Wong denies Australia is at war in the Middle East
Jumping back to her interview on RN Breakfast, Sally Sara asks Penny Wong if Australia is now at war, due to its military involvement in the Middle East.
Wong has previously said Australia is supporting the “collective defence” of Gulf nations under attack.
This morning she again highlights the scale of Australians who call the Middle East home.
We are dealing with the requests, including from the UAE. Our first priority is to protect Australians at home and abroad. And we made a decision to respond to the United Arab Emirates for a request for defensive capability. And we were very conscious when we did that, first, that not only are they defending their citizens, but they’re defending our citizens. They’re defending Australians who are in the United Arab Emirates or, in fact, many of the other Gulf countries.
Asked whether Australia’s support for the UAE could make us a target, Wong says Iran has already targeted Australia – after Asio found at least two antisemitic attacks were orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Iranian regime has never needed provocation. The Iranian regime conducted attacks on Australian soil whilst we still had a diplomatic relationship with them.
Key events
In pictures: the Nationals walk into party room for leadership vote
Sarah Basford Canales
Greens attempt to suspend standing order in Senate
Over in the Senate, Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi attempted to suspend the standing orders over a motion to note the “dangerous normalisation and escalation of anti-Muslim hate in political rhetoric, media commentary and public discourse”.
The motion comes as we near the seventh anniversary of the Christchurch mosque massacre, which is also recognised as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
Faruqi said:
The use of language and rhetoric to distort, diminish, dehumanise and demonise us has only escalated. The prime minister will happily turn up at Ramadan festivals and markets and use us as video props for his performative solidarity. But … when it comes to standing unequivocally against Islamophobia, taking action to protect Muslims, acting in urgency, there is absolutely no movement.
The Labor senator, Murray Watt, stood up afterwards to say:
Well, yet again, we see the Greens political party focus on launching political attacks over their political enemies over social cohesion. This motion that has been tabled by senator Faruqi was first circulated minutes before we began today, demonstrating that the Greens political party had no intention of working with anyone else in this chamber to seek agreement. This government strongly resists and opposes Islamophobia, and I encourage anyone to look at the government’s record to see the evidence of that … If the Greens political party want, in future, to seek to work with us, rather than dump a motion on us just before we begin, we’d be happy to discuss with them.
The motion was ultimately voted down by the major parties and the Senate moved on.
Nationals meet to vote on new leader
The Nationals are walking into their party room to decide on a new leader.
So far, deputy leader Kevin Hogan, and senators Bridget McKenzie and Matt Canavan have put their hat in the ring.
David Littleproud, who resigned as leader yesterday saying he was “buggered”, walks into the room alone. As does McKenzie.
The meeting starts at 10am.
House of Representatives begins voting on migration bill amendments
Over in the House this morning, the crossbench are moving multiple amendments to the government’s migration bill.
So far they don’t have the support of the government or the Coalition.
The Coalition met with the government to discuss the bill this morning, and will support it.
Tony Burke was asked this morning why the government is moving so quickly to get this legislation through, after introducing it yesterday and calling a snap Senate inquiry hearing. He said:
The moment you announce this sort of legislation is there, you get a potential behavioural change, you get a potential window where people say, well, if I was going to come for a permanent reason, better get in there quickly. And so you can actually create the opposite problem if legislation goes slowly, and I’ve been grateful to the opposition for the conversations quietly we’ve been able to have while we made a decision.
Iranian women’s football team arrives in Kuala Lumpur
After their departure from Sydney airport, the Iranian women’s football team have been spotted at Kuala Lumpur airport on their way back to Iran.
Andrew Messenger
Electorates to be stripped of Aboriginal names in Qld draft redistribution
Two Queensland electorates would be abolished, and 19 renamed under a draft redistribution plan released by the state’s independent commission yesterday.
Several electorates would be stripped of Aboriginal names, including Maiwar (to become Indooroopilly) and Oodgeroo (to become Cleveland). The electorate of Cook, named after Capt James Cook, will retain the name.
The Queensland redistribution commission said it would “resume the longstanding practice of naming electorates after geographical places”, and “rename electorates which were named after persons or have geographical place names that lack voter recognition or are no longer suitable”.
Bancroft would become Deception Bay, Miller Annerley, Bonney Labrador, Nicklin Nambour, Bundamba Redbank, Ninderry Coolum, Chatsworth Carindale, Oodgeroo Cleveland, Coomera Pimpama, Scenic Rim Beaudesert, Cooper Ashgrove, Theodore Oxenford, Jordan Greenbank, Toohey Eight Mile Plains, Macalister Beenleigh, Traeger Flinders, Maiwar Indooroopilly, Waterford Marsden and McConnel would become Brisbane Central
New electorates are proposed to be created; Caboolture north of Brisbane and Springfield in the city’s south.
