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Transcripts
August 19, 2026
PETA CREDLIN: Joining me now, Shadow Defence Minister James Paterson. James, differing events between the diggers in the room, the veterans in the room and the former military personnel and how they say they were treated by the Minister, and the Minister apologising for not putting the date in his diary, but certainly not apologising for his conduct. I just spoke to Dr Tim Nelson, a former RAAF fighter pilot, now medical doctor. He was there in the room. He said he does not lie. He says the minister must resign, and if not, the Prime Minister must sack him, that he's lost complete confidence, the complete confidence of the Australian veteran community. I'll get your response to that.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, Peta, I met Dr Nelson and some of his colleagues when they came here to Canberra. I thought it was a priority to meet them, unlike the minister, and I was astonished to hear how badly he treated them, first, not taking the meeting, second, taking so under pressure, and then complaining in the meeting that because of them he was missing an event with the Governor-General. For your viewers, that's the Address-In-Reply ceremonial function. It's a strictly optional and frankly social event. It's not like the minister had a personal meeting with the Governor-General. And many members of parliament don't go for much less mundane reasons than meeting stakeholders in their own portfolio. So this is just extraordinary behaviour from the Veterans Affairs Minister. But as we learned in the last parliament, Anthony Albanese has a very high tolerance for failure. You will remember how hard it was to get him just to move aside Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles despite their shocking failures in their portfolios, despite the harm being done to the community. So I don't think Anthony Albanese is even contemplating sacking Matt Keogh as Veterans Affairs Minister, and so really it falls to Matt to do the honourable thing and resign. Particularly if you cannot get the government to axe the cap, this $5,000 cap on allied health, which is the whole reason why these veterans have had to come to Canberra to beg for the care that they deserve given the service they've given our country.
CREDLIN: Well, don't forget Luke Gosling. I mean, he has been charged. He faces criminal charges, serious criminal charges. He has not been stood aside. I look to the case of the Sydney Swans. Those men have been stood aside. There are no charges to date. There's just been the breaches of internal football club rules. But they are now not playing. Why is Luke Gosling still on the front bench?
PATERSON: I have no idea other than this is a Prime Minister who's unwilling to admit failure or fault, and I think he must think it would be some kind of admission of failure or fault that he appointed Luke Gosling now that he faces these allegations of criminal assault. This is a Prime Minister who is just unwilling to enforce even the most basic standards that he himself demanded when he was in opposition. In fact, I remember Coalition ministers who were not facing criminal charges, who weren't even facing police allegations, who he demanded resign. I mean, it's just extraordinary that he won't apply those standards to himself, but we shouldn't be surprised from Anthony Albanese. I think it is a revealing character insight though.
CREDLIN: I see it as weakness, James. I want to get your reaction, though, to a story that has really taken hold with my viewers. It was on the front page of The Australian yesterday. It pertained to a convicted child sex offender, a foreign national, a 50-year-old man from Sierra Leone, who may get to stay in Australia after his psychologist argued before the federal court that he would pose less of a risk of offending, of raping children. If he was granted permanent protection visa status, if he was allowed to stay here. Now, I'd say there'd be zero risk of him raping a child if we simply deported him. Where's Minister Tony Burke on this?
PATERSON: Well, exactly right. He would be no risk to any Australian if he's no longer in Australia. That's a self-evident point. It's the purpose of our immigration system, and the integrity of that system is absolutely critical. If we allow sex offenders, child sex offenders to stay because somehow it will be of psychological benefit to them and they may be less likely to commit crimes, then we are making a mockery of our whole migration system. Tony Burke should remember what happened to Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles. The Prime Minister's hand was finally forced when their failures on community safety came so demonstrably clear. He shouldn't want the same thing to happen to him, and he should step in and make sure this person is deported and deported without delay.
CREDLIN: How can you deliver and bring down recommendations in relation to antisemitism if you do not speak to the people that were on the ground and in charge of our intelligence services, of our government at the time the massacre occurred? We haven't had the Prime Minister front the Royal Commission, we haven't had the Premier. I think it's incumbent on all the heads of our agencies to give evidence if required. But I also think the hate preachers and the Muslim leaders in Australia should also front the Commission. Why is that not happening?
PATERSON: I want the Royal Commission to succeed, Peta, but right now I think it is a grave risk of failing and being judged very harshly by history. Now, to be clear, the primary responsibility here falls with the government because they gave the Royal Commissioner such a short timeframe. But if the Royal Commissioner asked for an extension of time, I think the government would have to grant it. It would be inconceivable that the government would refuse a request from a Royal Commissioner for more time. And more time would allow the Royal Commissioner to haul in the Prime Minister, to haul in the Home Affairs Minister, to haul in the Foreign Minister, to haul all the relevant ministers and grill them and cross-examine them on what they did and critically what they didn't do in the lead up to those horrific events on Bondi Beach. Particularly unexamined, as far as I know, are all the ridiculous and unnecessary changes they made in the Home Affairs portfolio, taking ASIO out, taking the AFP out, putting them back in again, reporting to different ministers, all the conflict between the ministers over those differing responsibilities. Those are questions that must be examined so the public knows, and so the Royal Commission can make recommendations, so it never happens again.
CREDLIN: Senator, thank you.
ENDS