|
April 1, 2025
Transcript – 2CC Breakfast
01 April 2025
E&OE
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
Time to talk to the Coalition's campaign spokesperson and Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Senator James Paterson. James, good morning.
JAMES PATERSON:
Great to be with you, Stephen.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
Um, you guys seem like you're a little bit slow out of the blocks. Is this a strategy?
JAMES PATERSON:
I don't think that's true at all, mate. We're getting a really good reception in the community for our commitment to cut fuel tax on every tank every time you fill up. If you've got an average 55-litre tank, when you go to fill it up, you'll be $14 better off under a Dutton Coalition Government than you would be under an Anthony Albanese Labor Government.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
Why not just come out and say we're going to end sin taxes, any of these punishment taxes go all together? No more excises.
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, that will be a massive tax cut for big tobacco companies. I'm not sure that will be very well received by the community, and I'm not sure it would be a big improvement for public health either. Look, I understand why there's a lot of frustration about all forms of excise and tax out there. But we also have budget deficits as far as the eye can see, Jim Chalmers' budget last week had 10 years of deficits, adding up to $1 trillion of gross debt at the end of the forecast period. That's a shocking legacy for future generations, and we actually need responsible budget management back in Canberra.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
I want to talk more about the campaign in a moment, but I just want to touch on these NZYQ criminals, the non-citizens that were released from detention. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws threatening 12 months' jail for these people have now been bungled. There's a loophole that's allowing them to remain free. What's happened here?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, this is another in a long line of stuff-ups by the Albanese Government when it comes to community safety and particularly dealing with this NZYQ cohort. Now 300 violent non-citizen criminals who they released into the community. About a year ago, they passed legislation that required that if there was a visa breach by any of these people once they were released into the community, there would be a mandatory minimum sentence of one year. But despite dozens of visa breaches, I'm not aware of any case where a mandatory minimum sentence has been applied, and there are now multiple cases where people who should have gone behind bars for one year have either not been jailed at all or have been jailed for shorter periods, like a month. Home Affairs officials admitted to me in Senate Estimates last week that's because they stuffed up the drafting of the legislation and they allowed judges to use their discretion to not apply the mandatory minimums that Parliament voted for.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
There's an old saying, don't get in the way of your opposition when they're making a mistake, and it's always a good idea to give the othersiders enough rope to hang themselves. The Prime Minister, we know from last time around, is a traditionally bad campaigner; he seems to have gotten off to the same start this time around.
JAMES PATERSON:
I mean his comment yesterday about how he would in fact do a deal with Greens was one of those Freudian slips where he said what he didn't mean to say but it revealed a deeper truth. Of course, the Prime Minister will do a deal with the Greens if that's what's required for him to form government.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
Let's have a listen to what he said first.
[START CLIP]
ANTHONY ALBANESE:
If you ask me, do you rule out governing in coalition with the Greens, the answer to that is no.
[END CLIP]
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
The thing I find, James, strange is the rationale he's using for trying to deny that he'd do a deal with the Greens is the fact that he tries to beat them in his own seat. Well, I think you would try and beat the National Party if they were running against you in your own seat, wouldn't you?
JAMES PATERSON:
Yeah, I mean, that's just kind of an absurd defence. If the Prime Minister falls short of a majority, as almost every poll in the last year has predicted, do we really think he's just going to hand government on a platter to Peter Dutton and the Coalition if there's an option to him to form government with Adam Bandt and the Greens? Of course, he'll form government with Adam Bandt and the Greens. And that means that the extreme agenda of the Greens is Anthony Albanese's agenda, and he has to explain what, if anything, he would agree with the Greens on in order to form Government. Would it be cancelling AUKUS? Would it be breaking the U.S. alliance? Would it be massive tax increases? Would it be a massive spending increases? I mean all of that he has to answer for before Australians vote, so they know what they're going to get after the next election.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
We've also got another Chinese surveillance ship off the coast. His response to that was a little bit weak, too. This is what he had to say when he was questioned by Latika Bourke from Channel 7.
[CLIP START]
LATIKA BOURKE:
What have you done to protect our undersea cables from any monitoring or sabotage? And have you communicated anything to the Chinese government about this?
ANTHONY ALBANESE:
Yeah, what we have done is we continue to monitor it, we won't for obvious reasons broadcast everything that we're doing, but we're keeping an eye on this as we do, as we do.
LATIKA BOURKE:
What does monitoring actually mean?
ANTHONY ALBANESE:
What it means is that the Australian Defence Force are monitoring what is happening, it's going from New Zealand, we expect it to go around to China, around that way.
LATIKA BOURKE
And do you have any concerns about it, Mr. Albanese?
ANTHONY ALBANESE:
Here you go, here you go. Of course, I would have preferred that it wasn't there.
[CLIP ENDS]
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
James, I'd prefer that my alarm didn't have to go off at a quarter past two in the morning, but here we are.
JAMES PATERSON:
And I would prefer if we had a Prime Minister who was actually across the details of major national security issues, like whether it is in fact the Australian Defence Force or whether it indeed is the Australian Border Force which is monitoring these Chinese vessels. As it turns out, the Prime Minister got that wrong again. I know it's only two letters away in the alphabet, but there is a world of difference between the ADF and the ABF. And if the Prime Minister can't even get that kind of detail right, I think it just demonstrates when it comes to national security, he's not across the detail and he's not fit to govern.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
I want to talk about something that both parties seem to be on board with, and that is cracking down on the major supermarkets for alleged price gouging. Now, the ACCC has found no evidence that that's happening, and when the Prime Minister was asked what price gouging is, he said it's when the supermarkets take the piss. Well, to me, that's putting hot cross buns on the shelf on Boxing Day.
JAMES PATERSON:
This policy fell at the first skirmish when the Prime Minister was asked on Insiders by David Speers what constitutes price gouging he couldn't define it. And then later at a press conference he said that it's, as you said, “taking the piss”. Well how on earth do you define “taking the piss” in legislation? I mean this is a serious matter. Australians are getting ripped off. Grocery prices are up by 30% on this government's watch. We've got a plan to deal with it with targeted divestment powers, but the Prime Minister's got a headline and a press release, but not any substance or detail here actually delivering lower prices for Australians.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
This is your first go as a Coalition Campaign Spokesperson. You've got another, what, 33 days to go. Are you gonna get through it?
JAMES PATERSON:
I certainly hope so. It's a frenetic pace, but it's a great privilege to spread Peter Dutton's message to Australians. We want to get our country back on track, and I hope to do that.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO:
Good on you, James. We'll talk more throughout the course of the campaign.
JAMES PATERSON:
Thanks, Stephen.
ENDS