Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming down to Coogee. Our community is still in shock from the shark attack that occurred here yesterday. Coogee is a village where we all know each other and we all love the ocean and swimming in this beautiful bay, and each morning there are hundreds of people who swim laps here at Coogee, and they feel very safe in these calm waters on that crystal‑clear ocean, the golden sand beneath them as they swim up and down. And unfortunately that safety was shattered yesterday with this horrific attack.
Our thoughts are with the victim and her family. This must be a shocking event for any family to deal with, and we all hope and pray that she pulls through, and we’re thinking of her and her family today.
I also want to pay tribute to and thank our wonderful lifeguards, our surf lifesavers and first responders, who were on the scene immediately to offer first aid and to assist. Those people risked their lives to help save the life of someone who was in a very traumatic circumstance, and they deserve our utmost praise and respect for the work that they did, particularly Charlie Verco, a lifesaver from Bondi, who was out here training for the Molokai ski race. I did the Molokai race myself in 2008. It’s a 52‑kilometre ski paddle from the island of Molokai to Oahu, and you have to do those big long training sessions to get ready for that. And Charlie was training from Maroubra over here to Coogee. He acted quickly, he risked his own life to get the woman onto his surf ski, and to bring her to the shore as quickly as possible.
I also want to pay to pay tribute to the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club President, Ben Heenan. Ben was one of the first responders on the scene. He offered assistance and first aid to help stabilise the woman and get her to the shore as quickly as possible, assisting with a rescue board. This isn’t the first time that Ben’s been involved in an incident like this. Ben was one of the first responders that was on the scene here on New Year’s Day when a young man tragically drowned in these waters, and Ben was involved in the Bondi massacre that occurred in December, being on the ground then as one of the first responders. And I think it’s a good example of the fact that our surf lifesavers are always on duty. It might not be patrol time, it might not be when the flags are up, but surf lifesavers will always respond to incidents such as this. So, I want to pay tribute to Ben and to all of the surf lifesavers from Coogee Surf Club, who responded very quickly, and I also praise our Randwick lifeguards.
I went down yesterday to visit the lifeguards to thank them for their incredible work once again. One of those lifeguards, it’s the second shark attack that he’s had to respond to in this community over the course of the last couple of years. And I saw yesterday the toll that events like this take on our lifeguards, our surf lifesavers, and our first responders. And they came together yesterday to support each other and to help each other, and I want all of those that were involved yesterday to know that our community is here to support you.
The government is here to support you, and we’ll do everything we can to help you get through this traumatic experience. Randwick City Council and Coogee Surf Life Saving Club are hosting an event for first responders here on Monday night at 6:30pm in Coogee Surf Life Saving Club, where they’ll bring down counsellors and people who are trained in trauma recovery, experts who can assist members of the public, and indeed our first responders who were on the scene yesterday, to help this woman in these difficult circumstances. So once again, thank you to all of our first responders, our lifeguards, surf lifesavers, and Charlie for their incredible bravery and their work in doing all they can to help this woman pull through this difficult situation.
Today is also the six‑month anniversary of the tragic events at Bondi on December 14, and today our thoughts are with the victims and their families. It will no doubt be a very difficult day for them as they continue to come to terms with the tragedy that occurred in Bondi on that evening. Obviously, in the wake of that, there’s been much support offered from the government, from members of our community, but today is a time to remember those who lost their lives, to come together.
There will be a vigil this evening at Bondi Beach, and we’re thinking of those victims and their families today. Our government is committed to continuing to work with Australia’s Jewish community to support them, to stamp out antisemitism, to deliver the interim recommendations of the Royal Commission, and to see the Royal Commission come to fruition and its recommendations implemented as quickly as possible. Today is also the last day for members of the community to put submissions in, and I encourage people to take up that opportunity. Thanks for coming down. I’m happy to take some questions.
Journalist: Drone patrols are a key shark‑mitigation tool that we’re using across beaches in New South Wales. But there are no regular patrols at Coogee, Bronte, or Bondi, some of our busiest beaches in Sydney because of the flight path, should that change?
Assistant Minister: Drone patrols have been an initiative that have assisted the surf lifesaving movement and lifeguards to alert people if there is a shark in the vicinity. It’s a great technology, and we want to use it as widely as possible. I went for a paddle yesterday morning at Maroubra very early on, and there was a drone up in the air when I was paddling, monitoring the situation at Maroubra. Unfortunately, we can’t fly drones here at Coogee because it’s in the flight path into Kingsford Smith Airport. Now, we want to make sure, obviously, that aviation safety is paramount, and we cannot compromise safety when it comes to the flight paths and aviation. But I think we should be able to explore whether or not drones are able to fly very low altitudes and still provide that protection at a beach such as Coogee. So, I think that if there’s any investigation, we should be able to look at that. But at the end of the day, we have to make sure that aviation safety is paramount. So, I’m happy to say that we should look at and investigate low levels of drones being able to patrol on beaches such as this, as long as it does not compromise aviation safety.
