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May 26, 2025
JAMES GLENDAY: We're going to talk federal politics now and Liberal Senator and likely opposition front bencher James Paterson joins us in the studio now. James, welcome back to News Breakfast.
JAMES PATERSON: Good to be with you.
JAMES GLENDAY: Have you picked out a portfolio now for your next term in opposition?
JAMES PATERSON: Look, I've seen that speculation. In many ways, these are, you know, very poor consolation prizes. When you're in politics, you hope to govern and deliver for the Australian people, but that's not to be. So I'll have that conversation with Sussan Ley privately this week.
JAMES GLENDAY: We should talk about those reports, though. I mean, multiple reports suggest you're likely to either get foreign affairs or defence, whichever of those, according to the Australian Angus Taylor, doesn't get or want. Does that sound right? Are we in the rough area?
JAMES PATERSON: I wouldn't want to speculate; it really would be dangerous and a bad career move to do that.
JAMES GLENDAY: Foreign affairs? Do you have a preference?
JAMES PATERSON: All I could say is national security is my area of focus and passion. I was Home Affairs Shadow Minister in the past parliament, and I really enjoyed that, and I think there are some very serious national security challenges facing our country. We do live in a very uncertain world, and we have to do much more, frankly, I think, to prepare for that, to safeguard our freedom and our democracy.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: How are things going? Are you all in group therapy? What are you doing to repair the harm and the hurt that was done? There were reports this morning that there is a pretty serious split between those in your party on the more moderate side and those that would like to move more to the right. How do you bring those voices together as you sort of analyse what's happened at the election?
JAMES PATERSON: It is a strange thing we do in politics, which is engage in our therapy sessions out in public in full view of the media and the public, and we will have to work through these difficult issues because frankly, the Australian people handed us a very clear verdict at the last election. It was not a close election, we were delivered a very strong message and we need to demonstrate that we're listening, that we've heard the Australian people and we respond with a policy agenda that hopefully inspires them to vote Liberal and National at the next election and that will give them confidence that our country will get better and stronger under our government.
JAMES GLENDAY: John Howard called the temporary split stupid, just not sure whether you would agree with that, what did you make of the blow up last week and whether or not it could have just been avoided and dealt with behind the scenes?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, it's hard for any of us to disagree with Mr Howard on that. He's a legend of our party, knows these things well and has been through his own painful experience in the late 1980s. My view from the beginning was that we are much better and stronger together as a Liberal and National Coalition, that we can better hold the government to account, that we can develop a better policy agenda if we do that together and while it's been messy, I think we're landing in the right place, which is Sussan Ley has stood up for and defended really important principles like Shadow Cabinet solidarity. And the National Party have secured policy commitments that are important to them, but actually, frankly, they're important to a lot of Liberals as well, whether they're urban Liberals or regional Liberals, and I think we're landing in the right place.
JAMES GLENDAY: Did the Nationals come crawling back?
JAMES PATERSON: No, I wouldn't characterise it that way, I mean we had a more public process than we would prefer to have had, but I think we're landing in the right place.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Tim Wilson looks to have won in Goldstein, which is probably the only Teal seat you look to perhaps have won back. Is that the model, do you think, to get some of those urban seats back? Will that be as part of the central piece of the review that you do?
JAMES PATERSON: I agree with you, I think it's clear that Tim has won, although we still haven't had a concession from the Teal incumbent.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: I said looks to have, looks to have, yes.
JAMES PATERSON: And I think it is going on a bit long now, frankly, and I think we need to really uphold the independent institutions of our democracy, like the AEC and accept the verdict even when they're tough. But Tim's achieved outstanding success in Goldstein, he'll be the only inner-urban Liberal in the country by the look of it, potentially Bradfield as well, we hope for Bradfield with Gisele Kapterian, but he won a seat. We didn't win a lot of seats in this election, that's one that we did win, and I think he's learnt a lot from his model and the way he's applied it, and we all need to copy that for the rest of the country.
JAMES GLENDAY: I just wanted to ask you about a policy position that the Nationals have really pushed for, and that is forced divestiture. Given your past policy positions, I think it's fair to assume that you're not going to be in favour of something like that. What would stop David Littleproud walking out again or having a big blow up if you can't reach an agreement within the Coalition about this?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, I'm certainly a free market liberal, and I'm someone who wants as minimal regulation as possible on the economy, but I think the supermarket industry is unique; it is a highly concentrated industry both in Australia but also compared to peers internationally. And other market democracies like the United States and the United Kingdom do have divestment powers as a last resort to support competition, which is what we should all want to see. So I'm comfortable with the policy that we agreed in the last term, as long as it has those strong safeguards, which it does. So I don't think we're going to see a repeat of what happened over the last week. I think everybody's learnt their lesson about how unedifying that was. It's not good for politics on the centre right. And I don't think we'll see any more of that.
BRIDGET BRENNAN: Alright, James Paterson, thanks very much for your time on the couch this morning.
JAMES PATERSON: Thank you.
JAMES GLENDAY: All the best for your term as Shadow Foreign Affairs?
JAMES PATERSON: We will see.
ENDS