ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for joining us. The antisemitic terrorist attack on the 14th of December has shocked the nation. The nation has gone through a very difficult period over recent days in coming to terms with what was a terrorist atrocity resulting in 15 innocent lives being lost and many more being injured. As we approach Christmas Day tomorrow, we hope for a speedy recovery for everyone who remains dealing with the physical impact of what occurred, but also, of course, there is a real mental health issue that people are dealing with as well.
At the worst of times though, one of the things that I've said is that we see the best of the Australian character, and we saw that on that day. We saw it with those who lost their lives tackling the terrorists as they embarked from the car. We saw it with those in police and emergency services rushing to assist people. We saw it with the medical staff and professionals stopping having dinner and rushing to St Vincent's Hospital or Prince Alfred Hospital or other places to provide assistance. And we saw it in days after as well, with people making extraordinary personal sacrifices in order to help their fellow Australians.
Today, I've written to the Governor-General requesting the creation of a special honours list in response to this horrific terrorist attack, for awards to be put in place as part of the Australian honours and awards system. This would recognise those individuals nominated and recommended for a bravery or a meritorious award in response to the Bondi terrorist attack.
The attack did show us the worst of humanity - hatred, antisemitism, violence. It also showed us the best of humanity - extraordinary acts of bravery and courage, acts of kindness for fellow Australians. These special honours lists have been used previously to recognise individuals for other events like the Bali bombings and MH17, and these awards would be announced in 2026.
Last night as well, I spoke with President Herzog of Israel. President Herzog and I have known each other for a long period of time, and it was an opportunity for the President to express his condolences to the victims here, but also to Australia as a nation. I've written to the Governor-General and asked for a formal invitation to be granted by the Governor-General because Head of State to Head of State is the appropriate protocol, for the President to visit Australia in early 2026 to honour and remember victims of the Bondi antisemitic terrorist attack and provide support for Jewish Australians and the Australian Jewish community at this time. Minister Gallagher.
KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR FINANCE: Thanks very much, PM and I'd also like to send my thoughts and condolences to all those who continuing to experience the trauma of the Bondi terror attack on Sunday, a week ago on Sunday.
Today, the Government has declared that the Jewish Community Foundation associated with the Jewish Communal Appeal, will be declared as a community charity. This is part of our ongoing work to support community organisations that are helping the victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack and their families and bringing the community together in such difficult times. The Jewish Communal Appeal has over 50 years of history raising and allocating funds for and charities in New South Wales and the ACT, and the establishment of this, and we've declared this by legislative instrument, will further support their efforts to raise vital money for and provide direct assistance to those affected by the attacks. This application has been made. We have declared that by regulation, and this is the one of the most important steps on the path to DRG status, which is deductible gift recipient status, which would be pending the ATO's endorsement, would be put in place as soon as possible. We are urgently doing the work to make sure this can happen, so that people can provide those funds and that organisation can go on and continue to support their essential work in supporting those affected by the Bondi terror attacks.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you plan to meet with President Herzog while he's in Australia? And on that phone call post that he talked about wanting all legal measures to combat antisemitism, did he make any specific requests what he wants to see your government do?
PRIME MINISTER: No. It was a very constructive discussion, as it always has been with President Herzog. I've met him personally a number of times before, and I will certainly be welcoming him here and meeting with him when he is here.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, would you invite on a prime ministerial level, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Australia? And given his comments about your leadership previously, what sort of response would you -
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't respond to those issues, and I don't think this is a time for any partisan politics. We've invited President Herzog, which is entirely appropriate for the Head of State to visit.
JOURNALIST: Have you had any conversations with Mr Netanyahu since the attack?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: Just with the award system, do you know exactly how many people or how will that process work in determining who will?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we'll seek nominations. There is a system in place for our award systems and for this special category will be granted. We wanted to make sure that people were appropriately recognised, so there will be a public process. It will be run at arm's length from the Government by the Awards Secretariat that run these systems. I think that there will be a range of people nominated. I had a brief discussion with Premier Minns this morning. Obviously New South Wales, I would hope would be in a position as well of nominating, particularly those people who were New South Wales police officers, for example, who raced to the scene and risked their own safety to help the safety of strangers, but also those people - I've met people in the medical facilities, for example, who had rushed in, some as far as the Central Coast. I met a police officer at Bondi who had just got in his car and driven down from Newcastle. I met another police officer on Monday morning who had clearly worked all night. That's the sort of recognition that I want to publicly recognised. That's not why people do it, but it's important that we as a nation celebrate our heroes and celebrate good deeds. One of the issues that's come out of atrocity that occurred that has from the community, Rabbi Mendel and others who I met with in, in his home as the idea of a million mitzvahs. That is the idea that people do an act of kindness for each other in order to build that solidarity and sense of community. That's come from the Jewish community itself. And so, recognition of people's good deeds is a good thing. It's not why people do it, but it's what our nation should do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on gun reform, like in 1996, there's some rural MPs and some farm groups who are strongly opposed to the case of national changes or any changes for that matter. I'm wondering if, like John Howard, you will seek to work closely with the Nationals and also will you visit rural constituencies to make the case for change?
PRIME MINISTER: I'll seek to work with everyone across the system, but it clearly is not one size fits all either. There's a recognition that someone who is a farmer on a property might have very different needs from a bloke in Bonnyrigg who got access in the current laws to six high-powered rifles, and we're about stamping inappropriate use. We don't want say that, you know, all gun use is the same. Quite clearly, it's not. And people who have legitimate use of guns need to be able to do so, in particular, people in our farming communities.
