Q: Andrew Greene has reported an Australian-designed weapons system has been tested by Israel. What’s your view on the sale of Australian arms to Israel?

Dutton:

There’s been a bipartisan position for a period of time in relation to the export of arms and that’s not a process that we propose to change. It’s been adhered to as far as I can understand by the current government, if the Prime Minister’s changed that then it’s not something [I know about]

Q: [The parts reportedly went to Israel via the Unites States] – is that appropriate?

Dutton:

Not that I’m aware of, in terms of where the government’s made changes to. I will make this statement in relation to Israel, though – when we stopped a terrorist attack from taking place on an A380 here in Australia where literally hundreds of Australians would have died, that intelligence came from Israel.

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East* that are a key partner and, when we were evacuating people out of Kabul and when we have had our people in the Middle East – and I recall this very specifically as Defence Minister – we relied on Israel for intelligence that saved the lives of Australians, including in uniform. So I’m not going to speak in a disparaging way about Israel.

*This is not true. Iraq and Lebanon are parliamentary republic democracies. Palestinians in Gaza have been banned from holding an election by Israel since 2006.