Media
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Transcripts
August 13, 2026
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Good morning. It's very concerning to read on the front page of the Daily Telegraph today that there have been hundreds of instances of incursions by drones on some of our most sensitive Royal Australian Air Force bases around the country. Not just RAAF Williamtown, which we heard about earlier this week, but Amberley, Edinburgh, Richmond, Townsville, all around the country. This is deeply concerning for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's obviously a serious safety risk. A plane taking off or landing when there are drones in the vicinity could be damaged, and people could be hurt. Secondly, I'm concerned that intelligence could be put at risk, and I have no confidence whatsoever that the “layered defence”, apparently including shutting the blinds, is a sufficient protection to protect the sensitive information that is collected, and analysed, and stored on these bases. And thirdly, we've only learnt about this because of a whistleblower that came forward to Philip Thompson, who then brought it to the attention of the media. The government didn't voluntarily disclose this. The government did not bring this to Australians' attention. It's apparently been happening for years. And not just one or two drones from a teenager or a hobbyist, but apparently swarms of drones, a much more sophisticated exercise that would be difficult to carry out. I've sought a full briefing from the government about this. But I want to see them step up. I want them to take action. I'm not encouraged by their talking points about layered defence. I want real action right now on counter-UAS capability to defend our bases.
JOURNALIST: Do you think the fact that it is swarms of drones would indicate it's not just kids playing around with drones?
PATERSON: That's certainly a possibility, and internationally there have been instances of what appear to be intelligence collection or disruption activities by foreign powers on bases. I don't want to see that happening in Australia. I hope that's not what's happened here in Australia. But based on the answers we've received so far publicly from the government, I'm not filled with confidence.
JOURNALIST: There's drone companies here in Canberra, there's DroneShield, I think out of Victoria, who can run countermeasures. Should the government be beefing up drone countermeasures on all these bases?
PATERSON: Absolutely. We have great Australian technology in the counter-UAS space. Some of our drone companies are exporting that technology all around the world, including to Ukraine. If it can be used there, then we should be using it too. And a slow and ponderous procurement program run by the Department of Defence that delivers this counter-UAS capability down the track is not good enough. It should have been deployed on bases already. It's concerning to me that when this apparently happened at RAAF Williamtown, the response on the base was to report it to the New South Wales Police, not to take it out of the sky. They should have had capability on base to ground these drones immediately and safely, and if they don't, as it appears to be the case, that is a massive failure by this government.
JOURNALIST: Are the Nationals right to be concerned by Andrew Bragg's speech and the fact that he was indicating maybe temporary farm workers might be cut under a Coalition government?
PATERSON: Well, Andrew's not our spokesperson for immigration, he was sharing a personal view, it's not Coalition policy. We will go through a deliberate and careful policy development process to arrive at both the number of reduced migration from Labor's failure and the specific visas that will be reduced, which we'll do after consulting all of our colleagues, going through our proper processes and the relevant stakeholders.
JOURNALIST: Is Andrew trying to destabilise Angus Taylor's leadership?
PATERSON: Only Andrew can speak to his motivations.
JOURNALIST: Are you disappointed by his comments?
PATERSON: I'm not surprised.
JOURNALIST: Why are you not surprised?
PATERSON: Because Andrew is an outspoken person, he's got lots of strong views, and he shares them freely.
JOURNALIST: Do you encourage shadow ministers to do that, or do you think that should be left to backbenchers?
PATERSON: The approach that I take in my portfolio is that if I want to get up a policy in the defence space, I have to convince my colleagues, I have to do the work, I take it through our processes, I have to consult my stakeholders, and then when I receive that support I can make an announcement and I don't speculate about other colleagues' portfolios.
JOURNALIST: Surely with the fact that Coalition's fighting One Nation and Labor, you need Shadow Cabinet Discipline.
PATERSON: I think one of the very clear lessons of the last couple of years is that unity, focus, discipline are critical elements of political success.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Angus Taylor will pull Andrew in for a chat?
PATERSON: That's a matter for Angus.
ENDS