Doorstop | Australian Parliament House | 29 October 2026

‍TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP

AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT HOUSE

‍

Thursday, 29 October 2026

Topics: Australia must secure integrated and air missile defence, Palestinian recognition conditions fail, Labor owns ATO credit card blunder

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………

SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Good morning. Integrated air and missile defence is one of the most critical defence capabilities Australia needs in an age of missiles and drones. We've seen it in Ukraine. We've seen it in the Middle East. We need an ability to shoot down incoming missiles and drones to protect our bases, our critical infrastructure and our cities. And we learn on the front page of The Australian today in an article by Ben Packham, that the Labor Party doesn't plan to acquire the full integrated air and missile defence capability we need until the mid 2030s. Defence leaders have told us that the 10 year warning time for conflict is gone and yet the Albanese Government has a glacial pace of 10 years of acquiring the defence capability we need to defend ourselves. It's just not good enough. We need a much faster approach to acquiring key defence capability and to do that we need to spend properly. As our leading defence experts have told us we need to be spending at least 3% of GDP to deliver the defence capability Australia needs.

JOURNALIST: Senator, thank you for addressing exactly what I was after you on. Is there any concern as well, the article flags the backlash potentially from the Greens and Labor's Left faction about having closer ties with Israel? Do you share any of those same concerns?

PATERSON: I don't share them at all. We should be acquiring the defence capability that we can get the quickest that serves our purposes the best, wherever it comes from. There should be no shadow ban or discrimination against any nationality source country if it provides the capability we need in the time we need it. We know that Israel is a leading provider of integrated air and missile defence. They've proven that through many real-world examples with their Iron Dome and slingshot models of protecting their country. So, if they can provide the capability, we should buy it. But it does appear that under the Albanese Government over the last few years, there has effectively been a shadow ban on Israeli technology that doesn't leave Australians any safer. It's important that Richard Marles sends a strong signal to his department that they will not be intimidated by the Greens and Labor's Left flank into not acquiring the defence capability Australia needs out of a political dislike of a source country.

JOURNALIST: I might also just get you on the Foreign Minister's comments at Senate Estimates last night on the recognition of Palestinian statehood. Your thoughts?

PATERSON: Well, it turns out that the preconditions that the Albanese Government announced when they recognised a Palestinian state, including governance reform, ending pay for slay, education reform, demilitarisation and elections were not in fact preconditions at all. Because the Foreign Minister admitted it doesn't matter whether the Palestinian Authority delivers any of these things, the Albanese Government will never revoke its recognition of a Palestinian state. So, Australia has given up whatever leverage we had over the Palestinian Authority to encourage them to reform because we've given them the thing that they want and we now don't require them to deliver the things that they promised they would. And so, I think the Albanese Government's foreign policy has been exposed here. This was driven by domestic politics, not Australia's national interest.

JOURNALIST: Finally, as well, just on the ATO's admissions overnight in Senate Estimates, do we think the only way moving forward is for the government to push the ATO to reinstate the acceptance of credit cards?

PATERSON: It was extraordinary evidence from the ATO last night. But ultimately, it is the government that’s responsible. Labor took credit for the ban on credit card surcharges. Labor was warned by the ATO that they planned to ban small businesses from paying their tax debts via credit cards. Labor did nothing to stop the ATO from doing so. They didn’t even require the ATO to consult or inform small business in advance that they were going to make this change. And the only thing that will fix this is political leadership by the Albanese Government. The Treasurer Jim Chalmers should step in, should direct the ATO to resume credit card payments not just for one year but on a permanent ongoing basis because it's critical for small business in managing a cash flow. Thank you.

ENDS