Television interview – Sunrise | Prime Minister of Australia
NATALIE BARR, HOST: Joining me now from his Parliament House office is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Nat.
BARR: This is obviously very unnerving news for the whole world, isn’t it, Prime Minister? Decades of tension in the Middle East exploding. How’s Australia going to respond?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this was an absolute shock not just for Israel, but for the whole world. This is the most devastating day that we’ve seen for fifty years. We know that more than six hundred Israelis were killed, that civilians were targeted. The capturing of people and taking them back to Gaza represents an extraordinary action by Hamas. And Israel, of course, has a right to defend itself and it will. For people concerned about relatives or friends, I do want to take the opportunity to give a number where they can call for assistance, which is 1300 555 135. That’s 1300 555 135. because so many Australians will, of course, have friends and relatives who are there, as well as citizens of the world visiting the region.
BARR: Yeah. Do you know of any of Australians being caught up in these attacks?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are working on a twenty-four hour basis to identify if any Australians have been caught up and to work with Israeli officials as well. The Foreign Minister, our Foreign Minister, spoke to the Israeli Foreign Minister overnight. We are in constant contact. I’ve spoken with the Ambassador, the Israeli Ambassador to Australia, who’s there in Israel, and we will continue to do what we can to monitor the situation. Of course, one of the issues here, there are still some of the Hamas fighters who entered into Israel being rounded up. There were more than a thousand entered Israel, either by land or we saw the extraordinary kites basically flying in, motorised air vehicles, travelling into Israel to carry out these deadly attacks. And people going about their lives, including young people at a dance rave, being murdered and being rounded up and captured. It is quite an extraordinary situation. And Australia does stand with Israel about this dreadful attack.
BARR: Yeah. This is one of the most fortified borders in the world. We have intelligence services around the Western world listening in. How did the world miss this, Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, of course there will come a time for assessment of those issues and I’m sure that that will take place. The task at the moment is to deal with the immediate crisis. The immediate crisis of thousands have been injured, we know as well that there have been hundreds of deaths in Gaza now as a result of the response. But Hamas bears responsibility for what has occurred here. This was a shock attack, obviously planned over a long period of time to get more than a thousand people to cross into Israel with the coordinated activity that occurred across more than twenty locations and with deadly force. And what was occurring here, of course, was the targeting of civilians. And we urge, of course, at all times, the targeting of civilians is just reprehensible and that is what has occurred here. And we urge, of course, Hamas to stop these attacks, but we also understand that Israel will defend itself. We, of course, urge all forces to not target civilians, to do what they can. But we are facing an unprecedented situation here.
BARR: We have seen hundreds gather in Western Sydney overnight, praising, celebrating these attacks, calling it a day of victory in Lakemba. What’s your response to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there’s no victory here. There’s no victory with the slaughter of innocent people. There’s just a real downside for humanity and we need to value every life. And this attack was reprehensible and we condemn it.
BARR: Let’s return home now. Obviously, one big issue on the agenda this week here, Australia votes in the Voice to Parliament. The referendum’s this Saturday. An exclusive Seven News viewer poll has revealed that seventy-two per cent of people are set to vote No. Is it all over for the Yes campaign?
PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. We have five days to go in which people have the opportunity to examine what’s before them with this referendum. Answering the request from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be recognised in our constitution, in our nation’s founding document, and through a non-binding advisory committee, a Voice, so that we can listen to Indigenous Australians in order to get better outcomes. That is what is on the ballot paper on Saturday, and I’m sincerely hoping that when Australians examine what the question is, that they will vote Yes to, as the Uluru statement invites, to walk together to that better future that Indigenous Australians deserve.
BARR: Prime Minister, at the start of all this, the polls were good, they were in your favour. They have just crashed over the last couple of months. When you look back, what could you have done better?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I’m focused on Saturday. We know when I stood up and spoke about these issues that it’s hard to get a referendum up in Australia. But if you don’t run on the field, I think I said at the time, then you don’t win the Grand Final. We’re on the field, we’re taking up the request of Indigenous Australians. This has been around for a long period of time. This has been more than a decade in the making, most of which occurred under the former coalition government. It is unfortunate that there’s not bipartisan support in this referendum, but what we’ll continue to do is to put the positive argument that is there for Yes, because No equals more of the same. And we have an eight year life expectancy gap, we have a greater chance of Indigenous young male going to jail than university.
BARR: We know they are terrible stats but you are on the field, but you hobbled. It’s like half the team’s been subbed off. This is a disaster, isn’t it? And also for your leadership, you stood there on election night and said, I’m hanging my hat on this.
PRIME MINISTER: This is about an idea, not an individual. And what this is, is the idea that have come up with –
BARR: Yeah, but you stood there and one of the first things you and Penny Wong mentioned on election night was this.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely. I didn’t mention it on election night, I mentioned it dozens and dozens of times beforehand. As did Scott Morrison before the 2019 election, as did John Howard before the 2007 election. Natalie, this constitutional recognition of our first Australians has been spoken about for decades. We are giving Australians the opportunity to bring the country together, to vote Yes on Saturday, which will have no downside. Just like the apology to Stolen Generations had no downside, only upside. There’s everything to gain here and nothing to fear. It’s easy to run a fear campaign, it’s easy to run misinformation about this because most Australians don’t sit and have the constitution by their bedside table. But the point is here, this is an opportunity to take the country forward and it is a modest request, just recognition and a non-binding advisory committee so that we get better results.
BARR: Prime Minister, thanks for your time today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Natalie.