April 16, 2024
BEN FORDHAM: Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Senator James Paterson. Senator, good morning to you.
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning Ben.
FORDHAM: We haven't had one of these in a while.
PATERSON: No, it's a deeply shocking event for Australians. We see this kind of stuff happen overseas all the time, but in Australia, we've been relatively immune from these kinds of shocking events. And it's important that NSW Police are allowed to conduct their investigations. But obviously we now do have to have a declaration that this appears to be a terrorist incident.
FORDHAM: The important thing at a time like this is that we allow those highly trained, well experienced officers to do their thing without members of the public getting involved, because unfortunately, that's what unfolded last night in south west Sydney.
PATERSON: That's right Ben. I completely understand the anger of the community at seeing a shocking event like this. But we don't have vigilante justice in this country. We have law and order, and we must allow the police and trust the police to do their work and the justice system to do its work. We can never take matters into our own hands, and it is never acceptable to threaten or harm police officers in the course of their work.
FORDHAM: Are we seeing more religiously motivated attacks and commentary and criticism since say, October last year? I'm thinking about, you know, things involving the Jewish community. We've also had constant protests from supporters of Palestine. Now we've got this incident unfolding in south west Sydney. Are we seeing more of this stuff over the last six months?
PATERSON: It's my view Ben that social cohesion has never been tested as much as it is right now in Australia. And we do have very high community tensions for a range of reasons, including events in the Middle East. And it's very important that government gets on top of that. We have record levels of anti-Semitism in this country that we've never seen before. The Jewish community feels very unsafe. And we have other communities, as we have seen last night, you know, metaphorically at each other's throats over an incident like this. Now I am fearful that this will get worse if we don't get on top of it and if we don't send strong leadership signals. I think the Premier was right to convene religious leaders last night, I think the Prime Minister was right to convene the national security committee of cabinet. But we are now six months on from the events of 7 October, and I really don't think we have the decisive national leadership we need to get on top of this problem.
FORDHAM: We appreciate you jumping on the line at short notice. Thank you so much.
PATERSON: Thanks Ben.
ENDS
