Television interview – Sky Newsday with Kieran Gilbert

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

HOST, KIERAN GILBERT: Welcome back to the program and joining me live in the studio is the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland. There's heaps to talk about in your space and I want to get to it, because there’s some really interesting pieces of legislation that you've introduced. But just initially if I can on this Optus debacle. It’s now revealed that they've sent notifications to the wrong email address. This is - it's pretty messy.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL, MICHELLE ROWLAND: It's more than messy. It is terribly distressing when we remember that a number of people lost their lives as a result of not being able to access Triple Zero, and does point to failures by Optus and the reasons why we need to ensure that the Triple Zero custodian legislation is in place. But let's remember too that public safety needs to be front and centre of our telecommunications system. That is why following the 8 November 2023 outage we commissioned the Bean Review and ensured that the Government had done all that it needed to do to put those necessary changes in place. It is now up to the industry to lift. But let's be very clear that the only party who could have prevented this outage was in fact Optus, and they need to be held account.

GILBERT: Do you think they are taking it sufficiently? I know it's not your portfolio but are they taking it seriously?

ROWLAND: That will be demonstrated, I think in the coming days and weeks. Considering that the information that we have today appears to contradict information that was out there a couple of weeks ago is deeply disturbing. Australians have a right to have confidence in the Triple Zero system and that is again one of the reasons why we need to ensure that this legislation gets through the Parliament as quickly as possible.

GILBERT: Yes, indeed. Well, the other legislation that I want to talk to you about is strengthening the counter-terrorism framework, a piece that you've introduced to Parliament, basically following up on the listing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Is that what we're seeing today?

ROWLAND: That is correct. As you'll be aware, Kieran, some six weeks ago the Government made an announcement based on advice received from ASIO that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was in fact behind two antisemitic terrorist attacks on Australian soil. This crossed a line. The Government made it very clear that we would be amending our criminal laws to ensure that the state-sponsored acts of terror were caught by our criminal justice system. We have taken the time to ensure that we get that framework right.

GILBERT: Were you surprised that wasn't already in place? Because when I was reading through the details of that legislation that you introduced this week, I was shocked that we hadn't already got that as part of our response.

ROWLAND: Well, I think we need to be clear too, Kieran. As the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor has pointed out, the definition of terrorism in Australia has basically stayed the same for about 20 years, since 9/11. We are having a separate review of that definition that's being conducted independently by the INSLM. But it does point to the fact that our security environment has changed and we are fortunate in this country to have the best security and intelligence organisations in the world who can properly advise us on how to respond. We have done that as a government. This should receive support right across the Parliament because this may have been an attack on the Jewish community, but it was an attack on all Australians.

GILBERT: Yes, indeed. Also on another front, establishing a Commonwealth Parole Board. Can you explain to our viewers why you're doing that? Why is that necessary?

ROWLAND: Certainly. I think the important point here is that the Commonwealth is actually the last jurisdiction in Australia to have an independent parole board. We have about 1,200 prisoners right around Australia for Commonwealth offences at the moment, and currently, decisions about their parole are made by the Attorney-General, so, a politician or by bureaucrats, the delegates of the Attorney-General.

It is important that experts are making these decisions about parole and that is why we committed to this prior to the last election. I'm bringing forward the legislation today, and I note that it has been widely welcomed, particularly by victims rights support groups and by a number of stakeholders. It also follows best practice in comparable countries like New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The important point here is we should have decisions about parole being made by people who are reflective of society, not politicians.

Just for your viewers information, once upon a time, most Commonwealth offences were around fraud against the Commonwealth. So, social security, fraud, and similar. Now we have a range of new offences, highly important, terrorist offences, for example, child pornography offences, other online offences, drug offences, which means that the focus needs to be much more on community safety. It is so important that we have these decisions about parole being made by community experts.

GILBERT: Indeed. Well, that certainly fills what seems like a gap in the system by establishing that. Another gap, according to the Coalition, needed to be corrected in terms of mandatory sentencing for child exploitation crimes, off the back of a recent heinous situation where an individual was found guilty of crimes against their child. Can I ask you, are you open to mandatory sentences in relation to child exploitation? It sounds like it would be quite popular among voters, this sort of move.

ROWLAND: Well, as a starting point, I think all of your viewers and any decent minded Australian would be absolutely horrified by the kind of abhorrent behaviour that we see not only in these cases, but in cases overall that involve children. I'll make it very clear for your viewers, Kieran, ensuring that we protect the most vulnerable in our society, and that is children, is the highest priority of this Government when it comes to criminal justice reform. That's why we've taken steps to ensure that we act on that 10-year strategy around preventing violence against children, sexual violence against children. We are absolutely open as a Government to ensuring that we make our criminal justice system as robust as it can be.

GILBERT: So, you’re open to this idea?

ROWLAND: We are open to all ideas across the Parliament when it comes to improving our criminal justice system. I will point out that the laws that are in place today, Labor actually supported those. They were amended by the Morrison Government in 2020. There was a statutory review undertaken of those laws which showed they were effective. But as I have said to all Members of the Parliament, my door is always open for where we can have sensible reform that advances criminal justice protections, particularly for our most vulnerable.

GILBERT: This was prompted by this Victorian parent found guilty of abusing their child, a five-year-old daughter, on at least 19 occasions. They got a non parole period of two and a half years.

ROWLAND: You'll appreciate that as first law officer, I won't comment on the decisions of judges, but I note exactly what you're saying there. But again, I think that points to the need to ensure, and we have done this as an activist Government in reforming the criminal law, making sure that we do this in a manner that is not only robust, but is one that is coordinated with states and territories as well. We are absolutely committed to doing that.

GILBERT: And one, before you go, the Home Affairs Department just in the last half hour confirming the return of two ISIS brides and their children. Should the Government just be upfront about this and transparent so people can trust the situation, the system?

ROWLAND: Well, I've seen those reports and my understanding, as the Prime Minister has made clear, is that this cohort is not receiving assistance from the Government. But what I will say is that I have absolute confidence, as does the Government, in our security agencies, who will no doubt be monitoring any developments in this area.

GILBERT: Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, thanks.

[ENDS]