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Transcripts
December 15, 2025
ANDREW CLENNELL: Joining me live now is Shadow Finance Minister James Paterson. James Paterson, can I just ask you first of all for your reaction to these attacks?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, it was gut-wrenching news for any Australian to receive last night. I was actually on my way with the Victorian Leader of the Opposition, Jess Wilson, to the equivalent Melbourne event, Hanukkah at the race course in Caulfield, when the news started to filter in, and we were contemplating whether or not we should continue to go to the event. By the time we got close, it had been cancelled, and people had been sent home, which is obviously a very sensible decision in the circumstances.
But this will forever change our country. In the same way that Port Arthur changed our country, this will change our country. And frankly, it has to change our country because we can't go on like this. We can't allow antisemitism to fester as it has over the last two years, and we can't continue to ignore the warnings of Jewish community leaders who have been telling us that something terrible like this was going to happen in our country if we didn't take their warnings more seriously. And I feel terribly sad and terribly sorry that those warnings weren't heeded, and the worst has come to pass.
ANDREW CLENNELL: What could the Federal government have done specifically to prevent this attack?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, Andrew, it wouldn't be reasonable for me to say that there was a specific thing that the federal government should or shouldn't have done to prevent this attack. That's not fair to them. And we are still in the first, earliest hours of the investigation, and there are a lot of important facts to be established.
But speaking more broadly, as you know, over the last two and a half years, I've been highly critical of the government's response to antisemitism. I don't think they have been strong enough. I don't think they've appreciated it for the cancer that it is to our society, and I don't think the Prime Minister has shown enough leadership in tackling it. And to give just one example of many, I don't think it's sufficient to leave your hand picked envoy, Jillian Siegel's comprehensive recommendations on antisemitism sitting on the desk for five months without an adequate and formal government response. And I think we need to have one very quickly.
ANDREW CLENNELL: Are you disappointed there weren't more police out for this Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I wasn't there, Andrew, and so I can't assess whether the security was adequate. That will become a key part of any coronial inquiry or inquest that will need to take place now. I can only speak from my experience attending the equivalent event in Melbourne most years, and that is there's usually a heavy police presence and a visible police presence, and that's in addition to the community security group, which is the Jewish community security force, which is largely comprised of volunteers, but does include volunteers who are trained and licensed to carry firearms as well. So the Melbourne event is a generally well secured event. I can't judge the Bondi event because I wasn't there, but self evidently that will have to be a key line of inquiry.
ANDREW CLENNELL: Should the PM recall Parliament this year and pass laws in order to address anti Semitism or any kind of terror threat?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: We're prepared to facilitate that if the government thinks that's necessary. And I think it is a good thing that the Prime Minister has convened the national cabinet today and is speaking to premiers because any public policy response will have to involve state governments as well, as many of these law enforcement issues do sit in the state realm. But if there is anything that the federal parliament can do and should do, then we stand ready to facilitate the return of the Parliament so that that can happen.
ANDREW CLENNELL: Alright, well he's indicated one thing he will do is gun laws. What's your response to that?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: We're certainly happy to look at that, and I think there are some important questions that need to be answered, like, for example, how a non-citizen was able to become a licensed firearm owner and have up to six weapons, if media reports are accurate. And also how someone whose son was a person of interest to ASIO because of his associations with extremism was able to obtain and retain a firearms license. I think that does need to be looked at. I would also say two things, though Andrew, which is that our starting point is we have some of the strictest gun laws in the world, and I support them, and that's a welcome thing. If there's more tightening up and clearing of loopholes that need to happen, then we'll be very happy to look at that. But secondly, we shouldn't allow a focus on gun law reform, as necessary as that may be, to obscure the broader and more serious problem here of antisemitism. If these men had had no access to firearms, they still could have done an enormous amount of harm. We know they had an improvised explosive device in their cars. They could have detonated that. They could have used their cars, they could have used a knife, they could have used any other means of killing Jews. And if there are people in our community who want to kill Jews, that is the cancer that we must be focusing all of our energy and attention on.
ANDREW CLENNELL: What do you do in relation to that? Are you talking about control orders? Are you talking about more resources for ASIO to monitor people? I mean, it seems some of these extremist people, you're not going to talk them around by the PM giving stronger press conferences on antisemitism. So what do you think can practically be done to prevent these sorts of, and they do appear like a sort of a double lone wolf, from acting?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, ever since the 8th of October, the day after that Hamas atrocity in Israel, when there was a rally in Western Sydney that celebrated the killing of Jews in Israel, I think it's clear we've had a serious problem of antisemitism in this country, and it has festered and become worse over the last two years because the government hasn't taken enough action to address that. And you're right, a press conference by the Prime Minister on its own may not have been enough to turn the tide on that. But enforcement of the law certainly would have helped. And real consequences for people engaged in this incitement to violence against their fellow Australians based on their faith also would have helped. It is inexplicable to me that many people have displayed publicly the flags and symbols of listed terrorist organisations, or paraded with photos of terrorists like Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, like Yahya Al-Sinwar, the head of Hamas, like the Ayatollah Khamenei, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they've done so without consequences. And frankly, that Labor MPs marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge standing in front of the photo of the Ayatollah Khamenei, the head of a regime who we now know was behind a state sponsored terror attack on a synagogue in Melbourne, the Adass Israel synagogue. Far too much tolerance of intolerable behaviour has occurred in our country over the last two years. And frankly, I'm not surprised, and the Jewish community is not surprised, that it has come to this.
ANDREW CLENNELL: James Paterson, thanks for your time.
ENDS