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Transcripts
August 28, 2025
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, it is delightful to see you all here bright and early the morning after the Mid-Winter ball. This is a much better turnout than I was expecting, so gold star for all of you.
Just quickly, onto some substantive matters, the inflation number yesterday, as market economists have said, is a complete shocker. Yes, it's just one month of data. And yes, there might be reasons for the timing of electricity bill rebates that are paid that explains why we have such a big and unexpected jump in the monthly inflation number. But if it were repeated, it would be very unwelcome for Australian families because it would diminish the prospect of any further interest rate reductions, and it represents yet another blow to the cost of living for Australians. I'm particularly worried by the 13.1% increase over a year in electricity prices, as those energy subsidies start to be wound down, because presumably the government doesn't intend to keep paying Australians' electricity prices forever. And that means at some point later this year and next year, Australians are going to feel the full force and the reality of this government's shocking mismanagement of our energy system and the massively higher prices they are now going to be paying.
JOURNALIST: Senator, the Defence Department in the U.S. has said around Marles having a meeting with Hegseth, 'We can confirm that there is not a meeting and it was a happenstance encounter.' What does that say about Marle's relationship with our U.S. counterparts?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Look, be fair to the Deputy Prime Minister and the government. It appears, from what I've seen in the open source reporting, that it was a very senior, you know, set of Americans that he met with while he was there. He met the Vice President, he met the Secretary of State, he’s met a senior White House official, Stephen Miller. And this had some kind of pull aside with Secretary Pete Hegseth. That's the kind of relationship we aspire to have with the United States. Very senior access in Washington, D.C.. What I'm far more concerned about is that we're now 290 odd days on for President Trump being elected, and the Prime Minister still hasn't had that meeting with him. It was even a joke at the Mid-Winter ball last night. I don't think it's a joke. I think it's a serious matter of our most important bilateral security relationship.
JOURNALIST: But if, as you said, they're having this meeting that you can see from the images, but of the Pentagon and saying, that's not what happened, I mean, surely that represents some sort of rift in the relationship, right?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, look, I don't want to overdramatise this issue, I've got to say. The Deputy Prime Minister has had extensive dealings with Secretary Hegseth in the past. And he was in Washington, D.C., meeting with the Vice President and the Secretary of State. So, yes, of course, we want substantial engagement with the Defence Department, and it is particularly important in the context of the AUKUS review, but I'm not concerned based on these current reports.
JOURNALIST: Also, just on Ben Fordham a few moments ago, there were some allegations that a lobbyist offered $600,000 for Barnaby Joyce to walk away from net zero at the Bush Summit. Have you heard anything about this?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: That's news to me. It would be concerning if it were true.
JOURNALIST: Just on that, there's been discussion that the Liberals are potentially looking at a domestic gas reserve. Do you think that's going to help when it comes to the rifts on net zero?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Like all of our policies we took to the last election. That policy is under review, and in due course, we will announce a new policy which will be different from the one we took to the election, but it will be around the same principles. We think there should be more gas in Australia, and we want it to be more affordable to Australians. And we're working constructively with industry to make sure we can deliver a policy that will achieve that. It's not about net zero, although that's an important policy debate, which we're continuing to have. It's about making sure that a critical input, not just for electricity prices, but also industry, is widely available and affordable, which it hasn't been over the last three years under Labor.
JOURNALIST: And just very quickly on the Brittany Higgins defamation case. Obviously, Linda Reynolds has been successful in that case. Do you think there's a level of vindication for her there?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Look, my heart goes out to everyone involved in this saga. It has been a terrible saga for too long now, and I feel particularly sorry for my former colleague Linda Reynolds, who has had to take legal action over four and a half years for her name to be cleared. And there's no question in my mind, observing what happened in this building over that period of time, that this was politicised to an awful and irresponsible degree. And that is one of the reasons why there's been so much human carnage that has come out of it. I think this is a lesson for the future. If there are ever allegations of this nature again, they should not be politicised. We should allow police to conduct their investigations in the normal way to get to the bottom of it. Otherwise, I fear we will have more casualties, like we've seen in this sorry saga.
Thanks, everyone.
ENDS