Media
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Transcripts
August 25, 2025
BEN FORDHAM: Earlier this month, the Australian newspaper broke a story about how the Prime Minister had gifted a new party room to the Greens. The room cost just shy of $900,000, and taxpayers picked up the bill. But taxpayers aren't allowed to see what they're paying for. Because when the Australian photographed the secret room, they were punished for doing so. They've been handed a show-cause notice for the breach, and they've been banned from Parliament House for a week. Now I presume that this is directed at their journalist, Yoni Bashan, as opposed to the entire team from the Australian in Canberra. But Yoni Bashan writes, "The Greens were fine with taxpayers funding the construction of the room but not with taxpayers actually seeing what they'd paid for." Senator James Paterson is the Shadow Minister for Finance, and he's on the line. Senator Paterson, good morning.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Ben.
BEN FORDHAM: Have you seen the room?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: No, other than the photos that I've seen printed in The Australian newspaper. It's a private party room of the Greens, and as a Liberal Senator, I would not be welcome to just pop my head in.
BEN FORDHAM: I thought they were cutting back on all of the other parties and their staff members and the other measures that they usually afforded?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, this is a very interesting part of this story Ben, because you're right, the government has slashed the staffing to the opposition and the crossbench and one of the crossbenches who is a victim of that tried to initiate a Senate inquiry into that issue, which you would have thought the Greens would have been in favour of, but they voted with the government against it and maybe now we know why. It's turned out that the government has gifted the Greens a party room to the tune of almost $900,000. Now I do not understand how you can spend nearly a million dollars renovating one room in Parliament House. You could build a luxury house for $900,000. You could build quite a nice house for half that money. And so it's extraordinary that they spent this much money on a very lavishly appointed room for the Greens.
BEN FORDHAM: Yoni Bashan writes, we couldn't believe it ourselves, a brand spanking new party room while every other opposition party was being smacked with bitter staff cuts and austerity measures. So we sloped on down to have a look-see and confirm it for ourselves, and the Greens got very upset about that. So, should we be banning journalists from Parliament House because they have taken a photograph to show taxpayers what they're actually spending their money on?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I'm generally supportive of the media rules we have in Parliament House, because there are good security reasons why there are parts of the building that you can't film in. And frankly, I'm less worried about the media and more worried about one of my colleagues recording an inane TikTok video that I don't particularly want to be in the back of. But having said that, in this instance, it is public expenditure of money on one political party that they benefit from that is being shielded from the public. And the public isn't allowed to know what they've bought for their nearly $900,000. So I think this is a heavy-handed application of those rules. What do the Greens have to hide? Why don't they want the Australian people to know how much money was spent and what we got for it?
BEN FORDHAM: I think in light of this story, they should just open up the doors, shouldn't they? The Greens. And invite everyone in and say, Okay, here's our brand new room, and this is what it looks like.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I agree. Let's hold a press conference in the Greens party room. Let's invite the whole gallery down and the camos and the snappers, and we can get a good look at what $886,000 bought. Because really, even if it was gold plated on the walls, I still can't understand why renovating one single room in Parliament House costs so much money.
BEN FORDHAM: We appreciate your time. Thanks for jumping on the line for us.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Thanks, Ben.
ENDS