December 6, 2022
PETER STEFANOVIC: Well, joining us live now is the Shadow Cyber Security Minister, James Paterson. Good to see you, James. Thanks for your time as always. We will start off with coal and gas before we get onto China. Now Anthony Albanese, he might not be well enough and that's fair enough to delay National Cabinet, but if he is, do you think it should be done virtually?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, we wish the Prime Minister all the best for his recovery from COVID. It can be a nasty thing. I hope he's fine. It is unfortunate that the National Cabinet meeting has been cancelled. It would be much preferable if it was possible to continue online by telepresence, as it often did through the pandemic. Or, if the Prime Minister is personally unwell and can't participate by telepresence, then this is what acting prime ministerial arrangements are for. I don't see why an acting Prime Minister couldn't be appointed and the meeting couldn't take place because of course this is a very important issue to Australians. They are dealing with rising cost of living, they are really feeling the pain from rising interest rates, grocery prices, petrol prices and of course energy. And the government has been promising for some months now a policy to bring down energy prices and electricity costs and they haven't brought it forward. We've been reading about it every day in the paper. There's been many different iterations of it, but nothing concrete has been produced.
STEFANOVIC: Well, I mean, with Richard Marles away, presumably that would fall to the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. So, wouldn't that actually be beneficial for him to be there overseeing that virtual discussion?
PATERSON: I would have thought that Treasurer Jim Chalmers would be in a good position to step forward and address this issue. He is an economic focussed minister. He should be across those economic policy issues. Certainly, when we were in government the Treasurer, as well as the Finance Minister were often at the heart of these conversations and these discussions. So, I don't see why he wouldn't have the ability to step forward and do this. I don't know if the government lacks confidence in him or what the issue might be.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Well, if he were to be on that, would you support a price cap on coal?
PATERSON: Well, we just have absolutely no idea what the government is contemplating other than the leaks that have been appearing in the media for some weeks now, speculating about various different conflicting mechanisms. So, it's really very difficult for the Opposition to judge. We want action to address the cost of living crisis facing Australians. We want action to bring down electricity prices. Let's remember that in the campaign the Prime Minister and his party promised 97 times to bring down the cost of electricity by $275 a year. Now that looks like a very hard promise to meet, but we will still be holding them to that.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, I mean, so many people have pointed to these huge windfall gains by energy companies as being unacceptable. Do you believe that is unacceptable?
PATERSON: Well, the most important thing is that we have a functioning, competitive electricity market, and a functioning competitive market should deliver lower costs to consumers because companies should be competing to win them from each other. If it's not working and if policy change is necessary to achieve that, then we'll be very supportive of that. We'll be very constructive about that. But we also don't want to support things which are reckless, which are ill-thought through, which have unintended consequences. So, we will be waiting to see what the government outlines and judging that accordingly.
STEFANOVIC: But you don't want to make a call on caps on whether they're a good idea or not just yet?
PATERSON: Look, it really depends. I mean, for example, it's been reported in the media that the government is asking the state parliaments to be recalled, even though they’ve risen for summer, to come back in and introduce these caps, because they're not required under the Constitution to provide compensation to electricity providers for effectively the taking of their property, whereas the Commonwealth might be. That's the legal advice the government apparently has, although they haven't released it. Now that is concerning. I mean, the federal parliament shouldn't be asking state parliaments to do their job for them. It wasn't the state premiers who promised to reduce electricity prices by $275. It was Anthony Albanese, and he needs to take responsibility for this and implement this this policy.
STEFANOVIC: It does seem like, I mean Christmas is not far away, getting an answer by then is getting, the time frame is getting a lot shorter. It seems unlikely, I'll take the long way around putting this point to that this is going to get done by then?
PATERSON: It does seem unlikely, certainly when you're cancelling National Cabinet, which would be an important forum to discuss these issues. And let's remember when we were in government, the now government, when they were in opposition were very critical of us for our energy policies and the changes in our energy policies. Frankly, I think they've had more energy policies in the last two weeks than we had in nine years, and they haven't settled one of them yet. So, they've talked a big game about this. They've said they were going to fix it. Well, they had more than six months in government now and they haven't fixed anything yet.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Just a final point here, James, on Taiwan. The delegation that's there right now, is that the right one at the right level?
PATERSON: Look, it's very welcome to see the normal parliamentary delegations that travelled to Taiwan resuming. I have been on one on myself in 2017. I understand the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese went on one when he was in Opposition. They're very healthy, normal part of our relationship. They are, contrary to the claims of The Global Times this week, perfectly consistent with Australia's One China policy and in fact a very healthy thing to do because we have very strong trading and cultural and business and other links with Taiwan. And it is an important signal of international solidarity for the people of Taiwan at a time in which the Chinese Communist Party is putting more pressure on them than ever before and seeking to coerce them to reunify, in their words, with the Chinese mainland. Now Australia seeks to preserve the status quo, the peaceful status quo across the Taiwan Straits. And part of the way we do that is by having these strong, informal, unofficial links.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, I just came back from Taiwan myself and I was shooting on an assignment there, and you know, there had been some questions asked about our recent meetings with Xi Jinping and where Taiwan now stands in all of this. And the Foreign Minister had said, well, he wasn't expecting the Prime Minister to come here. A delegation was nice. And this does appear to be at the right level. I mean, regardless of what The Global Times says, I mean, do you just roll your eyes whatever they say anyway?
PATERSON: Look, I'm very pleased that it's a bipartisan delegation. I think that's really important. There are Liberal and National members on the delegation. There are Labor members on the delegation, and they follow a whole series of delegations from other parliaments around the world. For example, just this week the chair of the UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee and some of her committee members were in Taiwan and they have had delegations from the United States, from all across Europe and Asia. It's a really welcome and normal part of dealing with Taiwan. I'd like to see it occur on a frequent basis from here on out. It has only been suspended because of the COVID pandemic, and so I hope to see this being a regular occurrence again.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, and it's our sixth or seventh biggest trading partner, I think Taiwan. So not insignificant, that's for sure. James, appreciate that. Thank you. We'll talk to you again soon.
ENDS
