January 13, 2025
EMMA REBELLATO: Well, Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has made his case to become Prime Minister, rallying the Liberal Party faithful at an event in Melbourne yesterday. Joining us now is Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. James, good morning. Thanks for joining us this morning.
JAMES PATERSON: My pleasure, thanks for having me.
REBELLATO: First, I want to get to that unofficial election rally soon. But first, the anti-Semitic attacks, particularly that we've seen in Sydney over the weekend. You've said that strong national leadership and robust law enforcement will fix this escalating crisis. How? What would the Coalition do?
PATERSON: Well, the first thing we would have done differently when this crisis first erupted on the steps of the Sydney Opera House over 15 months ago now, was be very decisive, very clear from the beginning that that kind of conduct is unacceptable, it is unlawful and there'll be consequences. I don't know why it took the firebombing of a synagogue here in Melbourne before the Prime Minister decided to stand up a special task force led by the Australian Federal Police to look into the crisis of anti-Semitism. It's up 700% in the last year. Jews in the Australian community have never seen it as bad as it is today, and we've seen people breaking the law on the weekends in our major cities almost every weekend when they're flying the flags of listed terrorist organisations like Hezbollah and Hamas. And yet there have been no consequences for those people. No one has been convicted yet of those offences, and we can't say it's because the law hasn't been broken.
REBELLATO: So, would you bring in different consequences? What sort of consequences would you expect people to face?
PATERSON: Well, I think they should face the consequences that are already there in the law. The federal parliament passed a hate symbols legislation that banned the display of listed terrorist organisation symbols. And yet, you know, no one's been convicted of those offences yet. And, of course, obviously, firebombing a synagogue and engaging in anti-Semitic graffiti are also crimes. I'm pleased to see in New South Wales there has been a first arrest over that. I'm concerned that there haven't been more arrests here in Melbourne because there's been an extraordinary spate of these kinds of attacks. And when people don't fear the consequences of their behaviour, they can become emboldened. And I think this extremism we're seeing in our community is becoming much worse.
REBELLATO: Let's talk about yesterday's unofficial election campaign launch by Peter Dutton. A new slogan, Lots of priorities, no new policies, no detail. Don't you think Australians want to hear ideas? When will we get them?
PATERSON: Well we've put a lot of policy ideas out there already. I mean, some people have said that our nuclear energy policy is one of the most ambitious policies put out by an opposition in a long time. And today, Peter Dutton and I are going to make a new announcement about funding Crime Stoppers because we have out of control crime and harm to community safety in the last few years, particularly here in Victoria. We'll have more to say as we get closer to the election. But Peter thought it was important yesterday to set out what his priorities and principles are in the lead up to the election so Australians know where he's coming from and what his priorities are.
REBELLATO: Okay, so one of those priorities is easing cost of living pressures. How? What's the first thing you want to do?
PATERSON: The most important thing now that the Reserve Bank governor has said repeatedly that inflation is homegrown is we take the pressure off inflation so that interest rates can come down. And when the federal government is engaging in reckless spending and some state governments too, that drives up pressure on inflation. In fact, the RBA has repeatedly called this out in their monthly minutes. They say that public demand or government spending is driving up inflation. So we think we need much more fiscal prudence to limit that impact on inflation and get interest rates down.
REBELLATO: So does that mean energy bill relief, which the government brought in? Are you going to bring in energy bill relief or is that completely off the table?
PATERSON: Well, I understand why Australians would welcome energy bill relief because the Prime Minister did promise to them a $275 reduction in their electricity bill, which he's never repeated since the election, it hasn't been delivered. But when you're paying $50,000 more on your mortgage because of that reckless spending, because inflation, because interest rates have gone up, then $275 or even a $500 off your energy bill is not going to touch the side. So our priority is getting the fiscal house in order, getting the budget in order, taking that pressure off inflation so that interest rates can come down so that mortgages can come down, rent can come down, and things can become more affordable.
REBELLATO: Okay. So reckless spending, wasteful spending, what is that in your eyes? Where are you going to make cuts?
PATERSON: Well, we've opposed about $90 billion of Labor spending since the election. They have added about $347 billion of new spending. Again, we'll have more to say about the savings as we go to the next election. But one of the things we wouldn't have done is hire 36,000 new federal public servants in Canberra. That's about a 20% increase in the size of the Federal public service. And I've not met an Australian who thinks the services they get from government has got 20% better over the last two years.
REBELLATO: So if that's if you are against that increase, what will you reduce it by?
PATERSON: Well, we'll make that announcement close to the election. We're looking very carefully at where those savings can be made.
REBELLATO: But we can expect job cuts, though.
PATERSON: Well, it adds up to about $6 billion a year. And so, I think we do need to find efficiencies in the federal government. Frontline services will obviously be protected. And they're critical, things like health and education, law enforcement, national security. They are critical. But we don't think that value for money has been obtained by hiring those 36,000 extra federal public servants in Canberra.
REBELLATO: Okay, Medicare. Peter Dutton committed to strengthening Medicare. We know Medicare is going to be brought up a lot during this campaign. How is he going to strengthen Medicare?
PATERSON: Well, Labor runs the scare campaign every election. This will be their third election in a row where they try and run this scare campaign. But the truth is that in government, the Coalition has strongly protected and upheld Medicare. In fact, bulk billing rates under the Coalition were 88%. They've dropped to 77% under Labor. So, I think the record shows we are a better friend of Medicare than the Labor Party is, and we will strongly back it. We will strongly fund it and you will always be able to rely on Medicare under a Coalition government.
REBELLATO: Okay. So Peter Dutton says taxes will be lower and simpler. Who can expect lower tax taxes?
PATERSON: Well, one of the things we've talked about already is increasing the instant asset write off for small businesses because we want to encourage them to invest because that lets them grow and employ more people. And small business is a critical sector of the economy. Millions of Australians work for small businesses and we want to strengthen them. Again, we'll have more to say about other taxes closer to the election, but we're really sending a strong signal that in our DNA as Liberals is to reduce taxes as often as possible for Australians because we think Australians work very hard for their money and they should keep as much of it as possible.
REBELLATO: But will we definitely hear about any tax cuts? Because the Nationals leader David Littleproud yesterday said the Coalition wouldn't commit to it before the election. So will you commit?
PATERSON: Well it has to be sustainable and the truth is the government has spent a lot of money and we do have a very big budget deficit looming. The Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook predicted that this budget deficit this year will be $28 billion. That's a massive deterioration of the budget on Labor's watch, and we'll always be fiscally responsible. But wherever we have the opportunity to reduce taxes, we'll do so.
REBELLATO: Okay, we’ll wait and see. James Paterson, thanks for coming in this morning. Appreciate it.
PATERSON: Thank you.
ENDS
