Doorstop Interview - Parliment House
Peter Dutton’s flip flopping, the Securing Faith-Based Places Program, Mike Burgess' comments on the rise of extremism.
Scott Morrison had his Hawaiian shirt and his ukulele and Peter Dutton has his flip flops.
What we know is that Peter Dutton has more flip flops than a thong factory. And you only need to look at Parliament this week or indeed any week to see how many flip flops Peter Dutton has. And I've found a little bit of the Liberal Party's policy archive right here.
You've got their flip flops when it comes to cheaper childcare.
[THROWS FLIP FLOP]
The flip flops when it comes to energy bill relief.
[THROWS FLIP FLOP]
The flip flops when it comes to Peter Dutton saying he would smile more.
[THROWS FLIP FLOP]
The flip flops when it comes to secret ministries.
[THROWS FLIP FLOP]
You got the flip flops on walking out of the Apology.
[THROWS FLIP FLOP]
And then there's this flip flop which Peter Dutton has been using the most of all, the flip flop on the second referendum.
[THROWS FLIP FLOP]
Peter Dutton is flipping and flopping on his own policy ideas day on day, from Sunrise to Today, from Tuesday to Wednesday to Thursday. What we know is that what Peter Dutton says before a vote is definitely not what he will do after a vote. He's flipped and flopped on the only policy he announced during the referendum. He has flipped and flopped on his commitment to a second referendum.
JOURNALIST: Thanks, Patrick. Just wanted to ask about to begin with, two questions. One of them is this $50 million worth of funding to go through synagogues and mosques across the country. Can you give us any further information after what the Prime Minister revealed on that yesterday?
GORMAN: So, the Australian Government has committed to the Securing Faith-Based Places Program, which was to give funding for a range of faith-based community organisations to support them in their security needs. This funding - initially $40 million - the Government has increased to $50 million. And the Prime Minister outlined that yesterday. And yesterday we announced the list of organisations who receive that funding; some 150 organisations across every state and territory in the Commonwealth. Because, sadly, in this country, there are faith-based organisations where they do need to invest more in security. Things such as fencing, CCTV, so that people can do what we want in this country, which is: everyone to be able to practice their faith safely and securely and freely in this country. And we wanted to support that and to want to ensure that we're keeping our community safe. I know in my electorate of Perth, we've had very welcomed announcements for organisations including Maurice Zeffert Home, the Northbridge Mosque, Perth College and others. It's unfortunate that we need to invest in this way. But I'm really proud of the Government's $50 million investment in securing faith-based communities, resulting in support for about 150 projects across the country.
JOURNALIST: Mike Burgess made some comments overnight at the Five Eyes Summit, he spoke about the heightened risk of neo-Nazi and Islamic extremists in this country. It's quite concerning. He's using language like that.
GORMAN: When Mike Burgess says things like that, it's important that everyone in this Parliament listens very carefully. Unfortunately, here in Australia, we do face serious risks. And we need to be aware of those risks. And we need to ensure that we're careful in the language that we use in the Parliament and in the community, not to do anything other than call out extremism, call out antisemitism, call out Islamophobia. Because there is no place for hate speech in this country. There is no place for extremist language that can turn into extremist action. I want to thank Mike Burgess and his team at ASIO for all the work that they do, trying to ensure we keep Australians safe here at home, and also acknowledge the work that we're doing as a government to make sure that we do everything we can to enhance social cohesion at a time where, unfortunately, we have terrorist actors who are seeking to inflame division, not just in the war that we're seeing with Hamas, but indeed here at home as well. Thanks very much.