E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
Sky news
THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY 2026
TOPICS: National day of mourning; Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bills; Coalition Chaos
PETER STEFANOVIC: Joining us live now, the Social Services Minister, Tanya Plibersek. Minister, it's good to see you this morning. So just get your thoughts before we get into other matters about, you know, across the aisle, you've been around a while, what you make of what's going on.
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: I think it's very disappointing. I mean Australians today are focused on a National Day of Mourning to commemorate the shocking terrorist events in Bondi on December 14, and most of us are focused on what we can do to show support, remembrance, to contribute to unity, and there will be a service on at the Opera House tonight, and there will be a minute's silence at 7.01. Many Australians, I know, will be watching the telecast of that service from the Opera House. Many Australians will be lighting candles and putting them in their front window or on their front doorstep, and they'll be respecting what the leader of the Chabad faith, Jewish faith, has asked us to do as Australians, to do an act of goodness, a mitzvah, for other Australians, to do something good for someone else today. Instead of all of that, the Coalition are focused on themselves, their infighting, they've been calling for stronger laws, they don't back stronger laws, or some of them do, some of them don't. This is a time when Australians expect their Parliament to pass laws to keep Australians safe and to bring us together to support safety and unity, and instead of that, we've got a Coalition that's all over the place.
STEFANOVIC: This is a gift for you, right, politically? I mean you get away with perceived failures, and at this rate you'll be governing for as long as you want to.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I don't think the good for democracy to have an Opposition that is such a shambles. I mean Australians expect their Parliament to work, to pass laws to keep them safe, to bring us together, and instead of that, we've got a Coalition that's just focused on itself and its own internal conflicts. That's not good for democracy, it's not good for the country to see that sort of chaos.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Off the back of the legislation that you passed this week, how certain can you be that that won't lead to another Bondi?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we've done everything we can as a government to introduce and pass stronger laws to protect people from hate speech and to protect people from the guns that were used in this attack in Bondi. We've got laws to protect us from the hate that motivated the attacks, and stronger laws to protect us from the weapons that carried out the attacks. We would have liked to see even stronger laws, but unfortunately we couldn't get the support of the Coalition for some of those laws that they've been calling for themselves. Of course this is a very important step forward, it builds on the strongest ever hate laws that were introduced in the previous Parliament, it builds on the other work that we've done. We'll continue to do more. I mean it is obvious that there is more to be done to keep Australians safe and to bring them together.
STEFANOVIC: Just stay there, Tanya, for a moment. We've just got this that's come in from Bridget McKenzie, she's being questioned by Cameron Reddin, this has just come in, so just stick around, I want to get your reaction to it. I haven't heard this either, so I'm just going to watch it for the first time with you.
[Excerpt]
CAMERON REDDIN: We'll be quick. Is the Coalition over; is that it?
BRIDGET McKENZIE: Well, Cam, that's a very cheeky question. As you know, overnight
REDDIN: You've all resigned, it's done, isn't it?
McKENZIE: Cameron, as you know, Shadow Ministers from the National Party have tendered their resignations to the Leader of the Opposition in line with the National Party's view on the hate law legislation. The room came to the decision, it could not support the bill as drafted because of the unintended consequences and the lack of expert advice we had received prior to Parliament being forced into a vote. So, the Leader of the Opposition was told, once the three Senators in her Shadow Ministry tendered our resignations, that if she chose to accept that, the entire National Party Shadow Ministry would be also tendering their resignation. She made the decision to accept Senator Cadell's and Senator McDonald's and my resignation from the Shadow Ministry knowing that. So as Einstein said, for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. She made that decision knowing what the consequences would be, and you've seen that play out.
REDDIN: So you're fine with the split up, you don't want the Coalition to stay together?
McKENZIE: So we've all made it very, very clear that we are coalitionists, this is a decision for Sussan Ley, and that is obviously something that's she's going to have to be considering.
REDDIN: You don't think you've made it for her though?
McKENZIE: I have an ABC interview. Thank you.
REDDIN: Thank you.
[End of Excerpt]
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Your thoughts on that, Tanya?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, my thoughts are how very disappointing for the people of Australia that just a month after the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil we've got parliamentarians who are talking about their own jobs and their own relationships instead of focusing on what we need as a nation, which are strong laws to keep Australians safe and a government focused on bringing us together on national unity. Honestly, it beggars belief that this is what is obsessing the Nationals and the Liberals when we need a Parliament that's focused on keeping Australians safe and bringing us together.
STEFANOVIC: Just one more before we go then; just that point that Bridget made there. Their concerns were the lack of expert advice and the fact that it was rushed so early. Have you got a response to that?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, isn't this just nonsense. I mean Sussan Ley, the Leader of the Opposition, was saying that we should have recalled Parliament immediately. Instead, we took a number of weeks to draft serious laws. We released an exposure draft of that legislation, there's been, of course, weeks of discussion. The Opposition Leader said she had her own laws drafted, which of course we haven't seen. The fact that we've taken a number of weeks longer than the Coalition asked us for to draft these laws and to consult on them just shows how all over the place they are. What would we have been debating if we'd agreed to Sussan Ley's request to recall Parliament immediately, when she said we should have, before Christmas? It just shows how ridiculous their criticisms are.
STEFANOVIC: All right. Tanya Plibersek, appreciate your time as always, and yeah, just to highlight that point at the bottom of the screen there, there's going to be more to this story, much more. David Littleproud, he'll be up in about 45 minutes. We'll be watching that, it will be live in full. Tanya Plibersek, thank you so much.
ENDS
