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Transcripts
November 19, 2025
SHARRI MARKSON: Well, I'm joined now live by Federal Shadow Finance Minister James Paterson, who's been a longstanding friend of Jess Wilson. Good to see you again, James. Look, critics today have said that Brad Battin was cutting through on crime and that he even had Jacinta Allan on the back foot. So why make this change now?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, Sharri, Brad Battin is a good man. He's a good Victorian. He's a good Liberal. And on his worst professional day in his life, he behaved with real class and real dignity today. And I want to pay tribute to him for that and for the good job that he's done in holding this government to account on their appalling crime crisis that's made Victorians feel unsafe in their homes. But the State Parliamentary Party, who know their colleagues best, felt that a change was necessary to make sure that the Victorian Liberals can compete and win at the next state election. Because if they lost the next state election, that would mean sixteen years of Labor. Sixteen years of Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan. Victoria's a great state, but it's suffered deeply under this government, and I really worry what would be left of it if that happened.
SHARRI MARKSON: James, some point to Freshwater polling that says Brad Battin was ahead. They point to that polling as a reason not to switch leaders now. But do you trust this polling because the same company, Freshwater, also had Peter Dutton ahead when he, as we know, suffered one of the most crushing Liberal defeats in history?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, Sharri, I think everybody knows about the deficiencies of the polling that was done for the Federal Liberal Party at the last election, and all polling should be taken with a grain of salt. No pollster is perfect, and we should treat it as a snapshot in time and consider the broader research picture, not just any one poll on any one day. More important than that, though, are the economic statistics facing Australia, and Victoria in particular. Victoria will rack up two hundred billion dollars of debt on Jacinta Allan's watch. Businesses are fleeing, investment is fleeing, people are fleeing, and young Victorians have lost hope for their future in Victoria, and we need to restore that sense of hope. And I think Jess Wilson is the right person to do that. I think as a young person, as someone with a really strong economic policy background, she's the person who can turn the state around, she's the person who can turn the state budget around, and she's the person who can give us the best shot of winning the next election.
SHARRI MARKSON: She's clearly very impressive, very smart, very confident and articulate. She is young though, thirty-five. This is her first term in parliament. Do you think she has enough experience politically, even in campaigning, to win at the next election, given how well oiled the Labor machine is?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, Sharri, I was first elected to Parliament when I was twenty eight, and I'm still only thirty seven, so I'm certainly not going to criticise other young people for putting up their hand. And I don't think Jess is an ordinary politician. I think she's a rare political talent. And that's reflected in the fact that her colleagues have elected her unanimously to lead the Victorian Liberal Party today. They didn't do that lightly. They did it because they know her well, because they trust her, because they have confidence in her, and they know she's the best chance to save Victoria from sixteen years of Labor and the terrible economic disaster that that would entail.
SHARRI MARKSON: All right, just moving on to some other topics in your own portfolio area of finance. This was just quite shocking comments from the Commonwealth Bank's chief executive, Matt Comyn today. He says there won't be any rate cuts. This is in his opinion, there won't be any interest rate cuts in the foreseeable future. And he says none in 2026. He's blaming higher than expected inflation. Have a look.
[CLIP START]
MATT COMYN: To answer your question directly, no, I don't think a reduction in the cash rate is likely in 2026.
[CLIP END]
SHARRI MARKSON: I mean, James, that is quite confronting for homeowners to hear that.
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: It's terribly discouraging news to have one of our major banks predict no more interest rate relief, at least for the next year. But unfortunately, I think Matt Comyn knows what he's talking about, and the Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock has said similar things. This is Jim Charmers’ responsibility. He took responsibility when interest rates were coming down and when inflation was coming down, but now inflation is rising again, and it looks like interest rates are not going to come down. He should take responsibility for that. Because the average mortgage holder is about $20,000 worse off every year under Labor because of the rate rises that have happened on their watch. And many of them were looking forward to a lot more interest rate relief than they might now actually have.
SHARRI MARKSON: We've seen today Turkey blast Australia's bid to host the COP31 in Australia. Now Chris Bowen slams this. He says Australia is determined to win the bid. But one of the issues with this, James, is that this could cost taxpayers between one and two billion dollars. We don't know exactly how much because we have seen no transparency over the cost. Have a look at this.
[CLIP START]
SENATOR THE HON PENNY WONG: I'm not going to comment on you know, the costs of a conference that we haven't got, we haven't won the bid for yet.
PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE: Commentary is commentary. You know, people plucking figures, you know, from who?
[CLIP END]
SHARRI MARKSON: Should there be more transparency over, I mean, such an exorbitant cost to host a climate conference?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Sharri, we had a $12 billion deficit last financial year. We're forecast to have a $42 billion deficit this financial year. Two billion dollars on a climate conference would be an obscene waste of Australian taxpayers' money. Think about all the other things that could be done with that. Think about the schools, hospitals, and police stations that could be paid for with that money. Frankly, if Turkey doesn't withdraw their bid and this ends up going back to the German city of Bonn instead, then Jim Chalmers and Katy Gallagher should write a letter of thank you to the Turkish government and President Erdogan for saving Australian taxpayers two billion dollars.
SHARRI MARKSON: Just what about the broader point of Australia pitching for this conference when it seems like we are actually out of step now with many parts of the world? I mean Tony Blair and Bill Gates have changed their tune, the US has withdrawn from Paris. You know, do you think i we should still be part of these conferences?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: Well, I've got no problem going to these conferences and representing our national interests there, but I don't see the merit in hosting it in Australia, particularly at such great expense. I mean, Keir Starmer, I think, put it best at the current COP conference in Brazil last week, where he said the global consensus for emissions reduction has broken down in the last few years, and we are not on track to come anywhere near close to achieving net zero by 2050 globally, nor in Australia. The only way to achieve that would be to do huge damage to our economy. Australia's actually reduced our emissions far more than the developed world. We've reduced them by 28 per cent over the last twenty years compared to just 16 per cent in the OECD, the world's advanced economies. So we're doing our fair share, we should continue to do our fair share, but not at the cost of affordable, reliable energy for Australians.
SHARRI MARKSON: Just finally, we saw front page news yesterday, both first in the Daily Mail, then in the Australian, that there are a small number of moderates who are saying they'd be prepared to support Andrew Hastie as leader of the party. Some have even suggested a Tim Wilson-Andrew Hastie ticket, where Wilson would be the deputy. Is this being mooted?
SENATOR JAMES PATERSON: I don't know. No colleague has raised that with me or proposed that to me. I support Sussan Ley as our leader, and I'm working hard to make her leadership a success because I think it's in the Liberal Party's interest that she succeed. I think it's in the Liberal Party's interest that she and Dan Tehan are given the opportunity to prosecute what is now a very strong contrast with the government's disastrous failure on energy policy and our strong position of dumping net zero. This is a government that has presided over 40 per cent increase in electricity bills and a 40 per cent increase in gas bills for households. We can't keep going on like this. But the Liberal Party has the answers to those problems. I think Sussan, and Dan, and the team need to be given the opportunity to sell that message.
SHARRI MARKSON: Alright, James Paterson, really appreciate you joining us tonight. Thank you so much.
ENDS