4PR: You’re the Lord Mayor of Gaza. What do you do?
Transcript
Interview with Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner
4PR – Voice of the people: can you please introduce yourself?
Adrian Schrinner: My name is Adrian Schrinner, I am the Lord Mayor of Brisbane and a candidate in the upcoming elections.
4PR: You’re the Lord Mayor of Gaza. What do you do?
Adrian Schrinner: I wouldn’t fire rockets at Israel.
4PR: Ismail Haniyeh doesn’t fire rockets at Israel, either.
Adrian Schrinner: Who is Ismail Haniyeh?
4PR: He is the elected leader of Hamas recently assassinated by Israel
Adrian Schrinner: Well, whoever is firing the rockets, Hamas are not telling them to stop.
4PR: Okay you’ve told whoever is sending rockets not to fire them off. That’s the negative thing. What’s a positive thing that you’re going to do in Gaza as an experienced leader of the largest local government in the world?
Adrian Schrinner: Release all the hostages.
4PR: For the sake of the argument, let’s just say you don’t have the power to do that. What are you going to do for the people of Gaza City whose city has been destroyed. You have a $4.2 billion budget to play with
Adrian Schrinner: I would tell them to recognise Israel.
4PR: Is that all? Israel is a fact and the people of Gaza certainly know that. What are you going to do about the schools that have been bombed? How are the children going to go to school?
Adrian Schrinner: That’s the state government matter, it’s not the responsibility of local government.
4PR: Well Israel invented the Gaza Strip as a state, it didn’t exist before 1948. And since 2006 it has been your responsibility to look after schools, hospitals, roads, power stations, transport, water supply, garbage collection, and to regulate business in the strip. What are you going to do about them?
Adrian Schinner: Aren’t the schools in Gaza the responsibility of the United Nations?
4PR: Well yes, about 300,000 kids go to UNRWA schools in Gaza and there are about 10,000 teachers and staff. But how are the kids going to have an education if all the schools have been bombed?
Adrian Schrinner: I would tell Hamas to stop hiding out in the UN schools.
4PR: But the kids are suffering from trauma at viewing life’s atrocities in Gaza. How are you going to help the kids feel safe in the schools?
Adrian Schrinner: I would tell Hamas to stop brainwashing the kids and tell them to stop hating the Jews.
4PR: Are you saying that kids are racist? Say your youngest, she’d be 6 years old, is she a racist?
Adrian Schrinner: Yes Petra is 6, but she has not been indoctrinated by Muslim fundamentalists.
4PR: Ok (exasperated) Petra is in grade one and she’s going to a UN school in Gaza city. As part of the curriculum UNRWA schools have classes on human rights, conflict resolution and tolerance. That does not sound like Islamic indoctrination to me.
Adrian Schrinner: Education begins in the home, over there, parents are teaching their kids to hate.
4PR: Hang on a minute, back in 2016, school kids in Gaza elected their first student parliament and representative students were sent to the United Nations General assembly in New York in 2017 and 2018. You do support the United Nations, don’t you?
Adrian Schrinner: well yes, but what I’m saying is the children are taught to hate the Jews by antisemites in Gaza.
4PR: But quite a few parents are Christians in Palestine. You went to Citipointe Christian College in Mansfield. Weren’t you taught to love your neighbour? Do you hate Muslims?
Adrian Schrinner: Of course not. But of course Australia is not a theocracy, like Hamas.
4PR: So why do you insist that Christian prayers be read at the start of Brisbane City Council meetings?
Adrian Schrinner: Those prayers are part of our spiritual life!
4PR: So why not have a minutes silence reflection at the beginning of council meetings? Why not allow people of all faiths to think about what is most meaningful to them? And allow non-religious people to reflect on whatever they wish?
Adrian Schrinner: My Christian beliefs guide me and provide me with strength.
4PR: Don’t we live in a democracy?
Adrian Schrinner: Yes of course, it is important that we have a free society. There must be respect for the law. You can’t have a society based on Palestinian parents encouraging their kids to throw stones at police.
