Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash
Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate
Senator for Western Australia
TRANSCRIPT
4BC Drive with Gary Hardgrave
14 August 2025
Topics: Palestinian state recognition; Hamas praise for Albanese
E&OE
Gary Hardgrave
We talked about this yesterday – that Hamas had praised the Australian Government’s pledge to recognize them, or a Palestinian state. Albanese reckons it was propaganda, and the media should be wary of believing it. I don’t think the media can believe anything this stupid Prime Minister says. It’s pretty simple. Michaelia Cash is The Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, and she joins us now. Michaelia Cash, I know that you can have a really strong turn of phrase on this, but I am furious, and so is everybody here at the Royal show in Brisbane.
Senator Cash
Well, so they should be. You have the Prime Minister of this country, the great country of Australia, who has rewarded terrorists and is now trying to tell the Australian public – I mean, it was almost a joke, wasn’t it? Deflection, distraction, I’d say, actually downright disgraceful. But apparently, Hamas praising Mr. Albanese for what they say is an outstanding foreign policy decision is now propaganda. We know what the problem with that is. Gary. Since October the seventh, he’s tried to tell us that we should believe Hamas, and then suddenly, when Hamas is saying something about him that he doesn’t want the Australian people to know that they’re celebrating a foreign policy decision made by our Prime Minister – it’s propaganda. Well, I’ve got a message from Mr. Albanese, and it’s this, you don’t get to have it both ways. This is a terrorist organization. They lie, they kill, they take hostages, and if Hamas is celebrating your policy, you’ve made a catastrophic mistake.
Gary Hardgrave
He’s running around rabbiting on today about the bloke who apparently worded the media statement praising him is in prison. He seems awfully well informed about everything the world of Hamas, and yet, the people of Gaza are suffering. We get it, but Hamas should not be running this. You don’t create a country till peace is secured. He’s created the country before the peace is secured.
Senator Cash
Well, let’s be very clear here in relation to the deflection, the distraction and the downright disgrace that Mr. Albanese has tried to, you know, put onto this reporter today. The nine newspapers have reported that they received a statement from Hassan Yousef’s office in the West Bank. It’s as simple as that, and in any event, this is what Mr. Albanese seems to have forgotten. Hamas’ own media director, has given a statement to the ABC, hardly a bastion of right wing politics, which applauded the Albanese government’s decision. You’ve got to be kidding me. So Mr. Albanese is desperately trying to distract from rewarding terrorists, because that is what his decision has done Gary – it has emboldened a terrorist organization, and he is trying to hide from the actual facts. The good news is this. In Australia, our media has a right to freedom of speech, and they are reporting the facts as they should – ironically, unlike many countries in the Middle East,
Gary Hardgrave
Michaelia Cash, people have worked it out. Those who are slightly tuned in on this realize that the Prime Minister is talking through, well, not his mouth but the other end. I mean, seriously, he has lost the plot on this. He is digging himself into a deeper hole. He is going to have to backtrack out of this, because how can you tell if we recognize sovereignty in this particular region, which is actually run by Hamas – how can you actually then tell that country how to operate? I mean, we wouldn’t want any other country telling us how to operate. We’re going to give them a country and then tell them how to operate.
Senator Cash
And this is his problem. Or worse than that, Mr. Albanese obviously does not understand the basic facts on the ground. Hamas has the majority support of the Palestinian people. If elections were held tomorrow, Hamas would win, just like they did Gary 20 years ago when Mr. Albanese’s new best friend, Mahmoud Abbas held the last election – even though he has been required in the last 20 years to hold regular, elections – he hasn’t. But what is worse is Mr. Albanese is not able to tell the Australian people what state he is recognizing. You cannot, at law recognize a new state until that state exists. So he basically committed Australia to recognizing as a state an entity with no agreed borders, no single government in effective control of its territory and no demonstrated capacity to live in peace with its neighbors. So Mr. Albanese, here’s another question for you. What does that even mean? But Gary, let’s go back to the basic fact. This is the first time I believe in Australian history that a Prime Minister of our great country. I love this country. I’ll stand up for Australia and Australians every day of the week, I proudly stand under the Australian National Flag. I hope Australians across Australia are as appalled by me that our Prime Minister has been praised for a decision by a terrorist organization that lie, that kill and they take hostages. I tell you, I didn’t know but we have now now reached a new all time low in Australian politics thanks to Mr. Albanese. What a disgrace.
Gary Hardgrave
You know. Michaela Cash, they’re going to have another protest in Brisbane. They’ve basically said they don’t care what the police say. They’re going to try and shut down the Story Bridge in a couple of Sunday’s time. I mean, in the end, anybody the useful idiots who go along and think they’re supporting Palestine – they’re not. They’re supporting Hamas. That’s the problem. Everyone’s got to understand this is a mob of people who have raped, who’ve killed newborn babies and elderly people. These are people who have, in fact, no regard at all for life. The Prime Minister called the martyrs today. I mean, he’s actually accepted that somehow, rather, there’s some nobility about all of this.
Senator Cash
That’s utterly sickening Gary
Gary Hardgrave
It is sickening. The brother of an Australian woman murdered by Hamas her mask. Danny Manjzner says the Prime Minister’s move made him sick, and it makes me sick too. But Michaelia, the other thing is that he says he’s got huge faith in Mahmoud Abbas, the 89 year old leader of the Palestinian Authority = he won’t be there for much longer. He’s 89 for heaven’s sakes.
Senator Cash
But even if he is, let’s say he actually is. This is the problem. Mahmoud Abbas’s, past record shows failure for the last 20 years. They have not held proper elections, even though, under the Oslo Accords they are required to. They have been making payments to convicted terrorists. They have been promoting anti-Israel rhetoric. They have been pursuing last year, last year, the Beijing Declaration, which is a unity deal with Hamas. If Mr. Albanese was serious about peace, which he is not – as Marco Rubio has belled the cat. He is doing this Gary for domestic political purposes, nothing more and nothing less. But if Albanese was serious about peace, he would have made recognition conditional on full verifiable compliance with Oslo. Instead, he’s handed over recognition with no guarantee, no enforcement and no plan to stop the breaches. But you know, Gary, I think the biggest tragedy and something Mr. Albanese is refusing to even talk about – what about the hostages Gary?
Gary Hardgrave
Exactly 50 of them condemned.
Yep, that’s exactly right. No mention of the hostages. No condition that the hostages must be released. He has turned his back on a friend and an ally in Israel. He has now been legitimized by a terrorist organization, and today, he tries to deflect and distract from legitimate reporting from Nine newspapers. But the bad news is, even if he doesn’t want to believe nine newspapers, what about the ABC? They have a statement from the Hamas media director, which has applauded Mr. Albanese decision.
Gary Hardgrave
Yeah. Well, either way, Friends don’t let friends watch or listen to their ABC. But I take your point, Michaelia, and the one other point I’ll make is I don’t know how he’s going to have a meeting on the sideline with Donald Trump, because I reckon Donald Trump’s going to sideline him again. You watch Trump. He will get him back. Anyway, it’s going to be interesting.
Senator Cash
And Australians do need to be very aware of the turn away from the Australia-US Alliance. Because, Gary, as you and I know, the reason that we live in security in Australia is because of the Australia-US Alliance, our alliance with the United States. It is basically one of the cornerstones of our security. I mean, the US has made it clear they do not support unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state while a terrorist organization is in charge. You don’t strengthen our relationship with the United States by literally ignoring them.
Gary Hardgrave
Michaelia Cash, good to talk to you.
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