TRANSCRIPT - TODAY SHOW, SYDNEY - TUESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2025

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW

TODAY SHOW, SYDNEY

TUESDAY, 16 DECEMBER 2025

SUBJECTS: Bondi attack, Minister in Bondi, Gun Law reform

SARAH ABO: All right. Well, we did just mention that Tony Burke was coming up. He joins us live now. Good morning to you, Minister. You had a bit of a rocky start to the tributes that we're seeing here yesterday when you were here, you were heckled; as you left, people were shouting things at you like "shame". Is that how you're feeling today? 

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, TONY BURKE: It’s very raw across Australia right now. Certainly, last night when the Police Commissioner and I went in to lay a wreath, it's very raw for people, and that's understood. There was a little bit of heckling when we first arrived, at the police themselves and then as I left, as you've reported, there were a couple of people who followed me to my car. It was still important that I be there. It was still important as a Minister in the government that I be there, that I go to the scene, and that with the Police Commissioner we both lay that wreath.

Australians everywhere are looking at something that they don't recognise as Australia, and we are in a moment right now where the importance of national unity has never been stronger. What happened was hateful, what happened was an attack on Australia, and what happened was an attempt to make Jewish Australians feel unwelcome here, and if you'd look at the response across the nation, the views that do not belong are the bigoted views of the people holding those guns.

KARL STEFANOVIC: In July this year, your government were provided with 49 recommendations to combat antisemitism. Have you implemented any of them?

BURKE: Yeah, we've been implementing a whole series of them, and haven't delayed in any way any of them being…

STEFANOVIC: Jillian Segal's recommendations…

BURKE:  …I'm referring specifically to them. You'll see there the calls for things like doxing to be made illegal, which we've done. You'll see in the report wanting to strengthen our laws on hate crimes. We've now got the toughest laws at a federal level on hate crimes we've ever had in terms of hate crimes that have been involved in fuelling violence. You'll see the recommendations about the disgust at the willingness of people to perform a Nazi salute or to use hate symbols. Those symbols, those gestures are now illegal under federal law. You'll see in the report the demands for visa processing to be taken into account not simply whether someone's acted illegally, but whether someone's acting in a bigoted way.

You'll see only about a week ago that someone who attended that Nazi, anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic protest out the front of the New South Wales Parliament was deported from Australia. He objected, he said he hadn't broken any law. My position was, I did not care whether the protest had been something that had been broken up by the police or not. My view was that if you're in Australia on a visa, you are here as a guest, and if you want to turn up to a demonstration saying that Jewish Australians don't belong here, then you can leave Australia. All of those things specifically called for—   

STEFANOVIC: I'm a little bit confused, because Jillian Segal was on the radio yesterday saying that you haven't, that she hasn't even heard from you, that the report's been on the Prime Minister's desk for six months now, and you've done nothing. So, what, you vehemently deny that?

BURKE: I don't think you'll find Jillian saying that she hasn't heard from us; the last time I spoke to Jillian Segal was yesterday, and we talk to each other regularly. What she's referring to there is wanting to get a complete list of casting into the future how we'll deal recommendation by recommendation, and that is something that the government will do. But in terms of waiting for that part of it—   

STEFANOVIC: But how long will that take?

BURKE: That won't take long, but can I just say on that, that you don't wait for that part before you start responding in terms of the actions that have an impact on antisemitism, and the actions that make expressions of hate unlawful in Australia. We've been changing the law, and where we have laws, we've been using the laws that we have available.

ABO: Minister, the problem, you would have just heard, of course, we spoke to Victoria, her father was shot here on Sunday. The community is seething. The Jewish community has been warning the government about an imminent attack of the very nature that we saw. No one wanted it to happen, but they say they are surprised. And they blame you. She accused you of treason, she accused you and the government of treason, not looking after the Jewish community and the Australian community as a whole. How do you respond to that, because they feel as though they have been left out.

BURKE: If I start with this, that where things are so raw, the last thing I'm going to do is be in an argument with someone who's gone through that with their parent, and I was listening to the interview while I was waiting to come on, so I've heard every word of it.

Can I say the government has never flinched on the principle that people have a right to feel safe and to be safe in Australia and that antisemitism is an evil that needs to be stamped out. We as a nation thought that this was something that we would never see in Australia, and what has happened, not only in Australia, but in other parts of the world, we have seen an emboldenment and an ugly face of bigotry against Jewish people, and particularly against Jewish people here in Australia. But when you ask the question, "What has the government done", the comments I'm making now are just as strong as we have been making every step of the way during this. The actions that are being called for we have been taking more and more actions and gone further than any previous Australian Government. The laws that I referred to with respect to the Nazi salute, with respect to hate symbols, they never existed in Australia until this government…

STEFANOVIC: …Tony, you've confirmed that Naveed Akram came to the attention of ASIO in October 2019. I mean, there were warning signs there. How does someone like that still able to retain a gun licence, and I know you're looking at those laws, but how does that happen; someone on the radar is still able to have a gun licence?

BURKE: I think one part of what you're referring to there, Karl, refers to the son, and the gun licence refers to the father, so I think you're talking about two different people with respect to that in terms of what happened. But can I also say what ASIO have been…  

ABO: …He still had access to guns though, that's the point.

BURKE: I hear what you're saying, and there's a separate issue as to whether or not within family groups how this is looked at. There is another issue which National Cabinet dealt with yesterday about once a gun licence is issued how regularly it needs to be renewed. These licences should not be something where security checks are done at the start and then not revisited.

Someone living in an area like Bonnyrigg in Western Sydney, how on earth there is a reason for someone living there to need have multiple guns is just beyond belief. The meeting of the Prime Minister and the Premiers in National Cabinet yesterday is now taking the next steps. What the Howard Government did with respect to gun laws had kept us safe for a very long time. It is clear now that those laws need to be brought back up to date because it should never be the case that it is ever physically possible for two people to do what we saw on Sunday.

STEFANOVIC: Tony Burke, thanks for your time today, appreciate it.

ENDS