has been charged after allegedly causing a disturbance on a flight to Perth that led to the flight being turned around.
The Australian Federal Police responded to a request for assistance from the airline after the man, 38, allegedly behaved aggressively towards fellow passengers on a domestic flight on 10 December.
Police will allege he was intoxicated and touched other passengers without consent, and twice banged on the walls while in the airplane toilet.
The captain returned the flight to Brisbane Airport as a safety precaution, the AFP said in a statement.
Officers at Brisbane Airport escorted him off the plane and charged him with one count of behaving in an offensive or disorderly manner.
AFP detective acting superintendent Natalie Scott said the flight was delayed for about two hours.
Dutton says Albanese’s lack of legislation on gambling reform ‘demonstrates weak leadership’
Wrapping up the press conference, Peter Dutton criticised Anthony Albanese for not introducing gambling reform legislation as he had promised. He told reporters:
The prime minister – after the death of one of his members of parliament [Peta Murphy] who was very passionate about this issue – committed himself to reform and change of the law in this area.
We’re at an election, and obviously the prime minister’s not going to introduce this legislation. So it’s just another demonstration of the weakness of leadership.
Continuing to criticise Albanese, Dutton said he had known seven prime minister since joining parliament and “I’ve never seen somebody so incapable of making a decision or so captured by his own incompetence and weakness.”
Dutton critical of aluminium announcement, renewables
Back to energy and the government’s aluminium announcement, Peter Dutton continued to criticise renewables and said:
If we want to export those jobs and export that industry, well, that’s exactly what the prime minister’s promising to do with his policy.
I can’t find anywhere in the world an aluminium smelter, a high-energy-use aluminium smelter, that is only run on wind and solar and batteries. If there’s an example the prime minister’s got, I’d be happy to hear it.
Dutton says Albanese’s ‘pride’ stopping him from convening national cabinet
Taking questions, Peter Dutton was asked how the Coalition would address division in Australian society?
He did not respond with any specific measures, but by criticising Anthony Albanese:
There can be no social cohesion in our country when the prime minister’s incapable of responding to a national crisis. It’s only the prime minister’s pride at the moment that’s standing between him and a decision that he can make to convene a national cabinet. If not now, when, prime minister?
Dutton criticises Labor aluminium announcement, touts subsidised lunch policy
Peter Dutton also responded to the government’s aluminium announcement this morning (you can see more details earlier in the blog here).
He argued this would push energy prices up, and criticised the government for not delivering its promised $275 energy bill reduction.
(The Coalition have previously blamed the rise on new renewable energy, but analysts say it was largely due to fossil fuels, including the Ukraine war pushing up gas and coal prices. Regulators say prices for households should fall up to 7% in 2025.)
Dutton argued that his announcement yesterday, of subsidised work lunches for small businesses, would “help 98% of small businesses in the country, provide support to their staff and customers, help them grow their business, and it will be an economic boon for those small businesses, particularly cafes and restaurants, at the moment who are doing it tough.”
Dutton welcomes release of hostages
Peter Dutton also commented on the release of three hostages overnight, and said it “doesn’t even bear thinking what they’ve been through, the torture and the torture of their families”.
Whilst it’s something that we welcome in terms of the peace agreement that has been struck – and we hope sincerely that it holds, and it’s wonderful that three people have been released back to their families and back to their country – but our thoughts and prayers today must continue for those who are still held in captivity …
Dutton says Coalition measures would ‘stamp out antisemitism in our country’
The opposition leader Peter Dutton is now speaking to reporters, and said that antisemitism is a “national scourge” and has “created this national crisis.”
He argued that the prime minister was “playing politics with this issue because he sees political advantage in some Green seats by abrogating his priority to Jewish Australians.”
Dutton said the measures – which includes the six-year minimum sentences – would provide the “will to stamp out antisemitism in our country and to send a very clear message that that is not going to be tolerated in any form whatsoever.”
And that will happen from day one.
Julian Leeser backs calls for national cabinet to be convened
Liberal MP Julian Leeser is also addressing reporters, echoing calls for national cabinet to convene and address antisemitism.
If you’d said to me 15 months ago that we would still be talking about antisemitism today and that, indeed, with every day you open the paper, you turn on your social media, and you see a worse and worse antisemitic attacks being portrayed in this community, I wouldn’t have believed you. But that’s unfortunately the Australia that we are living in today.
Coalition outlining further measures it would take to address antisemitism
The shadow home affairs minister James Paterson is speaking with reporters in Sydney at the Central Synagogue, on the rising number of antisemitic attacks in the state.
He said the government in Canberra was “not willing to be decisive enough [and] not willing to do enough to confront this problem”, announcing that a Dutton Coalition government would introduce a number of further initiatives:
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Convening a national cabinet to address antisemitism
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Tougher laws to combat antisemitism and “make sure those consequences are very clear.”
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Introduce mandatory minimum sentences for Commonwealth terrorism offences of at least six years.
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Mandatory minimum sentence of 12 months for people displaying prohibited hate symbols, and the maximum increased to five years.
Joyce criticises renewable energy amid latest polling results
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, speaking on Sunrise earlier, also weighed in on the latest polling showing Peter Dutton had drawn level to Anthony Albanese as preferred PM.
He attributed this to the fact the “Labor party have been there for three years and cost of living has got vastly worse.”
Criticising renewable energy, he argued Labor’s “so-called power plan actually went through the Parliament and made no difference”.
He pointed to law and order, blaming Labor for a breakdown in social cohesion, also arguing “they don’t start worrying about regional areas until election time.”
If you have got the price of power wrong, if you want to make people in Paris happy, sure, knock yourself out and do it, but people here will turn off to you.
Tony Jones to meet with Novak Djokovic to discuss matter
Continuing from our last post: Tony Jones said he “overstepped the mark” with the last comment he made – “kick him out.”
Now I can stand here and put whatever spin I want in that, but it can only be interpreted as a throwback to the Covid years when he was kicked out. Now that that has angered Novak, which I completely understand now.
So look, it has been an unfortunate situation. It’s been one of personal angst for Novak. It’s quite clearly personal angst for me as well. But I just think the priority here now is to focus on the tennis again.
Jones repeated his earlier apology to Novak Djokovic, saying “I do apologise if he felt that I disrespected him.”
I should also add that in the correspondence with Novak’s team, I agreed to meet with them in person to discuss all this. They came back and said yes, we would be keen to meet in person. That hasn’t transpired, but I’m sure it will over the next 24 hours.
Jones says he apologised to Djokovic for comments on air
Tony Jones is currently speaking on Channel Nine about the comments he made towards Novak Djokovic.
Jones provided a timeline of what happened, saying he made the comments on the news on Friday night, “which I considered to be banter.”
I considered it to be humour, which is consistent with most things I do. You know, whether it be the Sunday Footy Show, whether it be the Morning Show here.
Jones said he was made aware on Saturday morning that the Djokovic camp was not happy at all with those comments, and “immediately contacted the Djokovic camp and issued an apology to them.”
Jones acknowledged Djokovic felt disrespected and this appears to extend to the Serbian fans.
They come here with the flags and they provide so much colour and so much passion and there was banter, so I thought what I was doing was an extension of that banter. Quite clearly that hasn’t been interpreted that way. So I do feel as though I’ve let down the Serbian fans.
