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August 24, 2023
PETE STEFANOVIC: Joining us live now is Shadow Minister for Home Affairs James Paterson. James, I want to start off with Yvegeny Prigozhin, there's big news out of Russia this morning. What's your response to that?
JAMES PATERSON: Pete, as you would remember from your time as a foreign correspondent, the fog of war often obscures the facts, and sometimes it takes some time before the truth emerges about events like this. And the reports this morning are contradictory. There are reports there was a second plane that he might have really been on that was also registered to him. And there were reports that the plane crashed on its own, and others that it was shot down. Some say his body has been confirmed and others that contradict that. Even reports that there's Wagner fighters in Belarus are getting ready to march on Moscow. All of it is highly speculative at this stage, but what it does demonstrate is there remains tensions within the leadership of the Kremlin, that there is dissent about the direction and the handling of the war. And in authoritarian systems, leaders like Vladimir Putin look impenetrable and untouchable one day and can be gone the next. And that's very hard to predict. Otherwise, I think we are set for a continuing stalemate in the war in Ukraine as both sides struggle to establish, frankly, supremacy over the other.
STEFANOVIC: So there has been confirmation that has come from the Wagner group, though, in the in the form of a telegram that says that Yevgeny Prigozhin is dead, blaming Russian traders for that. Are you doubting that's the case, remembering that there's an old saying in Russia, nothing is ever as it seems?
PATERSON: Exactly right. I'm just urging caution. It may well end up being proven to be the case. But because these are early reports, I don't think we should jump to firm conclusions. There are others speculating with some authority that this is an elaborate plot to disguise or fake his own death, which is plausible in circumstances like these. So, I think we should just be cautious until there is clear, hard evidence. This is not a part of the world on which you can rely on first reports as you know well.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, let's finish here on this topic. In the grand scheme of things, does it change anything when it comes to Vladimir Putin's leadership or his approach to the war in Ukraine?
PATERSON: The truth is, we will not know what changes anything until we finally see something change. That is the nature of an authoritarian system. If you are a dissident in authoritarian system, you don't come out and own that dissent until you have the opportunity to make a change and to strike the leader. And so that's why the authoritarian leaders often look very strong until the moment in which they fall, and they look back afterwards and say why didn't we predict it, how didn't we see it? So, I would just say, continue to watch this space. Anything could happen at any time.
STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister has given a plea to business last night, James. He needs their help in achieving climate targets as well as advanced manufacturing and a few other points as well. What's your initial thoughts on his speech?
PATERSON: Well, in some respects, the relationship between big business and the Albanese government is very cozy. They are in complete agreement on ramming the Voice down the throats of the Australian people and trying to hoodwink them into supporting a risky divisive change with no detail. They were on a unity ticket when it comes to record high levels of immigration, which they are trying to obscure from the Australian people. But they are at a fundamental disagreement on issues like industrial relations, which I think is a difference that is going to be very hard to bridge because what the Albanese government has a plan to do is massively reregulate our labour market, make it much more inflexible and much less modern, and that is going to have very real implications for productivity and economic growth and eventually employment as well.
STEFANOVIC: The Treasurer has already said that a GST rise and a drop in corporate tax is not in his plans. Do you think it should be to increase productivity?
PATERSON: I think that tax reform, holistic tax reform that makes the tax system more efficient is, of course, something that we should always have a conversation about. But I deeply distrust Labor governments when it comes to tax. I don't believe that any change to the tax system, whether it's a company tax, GST, personal income tax or any other, wouldn't just be cover for a revenue raising exercise. I mean, in his Intergenerational Report out this week, Jim Chalmers lays out a blueprint for lower growth and higher taxes. Now, if
government spending, which seems to be the only plan that this government has to grow the economy, actually helped grow economies, well then Cuba and North Korea would be the richest economies in the world, but it doesn't and they're not. And so we actually do need genuine productivity enhancing reforms, which this government has no ideas at all about.
STEFANOVIC: Okay. Back to climate and this Intergenerational Report. It's forecasting the impacts of climate change are going to cost taxpayers $420 billion over the next four years. Costs, lost productivity, tourism, agricultural costs, etc. How concerned should we be about that?
PATERSON: Well, climate change is a serious challenge which the Liberal and National parties also take seriously. And that's why we're very open to exploring low emissions technology that is reliable like nuclear power. They are the only way you're going to realistically achieve the climate targets that this government has set out for our country, because we know that the intermittent and increasing renewable energy is just driving up the costs for Australian families and they are really struggling right now with cost of living. Their electricity and gas and other energy bills are going through the roof. But the government, for ideological reasons, is just unwilling to consider a technology that is widely deployed in North America, Asia and Europe, all around the world, which is successfully bringing down emissions and providing that reliable base load energy.
STEFANOVIC: James, we'll leave it there. James Paterson, appreciate your time.
ENDS