The north Queensland electorate of Hill, held by the Katters’ Australian Party, would be abolished, absorbed into three neighbouring electorates, and the Labor-held southern Brisbane seat of Stretton would be amalgamated into Algester and Eight Mile Plains.
7,000 Iranians not in Australia hold visitor visas
Tony Burke has been forced to defend the government’s decision to introduce legislation that would block people from Iran coming to Australia on tourist visas during the outbreak of the Middle East conflict.
He says there are currently 7,000 visitor visas held by Iranians that “are not currently here”. The bill would allow the government to temporarily block them from arriving.
The bill was introduced on the same day that five Iranian women’s football players were granted humanitarian visas.
Burke says that the government does currently have the power to cancel visas but only on an individual basis, and says, “I want the decisions about who comes here permanently to be deliberate decisions made by the Australian government, not an accident of who was coming here for a holiday.”
If you sought a visa at a time that your country was not a war zone, and then it becomes a war zone, there are visas out there that in the current context we would not have issued.
For most of the Middle East, there has not actually been enough of a change that it would cause my officials to say what was previously viewed as a temporary visa would no longer be. The fact that it’s a conflict zone doesn’t completely change that equation. Certainly it does with respect to Iran. The number of Iranian visitor visas at the moment is lower than it had been at historic highs. And you would understand, particularly after decisions which [we] took last year, why my department has been more cautious. And there are some people who used to be able to get visitor visas who are no longer able to get them.
Burke addresses reports one Iranian player tried to refuse getting on plane
Tony Burke confirms there was one person who got on the plane in Sydney later than anyone else, but it was because they were having conversations with their family overseas.
The home affairs minister says he and the department were facilitating the overseas calls but that there was “no pressure” for that person to get on the plane or not.
There was one person where conversations with family were happening, and we weren’t sure which way that person would go. That individual, though, ultimately made their own decision.
There is a lot of work, including me sending messages back and forth from my plane, trying to find the right numbers, and ultimately getting somebody to call the Home Affairs number from overseas so that the conversation could happen. But the people who that individual wanted to talk to were all made available.
Burke says the department made sure that person had complete agency over their decision as they facilitated the phone calls with their family members.
Burke says some members of Iranian delegation were not offered visas
Tony Burke says the two Iranian women who requested asylum from the government were reunited with the five players who had been granted humanitarian visas.
As Penny Wong said this morning, the other players were also given time individually to meet with department of home affairs representatives, and given the opportunity to seek asylum. But he adds that not everyone in the delegation was given an interview.
Burke says the government worked with security agencies and confirmed anyone with a connection to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps were not granted visas.
As the full delegation went through customs and immigration, people were separated, they were given a chance, each player and each member of the team, with the exception of a small number of people, where we had made the decision that we did not want to make a direct offer to them, but all the players remaining and most of the support people were taken into interview rooms without any minders present, simply themselves and the Department of Home Affairs and an interpreter, and they were given a choice in that situation. What we made sure of was there was no rushing, there was no pressure.
There were some people leaving Australia who I am glad they’re no longer in Australia.
Burke says all seven Iranians are now on humanitarian visas, and are on a “resolution of status” pathway where they will be granted permanent visas.
Two more Iranian football team members granted asylum
Tony Burke is speaking to reporters in Canberra and says two more women (after the five who were granted humanitarian visas yesterday) requested assistance from the government to seek asylum.
Burke says the two women were separated from their minders and the rest of the group and met with federal police in a location attached to Brisbane airport, before the home affairs minister met with them.
Burke says:
When I met with them, I made them the same offer that I had made the five players the night before, and that was that if they wanted to receive a humanitarian visa for Australia, which would have a pathway to a permanent visa … I had the paperwork ready to execute that immediately. They both said that they did. I signed off on that.
Clive Palmer makes a fresh run for parliament
Not content with funding millions of dollars to not win any seats, billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer is announcing today that he’ll be running for the House of Representatives at the next election.
Get ready to see a fresh bout of big yellow posters near you.
Palmer won the seat of Fairfax in Queensland in 2013 against now shadow foreign affairs minister Ted O’Brien. He won by just 53 votes after a recount (where his scrutineers challenged many of the votes, dragging the recount on for four weeks).
Palmer says he’ll be making the announcement at 11:30am today.
