March 12, 2025
SHARRI MARKSON: Let's bring in Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson live from the new Liberal Party headquarters in Parramatta. I suppose James you were expecting an election this week as election campaign as we all were hasn't panned out. But to start tonight, can you comment on how Dutton and the Coalition is committing to all of our summit outcomes if you win the next election.
JAMES PATERSON: Well, Sharri, this was a great act of leadership by Sky News and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry responding to genuine and deep community concern about the antisemitism crisis, which has festered in our country over the last 16 months. And frankly, you had us at hello. We didn't require much persuading when we saw the list of proposals. We agree with all of them in principle, and we'll implement them in government. And it's particularly important that we implement those ideas around the migration system. As Peter said, some of those we had already talked about already and others you've extended. It is self evidently obvious that someone who is a guest in our country, here on a visa, who has violated the principles of Australia, violated our values by engaging in antisemitism and spreading it in our country, that they have no place in this country and that we will not hesitate for a second to cancel their visa and deport them.
MARKSON: All right. I want to turn to this caravan bomb plot. I want to ask you about the exclusive story I had here last night, which revealed that there was serious mishandling of the caravan investigation by the AFP. The AFP refused to disclose the identity of the offshore Australian criminal to New South Wales Police yet insisted that information coming from this person was credible and that it needed to be acted on. Now, as I said last night, New South Wales Police early on were inclined to treat this as suspicious. but the AFP fell for the hoax. They claimed that their source had credible intelligence. This led to a Jewish businessman being under 24 hour police protection. Well, today, New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson was grilled about some of this at budget estimates, and he confirmed my story. Have a look.
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DAVID HUDSON: Early on in the investigation, probably from the outset, we had suspicions about it, but because of the ingestion of information into the investigation by another agency, we had to treat it at its highest and until we discounted that, we couldn't come out and say that.
[CLIP ENDS]
MARKSON: So James what's your reaction to this that the New South Wales police were happy to handle the matter under strike force Pearl but that the AFP fell for the hoax escalated it to a joint counter terrorism [taskforce] and then passed on information that they claimed was credible when it wasn't.
PATERSON: Sharri, I was very concerned to see your report last night and even more alarmed when I saw the Deputy Commissioner's evidence in the New South Wales Parliament today, which seemed to confirm it. We need the Federal Police and the New South Wales Police working together more closely and more seamlessly than ever before and it is of grave concern if that relationship has broken down to the extent it appears to have based on your reporting. And the most remarkable thing about this is, let's remember, that both of them ultimately report to Labor leaders. A Labor Premier in New South Wales in Chris Minns and a Labor Prime Minister in Anthony Albanese in Canberra. Why can't these two political leaders get together and sort this out and make sure that in the middle of an anti -Semitism crisis, that our police forces at the state and federal level are working together in a seamless way? It really is a very poor reflection on Anthony Albanese's leadership. It shows how weak he is. We know he doesn't get along with Chris Minns very well. We know he's been embarrassed by Chris Minns' stronger leadership on antisemitism over the last 16 months, but that is not a good reason not to roll his sleeves up, get in behind this and fix it.
MARKSON: Yeah, 100 percent. And also the fact that there was a Jewish businessman under 24 hour police protection for more than a month based on information that wasn't credible. You know, the alarm that that creates in the community is extraordinary. James, just sticking with this for a minute, I also reported last night that the New South Wales police didn't even know the identity of this Australian criminal offshore until two weeks ago because the AFP refused to share that information. Now when David Hudson was asked about the criminal's motivation today under interrogation, he said this.
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DAVID HUDSON: We're not exactly sure of that motivation. That's from another agency, but.
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MARKSON: That's from another agency. We weren't sure of that criminal's motivation. Now, as you said, this isn't cooperation between the agencies. Do you think, as my sources have suggested, that there should be an inquiry into the joint arrangements between the AFP and New South Wales Police, given this was such a debacle and given national security and terrorism are so critical and we need to prevent mishaps happening in the future?
PATERSON: Sharri, I think there is very good grounds for an investigation here. Peter Dutton has already called one into what the Prime Minister knew and what he did about it. And the Prime Minister has still not come clean, even after police have made arrests. But there are many questions to be answered about this investigation. It was a very serious and very high-profile investigation, and there does appear to be some very serious issues with it. One that I would add to the list of concerns is that the Albanese government publicised the theory that this was possibly a foreign government or a foreign terrorist organisation who was sponsoring these attacks on Australian soil using organised criminals. Now, if that turns out not to be the case, based on the public reporting, it doesn't seem like that's very likely, I believe that the police have ruled that out now as a possibility. Why was that fear put into the community publicly, causing the Jewish community to believe that Iran or Russia or some other foreign government was sponsoring terrorism on Australian soil?
MARKSON: Yeah, very good point. And you're right, the press conference on Monday, the police and the AFP completely ruled out a foreign actor, a foreign state actor being involved, as I reported at the time when the federal government first floated that idea bizarrely because there was no basis for it at all. Now, James, you've come under attack by Tony Burke, the Home Affairs Minister. In relation to this matter, he claims that you and Peter Dutton exaggerated and confected a crisis. What's your response to this?
PATERSON: Well, it must be a day ending in Y Sharri, if Tony Burke's attacking me, I have to say he does seem a little bit obsessed with me. I wish he put as much energy into fighting antisemitism as he does into stalking me. But I think this is a pretty desperate attempt on his behalf to try and distract from the government's obvious failings in this area. He knows he has a weak Prime Minister who has no instinct for national security and who doesn't have the stomach to make the tough decisions in the national interest. And so he's throwing out as many red herrings as possible to try and distract from that. But the truth is that it was the Prime Minister and the Premier of New South Wales who first caused this terrorism. They never corrected the record despite being updated by police along the way, and it is them who are responsible for that, not anybody else.
MARKSON: Just turning to the trade tariffs, Albanese finally admitted today what he had denied a week ago, which is that he has been trying to call President Trump, and Trump hasn't been taking his calls. How humiliating is this?
PATERSON: Sharri, my main thoughts today are with the workers and their families in the steel and aluminium industries who have been hit by these tariffs today which are totally unjustified. And I'm disappointed that the Albanese government has taken, frankly, such a low-energy approach to this issue. I mean, it sounds like he's been pestering President Trump for a phone call, and that hasn't happened. But why didn't he get on the plane? Why didn't he go to Washington, D .C. like so many of our allies and like-minded partners did? As you pointed out in your editorial, every member of the Quad, other than Australia, has had their leader visit D.C. and meet with President Trump. Why hasn't the Trade Minister, Don Farrell, got on a plane? What on earth do we have a trade minister for, if not to lobby in Australia's national interest in Washington D.C. on big trade questions like this? But they failed to do so, and I think they have to take responsibility for this.
MARKSON: Do you think this is partly a reflection of Albanese's cozying up to China and Australia's voting record at the UN, which has gone against the United States?
PATERSON: Well, that's possible. I certainly hope it's not the case. I hope it's not all the indiscreet and inappropriate things that the Prime Minister and senior ministers have said about President Trump over the years. I hope it's not the indiscreet and inappropriate things that Kevin Rudd, our ambassador, said about the President over the years. When you have big issues at stake in a town like Washington D.C., you have to put your best foot forward. And I think we've got to ask real questions about whether the Albanese government and its ambassador are the best people to put our foot forward on this issue when they're so hopelessly compromised by their public attacks on the President.
MARKSON: All right, indeed. James Paterson, thank you very much for your time.
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