September 7, 2023
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Thursday 7 September 2023
Doorstop, Parliament House
Subjects: UK government lists Wagner Group a terrorist organisation, Catherine King’s failure to clearly answer questions on Qatar decision
PATERSON: Well, good morning. First I'd just like to make some comments about a UK government decision overnight to list the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation. Back in May I wrote to the Minister for Home Affairs Clare O'Neil and the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, and I called on them to list Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation for their very clear and obvious crimes committed in Ukraine. I offered bipartisan support from the Coalition if any legislative change was necessary to facilitate this, because there were media reports at the time that the UK government was considering this move and the United States had already acted by declaring them a transnational criminal organisation. Well, overnight the UK government has listed the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation and the words of the UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, 'Wagner group is a terrorist organisation, it's plain and simple.' Could it be any clearer than that? And we completely agree, it's now time for the Albanese government to catch up to our allies, to act and to list Wagner finally as a terrorist organisation, so that no Australian is under the misapprehension that it is acceptable to join the Wagner Group, to recruit for the Wagner Group or to raise money for the Wagner group. They should be declared in Australian law as a terrorist organisation.
JOURNALIST: Just on the Qatar issue going on at the moment. Minister King has been talking this morning and still failed to give any answers besides national interest. Do we really need to be having an inquiry or should she just be coming forward and saying exactly what's happened?
PATERSON: Well, we wouldn't need a Senate inquiry if Catherine King could give honest answers to questions when she's asked them. She's been asked in the parliament, she's been asked in the media and still today, weeks on from the scandal first emerging, she has failed to give a simple, clear explanation for why she made the decision that she did to refuse this request from Qatar to have extra flights into Australian airports. It is an explanation which just frankly defies credibility. None of the explanations she's given are convincing, none of them are trustworthy. And that's why we have to have this inquiry to get to the bottom of it.
JOURNALIST: Given that the questions now being asked that the relationship between these companies and the government, would it be appropriate for politicians who are given free chairman’s lounge access to turn that down or return that gift?
PATERSON: I think the most appropriate thing to do is for politicians to declare any gifts that they receive and then to continue to act in the national interest. Because frankly, if you can't trust a politician to act in the national interest because they've got Chairman's Lounge access, frankly I don't think you can them to act in the national interest at all, whether or not they have gifts like that from companies like Qantas. We should be able to set those things aside and act for the interests of the people who elect us to be here. And frankly, I think Catherine King is demonstrating time and time again that she can't do that. The effect of her decision is that flights are going to be more expensive for Australians at a time of extreme cost of living pressures and frankly, that is inexplicable and she needs to front up and give a proper answer.
JOURNALIST: Just on the Wagner, why exactly do you think that the government has refused so far to declare them a terrorist organisation?
PATERSON: I am very puzzled why the government has been so slow to act to list Wagner as a terrorist organisation, except they've often been slow to act on national security issues and have waited for our friends and allies to take the lead and followed. It was the case with the ban on TikTok on government devices, it took them weeks and weeks and weeks, after so many of our allies acted before they finally took action and banned them. And I think that unfortunately we're seeing the same pattern again with Wagner. The United States has taken action, the United Kingdom has taken action, we are still yet to take action, and I hope it doesn't take any longer.
ENDS
