February 6, 2025
Wednesday 06 February 2025
Interview on Sky News First Edition
Subjects: Labor capitulates to the Coalition’s demands on tougher laws for terrorism offences, Jim Chalmers’ taxes on superannuation, Gaza
PETE STEFANOVIC: The government has now backflipped on its opposition to mandatory jail terms for hate crimes and will now support a push to lock up serious offenders for at least six years. Joining us live is the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. Good to see you, James. So it's going to pass now. Your response, sir?
SENATOR PATERSON: Good morning, Pete. Well, the government has been dragged kicking and screaming to doing the right thing to protect Australians. But once again, it is Peter Dutton and the Coalition who has led and it's Anthony Albanese in the Labor Party who has followed because they just don't have instinct for national security. And I'm not sure they're strong enough to make the tough decisions in the national interest. And frankly, Australians will soon have to choose between Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese. And why would you choose a pale imitation of Peter Dutton when you could have the real thing?
STEFANOVIC: I mean this is a question for them, but why do you think they folded?
PATERSON: Well, I think it must be sheer political panic. It's not because they sincerely believe in mandatory minimum sentences, they voted against them in the Senate on Tuesday. The Prime Minister and senior ministers have been rubbishing it for weeks since we called for it. But I think it's been clear for some time that a strong deterrent was necessary, that we needed to send a strong signal because this antisemitism crisis has been allowed to get completely out of control on the Prime Minister's watch. And so maybe they've seen the error of their ways, but I think more likely they are fearful of the political consequences of standing in the way.
STEFANOVIC: So as we've seen, particularly when it comes to youth crime in the states, it is up to a judge to implement though, right. Any doubts that they would?
PATERSON: Well, the parliament is being very clear about our intention. The parliament will pass legislation today which says that if you commit a Commonwealth terrorism offence that you should go to jail for six years and that if you display a prohibited hate symbol, you should go to jail for a year, that if you urge or threaten violence against a place of worship or other religious centres, that you should face serious consequences. And our expectation is that the judiciary will be bound by the law and implement the parliament's will.
STEFANOVIC: So the onus is still on the judge though, to enact it?
PATERSON: Look, there really is no discretion here. We have set a mandatory minimum sentence. The judges are free to impose sentences longer than those mandatory minimums and there'll be some cases where that's very necessary for very serious terrorism offences. People can be jailed for 20 years or more, but we don't think anyone should get away with anything less than six years for a terrorism offence or less than one year for waving the flag of a listed terrorist organisation, effectively glorifying and praising terrorism in our country.
STEFANOVIC: Just elsewhere today, James. Super is going to be up as well, the government is having some difficulty getting that one across to particularly when it comes to taxing unrealised gains for those accounts that are upwards of $3 million. Do you see it getting there?
PATERSON: This is a budget scam. Jim Chalmers has no prospect of passing this legislation through the Parliament. The Opposition and the crossbench in the Senate have made it very clear that we do not support taxing unrealised gains, that this is a broken promise from the Labor Party at the last election. And yet he's keeping it on the books. He's banking the revenue even though there is no law that has any prospect of passing this Parliament to allow him to do so. I think Jim Chalmers should be honest with the Australian people, accept that there's no pathway for this legislation, accept what the Senate has clearly told him and withdraw it from consideration.
STEFANOVIC: Before we move on, what's your biggest problem with it?
PATERSON: I think the taxation of unrealised gains is an extraordinary and unprecedented thing to do and it shouldn't be permitted, I'm also concerned by the lack of indexation. I mean, this proposes this cap with no indexation at all so over time, more people will be captured and actually it's younger people who will be most worse off by this change because over time, many more of them due to the out-of-control inflation on this government's watch will be paying higher taxes on their superannuation.
STEFANOVIC: All right, let's get to Donald Trump. And the White House has this morning, James, doubled down on his plan to essentially rebuild Gaza and force Palestinians out of their home territory. Do you support that?
PATERSON: Well, we've still got our long-standing bipartisan position, or I should say formerly bipartisan position, of a two-state solution negotiated between the parties in Israel and Palestine. Of course, the Labor Party has walked away from that, they now believe in a unilateral two-state solution imposed from the outside without a peace process, and they voted for that in the United Nations. But we believe that there should be self-determination for the people of Israel and for the people of Palestine and that you should be able to live in secure and safe borders.
STEFANOVIC: So it sounds like you don't support that then what the US President is proposing?
PATERSON: Well, we don't have enough information about what the President is proposing. It's in its embryonic stages, we would have to understand more about it, but it hasn't changed our long-standing view.
STEFANOVIC: So do you think it would be a breach of international law, is it a breach of international law?
PATERSON: I'm not an expert in international law, Peter, and I'm not going to provide international legal advice to the President based on one press conference that I've seen and some initial comments and thoughts. I think we do have to recognise the status quo has failed. It's failed for Israelis, it's failed for Palestinians, and Hamas' continued role in Gaza is an enormous obstacle to a two-state solution and peace in the region. And we do have to work how to get rid of Hamas from the region, and we're going to need some global and regional leadership to achieve that.
STEFANOVIC: All right, James, good to chat as always. We'll talk to you again soon. James Paterson there coming to us live from Canberra.
ENDS
