Pressed on the Coalition’s hyped-up rhetoric this week, Senator Paterson said his party was right to question Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s “small target” strategy in trying to “sneak into government” | Gallo_Ways
Liberal senator and head of the Parliament’s security and intelligence committee, James Paterson, says both sides of politics should listen to the warnings of the nation’s domestic spy agency about the dangers of referring to classified information in public.
Mr Burgess this week warned the politicisation of national security was “not helpful”, while former ASIO and DFAT boss Dennis Richardson accused the Morrison government ofand rejected suggestions the opposition had appeased China. Senator Paterson also said he wouldn’t apologise for criticising Mr Richardson, one of the most experienced former public servants in Australian history, but conceded he could have slightly changed his wording.The Liberal senator on Thursday accused Mr Richardson of taking “leave from DFAT to negotiate on behalf of the Canberra Raiders a lucrative sponsorship agreement from [Chinese telco] Huawei for the Canberra Raiders”.
“I was not in government at the time the 5G decision was taken, but I have never been critical of that decision. Any suggestion to the contrary is dishonest and inconsistent with the facts.”