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July 7, 2026
CHARLES CROUCHER: Welcome back. The Labor government is this morning weighing up how to respond to China after Beijing launched a long-range missile into the Pacific, hours after signing a defence deal with Fiji. Joining us to discuss today's headlines is Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson and Independent MP Monique Ryan. Good morning to you both. James, let's start with you. Is this a coincidence?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Look, it could be, to be honest, because military exercises like these take weeks, if not months, to plan. But I think the broader picture here is that China is engaging in behaviour which it knows is threatening, which it knows is coercive. One of the reasons why militaries conduct exercises like these is for the demonstration effect. They want others to know they've got the capability to do so, and their decision to do so in the Pacific is particularly unwelcome because the Pacific Island leaders have made very clear they want their region of the world to be a conflict-free zone, and they also want it to be nuclear-free zone. Now, while this particular missile was obviously not equipped with a nuclear warhead, it is capable of being equipped with nuclear warheads, and that's why the PRC should seriously reconsider actions like these.
CROUCHER: The Defence Minister will make the response on behalf of the government on the program shortly, but if the Coalition were in power, how would you be responding right now?
PATERSON: Well, I think so far what I've seen from the government has been appropriate. They should make clear, as they have, that they don't approve of what the Chinese government has done here in our region of the world, and I think it's reasonable for them to seek an explanation from the PRC about why they did this. We were given incredibly minimal notice of this exercise, just two hours. That's slightly better than the Tasman Sea exercises in February last year, when no notice at all was given, and commercial air flights had to reroute around the exercise area. But I think China must understand Australia's perspective that this is unwelcome.
CROUCHER: Monique, this was something that happened just hours after Australia had signed, of all things, an ocean of peace agreement trying to bring stability to the region. Do you think these Pacific peace agreements actually make Australians safer, or is this more about sort of making the region safer at our own expense?
MONIQUE RYAN MP: Well, look, I think we need to be negotiating with China from a position of strength, and so it's always going to be better if we do so in concert with our Pacific neighbours. I think that the agreement we signed with Fiji yesterday was really welcome. It's good to see that the PM is going to the Solomons today to try to extend those agreements that we have around the Pacific. It would be great if other countries like Tonga, and New Zealand, PNG came on board with these agreements as well. We need to negotiate with China from a position of strength, and we will do that more effectively if we have other neighbours on side.
CROUCHER: Well, you mentioned he's off to the Solomons. There is a controversy following the Prime Minister, and that is the crude comments about Kylie Minogue. Monique, in terms of Labor women and their defence of the Prime Minister, are there double standards going on here?
RYAN: I think in the past when Scott Morrison has come out with equally embarrassing commentary, people have leapt on him and in a way that they perhaps haven't done with the PM in the last 48 hours. We really do, I think, have the right to expect more from our leaders. This sort of embarrassing, really cringey sort of engagement with social media commentators doesn't reflect well on the Prime Minister, it doesn't reflect well on our administration. And I would really like to see better from leaders on both sides in the future.
CROUCHER: Cringe is correct. James, the Prime Minister is unequivocally apologising. Are you satisfied with that?
PATERSON: I think the Prime Minister needs to remember he is not a social media influencer, he is not a celebrity, if he wants to do comedic podcasts like these he should set some reasonable boundaries, and he should refuse to engage in the kind of banter that he did in this podcast. It's disrespectful to the women involved, but it's disrespectful to all Australian women. They don't want to be spoken about like this by their Prime Minister, and it diminishes the office of the Prime Minister. So the apology is appropriate. I'm not sure why it took 48 hours, and I'm not sure why some Labor ministers were out there defending it, like Tanya Plibersek did on morning television. I can't believe that Tanya Plibersek actually agrees that the Prime Minister behaved appropriately here.
CROUCHER: Let's finish by speaking of leader overreach, because the World Cup has brought us together, the Socceroos were great, but Donald Trump has convinced the FIFA President to overturn a ban on an American striker in that red card. James, are you surprised to see the president reaching his hands into something of this nature?
PATERSON: Well, to use another sporting analogy, it's just not cricket, is it? I mean, we've had Prime Ministers in our country who are great fans of sport, including the current one and previous ones. John Howard, famously a big cricket fan. But even if Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting were dismissed in circumstances he thought were unfair, I think it's hard to imagine him picking up the phone to the ICC to remonstrate and ask for a different decision. So look, FIFA can defend themselves in their conduct here, but I thought it was frankly pretty odd.
CROUCHER: Yeah, Rishi Sunak tried that after Jonny Bairstow. Monique, given these powers, you could have intervened and put Carlton into the top four by now.
RYAN: Well, they'll be there by the end of the season, no concerns there. But, you know, we don't like to see politics interfering in sport. I would argue we don't want to see politicians protecting sporting codes too much either, and that's why I'd like to see more action on gambling and regulation of that in the next few weeks and perhaps the PM being a little bit closer, less close, to people like Peter V'landys and the head of the AFL. You know, politicians and sport don't mix, and that goes across the board.
CROUCHER: James, Monique, great talking to you this morning.
ENDS