Ryan Bridge: Why have we designated Hezbollah's military wing a terrorist entity, but not the political wing?

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

The Government's refusing to say if it will designate Hezbollah's political wing as a terrorist entity.

In a statement to Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, our Terrorism Designations Working Group says the Iran-backed group's military wing was declared a terrorist entity in 2010.

"Designations are considered based on recommendations from the National Security Board, on the basis of advice from the Terrorist Designations Working Group. The Working Group considers a variety of entities regularly, through a long-standing and well-established inter-departmental process."

It basically says they won't talk publicly about whether they're considering going further with Hezbollah.

"To maintain the integrity of the process it is not standard practice to confirm publicly which entities are under consideration."

This all comes of course after Israel killed Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah. The United States called his death "justice".

The group itself actually makes no distinction between its military and political wings.

What's interesting here is two things:

1. Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters designated Hamas a terror group in its entirety back in February, after years of making a distinction for the political wing. Will they do the same with Hezbollah?

2. In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is cracking down on protesters in New South Wales and Victoria who were seen waving Hezbollah flags and allegedly chanting violent verses.

If such a thing were to happen here would the lack of a designation stop our authorities from taking action?

Leon Goldsmith told me yesterday Australia and Canada don't make any distinction like we do.

Ultimately what we do is not going to stop war in the Middle East, but it could affect how we deal with the fallout here at home.

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