Media
|
Transcripts
August 11, 2025
KARL STEFANOVIC: I'm joined by Senator James Paterson in Melbourne. Senator, good morning to you. Thanks for your time. These are your people. They've had enough, and understandably so.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Absolutely, Karl. My heart goes out to Aaron and many others in Victoria who have experienced this shocking crime of a home invasion. You know, five or ten years ago, this was relatively unheard of in Melbourne, but it's becoming increasingly frequent, particularly under the Allan Labor government, who have been soft on crime and particularly soft on youth offenders, letting them out on bail even after they commit horrific crimes like this. And what do they do when they're out? They go and commit other crimes like this again. We need those people to fear the consequences of their behaviour again. We need them to be locked up and kept away when they commit crimes like this, so that homeowners don't have to go through what Aaron went through or contemplate having to defend themselves in a terrible situation like that.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Someone comes onto your property, I'm sorry, but I would have thought you have more rights than they do, someone comes into your house, threatens your family, how would you react?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, I hope I'd react like any other homeowner would react, and I'd try and defend my family and protect my family, and you should have more rights defending your own home than someone trying to break into your home, terrorise your family and steal your car or break in. But the truth is that most people are not in a position to do that. Not everyone is strong enough, or able enough, or fit enough. Think about an elderly couple for example, they've got no business defending themselves against a youth offender. What we need to protect them is cops on the beat to lock people up and real consequences when they do get caught. Not being let out, time, and time, and time again. And that's what we're finding in so many of these cases. These are teenagers who are recruited by criminal gangs to steal cars, who commit these crimes repeatedly without any fear of any real consequences.
KARL STEFANOVIC: This vision is terrifying. It's time the scales were balanced in the right direction. I know that just looking at this vision terrifies me. And what I would do if someone broke into my house and threatened my family and my kids? Well, I don't know. Let's move on. Aussies have an awful lot on their plates at the moment. Shopping on the weekend, $50 for a basic bag of shopping these days, and I can afford it. Is it time for the RBA to actually deliver real relief?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I know every Australian who's got a mortgage is hoping for a rate cut tomorrow, but even if they do get a rate cut, Karl, right now they're paying about $1,900 more every month on interest and repayments than they were when Labor was elected just over three years ago. So even a rate cut, which might save them another $100 a month on a $600,000 mortgage, they're still going to be more than $20,000 a year worse off than when Labor got in and that's just on their mortgage, let alone their groceries, as you say, or their electricity, or their gas, or their insurance, or other expenses. The truth is the cost of living has got out of control on this government's watch, and they have no plan to fix it; in fact, they're making it worse.
KARL STEFANOVIC: Well, I think this is part of the point. Having come back from the country in Queensland, people don't give a toss about a productivity talkfest that's coming up in a couple of weeks' time. They could not give a toss. They care about their shopping costing more than 50 to 100 bucks a bag. They care about their power prices. I don't know how the PM thinks he's going to deliver more coming into the coffers. How else are they going to get the money back without more taxes? There are budget cliffs everywhere at the moment, it seems.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Exactly right, Karl, as bad as the budget looks on paper, which is a decade of deficits and $1.2 trillion of debt, even that hides the truth. This is a budget which is built on quicksand because it relies on hundreds of government programs coming to an end in the next few years that the government could never responsibly allow to come to an end. Just one example, the high-risk terrorist offenders regime is set to run out of funding in just over a year's time - that will have to be refunded, and it also relies on a cut of 22,500 federal public servants. That's what the Parliamentary Budget Office found about the government's budget. They'll never let that happen. And so these budget numbers are actually even worse than they look on paper. Those deficits are going to be even larger, and I'm worried that the Labor Party is going to go after your hard-earned money with wealth taxes and other things to make up for their budget shortfalls.
KARL STEFANOVIC: James, appreciate it, thank you.
ENDS