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Transcripts
June 2, 2025
NATALIE BARR: We're joined by Liberal Senator James Paterson live in Melbourne. Good morning to you.
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning.
NATALIE BARR: Should we be listening to our American allies and increase our defence spending?
JAMES PATERSON: Well Nat, we should be increasing our defence spending because people like Kim Beasley, the former Labor leader and former Defence Minister tell us to, people like Sir Angus Houston who completed the Defence Strategic Review tell us to, not because any American tells us to but because it's in our national interest to do so. We are not spending enough right now to defend ourselves, and that's why the Coalition took to the last election a policy to increase it to 2.5% of GDP in five years and 3% of GDP in 10 years.
NATALIE BARR: So the PM says we will decide our own defence policy. We won't be told by Americans. What do you say to that?
JAMES PATERSON: He's right, we should decide our own defence policy and we should listen to the advice of our own experts. And when the Prime Minister asked Sir Angus Houston, a former Chief of Defence Force, to go and conduct a Defence Strategic Review for him, one of the things that Sir Angus Houston has been saying is we're not spending enough on defence and we need to spend more, and he's joined by many other defence and national security experts in Australia, including the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. So the Prime Minister needs to heed that advice and increase our defence spending regardless of what our American friends are saying.
NATALIE BARR: What do we cut? Because, you know, a lot of people would say we're, you know, government spending is at an all time high, rivalling the COVID spend. So, what would you cut instead?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, we took a policy to the last election that would have increased defence spending and delivered a bigger surplus over the forward estimates of four years. So it is possible if you make the right choices. But the worst choice to make would be not to increase defence spending and then find ourselves in a position where we can't defend ourselves. Look at what happened to Ukraine, look at what happened to Eastern Europe. They've had a wake-up call from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We don't want to have to have a wake up call like that. We want to prevent war or any other form of conflict in our region, and the best way to do that is through deterrence, and you can't get deterrence without investment in defence.
NATALIE BARR: Are you saying we're at risk of being invaded?
JAMES PATERSON: No, I don't think that's a likely prospect in the short or medium term, but we don't want any sort of conflict in our region and we can contribute to deterrence along with countries like Japan, and the United States, and Singapore, and the Philippines and others who share our view that the peaceful status quo in the Indo-Pacific is in our best interest.
NATALIE BARR: Okay, thank you very much, James Paterson.
ENDS