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Transcripts
February 5, 2026
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, if the Albanese government proceeds with changes to capital gains tax or indeed negative gearing, it will be a major broken promise and a shocking breach of faith with the Australian people, who they have told at successive elections that they will make no changes to CGT and no changes to negative gearing, it'll be very clear no matter how they might try to dress this up as some gesture of intergenerational fairness or some other spin, that this is about a grab for revenue for a government that can't keep spending under control. Right now we have spending at a 40 year high outside a recession or a pandemic. And it is driving up inflation and it is driving up interest rates. And the only person who doesn't recognise that is the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. It's time for the government to exercise just a little bit of fiscal discipline, to rein in their spending, to take the pressure off inflation and interest rates and keep faith with the election commitments that they took to the Australian people. In just a few months between the election and the MYEFO economic update before December, we had a $57 billion blowout in medium-term budget projections, and no one from the government, not the Treasurer, not the Finance Minister, has provided any adequate explanation for why that's the case. Until they can get a handle on spending, it's going to hurt the Australian people. When Labor spends, you pay.
JOURNALIST: So what's your solution to housing affordability then, if not that?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, very clearly, the biggest problem with housing affordability is supply and taxing housing more will not increase the supply of housing. We need to be working better with the states and territories to encourage them to release more land, to allow more development, and our Shadow Minister for Housing, Andrew Bragg, has already done some excellent work in this area, and we'll have more to say before the next election about our plans.
JOURNALIST: With respect, though, both parties of government have been saying that for years now and yet housing prices continue to go up. There are a lot of economists who say that part of the problem is the CGT tax exemption and negative gearing, so why not touch those two things?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, I don't think increasing taxes on housing is going to make them more affordable. In fact, I think the opposite is likely to be the case. And that has been the experience in the past when changes have been made to negative gearing. It often flows through to higher rent for people who are often trying to save a deposit to buy a home. I don't think it will help them to pay more rent. I also don't think that's what this is about. This is about a revenue grab, pure and simple. And this is a broken commitment that the Australian Labor Party made to the Australian people at successive elections.
JOURNALIST: The Liberal Party needs to win back younger voters in the cities if this is popular with them. Is it a mistake to rule out supporting it straight away without looking at the proposal when it comes in the budget?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: We will take an ambitious policy agenda on housing to the next election. My colleague Andrew Bragg is doing excellent work on that because it is critical that we restore the hope of home ownership for young Australians, which they have lost over recent decades, and you are all right to be concerned about the failure on a bipartisan basis to address this problem previously. As a younger person, it's my generation and those below mine that have been hardest hit by this, and I'm very passionate about fixing it, but that doesn't mean we should pursue policies that will make no difference that are just about raising revenue.
JOURNALIST: So these capital gains tax concessions result in 20 billion dollars a year in foregone government revenue. You've mentioned that. So by removing these concessions the government could remove up to 20 billion dollars of spending from the economy, which we know increases inflation. So this isn't a small thing. That estimate, you know, that Chris Richardson himself said that estimate that a seven billion dollar change in government spending is equivalent to a 25 basis point interest rate movement, which is exactly what we saw. Do you have a response to that?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, if Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher's economic policy is to raise taxes to slow the economy, that would be a very bold political and economic strategy and I look forward to them articulating that. That's not our view. Our view is when spending is at a 40 year high outside of a recession and a pandemic, that it's very clear that excess spending is the problem here.
JOURNALIST: Senator, what's the latest on the talks to get the Coalition back together? Is there any chance of that happening this week before the deadline Sussan Ley set?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I have not been briefed on the latest exchanges between the National Party and the Liberal Party on this. I look forward to receiving an update later this morning, but my view is we should continue to talk while there is goodwill. The Liberal Party is, of course, right to insist on reasonable principles like shadow cabinet solidarity and the Westminster conventions, but we should keep the door open and keep the talks going, because it's not in the interest of our parties to be separate.
