Senator Dean Smith – Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury – Transcript – ABC Perth Drive with Gary Adshead
Senator Dean Smith Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Liberal Senator for Western Australia TRANSCRIPT – ABC PERTH DRIVE WITH GARY ADSHEAD Topics: Federal election; anti-Semitism; Production tax credits; Nature Positive; Coalition simpler meal tax deduction for small business; Gaza. E&OE GARY ADSHEAD: Alright, let’s get to our segment, the campaign, as the Federal election heats up and Parliament is sitting. My two guests are Madeline King, the Labor Resources Minister, and Liberal Senator Dean Smith, who are in Canberra in our studio over there. Hello, you two. MADELEINE KING: Good to hear from you, Gary. It’s great to be here with Dean as well in this tiny little studio here in Canberra. DEAN SMITH: I was just sharing with Madeleine, Gary, that we are lucky we’re both Dockers’ supporters. It’s very cozy in the ABC studio here in Parliament House. GARY ADSHEAD: Ah, both Dockers’ supporters. Well, we’ve found that out about you then, haven’t we? Let’s find out some more. Hey, look, obviously question time today there was no doubt where the Opposition wanted to go with this, and that’s asking the Prime Minister questions about when he was told about the issue of the caravan which was found with explosives. Why won’t the Prime Minister just answer the question, Madeleine? MADELEINE KING: Well, I think he’s been very clear on why certain details don’t get discussed in Parliament or at press conferences, and that’s about the national security and about letting the security forces do the work they need to do to catch the people responsible for that particular incident, where there is this seemingly abandoned caravan with explosives, with hate speech on it. So, it’s pretty plain that that’s the reason why, and that makes a lot of sense. I think everyone understands that sometimes you’ve simply got to let security forces do their bit, and having Prime Ministers or Ministers or other members of Parliament just chip in without warrant or need doesn’t really help the investigators. GARY ADSHEAD: But the question is really whether or not the PM was briefed like the New South Wales Premier was, and it seems like the Prime Minister just doesn’t want to say whether he was or wasn’t. That’s what doesn’t add up here. MADELEINE KING: Well, the questions in question time, which obviously I was there for, were more about specific dates and sometimes those specifics aren’t particularly helpful. Also, not helpful for how security forces deal with future incidents like this, and briefings of members of our national security committee and, also, of course, the Prime Minister himself. GARY ADSHEAD: It won’t go away though, will it? MADELEINE KING: Well, the main priority is to catch the people responsible and make sure they pay the penalty for what fear they have created in the community. And that’s my priority. It’s certainly the government’s priority and I’m very sure that that’s the security forces priority as well. GARY ADSHEAD: Dean Smith, can you give us an idea as to why Peter Dutton and the Opposition keep pursuing this line as to when the PM was told? DEAN SMITH: Absolutely I can, Gary. Of course, I was sitting in Senate question time on the red leather and not on the green leather with Madeleine. But I think this case is a pretty simple one. At a time when we’ve seen a rising escalation of anti-Semitism in this country, in our own state, which will come as a surprise to people, we argue that there has been a lack of clear national leadership on the issue since the events of the 7th of October. That has made the situation very perilous across our country. As the national leader, Australians would expect that Anthony Albanese would take a high level of interest in these matters. Of course the speculation is this, that he did not know about the caravan incident in New South Wales for several days. People would find that unacceptable for the national leader to have not inquired, to have not been told for a number of days. And we are still yet to determine exactly how many days, about what could have been a mass casualty terrorist attack in this country. GARY ADSHEAD: That’s not his fault though, is it? That wouldn’t be his fault if he wasn’t told by the AFP or whoever might’ve been the responsible agency to tell the PM or brief them. That wouldn’t be his fault. He would be asking questions himself, wouldn’t he? I mean, he be saying why wasn’t I told? DEAN SMITH: I’m sure Peter Dutton will continue in this line of prosecution. Five questions, Peter Dutton asked the Prime Minister today, and the Prime Minister did not provide a clear answer at all. To what is a simple question. What was the date? When we know the date, we might be able to ask other sorts of questions about when the inquiries were made. What effort did you, the Prime Minister, make to make yourself more appraised of these events? So, I think at a time when we are expecting our national leadership to be hypersensitive to risks to our safety in this country, to risks that give rise to further antisemitism, this is another example we would argue of Anthony Albanese asleep at the wheel. GARY ADSHEAD: Alright now I’ve got in the Canberra studio talking to me, Madeleine King, the Labor MP for Brand, of course Resources Minister and Dean Smith, WA Liberal Senator, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury. 1-300-222-720 if you’d like to ask a question as we obviously step up the Federal election campaign, feel free to do so. I just do need to get a quick reaction from you too, because it, when we talk about the Middle East here in Australia, obviously there’s a lot of contention and there’s been a protest in the street about what happened in Gaza, et cetera. Now we do…