February 24, 2025
HOLLY STEARNES: Joining me now for more on this is Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. Good morning to you. You've got to be happy with these numbers this morning?
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning Holly. Look, I've been saying for more than a year, including when we were behind in the polls, that the next election is going to be close and my view hasn't changed based on these polls today. Australians will face a choice in just a few weeks time between getting Australia back on track under a strong majority Dutton Coalition government, or more of the same weak leadership and wrong priorities from Anthony Albanese, except this time in a minority government with the Teals, the green Teals, and the Greens. And I'm really worried about what would happen to our country, whether it's the cost of living in the economy or national security and defence under that scenario.
STEARNES: I mean, are you still confident on securing a majority government?
PATERSON: Well, I think that it’s very clear now, from all the polling evidence, is that the only parties able to secure a majority government are the Liberal and National parties under Peter Dutton and David Littleproud. It now looks like it's not possible for Anthony Albanese to secure a majority in his own right. All the polls show that he would be losing seats and he would have to scramble together a minority government with the green Teals and the Greens, and we know how extreme both of those parties are. Can you imagine, if you think the Prime Minister's leadership has been weak over the last three years, just how weak he would be over the next three years if he's re-elected in that scenario? Everything from tax to the budget to national security to AUKUS to our foreign policy to our border protection policies would have to be negotiated with Adam Bandt, Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan and the other teals. I mean, this will be a disaster for our country.
STEARNES: One of the pillars there we heard from Cam Reddin where the Coalition is slipping behind is health care. Let's talk about this Medicare boost and blitz. I mean, do you believe that potentially there's a bit of a lack of trust when it comes to Peter Dutton on health? That's Labor's argument at the moment.
PATERSON: Well, the Prime Minister, the Health Minister and the Labor party are entirely comfortable completely lying about Medicare and bulk billing and their record and our record. But the facts are undeniable. When Peter Dutton was Minister for Health bulk billing rates were at 84%. They rose to 88% under us during the pandemic, and they've collapsed to 77% on this government's watch. So bulk billing has gone backwards under this government's watch. And the $8.5 billion that they announced yesterday is to repair the damage they have done to bulk billing and our health system on their watch. We will match that dollar for dollar, we'll deliver every dollar of that and we'll go further to make sure that we restore the mental health sessions to what they were under the previous government of twenty sessions, not the ten sessions that this government has halved it to.
STEARNES: Okay, let's chat about this citizenship ceremony blitz. I spoke with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke last week, and he put it all down to a backlog at the moment. Some mayors then came out saying that there wasn't a backlog. Now Minister Burke is being accused of not inviting independent Dai Le. What do you make of it all?
PATERSON: This is extraordinary behaviour from the Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke in the dying days of a desperate government to schedule these unscheduled, unprecedented, extraordinary Home Affairs Department citizenship ceremonies to ram through 12,000 citizenships in the days before the election is called. He really needs to answer some questions about this today, and I'll be putting questions to the Department of Home Affairs about this today. Why do they think it's appropriate that in the seat of Fowler, that the local member, Dai Le, was not invited, but the Labor candidate, Tu Le, was invited? I mean, it's critically important that citizenship and migration and citizenship ceremonies be strictly non-partisan, because if the Australian public believes that one party is trying to use the migration system to change electoral outcomes, the consequences for trust in government and our migration system will be absolutely catastrophic.
STEARNES: Yeah, the optics of it weren't great. And then we knew, of course, the AEC screen up behind as well, that's since gone viral and potentially overshadowed what the citizenship ceremony is supposed to be all about anyway. Does this break code of conduct if Minister Burke didn't invite Dai Le?
PATERSON: Yes, I think it clearly does and I'll have more questions for the Home Affairs Department about this today and other invitations that they might have made or not made to other politicians. These ceremonies are happening all around the country at the moment, and it looks like they are playing political favourites here. But that would be a very serious issue for the Department of Home Affairs, for the secretary, Stephanie Foster. And I want to understand what, if anything, the Department did to satisfy itself that this wasn't being abused for partisan political purposes, as it very clearly appears that it was.
STEARNES: Okay, we'll wait for some answers on that. I want to get your thoughts today, though, as well, a prominent Sydney sheikh claims the rise in anti-Semitism in Australia has been manufactured by Israel's intelligence agency. What's your response to those claims?
PATERSON: Well, these are utterly unfounded, baseless claims. There is no evidence for them at all. And it is reckless and irresponsible for Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun to be promoting this conspiracy theory at a time of heightened antisemitism, when we have a domestic terror crisis in this country. What does he think will be gained by suggesting that Jews are responsible for attacks on the Jewish community? It's grossly irresponsible. What disturbs me most about this though Holly, is that this is a Sheikh, which is associated with a number of publicly funded community organisations. These are organisations who received taxpayers money, including for the promotion of social cohesion, on Tony Burke's watch as Home Affairs Minister. Now if you give hate preachers taxpayers money to foment dissent in our community rather than social cohesion, then it's no wonder we have the antisemitism crisis we do. And Tony Burke should put the national interest before his political interest, and he should rescind this funding and any organisation associated with Sheik Dadoun or other extremist preachers.
STEARNES: And it's also important to note, I want to remind our audience, too, this is the same sheikh who was seen smiling and elated the day after the Hamas terrorist attacks too. Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. Thanks for your time this morning.
ENDS
