September 13, 2024
CHENG LEI: Joining me live from Land Forces in Melbourne is Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. Hi there James, great for you to join us. So what are people talking about there, have the protests overshadowed the conference itself?
JAMES PATERSON: It's great to be with you, Lei. The good news is that no, the ratbags outside haven't disrupted what's been a highly successful conference. These are great people who've gathered here over the last few days. They've got great ideas, who run great businesses, who are coming up with great solutions for the national security and defence challenges that our country faces. And a lot of business has been done here this week in our national interest. And so I think we can be very proud of the fact that despite their best efforts, the protesters have had absolutely no impact on the successful running of this convention.
LEI: The Defence Minister is in attendance. What do you make of the Phillip Thompson criticism on Wednesday that the government didn't send relevant ministers, and Marles' attendance today?
[CLIP START]
PHILLIP THOMPSON OAM MP: And really we should have the Minister for Defence and Defence Industry here. They should have got here, they need to be here––
SIMON LOVE: It's a sitting week.
THOMPSON: Yeah, this is our people, right? Their job is to keep our people safe, make sure we have the equipment to do that. They're in government. They should be at defence industry, they should be at Land Forces.
[CLIP ENDS]
LEI: James, what do you make of that?
PATERSON: Look this is a major conference, it doesn't happen every day, it doesn't happen every month, it doesn't even happen every year. It's critically important that senior ministers from the government are here on the ground and be here for most of the week, not just coming on for a few minutes on Friday. The Opposition sent our Shadow Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie here on Wednesday, and Phillip Thompson, our Assistant Shadow Minister for Defence, has been here all week. We would have of course provided a pair for Pat Conroy or Richard Marles to be here early in the week had they chosen to come, but they didn't choose to come until Friday.
LEI: I find it ironic that there have been these violent protests for peace. But to what extent do these protests represent a more radicalised public or is it just a very small number?
PATERSON: There has been nothing peaceful about the protests this week, Lei. They've been found with all sorts of weapons, they're throwing rocks and even acid at police, they were found yesterday with marbles. Now, the only purpose of bringing marbles to a protest like that is to throw them under the feet of horses to cause the horses to fall over, and that often results in serious injuries for horses and requires them to be put down. So these are people that claim to be environmentalists, who claim to care about animal welfare and claim to care about peace. They came here to hurt our police horses and to hurt police and disrupt them in the work that they do, I think that's shameful. Frankly, they are lucky to live in a free country where they can come and protest freely. But they crossed the red line this week when they engaged in deplorable acts of violence. I'm deeply disturbed that a Greens senator, David Shoebridge, has addressed them today and effectively endorsed their militant behaviour. The Greens have long since ceased to be a party of environmentalism, they are now a party of extremism and all parties should send a strong message at the next election by putting them last.
LEI: I heard one attendee's comment, which is that nobody's talking about Ukraine, they're all talking about Palestine when it comes to protests. Why is that?
PATERSON: Well, the fact that there are even some flags of the Russian Federation at the protest, so presumably the people who are waving those flags at the protest aren't against war, they're just against countries like Ukraine and Israel defending themselves in war. Australia must stand with our allies, we must stand with our friends. We must stand with Ukraine, we must stand with Israel, we must stand with Taiwan. We must stand with the Philippines and other partners in the region, and around the world, who are under threat from authoritarian powers, who want to use their force to erase borders by will and fundamentally reshape the international order. And everyone here at this conference this week understands the importance of that mission, is working hard towards that mission, and won't be deterred by a few ratbag protesters from that mission.
LEI: How will these polarised opinions on defence affect social cohesion in Australia?
PATERSON: I think the vast majority of Australians back the ADF, they back our men and women in uniform. They understand the difficult job that they have to do and they want them to have the best technology and the best resources at their disposal to do their jobs, to defend our country and our interests abroad. A small group of protesters here is a disruptive force, it has been unprofessional, it has been inappropriate, and it's made the police's task this week very difficult. It frankly makes Victoria's task of being a centre for major events even more difficult. I fear that a conference like Land Forces will choose not to come to Melbourne in the future, because the law must be enforced and there must be consequences for people who break the law. Otherwise we're going to see this kind of behaviour repeated again and again and again.
LEI: So the fundamental question is, is might right?
PATERSON: Well, I think peace comes through strength. And I think the best thing we can do to deter violence and aggression in our region is to be strong ourselves. Australia is not a country that seeks conflict, we're not a country that wants conflict. In fact, we want to prevent conflict and help peace endure by sending a strong message to anyone who is a destabilising force in the region that we will be able to defend ourselves, that we'll be able to defend our interests, and that we'll be able to defend our allies and likeminded partners if the need arose to do so.
LEI: Thank you so much for your time, James Paterson.
PATERSON: Great to be with you.
LEI: Shadow Home Affairs Minister, speaking to us from the Land Forces expo.
ENDS
