Topics: Gaza visas; RBA-Chalmers; Ukraine
0920AM AEST
6 September 2024
Laura Jayes: Joining me now is the Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Simon Birmingham, live from Adelaide. Good to see you. First of all, just on that individual’s case, trying to bring his elderly mother from Gaza. He’s taken a bit of a shot at your side of politics. Is that fair?
Simon Birmingham: Well, of course, people can take shots at anybody in the political environment, and that’s part of the benefit of living in a free country like ours. This case obviously is one of those demonstrations of why migration policy settings are so very, very challenging when you come down to individual circumstances in that of course, there are lots of absolute heart-wrenching cases that exist, not just out of Gaza, but out of conflict zones or trouble spots or other circumstances right around the world. But the Australian Government needs to actually look at this in a principles level as to how it applies settings that keep Australia’s migration system under control; that ensure we are taking numbers that are appropriate for our country and sustainable for our country, and taking them in ways that ensure the social harmony and cohesion of our country, which is where the debate about security checks and settings is so critical when it comes to those coming out of Gaza – that the same types of standards of checks should be applied to anybody coming from that region as occurred to those brought out of Afghanistan or Syria in previous decades.
Laura Jayes: Okay, let’s talk about the RBA and Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, at the moment. I think Michelle Bullock was quite classy when she said she’s doing her job, and the Treasurer is doing him and didn’t want to get into that war of words. But I mean, this is all politics, this is all politics, right? The RBA has one lever, the Government has many at its disposal. Do you think, do you have any kind of criticism for the RBA?
Simon Birmingham: No, and it’s not politics from the RBA. From the Reserve Bank Governor, it is simply a statement of fact, and she is responding to the way in which Jim Chalmers appears to have dialled up his attacks on the Reserve Bank and his attempt to shift the blame for the pressures that Australian households are facing when, in reality, Michelle Bullock is dead right when she says that inflation is what’s causing the pain in Australian households; inflation is what’s causing the RBA to have to keep interest rates higher for longer, and the inflation rate in Australia is now out of sync with the rest of the world that we are seeing right across comparable economies, be they in the Euro Zone….
Laura Jayes: …rate rises though. Our rates didn’t go as high, either, so, we’ve never been really in sync, that’s a good thing isn’t it, because our rates didn’t go as high?
Simon Birmingham: Well, I think the point LJ is when the Labor Government was elected at the initial stages, inflation was lower compared with many of those economies. Inflation is now higher compared with many of those economies. Interest rates in those economies are on the way down. Here, the Reserve Bank is holding out the possibility of having to put them up again. That shows that we are in a markedly different position after three Labor budgets from Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers, and that their approach, which is now seeing widespread criticism about the scale of spending and degree to which their interventionist approach, which isn’t just about spending but of course, it’s also in things like the industrial relations reforms, highly interventionist, providing additional cost burdens on business and those cost burdens are ultimately flowing through to keep inflation higher for longer, and therefore interest rates higher for longer.
Laura Jayes: Okay, let’s talk about your trip to Ukraine. You’ve just been to Kyiv. What was the purpose of that trip, and on upon your return, what do we need to do in that conflict?
Simon Birmingham: So, LJ, my trip into Ukraine was an opportunity to do a few things, to meet clearly with the Ukrainian Government. Did so across ministries of foreign affairs, defence, strategic industries, to also within that discuss how Australia’s support is being used, where they see opportunities and also to have a look at some of the important humanitarian work that World Vision and their partners like Save Ukraine are doing with the support from so many Australians who give so generously in those circumstances. What I saw was a people showing enormous resilience, a Government showing great resolve to try to win this conflict, but absolutely looking for how we and like-minded countries can take that support to the next level to remove restrictions that impede Ukraine’s ability to really get ahead in this conflict by being able to take out Russian bases – to expand opportunities of Australia’s alliance and coalition support with Ukraine, which exists, for example, in drone areas, but could be expanded into demining-type operations and the need for us to also, as I made clear from there, ensure we have the strongest possible advice coming back to Australia, which does require us to look at reopening our embassy, like around 70 other partners have done.
Laura Jayes: What do you make of Putin backing Kamala? What’s that about? Just a bit of trolling?
Simon Birmingham: I’ll let others kind of speculate….
Laura Jayes: …I thought you might say that..
Simon Birmingham: …yeah. The key thing for the US, as for all democracies now, is to be alert for the mis and disinformation campaigns that are going to come out of places like Russia trying to undermine the democratic processes and that requires ultimate vigilance by all of us. And you can see that the likes of Putin don’t just want to take territory in Ukraine, they want to destroy confidence in democracies like the US and Australia right around the world.
Laura Jayes: Yeah, a good reminder. Birmo, thanks so much for your time. Good to see you.
Simon Birmingham: Thanks LJ
[ENDS]