Transcript - Weekend Today with Lara Vella

LARA VELLA, HOST: Jewish leaders are strongly calling on the Victorian Government to prevent an anti-Zionism protest happening this Monday in Melbourne. Meanwhile, NSW police have issued a warning to those who plan to attend unauthorised gatherings this weekend in Sydney. Let's bring in today's talkers. We are joined this morning by Education Minister Jason Clare and journalist from the Australian Financial Review, Zoe Samios. Good morning to you both and thank you both for coming into the studio this morning. Minister, I'll start with you. What's the Government's message to anyone planning to attend these potential rallies planned this weekend and the one on Monday?

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Don't. It is unthinkable that these rallies or protests would happen full stop. 15 people are dead. There are still people in hospital, many more people that are injured. What we need in this country right now is, is love, not hate, not protest. The idea that we would have protests like this at this time is unthinkable.

VELLA: Zoe, the organisers of these events have been accused of exploiting grief to amplify hostilities. What's your take on that?

ZOE SAMIOS, JOURNALIST: I think, to the Minister's point, you know, this is not the time to be doing that. I guess you could make the argument that they're exploiting grief or they're just saying this is part of the national conversation, we should do something. It's just not - this is not the time to be doing any of that. This is not the time to be inciting hate, to be talking about anything that distracts from the families that have lost - and friends of these people who have lost their lives in the last week. This is just - the prospect or the actual thought that anyone thinks this is a good time to do this is just unbelievable.

VELLA: Minister, I assume the government is working closely with authorities and intelligence services when it comes to any of these potential protests being planned. Will the response be swift to those who do attend?

CLARE: Well, I would hope that the Victorian Government will do everything in their power to make sure that this doesn't happen. I'd also think, to Zoe's point, any right-thinking Australian would know this is absolutely wrong and shouldn't happen in the first place. So, I'm hoping that it just doesn't happen. But as you would expect, the Federal Government, working with law enforcement authorities, state and federal, as well as security agencies, will do everything within their power.

VELLA: Well, also making news this morning, the Prime Minister we know has announced the biggest firearms buyback since the Port Arthur massacre. Minister, I know so many people are still questioning how someone who was on the radar of authorities had access to these firearms allegedly in the first place. Will these changes in bolstering these laws ensure that this doesn't happen again?

CLARE: Well, I think we've got to do two things. The first is get guns out of people's hands, but also get the poison of antisemitism out of their brain. That's what pulled the trigger last weekend. And so the sort of reforms that the Prime Minister announced this week about hate preachers and about cancelling visas, but also the work in my area as education minister about changes we can make to the curriculum, powers that we can give to the university regulators about the work of universities is important long term reform as well as. 

But you're right, you know, why does somebody in Bonnyrigg, half an hour west of where we are right now or a little bit more, have six shotguns? You know, the simple truth is anyone hearing that now would say "Why? How?”, that that is not right. 

I was surprised the other day when I heard that there are more weapons in Australia, more guns in Australia today than there were 30 years ago or so when the Port Arthur massacre occurred. One of the greatest things this nation ever did were the actions we took after the Port Arthur massacre to get rid of guns and buy back guns, make us safer. But last weekend reminds us that there's more that has to be done here to reduce the number of guns in this country, and the buyback's part of that.

VELLA: I think as you touched on there, this is just one piece of the puzzle. What do you say to those though, that argue that bolstering these gun laws really doesn't tackle the issue at play here, which is the rise of hate speech?

CLARE: I agree. You've got to do both. You've got to do two things. You want to get the weapons out of their hands and you've got to get the poison out of their brain.

VELLA: Zoe, what's your take on, on this scheme?

SAMIOS: Look, I think it's important that we review it. It has been a long time since the Port Arthur massacre, so I think that's important. But I'm probably in the boat of I don't think this is going to solve what's actually going on here. That being said, the Prime Minister has announced a raft of different things. Now we can debate about whether or not he should have announced them on Monday or he should have announced them, you know, later in the week like he did. But it's got to be a combined effort. And I know people, you know, I have a lot of friends in regional Australia. A lot of farmers, they have gun licences. They've done - never done anything wrong. They're locked up nice and safe. So, this shouldn't be just a big, you know, reactive thing. We've got to be smart about it. I think it's right that we're, you know, at least looking at it and looking at what we can do and if we do end up getting a few guns back, then maybe that's not the worst thing in the world. You know, it, you know, less guns, I think, is a good outcome overall.

VELLA: I know at the moment so many of us have a heavy heart, our hearts are aching, but it was so heartwarming to see those extraordinary scenes in Bondi yesterday. Hundreds, if not thousands of people paddling out to honour the victims lost in Sunday's terror attack. Minister, I know you're from Sydney. What do those scenes mean to you when you see something like that?

CLARE: That's the best of Australia. Last Sunday, we saw two evil psychopathic terrorists commit the most evil act in the world in our beautiful city. But we also saw the - we saw real heroism. We saw people put their own lives in danger, put their own lives at risk to save others and what you see there in that footage are real Aussies and real love and affection, trying to bring our country together and start the healing. And there's a lot of healing that needs to happen.

VELLA: Minister Jason Clare and journalist Zoe Samios, thank you so much for making time to come into the studio this morning. We appreciate it.