Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

CANBERRA – The risk of an Australian committing a terrorist act is one of this country’s key security threats, according to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Flanked by Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Rudd released the government’s Counter-Terrorism White Paper on February 23.

In it, the Prime Minister made two key points about global terrorism. First, while there has been success in counter-terrorism activities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines, at the same time, new centres for terrorists have grown in places like Yemen and Somalia.

Second, there has been an increase of terrorists and potential terrorists born and educated in western countries, including Australia.

“Home-grown terrorism is now a reality we have to accept,” Rudd said at the White Paper’s launch.

Read the full story

CHANTAL ABITBOL

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom was joined at a lunch in Sydney by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and the newly elected Opposition Leader Tony Abbott came head-to-head for the first time at the Australia Israel Leadership Forum gala luncheon on Thursday in Sydney.

A gathering of who’s who in Australian politics and the Jewish community, the lunch was also attended by a delegation of senior Israeli politicians, including Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom.

The envoy is in Australia this week for a series of meetings with government officials aimed at building relations between the two countries.

Sharing the same stage with Rudd for the first time since being voted in as Liberal leader on Tuesday, Abbott declared: “Australia’s new era of political partisanship could hardly have had a more convivial start.”

He also used the platform to reaffirm his unwavering support for Israel: “I’d like to think that nowhere in the world [does Israel] have more stauncher friends than us.”

Shalom also spoke to the 500-strong crowd, stressing Israel’s desire to resume peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, as well as the Jewish state’s concern over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“The sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council [on Iran] were too light,” Shalom said. “Maybe the time has come has come to take a lateral move by the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan and others to impose sanctions on Iran.”

Outside the venue in inner-city Sydney, about 40 pro-Palestinian activists took to Martin Place to protest the forum.

More coverage in the December 11 edition of The AJN

ADF chaplain Rabbi Yossi Segelman. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

PRIME Minster Kevin Rudd has confirmed that funding for school chaplains would continue until 2011, pledging to invest an additional $42 million in the program.

The initiative was established by the previous government in 2007. Since then, the $115 million pumped into the program has seen around 2700 Australian schools receive funding of up to $20,000 a year towards their chaplaincy.

In a speech to the Australian Christian Lobby’s national conference in Canberra last month, Rudd stressed the importance of chaplains –- including rabbis -– in providing care that teachers often cannot offer.

He added: “We will guarantee funding for the next two years until December 2011 for schools currently funded under the National School Chaplaincy Program.
Read the full story

NAOMI LEVIN

MELBOURNE Ports MP Michael Danby (pictured) has accused Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop of being “deliberately dishonest”.

Speaking on Sky News yesterday evening, Bishop quoted Danby as saying “any loop hole in our law can be exploited by criminal elements who may want to evade or subvert our border protection system. They include identity thieves, people smugglers, potential terrorists”.

The quote was taken from a speech Danby made in June about preventing identity theft and the importance verifying the identity of all people arriving in Australia. It did not single out asylum seekers, but referred to “immigrants, visitors, businesspeople, family members or students”.

Nevertheless, Bishop called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to disassociate himself from the backbencher or even disendorse Danby for the seat of Melbourne Ports at the next election.

“If Mr Rudd was genuine in his attack on Malcolm Turnbull today Mr Rudd would go back into the Parliament, we still have time, he would disassociate himself from Michael Danby, he would demand Michael Danby’s disendorsement. Now unless Mr Rudd does that he will be exposed as the absolute hypocrite that people believe he is,” Bishop said.

Bishop was referring to calls made earlier in the day by Rudd for the Liberal Party to condemn vocal MP Wilson Tuckey’s remarks indicating that some boats could be carrying terrorists. Tuckey later withdrew the remarks.

Danby hit back at Bishop, accusing her of twisting his words for her own gain.

“This is nothing but a shabby, transparent attempt by the Liberal Party to escape the odium of Wilson Tuckey’s remarks this morning [Thursday] , in which he quite clearly said that terrorists were entering Australia in the guise of asylum seekers,” Danby said.

“I have made it clear that I have every sympathy with genuine asylum seekers and have urged an end to attempts by the Opposition to demonise them.”

It has been a big week for Danby, who on Tuesday was widely quoted as calling on Rudd to use less “hysterical” language when talking about asylum seekers.

“Populist rhetoric feeds meat to the Hansonites,” he told The AJN on Wednesday.

Sir Zelman Cowen ... $200,000 grant in his honour. Photo: AJN file

AJN STAFF

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a $200,000 federal Government grant to the Jewish Museum of Australia on the occasion of Sir Zelman Cowen’s 90th birthday.

Rudd, who spoke at a birthday event for the former governor-general last week, said the donation would go towards the museum’s $1.5 million refurbishment of the Australian Jewish History Gallery, to be named in honour of Sir Zelman.

The Prime Minister paid tribute to Sir Zelman, who he said “committed immeasurably to the intellectual rigour of a nation” and remains a proud Australian and Jew.

“The one thing that defines Sir Zelman Cowen is a big thing,” Rudd said. “It is his sense of humanity. Sir Zelman’s warmth, his humility, his integrity and his compassion are the overwhelming themes when people speak of him.”
Read the full story

NAOMI LEVIN

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has for the first time spoken out about the conflict in Gaza.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, January 5, Rudd said: “Australia recognises Israel’s rights to self-defence, while we call on all parties to avoid any actions which result in unnecessary suffering or increased suffering on the part of innocent civilians”.

The prime minister called for a diplomatic solution to the current situation, which has seen Israeli troops enter Gaza in an attempt to stop Hamas firing rockets at Israeli civilians. He specified that a diplomatic solution must put a stop to the rocket fire, prevent more arms being smuggled into Gaza, open the Gaza crossings and involve an immediate ceasefire.

“We, the Australian Government, support the actions of the United Nations now in seeking to bring about an immediate ceasefire,” Rudd said. Last week, the Government announced it would offer an additional $5 million for humanitarian aid in Gaza.

This aid will be used to provide food and medical supplies and will be delivered via agencies, including the United Nations. It is on top of the $45 million in aid to the Palestinian people delivered by Australia in 2008. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard also condemned Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, earlier this week, and expressed concern about the civilian casualties and humanitarian situation.