JOURNALIST: Just following on from my colleague, would you be deciding to head out into rural communities to talk to them, as John Howard did? And just separately in your chat last week on the night of the attack, you said your aim was to eradicate antisemitism. Did you discuss this with President Herzog last night and do you think it's achievable to eradicate antisemitism?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, antisemitism, we know, is an ancient hatred. But what we want to do is to do everything that is within our power to stamp it out. When it comes to engaging with people, if you look at where I go during an election campaign and during the course of this year have been on cattle stations, have been to Longreach, have been to Kununurra and parts of the Pilbara and as well as the Kimberley. I've been to drought affected areas in South Australia. I'm someone who doesn't just visit one part of Australia. I see my role as visiting all parts of Australia and I'll engage with all parts of Australia
JOURNALIST: Do you accept that what Ministers have been claiming through entitlements is out of step with community expectations?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, quite clearly what we've done in writing to the tribunal and it is the REM Tribunal that establishes the rules. And I might see if the Finance Minister wants to comment on this as well. But let's be very clear - I've seen some comments from the Coalition who don't seem to recognise two things. One is that the system that has been operating is the system that was established in the wake of Sussan Ley's sacking as a Minister and we have not made changes to those entitlements before now. They are entitlements that were established under the former government, and they're entitlements that were on the basis of a decision - the same system operated on the basis of the Remuneration Tribunal. Now what we are doing is seeking the correspondence that's been given to the tribunal is to ensure that it is more in line with what community standards are, and we want to make sure that there's confidence in the system, whilst also ensuring that we can continue to have a diverse Parliament and that new parents, for example, can participate fully because we want the Parliament to be representative.
MINISTER GALLAGHER: Thanks, PM. So, the REM Tribunal has the ongoing responsibility to continue to look at entitlements for MPs and senators. And so, it does that through its routine course of work. What we have done here is write to them and say, 'could you look at these three areas and consider that and come back with a determination'. Now they've agreed to do that, and they will do that in hopefully in January in the early weeks of January. And that does look at you know, the business or economy class for Family Reunion and a couple of other areas in Family Reunion about attending events and also Australia wide Family Reunion Travel. But as the PM said, we have a very, very different Parliament, this Parliament more than most. We have a number of younger MPs and Senators, many of them with young children, babies to under school age to school age, and they are away from their families for long periods of time through the year. And so, we believe the Family Reunion Entitlement is an important entitlement. But we do believe and we have recommended to the tribunal that they look at those three areas and come back to us.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, a man in Sydney has been charged with threatening to kidnap you. I know you won't want to comment on the specifics of that with it being before court, but could I just get your reflections on the state of political discourse at the moment, whether people need to tone it down and the difference between sharing political opinions versus making threats?
PRIME MINISTER: We need to be able to have civil political discourse in this country. We need to be able to disagree as well as agree respectfully. There is no place for the rise in violence that has occurred. There have been a number of charges laid over recent times, including the one that you refer to. And the fact that security has had to be increased is of concern. And I note that when one of my colleagues spoke about lowering the temperature, that received a response that increased the temperature. You know, the Director-General of ASIO has made this very clear publicly that we need to lower the temperature of political debate. And there is a responsibility on both public office holders, a responsibility upon people in the media as well, to engage in a way that they would like to see themselves spoken about. And so I'm all for political engagement. I encourage people to engage, particularly young people to engage in political discourse because in a democracy, participation is an essential component. But it does need to be respectful because otherwise you have issues that make it difficult to have that open debate which occurs. Last one, thank you.
JOURNALIST: Just on travel entitlements - are you confident that the proposed changes go far enough to restore that community trust in the process? And will you assure the community that with these new changes that the rules are now fit for purpose and fair?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, let's be very clear. The Remuneration Tribunal will make the recommendations to us. So, they'll look at it. We have written to them, we don't make our own rules and that is appropriate that politicians don't set their own wages and conditions. And there was, as I said yesterday, there was some misreporting of that earlier on in the system. I'm certainly hopeful that the changes that have been forwarded to the tribunal will, are about restoring confidence in the system. I understand that there was genuine community and legitimate concern about these issues and we, that's why I asked informally first IPEA, the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority was created in the wake of the issues that led to Sussan Ley's dismissal as a Minister. IPEA have written, I asked for advice. They wrote to me. The recommendations that were made to the tribunal are consistent with what they asked for, and anything that IPEA puts forward will be something that I, as Prime Minister, would support.
Can I take the opportunity to wish all of you, it has been a difficult time over since the 14th of December, but I do want to wish all of you here in the Gallery in Parliament House a very Merry Christmas and hope that you have the opportunity tomorrow to spend time with your family and loved ones. For those of you, if you are of the Christian faith, it is an important celebration as well of the birth of Jesus Christ and I wish you for Christians, I wish them not just say Merry Christmas but a Holy Christmas as well. Thank you very much. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Do you have a statement about the passing of Dr Katie Allen?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I put out a statement last night. Dr Katie Allen is someone who I had enormous respect for. She has passed far too soon. And I think for her colleagues in the Liberal Party, but right across the Parliament, she had respect. She was not successful in 2022 and attempted a political comeback earlier this year. But right across the board, including with the candidates against her, she always conducted herself in a respectful way, both in this Parliament and on the campaign trail, and my thoughts go to Dr Allen's family, to her friends, to her former colleagues and to the community that she represented. She was passionate about making a difference not just for that local community, but for our nation. And I join in mourning her passing.