JOURNALIST: The Israeli president is going to be visiting Australia next week. Given the tensions in the community, is this really the right time for someone like that to be coming to Australia?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Absolutely, it is. After Australia's worst-ever terror attack at Bondi, I think at a bare minimum, the least thing we can do is have the President of the Jewish state come to Australia to provide comfort to the Australian Jewish community. And I think it's the right thing for the government to have invited President Herzog, and I think it's incredibly disappointing that we have some Labor backbenchers and other Labor figures, including Ed Husic, publicly running down what was a very good gesture after Bondi. Penny Wong has often spoken about the importance of the Australian government speaking with one voice when it comes to foreign policy. Well she should live up to her words and her rhetoric on that, and she should ensure the government has one foreign policy, not a different foreign policy if you are a Labor backbencher.
JOURNALIST: The former human rights commissioner, Chris Sidoti, has said that the Israeli president should be arrested when he comes to Australia for inciting hate. What do you say to that?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Nothing would surprise me coming out of a former Human Rights Commissioner, I guess, but that is a really absurd proposition. Israel is a friendly democracy to Australia. The President has been invited as a guest of Australia. It would be utterly bizarre for us to follow advice like that.
JOURNALIST: Do you hold security concerns for the Jewish community amid protests during his visit?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Yes, I think of course in Australia, a liberal democracy, people are free to protest respectfully and peacefully, but we have seen in the past how some anti-Israel protests have got out of control, have gone into incitement to violence towards the Jewish community, and we must make sure if people want to protest as they are right to, when they have foreign dignities visiting, that they do so in a way that doesn't involve the incitement of violence against their vulnerable community, which was the target of our worst ever terrorist attack just a couple of months ago.
JOURNALIST: Senator, at a time when skills shortages are really holding back growth in the economy, particularly in construction, where is the Liberal Party's position on immigration, which I thought was coming up prior to Christmas? And are you worried that the rights of One Nation will lead to a shift to the right that will put pressure on the need to address these economic constraints?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, our migration policy was due to be released before Christmas, but I think entirely appropriately, given the attack at Bondi, it was not the appropriate environment to release an immigration policy. Further work is being done on that, and you won't have long to wait before we release our migration policy. To your point, absolutely there are skill shortages in the Australian economy, particularly when it comes to construction for housing. But a tiny proportion of the number of skilled visas that are granted each year go to construction trades and so there are ways in which you can continue to have appropriate skilled visas being granted, while bringing migration levels back to sustainable levels that have the support of the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: Have you any insight as to why we have not that many skilled construction people coming in from overseas? Is it the government's got the wrong settings, or is it too hard to find them? What is your view about that?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Yes, I think the government has the wrong settings and I don't think it would be churlish to point out that a government that is reliant on the support of the CFMEU and the ETU and other unions has traditionally been hostile to granting visas to workers in
the construction industry to come to this country to help us build things. That's been a consistent approach of Labor governments for many years.
JOURNALIST: And while you've just noted fairly that we'll hear more about the Liberal Party's position on this. Is it fair to say that you won't be doing what you've just accused the Labor Party of doing?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: What do you mean?
JOURNALIST: What I mean is, you say that they could be captive to unions or whatever, that's affecting their policy. Can we expect that the Liberal government wouldn't be trying to bring in [inaudible] construction workers?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, we would have a policy which is in the national interest, which will bring migration levels down to sustainable levels that enjoy the support of the Australian people, which is absolutely critical, but which also provides the necessary skills for the Australian economy in areas where there are genuine shortages.
JOURNALIST: Senator, do you hope that David Littleproud and Sussan Ley heed the words of John Howard in the newspapers?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, John Howard is our greatest living Liberal. He is a master coalitionist who presided over a highly successful government and an excellent relationship with the National Party in government. We don't have to do everything that Mr Howard says, but we should listen very carefully to what he says, and we should have a very good reason if we're to part from his advice. Sussan has publicly said that she has relied on the advice of Mr Howard in relation to these matters, and I'm sure she'll be listening to it very carefully. And I think I should probably head off to our meeting. Thank you very much.
ENDS