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DANIEL:

From Schwartz Media. I’m Daniel James, this is 7am.

When Anthony Albanese first became prime minister he began dismantling the super ministry of home affairs, which had been overseen by Peter Dutton.

Labor had long opposed a model which saw such significant power contained within one portfolio – and removed ASIO and the AFP from home affairs.

Now, in a spectacular reversal, and without explanation, Albanese is making home affairs more powerful than ever – and it’s all under the control of Tony Burke.

Today, special correspondent for The Saturday Paper Jason Koutsoukis on what the move says about Tony Burke’s rising power, and what it means for our national security.

It’s Tuesday June 10.

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DANIEL:

Jason, thanks for speaking with us. This decision by Albanese to rebuild home affairs into a super ministry has a clear winner, Tony Burke. Can you tell me about him?

JASON:

Daniel, Tony Burke is one of the most influential and powerful politicians in Anthony Albanese's cabinet. He's leader of the house, so that means he manages all of the government's legislation and other business in the House of Representatives, a very influential and powerful role. He's also Minister for the Arts, which is something that is very dear to Tony Burke's heart. If you're ever in a pub late at night in Canberra, there's a sort of a chance that you might see Tony Burke appear with his band. So he likes to play guitar and get all of the caucus, the Labor caucus, singing along with him. He's also a very prominent, factional player, long-standing member of the New South Wales right. Tony Burke's power base is the SDA, the Powerful Shop Distributors Union.

And then lastly, he's of course, the Minister for Home Affairs. And in this second term of the Albanese government, this is a very much more powerful home affairs than we saw in the first term. And Tony Burke is in charge of this super ministry, which is going to give him even more power in this cabinet, in this government.

DANIEL:

So the decision itself by Albanese to strengthen Home Affairs is a significant reversal. What's actually changing at the ministry?

JASON:

When Anthony Albanese became Prime Minister in May 2022. One of the first things he did when he settled his new cabinet was that he changed the administrative arrangements surrounding Home Affairs and took away some of the key agencies that Malcolm Turnbull had given to, or assigned to, to Home Affairs.

Audio excerpt – Reporter:

“The prime minister has downsized the Home Affairs Department under a sweeping overhaul of the public service. The changes will give Attorney General Mark Dreyfus responsibility for criminal law enforcement and policy, including the Australian Federal Police.”

JASON:

So Anthony Albanese took away the Australian Federal Police. He took away AUSTRAC, which is the financial crimes regulator. He also took away things like cybercrime and he returned that to the Department of the attorney general.

And then when he had a reshuffle in July last year, Anthony Albanese went a step further and he took away the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. This is our domestic intelligence agency and he returned that to the Department of the Attorney General. So after that reshuffle last year we had a very much diminished Department of Home Affairs.

Now, following Anthony Albanese's thumping election win. Anthony Albanese has reversed all of those changes and brought back into Home Affairs, ASIO, the AFP, AUSTRAC and some of those other functions. He's actually made it a more powerful ministry than it was under Scott Morrison's prime ministership and under Malcolm Turnbull's prime ministership. It also deals with immigration and You would have to say that Tony Burke is going to be a very busy minister in this second term of the Albanese government.

DANIEL:

So as you told us earlier – Labor opposed the creation of this super ministry, then in its first term began downsizing it. So what's changed since then?

JASON:

Well, at the time, they justified making these changes on the basis that Mark Dreyfus, very senior legal mind in the Labor caucus, the attorney general, he was of the view that law enforcement, both related to the AFP and ASIO, belonged with the chief law officer, that he felt that it was very important that he, as attorney general in his department. Oversee the activities of these two very key agencies. But I think that all changed toward the end of January this year when news of this caravan laden with explosives was discovered in Dural, in outer suburban Sydney.

Audio excerpt – 10 News Reporter:

“A synagogue in the heart of the city and a museum that teaches the horrors of the Holocaust have been revealed as the two potential targets of that terror plot involving a caravan at Dural.”

JASON:

And when news of that caravan first broke in late January, the Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, said that this was potentially a very serious terrorist incident that was thwarted.

Audio excerpt – Chris Minns:

“Police were made aware of a van with explosive material located in it in Dural. They've been conducting investigations into the site, into the van, into the owners of the van and any associates of the owners of that van since that time. Now I was briefed about the van…”

JASON:

So Chris Minns had received a briefing from the New South Wales Police and when he was up before the media in Sydney, he was across all the details, but when the prime minister was asked about it the next day, he hadn't received the same briefings that Chris Minns had. That was because the Australian Federal Police didn't really believe that this was a terrorist incident that had been thwarted, they thought it was more likely to be a hoax and they hadn't felt that it was necessary to brief either the Attorney-General or the prime minister, but what happened was, just a few weeks out from an election, the prime minster looked like he'd been caught unawares, he was unprepared, but he was kind of blindsided, and I think behind the scenes Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke decided that if they won the election that they were going to get all of these national security agencies back under the Home Affairs roof. They thought that this would prevent that kind of situation happening again where neither the prime minister or the Home Affairs Minister or Attorney General weren't being briefed by the AFP on incidents like this Dural caravan incident.

