Asked if the Iran ambassador expulsion was to ‘get back in Israel’s good books’, Tony Burke says:

This decision that we have taken is about one thing and about one thing only, and that is a safety and sovereignty of Australia. It’s about the safety of Australians, it’s about the sovereignty of Australians. And anyone who wants to try to find some other reason here or there, it’s just wrong. You don’t need that. What you start with is the absolute principle that the first role of any government is keeping its people safe. And when you have an attack that has been initiated by Iran in this way, you know, you can
deal with the cutouts, you can deal with the proxies, you can deal with the intermediaries, where you have a nation state behaving in that way, you have to act immediately to protect the safety of Australians and protect the sovereignty of Australians. That’s what we’ve done.

On the Coalition’s complaints it should have been done earlier, Burke says:

I think they underestimate the extent to which a new line was crossed the moment you deal with the fact that you have an attack on Australian soil. You know, it is a big thing for any government to shut off dialogue in the way that you do when you withdraw your staff from your own embassy and expel an ambassador.

There is always advantage in dialogue that needs to be weighed up. A line had clearly, so clearly been
crossed when we were dealing with an attack on our own soil, and I think anyone who pretends that we’re in the same situation with what we now know as we were, as the Australian people were a week ago, is missing the fundamental difference that you face when you have an attack on your own soil. And nobody should view this as an attack on a venue or an attack on the Jewish community. This is an attack on Australia, and it needs to be treated that way.

Tony Burke has done the media round this morning (along with Penny Wong who has taken the commercials) and was asked on Sky News about the plans to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. Burke said:

The process for the legislation to be drafted has now commenced. We need to make sure that the drafting…you want this to be absolutely correct drafting, you need to make sure you get all of that right. But obviously we’ve started the process.

We want to get this, want to get this legislation change as soon as we can. It’s a process which is not possible with the current legislation. And so therefore, the drafting process has started immediately.

Anthony Albanese is in Wagga for one of News Corps many, many bush summits so he won’t be in the parliament for a little bit this morning.

Holding summits like that has become one of the ways media companies make money – which is why you are seeing property summits, development summits, tax summits, bush summits, mining summits etc. Most are dressed up as being in the public interest and the politicians play along – after all the rooms tend to be influential and it makes for some very easy headlines.

You may have heard of the August 31 ‘March for Australia’ which was gaining popularity with anti-lockdown and nationalist groups. Then neo-Nazis claimed they had organised it. A counter protest has been organised and it is all a bit of a mess for media outlets to report on, mostly because it populises it, but also, we haven’t all been trained in how to handle the rise of fascism and neo-Nazis in the mainstream (with a few exceptions – Cam Wilson and Ariel Bogle are both very good on this)

The 7am podcast have looked at the issue more widely, speaking to Arrernte writer and Crikey contributor Celeste Liddle about Australia’s white nationalist past,” and how in failing to reckon with it we’ve set the stage for the movement to grow.”

If you enjoy 7am, the best way you can support us is by making a contribution at 7ampodcast.com.au/support.

Sussan Ley has released a statement on social cohesion. There is no context to this statement, but given recent events, history would suggest that higher ups in Australia’s security agencies may have suggested it was a good idea if everyone knew both major parties were on the same page on this. The language echoes what Tony Burke said yesterday and today.

Our Australian way of life is built on respect, on community, and on the simple belief that we are stronger together.

But right now, that way of life is under attack.

Conflicts overseas are straining our social fabric here at home. 

And terrorist organisations are deliberately trying to divide us further.

Whether you are Iranian, Palestinian or Israeli, whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or of any faith, Australia is your home.

In times like this, we must hold firm.

We must not allow overseas conflicts, or the voices of fringe dwellers, to weaken our unity or poison our shared values.

Because the truth is simple: what unites us as Australians will always be stronger than what others try to use to divide us.

