E&OE
SHARRI MARKSON:
Joining me now is Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister David Coleman. David, good to see you again at the start of the election campaign. Look, we just saw, we had the Budget handed down last week, and yet the Albanese Government has continued its funding of UNRWA. This is the aid agency that we know has been linked to terrorism, to Hamas. You know, this is a shocking judgement call to continue this, isn’t it?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Yes it is, Sharri, this is wrong. This is very simple. It should not be happening. The Government committed additional funding in the Budget, so another $20 million. This is the organisation where nine employees were sacked on suspicion of being involved in the October 7 massacres. It appears the only consequence for those employees was losing their job. They don’t appear to have been prosecuted. There doesn’t appear to have been a referral for prosecution. There is no way that Australia should be giving money to UNRWA. We should be given money to organisations that provide humanitarian support. That’s important and humanitarian support is needed in Gaza, but absolutely not through UNRWA.
SHARRI MARKSON:
The Prime Minister has compared Australia’s naval actions in the South China Sea, near Taiwan, in international waters, to what this Chinese scientific research vessel is doing in our territorial waters. Do you think this is the same?
DAVID COLEMAN:
No, it’s not. And look, it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here, Sharri. The Prime Minister is trying to minimise the significance of this vessel. It is concerning, just like the circumnavigation of Australia was concerning. This is the guy who had to be told by a Virgin Airlines pilot that live-firing exercises were being conducted off our coast. He is just all over the place in this area. And it would be bad enough if this was any matter in the remit of the Prime Minister, but these are obviously very important matters. They are serious matters and the PM is just completely all over the shop.
SHARRI MARKSON:
I reported last night that Kevin Rudd has been begging the Trump Administration for a tariff exemption before the election. Do you think Australia is doing enough to secure a tariff reprieve from the Trump Administration?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Yeah, it seems like a pretty low-energy effort, Sharri. The PM said on Sunday he’s relying on officials. As we know, there’s been no visit, there’s no recent phone call. It’s very low energy. The more positive news is reports out of the US suggest that the focus of these tariffs will be on the so-called ‘Dirty 15’ countries with large tariff duties on the United States. We’re not one of those countries. We’ve got a free trade agreement with the US and the US has got a trade surplus with us. So very strong arguments for Australia and some of that reporting out of the US is encouraging and let’s hope that Australia is exempted. Although if we are I don’t think that will be due to the efforts of our low-energy Prime Minister.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Yeah, indeed and the Prime Minister was asked a lot about his handling of the US President today at the press conference You know, how do you think he has responded to this? I mean, we know we can’t get the President of the United States on the phone. What more should he be doing, and what would you do if you were Foreign Affairs Minister?
DAVID COLEMAN:
Yeah, well, it’s really important, Sharri, that we have to respond to the world as it is, not how we might like it to be. And obviously the Prime Minister, as a 54-year-old Deputy Prime, former Deputy Prime Minister, made very disparaging comments about the President. That probably doesn’t help in building a relationship, to be frank. We know that Peter Dutton successfully built relationships with both the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration and got big deals done. And that’s what we will do. We’ll disagree when we have to, but engage in a mature and sensible way. Our relationship goes back many decades. It is a crucial relationship, but it needs energy and it needs maturity and we don’t see that from this Government.
SHARRI MARKSON:
All right, David Coleman, appreciate your time. Thank you.
The Hon. David Coleman MP
Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs
Federal Member for Banks