October 24, 2024
JAMES MACPHERSON: Now some digging by The Daily Telegraph shows this Palestine Advocacy Network had received $22,400 from ALP and $50,000 from Union to pay for study tours to Palestine. Joining me is shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. James, thanks for your time. Help me understand, why is the Labor Party giving thousands of dollars to an organisation that accuses Israel of genocide? And why are Labor MPs, one of whom is Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke going on tours organised by a group that claim Hamas is not a terrorist organisation.
JAMES PATERSON: Those are all very good questions James, and none of which have been answered by the Labor Party or APAN or this mystery Union that has apparently coughed up this money. Now, this is not just a random amount of money. It's a very specific amount of money. If you are making something like that up, you wouldn't say it was $22,400. And yet no one has been transparent about this. So the questions are: why did the Labor Party give this money to APAN? Where did they source that money from? Is it taxpayers money? Is it donated money? Is it from the union movement? Were all the appropriate declarations made? And did they do any research on APAN before they gave them this money? As you point out, this is a very extreme organisation headed by a president who believes that Hamas is not a terrorist organisation, that we should end the peace process, that we should not have a two state solution. But as you say, has attacked Israel in shocking terms. And in that video you played earlier implied that it was something to be sad about or dejected about, that Yahya Sinwar the terrorist head of Hamas is now dead.
MACPHERSON: Well, James, you raised the point. You know, what did the Labor Party know about this organisation? I wouldn't imagine it would be a mystery to them. It's pretty clear online what the president of this organisation believes. How concerning is it to you? And we're not just talking about some Labor MPs, As I mentioned, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke going on a tour organised by these people. He's in charge of security for the nation. Is this the sort of organisation he should be associating with?
PATERSON: Well, that's exactly right, James. Someone like a Home Affairs minister who has the pre-eminent domestic national security portfolio has to take even greater care with who they engage with, who they accept largess from, and all the appropriate declarations. Now, of course, Tony Burke travelled to Palestine on this trip before he became Home Affairs Minister. But anybody who is appointed Home Affairs Minister should be someone who has taken great care throughout their career to be very careful with their associations and not engage and associate with people who argue against the listing of terrorist organisations who oppose the peace process, who are against the two state solution. I mean, these are really extreme statements from an increasingly extreme organisation and the least that we can expect from the Labor party about this is transparency. And the least that we can expect from Tony Burke about this is to distance himself now from this organisation, say he does not share those views, say he regrets going on this sponsored trip with them.
MACPHERSON: Indeed. Hey listen, while I've got you here, I wanted to speak to you about a story that broke today with China accusing Australia of systemic racism, hate crimes and hypocrisy after one of our diplomats at the United Nations raised concerns about human rights abuses in China and Tibet. Now Labor's made a show of themselves kowtowing to China. President Xi Jinping is right now off meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin. The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, has responded. He said Australia will agree where we can disagree where we must. That was his response to China, calling us a systemically racist nation. Is that a good enough response from the leader of Australia?
PATERSON: It's not a good enough response from Anthony Albanese. That is just his go to bland talking point when he has anything to say about the China relationship. Someone of substance who is our Prime Minister should be able to contribute more than just the basic talking points. I think the important thing to remember here James is that we won't be taking lectures from the Chinese Communist Party on human rights. I mean, this is a political party and government which has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity by human rights groups and the United Nations in relation to what's happening in Xinjiang. This is a government which has persecuted the Falun Gong people, that has persecuted the Tibetan people, that has persecuted the people of Hong Kong, that has persecuted the Christian church within China and many other religious and ethnic minorities throughout their history. So it's literally the last government in the world who would take a lecture from. And there's a key difference, of course, between China under Xi Jinping and Australia, and that is that we have a free and independent press. We have an independent judiciary. We have active and vocal human rights groups and we accept that our history has not been perfect and we strive to improve our country and make it better. We don't pretend that everything about our history is perfect. China under the Chinese Communist Party is very different. They're proud of what they're doing in Xinjiang against the Uyghurs and others and elsewhere.
MACPHERSON: When I read that China's foreign ministry spokesman was accusing Australia of being systemically racist and the spokesperson referred specifically to war crimes by Australian troops in Afghanistan. Senator, my only conclusion was that in China they must be watching the ABC.
PATERSON: Yes, I guess that's possible and there are processes to follow there. But of course no one has been charged or convicted with that. But they are serious allegations and they're being investigated as any serious liberal democracy would. Because we want to get to the bottom of it, we want to find out whether or not these allegations are credible and whether they can be stacked up and meet that test of evidence in a court of law. The Chinese Communist Party could not be any different. They would never investigate their own soldiers for any misdeeds. In fact, they typically reward them. As we've seen recently when a propaganda video promoted the unsafe, dangerous and unprofessional interactions of the People's Liberation Army had with Australian Air Force and Navy personnel operating in the region. So we have a very different approach to China and we won't be taking lectures from the Chinese government.
MACPHERSON: Senator James Paterson, appreciate your time tonight.
PATERSON: Thank you.
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