Wong denies Australia is at war in the Middle East
Jumping back to her interview on RN Breakfast, Sally Sara asks Penny Wong if Australia is now at war, due to its military involvement in the Middle East.
Wong has previously said Australia is supporting the “collective defence” of Gulf nations under attack.
This morning she again highlights the scale of Australians who call the Middle East home.
We are dealing with the requests, including from the UAE. Our first priority is to protect Australians at home and abroad. And we made a decision to respond to the United Arab Emirates for a request for defensive capability. And we were very conscious when we did that, first, that not only are they defending their citizens, but they’re defending our citizens. They’re defending Australians who are in the United Arab Emirates or, in fact, many of the other Gulf countries.
Asked whether Australia’s support for the UAE could make us a target, Wong says Iran has already targeted Australia – after Asio found at least two antisemitic attacks were orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The Iranian regime has never needed provocation. The Iranian regime conducted attacks on Australian soil whilst we still had a diplomatic relationship with them.
Marles denies Australia involved in offensive action in Iran
Despite an escalation of Australia’s involvement in the Middle East, with the government yesterday announcing it would deploy an E-7A Wedgetail military surveillance aircraft and missiles for the United Arab Emirates, Labor still maintains it’s not involved in attacks.
Richard Marles, the deputy prime minister and defence minister, told 2GB this morning that the UAE has a “close and friendly” relationship with Australia, and the action has been to protect the Gulf nations under attack by Iran.
It is defence, and it’s defensive of the Gulf states … We were very much acting at the request specifically of the United Arab Emirates. It had been under sustained attack by Iran from the moment that this conflict began and yet the UAE has not been a protagonist against Iran at all, and that’s the case for 10 other countries in the region.
Iran has sought to widen this conflict, attack its neighbours simply because it can, and we obviously condemn that in the strongest possible terms.
Wong defends bill to block temporary visas from Middle East
Moving to ABC RN Breakfast, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, defends the government’s decision to introduce a bill to stop people from some countries travelling to Australia on some temporary visas and seeking to stay permanently because of the Middle East war.
Host, Sally Sara, points out that the bill to block people from countries including Iran was introduced the same day that the government announced it had offered humanitarian visas to the five Iranian football players.
Wong says, “the legislation doesn’t apply to humanitarian visas”.
This is true – the legislation states it doesn’t apply to humanitarian visas and has a few exceptions for people who have dependent children in Australia or who are immediate family of Australian citizens.
But there’s still a question mark over the timing of the announcement. Wong says:
I know that there’s been some political criticism, but it should be based on fact. It’s not legislation which targets humanitarian visas. It’s legislation which enables us to manage temporary visas … We have to work out how we manage our borders in a context of a very large-scale event. There are arrangements within the legislation, I think what [Tony Burke] describes as safeguards, so if people’s entry is genuinely required, we think it’s appropriate they can still come.
Australia has ‘considered a range of requests’: Wong on Middle East
The foreign minister is walking a tight line as the government faces questions on how long Australia will remain in the Middle East conflict, what action it will take, and whether support for Gulf nations will increase.
Yesterday the prime minister announced the government was sending an E-7A Wedgetail surveillance plane and missiles to the United Arab Emirates in a defensive capacity for Gulf nations facing strikes from Iran.
Penny Wong told journalists in the press gallery corridor earlier that the “initial deployment” of the aircraft, which will have 85 personnel on board, will be for four weeks.
The initial deployment is for four weeks, and obviously we will see what happens as this conflict continues. We hope that the countries of the region can find a way to get to a greater level of stability and calm, obviously, that requires Iran to stop attacking the countries of the region.
Wong and the government have continued to state that the future of the Iranian government is for the Iranian people and that there are no examples of “regime change being able to be successfully and sustainably implemented externally.”
On ABC News Breakfast, Wong is asked if Australia has been asked to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Wong said that the government has received a range of requests:
We’ve considered a range of requests, and the capability we have deployed is the one that we announced yesterday.
Bridget McKenzie will run for the Nationals leadership
Bridget McKenzie will put her hat in the ring, alongside Matt Canavan and Kevin Hogan, to replace David Littleproud who announced his resignation from the leadership yesterday afternoon.
Littleproud said he would remain in the party, either on the backbench or in the shadow ministry, but said he was “buggered” and wanted to spend more time with his family.
In a statement on Instagram, McKenzie confirmed her intention, and thanked people for the “wave of support I have received from across the country overnight.”
The Nationals have long been the strong voice of regional Australians and if successful I commit to working every day, using all my experience, energy and drive to secure the future of our great country.
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