October 2, 2024
GARY ADSHEAD: Well, let's get the take of James Paterson, Senator James Patterson, who is of course a Liberal Senator. You know him and he joins me on the line. Thanks very much for your time, Senator.
JAMES PATERSON: Good to be with you.
ADSHEAD: All right. Should there be a rally in Sydney to celebrate what happened on October 7th this weekend? Should it happen?
PATERSON: The short answer is no, and it reflects very badly on the organisers of these rallies that they're even contemplating organising something on the anniversary of the 7th of October. Let's remember what happened on the 7th of October. The 7th of October is the day in which Hamas stormed into Israel, killed 1,200 men, women and children and captured 250 more and took them hostage back into Gaza. There was no Israeli Defence Force response on the 7th of October. There was no military action in Gaza on the 7th of October. That came many days later after the IDF got organised. So the only reason, if you're a pro-Palestinian organiser to do anything on the 7th October is twofold. One, to take advantage of the misery and the upset feelings of the Jewish community in Australia. And two, to celebrate what happened on the 7th of October. These rallies should not go ahead.
ADSHEAD: Ok, the Prime Minister says that he believes in the rule of law and if the police look into this and make decisions around permits, etc., that's up to them. Should the Prime Minister be directing police to stop this rally if it's going to go ahead?
PATERSON: Well, this is just typical of the weakness that we've seen from the Prime Minister in the last 12 months. He cannot confront the rising crisis of anti-Semitism in this country because he's not a strong leader. And he approaches this with equivocation and impotence, not strength. And frankly, I think we need a Prime Minister who's willing to stand up for Australia, who's willing to stand up for our values and our principles, and is willing to stand up for the Australian Jewish community at a time of their greatest crisis. And it reflects very, very poorly on him that he can't even give a straight answer on a question like that.
ADSHEAD: I mean, it would be like some organisation deciding to have a rally to commemorate September 11th on the streets of Australia. I mean it's just unfathomable.
PATERSON: It would be exactly the same. I think it should be unfathomable to any decent Australian and if Prime Minister can't see that and won't act on it is another stain on his leadership now.
ADSHEAD: On the flipside though, because I know that Peter Dutton has been saying that not enough action in relation to the last gathering that took place where you could see the Hezbollah flag and the insignia, etc.. And I mean Tony Burke has said, the Immigration Minister has said that Federal Police are investigating that and Federal Police have confirmed it. So I suppose they're doing their job in that respect. Or are you saying that they should have been arrested on the spot, those people?
PATERSON: Well, let's be clear. Words are not action. Actually investigating and actually charging someone would be action. And the federal police are now only saying that they're investigating it after 24 hours of saying that there was nothing to see here, that no crimes have been committed and that no charges would be laid. They put out a statement on Monday morning, less than 24 hours after the incident and before they could have conducted an investigation saying that they wouldn't be proceeding with it. And it was only after Peter Dutton and the Opposition criticised them for their failure to investigate that they finally did so. And the truth is what happened in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday has actually been happening on a smaller scale in our cities almost every weekend since the 7th of October. This is not the first time that terrorist flags or logos were displayed. In Melbourne we've seen on dozens of occasions logos of Hamas, logos of the Al-Qassam brigades of Hamas, which is its militant wing, openly displayed and no action has been taken. If we had some political leadership 12 months ago, I think there would have been police investigations. I think there would have been charges, and I think that would have sent a strong message about what we accept.
ADSHEAD: I'm interested in that the PM talked about his biggest concern is social cohesion in Australia and that sort of perhaps tempers some of his language. That's probably me suggesting, that may be why he tempered some of his language. Who's right and wrong here in terms of keeping social cohesion? Is it Peter Dutton and yourself in relation to going hard on the idea that these protesters should be stopped in their tracks or the PM sort of saying we need tolerance?
PATERSON: I'm very worried about social cohesion, too. But you don't foster social cohesion by allowing people to break the law with impunity. By allowing them to openly and publicly support and worship terrorist organisations and terrorist leaders on the streets of our cities, which terrifies the Australian Jewish community and many other Australians who don't want to see our country become like that. And so it's the abrogation of leadership, it's the failure to act that's emboldened extremists in our community to think it is okay to behave like they did on Sunday. Sunday was the entirely predictable consequence of weakness from the Prime Minister from the beginning.
ADSHEAD: Now, if we look at the bigger picture here right now with what's happened overnight in terms of Iran firing 200 missiles into Israel, just your perspective? We talk from afar, right? We talked from a from a safe place I suppose, but your perspective on what next? I suppose Iran have done what they've done. The question is, how will Israel come back at them?
PATERSON: This is a very dangerous moment for the Middle East and the world. And collectively, we cannot allow it to be normalized that one state, Iran, attacks another state, Israel, openly by sending 200 ballistic missiles towards them without consequences. The reason why Iran did what it did is that deterrence has failed, and I expect that what Israel will now do is to seek to re-establish that deterrence by having a very real and very significant cost on Iran, just as they are in southern Lebanon right now dealing with Hezbollah, who sent 9000 rockets into northern Israel over the last 12 months. If bad actors in the region led by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IRGC, which is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, think that they can get away with their behaviour, then they will continue that behaviour and only strong action by Israel is going to prevent that from happening again.
ADSHEAD: Can I ask you, obviously Joe Biden has confirmed that, you know, America did what it could to deflect and destroy the missiles by helping the IDF in terms of coordinating the Iron Dome, etc., overnight. Can I ask you whether you have concerns that, you know, given it's America talking there and that they'll stand by Israel, that Australia gets drawn into this somehow directly?
PATERSON: I don't think it's plausible that Australia could be drawn in directly to a conflict that is 12,000km away. The United States has a very special role in the world and a particularly special role in the Middle East. They are the indispensable leader of the world and without their support for Israel the region will look very different and much worse. So it is critically important that the Americans stand behind Israel. But Australia's interests are about supporting principles internationally. We should stand with Israel, but we should do so rhetorically and diplomatically. We're not in a position to contribute militarily. We've frankly got enough problems in our own backyard, in our own region to deal with.
ADSHEAD: Senator Paterson, thanks for your time this morning.
PATERSON: Thank you.
ENDS
