July 18, 2024
PETER STEFANOVIC: Well, former defence chief Mark Binskin report on the Israeli drone strike that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six of her colleagues, is set to largely back Israel's response to the tragedy. According to The Australian this morning. It draws a line under Anthony Albanese's demands for Israel's full accountability. Joining us live is the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. James, good to see you this morning. What's your reaction to this?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, good morning Pete. If Ben Packham's article in The Australian this morning is accurate, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, this is quite a significant development. Let's remember when the Prime Minister announced this investigation there were really two implications from it. Firstly, that we couldn't trust Israel's version of events and their own independent investigation and that's why we needed to appoint our own person to do it. And secondly, that there might be some issues for Mark Binskin in having access. The Prime Minister repeatedly publicly demanded that Israel provide full access. Now in the end, it appears that both of those things were flawed. In the end, Mark Binskin appears to have completely backed the Israeli government's verdict on how this tragedy occurred, and secondly, says that he had no issues at all in granting access to do this investigation. Now, if those things are true, I think both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, who also publicly questioned Israel's version of events, owe the government of Israel An apology.
STEFANOVIC: Given that the IDF admitted that a mistake was made given that the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, admitted that a mistake was made, Are you surprised in some way, though, that this report comes out and actually clears Israel before it seems they have cleared themselves?
PATERSON: No, I'm not surprised. And it doesn't sound like it clears Israel. It will say that Israel's made a horrible mistake, because they clearly have and that they were very serious failings. But that's something that Israel themselves, and the IDF themselves, have admitted and already taken action to address, including changing protocols for authorising attacks like this, including penalising people directly involved, sacking people managing the team that carried out this strike. Now that's what you would expect from a rule of law democracy like Israel. They should be horrified when accidents like this occur in war, and they should take steps to punish the people involved and to make sure it doesn't happen again. But for an ally and a friend like Australia to feel the need to conduct its own independent investigation to verify it, we must have very good grounds to do so. And on the face of it, based on these reports, it didn't appear we did have good grounds to do so. And it was an unnecessary slur, I suspect, driven by the Prime Minister's domestic political considerations rather than a genuine concern about the investigation.
STEFANOVIC: Yep ok, I probably should of used a different words then clear then, but I think you got the point that I was trying to make anyway, onto the CFMEU this morning. A member of the union has now claimed that the Prime Minister has soiled himself over his reaction to these reports surrounding the CFMEU this week. What do you make of these developments over the past 24 hours?
PATERSON: Well, Pete this is all a bit of a theatre between the union and the government. The truth is, the union has won. The government has taken the path of least resistance, done the weakest possible thing, and thinks that it's somehow going to reform the CFMEU by importing a public servant to be an administrator of the union that's going to clean it up. The CFMEU is unreformable, and the reason why the Prime Minister doesn't want to accept that is that would require him to take tough action in the national interest and he's a weak Prime Minister and he refuses to do so. What he should have done is what Hawke did, which is to deregister the CFMEU instead of giving it a new lease of life under a administrator who will tinker around for a few years and then return it back to its normal operating business. I mean, when people in this country wonder why it's so expensive to build anything, now we know. It's because the CFMEU has been systematically rorting public infrastructure projects and taxpayers money, and the Prime Minister is not even strong enough to do anything about it.
STEFANOVIC: When the, the previous incarnation of the CFMEU, though, was deregistered by Bob Hawke many years ago, it just came back in another form. So if it is deregistered again this time, wouldn't history repeat itself?
PATERSON: Well, I think deregistration is the start of what needs to happen with the CFMEU, not the end. Very serious criminal investigations should take place and hopefully charges be laid for the shocking conduct that Nick McKenzie and his colleagues have uncovered. I suspect all they have done, although it's been a very extensive and significant piece of work, is to scratch the surface of the criminality and the corruption rife in this industry and the Prime Minister is conflicted here. On his watch the Labor Party has received $6.2 million of donations from the CFMEU, and he's repaid that largesse by abolishing the only cop on the beat looking at the CFMEU's conduct, the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Now he cannot say he is surprised because he was warned repeatedly by us and others that if he did this, that the CFMEU's lawlessness would be unleashed. And look at what's happening now.
STEFANOVIC: That was said over and over again on this program after the ABCC was abolished, that's for sure. James, we're out of time, but appreciate your time this morning. Thank you as always.
ENDS
