TRANSCRIPT - MINISTER TONY BURKE - SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA, PETER STEFANOVIC - TUESDAY, 20 JANUARY 2026

TV INTERVIEW

SKY NEWS REGIONAL AUSTRALIA, PETER STEFANOVIC

TUESDAY, 20 JANUARY 2026

SUBJECTS: Combatting Antisemitism, hate and extremism legislation

PETER STEFANOVIC: So bringing all of this together for some questions now joining us is the Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke. Minister, thanks so much for your time today.

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, TONY BURKE: Good morning.

STEFANOVIC: So let's go back to what Trudy was saying at the start. Has a deal been done? Will this pass?

BURKE: The conversations with the Coalition leadership, or the Liberal Party leadership in particular are going really well. So, those conversations continue. I don't think we've quite settled absolutely everything, but I think we're really close.

I mean effectively the laws won't be as strong as what the Government wanted them to be, and that's been public for a while.

But importantly, this will still involve the strongest hate speech laws that Australia's ever had, and what we want to make sure of is that the Parliament is dealing with both the motivation of the Bondi attack and the method that was used. The motivation was a deep form of bigotry, a deep form of antisemitism, and the method that was used was people in the suburbs of Sydney having access to six high‑powered firearms, which anyone who knows the suburb of Bonnyrigg just shakes their head as to how on earth did you end up with six firearms in a suburb like that.

STEFANOVIC: So just back on the legislation, and I know these conversations are still ongoing, but racial vilification, we know that's out. Are you able to elaborate at this stage on anything else that might be in or out?

BURKE: Look, we're trying to work our way through on the listing of hate organisations, of being able to proscribe particular organisations.

The challenge that we have, and even some of the people who you just put up there who were allegedly proposing crossing the floor are people who have called for these organisations to be banned; they've said, "Why don't you ban them as terrorist groups?" And the problem is they don't satisfy the legal definition for terrorism, that's why no government has ever been able to list them as terrorist groups. The Director‑General of ASIO, Mike Burgess has called this out a while ago.

Either those particular groups continue to go on their merry way, or new laws are passed that provide the government with options to be able to assess under new legislation.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. So as you understand, would this version of the legislation allow you to go after groups, including Hizb ut‑Tahrir?

BURKE: I've got to be careful how I answer that, because I'll be the decisionmaker, and I've got to not have an apprehended bias about it, so if I put it in these terms: at the moment the reason that they haven't been able to be listed as a terrorist organisation is that they don't explicitly call for violence.

The new test that is going forward and that we've been working through, it's not as far‑reaching as what the government originally proposed, because that used the vilification offence as part of it. But it does mean that there is a way of proscribing organisations without them explicitly calling for violence, and that has been the barrier for that organisation and for the Neo‑Nazis for a very long time.

STEFANOVIC: So will it continue as is then? It sounds as though there might be a bit of a grey area here that allows groups ‑ and I know you've got to be careful ‑ like Hizb ut‑Tahrir and Nazi groups, or whatever, that they might be able to proceed?

BURKE: Look, I start with this on this basis: everything I do in this portfolio gets challenged in the courts, absolutely everything. The moment you became Home Affairs Minister you are the most litigated person in Australia. So everything will be tested in the courts. I want the laws to be as robust and as strong as possible.

But most importantly, we need to make sure that we're not only dealing with the terrorism threshold, because if we're only dealing with the terrorism threshold there will never be a way of delving with these organisations. I am very hopeful that we'll get the strongest laws that we've ever had today.

STEFANOVIC: There are members of your backbench who want the racial hatred proposals back on the table, Minister. Will you rule that out or revisit it down the track?

BURKE: We've got to deal with the Parliament that we have, and I can't see a pathway in the current Parliament. The truth is, we were specifically being asked a few weeks ago to recall the Parliament before Christmas to bring in tougher laws against hate speech, and then it's turned out the tougher laws against hate speech in particular are the exact things that we can't get parliamentary support for.

STEFANOVIC: Those laws though didn't have many friends outside of Parliament though as well. Was it just poor policy?

BURKE: Well, importantly, they had the support of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and I think when we're in the immediate aftermath of the Bondi massacre, that really mattered; that really mattered.

In terms of the remaining pieces of legislation on the hate groups legislation, if I put it in these terms: the Executive Council of Australian Jewry are urging that these laws go ahead. It's been publicly reported that senior figures among the Neo‑Nazis have been told to lobby members of the Coalition to try to stop it.

When the Jewish community is saying "these laws will help", and the Nazis are saying "you should stop these laws", I think I know which side of that equation I want to be on.

STEFANOVIC: Just a couple of quick ones, I know you've got to go, but as we just reported, your gun reforms, they'll pass with the Greens, but Queensland isn’t going to buy into it. How does that affect your plans at all?

BURKE: Look, the negotiations with the States never end, they go back and forth, and I deal with all the states respectfully.

All that's in the legislation today is the capacity to conduct a buy‑back. What the buy‑back then involves and all the details around it are still up for negotiation with the states, and I've had meetings with my state counterparts around that, but I think it's really important in these negotiations that I treat the states respectfully.

Can I say one of the most important parts of the legislation today though will be the capacity for our intelligence agencies, for their information that they hold, to be something that is part of gun licensing.

I think across the board people want to make sure that when a gun licence is issued, all the information that's held, whether it be ASIO or the Criminal Intelligence Commission, that that information is able to be used to just assess whether there's alerts on whether or not someone should have a gun licence.

Effectively you look at the different things that will go through in the legislation that's been agreed with the Greens. People ask me, "Well, what would this have meant for Bondi; does this mean instead of six firearms they would have had four?" For those particular individuals it would have meant they were entitled to zero, none. I think that's a really important shift today.

STEFANOVIC: Just more broadly, to wrap up, Minister, you've tried to move at pace lately, but the sad fact remains, does it not, that it took the slaughter of Jewish Australians to switch into gear?

BURKE: Things that happened before the massacre should not be forgotten and are not insignificant. The establishment of the Antisemitism Envoy matters, starting Operation AVALITE with the Australian Federal Police and ASIO matters. The laws that we passed on hate crimes, on hate speech and on hate symbols, all matter.

Yes, there is always more to do, and even after this week there will continue to be more to do. We are dealing with an ancient form of hatred in terms of antisemitism, and the fight against that will not end.

STEFANOVIC: So these changes won't yet ensure the safety of Jewish Australians?

BURKE: I did not say that for a minute, and you know I didn't say that, Peter in fairness.

STEFANOVIC: When you say, "There's more work to be done"?

BURKE: In the fight against antisemitism there will always be more work to be done, and when I say that, that's exactly what the Jewish leadership have always said.

We already last year had passed the strongest legislation that Australia had ever had in terms of hate speech, hate crimes, hate symbols. What we do today takes that even further, and that matters.

What we want to be able to ensure is that what we saw on Bondi, the horrors that we saw on Bondi never happen again, but beyond that we also want to make sure that whether someone's going to school in a school uniform, whether someone's at a university campus or whether someone's wearing the Star of David or deciding do they need to change their name to be able to get a job, we need to be able to make sure that people are safe in those situations as well, and all of that means that there will never be a moment ‑ as never a moment with any form of bigotry ‑ where you can say job done.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. That's the Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke. Appreciate your time as always, Minister, thank you so much.

BURKE: Great to talk.

ENDS