December 6, 2024
RAY HADLEY: James Paterson, the Senator, Shadow Home Affairs Minister, good morning to you.
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Ray.
HADLEY: Well, it's hard to argue anything else. I know people say, oh he's gone mad, this bloke in his last week on air blaming the Federal government and the Victorian government, but their inaction and their action in supporting a terrorist organisation, like they did this week at the UN, defies belief, and the result is what we've got today.
PATERSON: I think there's been two principal problems when it comes to the Albanese government from the start of this crisis and it's true of the Victorian government as well. Firstly, they've been weak, they have failed to enforce the law. They have allowed this intimidation to occur and there's been no consequences for extremists and so extremists have become emboldened. But secondly, they've actually sought to appease these extremists. They've changed our foreign policy. They've changed how we vote at the United Nations. And so if you're an extremist out there and you're doing extreme things to try and pressure the government, you think you've been successful and you're going to continue to do it until you get what you want. And that's a very bad signal to send. And it comes down to the Prime Minister's weakness.
HADLEY: And nothing changes. We get this platitude, "I unequivocally condemn the attack on a Melbourne synagogue this morning. I've got zero tolerance for anti-Semitism." That's a load of bullshit. He's got a lot of tolerance for anti-Semitism by his actions.
PATERSON: And where was that statement a year ago? This is not the first instance of anti-Semitism. It's the most serious one. But it's not the first. I mean, it was only a couple of weeks ago we had cars being firebombed in Woollahra. As you've been pointing out, we've had protests outside synagogues. We've had people walking in our streets with the flags of terrorist organisations like Hezbollah and Hamas. Where was a statement like that when those incidents happened and where was the action to accompany it, to make sure that there are consequences for this behaviour? Because unless and until there are consequences, as Peter Dutton and I have been calling for for more than a year, then this behaviour will continue. It may even escalate and it may even get worse. And next time someone may be seriously hurt. It's a miracle that they weren't hurt this morning.
HADLEY: So what's next? I mean, we get the apology. We get "I've been briefed by the AFP commissioner this morning. The Commonwealth will provide full assistance to Victorian authorities", and that poor copper like a deer in the headlights, poor old Detective Inspector Chris Murray. I mean, it happened down the road and I mean people were protesting outside the Prime Minister's electoral office in Sydney. Not for days. For months. He never moved them on. Never said to the Commonwealth Police, "Look, these people are a pain in the backside. Can you get them out of my face or out of my staff's face?" He is a weak man when it comes to defending the Jewish faith. He's a weak man.
PATERSON: And unfortunately, Ray, I think the only conclusion we can draw from that weakness is it's because he's trying to appease people, because he's putting Labor's political interests ahead of the national interest. The Labor Party lives in fear that they will lose inner city seats to the Greens and that they'll lose seats in western Sydney to the Muslim Votes Matters movement and they are very determined to stop that. They're willing to do almost anything to make sure that doesn't happen, including changing our foreign policy and including adopting a position of moral equivalence rather than strength when it comes to the issue of anti-Semitism. I mean, this is a crisis for our country. It is a cancer. It might start with the Jewish community, but it won't end there, and if we don't deal with it now, we're going to live to regret it. But unfortunately, it's been allowed to fester on this government's watch.
HADLEY: Okay. Now, you've been very busy, last night, Chris Kenny, who phoned my program this morning off air to tell me that he had the former Labor Defence Minister on with him before the attack on the Melbourne synagogue, Mike Kelly will join you now and have a listen to this one. What's happens.
[CLIP START]
CHRIS KENNY: "Are you frustrated, disappointed, angry about the Albanese Labor Government's approach to Israel? "
MIKE KELLY: Well, I think all of us who are involved with Labor friends of Israel have been very disappointed and frustrated and it's been like watching the death of a thousand cuts, as we watch, you know, our diplomatic credibility, our leverage just dissolve in front of our eyes. And frankly, you know, this latest support for the U.N. resolution, it really just indicates too that the message hasn't gotten across that the government is putting at risk our national security here and our social cohesion because it appears as if they're rewarding every new escalated act of violence out there by those activists who are committed to that course of action, and so every time that they're rewarded for those courses of action, they're just emboldened to take it further and achieve the next step in their ambitions. And we've just seen that recently with the instance in Sydney of the terrible vandalism and violence, and at the same time, coinciding with that, the denial of a visa to Ayelet Shaked. So, you know, we'd really call and urge the government to consider the impact this is having in our national security concerns domestically.
[CLIP END]
HADLEY: That is a former Labor Defence Minister, Mike Kelly, at risk: our national security and social cohesion at the feet of men and women he sat beside. James Paterson there can be no further condemnation from within Labor than that one.
PATERSON: No, and Mike Kelly is a good man and he would not have made a statement like that lightly. And sadly there are not many Mike Kellys left in the Labor Party today, if any, and they are a tiny minority. They are hopelessly outnumbered by people like Tony Burke and the Prime Minister and Penny Wong, who run the show when it comes to our foreign policy and national security, and they are willing to trash our bilateral relationship with Israel. Israel is one of our most important intelligence and security partners outside the Five Eyes. They have given us intelligence in the past which has prevented terrorist attacks in our own country. And yet this government has trashed that relationship, so much so that the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is making statements about the state of the relationship, an extraordinary state of affairs. So Mike Kelly's not alone. Michael Danby, a former Labor MP, has said similar things and there are others who are who are silent but deeply, deeply troubled by what's happening.
HADLEY: Okay. And we'll talk to you again next week about the same issue. Senator James Paterson, thanks for your time.
PATERSON: Thanks Ray.
ENDS