Andrew Clennell, Host: Foreign Minister Penny Wong, you made it in time from the Senate.
Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: I did. Thank you. I'm so sorry. I've been-
Clennell: That's okay. Let's get through it. Are you going to withdraw the money for these mosques where people are mourning the Ayatollah?
Foreign Minister: First, in relation to the mourning of the Ayatollah that's been reported, can I say I'm really disappointed that people would want to do that. This is a man who's led a regime which has caused death, in many parts of the world, destruction. It is a regime that engineered or was related to attacks on Australian soil, and a regime that killed its own citizens.
Clennell: So will you withdraw the funding?
Foreign Minister: I wasn't aware of the funding until it became public today. And I'm sure that the relevant Minister will be, you know, looking at why, at this. But the point I would make, I think most Australians are not mourning.
Clennell: Do you think this Iran war still has a chance of achieving regime change, or are you starting to worry about that?
Foreign Minister: I think I said at the start, my very first press conference on this, regime change historically has been very difficult to impose externally and that ultimately the future of Iran was in the hands of the Iranian people. What I also said was, we know Iran has been a risk, a destabilising actor, globally and in the region. I think we've seen this in the last days. I mean we had in one day, Iran struck nine countries. That is, you know, a response that we were not anticipating.
Clennell: Have you spoken to Marco Rubio? I know you're close to him.
Foreign Minister: No, I haven't and I wouldn't expect to. This is–
Clennell: Shouldn't you be speaking to him in the next week?
Foreign Minister: No, I think he's probably got a fair bit on his plate. I would say this, we are not a central player in these issues and I'm sure the US is dealing with quite a lot of matters right at the moment.
Clennell: Why weren't we given prior notice? Because we were before the nuclear strikes, the strike on the nuclear facilities, weren't we? Anthony Albanese said he was briefed prior to that.
Foreign Minister: Well, I'm not, I'm not going to respond on the first issue, for obvious reasons. But no, we didn't have advance notice of this. There obviously was open-source discussion and there was, I think it was reported that the US was building up its military capability. And, you know, I think our travel advice reflected that. What has been very different with this is the Iranian response, which has been a much broader, much more aggressive response. I don't think any country was anticipating they would hit Dubai airport.
Clennell: Do you think ground troops will go in? Donald Trump hasn't ruled it out.
Foreign Minister: That's certainly not something we would be contemplating.
Clennell: Would you support it, though?
Foreign Minister: Well, I think there are two questions here. The first is what needs to be done to reduce Iran's capacity to gain a nuclear weapon and to reduce Iran's capacity to project aggressive power outside of its borders. And it has decades of doing this. Then there is a question of the future of Iran. Our view, and obviously we're not central to this, but our view is that history shows us that ultimately any change in a regime needs to happen with the people.
Clennell: You've been saying you support the US here. Do you support Israel as well in this action?
Foreign Minister: We said we support action taken by both the US and Israel to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran from continuing to attack the region.
Clennell: The attack on the Al Minhad Base, is there any suggestion Australian troops could be evacuated after that, do you think? Would you ever take them out?
Foreign Minister: The priority we have is to keep Australians safe and the safety and security of our security personnel is our first priority.
Clennell: What about the safety of Australians trapped in the United Arab Emirates? Could you organise repatriation flights? Some limited flights have come out.
Foreign Minister: I was very pleased to see that some commercial flights have started. Only a small number. These are very large numbers – I think there are around 115,000 Australians in the region. I spoke to the Foreign Minister of the UAE today, this morning. He told me there are about, I think 24,000 Australian nationals in the UAE. Obviously, some of those are resident and some of those are transit passengers.
Clennell: Do you know how many in transit?
Foreign Minister: Well, I can give you this number, which is each day in and out of Australia, before all of this, around 11,000 people come in and out of Australia via those ports. That's what makes this unprecedented, this consular, you know, this conflict. Because those hubs have previously been part of how we get people out of the region. And now the hubs themselves are being attacked.
Clennell: What did you make of Melania Trump chairing a meeting of the UN Security Council overnight?
Foreign Minister: The US is entitled to have whoever it wants as its representative to the UN.
Clennell: On the issue of ISIS brides. Did you or your office have any involvement in helping Jamal Rifi obtain the 34 passports for them?
Foreign Minister: Look, the issue of the passports, I've not engaged with Mr Rifi on this. The issuing of any passports is a matter that is, under legislation, a matter of entitlement for Australian citizens unless they're not eligible. What I've explained a number of times in the Senate is that there are provisions under the Passport Act that enable a security agency to request that the Foreign Minister cancel a passport. That advice was not provided to me.
Clennell: Penny Wong, thanks so much for your time. Good to speak with you.