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April 11, 2025
Transcript – Sky News First Edition
11 April 2025
E&OE
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Well, our top story this morning, it's been revealed that Peter Dutton was the alleged target of a 16 year old private school student in Brisbane who is charged with buying bomb making ingredients for an alleged terrorist attack. This all happened in August of last year, but it's now being brought before the courts. And joining us now is the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. James, thanks for your time. As I mentioned, it emerged from the children's court, which obviously comes with restrictions. But in terms of a reaction, what can you say about that this morning?
JAMES PATERSON:
Good morning, Pete. Obviously, these are very troubling reports, but as you say, it involves a minor and it's a matter before the court. So I have to be very cautious about what I say about this specific instance. What I can say more broadly about the issue of young people coming to the attention of counter-terrorism police and ASIO is that it's unfortunately a disturbingly fast growing trend. Both the Director General of ASIO, Mike Burgess, and the AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw have talked about the increasing rates of young people being radicalised. They're often being radicalised online, sometimes very quickly, by consuming extreme content. And they can go from having no violent intent to having violent intent, sometimes very quickly. And this is a very serious problem for our country to confront.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Yeah. No doubt. Obviously, Mr. Dutton would be aware of this. I mean, he already has heightened security and has done for years now. Do you know how he is about all this?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, you're right, Pete. This is another trend which is politicians are increasingly requiring personal security to protect them. Given that the threats against politicians and other high office holders like the Governor-General have been rapidly increasing in recent years. And again, Reece Kershaw has spoken about this as recently as last month in Senate estimates. It's a very troubling trend, both because we don't want to see any incidents of violence against political figures in our country that we do see overseas, but also because, frankly, I'd much rather we had police out there solving crimes rather than protecting politicians. But the AFP does an outstanding job protecting us. And it's critically important that they do. Because if something terrible were to happen to a public figure, it would change our country and our political system forever, and not for the better.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay, let's get on to a few other issues today. Starting with the trade war. James, if you win this election and the US asks you to increase tariffs on Beijing, would you do it?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, Australia should set our own trade policy in our own national interest. And I think Australia's national interest when it comes to trade is very clear. We are an open trading nation. There are 7 billion people in the world. There are 26 million Australians. We will always get richer by selling to those billions of people all around the world rather than just selling to ourselves. Raising the trade barriers to other countries, including our major trading partners, is not going to make Australia more prosperous, and it's not going to make us stronger. So we will set our own trade policy in our own national interest, and we don't need the advice of any other country on how to do so.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
All right. The US Senator, Tim Kaine. He's claimed overnight that AUKUS costs will now blow out from the steel and aluminum tariffs. Of course they will. But Elon Musk is now being brought in to have a look as well. Have you got any concerns about AUKUS costs and, in particular, AUKUS timelines now, which it seems is inevitable that it will blow out?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, AUKUS is a no-fail mission for both the United States and Australia. The United States urgently needs to lift the rate of production of nuclear powered submarines to meet their own targets, and we need to make sure we are AUKUS-ready to receive those Virginia class submarines from the early 2030s. Frankly, I have some real concerns about our preparedness to be ready on this government's watch. On Richard Marles' watch as Defence Minister he has completely stuffed up the life of type extension of our existing submarines, our diesel electric powered submarines, the Collins class. And that is of great concern because it could open a serious capability gap before the Virginia class submarines are transferred from the United States. We also have to make sure that our submarine base in Western Australia, HMAS Stirling, is ready to receive the rotational forces of US and UK submarines in the late 2020s, in the mid to late 2020s. And frankly, this government has a glacial approach to the upgrades of HMAS Stirling, failing to deliver the infrastructure in a timely way. If we fail at that first hurdle, there will be grave consequences for our national security, and this government needs to get its skates on.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
But just on AUKUS, though, it just looks as though it's highly unlikely that we'd get anything before 2040. Given costs, given trade tariffs and blow-outs and timelines.
JAMES PATERSON:
I don't agree with that, Pete. I think it's highly likely that we'll receive the US Virginia class on time and on schedule, because we cannot afford for it to fail, and the United States cannot afford for it to fail. But I do share your concerns about the impact of the trade war on the US's ability to produce those submarines in a timely way. If they make the inputs into their submarines more expensive or harder to obtain, it will make our task collectively harder. The Australian government has invested billions of dollars in the US submarine base because we want them to be able to increase their production of these nuclear powered submarines, because it is the most formidable defence platform available in the world today. And the more we have and the more that are in the Indo-Pacific, the more likely we can prevent war by having a credible deterrence that makes anyone contemplating commencing conflict much less likely to do so.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
All right, let's close out on the Port of Darwin. The Prime Minister is in Darwin today, James; he has been trying to pick up steam on this forced sale of the Port of Darwin, as the Coalition has as well. I note that in recent days, China has accused both you and the Labor Party of politicising the Port of Darwin. Is this just all part of a negotiation process? And how likely, truly would a sale be, given there's so much time left on the lease?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, under a Coalition government led by Peter Dutton it's certain, because we will facilitate a commercial transaction within the first six months. And if that doesn't occur, we will use the compulsory acquisition powers of the Commonwealth to make sure it happens. But Anthony Albanese faces a major test today. He's talked a very big game about the Port of Darwin. So when he stands up at his press conference this morning, he must have all the facts, all the figures, all the details. He must be able to answer all the questions because every time he's been asked about this, including when he called in to ABC Darwin radio last week, he had no answers to the most basic questions about what he's done about this, who he has spoken to about it and what his plan is.
PETER STEFANOVIC:
All right. Well, I was just going to ask you that. Say you're a reporter at his press conference today, James, what's the one question you would ask him?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, are you actually going to do anything about this? After three years in government on the eve of an election, why are you coming out and talking about the Port of Darwin now, when you had the opportunity to address it earlier?
PETER STEFANOVIC:
Okay, there you go. Reporters will be watching that. I'm sure someone will say it. Thank you, James. We'll talk to you again soon.
ENDS