|
November 7, 2024
.png)
KENNY HEATLEY: Let's get some more Australian political reaction now. Joining me live is Shadow Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister, James Paterson. James, good to see you. Look, The Australian reports that there's anxiety amongst Labor ranks about relations with Donald Trump after one-time disparaging comments from Anthony Albanese and Kevin Rudd. Is this a factor in your mind? And if I were Kevin Rudd, should I be worried?
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Kenny. Look, it's very important that the Albanese government demonstrate that they can work in Australia's national interest with the US administration, which from the 20th of January onwards will be headed by President Trump and the Republican Party. And I think it is unfortunate that the Prime Minister and some senior ministers in his government have made really injudicious comments in the past about President Trump. It's hard to see how that was ever in our national interest. And you're right, of course, that Kevin Rudd has also said some pretty strong things when he was a private citizen. They've got to demonstrate that Kevin Rudd was the right choice for a country that could always have re-elected President Trump, and that he's able to work constructively with the administration and Congress to secure the very important things in the US-Australia relationship that Australia needs at an incredibly uncertain time in global history. And we will judge them on their ability to do that.
HEATLEY: And just quickly, because we got about 20 seconds to go, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said he would introduce legislation today which would allow the monitoring measures, including ankle bracelets, to continue to be used on released detainees. But isn't that just what the High Court has already ruled on?
PATERSON: Well, this was another very embarrassing defeat for the Albanese government in the High Court because they assured us that their legislation which they introduced was constitutionally sound and legally robust. So, it turns out that was not in fact the case. They should move very quickly to rectify this through legislation. We are still waiting to be briefed on this legislation, we have not seen it. And we'll be looking at it very closely because we won't just be relying on the assurances of the Albanese government, as we did last time, that this new legislation is not itself vulnerable and that the Australian people aren't therefore not going to be put in danger by another failure in the High Court.
HEATLEY: Okay, James Paterson, really appreciate your time. Thank you.
ENDS
