KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Let's go live to the Assistant Minister for Trade and the Future Made in Australia, Tim Ayres. Tim, thanks for your time. We'll get to your address to the Sydney Institute last night -  I want to ask you a little about that. But first, on this revelation out of UNRWA, that some of their employees at the UN agency in the Palestinian territories had been involved allegedly in that October 7 attack. Peter Dutton says if this is true, the government itself has a bit to answer for, given you've restored funding to UNRWA, what's your reaction?

SENATOR TIM AYRES: Well, this demonstrates that the government's approach when funding was suspended while that investigation was undertaken, was the right approach then and of course, the government will continue to monitor the situation very closely. UNRWA is the only body that's capable of delivering food and all of the medical services and other things that UNRWA does in Gaza. It is a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. So, the decision making of the government has been very deliberate. It has been very focused on achieving the right outcome here. It was the right thing to do, as these revelations demonstrate, to suspend funding to make sure that the Australian Government and the United Nations had assurance about some of these questions, and we'll continue to monitor it very, very closely indeed.

GILBERT: Can you also reassure viewers and Australians? I know it's not your portfolio, but it's obviously a concern for many. It is a catastrophic situation. It's a humanitarian crisis. It has been for months. But it's also important the government do the appropriate checks to ensure those who have been granted visas out of Gaza, that they have appropriate checks made and that a residency isn't granted without those appropriate security checks. Can you reassure our viewers that that is happening, despite the security screening that's taking place in the region?

AYRES: Well, Tony Burke's been very direct on this question. I only reaffirm what it is that he has said. All of the appropriate checks will occur. We won't be playing politics with this. I notice Senator Paterson and some of the other figures in the opposition who want to play politics where these issues have been pretty quick out of the box, making things up as they go along about what is occurring here. All of the appropriate checks will be undertaken. Viewers can be assured of that. Tony Burke is laser focused in his new portfolio on those questions. He's been very clear about that. His instructions to the department are very clear, and that's what the government expects to occur here.

GILBERT: Now on the tweet by the Iranian Ambassador, he's been condemned far and wide for the language around wiping Zionists off the map. Essentially, he's had an official talk to him. The opposition says the government needs to go further in its response to this. Are there plans to go further in relation to this individual? The former ASIO boss, Dennis Richardson, was on this program a little while ago. He called him a rat bag for this behaviour.

AYRES: I haven't seen the tweet and I haven't been briefed about it. Kieran, you're putting it to me now is the first that I've heard about it. It sounds repulsive. I agree with Dennis Richardson, it's the kind of anti-semitism that we can utterly repudiate as a government. We have been focused - while this crisis has been occurring in the Middle East - the government has been focused on the national interest questions here, not delving into this conflict in a sort of in the partisan interest to try and accrete some small political advantage, but focused on the national interest. And one of those national interest questions is social cohesion here in Australia, and defeating anti-semitism, wherever we see it, for that matter, dealing with Islamophobia as well. We absolutely have got these issues in our sights. So, I'm not briefed on this tweet but it sounds pretty repulsive to me.

GILBERT: Yeah, it certainly is. Let's talk about this speech you gave yesterday. This is your new focus. You've been manufacturing, but it's Future Made in Australia, and the way you described it last night to the Sydney Institute, this is the biggest pro-manufacturing package in Australian history, including 7 billion for critical minerals production, that tax credit. Do you welcome the fact that Peter Dutton, in relation to comments he's made on the critical mineral support, has softened his language around that in recent days?

AYRES: “Softened his language” is probably the way that Peter Dutton would like to describe it. I don't think he understands how important...he doesn't get Western Australia. He doesn't understand how important the resources sector is to Western Australia. A few weeks ago, he was decrying this policy. He and Sussan Ley out there saying they would oppose it every step of the way. He said it was tax cuts for billionaires, was what he said on the East Coast. He's a flip flopper flapping his gums saying one thing on the East Coast, another thing on the West Coast. On nuclear energy last year - he was opposed to large scale nuclear energy. This year, he's for it. But he doesn't have a costed, structured approach to it. It's just a press release. He was against tax cuts when they were first announced - tax cuts for every single PAYG taxpayer, 13.6 million of them. He was opposed to them. Said he'd fight them every step of the way. Now he's not as opposed as he was before. This guy can't be taken seriously. He's pretending to be a serious person. But you get found out, and if always your response is the negative, the hyper-partisan approach, and you don't act in the national interest, well, you're not a serious person. And Peter Dutton is not a serious person. He is just a negative press release machine.

GILBERT:  Tim Ayres, thanks for your time. Talk to you soon.

AYRES:  Thanks, Kieran. See you soon.

ENDS.