Kieran Gilbert, Host: Now, I caught up earlier in the day with the Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister, Matt Thistlethwaite. I asked him about that Australian couple on board that flight.
Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade: G'day, Kieran. Yeah, this is everyone's worst nightmare, a plane hijacking, and thankfully we had some very, very brave passengers and the pilot who were able to restrain the copilot and level the plane off and bring it to safety. And thankfully the two Australians, Carol and Steven Moss, who are on board, are now safely in Tel Aviv. Our embassy staff have reached out to them and made contact with them to offer support and assistance and we're just really, really grateful and enormously relieved that Carol and Steven are safe and all the other passengers on that plane are safe as well.
Gilbert: Yeah, thankfully, that was the outcome. The insider threat, it's such a difficult one to deal with, isn't it? Obviously, off the back of September 11th there are all these added safeguards around the cockpit. But when it's an insider threat, will our authorities have a look at this as well going forward as to how to try and mitigate against this?
Assistant Minister: We certainly will. The ASIO chief, Mike Burgess, has always said that the greatest risk comes from lone wolf actors in terrorism situations. Unfortunately, that's what we experienced here in Bondi. So, we'll certainly have a look at what occurred on this flight. The individual who hijacked the plane has been taken into custody in the United Arab Emirates. He's being questioned. No doubt he'll be charged at some stage in the future, but I think all security agencies, including ours here in Australia, will be having a close look at this, reviewing policies and procedures that they have with the airlines to ensure that this never happens on Australian airspace.
Gilbert: Yeah, indeed, Matt Thistlethwaite, and I know not far from where you are, obviously that atrocity in Bondi. And we should say there's no established motive here, but people put two and two together, you see where the plane was going, who was on board and so on. This is a period where there is a heightened risk factor as well, probable is the terror threat level in Australia and something that our agencies obviously are very, very cognisant of. Do we need to elevate public awareness? I know I've been talking to various authorities about it in recent times. Maybe a public awareness campaign that should once again put that terror alert hotline back in people's headspace that we need to be aware of possible risks?
Assistant Minister: We're constantly aware to the threat of terrorist activities and issues such as that on Australian soil. And that's why we've provided increased resources to our terrorism, anti-terrorism, sorry, and security agencies, our police forces, to try and combat this. Obviously we've got the Royal Commission into what occurred at Bondi and to antisemitism going on and no doubt they'll make some recommendations regarding this. But we're constantly aware to this threat. Our agencies do a really, really good job in working to infiltrate cells and organisations that maybe where there are risks of activities online and such. But we're ever aware of this and we're constantly surveilling it.
Gilbert: I want to ask you about a few other issues now. The tax office abruptly changing the payment methods allowed for particularly, you know, this is very relevant to small business. Credit cards can no longer be used for basically quarterly monthly GST payments and so on. This could really hurt a lot of small businesses around Australia. To me it looks like something the tax office is going to have to change their position on. Can the government intervene? Should the government intervene here? Because I reckon you're going to get a lot of feedback from small businesses over coming days on this.
Assistant Minister: Well, Kieran, since we got elected we've had a lot of complaints from Australians about credit and debit card surcharges. That the price on the menu or the price in the shop, wasn't the price that you actually paid at the checkout. So, we listened to what the Australian people have said, we consulted and we've acted to ban debit and credit card surcharges. Obviously, in respect of payments that are made into the Australian Taxation Office for taxation invoices, there has been the ability to use credit cards. It's only a very small amount. It's about 2.6% of payments are made via credit cards. And the ATO attempted to negotiate with the credit card providers to remove those charges, but unfortunately those credit card providers wouldn't come to the party. So, to ensure that these charges aren't heaped on the taxpayer --
Gilbert: 2.6% of a big amount is still thousands of small businesses. Tens of thousands of small businesses. 2.6% of the total pie, when we're talking about all the other tax paid by Rio Tinto, BHP, all the other taxpayers, 2.6 is a lot. I think this is going to blow up for the government, to be honest, to be frank. Small businesses, to keep their heads above water, often have to rely on the credit card.
Assistant Minister: Well, we did try through the ATO, to ensure that the credit card providers couldn't make these charges and that they applied as they should for the rest of the economy by banning them. But unfortunately, those credit card providers wouldn't come to the party and the ATO has decided that it wouldn't be fair to heap those costs across the board to others --
Gilbert: So, small business have got to cop the surcharge. They've got to cop, you know, the removal of the surcharge. But the ATO won't? To me, it's double standards.
Assistant Minister: Well, that's why the ATO is providing a notice period. It doesn't begin until November. The other thing is that they've provided alternatives. So, there are plenty of alternatives for taxpayers who can't pay an invoice upfront to work with the ATO. And the ATO are pretty flexible in providing those alternatives. And no doubt that the ATO are going to run consultations, they're going to run seminars, particularly for small businesses, to make sure that they're aware of those alternatives in the lead up to this change entering into force in November.
Gilbert: To be honest, I think this is a backflip waiting to happen. It's just not fair to small business. But let me ask you about the quantum investment the government's made today. One in particular in your electorate, Kingsford Smith, at uni of new south. What's happening in quantum computing alongside the AI leaps that we're hearing about day in, day out?
Assistant Minister: Yeah. Today we've invested three and a half million dollars in Silicon Quantum Computing at the University of NSW. They've entered into a partnership with Schneider, which is an energy company. And what that quantum computing program will do is ensuring that we're optimising the feeding of renewable energy into the grid. So, we all know that there are certain times when solar panels and batteries can feed into the grid, when it's more efficient and effective. And this quantum computing program in conjunction with Schneider will make that optimal and will improve the efficiency of the system. So, what the eventual outcome will be, Kieran, is lower electricity prices for all consumers and more effective use of renewable energy. So, it will help us meet our commitments to net zero by 2050. This is a great announcement. Very proud that Silicon Quantum Computing is in my electorate. I've had plenty to do with them and I can tell you they've got some hugely innovative programs that are coming and the best is yet to come with SQC.
Gilbert: Well, it's nice to hear some positive news for a change on that front because at the moment there's all the doomsday predictions on AI and so on, but nice to hear a positive story in tech advancements, Matt, yep, thanks. We appreciate your time. Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Foreign Minister. Talk to you soon.
Assistant Minister: Thanks, Kieran.