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May 29, 2025
PETER STEFANOVIC: You're watching First Edition on this Thursday morning, folks, while the Coalition has announced its new front bench that will attempt to pick up the pieces from a disastrous election and chart a new course. Joining us live is the new Shadow Finance Minister, James Paterson. James, good morning to you. Many congratulations to you. Now, as one of the most effective spokespeople for the Coalition last time, was this the one that you asked for, or was it given to you?
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Pete. Well, I wouldn't want to kind of lift the robe and go into all the behind-the-scenes details, but I'm very honoured to be asked by Sussan Ley to perform what is a very senior role, the Shadow Minister for Finance. A core brand equity of the Liberal Party is better budget management, stronger management of the economy. And right now, on Labor's watch, things are getting worse. They boast about the two surpluses that they delivered, but they've turned those surpluses into deficits as far as the eye can see, and gross debt is projected to reach $1.2 trillion. So getting our fiscal house in order is a critical and urgent national priority, and I'm pleased I'll have an opportunity to play my part in that task.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Ok, we'll get to some of those details in a moment, but you replaced Jane Hume, who was kicked out of the Shadow Ministry entirely. Given Angus Taylor stays there, is Jane the fall-person for the election result?
JAMES PATERSON: Well, that would be very unfair, and I don't think that is the case. Jane's not just a colleague, she's a friend. She's someone I really respect. She's a great communicator, and she's tough. She's gutsy. She fronts up on the easy days but also on the difficult ones. She takes questions from journalists even when there are others who don't want to. And so, political careers these days are very rarely linear. Often, there are setbacks or sidesteps along the way. But I'm very confident that Jane will be back in a senior role in the not too distant future.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Are you disappointed for her?
JAMES PATERSON: Of course, I'm disappointed for Jane and for other colleagues who feel like they have been left out of the line-up or who've got a role in the line up that they would have liked to be more prominent. These are difficult days for both leaders and colleagues who are aspiring to roles. I've been on those days where you're waiting for a phone call and it never comes, or it comes and you get an offer that wasn't what you were hoping for. But the honest truth is, Pete, is that these are all very meagre consolation prizes of opposition. We mostly put our hand up for public life to govern for all Australians, and you don't do that unless you're in government. I would much rather be a backbencher in government than a shadow minister in opposition. And our task is to work collectively on a policy agenda that earns the trust and support of the Australian people at the next election, so we have that opportunity and that honour.
PETER STEFANOVIC: James, you're also a supporter of Jacinta Price, who was demoted. Was it a misjudgment for her to move from the Nationals to the Liberals?
JAMES PATERSON: I'm really delighted to welcome Jacinta into the Liberal Party. Jacinta has always felt that she's a Liberal at heart and she always wanted to join the Liberal Party Room, but in the lead up to the last election she was asked by the party as a gesture towards the Coalition and as an act of stability to join the National Party. But from Jacinta's point of view that was never going to be a permanent choice for her. So I'm delighted she's in the Liberal Party, I'm delighted she's been given a senior national security role, and along with Angus Taylor, and Michaelia Cash, and Andrew Hastie, she will be a really core part of our messaging on a really core issue for our nation.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Is that not a demotion from where she was, though?
JAMES PATERSON: It's a really important portfolio. I don't know how you could say that being in charge of delivering defence capability and supporting our men and women in uniform isn't a really important role. It's a critical role and for Jacinta it's an opportunity to do something different to what she was doing before to demonstrate her versatility and her breadth and I think she'll do an outstanding job.
PETER STEFANOVIC: What about, just before we move on to some of your policies, over on the Nationals side of things, would you be concerned that people like Barnaby Joyce or Michael McCormack, two very senior members, two very experienced campaigners and now backbenchers, would you be concerned about harmony moving forward?
JAMES PATERSON: The National Party front bench is a matter solely for David Littleproud and I don't think it's ever helped by Liberal Party politicians publicly expressing our views on their line up. But I know David would have gone through the same process that Susan did which is a difficult choice about the people that can make the best contribution. And he has gone, as Susan has, for a blend of experience and new talent and I'm really excited to see some new colleagues elevated to the Shadow Cabinet on the front line in National Party roles as well as Liberal Party roles.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Alright, so as the new Shadow Finance Minister, what's the first target for you?
JAMES PATERSON: Well I really think it is this decade of deficits coming up, because the truth is unless we get our fiscal house in order there's going to be very serious pressure on the services that Australians value and need and that we must guarantee, and there is going to pressure to raise more revenue via higher taxes. And the Labor Party is already pursuing one of those with their tax on unrealised gains through superannuation, which is a really significant violation of an important tax principle that you don't tax paper profits, that you only tax profits that people actually receive, that actually materialise. And so we've got an urgent task to hold the government to account for that fiscal failure and the cost that all Australians are going to bear as a result of it.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Right, but it looks like the Greens will surely back that in the Senate, so has the horse bolted on that one?
JAMES PATERSON: You're probably right Pete, the Labor Party has an unofficial coalition partner, we have an official coalition partner, theirs is the Greens and I suspect the Greens will rubber stamp in some form that unrealised capital gains tax. But that won't stop us arguing against it because we think it's wrong in principle and we think it is even worse that it has failed to be indexed by the government, so over time it will eventually capture average working Australians, not just wealthy Australians. And we think it's really frankly dodgy that Jim Chalmers has written special rules into the regulations that will exempt his boss, the Prime Minister, from paying this tax during his working life on his defined benefit pension, unlike every other taxpayer who will have to pay this if they cross that threshold.
PETER STEFANOVIC: Just on some other key positions, will you keep net zero by 2050?
JAMES PATERSON: As Sussan and David addressed this yesterday, we're going to go through a methodical process after this election and in the lead up to the next election. We have three years to develop a compelling policy agenda, and the starting point of that is reviewing everything we took to the last election, that policy included. We've very clearly signalled that emissions reduction is important to us and that would be a feature of our policy agenda, but the exact details of that policy agenda are going to be worked out through the process.
PETER STEFANOVIC: All right, well, congrats again on your new role, James Paterson, the Shadow Finance Minister. Thanks for your time.
ENDS