Topics: Israeli flight hijacking, Reserve bank rates, inflation figures
E&OE.......................
SHARRI MARKSON: And joining me now is former Australian Ambassador to Israel and Shadow Minister Dave Sharma. Dave, good to see you. What's your reaction to this news that's emerging?
DAVE SHARMA: Look, it's terrifying for the passengers. If you've seen some of the footage from inside the plane or the eyewitness accounts afterwards, it's obviously a suspected terror incident, a terrorist attack, which Israeli authorities have confirmed as much and being investigated as such. At this stage, it's unclear whether the intent was to crash the plane, to use the plane as a missile or a weapon, like a September 11th-style attack. But many people who travel to Israel, including many Australians and myself included, have been on that flight or similar, been on FlyDubai between Dubai and Tel Aviv. And I think, you know, this is— it feels like the 1970s again when these sorts of terrorist attacks took place far too often on passenger aircraft.
SHARRI MARKSON: Yeah, and it comes just days after, you know, that what Well, reportedly attempted terror plot with explosives, the white vans in the UK near the Air Force base. Now this, just a few days apart. And, you know, it is, as you say, we don't know the motivation, but for anyone who's caught that flight, the security seems to be really strong. They check everyone's bags.
DAVE SHARMA: They do. And look, it's, um, obviously if it seems like it was one of the pilots who's the person of interest here, They obviously are subject to somewhat different security and screening arrangements, but you'd think that their backstory vetting should be much stronger than for any passenger. And obviously, Israeli security authorities are present at Dubai Airport as well as in Tel Aviv. They're involved in the vetting, the security, the scanning of bags and whatnot. So, if this pilot has indeed attempted a terrorist attack, it's a security failure.
SHARRI MARKSON: Incredible, the stories that are emerging of one of the pilots, you know, broadcasting the message to the rest of the plane that he needs help, and the Israeli
DAVE SHARMA: It is. I mean, it sounds like there was some heroics on board. It reminds me a little of one of the 9/11 hijacked planes that was heading— I think crashed outside Washington, where the passengers subdued the pilot and prevented a worse disaster but lost their lives in the process. But it sounds like there's been some incredible heroics from the passengers on board the plane, which sounds like it's averted what would have been a terrible disaster.
SHARRI MARKSON: Yeah, and I'm sure we'll hear more about those stories in the coming hours and days. I just want to get your reaction to information Inflation today obviously jumped to 4%. This after the 16th rate rise under the Albanese government yesterday. Albanese blamed Scott Morrison when there was just one rate rise, but now they're saying it's the Iran war.
DAVE SHARMA: Their arguments simply do not stack up. I mean, why does inflation in Australia have a 4 in front of it in no other advanced economy? Why has the Reserve Bank been forced to increase interest rates 4 times already this year? and every other central bank has only had to do it once? Why is the budget not in surplus when every mainstream economist says commodity prices and the point we're at in the economic cycle means we should be in surplus? And why does the Reserve Bank Governor keep making the obvious point that demand, public sector demand, government spending is fuelling this inflation and inflation is a homegrown problem? I don't think it's credible for Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese to blame external factors or the Strait of Hormuz or anything else because no other advanced economy is dealing with the pain that Australians are.
SHARRI MARKSON: Yeah, our inflation is the highest by far. But both Jim Chalmers and, you know, the Albanese government— sorry, the Prime Minister tried to say both he was right and Michelle Bullock was right, but they can't both be right. You know, the Treasurer is saying the Iran war is the main factor for the high inflation, but Michelle Bullock saying these are domestic pressures that were there before the war started and the war is contributing to that.
DAVE SHARMA: Absolutely. I mean, Jim Chalmers is trying to make excuses here and trying to blame external factors. He was critical of the previous government saying they didn't take responsibility when interest rates went up once. Well, they've gone up 16 times under his watch. And every mainstream economist from the RBA to former RBA governors to former Secretaries of the Treasury Department, Ken Henry, Martin Parkinson, are all saying it's excessive government spending and no productivity. Those are both failings of this Labor government.
SHARRI MARKSON: Dave, I just want to quickly play you comments that the Foreign Minister Penny Wong made at the United Nations last week. Have a look at this.
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PENNY WONG: In the West Bank, the situation is worsening. In the first 6 months of this year alone, settler violence has driven more than 15,000 children from their homes.
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SHARRI MARKSON: So Penny Wong saying that violence in the West Bank meant that 15,000 children were displaced from their homes. Dave, the United Nations figure is Israel's Foreign Ministry has called this a blatant lie. Should she correct the record?
DAVE SHARMA: Absolutely she should, and I'm surprised that she hasn't done so. I mean, if she has evidence or statistics to back up the figure she cited, she should put that out publicly. If not, she should apologise and she would— she should withdraw that remark. I mean, I see she's got spokespeople out in the media saying, offering some explanations. She needs to publicly front up and own this because That is an outrageous thing to get wrong, accusing another nation of this. Israel's Foreign Ministry has obviously asked for an explanation. To date, she has not given one. And that's a very dangerous thing to be misleading people about.
SHARRI MARKSON: Well, and I put in questions to her yesterday as well, and she would not, on the record, say where the source of the figures or correct the record or explain where she got them from. And I sent back to her office the United Nations figures showing it was only 1,000 children. And as you know, those are likely inflated figures. But there's also the point, 51,000 Israeli children have been displaced from the north and the south, and she doesn't mention that.
DAVE SHARMA: No, absolutely right. And look, we will be pursuing this when the Senate is in estimates next time around, because I want to know where she got this figure from.
SHARRI MARKSON: Oh good, I'm glad to hear that. I look forward to it. Dave, thank you so much for your time. Thank you.
[ENDS]