At 10am West Australian time (which is midday on the east coast), Justice Paul Tottle of the WA Supreme Court will hand down his judgement in the Linda Reynolds v Brittany Higgins defamation case.

The former Liberal senator sued Higgins, claiming she was defamed in a series of Instagram posts in 2023, which she claimed breached the settlement and released Higgins signed in 2021.

Higgins made the posts following Reynolds announcement through a news story that she intended to refer Higgins settlement from the federal government to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

Higgins accused Reynolds of continuing to harass her in the media and in parliament.

NACC found there was “no corruption” in the payout to Higgins following Reynold’s referral.

You can read more about today’s judgement in this excellent explainer from The Guardian’s Sarah Basford Canales.

Of Australia’s 37 public universities, 26 take money from fossil fuel companies, according to new research released today by The Australia Institute.

The close links between universities and fossil fuel companies undermine the independence of universities and risk greenwashing the activities of companies profiting from climate change.

Key points:

• Fossil fuel companies fund 24 research centres at 19 different universities, including:
  • The University of Queensland’s Centre for Natural Gas, funded by various gas companies.
  • The Monash Energy Institute, funded by Woodside, AGL and others.
  • University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute, funded by Santos
• Scholarships funded by fossil fuel companies total at least $423,000 per year.
• Tens of millions in grant funding is provided via Australian Research Council Linkage grants and industry organisations like the Australian Coal Association Research Program.

“Coal and gas companies should not be funding science in the 2020s,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.

The science of climate change is clear. Universities teach this science. 

“Fossil fuel companies causing climate change in the 21^st century are buying influence with Australia’s leading research organisations, just like tobacco companies bought off medical researchers last century.

“Students know this and want universities to stop cosying up to big gas and coal companies. 

“Gas companies made $170 billion over the last four years, selling gas that the Australian government gave them for free.

“The simple policy fix is to tax the gas industry and properly fund universities.

“Australia’s universities are under fire for various governance failures. Links with coal and gas companies are just the latest demonstration that universities are selling their integrity and selling it cheap.

Meanwhile, back in ‘why are we tying Australia even closer to this despot regime’ news, Donald Trump has once again lived up to his words and is embracing his dictator era.

Burke mentions the phrase the ASIO director-general Mike Burgess used yesterday – “cut out” and how it applies to these incidents.

The information that we provided yesterday was very deliberately provided and to that level of detail. I won’t go beyond what was said yesterday. But for anyone who watched it, Mike Burgess – the Director-General of ASIO – used a number of times the term “cut-outs”. “Cut-outs” is a term used in the intelligence community that refers to intermediaries who are there to effectively make sure that, as you go down the chain, people don’t realise who was higher up the chain. That’s the nature of what “cut-outs” means.

Q: These are. criminals who are doing these things might not have known that they were being ultimately paid by Iran? There’s just a bit of concern within the Jewish community that some of these people might still be out there on the streets.

Burke:

The language from the Director-General yesterday was very deliberate. We have no reason to believe that the people who were actually conducting the actions had any idea who had started it.

That doesn’t change the seriousness from the Australian government’s point of view that Iran was still involved in directing attacks on Australian soil.

Which is why we’ve taken actions which have been unprecedented in the postwar era.

Q: Yes. Just to one of those actions – the designating of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard – a lot of the Iranian expats in Australia are pretty pleased about this. Can you tell us what effect that’ll have on the ground?

Burke:

Yeah. Two sort of impacts – the direct legal impact of a terrorist listing is that it becomes a criminal offence to be a member to support the fund. The second impact, though – which is perhaps more powerful – is the message that it sends. And it has the government of Australia drawing an absolute sharp line as to just how unacceptable this is. And that’s one of the things that was really important yesterday to send that very clear message that these attacks on the Jewish community in Australia – we view them as an attack on Australia. We don’t view them as an attack on part of us or some of us. We stand together, and we stand in solidarity as Australians. And the strength of that message is something that is also provided in the response that we’ve had.