November 21, 2024
LAUARA JAYES: I want to bring in now, James Paterson. He's standing by in the Canberra studio for us. He's the shadow Home Affairs Minister. James, I want to ask you about this issue in Sydney as well, the vandalism overnight, but let me get you on this. There's a large amount of bipartisanship here. This will sail through the Parliament, won't it? Or are you still worried about some devil in the detail there?
JAMES PATERSON: Laura, as you point out, we've been on the public record on this matter for a long time. David Colman and Peter Dutton have led the debate on this at the national level, and we are pleased that the government has now finally introduced the legislation because we very strongly support the principle that children should not be using social media platforms that are not safe for kids. And we've seen the horrific consequences of that in child sexual exploitation, self-harm, eating disorders, cyberbullying and many other things. So we'll of course look at the details about how the government proposes to do this, which social media platforms are in and out, because the Communications Minister, for example, has not been able to say whether the platform Snapchat is going to be included or not, which seems utterly bizarre to me.
JAYES: Why wouldn't it be?
PATERSON: I can't understand the rationale why Snapchat would not be included. Many of the examples of self-harm and cyberbullying and sexual exploitation have come from that platform and by its very nature, because it sends images that are subsequently not stored, it is highly susceptible to those sort of activities. So it makes no sense to me why it wouldn't be included. And we want to see where the government has landed on those questions.
JAYES: But you're not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good here?
PATERSON: Well, we're very strongly supportive of addressing this. Parents are crying out for help in this area. We're certainly not going to stand in the way of it. But of course, we've got to go through our party room processes and we do want to see the legislation, which, as you say, has just been introduced.
JAYES: Prudent, we will allow you to do that. James So I want to ask you about this incident overnight in Sydney, we have been talking, you and I, have been talking with Alex Ryvchin and many members of the Jewish community about the increasing number of anti-Semitic attacks, some overt, some a little bit more subtle. But we have seen one of the most overt attacks overnight in Woollahra in Sydney's eastern suburbs. It must have been terrifying for these residents.
PATERSON: It would have been absolutely terrifying Laura. And based on the initial media reports this does appear to be an act of politically motivated violence, a firebombing of a car in addition to the graffiti that you've described. The police, I understand, are doing a press conference later this morning. And if they confirm that that is their suspicion, this will be a terrible new development in Australia. We have been relatively violence free despite the significant intimidation of the Jewish community and others. We have not seen acts of violence like this before and if there are people in Australia who think it's appropriate to engage in that kind of behaviour in response to incidents overseas, we have to come down very hard with the full force of the law to deter others from repeating this kind of behaviour.
JAYES: Police in New South Wales have been criticised in the past with their handling of these issues so far. Would you agree that the police have been on this and they understand the public anxiety?
PATERSON: I'm strongly supportive of the work that police do at the state and federal level. They have difficult jobs and we ask a lot of them. But I am concerned with the approach that they've taken across the country since the 7th of October. I think they have been too permissive with some of the behaviours that we've seen. It's astonishing to me that it took 12 months before the first charges were laid under federal legislation about the display of prohibited symbols, hate symbols like the Nazi swastika, like Hezbollah and Hamas flags. That law has been repeatedly flouted in our country week in, week out, in our major cities, and there have been no consequences for the people breaking that law. And as a result of that, they've become emboldened. I'm also concerned that our incitement to violence provisions have not been enforced. I'm concerned that the government has still not yet criminalised the behaviour of doxing, of leaking people's private information online, because the message that extremists have taken from this lack of action and its failure to enforce the law is that there are no consequences for their behaviour and that is why it's escalating.
JAYES: And Tanya Plibersek is right, isn't she? You would have heard her comments just before she said that essentially it's disgusting and it does nothing to evoke any sympathy if that was the aim.
PATERSON: I agree with her. I think it's entirely counterproductive if your objective is to increase public support for your cause. But I think we also have to confront the uncomfortable reality here, Laura, which is that some of these people are actually not trying to increase political support for their cause. They are trying to intimidate the Jewish community. They are trying to strike fear in their hearts. They are trying to send the message to the Jewish community that you are not welcome here in Australia. And that's far worse than a misguided attempt at gaining political support. That's an insidious, dangerous development in our country and we must stop it. We must rule a very clear line underneath it so that it doesn't keep happening.
JAYES: James, always good to talk to you. Thanks for coming into the studio for us. Appreciate it.
PATERSON: Thanks, Laura.
ENDS
