June 3, 2024
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SHARRI MARKSON: Let's bring in now Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. James, I think this revelation is extremely significant. What do you think?
JAMES PATERSON: I completely agree with you, Sharri. Most Australians probably assume that the Prime Minister's response, inadequate response since the 7th October of rising anti-Semitism in our country was just due to the fact that he's a weak Prime Minister. But actually, I think what you've demonstrated is that deep down, he has hatred for Israel, a deep seated hatred which goes back decades. And what we are seeing here is, is that secret hatred bubbling to the surface and manifesting in his policies today. I think he's the most anti-Israel Prime Minister we have ever had in this country, at least since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. And no wonder he has failed to rally to the Jewish community in its hour of need. No wonder he's abandoned Israel at international forums and in public debate. And no wonder so many Jewish Australians feel so abandoned at this critical time.
MARKSON: Do you think this explains why he couldn't strongly and unequivocally condemn the Opera House and other similar aggressive and violent protests because he was at a similar protest where flags were burned?
PATERSON: Anthony Albanese is whole history as a politician is to appeal to extremists like the people you've seen at those rallies. He has been to those rallies. He's addressed those rallies. His policies and rhetoric seeks to appease the people who go to those rallies. And I think he deep down has a lot of sympathy with their perspective. Let's remember that in recent times. In fact, in just the last Parliament, when he was in opposition, he went all the way to the United Kingdom to spend time with Jeremy Corbyn and posted selfies with him on social media in the middle of the UK Labour Party's unprecedented anti-Semitism crisis. Keir Starmer is trying to clean up the antisemitism of the Jeremy Corbyn era and expel those people from the modern Labour Party in the UK, including Jeremy Corbyn. But Anthony Albanese thought it was a good idea to post smiling selfies with him. I mean, I think this really does show that extreme anti-israel hatred that lies underneath the surface of these policies.
MARKSON: Okay, we're going to continue to cover this and investigate Albanese's past stories. I first reported in the lead up to the last election. Now, Andrew Giles has claimed that drones were being used to track down released immigration detainees. He's now come out today conceding that actually, this isn't true. James Paterson, the fact that the Prime Minister continues to protect his Immigration Minister despite so many failures that would have cost anyone else their job, really questions what is going on here, why the Prime Minister is refusing to take leadership and move him out of this portfolio.
PATERSON: Sharri things have got so bad here in Canberra that we have a minister of immigration who is publicly hallucinating about an imaginary secret drone surveillance program, which his department has never been running as a justification and a defence for his failure to ensure that the law is enforced and that all the released detainees are wearing ankle braces. What prompted him to make this admission to Kieran Gilbert was the fact that at least two of the former murderers, and 26 of the former sex offenders are free in the community without ankle bracelets, despite him promising otherwise, and all he could come up with was, "oh we are secretly monitoring them with drones", which turns out not to be the case at all. Now, this is a pretty shocking attempt to mislead the Australian people. He said this on Thursday. His office repeated it to journalists on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And the Minister for Agriculture, Murray Watt was on insiders on Sunday still maintaining that drones had been used in some capacity. And 15 minutes before Question Time today, they had to reluctantly admit that Andrew Giles had just imagine this all in a feverish dream.
MARKSON: Look, it's quite the scandal. I'm going to come back to this drone issue later in the show when I bring in my political panel. James Paterson, thank you very much.
ENDS
