Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, January twenty eighth, twenty twenty six. Giant data
Speaker 1: centers that power artificial intelligence can't run on wind and solar.
Speaker 1: That's the warning from one of Australia's biggest operators, next DC,
Speaker 1: revealed in The Australian today. They say colon gas have
Speaker 1: to be part of the system to guarantee the reliability
Speaker 1: huge data loads require. The Muslim community must keep the
Speaker 1: wolves from their own flock. That's the view of Scott
Speaker 1: Morrison in a sweeping new proposal to crack down on
Speaker 1: anti Semitic hate speech. Today the big new idea from
Speaker 1: the former Prime Minister and how it fits into his
Speaker 1: feud with Anthony Albinizi. Richard Ferguson is The Australian's Canberra
Speaker 1: Press Gallery Bureau chief, and today he's reporting on a
Speaker 1: speech made overnight by Scott Morrison in Israel to an
Speaker 1: audience of leaders from around the world about antisemitism, but
Speaker 1: specifically bringing the problem home to what Scott Morrison would
Speaker 1: call hate preachers, people in Muslim communities and Muslim congregations
Speaker 1: who are preaching antisemitism. Scott Morrison says this is something
Speaker 1: for the Muslim community to sort out. Richard, this is
Speaker 1: a very sensitive issue that Scott Morrison is now wading into.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen a national leader really cheat the problem
Speaker 1: of antisemitism home to the Muslim community in quite this
Speaker 1: way yet, have.
Speaker 2: We Absolutely not, Claire. We have seen Josh Friedenberg Susan
Speaker 2: Lee make a wader philosophical point that radical Islam is
Speaker 2: the key problem that has fueled off the Bundai massacre
Speaker 2: and the two year antisemitism crisis in Australia that led
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 3: Those who practice and preach this radical Islamist ideology. First
Speaker 3: they come for the sat Day people, then they come
Speaker 3: for the Sunday people. And the lesson of history is
Speaker 3: that we're all infidels according to these radicals, and they
Speaker 3: are here in Australia and the government needs to take
Speaker 3: them on.
Speaker 4: Radical Islamist extremism caused this. I repeat, radical Islamist extremism
Speaker 4: caused this. Leaders need to be able to express this clearly,
Speaker 4: because if you can't name the problem, you can't possibly
Speaker 4: defeat it.
Speaker 2: But never have we seen such a detailed police Dreven
Speaker 2: agenda for reform in the Muselim community coming from a
Speaker 2: national leader. So mister Morrison at the International Conference on
Speaker 2: Anti Semitism in Jerusalem as laid out quite a list
Speaker 2: of things he believes that the Muslim community must do.
Speaker 2: That includes accrediting preachers, a national register of Amams, translating
Speaker 2: their religious teachings in mosques and in Muslim schools in
Speaker 2: the country into English so that people can access them
Speaker 2: and see what's being said. Expanding the country's foreign transparency
Speaker 2: scheme to include links with overseas religious groups. It is
Speaker 2: a widespread reform that he says he wants the Muslim
Speaker 2: community to lead, not the government to lead. That would
Speaker 2: completely change the way the Muslim community is essentially run
Speaker 2: in Australia. It is a very radical proposal. It is
Speaker 2: a proposal that I think will be met with a
Speaker 2: lot of criticism. But Scott Morrison has really prevented this
Speaker 2: saying I know I'll be called islamophobic. That is not
Speaker 2: what I am doing. What I am doing is trying
Speaker 2: to say we have to have this conversation and we
Speaker 2: need Muslim leaders to be part of this faith.
Speaker 5: All governments should have done better.
Speaker 1: That is my point.
Speaker 6: Did the Morrison governor point a special envoy to combat
Speaker 6: any Semetism?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 6: Did they establish the Joint Operation bringing together the AFP
Speaker 6: and Asia to combat acts of any Semetrism? No?
Speaker 1: Sorry, primunist, Scott Morrison has today described you delusional and
Speaker 1: cheap for trying to shift blame.
Speaker 5: Where are you trying to shift blame?
Speaker 1: And what do you make of his comments?
Speaker 5: Mister Morrison can make whatever comments he likes, as entitled
Speaker 5: to simply making the point by quoting what members said
Speaker 5: at that time in twenty eighteen nineteen. We have strength
Speaker 5: and hate laws. We have not sought to go over
Speaker 5: all the detail of the time when we had an
Speaker 5: Attorney General in this country who said that you have
Speaker 5: a right to be a big.
Speaker 2: I think that Scott Morrison was definitely exercise when Anthony
Speaker 2: Albinizi in Parliament last week tried to suggest that all
Speaker 2: governments were to blame for the rise of anti Semitism
Speaker 2: in Australia and singled out his government when using historical
Speaker 2: facts and figures. And mister Morrison has definitely felt very
Speaker 2: passionately about one our relationship with Israel into the ex
Speaker 2: incredibly horrific rise in anti Semitism in this country on
Speaker 2: our shores. Instead of support, we have seen that I
Speaker 2: was leaving under the freedom of democracy in this country,
Speaker 2: calling for the extinction of the side of Israel from
Speaker 2: the river to the sea. That is antisemitism. But I
Speaker 2: think that his intervention Claire is very different than what
Speaker 2: we've seen from some former prime ministers. Usually the rivor
Speaker 2: are defending their legacies, like Malcolm Turnbull being against August
Speaker 2: in order to defend his deal with Emmanuel Macron for
Speaker 2: French subs. It's different than the kind of the big
Speaker 2: philosophical things like Paul keating on China and the American
Speaker 2: in Alliance. It's even different really to prime ministers reacting
Speaker 2: to events like John Howard intervening on the Voice successfully
Speaker 2: and less successfully on the gay marriage postal survey. This
Speaker 2: is a detailed agenda. Scott Morrison is putting ideas out there,
Speaker 2: multiple ideas, ideas about reforming schools, ideas about reforming community bodies.
