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Transcripts
March 2, 2026
LAURA JAYES: Joining me live now is the Shadow Defence Minister, James Paterson. James, thank you for your time. You have obviously offered bipartisan support in getting those Aussies home. What needs to be done?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Absolutely, we do, Laura. It is a major concern that there are many Australians across the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf states, who are now on the receiving end, or risk being on the receiving end of these indiscriminate lashings out of the Iranian regime to a range of Gulf states. It's very clear that while some of these strikes are targeted at U.S. and joint military facilities in the region, some of them are completely indiscriminate and are striking hotels, and airports, and civilian infrastructure. We strongly support whatever methods the government wants to put in place to evacuate Australians from the region. In past crises like these, when it's been impossible for commercial airliners to evacuate them, military assets have been used where appropriate. And if the government has advice that was necessary in this case, we would, of course, support that.
LAURA JAYES: Just as an early side note, given this has broken out over the weekend, what should happen with the ISIS brides? Is there now a more urgent need to get them out of there, or is it the other way?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I think most Australians watching this would say we don't want to import any more of that conflict into our country than we already have in recent years. And the ISIS brides and their associates, who are really just ISIS supporters, members of ISIS, who went to support the Islamic State, are not welcome. We would again urge the government to use all of the powers available to them to prevent the ISIS brides from returning to Australia, including the use of temporary exclusion orders to keep them offshore, including the use of Section 14 of the 2005 Australian Passports Act, which allows the minister to both refuse and cancel passports if they believe it's a threat to Australia's security to grant those passports. Even though the government regrettably has made a decision to grant these passports, there's nothing stopping the Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, from stepping in today and cancelling those passports and we urge her to do so.
LAURA JAYES: I thought it was interesting that the Australian government was one of the first foreign nations, allies of the U.S., to put out a comprehensive statement in support of the U.S. Activity against Iran. Would you have done the same thing?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Yeah, I think it is appropriate for Australia to signal our support for the action by the United States and Israel, which we should remember is effectively a joint operation, because it's in Australia's national interest that a regime which has sponsored terror attacks on our own soil, targeting our own Jewish community, is degraded in the way that it has been. If all that this mission achieves is further degradation of the nuclear and ballistic missile programs of Iran, then that will be welcome. But if it also metes out some consequences to the Iranian leadership, for the way in which they've sponsored terrorism all around the world and particularly across the Middle East, but also in Australia, then that is a very welcome thing too.
LAURA JAYES: Australia has a special interest in this U.S. and Israeli action because of the state-sponsored terrorism here. Attempted, I should say, and actual.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Absolutely, we do. And we have been warned for many years that there is foreign interference from the Islamic Republic of Iran in Australia, both targeting the Iranian diaspora in Australia but also, we now know, intimidating and targeting the Jewish community and attempting to sow dissent and undermine social cohesion in our country, weaponising an environment of antisemitism in our country in the most despicable and dangerous way. And Australians have recently come to know and to experience what many people around the world have come to know. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been the principal sponsor and originator of much of the Islamist terrorism that we've seen across the Middle East and the world. They are sponsors of Hamas, they are sponsors of Hezbollah, they are sponsors of Houthis. There's not an Islamist terror group in the world that they haven't sought to aid in one way or another at a different time.
LAURA JAYES: Do you agree that the American and Israeli objectives are, well, they do differ. Are we more aligned with the U.S. objectives just for geographical reasons alone?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, I think it's very clear that the joint objectives are the further degradation of the ballistic missile and nuclear program of Iran, and that is one that's wholeheartedly shared and endorsed by Australia, but also that this is a regime which menaces democracies around the world, and particularly in the Middle East, and most obviously Israel, but not only Israel. We've seen many of our partners and friends in the Gulf states now become targets of the Iranian regime overtly, in a way that they have previously been covertly threatened by Iran. And so I think it is in our interest that Ayatollah and his officials are removed from office. And it would be a good thing for Iran, for the Middle East and for the world if a new regime were able to take shape here that was less menacing and more pragmatic in its diplomatic relations with its immediate region and the world. Obviously, as some of your previous guests have been saying, there's not a lot of historical examples of regime change being achieved from the air alone, even with the unsurpassed military might and capability of the United States, which has been on display. And so we stand with the Iranian people, who have been protesting in their hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in recent months and paid a very heavy price for it. It really is now up to them what the future of their country is. And it's very easy for us, from the safety and security of Australia on a television set like this, to opine about that. But they have to take very real and grave risks with their own lives if they want to chart a different course for the future of their country.
LAURA JAYES: And they have, in their tens of thousands over the last couple of weeks, young people at universities. And this was started in 2022, really, by women who were targeted in the streets for not wearing the right headdress, for example. So we have to remember that as well. James, I just finally want to ask you, before we take our viewers to these extraordinary pictures coming out of L.A., where should Australia's support for this conflict end? Trump has talked about this for weeks. He has talked about, well, vaguely regime change, but would we really support anything other than what is being done at the moment, and that is strikes from the air and strikes on Iranian shipping targets as well.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Laura, I've not yet been briefed, although the government has agreed to brief the opposition, which I'm grateful for, and I'm not aware of any formal requests from the U.S. for assistance in this operation. But I think it is notable, as you were reporting earlier, that the UK, Germany, and France have signalled a willingness to use assets in a defensive sense given Iran is striking indiscriminately.
LAURA JAYES: What could we do?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, we don't have the same presence in the Middle East that some of those powers do, but in the past we have deployed Australian personnel to some of these joint facilities in the Middle East and assisted with targeting missions, and at different times we've provided some military assets to the region, including naval assets and air assets, for example, for surveillance and targeting. Now, I don't want to publicly speculate about whether or not we will be asked or if we are asked whether or not we should do that, except that the Australian government should always be guided by Australia's national interest and if it's determined that it is in Australia's national interest to assist and that we have the assets available to assist and the government chose to do so, they would obviously have our bipartisan support.
LAURA JAYES: James, thank you, and just quickly, will you be getting that briefing today?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I don't want to publicly canvass the exact timings of sensitive security briefings, but yes, it'll be imminent.
LAURA JAYES: OK, thank you. James, appreciate it.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Thank you.
ENDS