November 20, 2024
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KENNY HEATLEY: Joining me live is shadow Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister James Paterson. Thanks for joining us, James. I appreciate you coming on. This pro-democracy activist, this Australian man that's been sentenced to more than seven years in jail. While Anthony Albanese was advocating for the release of Yang Hengjun to Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the G20. Is this a slap in the face by China?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, it's another reminder, Kenny, of the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party, its contempt for democracy, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and other freedoms that we value. And a reminder that the promises that the Chinese Communist Party voluntarily entered into, as it did in the handover from Hong Kong in 1997, it cannot be relied on to uphold. Because it promised to respect the autonomy of Hong Kong and the people of Hong Kong for 50 years and well before that deadline they have now completely extinguished the flame of liberty in Hong Kong with this appalling set of sentences for people who are accused of the crime of participating in an election, nothing more, nothing less. And I think the Australian government and Australian Prime Minister need to realize what it is and who it is that they're dealing with and not be so naive in how they do so.
HEATLEY: The Albanese government is today announcing it will commit 15 to $20 billion to try to deter cyber criminals after a new report by the Australian Signals Directorate highlights that overseas cyber criminals and scammers are increasingly targeting Australia, in fact it's the biggest threat, the increasing threat to Australians at the moment. What's your response to that announcement?
PATERSON: Well, of course, we always welcome investment in cyber security. It's a critically important issue of national security for our country. It's why we initiated the REDSPICE program of $10 billion of investment in the Australian Signals Directorate to effectively double it in size to increase both its offensive and defensive capabilities. It's why we legislated a whole series of tranches of critical infrastructure legislation to bolster our defences. But I was a bit puzzled by the government's commitment of $15 to $20 billion. That's a pretty big variance of $5 billion. What is it? Is it $15 billion or is it $20 Billion? And I think they should clarify what the discrepancy is in those numbers and how much they actually plan to spend on this critical area.
HEATLEY: Okay. Hoping to get some clarity around the social media ban now. Parents will not be able to give consent for their children to use social media under a blanket ban proposed by the Albanese government. Is this something that the Coalition supports?
PATERSON: We're very strongly supportive of restricting the access of young people to social media. We don't believe social media is a safe place for young people to be on. It is not designed for them and their young developing brains. And the consequences of young people being on social media for some families has been utterly horrific, including suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, cyber bullying and other terrible things. But yes, we are very supportive of addressing this and doing so very quickly.
HEATLEY: Yes. So is that about parents, you know, saving parents from kids who know the rule, begging their parents for access? Is it about sort of saving those conversations?
PATERSON: Well, the very clear feedback that we've received from parents is they need help to do this, that they can't do this on their own, that it's too big a problem for parents to individually try to manage in the home. And the safest thing to do is to get kids off social media. There is no safe way for young people to be using social media. And so the only thing we think we can do to address this is to legislate to ban children under the age of 16 from social media.
HEATLEY: Snapchat is allowed, but YouTube, which has a lot of educational and excellent children's content on it for free, is not allowed. That doesn't sound right, though, does it?
PATERSON: I find it very difficult to understand the choices that the Albanese government is making about which platforms are in and out. Snapchat is one of the platforms of which there was the most prolific abuse and cyberbullying, including the recruitment of children for child sexual exploitation. So I just cannot understand why they think it's appropriate to include Snapchat. I think there is a case for the YouTube Kids version of the app to be excluded because it doesn't have some of the dangerous features of these other social media platforms. It doesn't allow interaction or messaging, for example. It just allows children to view age-appropriate videos. So I think there is a case to look at YouTube Kids.
HEATLEY: Okay. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says people using social media would not have to upload proof of identity directly to those platforms when minimum age requirements kick in. It's going to be interesting to see how they're actually going to do this then, isn't it?
PATERSON: It is going to be very interesting and it is important that the Albanese government set out exactly how they are going to verify the age of users to ensure that young people are not on these platforms. We do not want to see anything that compromises the privacy of adults who should not be restricted in the way in which they use these platforms. We do not support using a digital I.D., for example, to be the method of verification of people's age on these platforms. And it is up to the Albanese government to come forward and explain exactly how they plan to do so.
HEATLEY: I've got 30s, but I thought I'd squeeze this in. The Australian Government will not be signing a new agreement on civil nuclear reactor collaboration which was signed by AUKUS Partners, US and the UK at COP29. They were expecting us to do so and they're going all in on nuclear to tackle climate change. Is this making us an outlier from our major allies and other major economies around the world?
PATERSON: There's no question that Australia is completely out of step with the rest of the developed world when it comes to emissions free, safe nuclear technology. And Chris Bowen has embarrassed Australia again on the international stage and left our allies embarrassed because they clearly had formed an expectation that Australia would sign this. And why wouldn't we? This is a proven emissions free technology that can get emissions down but also provide reliable, affordable baseload energy. And this government's opposition to it is purely political and ideological.
HEATLEY: James Paterson, great to talk with you. Thank you.
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