December 19, 2024
KENNY HEATLEY: I'm joined live by Shadow Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister James Paterson. James, good to see you once again. Thanks for coming on. What's your reaction, first of all, to this phone call between the two Foreign Ministers?
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Kenny. Well, sadly, it is no surprise that relations between Australia and Israel on the Foreign Minister's watch and on the Albanese government's watch have hit its lowest ebb in decades. And it is very unfortunate that we are reading through the media about strained phone calls between the foreign ministers of our two countries. Let's remember that Israel is one of Australia's closest international partners. Outside of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance members, Israel is one of our most important intelligence and security partners. They have repeatedly shared intelligence with Australia, which has thwarted terrorist attacks on our own soil here domestically and which has also helped save the lives of Australian Defence Force personnel serving in the Middle East. So to have allowed it to get to as bad as it is, is a very bad reflection on the Albanese government and its diplomatic skills.
HEATLEY: Penny Wong also announcing Australia will reopen its embassy in Kyiv in Ukraine after its closure in 2022, shortly after Russia's invasion. Is this the right time?
PATERSON: No, it's frankly far too late. And this is another important international relationship that the Albanese government and Penny Wong have mismanaged. We obviously rightly closed our embassy immediately following the Russian invasion of Ukraine when it was uncertain whether Ukraine would be able to continue to control Kyiv. But after it became apparent that they were able to do so and repel Russia's initial invasion, we should have immediately reopened the embassy as our many likeminded partners did, including Canada, with whom we are a co-tenant in the same building in Kyiv. They reopened their embassy in May 2022. President Zelenskyy has been privately urging the Australian government to do this for some time. He publicly urged them to do so in February 2023. So has the Opposition. Simon Birmingham, our shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, was there in August and he promised that a Dutton government would reopen the embassy in Kyiv. It should not have taken this long. We're now well behind our allies and friends, over 70 of whom have reopened their embassies in Kyiv.
HEATLEY: Think tanks, including the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, could be made to compete for their funding or have their funding cut in some circumstances after the Varghese Review. If they had to compete for funding, wouldn't it make these think tanks more transparent? Or is it government trying to control think tank research and limit criticism?
PATERSON: I'm very concerned about the proposed recommendations of the Varghese review and I hope that the Albanese government does not adopt the recommendations of this review that they commissioned. I'm particularly concerned, as you say, about putting up the core funding of think tanks like ASPI, which was founded by the government to provide policy contestability in defence and national security, up to a competitive tender. Because if you did that, you would threaten ASPI's financial viability every five years and they would then be very anxious not to ever criticise government policy or the Defence Department in fear that that would be taken away. It's also reported that the government will close ASPI's Washington D.C. office. It is difficult to understand why you would want to downgrade our most important international relationship at an absolutely pivotal time in history and why we think we need less influence and less access in Washington D.C., ASPI had remarkable access and influence to the first Trump administration. We know the Albanese government does not have good relations with the Trump administration and many of its key appointees based on the public comments that many ministers, including the Prime Minister have made. So we should not be shutting down any avenues to influence. Frankly, we need to be using all elements of statecraft to support our most important relationship and to make sure projects like AUKUS continue. And ASPI's D.C. office was a very important part of that, as is the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue, which is also reported to have come under scrutiny from the Varghese review and anything which would undermine that important bilateral forum would be completely counterproductive.
HEATLEY: ASPI Government funding was included in a list of 14 grievances by China to the Australian government in 2020. Is this capitulation to China?
PATERSON: Well, I think that's exactly how the policy community in Australia would interpret this. They would see that the Chinese government has made a demand for ASPI's funding to be curtailed. The Albanese government following through on that demand. And therefore they would ask questions of themselves, can we do any research which is critical of the Chinese government or if we do so, will we also have our research funding provided by the Australian government taken away? I'm very worried about the chilling effect that that would have. ASPI has done globally influential research that has displeased the Chinese government, including exposing the exploitation and mistreatment of Uyghur people in Xinjiang, research which has been backed by the United Nations and human rights groups. But also research into foreign interference and cyber attacks on our country. I guess the question for the Albanese government is, which of that research would you preferred have not take place? Which of that information would you prefer that the Australian public is not entitled to know? Because that's the message they're sending if they take away ASPI's funding or curtail it in any way.
HEATLEY: James Paterson, appreciate it as always. Thank you.
PATERSON: Thanks Kenny.
ENDS
