Television interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise – 29 August 2025

NATALIE BARR, HOST: For more on that, we are joined by Health Minister Mark Butler and Liberal Senator Jane Hume. Good morning. Mark, how complex was this threat of an Aussie plane being apparently hijacked and forced to fly into a hostile nation in the Middle East?
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Morning, Nat and Jane. Obviously, any report of a potential hijacking sends shivers down the spine of every Australian, particularly Australians who fly. But I want to be very cautious about this. As you've reported, Nat, this alleged hijacker is in custody, so there's no threat to the Australian community. But there's a suppression order on this for very good reason. Investigations are still underway by our intelligence and security agencies, so we don't want to speculate about other aspects of this issue. We want to let our agencies do their work and that will all come out in due course and be prosecuted in the normal way.
 
BARR: What we could do is talk about this review that's apparently going to go on into airport security. Will that involve security at regional airports, Mark?
 
BUTLER: Again, I don't want to speculate about that. I'm old enough to remember when hijackings around the world were much more common than they are today because of the level of airport security that is so common in every airport around the world. But, of course, if there's a question about that, the airport operators and Home Affairs, the department with responsibility for this at a federal level, will have those conversations. But I'm not, again, going to speculate about where that might lead.
 
BARR: Jane, what do you think should happen here? Someone is in custody, they’re before the courts, but we understand that the Foreign Minister has been briefed here.
 
SENATOR JANE HUME: I think the most important thing here is that we make sure that Australians that are flying, particularly those that are sitting in airport lounges watching this right now, can rest assured that security forces and the department are doing everything that they possibly can. There are around 18 international airports in Australia. There are hundreds and hundreds more in our regional communities. There was an incident, you'll recall, back in Avalon in March this year, and after that, there's work being done. I just want to make sure that report and its recommendations are made public and that the Government's responses to those recommendations are made public. If there are security upgrades that are necessary, well, then I think it should be very clear exactly what they are and we should make sure and hold the Government to account for funding those appropriately.
 
BARR: Okay, moving on. Veteran politician Bob Katter has been asked to apologise after he threatened a Brisbane journalist when angered by a question about his Lebanese heritage. Take a listen.
 
[Excerpt]
 
JOURNALIST: Bob, you've got Lebanese heritage yourself.
 
BOB KATTER MP: Mate, don't say that, because that irritates me and I punch blokes in the mouth for saying that.
 
JOURNALIST: I'm sure that -
 
KATTER: Don't say that, because you're a racist. You're a racist. You cannot say what you've just said without being identified as a racist.
 
[End of excerpt]
 
BARR: Mark, what's your reaction to this exchange?
 
BUTLER: I think watchers of Australian politics know that Bob Katter's a bit of a character, but that is completely unacceptable. The threat itself is unacceptable, and then the physical approach, frankly, to the journalist that your viewers just saw, it's just unacceptable in this day and age, particularly from a political leader.
 
BARR: Yeah, so when we're seeing this footage on the screen, he's pointing in the journalist's face.  And then, look at this, there is a fist and he is yelling: “I've punched blokes in the mouth for saying that.” The journalist said: “you've got Lebanese heritage yourself”, and then couldn't finish the question. Jane, what do you think should happen here?
 
HUME: Well, look, we know that Bob Katter is a colourful character, but colour is no excuse for inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour. There has to be consequences for this. You should always be able to feel safe and respected at work, journalists and politicians. The idea of threatening violence is entirely unacceptable. There must be consequences. Can you imagine if either Mark or I had done this, what the consequences would be? Now, Bob Katter is an Independent, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we don't have processes in place to deal with it. I would imagine that those new processes that have been set up, an Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission, will be looking at this very seriously.
 
BARR: Right, so that colourful character doesn't excuse the behaviour.
 
HUME: Absolutely not.
 
BARR: Okay, thank you.