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January 25, 2025
Saturday 25 January 2025
Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review
Liberal senator James Paterson has led attacks on the government over antisemitism. For him, defending Israel's right to exist is personal, writes Andrew Tillett.
James Paterson's commitment to fighting antisemitism was crystallised when he was on the ground at Melbourne University being kicked by anti-Israel protesters. It was 2006 and Israeli forces had invaded southern Lebanon to recover soldiers abducted by Iranianbacked Hezbollah militants.
Anti-Israel protests had broken out at Melbourne University and Paterson, who had many Jewish friends from his days at the McKinnon Secondary College public high school in Melbourne ''I went to a lot of bar mitzvahs'' was affronted.
''It was an extremely hostile environment for Jews,'' Paterson recalls. ''There were lots of incidents of Jewish students being spat on and having their kippahs torn off.''
Paterson was a member of the university's Liberal Club which, along with the Jewish students' association, organised a counter-demonstration. It was during that event when he was thrown to the ground and assaulted.
While uninjured, the incident ''demonstrated to me how deep the hatred was for Jews and [how important it is] for non-Jews to stand up against that'', he says. That sentiment was reinforced when Paterson later visited Holocaust memorials and Jewish museums in Europe, gaining an understanding of the centuries of persecution that Jews had endured. It was ''a reminder of why Israel needs to exist'', he says.
Paterson is now the opposition's home affairs spokesman and has emerged as one of the Coalition's most effective critics of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the federal response to the surge in antisemitism that has followed the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.
Day after day, Paterson pops up on Sky News, the ABC, talkback radio or in media conferences to point out what he deems the government's failings, whether they be related to antisemitism, the release of convicted criminals from immigration detention, or rising levels of foreign interference via social media.
His cut-through as a performer and strong work ethic have seen Paterson mentioned as a possible contender for promotion to foreign affairs spokesman, replacing the retiring Simon Birmingham.
Paterson makes no bones about his ambitions, saying he has told Dutton he is willing to take on the role. He is also equally happy, he insists, to stay in home affairs, which focuses on domestic security and is Dutton's old job. ''I just want to serve in a national security role in a Dutton cabinet,'' he says.
At 37, Paterson has already chalked up nine years as a senator for Victoria. When he entered parliament, he was more interested in economic policy. The thenTurnbull government's move to ratify an extradition treaty with China in 2017 turned the senator's mind to security.
Paterson, with colleagues Tim Wilson and Andrew Hastie, led a backbench revolt to the treaty.
Again, for Paterson, it was personal. A lot of high school friends were Chinese, and he feared the treaty would become a vehicle for Beijing to coerce Chinese Australians.
The trio were chewed out by Malcolm Turnbull, but Paterson believes time and events have vindicated his stance. ''We have a much more realistic appraisal of China,'' says Paterson, who in 2019 was denied a visa to visit China unless he ''repented'' his hawkish views.
Before entering parliament, he worked at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and as a staffer to senator Mitch Fifield (his wife Lydia is also an alumna of Fifield's office).
Paterson argues his work history, especially his four years with the IPA, is an asset.
''I think there is an important place around the cabinet table or the shadow cabinet table for people who have specialised in ideas. Politics is a contest of ideas,'' he says.
Paterson likes the ''big ideas and ideological battles'' that are fought over in the Senate and says he has no desire to become a lower house member with its greater focus on parish-pump politics.
He is a member of the Liberals' right wing who describes himself as a ''classical liberal'' and rejects the label of libertarian.
One thing he certainly is not is a social conservative. His philosophical belief in personal liberty was seen during the same-sex marriage debate. Paterson voted Yes but also tried to legislate protections for religious freedom.
Paterson joined the Liberal Party at 17.
One of the catalysts was September 11 as a child he lived in Washington briefly and recoiled at left-wingers who argued America had brought the terrorist attack upon itself. The works of Milton Friedman were also influential on his young mind.
Just like Alex P. Keaton in the '80s sitcom Family Ties, Paterson is the ideological black sheep of the family. Both parents worked at universities and were staunch members of the National Tertiary Education Union. ''They tell me they voted for me No.1 below the line and then voted for [former Greens senators] Janet Rice or Lidia Thorpe No.2. They are pretty lefty but despite that and to their credit, they have always been very loving and supportive of their right-wing son.''
