Terrorism; energy;
Prime Minister
KARL STEFANOVIC: PM good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER: G'day Karl.
STEFANOVIC: Nice to see you this morning. Can you do this legally?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, of course. What we’re doing is that where we have the reasonable belief someone is a citizen of another country as well as Australia - and that could be because they were born overseas or they inherited it by descent, as we saw many Australians actually are citizens of other countries by descend - if you are convicted of a terrorist offence you lose your Australian citizenship. That’s what we can do, that’s what the law will be. It won't be if you have a sentence of six years as it currently is, all you have to do is be convicted, citizenship gone.
STEFANOVIC: I don't feel sorry for them at all. But I just wonder, there are always questions about legalities surrounding these sort of things. You are trying to push for a change but you don't know if it works legally at this point.
PRIME MINISTER: I absolutely believe it does and we have that ability to do that under our law. That's what we should be doing. We need to toughen these laws up and people need to know if you commit a crime, not just against fellow Australians, a violent crime, but against Australia, the country that gave you your liberty, then that will be taken from you.
STEFANOVIC: You would know the Law Council has warned attempts to strip potential terrorists of their citizenship could breach international obligations by leaving people like that stateless.
PRIME MINISTER: Of course they would, those who oppose these laws always say this. I dealt with that when I was Immigration Minister and they said I couldn't turn back boats and they said that wasn't legal. Well you know, they make all these claims, but what I do is press on and I just get it done.
STEFANOVIC: So you are not worried about it at all?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, some are suggesting you might be capitalising on people's fears, is that the case?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I'm keeping Australians safe. Those who often say that, don't want me to address these issues. They want to provide excuses for others not to address those issues. I'm not going to give them those excuses, I'm going to keep Australians safer.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, so how would these laws have prevented attacks like Bourke Street?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, what it meant in this case is, that individual, if they had a citizenship of another country and they had actually survived the attack, in that case they would have had their citizenship stripped. I mean, Australians need to understand that they just can't operate with some sort of leave pass on all of this. But I mean, there are cases before the courts and will be before the courts where people do have citizenship, we believe, of another country. Then, they would be facing that sanction as well. It's not one measure, it's all the measures.
That's why I've been calling out extremist, violent radical Islam as being a real threat to religion in this country and religious extremism. It's the biggest religious extremism threat we have in this country. We’ve got to call that out because we’ve all got a job to try and do something about that. I've got one, the federal police have got one, ASIO have got one, but so do communities. I know many of them do just that, but we need to do more because we need to be safer.
STEFANOVIC: What happens, given an example of someone who perpetrates a crime, you send them home, what happens if the country they also have dual citizenship with, doesn't want them in their country?
PRIME MINISTER: If they have got citizenship of that country we will just deport them there. That's what we do. We do it now. We do it for others who we deport back, who commit crimes in Australia. We cancel their visas and deport them. They would fall into this category, just like someone who was on a visa who has committed a crime; once they get out of jail they get on a plane and we send them home.
STEFANOVIC: The Bourke Street attacker was known to police, his passport was cancelled in 2015 over plans to travel to Syria. Three years later he has killed an innocent man in an act of terror. Why did it take a tragedy of this magnitude for something to change?
PRIME MINISTER: Things are always changing. We have had ten separate pieces of terrorist legislation, national security legislation go in and 15 attacks have been thwarted. Seven have gone forward, that's true. That's why I'm saying that the police and others can do so much, but what we need is ensuring that within communities themselves we are getting the intelligence that is necessary to prevent these attacks. On 15 occasions that has proved to be successful. I think that is a very strong record for Australia. The level of cooperation we have is outstanding between state and federal authorities. That's what has been keeping Australians more often safe.
STEFANOVIC: My biggest concern - and I fully respect the work that ASIO does, fully and completely respect - there are 400 terrorists in our country being monitored by ASIO. What do we do? Wait, watch and hope it doesn't happen again?
PRIME MINISTER: What happens is you are constantly looking at things that might be triggering someone to get into a higher risk category. One of the other things I announced yesterday is orders which prevent foreign fighters coming back to Australia. They would have to get an exclusion order put on them if they were to come back and would basically have to live like they are under parole. It would be illegal for them to enter the country again without permission. We are stopping people coming back who have been over there fighting with terrorists against Australia's interests, against Australia, and back here we are taking stronger position on the laws, so if you are convicted of a terrorist offence it doesn't matter how long the sentence is, we will take your citizenship away.
STEFANOVIC: Why don't you support an NEG given you said it would lower prices?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Bill Shorten, they haven't learned, the pink batts. What happened last time we let the Labor Party come and put something in your house? I mean, roofs burned down for goodness sake. They’ve learned nothing, absolutely nothing.
STEFANOVIC: You said repeatedly, with respect, you said repeatedly time after time than an NEG would lead to lower prices.
PRIME MINISTER: With a 26 per cent target, not a 45 per cent target. This is the point Karl; a 45 per cent target is reckless. It will shut down industries all around the country. And on these batteries, he told you yesterday they would cost $10,000. We know that the Tesla battery costs over $20,000. I mean, what families in Australia on the incomes they are talking about have a lazy $10,000 or $20,000 hanging around to go and put these things in?
STEFANOVIC: Do you at least concede you've got to do more?
PRIME MINISTER: On electricity prices, always. I totally agree, I totally agree. That's why we are taking the strong position we are with the big electricity companies.
Bill Shorten says he won't work with us to actually put the wood on the electricity companies to get their prices down. He is not going to vote for legislation that gives us divestment powers, he is not going to support us in taking a tougher approach with big electricity companies. That's the approach we are taking and we are putting the wood on them and we want to see those prices come down. What he is saying is going to put prices up. Electricity prices will be higher under Labor.
STEFANOVIC: I'm seeing you later - on the subject of electricity and things being heated - I'm seeing you for a charity game of cricket at Kirribilli. I hear you are generously opening the cellar for Fitzy, Wippa and myself.
PRIME MINISTER: That’s true.
STEFANOVIC: We look forward to that, it advances women's cricket in disadvantaged countries, a great cause.
PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Karl.