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April 21, 2025
JAMES GLENDAY:
Well, let's stay on the federal election campaign trail now. The Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson, joins us from Sydney. James, good morning.
JAMES PATERSON:
Good morning, James.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Now you are pledging three quarters of a billion dollars on crime-fighting today. Aren't these the sort of things that are best tackled by the states, not the Commonwealth?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, clearly Anthony Albanese has taken that attitude over the last three years, and look at where that has left us. Australians have never felt less safe than they do now, and we have weak Labor governments at the federal level and in some state levels as well, including, in my home state of Victoria, and that's led to an outbreak of crime, and an increase of crime. We don't accept that, we don't think that's adequate, and we're going to lead from the national level with this new package to make our communities safe again. It's absolutely critical that we give police the resources they need at the federal level to work with their state counterparts, particularly to tackle crime which is across the state borders and which is transnational in nature, like serious organised crime and drug trafficking.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Yeah, so some of this will go towards tackling illicit drugs. There's also a proposal for a national sex offender register. Has there been a specific case or incident that's led you to make this promise for a sex offending register?
JAMES PATERSON:
This promise is based on a successful model that's worked in Western Australia and the United Kingdom. It is a disclosure scheme where a parent or a carer of a child has a right to apply to the police to request whether someone who has access to their child is on the sex offender register, and police then make a judgment about whether or not that disclosure should be made. So it's significant inbuilt privacy protections, it's the judgment of police, but in the United Kingdom and Western Australia, it has resulted in a disclosure of information about sex offenders who had access to children, which has resulted in those children being safe where they might not have been otherwise.
JAMES GLENDAY:
What do you do then if the state say no, we're not interested in helping you out with this program?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, Western Australia already has it, and South Australia has legislated to move towards it, but the people in the other states and territories of Australia deserve to have the same protections for their children. Unfortunately, we've seen high-profile examples where, for example, people working in childcare centres or in sporting clubs have had access to children who never should have had access to kids and parents we think have a right to know. If we're successful in earning a mandate for this at the federal election, we would hope that our states would work with us in order to protect children.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Well, you will need them though. I just wonder, will people look at your trailing position in the polls this morning, a day before early voting begins, and be a bit cynical about your pivot to being tough on crime today?
JAMES PATERSON:
All I can assure them is that this is a plan that's been in the works for some time, we've been very carefully examining other models around the country and around the world to see what would work best, and we're responding to what our candidates are hearing in the field. When candidates are out door knocking in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, for example Katie Allen, our candidate in Chisholm, or Manny Cicchiello, our candidate in Aston, or indeed in the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne, and right across Australia, they're hearing from their constituents that they feel less safe than ever before and they want federal leadership. When you've got carjackings and home invasions at an unprecedented level, when youth crime is at record levels, people want federal leadership on this issue, and a Dutton Coalition Government will bring that.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Ok, we'll hear from the federal Labor party later in the program. We are expecting that they will say that this is a state issue. I just want to take you to something that could be in your portfolio if you are successful in a couple of weeks' time at the election. Would you bring back the sacked former Home Affairs boss, Mike Pezzullo, if you win on the 3rd of May?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, the first precondition to us appointing any public servants is that we need to win the election and we've not yet done that. We've got work to do over the next two weeks to make sure we earn the trust and support of the Australian people with our plan to get our economy back on track, bring the cost of living down, and make communities safe. We will make any decision about appointments after that time.
JAMES GLENDAY:
I'm just going to jump in, sorry James, but will you bring him back, and this is not something that we've just decided to talk about. Your leader is quoted in a newspaper talking about this.
JAMES PATERSON:
No decisions have been made about any personnel issues. What I would say about Mike Pezzullo is, I think he's someone who's given great service to our country, to governments of both persuasions over a long career in the public service, and he has particular insights to add on the national security challenges facing our country in an uncertain world. My view is that we can't afford to keep people like that on the bench in dangerous times. We need to find the best way to utilise them. And if we're successful at the election, we'll make sure that anyone who's got something to contribute, including Mike Pezzullo, has a role where they can contribute.
JAMES GLENDAY:
So, just to confirm, you will be looking at bringing him back if you win.
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, no decisions have been made about any personnel in any portfolios, but as I've said, I think Mike Pezzullo is someone who has insight and value to add to our country, and it doesn't make sense to me that someone of value like that is not being utilised adequately by the federal government.
JAMES GLENDAY:
Definitely leaning in that direction. Just lastly, the government set up an interim centre for disease control and wants a permanent one next year. This is slightly outside your portfolio area, but I just want to know, would the Coalition shut it down if you win the election?
JAMES PATERSON:
Look, I don't believe we would make any decision to do that. If there's a good case for a centre of disease control, then we would have it. If that's what the experts are recommending that we need to have, then that's what we will have.
JAMES GLENDAY:
There's a submission given to the Public Health Association, which says that the case has not been made. That was an answer apparently given by the Coalition. So this is not something that the Coalition has decided to scrap?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, I have to defer to my shadow Minister for Health colleague, Senator Anne Ruston, but I'm not aware of any decision to scrap it. It hasn't even been established yet, as you say, and we'll look at that and take the expert advice on it.
JAMES GLENDAY:
All right, James Paterson, thank you for joining us this morning.
JAMES PATERSON:
Thanks, James.
ENDS