STEPHEN CENATIEMPO: Well, Pro-Palestinian graffiti was plastered over the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Australian Army monuments, as well as a wall between those memorials. But the thing that a lot of people aren't saying here is that it wasn't pro-Palestinian, let's be fair dinkum about what this stuff is. This is pro-Hamas. And there was also anarchist symbols painted on these memorials as well as that, from the river to the sea Palestine will be free rubbish that they carry on with, which is a statement of genocide. So these clowns that think they're protesting against some sort of genocide, which isn't actually happening, are actually promoting real genocide. And the Greens support this. James Paterson is the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, and he's on the line with us. James, it beggars belief that we have members of our Australian Parliament that have the belief that these Greens do.
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Stephen. I mean, I was genuinely flabbergasted yesterday when Jordan Steele-John, on behalf of the Greens, defended, as you say, desecrating our most sacred places, our war memorials. He made two arguments. He said these places are not politically neutral because they include sponsorship from weapons manufacturers in there. Therefore, basically it's fair game. And secondly, he said, well, the diggers fought for free speech, so we can hardly criticise people for exercising free speech. You know, as I said to him in the chamber, the war memorial is not a blank canvas for your extreme politics. Knock yourself out on Twitter, knock yourself out on Facebook, write your op-eds, go as hard as you like in the chamber, but please just leave the war memorial alone. Don't graffiti the war memorial, I don't think that's too much to ask.
CENATIEMPO: But surely as a legislator you've got to draw the line at criminal activity?
PATERSON: Exactly. I think that's exactly where we should draw the line, and that the Greens didn't understand that Is a shocking indictment on them. And frankly, I'd like to see them front up to any RSL in the country and tell a veteran to their face that it's okay to deface a memorial to the 100,000 Australians who fell in war to defend our freedoms, or the many others who fought and suffered in war and have come back. I mean, they couldn't do that, nor could that justify that to any man and woman in uniform today.
CENATIEMPO: James you've echoed some of the comments I made earlier in the week, and that is that the penalties for this kind of behaviour need to be harsh and they need to be severe, but I think the problem is we need to catch the perpetrators first. And I mean particularly here in Canberra where we are so short of police, it's almost laughable. I've called for the federal government to post private security guards at all of our war memorials right across the country. I mean, the cost of doing that can't be that exorbitant. And surely it's justified in this day and age.
PATERSON: I think we've got to look at all of those suggestions, Stephen. Firstly, making sure that the penalties are severe enough. But as you say, making sure we catch the people that do it and there's a range of ways you could do that, right. You could post private security on there. You could have regular police patrols. You can have better surveillance at those sites to make sure those people are being captured. In this day and age, it beggars belief that people are able to get away with something like this even in the middle of the night. They shouldn't be able to get away with it.
CENATIEMPO: Apart from the Greens, there was unanimous support and condemnation of the Greens in the Parliament yesterday in support for Jacqui Lambie's motion. One of the most vocal critics was senator Raff Ciccone on the Labor side. So there does seem to be an appetite, within the Parliament to actually do more about this, and that's despite the fact that I think the Prime Minister's leadership has been lacking on this issue. But do you think we can get some movement on, you know, firstly, upping the penalties and then putting some sort of surveillance or security, on these monuments?
PATERSON: Look, I really hope so, Stephen. And you're right to mention Raff Ciccone's speech. It was a terrific speech, and he spoke from the heart condemning this and every member of the chamber voted against this horrific practice. But I have to call out the fact that no Labor minister turned up and spoke in this debate. Penny Wong didn't turn up, Katy Gallagher didn't turn up. Murray Watt didn't turn up, Don Farrell didn't turn up. I really wonder why they left it to a backbencher in Raff Ciccone to speak on this on their behalf. From the Coalition side, Michaelia Cash spoke and I spoke as frontbenchers on behalf of all Coalition senators. So I really do question whether or not there is the appetite within Labor to deal with this. Let's remember this is the ACT. The federal Parliament can pass whatever laws it likes with respect to the ACT and in addition to that, war memorials all around the country are Commonwealth places. So we really have really significant legislative power here and we should use it.
CENATIEMPO: So where do you go from here?
PATERSON: Well, I want the action from the government. I've offered them bipartisan support for any extra resources to deploy to the war memorials and for any new legislation to deal with this if the penalties are not clear enough, if it's not easy enough to charge people, well, then we need to act to make sure we catch these people and stop it from happening. Because if they get away with it, you can bet it'll keep happening.
CENATIEMPO: James, thanks for your time this morning.
PATERSON: Thanks Stephen.
ENDS