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February 13, 2025
PETER STEFANOVIC: let's go to Canberra. Joining us is the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. James, using health care as a weapon of hate, the nurses say it was a joke. Not many laughing, though.
JAMES PATERSON: Well, there's nothing funny about this, Pete. In fact, it's a very disturbing window into just how deep and pervasive the antisemitic crisis has become in our country, how badly it has festered and how emboldened these people are. For anyone to think it's a good idea to say this in any context, but to say it at their workplace, in their uniforms, on a recorded video just shows how rampant this problem is and how decisive leadership is needed to tackle it. I'm pleased that New South Wales Police are investigating. I'm pleased that they have been stood down from their jobs. They should never work in the health care system again, and if their conduct meets a criminal threshold, they should be charged. And if New South Wales police can't charge them under New South Wales law, then the federal police should be investigating under federal law, including the amendments that the parliament passed last week to the Criminal Code, which included a range of new provisions dealing with incitement to violence on the basis of people's race and religion.
STEFANOVIC: Yeah, I was going to ask you, I mean New South Wales Health. They acted pretty quick on this. Given that the video and the emerged yesterday morning, you might have just answered this question. Is there anything more that you want to see from either New South Wales Health or New South Wales police, or the New South Wales government?
PATERSON: Look, I think the New South Wales government response has been strong and has been swift. I want to see more from the federal government, though. The federal government regulates the health profession in terms of the registration of doctors and nurses. And as of last night, these two nurses were still registered through the national regulator. That registration should be stripped because while they've been banned from the New South Wales public health system, that doesn't stop them from working in the private system, and they shouldn't be anywhere near any patients given that they have said that they wouldn't treat people based on their nationality or ethnicity.
STEFANOVIC: Is it much of a fall back to say it was a joke?
PATERSON: No, it's not. It's not a joke. It's not a laughing matter. It's not funny at all. And there need to be serious consequences for their behaviour because the fear that the Jewish community will have is that these people are not alone in holding these views that there will be others in the health care system that will have the same views, that they can't be safe walking into a public hospital in New South Wales or anywhere else in Australia. And the only thing we can do to reassure them, to restore that, is to ensure that the consequences for this conduct are very serious that we don't ignore it or overlook it as a matter of humour but as a very serious matter, and that everyone else sees that in this country we don't tolerate this behaviour, that it's not acceptable and that there are very severe consequences for it.
STEFANOVIC: This is what I want to ask you to. I mean, how widespread might these views be? I mean, you know, a Jewish patient goes into a hospital, now that's just going to give patients even more concern about what sort of treatment they're going to get.
PATERSON: Pete, I am very close to the Jewish community, particularly in Melbourne. I have been for years. And I would like to be able to put my hand on my heart and say to them that there was no reason for them to be afraid, that these views are not widespread, but I think we've seen in the streets of our major cities most weekends since the 7th of October why we do have a serious problem when there are people out there praising listed terrorist organisations and flying their flags and obviously the firebombing of synagogues and cars and businesses, the graffitiing of homes, all of that points to this problem being very serious. And it breaks my heart that over this time, of those last 16 months, we've had a government in Canberra that hasn't grasped the seriousness of it or acted decisively or quickly enough to stamp it out. That doesn't realise how un-Australian this is and how it's not just a threat to the Jewish community, but our very identity and values as a nation. And they deserve better than that. They deserve strong leadership. They deserve a Prime Minister and a government that stands up for them. And we all deserve that. And I hope after the next election we will have that.
STEFANOVIC: I mean, now you've got these changes or this push for changes at Australian universities, too. Are you encouraged by momentum there?
PATERSON: What Australian universities have tolerated on campus over the last 16 months has been an abomination, and their failure to understand just how out of control things have got on campus is a stain on them and on the federal Education Minister Jason Clare, who's allowed this to fester on his watch. I mean, look at what happened at QUT a few weeks ago with the so-called anti-racism symposium. They were warned repeatedly and publicly by the Jewish community what would happen. Those worst fears came to realisation and the Vice Chancellor of QUT looked and acted surprised something like this could never have happened, let alone what's been happening at ANU or Sydney University or others. This has been a shocking failure of leadership by Vice Chancellors, but also a shocking failure of leadership by our government to not make clear to our publicly funded universities that it's not okay to have an encampment on campus for weeks on end that threatens the safety of Jewish students. They're now saying there's going to be safe spaces on campus set aside for Jewish students. In other words, we're going to segregate Jewish students on campus and give them small little places where they can go away and hide. The entire university campus in a country like Australia should be a safe place for Jewish students and every other student. And the fact that it's not is a travesty.
STEFANOVIC: Just a couple of quick ones: there's some progress this morning, according to the AFR that Australia was pushing more aluminium into the United States. James, because of the war in Ukraine, the Russians were slugged with extra tariffs, so that dropped the amount of imports they could move to America. So Australia said, hey, do you want more of our aluminium? Which was accepted. That kind of flies in the face of what Donald Trump's team is saying about our aluminium at the moment. How do you feel about that?
PATERSON: Well, the facts set out by Cam Reddin earlier on your program and in the papers today are very clear. Australia is a very small importer of steel and aluminium to the United States compared to its other trading partners. We're very clearly not doing harm to the United States steel or aluminium industries, but it's all very well and good for that to be ventilated in the Australian media. Where that information really needs to find its way is to President Trump and those who are making decisions and advising him. And to do that, we need in-person access to him in the highest office of the United States. I don't think that's going to be done, I'm sceptical that's going to be done over the phone by the Prime Minister. I don't understand why, unlike other world leaders, he hasn't been on the first plane over to the United States after the inauguration to have that in-person meeting with President Trump to build that rapport. That was how the Morrison and Turnbull government secured good arrangements for Australia on these issues and that is how it will be done if this government is determined to do it as well. But there's no evidence that the Prime Minister is prioritising this issue.
STEFANOVIC: We've got to go. Thanks, James. Chat to you soon.
ENDS
