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April 29, 2025
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SHARRI MARKSON:
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson joins me now. James, is this a direct lie that Dutton is going to have a nuclear reactor in Dickson?
JAMES PATERSON:
It's one of the most blatant lies of the election campaign, Sharri. We've had a lie tracker on the Prime Minister for the campaign. He's told 87 lies in just 20-odd days. We hadn't set one up for Jim Chalmers, but perhaps we should have, because he'd be equal with maybe even ahead of the Prime Minister at this point of the campaign. There is no nuclear facility proposed in Peter Dutton's electorate of Dickson. There are no coal-fired power stations in Peter Dutton's electorate of Dickson. That's the only place we're proposing to eventually transition nuclear power into, and Jim Chalmers should be embarrassed in that; he should be better than that. Clearly, he is not.
SHARRI MARKSON:
It's quite egregious, the scare campaigns, particularly when they are blatantly untrue. There's no indication there would be a nuclear reactor in Dickson. Now, James, today you've called for the AFP and ASIO to investigate the allegations of possible foreign interference in Monique Ryan's campaign. Why do you think this is potential foreign interference during an election campaign?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, Sharri, this is a very troubling story broken by Paul Sakkal in The Age where he obtained a video of volunteers on Monique Ryan's campaign, wearing Monique Ryan t-shirts, saying that they had been directed to campaign for her by the President of the Hubei Association of Melbourne. Now, this Hubei Association is affiliated with the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, which Xi Jinping has described as the Chinese Communist Party's “magic weapon” to interfere in democracies. So, on the face of it, based on the facts that are on the public record, it seems like a very clear case of foreign interference. It must be investigated by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, and it's up to them to determine whether it meets the legal threshold, but it is a very troubling development that Monique Ryan has not adequately explained. All she has done is refer herself to the AEC, and bizarrely, the Department of Parliamentary Services, who have no jurisdiction and no role in this, and attempted to brush this under the carpet and play down it, but it's very serious. We cannot have a foreign authoritarian government involving themselves in elections in Australia. Only Australians can decide the outcome of Australian elections.
SHARRI MARKSON:
I was speaking just earlier about the Canadian election today, quite an astounding outcome. I mean, it seemed for a while there was no chance that Trudeau, given how unpopular he was, that Mark Carney could have a chance, it seems like Pierre Poilievre just a couple of months ago had it in the bag. Are you concerned there's going to be a similar Trump effect with the Coalition in this election?
JAMES PATERSON:
Well, there's been one of the most dramatic reversals of electoral politics in any Western democracy that I've seen in my lifetime, and probably much longer than that. It was only a few months ago that Pierre and the Conservatives were 20 points ahead of the Canadian Liberals and Justin Trudeau. And since then, there has been a leadership change in the Canadian Liberals, but also, obviously, rhetoric from President Trump about Canada becoming the 51st state and very significant trade tariffs on Canada. And that has seemingly completely reversed the fortunes of a long-serving government that was starting to become quite unpopular. So look, it's possible that there are factors like that playing out in this election, but the truth is that Donald Trump is not on the ballot in Australia. Only Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese are. And the question we have to answer at the election on the Saturday, the 3rd of May, is not whether we like Donald Trump or not, but whether or not we think our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, will be any better in his second term on issues like the cost of living than he was in his first term. And if you think he did a good job in his first term, I think you're going to be even more disappointed in what he does in his second term. Because cost of living will be up even further under a Albanese-Bandt-Labor-Green government.
SHARRI MARKSON:
Especially with this warning from S&P that is highly concerning, that the Prime Minister seemed to scoff and just dismiss last night. Do you think that was an appropriate response from the Prime Minister to mock a ratings agency that is non-partisan, that is highly credible globally?
JAMES PATERSON:
It was childish and it was desperate and it was beneath the office of Prime Minister to not heed the warning by a respected international ratings agency that says the Prime Minister's reckless spending, his 10 years of planned deficits, his plan to reach $1.2 trillion of debt is going to have severe consequences for our ratings. The reason why those ratings are really important, Sharri, is that if we get downgraded, that means interest rates will be higher. That means every Australian will pay even more on their mortgage than they have during the first term of the Albanese government. And for him to so glibly dismiss it just captures why Labor can't be trusted to manage the economy. They are not up to this task, and life will become more expensive in the second term of an Albanese government should he get there.
SHARRI MARKSON:
But also that rudeness, mocking the analysts at a global ratings agency. As I said earlier, if they were line-ball on a decision, that would push them over the edge, given how Coalition Treasurers have actually travelled to New York to work with them and explain their economic plan with them in the past. It's just really jeopardising the national interest. James Paterson, thank you so much for your time.
END