E&OE TRANSCRIPT
ABC SYDNEY MORNINGS
RADIO INTERVIEW
MONDAY, 11 AUGUST 2025
SUBJECT: Recognition of a Palestinian State, Australian Involvement in the F-35 Supply Chain, Electric Vehicles
HAMISH MACDONALD, HOST: Samantha Maiden is the political editor with news.com.au.
Susan Templeman is a Labor MP for the seat of Macquarie here in Sydney, a very good morning to you both.
SUSAN TEMPLEMAN, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MACQUARIE: Morning!
SAMANTHA MAIDEN, POLITICAL EDITOR OF NEWS.COM.AU: Good morning.
MACDONALD: Sam, just, bring us up to date with what you're hearing, what you know, a lot of the papers now saying that this could happen as soon as today but I note that the Prime Minister's office saying at the moment there's nothing to say.
MAIDEN: Yes, there's nothing to say only because I suppose cabinet is meeting and it will be discussed there so I think that they're pretty, well sourced reports that including that the Foreign Minister Penny Wong has told her Israeli counterpart that Labor is set to join Britain, Canada and France recognising Palestine at the UN in September keeping in mind that they've been saying for weeks now that it is a question of when not if, so I think that there is moves afoot for this to happen, it could happen as early as today or as early as this week and those discussions are clearly underway.
MACDONALD: Susan Templeman, pretty strong commentary from the Israeli Prime Minister saying that, this is a shameful move if indeed Australia does make this announcement. What, how do you respond to that?
TEMPLEMAN: Look, I think I'm less interested in the reactions from Benjamin Netanyahu than I am of any decision that Australia might make. You can hear my dog just deciding there's a lot to bark about there, but you know I'm one of those people who has my whole political life wanted to see recognition of Palestine and I spoke of, I was the one of the two speakers at the last National Conference on this and I urged then, that was back in 2023, that we needed to be moving faster on it. I was in Palestine in 2017 and I met with President Mahmoud Abbas and his cabinet members and we talked about how important recognition of Palestine was, so for me it is long overdue and I don't know when it's going to happen, I'm not privy to any processes that might be underway right now but I know that there is a huge swell of support, not just from the community but obviously amongst our caucus.
MACDONALD: Can you help us understand the timing of this though because our Prime Minister seems to have indicated that the timing is critical and obviously some of these other western nations are working towards the UN meeting in September, why now? Why, if it is today or if it is this week, why now?
TEMPLEMAN: Well I think Penny Wong's comment about if it doesn't happen with urgency there may not be a lot left to recognize. We are so concerned about the expansion of the illegal settlements in the West Bank and obviously this latest indication from the current Israeli government about what their plans are in Gaza, really do give you even more reasons to be saying hang on we need to recognize that the only way to a two state peaceful solution is for the one side that isn't currently recognized, to to become a recognized entity. So I think there are many, the Prime Minister's obviously had discussions and we've seen reports of those over the last week or so, I really welcome the world's sense of momentum around this, and you know, it's something I would love to see happen as soon as possible.
MACDONALD: Samantha Maiden, where does this sit though in the political debate in Australia? Because the Opposition is not in support of recognising a Palestinian state now.
Andrew Hastie was out over the weekend saying he's got concerns about where Hamas would fit into all of this, but I note the government's been pretty clear that it sees no role for Hamas in any in the ruling of any Palestinian state.
MAIDEN: Yeah, I mean I think that there is basically a shift in the community's view on this and I think that the government has been stepping very carefully through this. The Prime Minister has made it clear for a very long time that he is a supporter of a two-state solution, and he is a supporter of at some point at the right time as he sees it recognising the Palestinian state. He has said that he would do it at a time that it has the maximum impact and that's the really interesting question of whether he thinks that right now is the time, given that you know what Israel is saying about them you know expanded operations in Gaza and there's also an interesting question about who exactly this is aimed at, is it just aimed at Israel or is it also aimed at putting pressure on The United States to shift their position?
MACDONALD: I'm talking to, Labor MP for Macquarie, Susan Templeman and Sam Maiden, the political editor of news.com.au amid these reports suggesting Australia may announce recognition of a Palestinian state as soon as today. It's been mentioned that cabinet is meeting this morning, so perhaps we'll know after that takes place. Richard Marles, the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, was asked about Australia's involvement in the weapons trade over the weekend. He appeared on Insiders and in particular, our role in the supply chain for the F-35 strike fighter, the jets, that Israel has been using over, Gaza.
[AUDIO GRAB FROM ABC INSIDERS, SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2025]
RICHARD MARLES: Oh, well, let's be clear. We don't supply weapons to Israel.
DAVID SPEERS: But the armoured steel and the F-35 components is what I'm asking about.
RICHARD MARLES: Well, we're an F-35 country and we have been that for a couple of decades, and that is a multilateral arrangement with supply chains that are organized by Lockheed Martin in The United States and have multiple supplies in respect of all of those supply chains. So really, that is a very different question.
[AUDIO GRAB ENDS]
MACDONALD: Susan Templeman, are you comfortable with your government's continued contribution to the supply chain of the F-35s which have been used in Gaza, continue to be used in the skies above Gaza?
