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Transcripts
March 5, 2026
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PETER STEFANOVIC: Joining us live now is the Shadow Defence Minister, James Paterson, for his thoughts on things this morning. You are obviously pleased about that first planeload arriving home James.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Certainly a good thing, Pete, for those 200 Australians that they're now safely home, but of course, we know there's about 115,000 Australians in the Middle East. Many of whom may want to come home, I think about 24,000 at last count in the UAE alone, which has been struck by fire indiscriminately by Iran, including hotels, airports and other civilian infrastructure. So we need to make sure that if those commercial options are available, people take them. But if those commercials options are not available, then every other option needs to be considered, including using ADF assets to repatriate Australians, if that's necessary.
PETER STEFANOVIC: What sort of assets are you talking about? Military planes there?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Exactly right. I mean, in past conflicts, we have used military planes to evacuate Australians from conflict zones, and if that's necessary in this instance, if it's possible in this instance, then obviously the government will have our bipartisan support to do so.
PETER STEFANOVIC: That's if a no-fly zone is lifted?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: It appears that, whether or not there's a formal no-fly zone enforced or not enforced, it's obviously a dangerous environment in which to fly a commercial airliner. They are not equipped to defend themselves from incoming fire, and Iran is lashing out, now up to 10 of its neighbours, who are not parties to the conflict, have been struck by Iran, and they have struck things, including airports and other civilian infrastructure. And so, obviously, it's a very challenging environment for a commercial airline to fly in.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Sure. Now they've got these crisis response teams heading over. How do you feel about that, and what more in terms of actual personnel on the ground should be added?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, that's certainly a good thing, too, and we support the government's initiative to do that, although I think, really, the government has been flat-footed when it comes to this crisis. In the week leading up to the strikes in Iran, when we had faltering peace talks between the administration and Iran, when we have two U.S. carrier strike groups moving into the region, the Foreign Minister of Australia did not make a single public statement personally about Iran. The Prime Minister answered one question about it in a radio interview because he was asked, but spent more time talking about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being the eighth in line to succession to become King of Australia, as if that was a more urgent priority for Australia than the possibility that over 100,000 of us would become stranded in a conflict zone. So I think the government did not use all the levers available to it to warn Australians. They did not use the megaphone available to the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister. And they obviously knew there was a risk because they were evacuating family members of DFAT personnel on Friday.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Let's zoom out for a second, James, how much of this war worries you about what we have in our arsenal?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: It is yet another reminder and yet another warning to Australia, after Ukraine, that we are now in an age of missiles and drones and that relatively less sophisticated powers can do enormous damage to more sophisticated powers, with relatively cheap and incredibly numerous, attritable products like drones and missiles. And Australia has virtually no integrated air and missile defence for our northern bases or our Australian cities. It's incredibly limited. And four years on from Ukraine, and now seeing this crisis in Iran, I don't think the Albanese government is showing anywhere near the level of drive and resolve to fix that quickly. They have an opportunity to do so in the budget, though. There are Australian companies that have been supplying drones and counter drone technology to Ukraine for years, but have not been supplying it to the Australian government, because they've had no orders from the Australian government. And so we urgently need to lift our game, start ordering those capabilities both for ourselves, both in offensive capabilities and defensive capabilities.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Sure, yeah. And on that point too, and this is exactly where I was leading, because as you point out there, we've seen it in Ukraine, and now they're everywhere in the Middle East. Hezbollah is sending swarms of them over to Israel now as well. So it's basically drone warfare these days. So, it highlights, as you point out, our lack of drones, but also missile defence systems. So is that a matter of urgency that needs to be addressed on both fronts?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Yes, I think it is. Both the missile interceptor systems themselves, of which we have very limited options, and also, obviously, the interceptors, the missiles that are used to disrupt and prevent these from coming in - these are the scarcest resources available to global militaries today. They're in high demand, obviously, from the war in Ukraine. They've been in high-demand because of Israel's war with Hamas and Hezbollah, and now Iran. And they're being used extensively in the Gulf States to protect their assets. So, this is a scarce resource. It's one that Australia should aspire to own because if we have it, it sends a deterrent signal to anyone who would seek to threaten us that it is a waste of time and, frankly, a waste of money to send things our way, which we could disrupt and interdict.
PETER STEFANOVIC: So the UK has got its own warship, HMS Dragon, heading to Cyprus, James. It's obviously got more bases and assets in the region to protect than we do, but should we be sending anything more?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: At this stage, I don't think that that's necessary. As I understand it, there's been no request from the U.S., nor is one anticipated from the U.S. for Australia to become directly involved militarily in this conflict. And although we have a strong interest in supporting Israel and the United States, and most importantly, the people of Iran, our direct interests are much more in the Indo-Pacific in our own region than in the Middle East.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Just on to another issue, well, somewhat war-related, and the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, was just on the program. But I'm wondering, with your old hat on in Shadow Finance as well, how much cover do you think the government gets now because of this new war when it comes to the budget, especially coming up?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Jim Chalmers seems more happy about this conflict than Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu. He has leapt to it as an excuse for the inflation that, of course, we know was already rising on his watch, but now might be about to get even worse than it was already. I mean, just last week, the RBA governor, Michelle Bullock, was saying that inflation was being driven by domestic factors. And the reason why you have to get inflation under control domestically is that sometimes there are international events like this, which do have an inflationary impact. But Australia is starting this new crisis in a very weak position because we've had record public spending, which has been driving up inflation, and incredibly poor productivity growth, which means the speed limit of the economy is very low, and even modest levels of economic growth generate inflation. And what that means is the RBA has to hike rates, and Australians pay the price.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Right. I mean, to be fair, on the Treasurer, though, I mean, this wasn't his fault, this new war. So, I mean, it's not all his fault.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: No, but public spending being the highest it's been outside of a pandemic in 40 years is his fault. It's solely his responsibility, and it is the factor, according to dozens of independent economists, that has been driving up inflation in recent years in Australia. I mean, this is a Treasurer who did a victory lap, saying inflation had been defeated. He'd slayed the dragon, and yet it has come back on his watch, and it has come back because of his decisions and the decisions of the Albanese government, because they've not been out of control spending. It is putting pressure on the economy, and Australians are paying the price.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Alright, we'll leave it there, James Paterson, thanks as always for your time.
ENDS