Speaker 2: He is doing this because he believes the government is
Speaker 2: not filling this space and that the government is not
Speaker 2: willing to have a conversation about Muslim leadership.
Speaker 1: You'd have to think he's also stepping in to avoid
Speaker 1: that the opposition has left. You know that there's no
Speaker 1: actual opposition coming from Susan Lee and David Little Proud
Speaker 1: and what used to be the Federal Coalition. They of
Speaker 1: course have torn themselves apart over this issue, and it's
Speaker 1: been a long term tearing apart on this particular issue
Speaker 1: of the balance between freedom of speech and religious freedom,
Speaker 1: hasn't it, Richard? The Federal Coalition has been trying to
Speaker 1: create legislation that finds a balance between stopping anyone discriminating against,
Speaker 1: for example, gay people, and allowing religious organizations religious schools
Speaker 1: to have the ability to make choices about who they employ,
Speaker 1: for example. They haven't actually got to a successful piece
Speaker 1: of legislation about that yet. And yet religious leaders have
Speaker 1: been urging both sides of politics for many years to
Speaker 1: give them the freedom to practice their religion as they
Speaker 1: see fit. How does bond I shake up that conversation.
Speaker 1: Religious leaders want reform, they want protection from anti discrimination legislation.
Speaker 1: Do they now have to give up on that idea
Speaker 1: given that Bondi has swept that conversation aside.
Speaker 2: Think that the Prime Minister has made it very clear
Speaker 2: that there will be no religious Discrimination Act or a
Speaker 2: revival of the bits of the hate speech laws that
Speaker 2: were dumped in this term of parliament, because religious leaders
Speaker 2: all want some sort of protection, but they can't agree
Speaker 2: on what protections they want. Some people want wider protections
Speaker 2: to be able to fire people. Some like the Jewish community,
Speaker 2: are actually more aligned with the gay and trans lobby
Speaker 2: on basically just having a clear clamp down on speech.
Speaker 2: It is an odd alliance in this kind of hate
Speaker 2: speech religious speech battle that has gone on for decades now.
Speaker 2: But I think that that will be the other reason
Speaker 2: why Scott Morrison has tried to pitch these registers and
Speaker 2: auditing as being self sufficient, as being Muslim led, not
Speaker 2: government led, because he knows if he was suggesting it
Speaker 2: the government led one, it would never get through Parliament
Speaker 2: and two you would start to get other bodies being
Speaker 2: feared that they would be held to the same standard
Speaker 2: by a government and therefore by a future government that
Speaker 2: maybe imagine God forbid a world where there's a labor
Speaker 2: Greens government and the Greens push for registers of priests etc.
Speaker 2: Or registers of evangelical Christian preachers. That's why Scott Morrison,
Speaker 2: I think has been very clever and very mindful of
Speaker 2: what he's stepping into by saying, no, this isn't about
Speaker 2: government intervention. This is about Muslim intervention. This is about
Speaker 2: Muslim leaders intervening in their communities and saying we can't
Speaker 2: put up with this anymore in our own communities.
Speaker 1: Coming up? Will this big idea go anywhere? He's saying
Speaker 1: this from the safety of Israel, He's a long way
Speaker 1: away from the Australian debate that's going to follow this
Speaker 1: revelation in the Australian today, Richard, where do you see
Speaker 1: this going? Is this going to be a serious conversation
Speaker 1: where we look at this idea or is this going
Speaker 1: to blow up into division and more controversy.
Speaker 2: The problem that Master Morrison does have is that his
Speaker 2: relationship is so acrimonious with Anthony Albanisi. This is not
Speaker 2: a normal relationship between prime ministers. Now we all know.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's any secret player that most of
Speaker 2: the Prime Ministers of Australia hate the other Prime ministers
Speaker 2: of Australia for all different reasons. You know, we all
Speaker 2: know that. But there is something deep and the relationship
Speaker 2: between Morrison and Albanesi that has broken Obviously Albanzi pursued
Speaker 2: Master Morrison over the Secret Mena Street scandal and had
Speaker 2: a review that is now being led by the Anti
Speaker 2: Semitism Royal Commissioner, Virginia Bell. That was the same person
Speaker 2: who reviewed mister Morrison's Secret Ministry choices. But I think
Speaker 2: Scott Morrison has said I have a platform, I have ideas,
Speaker 2: I'm going to put it out there. Let's be honest.
Speaker 2: Mister Morrison is not the most popular former Prime minister
Speaker 2: in the country, but he has a platform and he
Speaker 2: is using it and in this speech he's using it
Speaker 2: for an extraordinary effect. He is using This is not
Speaker 2: just one philosophical foot bubble. He has come with a
Speaker 2: list of things the country and the Muslim community could
Speaker 2: do to what he says to safeguard the Jewish community
Speaker 2: but also safeguard the Muslim community.
Speaker 1: Richard Focusing, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You can read Scott Morrison's full speech and check out
Speaker 1: all our reporting of this story live right now at
Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au