MICHAEL ATKINSON, HOST: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced that Labor will split their proposed antisemitism reforms in two, separating gun control legislation from hate speech.
ALISON PIOTROWSKI, HOST: For more, Health Minister Mark Butler joins us now live from Adelaide. Minister, thanks for your time this morning.
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Good morning.
PIOTROWSKI: The PM has fallen on his sword for what seems like the second time in a fortnight.
BUTLER: We released an omnibus bill last week, a week ahead of the parliamentary sittings, to allow people to have a good look at it, for a parliamentary inquiry to have a good look at it. They're reporting today or tonight, and to give us suggestions about the best possible way to ensure some unity in the Parliament. We've listened to those suggestions. We've separated out the gun control bit so the Liberal and National Party don't have to vote for that if they don't want to and it appears they don't. We've removed the racial vilification suggestion entirely in spite of the fact that was a core recommendation from a Special Envoy on Antisemitism. And we now have a particular challenge on Tuesday, and that is cracking down on hate preachers and cracking down on hate groups. Tomorrow is going to be a really important day of healing and of condolence, but Tuesday has got to be a moment of resolute action for the Parliament to respond to the worst terror attack in our history. And once and for all to crack down on these hate preachers and hate groups and give the Minister for Home Affairs more stronger powers to remove people from Australia who are on visas here spreading hate. Enough of the politics, enough of the division, it's now time for Sussan Ley and the Liberal Party to get behind what they've been calling for weeks now, and that is stronger action against hate preachers and hate groups.
ATKINSON: It doesn't sound like it is going to be the end of politics and division. We had Nationals Leader David Littleproud on the program a short time ago. Here's what he had to say, Minister.
[Excerpt]
DAVID LITTLEPROUD, LEADER OF THE NATIONAL PARTY: He's weak, he's directionless, and he's been driven by ideology. He decided to make a play that effectively said take it or leave it and when he said that he wanted to bring the country together, he has to bring the Parliament together.
[End of excerpt]
ATKINSON: So that's a pretty scathing comment from Littleproud, the Nationals Leader, about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Minister, what do you have to say in response?
BUTLER: The one thing that David Littleproud called for was to separate gun control laws out from these really important other provisions around hate preachers and hate groups and we’ve done that. We’ve listened. We said we wanted to hear suggestions at the beginning of last week. We've heard them, we've listened to them and now there really is the challenge for David Littleproud as much as Sussan Ley; are you or are you not going to support stronger action against hate groups and hate preachers? Because if there's just more division on Tuesday and not united, resolute action, the only people who win from that are hate preachers, antisemites, hate groups like the neo-Nazis. We can't see that in the wake of the worst terror attack in Australian history.
PIOTROWSKI: Minister, you were talking about the importance of tomorrow. Will the Government realistically be able to put forward two separate bills by Tuesday like the PM promised?
BUTLER: Yeah, we're very confident about that. We've had officials working on this, really, since the week after the Bondi attacks and the New South Wales Parliament has already got their laws through. The federal laws are a little bit more complicated because of constitutional issues but officials have been drafting this, consulting with legal experts and we know that on Tuesday morning we will have two bills we can introduce to the Parliament that present that opportunity for united action.
PIOTROWSKI: Okay.
BUTLER: One on gun control, which David Littleproud can vote against if he wants to, but the second really important other bill, cracking down on hate preachers, cracking down on hate groups, and we simply have to get the support of the opposition for those.
ATKINSON: Minister, we saw no Royal Commission at a federal level, a backflip on that. We've seen a push on this omnibus bill and now it's been split. Is the Prime Minister and the Government trying to hard to please everybody?
BUTLER: No, the Prime Minister and the rest of the Government are listening. These are complex laws to draft but these are also complex policy issues to come to grips with. Governments of both political persuasions have been trying for many, many years to put in place laws that crack down on these hate preachers who have been spreading and fermenting hatred for so many years now and they haven't been able to do it really in a way that stands up in court. We've had officials working right through the Christmas, New Year period very confidently giving us the laws that we think will work, giving us laws that allow us to list as prohibited groups some of the jihadist extremist groups, the neo-Nazi groups we've seen out there protesting and demonstrating outside the front of the New South Wales Parliament of all places, recruiting people to their awful causes. This is tough stuff. These are tough issues and tough laws to draft, but unapologetically, we've been listening. We’ve been listening to other political parties. We've been listening to community leaders about the best way to do this in a way that really engenders national unity, not more division.
PIOTROWSKI: I mean, this is supposed to be about the safety of the Jewish community. Where does that sit today? Have you and the Prime Minister been talking to the Envoy? Have you been speaking to the Jewish community since we saw the PM backflip yesterday?
BUTLER: Of course, those discussions have been happening day in, day out since that awful terrorist attack, and before it, for that matter, but particularly since then. We said that we'd implement the report of the Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal in full. Unfortunately, one of those recommendations was for a stronger racial vilification provision in federal laws. We've had to remove that because we don't have the support of Sussan Ley and David Littleproud or the Greens for that matter for that. We've had to remove that to maximise the chance of unity here. But of course, our principal focus is to ensure the safety of Jewish Australians in the wake of this big spike in antisemitism we've seen over the last couple of years and of course that awful terror attack in Bondi. But this is about the safety of Australians more broadly. Cracking down on these hate groups and hate preachers once and for all. Kicking out people on visas who have the privilege of being in this terrific country but are here spreading hatred. We need stronger powers for our Minister to be able to do that as well, and Tuesday is the day to do that.
ATKINSON: Minister, we appreciate you coming on the program. We know it's a big week when Parliament resumes early this week. So all the best with what's to come.