TRANSCRIPT - PRESS CONFERENCE - WEDNESDAY, 26 AUGUST 2026

MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS, TONY BURKE: Thank you for coming out today. Yesterday and today, I’ve been meeting with my national security counterparts from the Five Eyes countries. I’ve been very pleased to welcome to Australia; Markwayne Mullin, Shabana Mahmood, Gary Anandasangaree and Mark Mitchell. Each of them bringing extraordinary capacity from our five eyes partners in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand. Together, we formed the most formidable intelligence sharing security partnership in the world. It's a partnership that keeps Australians safe every day.

This is an annual meeting, but at this meeting, we're meeting at a particular moment in history. Over the last few years, we've seen a convergence, where different areas of national security, that we used to view separately, have started to lock in together.

Issues like counterterrorism, organised crime, foreign interference and espionage, all used to be viewed as complete separate actions. Now, with something as simple and as horrific as the attack that we saw on the Adass Israel Synagogue, masterminded through Iran, using organised crime, we’ve started to see a convergence of areas that we’ve perilously seen separate.

But at this exact moment, we are meeting at the time of the prospect of rapid acceleration through artificial intelligence. What that means, for example, is for cyber-attacks where from finding the vulnerability though to exploitation, the period used to be two and a half years, it's now viewed as being about 10 hours.

We're seeing a massive acceleration in the capacity to cause harm through artificial intelligence. But, of course, anything that is able to be used as a weapon by those who want to cause us harm, is a tool available to us as well.

So, there’s been extensive conversations, and obviously the nature of security conversations, is I'll always be limited on what I can say. But extensive conversations today, looking at how artificial intelligence can be used to harness our capacity, to be able to keep people safe. Working through all the different thread areas that we deal with. Working our way through the issues of counter terrorism, on countering drug smuggling, on dealing with scams and scam centres, on dealing with organised crime.

These meetings have seen changes of government. I attended my first one, which was an online meeting two years ago. All of my counterparts have changed in that time. But what hasn't changed is the resolve of the countries and the resolve of the countries and the partnerships to make sure that we keep [indistinct] safe. For the people who live in each of those five countries, and the regions that rely on this intelligence sharing partnership, that work is safe, it is secure, and it's stronger than it’s ever been.

Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST: Minister, a group of 30 national security leaders have explicitly stated, they key decisions, made at a ministerial level remain unexamined by the Antisemitism Royal Commission. On the final day of public hearings, can you point to who, if not you, is qualified to give evidence on the record about why those specific ministerial decisions were made?

BURKE: I have at no point, nor has any Member of the Government interfered or commented on the process of the Royal Commission, nor will we. We very deliberately set up, an independent Royal Commission to make independent decisions with a timeline to be able to report so we can start implementing those recommendations.

JOURNALIST: We know you respect it’s independence Minister, but who would be able to I guess fill in some of the decision making reasons [indistinct] Royal Commission [indistinct].

BURKE: All of that is a decision for the royal commission. There have been public hearings, and there have been private hearings, and I'm going to continue to give the same answer, that I won’t be interfering or providing any commentary on the decisions they’ve made as to what should be public, what should be private or who should be called.

JOURNALIST: Minister, international law experts are calling for Australia, the UK, and Canada, to consider a joint, a criminal investigation into Zomi Frankcom’s killing, similar to after the MH17 disaster. As AFP Minister is that something that you’d consider?

BURKE: As you'd expect, Penny Wong has the lead on this. Penny made clear Australia's furious reaction to the reports of the handling that came from the Government of Israel. And Penny also made clear that on any decision on next steps, we wanted to make sure that we consulted with the family, that we were showing respect to the family and working with them in terms of any further announcements. Penny Wong’s been leading it and that's the exact why she's been doing it. 


JOURNALIST: Minister, can I ask you about the migration program, was there any discussion or did you talk about the UK visas or the UK backpacking visas, are changes to that visa under consideration. And did you have talks with your counterparts about that?

BURKE: With the wind I heard most of that but I didn’t catch all of it but I’ll have a go if I may. In the first instance, when I first met Shabana, as the Home Secretary, it was about a day after she’d been sworn in to take the job. When I left for London last year, she wasn’t Home Secretary, by the time I landed the reshuffle had happened and she had the job.

We talk regularly about all migration issues. I have a very good relationship with Shabana Mahmood. We talk about the issues that we are managing in each of our countries. In terms of anything coming forward, as to the government's proposals, as to the changes we will make to the migration program, those are decisions that will be made by the Australian Cabinet, and they are decisions, that as soon as I'm in a position to announce them I will.

JOURNALIST: But is it a problem that there’s different rule for British than there is for other backpackers who have to go to the regions, is that something you’d like to tweak?

BURKE: The nature of anything with migration reform, is anything that you do has an impact on three or four other areas. The thing that I can tell you that we are doing, are things that have already commenced. That's the processing of backpacker visas - at the moment across the entire program - is happening less slowly than it was. That's been publicly reported. That’s being managed using a different system at the moment when we're doing that. Similarly, there are changes that we’ve made with respect to the permanent program in preferencing, right at the moment, onshore decisions for the permanent program, rather than offshore.

JOURNALIST: The business sector, farmers, have expressed their concern about any cuts to migration. What do you say to there concerns?

BURKE: Anything that you do in the migration program has a series of other implications. This is why I’ve made sure when some people have said, ‘oh, why don't you just announce things in bits and pieces?’, that's an irresponsible way to do it, because you need to make sure that you are balancing all the competing interests in Australia.

Businesses are right when they say they need workers. People who are looking for a home are also right when they say that there is a housing shortage in Australia.
Regional areas and universities are right when they say that they’ve had a business model for a long time that has relied on overseas students.

We need to make sure that any changes we have are ones that work and are tailored specifically for the needs of the country, and that's why you can't do this sort of piecemeal fashion. If anyone wants to see what a piecemeal fashion looks like, without doing the full consultation with your colleagues, either look at Andrew Bragg's speech or look at what's happened with One Nation over last week.

JOURNALIST: Minister what is your response though to the 30 national leading security leaders saying they have concerns that key ministerial decisions haven’t been examined by this Antisemitism Royal Commission.

BURKE: I haven't read the comments, but it's a comment about the Royal Commission and I am only going to give one response to the Royal Commission, which I believe is a response that completely respects their decision making and independence.

JOURNALIST: Minister, can you give us a rough timeline of when the proposed changes will be announced and is it true that the focus will be on achieving existing NOM targets rather than radically reduce them like other parties have proposed?.

BURKE: The numbers that the government are working on are the numbers that are in Australia's Budget.

The Budget represents where we believe Net Overseas Migration is tracking and where it should go. In terms of broader reforms, I am working through collegiately with my colleagues, when we're in a position to announce it, I promise, it’ll be a very, very public announcement.

JOURNALSIT: How soon will that be, do you have any idea?

BURKE: When we're in a position. I've seen with the opposing political parties what it looks like when people try to rush an announcement. We're not going to do that.

JOURNALIST: So, was it a mistake of the Morrison Government to carve out a special rule for the British, because they don't have to go to the regions like others? Backpackers?

BURKE: They certainly carved out a different approach for the UK. They did that in the context of a Free Trade Agreement; there are other issues that would have been taken into account at the time. When they announced the Free Trade Agreement, as in opposition, we were supportive of it, and we followed through on implementing the different parts of it.

JOURNALIST: Minister do you think by not going to the Royal Commission, you've sort of been able to dodge any interrogation on decisions you've made as Minister? 


BURKE: I think moments like this make clear that no one in Australian politics dodges interrogation, nor should they.

ENDS