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October 29, 2026
TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW
NEWS24 FIRST EDITION WITH PETE STEFANOVIC
Thursday, 29 October 2026
Topics: Palestinian recognition conditions fail, Labor owns ATO credit card blunder, Albanese misleads the House, Australia must secure integrated and air missile defence
E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………
PETE STEFANOVIC: Alright, let's go back to Canberra now. Joining us is the Shadow Defence Minister, James Paterson. What do you make of that admission, James? I mean, Hamas will like it.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well they sure will. And let's remember a year ago when the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister announced that Australia was going to recognise the State of Palestine, they said they were doing so with five preconditions attached. Governance reform, ending the pay for slay practice, education reform, elections and demilitarisation. And what officials told me last night is there's been very little progress on any of those five key areas. And in fact, in some respects, the Palestinian Authority has gone backwards. They've delayed elections yet again. Mahmoud Abbas is now in the 21st year of his four-year term and he's delayed elections yet again. And so, the obvious question is, well, the preconditions aren't being met, what are the consequences? And it turns out there are no consequences at all. The Albanese government has given away whatever leverage we had over the Palestinian Authority. There is no risk to them that they will lose recognition from Australia. And so, there's no need for them to undertake any of these reforms.
STEFANOVIC: Might those preconditions still be met though?
PATERSON: Well, you're a very hopeful person if you think that demilitarisation in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip is likely. You're a very hopeful person if you think that the 21 years of Mahmoud Abbas' term as Palestinian Authority President is about to come to an end. You are a very optimistic person if you think the governance of the Palestinian Authority is about to be reformed. I am deeply sceptical that these will be met and they certainly won't be met if there's no leverage, if there are no consequences. There has to be consequences. The Palestinian Authority has no motivation to achieve this because they've already got from Australia what they want. They wanted recognition, we've given it away and we're going to get nothing in return.
STEFANOVIC: Yes. What's the point of preconditions if preconditions aren't met, I suppose?
PATERSON: Well, that's exactly the point. In fact, we've now learned that they weren't preconditions, they were just motherhood statements. That the Albanese Government never had any intention of putting any pressure on the Palestinian Authority to do anything. They had a domestic political problem and they wanted to solve that through foreign policy and recognising a Palestinian state. This was never about reforming the Palestinian authority, and it was certainly never about taking any steps towards a two-state solution. We've never been further from a two-state solution despite Australia's recognition of a Palestinian state.
STEFANOVIC: So, if you win the next government, do you wind that back, James?
PATERSON: Look, it's a matter for our Foreign Affairs spokesman Ted O'Brien to make formal statements on that and our leader, but we've been highly critical every step of the way. I am deeply sceptical that it was the right thing then or the right thing now to recognise a state that still doesn't accept Israel has a right to exist. That still hasn't engaged in governance reforms. That still won't even hold elections. It's not a state at all if it fails to meet those kind of preconditions.
STEFANOVIC: Okay, big week in the Senate Estimates. Last night the ATO admitting it should have consulted over the credit card ban, what are your thoughts on this?
PATERSON: Well, it's absolutely true that the ATO could have done better and should have done better, but the reason why they didn't do better is because there was no political leadership exercised here. Let's remember that the Albanese Government took full credit for the ban on surcharges on credit cards. Let's remember that they were warned by the ATO, months in advance that they intended to stop taking credit card payments, including from small business, for tax debts. And what did Labor do? Nothing. They sat on their hands. They didn't ask the ATO to announce this, to give small business time to prepare. They didn't tell the ATO that they had to consult with small business to understand the implications for their cash flow. They sat on their hands and they did nothing. So ultimately, it is the government and the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, who owns every single piece of responsibility for this mess that they've now created.
STEFANOVIC: So, there is this delay, of course, that's in place right now. Does that need to be made permanent, that delay?
PATERSON: Of course it does. A delay doesn't help anything at all. It just means that small business gets one more year of reprieve before ultimately, they lose the right to pay their tax debts by credit cards and therefore a critical tool in managing their cash flow. It's not going to be any easier for small business because they know it's coming in a year, as if it was now, they're still going to deal with the problem of that. And so very clearly, again, the responsibility lies with the government. The government is the only people who can fix this.
STEFANOVIC: Still in Senate Estimates earlier in the week though, it was revealed sewage. Never part of the initial grant plan involving the Marrickville Golf Course. Is the cover up for the Prime Minister here getting worse than the actual crime?
PATERSON: Oh, it's getting there, absolutely, Pete. I mean, the Prime Minister, transparently and obviously, has misled the House of Representatives. He made a false statement in the House of Representatives. And whenever you make a false statement, as soon as you become aware of it, you are obliged to go at the earliest opportunity to correct the record. Now, he did not do so. He knew he'd made an error. He knew he misled the House. He did not go in on his own accord at the first opportunity to update the House and correct the record. We had to wait until he was asked in Question Time and it was dragged out of him in this merely mouthed half-admission that he had misled the House. It's a very serious thing for a Prime Minister to mislead the House of Representatives. Our whole Westminster system of government is founded on the principle that ministers are obliged to be honest and accurate and fair and truthful to the Parliament. And if they're not, there are serious consequences. In years gone by, this would have cost a minister their job. Under Albanese's Government, there are no standards at all.
STEFANOVIC: Well Bridget McKenzie, it did.
PATERSON: Indeed.
STEFANOVIC: That's an example. Anyway, time for one more James and elsewhere in your wheelhouse, we've apparently sought pricing of a first land-based ballistic missile shield, like Israel's Iron Dome, to protect us against Chinese weapons. What are your thoughts on this development this morning? There on the front page of the Oz.
PATERSON: Well, integrated air and missile defence is absolutely critical to defending Australia's critical infrastructure, our bases and our cities, in an age of missiles and drones. But the worrying thing about this story is that the Albanese Government doesn't plan to acquire it in total until the mid 2030s, so nearly a decade away. We've been told time and time again by our defence experts that the 10-year warning time for conflict is gone. That conflict could occur in our own neighbourhood in a matter of years. And so, we need to be prepared for that now, not in the mid-2030s. But when Labor is not spending enough on defence, as they're not right now, they're pushing out critical capabilities like this into the never-never, and it's leaving us dangerously exposed.
STEFANOVIC: Alright James Paterson. We'll leave it there. Appreciate it though. Chat to you soon.
ENDS