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November 10, 2024
JONNO EDWARDS: Well a little bit earlier today on The Gooding’s Report, you might have heard Graham Gooding's fire up about the news that the Home affairs department has tried to Photoshop or airbrush and to cancel the Australian flag from the Home Affairs website. I'd struggle to completely understand this at all, but let's find out more from someone that's been in the trenches trying to find out exactly what's happened in regards to that, and that is the federal shadow Home Affairs Minister the Senator James Paterson. James, good afternoon and thank you for your time.
JAMES PATERSON: Great to be with you.
EDWARDS: Talk us through this. Tell me why, why, why? Why would someone think this was a good idea?
PATERSON: Well, I'll do my best to explain it, but it's a hard one to understand. So the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Stephanie Foster, says that she's leading a cultural reform process at the department. And as part of that, she wanted to make senior executives in the department appear more approachable to staff and therefore, she thought they needed less formal photos. So they airbrushed the Australian flag, but also the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags out of the headshots of the Department of Home Affairs in some sort of hope that this is going to make them more accessible. I mean, this is particularly bizarre for two reasons with the Department of Home Affairs. Firstly, the Department of Home Affairs is the department of the Commonwealth that is most responsible for promoting Australian symbols, Australian values and Australian history to new migrants as part of the citizenship process. There's even questions on the citizenship test about the Australian flag. But secondly, I mean, I would have thought that the Department of Home Affairs had bigger priorities than this. This change was made about the middle of this year when the department was dealing with the released detainee crisis, when the department was failing to refer cases to the Immigration Minister of foreign citizen criminals who'd broken the law and overturned their visa cancellation. We're in the middle of a social cohesion crisis, an anti-Semitism crisis and an extremism crisis. I would have thought this would be pretty low down on the list of priorities.
EDWARDS: You have to wonder, and look I've seen the process of what it takes for somebody to become a citizen here in Australia. It is an incredibly tough process. You know, you have to be aware of these questions. You have to answer them. And I think for most people that might be intending to immigrate to Australia. I think they're happy to look at that flag and to be part of that flag. That's why they want to be Australian.
PATERSON: One of the most heartwarming things you get to do as a politician is go to a citizenship ceremony and see people making that final commitment to become an Australian citizen. And they are bursting with pride and the Australian flags are waving high at those ceremonies. And it's an incredible moment for them and their families. And to find out that the department who administers that test and oversees that process is somehow uncomfortable or embarrassed or ashamed about being associated with our flag, I think it sends a very bad message. And I just wonder why the government hasn't stepped in. Why hasn't the Prime Minister stepped in? Why hasn't the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, stepped in and said this is not okay, we want to see the Australian flag proudly flown by our Department of Home Affairs?
EDWARDS: I just think that if you think of what the Australian flag means and the Indigenous flag and you go back to the Anzacs and everything that goes along with that, it's just, I certainly think our audience would definitely be disgusted. And you have to wonder sometimes what goes through people's heads. On another topic, as you are the shadow Home Affairs Minister, I want to discuss the bigger story this week for sure is the US election and Donald Trump's re-election. I guess the main story has been is how a number of politicians, including our representative over there, Kevin Rudd, has openly on social media, made negative comments towards Mr. Trump and on social media, which you know, everyone's entitled to their opinion. But how does this impact Australia's relationship with Mr. Trump now?
PATERSON: Well, they were unwise and inappropriate things for Kevin Rudd to say if he ever hoped to serve as an ambassador for Australia in Washington DC, when there was always a realistic chance that he would be having to be an ambassador to a Trump administration or just a Republican administration who, you know, fondly regarded Mr. Trump's time in office, and so it was really unwise. But Kevin Rudd's not alone. I mean, even the Prime Minister has said really injudicious, inappropriate things in the past about President Trump. And I think it is incumbent on the government to demonstrate how they and particularly how Kevin Rudd can work with this administration, how it won't detract from our national interest, how it won't harm our prospects to have influence in Washington, because this is a critical time in our history and we've got some big projects with the United States which are central to our national and economic security, including AUKUS, and we can't afford for anything to get in the way of that. And so really the burden is on them to justify this appointment and justify its continuation in DC.
EDWARDS: Yeah. Look, regardless of what anyone thinks of Donald Trump, you can be for and you can be against, I think majority of Australians are probably against. However, you have to respect that. The Americans have marched with their feet. They voted in large numbers for President Trump. They've had I guess; they've had Mr. Trump for four years and they've also had a Biden administration for four years. And they've made that decision that the four years earlier were better for America. Regardless of whatever you think, that's what's going to happen for the next four years, until the next election, and the government has to continue to work with it. Let's talk about the biggest project happening in South Australia and AUKUS. What are your thoughts on this as someone that shadows the Home Affairs Department, do you see any concerns regarding AUKUS?
PATERSON: Well AUKUS is an absolutely critical national mission for Australia, and we cannot falter it, we must deliver it, not just the nuclear powered submarines which will be essential to securing our sovereignty and our security well into the future. But also pillar two, and the advance capabilities in cyber security, quantum, and AI and other technologies that have both economic and national security potential. And so the Liberal Party and the National Party remain absolutely committed to it. I was very worried to see some Greens party members, including Adam Bandt out there saying we should axe AUKUS. But not only Greens - we had a former Labor senator, Doug Cameron calling on the Labor Party to abandon AUKUS. And that would be an utterly reckless thing to do in the strategic environment we are in. It is a critical capability which will help us survive the difficult years that we all expect to confront in the years ahead with rising authoritarian powers, including China in our own region and so that would be a reckless move. And frankly, I'd like to see the Prime Minister much more clearly say that if he forms a minority government after the next election, if he is reliant on the Greens to stay in power, that he will not do any deals with them on national security and particularly on AUKUS.
EDWARDS: You know, I think every South Australian can speak to this. That we believe, and I certainly believe that we need a bipartisan approach for this. If you go out to Osborne, if you go out to Largs North and you see the infrastructure that's going into this project, going into the jobs, it is so critical for South Australia. So we hope it continues and I'm sure that our Premier Peter Malinauskas will continue to fight for it. But hopefully we can see some bipartisan support at a federal level in order to keep South Australians in jobs and grow this absolutely vital sector here. But federal shadow Home Affairs Minister, Senator James Paterson, I thank you very much for your time.
PATERSON: Great to be with you. Thanks for having me.
ENDS
