Sally Sara, Host: Minister, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.
Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Great to see you or be with you, actually.
Sara: Is there any update on the Iranian women's soccer players who've sought asylum in Australia? Have more players received temporary humanitarian visas beyond the five announced yesterday?
Foreign Minister: Sally, we have given every member of the team the opportunity to speak to Australian officials alone, to make the choice, to make their choice about whether they wish to stay, I understand Tony Burke's going to be standing up later this morning, so I'll leave the update for him. What I would say is he has made it a priority and the Government has made it a priority to work out how we can give people this opportunity. Not everyone will take the opportunity, we understand why. But it has been very moving to see Australians' response. I spoke about, you know, the swapping of the jerseys as a really beautiful example of sport bringing people together. And Australians have opened their hearts to the Lionesses. And I think, you know, I am glad that we've seen five of them say that they want to stay and, you know, they are safe here and we will open our hearts to them.
Sara: What's Australia's message to Iran about the safety of the players who are returning and the families of the players who are returning and those who are staying here in Australia?
Foreign Minister: Our position has always been that the Iranian regime should respect the rights of its citizens. And it has been very difficult from afar for all of us to watch the regime's behaviour, particularly towards Iranian women and girls, but also its crackdown on its people.
Sara: You've said that when it comes to the help that Australia is sending to the Gulf states, to the UAE, you've said Australia is participating in collective self-defence with Gulf states while not waging war against Iran. Is it fair to say that Australia is now at war?
Foreign Minister: I think it's important to come back to the way in which Australia has approached this from the start and the way in which we are dealing with the requests, including from the UAE. Our first priority is to protect Australians at home and abroad. And we made a decision to respond to the United Arab Emirates for a request for defensive capability. And we were very conscious when we did that, first that not only are they defending their citizens, but they're also defending our citizens. They're defending Australians who are in the United Arab Emirates or in fact, many of the other Gulf countries. I said at the start, 115,000 Australians in the region, 24,000 in the UAE at the start.
Sara: Could it make Australians a target in some ways?.
Foreign Minister: Look, I've been asked that this morning and I've made the point that the Iranian regime has never needed provocation. The Iranian regime conducted attacks on Australian soil whilst we still had a diplomatic relationship with them, when there was no conflict in the Middle East that Australia had any involvement in. So, I think that the regime speaks for itself, we have an obligation to consider how we best protect Australians. We are deploying a defensive capability.
Sara: We heard earlier this morning on Breakfast from Dania Thafer, the Executive Director of the Gulf International Forum. Let's take a listen.
Audio of Dania Thafer, Executive Director of Gulf International Forum: The UAE has been the recipient of more missile and drone attacks than Israel itself. So, if you collectively add all of the six GCC states, I mean, you're looking at a much higher amount of attacks.
Sara: Given this context, that the Gulf states are copping more Iranian attacks even than Israel at the moment, what concern do you have for those Australians expats in the region?
Foreign Minister: Well, we would prefer them to come home. We've made that clear. And I'm glad you played that because it precisely demonstrates the point we're making. This is not just Iran responding to the strikes taken by the United States and Israel. Iran's response has been to hit other countries and they're doing so in order to try and increase the cost of the conflict, including to the global economy. It's a very conscious decision and many civilians from countries who have not been engaged in attacks on Iran are being attacked. And so that really explains why we are taking the action we are taking. In terms of people coming home, the Prime Minister said yesterday at our press conference, he understood why this is a difficult decision for people, but we would prefer people came home. We strongly suggest that people consider taking the seats on flights which are available. You see, we've almost got through the transit cohort, so the people who were travelling through Abu Dhabi or Dubai or Doha on the way home or on the way to somewhere, so that cohort, that is non-residents, a lot of them have come home, most of them, in fact. And we've had about 3,000 Australians return home. But we've got a lot of people who are staying in the region. DFAT has directed the departure of dependents from the United Arab Emirates and that tells people something.
Sara: Just on a separate issue, the Government wants to change immigration laws to give itself the power to temporarily ban some people from certain countries from entering Australia for up to six months if they're on a temporary visa. This news came on the same day that humanitarian visas were granted to some members of the Iranian women's football team. What's the rationale for these immigration changes?
Foreign Minister: This legislation doesn't apply to humanitarian visas. So, I just want to make that point because I know that there's been some political criticism, but it should be based on fact. It's not legislation which targets humanitarian visas. It's legislation which enables us to manage temporary visas. So, people who are on tourist or business visas and you know, as Minister Burke has explained, we have to work out how we manage our borders in the context of a very large-scale event. There are arrangements within the legislation, I think what he describes as safeguards. So, if people's entry is genuinely required and we think it's appropriate, they can still come.
Sara: The Wedgetail aircraft that we're sending, can it defend itself?
Foreign Minister: I'm not going to talk about military capability.
Sara: Will it be relying on our allies to defend itself?
Foreign Minister: Look, I think it's reasonable for you to ask me Sally, and I understand why there's a public interest in it, what is our direction, and our direction is they are being deployed for defensive purposes.
Sara: Penny Wong, thank you for joining me this morning.
Foreign Minister: Great to speak with you.