The Hon Tony Burke MP

US-Iran ceasefire, Hodan Abby’s enforcement of Sharia law, Universities adopting a new definition of antisemitism, Digital passenger declarations. JAMES GLENDAY : Well, it is now time to talk federal politics, and we're joined from Sydney by the Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke. Tony, welcome back to the programme. : Good morning, James. : We're seeing lots of different reports coming out of the Middle East again overnight, are things spiralling towards all-out war yet again. : Obviously, Australia wants to see a ceasefire that holds, and that's what we want.

What's important to know for the impact on the Australian economy is that we are still in a situation where we have more fuel in Australia than we had right at the start of the conflict. And I think if you, if you rewind back to the start of the conflict where people and the opponents were trying to get people to panic about it, the way we've just calmly been making sure that for the different forms of fuel, for petrol, for diesel, for aviation, gas, just making sure that Australian stocks are secure puts us in good stead.

But obviously the eyes of the world are there, and where we're all wanting to see, we're all wanting to see a ceasefire that holds. : The ABC is reporting this morning that Hodan Abby, an Islamic State-linked Australian woman, was an enforcer of Sharia law, allegedly in some of the camps where she was held. Are these allegations a surprise to you at all? : Well, without going through all the information that comes to me as Minister for Home Affairs, there is a reason why only one person met the threshold for an exclusion order, while our authorities made sure that they were ready.

Anybody who made a decision to go and join ISIS made an absolutely horrific decision. And we've got no interest in doing anything to help any of them back. But certainly, if you also reach the threshold of an exclusion order, then you are in… you know, they're only temporary, but you are in a different situation to the rest of the cohort. : I know you're restricted in what you can say.

It seems you're referring to Hodan Abby though. Do you know where she is at the moment and why she hasn't returned to Australia yet. : Our agencies are aware of her location, but obviously she may well, having seen some people who returned be arrested on arrival at the airport, she'd be weighing up the different things that she's done and would be making a decision as to whether or not she, in fact, ever returns.

And you know, our agencies continue to build evidence. Sometimes people have been arrested at the airport. Sometimes, as you've seen as well, we've continued to collect additional evidence after their arrival and arrests have happened later. : Is she going to require special surveillance?

A special operation above and beyond what you've done for the other recent arrivals? : Well, look, everybody, everybody who has returned, and let's not forget, even before we came to government, 45 men who had gone there to fight had already returned to Australia. Anybody who has been part of that ideology gets the full attention from our agencies that the public would expect to keep people safe. : Just on another issue, universities are going to have to adopt these new definitions of antisemitism and racism.

They're also going to have to be more open about the salaries of Vice Chancellors. Can you just explain why do you think this is required? : Look, every student should feel safe if they're at uni. You know, if you're studying, it should be a fun, relaxed place where you hear different ideas and you feel safe and clearly, for a whole lot of students that hasn't been the case, particularly over the last two years.

So, no matter who you are, no matter who you love, no matter what your faith is, no matter what your country of heritage is, if you're at uni, you should feel safe. And the new guidelines I think give a much stronger baseline for that. And if it's a better student experience for people, then I couldn't be happier that Jason Clare has taken these steps. : What would be a reasonable salary for a Vice Chancellor?

Should they earn more than the Prime Minister, for example? Some of them are earning much, much, much more. : Yeah, I think the, the public look at a whole lot of that and it's pretty eye watering. I, I prefer these things to be made at arm's length.

So, I'm not going to start nominating salaries, but obviously when money comes from the public, people, people have an expectation; one, that you work hard; two, that you do your job competently, and three, that the salary is within a range that, that people think is reasonable. : Now you are making an announcement today that the physical cards that passengers have to use [inaudible borrow a pen from a friend, fill out on the plane to re-enter the country are going to be a thing of the past.

This has been trialled for nearly two years on quite a lot of Qantas lights coming into our major airports. Why has it taken so long to get to this point? : Yeah, look, there are a couple of false starts under the previous government, I think 2016, and then a little bit later they tried it again and the technology didn't quite work. This time we've spent a good length of time, trialling it effectively through the Qantas app, initially for people coming from New Zealand and then for Qantas flights along the east coast.

We've been trialling it and it's working. And so we're ready now to be able to start the rollout…you know, take quite a few months as the rollout goes on, but it'll go to airports across the country. It'll end up being there for cruise liners as well.

And what it means, finally, like, a lot of us have been in a situation at the end of a flight when the cards get handed out, and you're not always at your best at the end of a flight and, you know, people are scrambling around. Who's got a pen? What, what's the name of this flight again?

What on earth is the phone number of my next of kin? What's the, what's the address of the hotel that I'm meant to be staying at? It all gets thrown at the end of a flight, and then the fact that you're dealing with pieces of cardboard just slows the process down anyway.

This means 72 hours before you board the flight. But most people realistically do it once they get to the airport. You just get the information in, gives you a QR code, and then it's pretty seamless once you get there.

And subsequently, which is a good national security thing, it means if we need to get data quickly, we're searching rather than telling somebody, you know, there's a box with a, containing a card on the third shelf in the fourth corridor of some shed somewhere. : I'm sure a lot of people are nodding along going, yeah, always forget the hotel address. Just a question about privacy and security, though.

Are private companies like Qantas up to keeping this data safe and should they be collecting it or shouldn't this be the job of a government agency? Are we putting too much responsibility in a private company's hands? : Look, the fact that you're using their app, you're still getting the information to the government, so the information still comes to government.

You always have to be careful to make sure that you know what you want to make sure of is the information goes to the government, that you're respecting people's privacy. But also that what has been the most cumbersome part often of an overseas trip starts to become something that's really streamlined. Because I want the moment people get off the plane, I want them straight through and enjoying the best country in the world.

They'll be able to do that more quickly because of this. : Well, we're going to have a lot of visitors over the next few years heading towards the Brisbane Olympics, no doubt. Minister, Tony Burke, thanks for joining us. : Great to be back.