THE HON MARK DREYFUS KC MP
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
CABINET SECRETARY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
PARLIAMENT HOUSE
MONDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2024
SUBJECTS: Melbourne Synagogue Attack; CSIRO Nuclear Energy Report
JOURNALIST: Has the process to determine this incident as a terror attack taken too long? Were you satisfied with the timing?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL MARK DREYFUS: We need to wait for Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police to do their work. The Victoria Police are leading, they have been working around the clock on this since the early hours of Friday morning. I've got complete confidence in both the Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police and other Commonwealth agencies that they're working as hard as they can to get to the bottom of what's occurred here, the shocking incident that occurred here.
JOURNALIST: The facts being that it was an attack on a synagogue, that's clearly religiously motivated. Does it not automatically fit the definition of terrorism?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: This caused fear and distress. That's a core part of a terrorist activity. That's the comment that the Prime Minister made yesterday, and he's absolutely right that this is an event that caused fear and tremendous distress in, particularly, the Jewish community, but I would say the whole of the Australian community. We cannot have arson attacks on places of worship which is what has occurred here.
JOURNALIST: Attorney-General, just on nuclear, the CSIRO says that they maintain that nuclear will cost double what renewables will. Is that good for Labor and bad for Peter Dutton?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Well, we've got to get energy policy in this country right and not embark on fantasies like Mr Dutton and the Liberal Party are doing with a policy that would see - if they were ever to pursue it - perhaps nuclear power being delivered in Australia sometime in the 2040s and then only delivering 4% of Australia's power needs. And as the CSIRO has said, one of the most trusted organisations in Australia, more than double alternative sources of power. We need to get on and get our power network converted to renewables with firming gas in the interim, and that's the course that the Government's engaged in. Mr Dutton should stop with his nuclear fantasy.
JOURNALIST: As you say, the synagogue arson attack was designed to cause fear, it did cause immediate fear. Why then did it take so many days for the Prime Minister to call it terrorism?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: What we've got here is an ongoing investigation by Victoria Police, assisted of course by Commonwealth agencies. We need to wait and see for what the outcome of that operation is going to be. We hope very much that they are going to conclude this operation quickly. And I say again, the Prime Minister was right yesterday to say that this event caused fear and distress in the Jewish community and in the wider Australian community. What we're concerned about though, is that rather than uniting with the Government, we've seen Mr Dutton and other senior Liberals getting out there trying to divide the community. If ever there was a time for national unity in getting together all of us to set our faces against antisemitism it's now. And I'd call on every single member of the Australian Parliament and every political leader in Australia to unite against antisemitism, to say we stand together. Not looking for some temporary party petty advantage, which is what Mr Dutton seems to be doing.
JOURNALIST: Sorry, the Prime Minister said that it's terrorism, you're saying we should wait and see for the end of the investigation?
ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I'm quoting accurately what the Prime Minister said yesterday, which is that he's expressing a personal opinion, saying, of course, this event caused fear, it caused distress in the Melbourne Jewish community and in the wider Australian community. Thanks very much.
ENDS