DANIEL:

Coming up after the break, the security and political ramifications of concentrated power.

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DANIEL:

Jason, Anthony Albanese has pointed to information sharing failures in the wake of the Dural caravan hoax as the reason for wanting to return oversight of the AFP and ASIO to Home Affairs. What do the experts you’ve been speaking to make of that reasoning?

JASON:

Daniel, I spoke to one Canberra insider with very deep experience inside the national security space here in Canberra. And this person found the prime minister's justification for these changes, that there was a communication breakdown around the Dural caravan incident to be simply bizarre. This person noted that ASIO and the AFP report to ministers, they do not report to Secretaries of Departments and he argued that the kind of communication breakdown that we saw around the Dural Caravan incident would have occurred whether ASIO and the AFP reported to the same minister or not, so it didn't really matter in this person's view if AFP and the ASIO were part of the Department of the Attorney General or Home Affairs. And the bottom line is... They didn't actually believe that this was a real terrorist incident. That's why they didn't brief the relevant minister. And I think in this insider's view, the more likely explanation for the changes lies in politics. Specifically, the elevation of Tony Burke and the removal of Mark Dreyfus.

DANIEL:

So what's behind that political calculation?

JASON:

Well, Tony Burke has been a close ally of the Prime Minister's for quite a long time. In the wake of the 2019 federal election loss, this is the election that Bill Shorten, of course, was so heavily favoured to win, but just didn't make it. In the week of that election defeat, Tony Burke was an important source of support for Anthony Albanese. He even backed Albanese against his own factional colleague, Chris Bowen. And I think that's created a rift within the New South Wales right that hasn't healed. Tony Burke is a bit on his own within that faction. So I think Anthony Albanese is very grateful to Tony Burke for that support that he provided, helping him secure the leadership, and then ultimately the prime ministership. So I think that's probably part of this political calculation here, that giving Tony Burke more power is a way of the prime minister kind of helping Tony Burke's career, at a time that he is probably looking to expand his role and influence in Canberra.

DANIEL:

You've mentioned the amount of power that this reversal has given Tony Burke. Beyond the prime minister. Does this now make him the most powerful politician in Canberra?

JASON:

Well, I think he's one of them. There's other ministers, of course, who have a considerable amount of power and influence. Penny Wong, the foreign minister, Mark Butler, the minister for health, who's also very close to the prime minister, Katy Gallagher, the minister for finance, and of course Jim Chalmers, the treasurer, and Richard Marles, the defence minister and deputy prime minister. But Tony Burke is certainly in that elite leadership group. And just given the amount of agencies and government muscle that he's now master of, you'd have to say that he is definitely one of the most powerful and influential ministers in the government, and yeah, one of the more powerful politicians in Canberra.

DANIEL:

So are we seeing him being anointed as a potential future leader?

JASON:

I don't think this is an anointing of Tony Burke, but it certainly does put him in a position where he can show off his political skills. He's already done a very good job in shutting down a lot of the controversies around home affairs that were sort of bubbling up into the national media from time to time. So I think he's already shown what a good politician he is. He's also someone who's signalled his leadership ambitions quite openly over the years. And I think it does help Tony Burke build up his power base. You'd have to think that Tony Burke is a dark horse in the future Labor leadership race.

At the moment the media's attention is probably more focused on Jim Chalmers, he's the government's best communicator, but that doesn't mean that he's got the numbers to win the Labor leadership and I think Tony Burke is someone who's probably very focused on shoring up his support within the Labor caucus and I think he's a very close relationship with the prime minister and I that's going to be helpful to him. Whenever that day arrives, he decides to put his hand up for the leadership.

DANIEL:

Jason, thank you so much for your time.

JASON:

Daniel, great to be with you. Thanks very much.

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DANIEL:

Also in the news today…

Protests in Los Angeles over federal immigration raids have entered a third day, with violent clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement. President Trump has deployed the National Guard, a move Californian Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass have condemned as unlawful and provocative.

The deployment bypassed the state government, invoking rarely used federal powers not exercised in California since 1965.

And

Scott Morrison has received Australia’s highest honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia, for his role during the COVID-19 crisis. The former prime minister said the award recognises the resilience of Australians, not just his leadership.

But the announcement has drawn criticism, with some questioning the decision to honour a leader still under scrutiny for secretly appointing himself to multiple ministries during the pandemic.

Thanks for listening to 7am, we’ll be back tomorrow.

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