4PR: What do you expect? The kids have only ever known occupation by Israel and are shot at by settlers. Just the other day two boys were out on the street after their home had been bombed. An Al Jazeera journalist came up and asked them if they were afraid? They said: “we’re not afraid, we’re men” even though they couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old.
Adrian Schrinner: We are lucky we have never had that problem here.
4PR: What about aboriginal kids who are constantly being picked up by police. Do you support kids being put in jail?
Adrian Schrinner: Those aboriginal children should not be out on the streets, it’s their parents fault.
4PR: What are you gonna do about the water supply in Gaza?
Adrian Schrinner: In exchange for the hostages, I would negotiate with Israel to turn the water back on.
4PR: But Israel has blown up all the pipes and the reservoirs!
Adrian Schrinner: Hamas insists on firing rockets.
4PR: So it’s okay to let people die of thirst?
Adrian Schrinner: I understand the UN is sending in bottled water. Why ask me all these questions about Gaza? Have you been talking to Jonathan Sri who has been spruiking at all these Palestinian rallies.
4PR: Jonathan Sriranganathan pointed out that it was you who raised Palestine as an election issue when you lit up the Storey Bridge in the Israeli colours and justified this by sending a letter to the Palestinian community saying: “Council has, on many occasions in the past, chosen to show support for countries that have been the subject of terrorist attacks by lighting city assets in their national colours. We did so again on 8 October 2023.
Why didn’t you address their original concern of the Brisbane City Council choosing political sides in an unfolding and an ongoing war?
Adrian Schrinner: This not an issue for the upcoming Brisbane City Council election. I will be spending $15 million reducing congestion on our roads by speeding up the traffic lights.
4PR: What about the traffic congestion you will create in the Gabba where you’re supporting the construction of a larger stadium for the Olympics.
Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Adrian Schrinner : Building the Olympic Stadium in the Gabba is a state government matter but I support it because it means that we will draw more economic activity to our city by having a state of the art stadium at the Gabba. The existing stadium it’s not big enough for athletic events.
Do you want the Olympic 100 metres final to be run over 90 metres?”
4PR – Voice of the People: Why don’t you keep the Gabba as is. That way we will save money and, as a bonus, we’ll keep the East Brisbane state school. With a shorter athletics track Brisbane will be known in the future as the Olympics that had more world records in track and field than ever before!
Adrian Schrinner: That’s absurd. I have a good mind to terminate this interview
4PR:: do you support weapons manufacturers operating inside the Brisbane city limits?
Adrian Schrinner: where?
4PR: Ferra engineering at Tingalpa and Boeing at the University of Queensland
Adrian Schrinner: there are no weapons manufacturers there at UQ; Boeing is engaged in aerospace research that helps develop our commercial airliners.
4PR: Ferra engineering at Tingalpa manufactures bomb parts for the F35 planes that Israel uses to bomb residential buildings in Gaza.
Adrian Schrinner: no they don’t. Those parts are merely part of a supply chain of inventions that may or may not end up in Israel. The F 35’s are assembled in Texas by Boeing. I’m going on a fact-finding tour there soon to investigate air taxis to be used in the Olympics in 2032.
4PR: by that logic if you’re a train driver taking people to Auschwitz during the Holocaust, you are not complicit? Is that what you’re saying??
Adrian Schrinner: are you honestly saying that I am complicit in a genocide?
4PR: We are all complicit if we allow companies in Brisbane to make bomb parts that kill people in Gaza on an industrial scale. Doesn’t the Brisbane City Council license the use of that land at Tingalpa for that purpose?
Adrian Schrinner: you are drawing a long bow there.
4PR: is the Brisbane City Council in contempt of the international court of justice ruling not to assist Israel in possible genocide in Gaza?
Adrian Schrinner: No.
4PR: Then why did the Dutch High Court rule that F 35 parts should not be exported to aid Israel in bombing Gaza?
Adrian Schrinner: Israel has a right to defend itself.
4PR: I think we should leave it there. But we should bear in mind that children in Gaza are actually starving in numbers at this very moment.
23 March 2024