Journalist: Every time something like this happens, there are calls for a shark cull. David Littleproud today said there should be a shark cull in certain areas. Should there be a shark cull?
Assistant Minister: I don’t support a shark cull. I understand that the shark attack yesterday was from a great white. Great whites are threatened and protected species in Australia. So there certainly won’t be any culling of that particular species. I’ve spoken to scientists at the University of New South Wales, they’ve got experts there that work in this field. They say that the effects of climate change and the warming waters, particularly in places around Sydney, is bringing more aggressive sharks like bull sharks further south, particularly during the summer months, and that’s obviously having implications for water safety in the community. I think we need to take the advice of those experts and to make sure that the government, local councils, and surf lifesaving put in place as many measures as we possibly can to keep the swimming public safe. But at the end of the day, you’re never going to be able to completely eliminate the risk of a shark attack in the waters of Sydney or anywhere around the Australian coast.
Journalist: Some of those experts saying that more education is the answer here. Is there not enough being done in that space?
Assistant Minister: There’s been a lot of effort put into trying to educate the public about the risks associated with shark bite and how to avoid them in situations along our coastline, particularly in the summer months, and it’s great to see that those warnings being heeded by members of the public and are starting to become a lot more prevalent. But yesterday’s shark attack, the victim and those that were swimming at that time did everything right. We’re often warned not to swim at dawn or dusk, don’t go into the water after there’s been rain and the water’s murky. That wasn’t the case yesterday. It was almost the middle of the day. The water was crystal clear. There hadn’t been any rainfall for some period of time. This victim did everything right. She took every single precaution that she possibly could. But unfortunately, at the end of the day, we’re never going to be able to completely eliminate that risk in our waters here along Sydney.
Journalist: Do you think there’s scope to extend the netting season further into winter?
Assistant Minister: Well, the nets finish here at the end of the summer swimming season predominantly because that becomes the whale‑migration season. They call this the humpback highway, and you’ll start to see the whales beginning to migrate up and down the coast here. Now, that’s why the nets are predominantly removed, to remove that risk from whales getting caught in them. I think that that’s something that we need to take the advice of experts on. The nets go up during the swimming months, but they don’t completely cover the whole beach. They’re only about 50 to 60 metres long. They’re only in the channels. I swim and surf regularly at Maroubra, where it’s netted, yet I’ve seen sharks close to the shoreline during the summer months when the nets are up. So, it’s an effective program, it’s something that we should continue to do, but you’re never going to be able to completely eliminate that risk.
Journalist: Just on some other issues, just the departure of Jonno Duniam, the announcement of that this morning. What’s your reaction to that?
Assistant Minister: Yeah, that was a sudden announcement by Jonno Duniam. Obviously, I’ve worked very closely with Jonno. He’s a counterpart in the immigration portfolio. He’s someone that I worked very closely with. I always found him to be a very sensible person, someone that I respected and got along with quite well in Parliament. We could always work with him on sensible reforms. I guess it’s going to be a big loss for the Liberal Party. He’s very young, he had a very big future, but obviously he’s got his reasons for announcing his retirement, and we wish him all the very best in the future.
Journalist: Just with your Foreign Affairs hat, what signals are you getting about the likely sort of deal being announced between the US and Iran?
Assistant Minister: Well, we’re hopeful of a deal and an end to this conflict, but we’re preparing for the worst. Australians are fed up with the stop‑start nature of the conflict in the Middle East. They want to see this drawn to a close as quickly as possible, and the Strait of Hormuz reopened, because Australians are paying for this conflict at the petrol bowser and in their groceries and household‑goods bill. It’s pushed up inflation, and it’s seen cost‑of‑living pressures put on Australian households that they don’t need at this difficult time. So Australia has consistently called for a permanent ceasefire to be put in place, this conflict to be brought to an end, and the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened permanently to resume normal shipping and to get all supplies back to normal to take pressure off international prices and on prices here in Australia.
Journalist: Just on fuel supply, do you risk another bout of panic buying now that the government has signalled almost certainly there’s an end to the fuel excise?
Assistant Minister: There’s no need for Australians to be panic‑buying and stocking up on fuel at this point in time. We’ve actually got more fuel reserves in Australia at the moment than we had at the beginning of this conflict. Our government’s put in place a national fuel strategy to ensure that we’ve built up the stocks of petrol, diesel, and aviation fuel. So, there’s no need for panic buying. We’re continually assessing the situation. We’ve got the national fuel coordinator that is working with the states and territories to ensure that the fuel supplies get to where they’re needed as quickly as possible. There are no shortages at the moment, but obviously the longer this conflict goes on, the more difficult it becomes for fuel supplies in Australia and internationally. But we’re working around the clock to ensure that we’re continually building up those stocks of fuels so that there’s no shortages here in Australia. Thanks everyone.