October 8, 2024
CHRIS KENNY: Let's go down to Canberra now. I want to catch up with the shadow Home Affairs Minister, Senator James Paterson. Thanks for joining us, James, Good to talk to you again. I said at the top of the program that this was a really dismal day, not just for the parliament but for the country when we couldn't see bipartisan support in commemorating the victims of the October 7th atrocity in Israel. Give me your perspective on what's unfolded there today.
JAMES PATERSON: Chris, I think your disappointment is reasonable. I think a lot of other Australians will share it. First and foremost, the Jewish community. The Parliament did come together 12 months ago to pass a bipartisan motion, but this time when Peter Dutton took the initiative to write to the Prime Minister to offer a bipartisan motion and engage in constructive negotiations over it the Prime Minister refused to agree. And really it's up to the Prime Minister to explain why he wanted to make this motion about everything other than the 7th of October. We wanted to keep it about the 7th of October and the victims of the 7th of October. He wanted to make it about a myriad of other things, and I think that reflects the political position he's in, the pressures he's under in some of his seats, whether it's the Greens challenging them or pro Gaza independents in south west Sydney and he's much more concerned about that than he is in standing up to anti-Semitism or commemorating the worst loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust.
KENNY: He put up his own motion, a longer motion, as you say. He could have easily put up another motion later in the weeks dealing with other issues. But what is it specifically about the motion he put up that the Coalition found objectionable?
PATERSON: Well, there was a number of objectionable terms in there, that are kind of hackneyed phrases that are used in relation to Middle East conflicts from time to time, that are not an accurate description of what happened. For example, he talked about the “cycle of violence.” The cycle of violence is the polite way of saying that this did not begin on the 7th of October, as some pro-Palestinian advocates do, to try to minimise what Hamas did on the 7th of October. Let's remember what was happening on the 6th of October, Chris. There was peace across Gaza and the West Bank and Israel. No one was firing rockets at anybody else. No one had kidnapped anybody else and it was Hamas who broke that peace. It was Hamas who broke that ceasefire, who launched this terrible atrocity against the Jewish people, which of course, necessitated an IDF operation to free the hostages and dismantle Hamas. So when you talk about a “cycle of violence”, it's a way of minimising what Hamas did. There were other things in there, frankly a coded lecture to the Opposition for standing up for the Jewish community, for showing moral clarity on these issues, and we didn't want to stand for that. The motion that Peter Dutton put forward I think was very reasonable and should have been agreed to.
KENNY: Now, in your own chamber in the Senate, there was a kerfuffle the Greens, some of them dressed in Arab garb, put up a call for sanctions against Israel. Tell us about what went on there.
PATERSON: Yes, I think it was five of the ten or so Greens in the Senate who were wearing Yasser Arafat's scarf of choice as a wink, wink, nudge, nudge about where their loyalties lie on these issues. And if you're in any doubt about that, we had an extremely inflammatory question from the Green senator, Marine Faruqi directed at Penny Wong, followed up by a stunt with signs being held up about sanctioning Israel. This is obviously against all the standing orders of the Senate, but that's not the most important thing. It's a grotesque thing to do on the 8th of October. I'm not sure how many Greens attended 7th of October memorials last night, but I want to go out on a limb and say it's pretty close to zero, if not zero. And the media release that Adam Bandt released yesterday was contemptible, in which he simply described the listed terrorist organisation Hamas, as Hamas. But whenever he referred to the government of Israel, he referred to it as the “extremist Netanyahu government”…
KENNY: Good Lord.
PATERSON: …and that tells you everything you need to know.
KENNY: Just quickly, I want to show you what a visiting U.S. Academic had to say at the Lakemba Mosque last night.
[CLIP START]
KHALED BEYDOUN: I want to start on a light note. I'm feeling in a good mood today. Today is not fully a day of mourning in many respects today is also a day that marks considerable celebration. Considerable progress.
[CLIP END]
KENNY: Surely he needs to be deported immediately?
PATERSON: More than he needs to be deported, Chris. He never should have been allowed to come into our country in the first place. This is a person who posted on Instagram a week ago a post celebrating and defending Hassan Nasrallah, the listed terrorist organisation leader of Hezbollah. I mean, that should have been picked up. That is a contravention of the character grounds of the Migration Act. He never should have been allowed to come. But he did prove the point that many of us are making in the lead up to the rallies on Monday, which is that the only reason you would organise a pro-Palestinian protest on Monday, is if you thought it was worthy of celebration. The death of Jews was worthy of celebration. And lo and behold, he said the quiet part out loud.
KENNY: Indeed. Shocking stuff. Just shocking stuff. Thanks so much for joining us, James. I appreciate it.
ENDS
