April 5, 2025
JAYNIE SEAL: I want to bring in now Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Senator James Paterson. Senator, thank you very much for joining us. It did appear that there was a bit of a grilling there in terms of the timing by the journalists there, including our reporter Trudy McIntosh there, and he certainly didn't really give a definitive answer, would you say?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, that's putting it politely. I thought his interview last night - when he dialed in, in an incoherent way to ABC Darwin - was bad. But that press conference then was even worse. It was a train wreck. He was not able to answer the most basic, reasonable questions of journalists about what his plan is for the Port of Darwin. And my jaw dropped when I heard him say that it was a, quote, "political decision", by his government to buy back the Port of Darwin. I can only speak for the Coalition. This is not a political decision for us. This is a decision in Australia's national interest. This is a national security decision. This is an economic security question. And for the Prime Minister to be unable to explain basic facts and basic details and then admit the whole thing was just political, I think it is a shocking insight into his decision making when it comes to national security. This is a weak Prime Minister who is not up to the job of keeping Australians safe.
JAYNIE SEAL: The Prime Minister did, in fact, say he is standing up for Australia's national interest. What do you want from the Prime Minister?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, I'd just like him to get across the facts and the details of national security as a starting point. I mean, it's so often that he makes major errors of fact when it comes to national security, like when he confused the Australian Border Force and the Australian Defence Force. Or when he said that the Chinese government told us about the live firing exercises in the Tasman Sea. Or like when he told us that we found out from the military at the same time we found from the Virgin pilot. So the first thing would be PM, please just get across the details, this is too important in an uncertain world to not be across the detail. The second thing is I'd like him to be honest. And I don't think he's been honest about this. We've got contradictory accounts on the one hand from the Prime Minister who says he consulted Landbridge Group, but they say they haven't been consulted. He says he consulted the Northern Territory government, but they say they haven't been consulted. He wasn't able to say whether or not he gave a courtesy heads up to the Chinese Ambassador or the Chinese government before he dialed in in that bizarre radio interview last night with ABC Darwin. I mean, please just be honest, Prime Minister, this is too important to be lying about.
JAYNIE SEAL: Opposition leader Peter Dutton earlier said that if elected, the Coalition would immediately secure the Port of Darwin for the best interests of the country. This sounds like a big signal to the Australian people. So, how substantial in your opinion and immediate is the threat to warrant the cancellation of this lease?
JAMES PATERSON: It's not in Australia's national interest to have a strategically important asset like the Port of Darwin to be in the hands of a company which has connections to a foreign authoritarian government. And we believe we need to transition that ownership immediately to an Australian government approved operator that meets our national interest. And we'll seek to first do that commercially with Landbridge. But if within six months that is not successful, we will use the significant constitutional powers that the Commonwealth has to compulsorily acquire the lease and transfer it to an Australian Government approved operator.
JAYNIE SEAL: We believe Peter Dutton met with the Chinese Ambassador regarding this announcement. We heard Albanese saying that he must have better connections than the Chinese Ambassador. What do you make of the Prime Minister's comments there?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, to clarify, David Coleman, our Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, called the Chinese Ambassador and gave him a heads up about this announcement because we think it is a significant issue in the bilateral relationship. Although we would never compromise the decisions we make in Australia's national interest, we think good communication is a basic courtesy of a significant bilateral relationship, and so we notified them in advance of our announcement. It's not clear to me that the Prime Minister did the same thing, and I think that is reckless. I think that is further evidence that his rushed and panicked phone call to ABC Darwin was about politics. As he himself has admitted, for him this is a political decision, not a national interest or national security decision. And when he got wind that the opposition leader was on his way to Darwin to make this announcement, he rushed onto the phone to call into ABC Darwin for that trainwreck interview. We don't think that's a sensible or mature way to approach a sensitive matter of national security and foreign policy.
JAYNIE SEAL: So, Landbridge, it's not for sale. How hard is it to cancel a lease like this?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, we hope that having made our intentions very clear, that a Dutton Coalition government would seek to transition this to an Australian government approved operator, that Landbridge would come to the party and engage in a commercial negotiation to ensure that that happens. But if they don't do that, we have very significant powers to ensure that that happens. The constitutional powers of the federal government are clear. It can acquire property on just terms, and there's already legislation on the books to that effect. But if any new legislation is necessary to ensure that that can happen, then we will, of course, move to legislate that and ensure that that happens and that Landbridge is compensated as they are required to be.
JAYNIE SEAL: All right. I wanted to ask you about Liberation Day and certainly on the tariffs. Australia only exports roughly five to six percent to the US. Economists and many others are saying that there is a bigger issue in terms of the global ramifications. Some countries we hear are already talking about retaliation. How do you think Australia should be responding to these tariff announcements?
JAMES PATERSON: I know the Prime Minister has been desperate to play down the seriousness of these tariffs on Australian exporters, but I don't agree and I don't think exporters would agree either. I think a 10% impost on their exports to the United States is a really significant blow to their businesses, and what we owe them are our best efforts to ensure the best deal possible and hopefully an exemption from these tariffs. The truth is that although the Prime Minister is doing a victory lap and claiming we've got a great deal, we've actually only got the same deal that the Islamic Republic of Iran got from the United States. That's an authoritarian government which has threatened to assassinate President Trump. We only got a deal as good as Yemen has got. That's a country which is right now run by the Houthi terrorist organisation that President Trump ordered the bombing of a few weeks ago. So we need to secure a better deal. I am also concerned, though, as you say, about the global ramifications of this. We've seen the United States put tariffs on China and others, and we've seen China and others, including the European Union and Canada, respond in turn with their own tariffs. That's not in Australia's national interest because we're an open trading nation. We want to encourage, not depress, global trade.
JAYNIE SEAL: All right and we know beef is a big exporter and just reading on Beef Central today the cattle prices in the country sale yards have increased significantly in the past week due to the widespread flooding in Queensland and also the Queensland Department of Primary Industry saying early surveys had suggested around 69,000 head of cattle were either dead or unaccounted for. A devastating situation, of course, and it is unfolding. We need to wait and see what happens over the weeks, months and potentially years with the recovery. But, Senator, what is your opinion on the export situation with beef, of course, not only across the US, but to other parts of the world that we certainly export to?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, you're right that these floods are absolutely devastating for our farmers in the region. I know that their local member and the leader of the National Party, David Littleproud, has been on the ground there supporting them and advocating for them and also made a commitment of $10 million to improve the Bureau of Meteorology's detection of events like this so they can have better warning in the future. But absolutely we need to stand with our beef producers. Australia produces some of the highest quality beef in the world. It is of exceptional quality, and that's why it's so highly sought after around the world. Actually, it's a really critical input for the United States that the type and the quality of beef that we provide to them is beef that they can't easily get elsewhere in the world. So we really think it is a self-harming initiative by the United States to put a tariff on Australian high quality beef.
JAYNIE SEAL: Senator James Paterson, thank you so much.
ENDS