Topics: Royal Commission into the Bondi attack, cartoon in Nine newspapers, Venezuela, Donald Trump’s comments about Greenland, Ukraine.

 

E&OE

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

I want to go now to the Shadow Defence Minister, Angus Taylor. Angus, thanks for your time. I just wanted to start with your reaction. The Prime Minister had not attended a funeral for one of the Bondi victims until today. He had said previously he would attend if he was invited. Your reaction?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

I think that the bigger issue here, Trudy, is we don't want it to happen at all. We didn't want it to happen at all. We certainly don't want it to be repeated. And we need a government that's going to take action to prevent a repeat and learn from what went wrong here. It's tragic. It's seriously tragic that we've had this succession of funerals. I think it's been incredibly sad for families and the community. And most importantly, now we've got to learn what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future, and that means having a Royal Commission.

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

It seems like the Prime Minister is about to do a U-turn and greenlight that Royal Commission. I'm told it's not likely to happen today in terms of that announcement. If it does happen, though, will you give the Prime Minister credit for listening to the community and changing his mind despite mounting multiple differing reasons as to why one shouldn't have happened?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

He hasn’t done it yet, and we want him to do it, Trudy. I think it's just incredibly important that critical questions here are answered, and there are many unanswered questions about how this happened and how to prevent it again in the future. Why we've had this upsurge – and a sustained upsurge – of antisemitism, why radical Islamism and radicalisation has been occurring in our country in the way that it has. And we need answers to those questions. We need them, obviously, as soon as possible. But most importantly, why is it that a Prime Minister has been dragged kicking and screaming to this point, where he still hasn't announced it, but I think there are real legitimate questions about what he is trying to hide here.

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

How broad do you think the terms of reference should be for this Royal Commission? We saw Opposition Leader, Sussan Ley, laying out a framework as to what she believes should happen. Would it be better to have a more narrower inquiry so we could get back recommendations quickly, so governments can actually act?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

We've laid out what we think the terms of reference are, as you rightly pointed out, Trudy. But the important point here is all these critical questions need to be answered. And there are many of them. I've already posed a number of those. So, we need answers. The community needs answers. The families need answers. And we need to ensure we don't have a repeat. And it has to be broad enough to ensure that is the case.

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

Would you like to see, in terms of a Royal Commission, is this about getting the Prime Minister, ministers on the dock as a part of a Royal Commission? Are you concerned about the potential drafting of how this goes out, that some of that might happen behind closed doors?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

If ministers have done things that have impacted the outcomes, or if they need to do things to prevent repetition, that should be canvassed; there’s no doubt about that. I think the idea that ministers would be exempt from any evaluation or investigation of the Royal Commission would make it an ineffective Royal Commission. What that shows, we don’t know, I meant that’s the point, we need answers to those questions, and ministers shouldn’t be exempt.

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

No clarity at this stage, we’ll see if we get an announcement in coming days. I wanted to get your reaction to some of your colleagues speaking out about a cartoon in the Nine newspapers today. Sarah Henderson, Leah Blythe both condemning this cartoon. If you can put it on our screen for our viewers to see it here. By Cathy Wilcox, the inference here that Israel's Prime Minister, you can see in the bottom right-hand corner, is orchestrating the calls we've seen in recent weeks to have a Royal Commission. What's your reaction?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

I have a similar view. I mean, I really think it's not in good taste. And frankly, it is in line with sort of the antisemitism we've seen over long periods of time, where there's this idea that there's a puppet master approach by Israel, or in this case, the Prime Minister of Israel. Seriously, I mean, we don't need this kind of contribution right now. We need as a country to condemn, universally, the antisemitism that we have seen since October 7. And to be honest, we've seen some of it before then, for many years, but it needs to be condemned unconditionally. And we need to deal with the radical Islamism that has led to this kind of outcome. And I think it's important that major newspapers in this country be aligned with that.

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

Angus Taylor, as the Shadow Defence Minister, I wanted to ask you about the fallout of Venezuela. We've seen the US President, Donald Trump's now making threats towards Greenland, the White House saying military options are on the table. Would you urge our closest security partner to take a step back here, and not even make threats towards what is essentially its NATO alliance?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Donald Trump says a lot. You know that, Trudy. He talks a lot, and occasionally, he will say things that are well beyond the bounds of what he ever intends to do. But look, I take him on what he does. What he's done is made an intervention in Venezuela against an industrial-scale criminal enterprise that was led by the president. And that is an intervention that I can support, we can support, because, frankly, he's [Maduro] driven Venezuela into the ground. He's selling drugs to the world, killing people in the process, frankly. He's an illegitimate leader; he has not accepted the outcome of democratic processes. So, I can completely understand why the Americans have made this intervention, and I support it.

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

And a quick final one on Ukraine. We've seen some progress overnight, the UK and France attending this meeting in Paris, agreeing to this framework of the Coalition of the Willing, as they're calling it. Once a peace deal is struck, they're saying British troops could go on the ground in Ukraine. Is that something that Australia should commit to as well?

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Obviously, it would be something that needs to be considered. There's no specific proposal on the table, certainly that I've seen at least. And so it's very hard to comment on a hypothetical at this point. But I think we all want to see peace. We all want to see resolution. And I think it's important we support the Ukraine in getting back to where it should be. And that's certainly our position. I think we'll wait and see something specific before we make any specific comments, Trudy.

 

TRUDY MCINTOSH:

 

Defence Minister Angus Taylor, appreciate your time. Thank you.

 

ANGUS TAYLOR:

 

Good to be with you.

 

ENDS.