November 7, 2024
SENATOR PATERSON: Good morning. Very happy to comment on the US election and other matters. But I just want to start with one significant domestic Australian issue first, which is the embarrassing defeat for the Albanese Government yesterday in the High Court, the second embarrassing defeat for the Albanese government when it comes to community safety and border protection. Labor assured us all throughout the process last year of legislating protections for the Australian community against violent non-citizen detainees released into the community that it was constitutionally sound and legally robust. But it turns out that those assurances were false because the High Court has torpedoed their plan to protect the community with ankle bracelets and curfews. What that means is that 215 non-citizens who've committed violent offences are now free in the community to be unmonitored. That includes 12 murderers, 66 sex offenders, 97 people convicted of assault, 15 people convicted of serious domestic family violence and other crimes. And the Australian people will be looking for reassurance today that the Albanese government is ready to act to protect them. Now the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, has said there is legislation and regulations ready to be issued and introduced. But the Opposition has still not been briefed. We have not seen the details and this time we will not be taking it on trust or a promise that this legislation will be constitutionally sound and legally robust because we cannot afford yet another defeat in the High Court on an important matter of community safety.
JOURNALIST: So you're saying that more robust laws need to be put into place, but you won't support the new laws?
PATERSON: Well, how can we say whether we're going to support the new laws yet or not until we've actually seen them? We haven't been briefed on them. We don't know what's in them. The government is not being transparent about that. They should publicly release the legislation. They should brief the opposition on the legislation, and we will consider our position. But what we want to understand is will this legislation withstand a High Court challenge in a way that their previous legislation did not?
JOURNALIST: What would you do?
PATERSON: Well, there's a couple of things that we could immediately do, and that would be to use the existing powers that the parliament rushed through the parliament before Christmas to give the government powers to preventatively detain anyone who posed a risk to the community. In the almost twelve months since those laws were introduced, on no occasion has the Albanese Government placed a single application before the courts to preventively detain even one of the murderers, or sex offenders, or other violent offenders, and their failure to use that has exacerbated the danger the community now faces.
JOURNALIST: What do you think of Donald Trump's empathic win in the U.S. overnight?
PATERSON: Well, we congratulate President Trump on what is a very significant victory. I think historians and political scientists will regard it as a remarkable comeback. Not just winning the presidency, but the popular vote. Potentially more than 300 Electoral College votes. It looks like the House of Representatives and the Senate, this is a remarkable victory. I think Australians should be very relaxed about a second term of President Trump because in his first term President Trump was a very good friend of Australia and the then Liberal-National government in power worked very constructively with the Trump administration in our national interest. It's up to the Albanese government to demonstrate how they can do so, particularly given the injudicious remarks that the Prime Minister, other senior ministers and Labor figures have made about President Trump in recent years. It's hard to see how those comments were ever in our national interest, given there was always a possibility that President Trump would return to the White House.
JOURNALIST: How important is it for parties like the Greens and also observers on social media to recognise the fact this is a decision of Americans and not to get too excited about it.
PATERSON: A lot of Australians follow U.S. politics with great interest because it's consequential for the world and it's fine to take a strong interest in it. But I think the Greens call this morning to withdraw from AUKUS this is utterly reckless and in a dangerous time for the world. Why would we give up one of our most potent potential military capabilities? That is an utterly insane thing to propose, and I think the Prime Minister needs to come out this morning and rule that out and emphatically rule that out. And particularly rule that out if after the next election the Prime Minister has to govern in minority, if he loses his majority and if he's reliant on the Greens in a hung parliament. What if the Greens say withdrawing from AUKUS is a condition of a minority government deal with the Prime Minister? Will he rule that out? Will he refuse to form government with the Greens even if he doesn't have a majority, if their demand is to withdraw from AUKUS? These are the questions that the Prime Minister must answer today.
JOURNALIST: What happens if it's a Coalition minority government?
PATERSON: We will act in the national interest and things like AUKUS will never be up for negotiation with anyone.
JOURNALIST: Do you get any inspiration from the way Donald Trump got votes via concerns about the economy? And do you see something like that happening here as well?
PATERSON: Well, I think it's certainly clear that the economy was a dominant issue in the US election campaign. Inflation was a significant factor in the defeat of what was effectively an incumbent candidate running for a second term of a Democratic administration. I think that will have some implications here too, particularly because the Albanese government has exacerbated the problems with inflation. As the Reserve Bank Governor has said, inflation is now a home grown phenomenon and as the Reserve Bank has repeatedly called out in their statements after RBA board meetings, public demand, government spending is contributing to higher inflation and therefore higher interest rates. And it is very telling that Australia's inflation remains higher than the developed world, including our closest partners like the United States, that interest rates have not yet come down in Australia and there is no reasonable prospect of that happening anytime soon, even though United States, Canada, New Zealand, UK and many other like minded democracies have reduced their interest rates. I think that's because this government has taken a reckless approach to spending and the economy and Australians are paying the price.
JOURNALIST: Should there be any penalties for Senators who fail to disclose updates to the parliamentary register of interest?
PATERSON: Unfortunately, it is a relatively frequent occurrence that senators and members update their register in a way that is not always timely. Senator McKenzie, who you are obviously referred to, is not the first to do so and I suspect she will not be the last. We should all take our obligations to declare things properly, very seriously and I always seek to do so.
JOURNALIST: What's the point of having a register if it's not ever enforced?
PATERSON: Well, I think you have to think through very carefully the implications of how they would be enforced and what the penalties would be. At the end of the day, Senators and Members are elected to represent their constituencies, and those constituents should not be denied representation even if someone makes an error with their register. Senator Mckenzie has now made the appropriate declarations. That is the appropriate course of action.
JOURNALIST: Sixteen breaches of those rules over four separate Parliaments. I mean, if there would ever be any case for enforcing a rule or having a rule, wouldn't this be one of those occasions?
PATERSON: As I said, I don't think Senator McKenzie will be the last to do this. She's certainly not the first to do this. We should all take those obligations very seriously. I take them seriously. I encourage all my colleagues to do so.
Thank you.
ENDS
