JAYNE AZZOPARDI, HOST: Welcome back. Australia's Jewish community has been met with a vicious tide of antisemitism on the second anniversary of the October 7th attacks. Fresh graffiti in Melbourne proclaiming glory to Hamas, while two men were arrested in Sydney accused of pointing a gun at a popular synagogue from inside a moving truck. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy and Nationals Senator Matt Canavan. Good morning to you both.
MINISTER FOR INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS, MALARNDIRRI McCARTHY: Good morning.
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: Malarndirri, incidents like this are unacceptable at any time, let alone on a date that is already causing a lot of pain to many Australians. Has the federal government failed Jewish Australians?
MINISTER McCARTHY: It's absolutely abhorrent what we've seen again in Victoria, in terms of the graffiti attack, Jayne. And no, the government has not failed. We have consistently called for a ceasefire in the Middle East. We've certainly called for the release of hostages. We have maintained that call for the last two years. What we've done here in Australia is tighten security, worked with the AFP, increased our legislative framework to ensure there is protection of the Jewish community across Australia. And we certainly are working with the new Commissioner of the AFP, Commissioner Barrett, to ensure that the AFP will do what they need to do with the Victorian police, in regard to this latest incident.
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: Matt, you heard Malarndirri there say what the government is doing, what the AFP is doing, are they doing enough?
MATT CANAVAN: Look, the problem here, Jayne, is the government just haven't acted from day one to stamp out this reprehensible incitement to violence and that's what these statements are. They are against the law. And the law should have been used. But right from the get-go, when we saw those abhorrent protests on the steps of the Sydney Opera House two years ago, both federal and state governments have failed to implement the law, and that has effectively given a green light to violent terrorist supporters within our midst. And we've seen this kind of response grow. And it's culminated here in this just reprehensible graffiti. So the government has failed here, hardly anyone has ever been charged with these crimes and people are getting away with effectively saying do it again in October, October 7th. That is illegal. Where is the government response here to find these people who have done this, charge them and set an example?
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: Well, that's the police’s job and people have been charged. I don't think it's fair to say that we've been given a green light. Well, we do know, related to this issue, there is a protest planned for the Sydney Opera House on Sunday. Malarndirri, do you think this protest should go ahead?
MINISTER McCARTHY: Well, again, that is before the courts this morning Jayne.
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: But what do you think? Should people be allowed to protest? Pro-Palestinian protesters, should they be allowed to protest at the Opera House?
MINISTER McCARTHY: We know in this country that protest is a part of democracy providing it's peaceful. But we have been very concerned in regards to the anniversary of October 7th, that all Australians, all Australians, Jayne, should be mindful of the hurt and the pain that is still being felt amongst not only the Jewish community, but those who feel very deeply about what happened on October 7th. So of course we are calling for caution. We're also calling for all Australians to recognise that we need to unite together. This is a difficult path. It is one that our government is certainly working strongly towards a two-state solution. We have said that from the get-go and we'll continue to work internationally with the international community in terms of trying to see a peaceful resolution.
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: Well, we saw recently a very large and overwhelmingly peaceful protest across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. If it is like that on Sunday, Matt, is there a problem with it happening?
MATT CANAVAN: I don't think we should let our national landmarks be used in this fashion, used by people who, as I've said, have been promoting or at least excusing terrorist acts. You can't come up here to the front of parliament house and make or do a protest, you can’t do that. There are places around here that are reserved for that. But we do restrict that here in Canberra. We keep them away from ourselves. Why can't we keep these protests away from national landmarks? Because what happens is these images are broadcast to the world and they're doing enormous damage to our country's reputation. So, I don't think anybody should be protesting like this on the anniversary of October 7th, but if it's going to happen in a democratic way that Malarndirri says it should be made, the police should make them go to places that do not use our national landmarks to prosecute their warped agenda.
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: All right I want to get to another issue now because this also affects a lot of Australians. Sussan Ley has slammed Communications Minister Anika wells over her handling of the Optus 000 outages. Matt, has the government let Optus off the hook here?
MATT CANAVAN: Well, the government's just been caught flat footed. I mean there was a recommendation 18 months ago now after a previous outage to implement legislation to protect our 000 system. What has the government been doing here? I mean this on multiple fronts, this government is very low energy. I think they need to drink a couple of red bulls and get into gear, because what is going on? Why is it taking them 18 months and only after people have died? Only after people have died to introduce this legislation?
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: It's not like there weren't warnings Malarndirri, why isn’t that watchdog in place?
MINISTER McCARTHY: I'm not sure about the red bull component, Jayne. I don't know whether Senator Canavan is still going with the Brisbane Broncos on the weekend, but I can say this that Minister Wells has pointed out to the parliament, has pointed out to your Opposition Leader, Senator Canavan, that this is a responsibility of Optus. They knew that what they had to do in regards to a report that….
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: The legislation has only just been implemented. Malarndirri why wasn't that done sooner?
MINISTER McCARTHY: Well, that's a good question. But what we're doing now is making sure that the 000 is in place, because clearly Optus didn't move ever since the recommendations that came down in 2023. And this is incumbent on Minister Wells who has reached out immediately in this instance and I think the criticisms against her were completely unfounded and completely a distraction for the Opposition Leader.
JAYNE AZZOPARDI: Well, let's hope the legislation can get through and we don't see a repeat of these Optus failures. Malarndirri and Matt, thank you for your time this morning.
MINISTER McCARTHY: Thanks, Jayne.