November 20, 2023
BEN FORDHAM: Let's go to Senator James Paterson, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Senator Paterson Good morning to you.
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Ben.
FORDHAM: Do you reckon Albo raised it with Xi Jinping?
PATERSON: I think if he had, we would have heard all about it by now because everyone's been asking the question. This incident happened on Tuesday last week. So, well before the Prime Minister got on the plane to fly to San Francisco, to APEC, he would have known this happened and he's boasted about the time that he spent with Xi Jinping and China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, while he was there. But did he raise this question? Well, he hasn't said so and if he's not saying so it would appear the answer is he didn't.
FORDHAM: What are these sonar pulses that affected the sailors? Can you describe how that works?
PATERSON: The purpose of the sonar is for navigation and identifying obstacles for the ship, so it has a legitimate purpose, but it does harm when human beings are in the water and that's why if you're putting Navy divers in the water, you warn ships around you that you're doing so and usually you also put a physical flag up on the ship to identify that. In our case, HMAS Toowoomba did so. The Chinese ship confirmed receipt of that information, then chose to move closer to the ship and then activated their sonar pulses which required our divers to get out of the water because it did cause them injuries and it would have caused them even worse injuries had they stayed in the water. So this is a very deliberate act, it's a very provocative act, it's very unprofessional and unsafe act and it isn't an act of a friend. And frankly, it's completely contradictory to the apparent show of friendship that we saw in Beijing just a few weeks ago with the Prime Minister when he met Xi Jinping there.
FORDHAM: A few other things to talk to you about. We had those emergency laws rushed through parliament last week in regard to the 93 detainees who have been released following the decision by the High Court. There's now a suggestion that another 240 in the same category could be released very soon. Are you satisfied with the way the government's handled all of this?
PATERSON: No, it's been an absolute shambles from start to finish. I mean, when the court handed down a decision, the government clearly wasn't ready to act and was forced by us to act. First of all, they said they wouldn't even release the rest of the prisoners, that they would only release one person. And finally, we put pressure on them and they acted. But even then, it didn't go far enough. It didn't include restrictions on going near a victim or their family, if you've offended against them. If you were a child sex offender, it didn't include restrictions on going near a school or childcare centre. It didn't include mandatory minimums. It didn't make any of the conditions compulsory and so we forced the government to do all that. And yet these people are still out on the streets. Some of them are very serious criminal offenders and we think the government needs to introduce a preventative or continuing detention scheme like we have in terrorism law to get some of the most dangerous of these people off the streets and right now.
FORDHAM: I'm sure you'll be watching with interest what's happening in the Middle East. Israel and Hamas talking about coming to some sort of agreement. According to The Washington Post, they're negotiating a ceasefire and as part of that, hostages would have to be released.
PATERSON: That's very welcome. We think there's at least 239 hostages were taken, but Ben it's now over a month since they were first kidnapped, and we don't even know how many are left alive. So, if there are any left alive, then it would be very welcome if they were released and if a humanitarian pause can be given in exchange for that so that more aid can get into the Gaza Strip and free the innocent people there, well then that will be welcomed.
FORDHAM: It was still got a couple of hundred hostages, including more than 30 children. So we pray for their release and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks for your time.
PATERSON: Thanks, Ben.
ENDS