TEMPLEMAN: Well the F-35s are something that are in our skies as well, in fact there was just one in my electorate last week, flying as part of promotion for the RAAF Richmond Air Show that we've got coming up at the end of next month, I mean this is a global supply chain, we are a part of it, it goes to many countries.
MACDONALD: Including Israel though, you acknowledge that?
TEMPLEMAN: Well, I think they got theirs quite a long time ago, but yes, absolutely, -
MACDONALD: But we, let's be honest with listeners though, I mean we are part of a supply chain of component parts and replacement parts which continue to go, it's a pool arrangement, the supply chain, to which Australia does contribute quite significantly.
TEMPLEMAN: Yeah and we benefit from as well and I think Richard Marles' point yesterday was that anything we could do would have minimal impact on on the Israeli government, you know we're not like Germany, and so he made very clearly what we do would have could have so little effect as to really do more harm I suspect to Australia than it would to Israel so.
MACDONALD: But I mean I've actually read quite a lot about this and it does seem that they are critical pieces of those F-35s for their continued maintenance and that it would cause problems for Israel's bombing of Gaza if we did stop sending those parts?
TEMPLEMAN: Well look, I stand with the view that that is not the priority area for us right now, there are things we can do that clearly are having an impact and you know the statements we've made with other countries and the work that we're doing is clearly having an effect on the current Israeli government and so we should be doing the things where we can have the greatest impact where you know we're not a a huge player but we can have a role and that's what we should be focused on. And I think just to go back to the idea about the timing of this there there's been many of us who've understood the deprivation and the challenges in the West Bank and Gaza for many many many years, but the wider community has woken up to the inequities that are there the horrors that are not just in Gaza but the, impositions and the disadvantage that people in the West Bank have, so I think that's another reason why you're seeing the community so active and I welcome that because this has been an unfair, and I I've described it as an incredibly inequitable and lacking in humanity situation for many years.
MACDONALD: Sam Maiden, the Deputy Prime Minister said there's a lot of disinformation, I think was his word around Australia's involvement in these supply chains, what's the misinformation, what have people got wrong, does the government think?
MAIDEN: Well look, his point is to not talk about that supply chain and to say that we don't supply weapons to Israel, that's his point. So he says, you know, we've seen a lot of misinformation in relation to what Australia is doing here and he says the fundamental point is we're not supplying weapons to Israel and there's no step that we could take equivalent to that of Germany which would have an impact on that, so obviously he's saying we're not going to follow Germany and introduce a new export restriction.
MACDONALD: Sam Maiden is here from news.com.au. Susan Templeman is the Labor MP for Macquarie. Big meeting happening in Sydney today about the future of road user charges. Susan Templeman, why are we talking about more charges for roads and in particular for EVs given that the government seems to want more people buying EVs?
TEMPLEMAN: Well we certainly want more people in EVs but we also need to have our road maintenance and upgrading funded and as in someone who has thousands of kilometres of roads in a very very big electorate, I know that we cannot let the source of road funding just sort of disappear in coming in coming decades, so I think it's terrific that we are doing what we said we'd do, which is continue the discussion with states and territories, they're leading it, but we recognize that, the way our federation works there's going to have to be a role for the federal government, In working out just how we secure our road funding with the change in, you know, fewer people filling up with petrol.
MACDONALD: There's plenty of people listening this morning on their Monday morning commute paying quite a lot of money in road tolls already, is it would this be instead of those road tolls or on top of?
TEMPLEMAN: Well that would be up to the states, the tolls are state but certainly in from the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury as you travel if you travel around the city - not just towards the city but across the city - you are already paying. But our community is also likely to have the biggest benefits from electric vehicles because we won't be you know using the the amount of petrol that we've been using. So look it needs to be sensible, it needs to be fair, it needs to be equitable, and it needs to not be a disincentive to switching to EV. So really challenging and that's why it's excellent that we are having serious discussions about it with the states.
MACDONALD: So how does this, Sam Maiden, how do you think this plays out longer term? I mean I suspect many Sydneysiders pretty cynical about the idea of changes to the way we pay for the roads given how much we pay already?
MAIDEN: Look, I actually think that there's probably also a bit of concern in the community that drivers of EV vehicles are having a bit of a free ride, 'boom tish' to use the cliche, so you know if you actually talk to the automotive associations, they are concerned that basically you know obviously there's been this idea of wanting to encourage people into electric vehicles and to give them some sort of benefit but they're now in a situation where they're driving around on the roads that are being paid for by people that are paying for petrol and I think that that is also a concern. So I think it is a time where there is a recognition that people who are driving EVs need to pay something and I think there's almost a bit of a you know I don't want to inject class warfare into the proceedings but there is a situation here where a lot of it is a lot of wealthier middle class, upper middle class people that are driving EVs in wealthy suburbs and basically they're paying less tax to support the roads and so I think that there's a view that this needs to be addressed.
MACDONALD: Sam Maiden, Susan Templeman, thank you very much, good to talk.
TEMPLEMAN: Thank you.
MAIDEN: Thanks.
MACDONALD: Sam Maiden is the political editor of news.com.au, Susan Templeman, the Labor MP for Macquarie.
ENDS
