Today Show

20 Nov 2015 Transcipt

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
Interview Today Show Lisa Wilkinson with Anthony Albanese
Friday 20November 2015


SUBJECT:
Paris Attacks

LISA WILKINSON: Shadow transport minister Anthony Albanese, and from Melbourne minister for industry innovation and science Christopher Pyne. Good morning to you gentlemen.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Good morning Lisa good morning Anthony

LISA WILKINSON: First up let’s take a look at comments made by attorney general George Brandis made on the today show earlier this week,

GEORGE BRANDIS: ISIL have declared war on us they have been completely unambiguous in their intention, they have been completely unambiguous in their purposes and we would be fools not to take them at their word and take whatever steps are necessary to protect our civilisation.

LISA WILKINSON: that was George Brandis now Christopher if I can start with you, George Brandis says we are at war but Malcolm Turnbull says we need to have level heads and find a political solution. Very different messages from the government, which is it?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Lisa in any conflict there are two fazes there’s the, as Franklin Roosevelt once famously said, there’s war war followed by jaw jaw, now the simple truth is that we will defeat ISIS militarily with our allies like France and the United States and others, and once that has, once they have been defeated there will need to be a period of negotiation to have a political solution in Syria into the future. In the initial stages that will include the current regime, and I think Malcolm’s point was that there may be others within Syria who have been terrorists that will form part of that solution. Just as in the same way as Israel had to make a political solution eventually with the Palestinian liberation organisation. I think neither of those messages are in conflict. They are simply a reflection of reality.

LISA WILKINSON: There has been talk of bringing Islamic State to the negotiating table, is that smart or would that be dancing with the devil Christopher?

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Well Malcolm’s made it clear overnight that there will be no negotiation with ISIS, the only solution for ISIS is to destroy that organisation entirely, they are a terrorist organisation with murderous intent so there’ll be no negotiations with ISIS and they would not form any part of a solution in Syria. And I think some people are conflating the messages that Malcolm is putting out, but he’s made it very clear overnight there will be no negotiation with ISIS.

LISA WILKINSON: Well Anthony the US, the UK, Russia, and Australia are all assisting French forces with those airstrikes on IS targets but is that going to be enough? I mean no war has ever been won by the air; will this take boots on the ground?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well certainly at the moment there is no request nor indeed a suggestion that the US indeed will have boots on the ground…

LISA WILKINSON: Yeah but there’s a thing called mission creep.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well we need to be vigilant about this and we’ll take proper advice, there’s no doubt that Malcolm Turnbull needs to be clearer in his language, and the fact that there had to be a change in his language overnight shows that that’s the case

LISA WILKINSON: There does seem to be some confusion.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well there has been and that’s unfortunate. Because it’s very clear that the Australian people are very united and we need to be bipartisan about opposing these people who want a return to barbarism. I mean these people, we are at war with these people and they would want to wind back civilisation. The attack on Paris as a symbol of liberty and advancement on mankind, and of course it followed up importantly, although it didn’t get as much publicity but it was very significant the attack on Beirut, that was the largest attack since the Lebanese civil war ended decades ago.

LISA WILKINSON: Looking at the ugliness that we’ve seen in the last weekend and with Beirut as well, we’re at a whole other level now of what war looks like. How do you think the average Australian feels about us being so involved in Middle Eastern politics? This is all something that’s been raging on the other side of the world for more than a thousand years.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well we have to be involved, I mean this is a new thing that has emerged, the Islamic state, and it is a threat these are people who won’t be satisfied with controlling one little part of the world they have an ideology that is against our very existence and way of life and we as responsible international citizens can’t just sit back and say it’s got nothing to do with us.

LISA WILKINSON: Christopher, this week IS released a propaganda video specifically targeting Australia and if we learn anything from Paris it’s that these terror cells were not picked up by intelligence surveillance is the government doing anything to try and get ahead of the same thing happening here.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Yes well absolutely we are Lisa, and sadly there is no other side of the world any more, ISIS and other terrorist organisations have made it very clear that they will strike anywhere where they can try and make fear in the western world so therefore we have to respond. And there are of course boots on the ground there are Peshmerga’s and there are Iraqi boots on the ground and we and the US and France and others are helping the Peshmerga and Iraqi forces to defeat ISIS. in terms of Australia, obviously we are working tirelessly here with our security forces we are very sophisticated in terms of our surveillance as a country we have other the last 12 months we have, I think the last time I heard in the cabinet we have cut off about half a dozen plans for doing damage here In Australia, and we need to keep doing that of course there are always the risks of lone wolf attacks in our country like we saw with the Lindt cafe attack. But the government is doing everything it can we’re certainly not penny pinching when it comes to security in Australia and we’ve been very fortunate to have such wonderful security forces and such sophisticated surveillance capacity.

LISA WILKINSON: Alright Christopher we will have to leave it there thanks very much for your time this morning Anthony, thank you as well Christopher

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: It’s a pleasure, it’s a pity it’s such a sober topic.

LISA WILKINSON: It certainly is and it’s hard to believe that this time last week none of this had happened, of course apart from Beirut. Anyway we hope you have a lovely weekend both of you. Thanks a lot. Over to you Jane.

[ends]