Program: Patterson sentenced to life in prison

Samantha Donovan: Hello, welcome to PM. I'm Samantha Donovan, coming to you from the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation in Melbourne. Tonight, triple murderer Erin Patterson is sentenced to life in prison for the murders of three of her husband's relatives and the attempted murder of another. Also, division in the Liberal Party on show, after Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's comments about Indian Australians. And the latest epic rivalry in men's tennis on show at the US Open.

John Fitzgerald: Well, I think it's just an evolution of the current two best players in the world who are both continuing to improve, by the way, as you'd expect from a 22 and a 24 year old.

Samantha Donovan: Two years after she served her notorious Beef Wellington lunch in regional Victoria, convicted triple murderer Erin Patterson has been sentenced to life in jail for her crimes. But she will be eligible to apply for parole in 33 years' time when she's in her 80s. The mother of two killed her husband's parents and aunt and nearly killed his uncle by putting death cap mushrooms in their meals. The sentencing judge today described her crimes as horrendous and in the worst category of offending. Our reporter Kathleen O'Connor was in court.

Kathleen O'Connor: The anticipation outside the Supreme Court in Melbourne was extraordinary, as dozens of people lined the street waiting to learn the fate of mushroom murderer Erin Patterson.

Opinions: It's sort of grabbed me, this case. Can't let it go, so I've got to get some closure. The case has transfixed me, so I decided to come in here today.

Kathleen O'Connor: In July, Erin Patterson was found guilty of murdering her husband's parents, Donald and Gail Patterson, and his auntie, Heather Wilkinson, as well as the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, after serving them Beef Wellingtons laced with death cap mushrooms. Today, Justice Christopher Beale handed down his sentence.

Justice Christopher Beale : For the attempted murder of Ian Wilkinson, I sentence you to 25 years' imprisonment. For the murder of Heather Wilkinson, I sentence you to life imprisonment. For the murder of Gayle Patterson, I sentence you to life imprisonment. For the murder of Don Patterson, I sentence you to life imprisonment. All sentences are to be served concurrently.

Kathleen O'Connor: It's the first time a sentence has been broadcast live in the Supreme Court. Justice Christopher Beale says the broadcast provided an opportunity to inform the public of the reasons for the sentence promptly and completely. Erin Patterson was given a non-parole period of 33 years.

Justice Christopher Beale : Fixing a non-parole period is not to undervalue the horrendous nature of your offending.

Kathleen O'Connor: Erin Patterson will be eligible to apply for parole in 2056.

Justice Christopher Beale : You showed no pity for your victims. Instead of informing those treating the Pattersons and Wilkinsons that you had used foraged mushrooms, which you could have done without having to admit that you had deliberately poisoned their meals, you repeatedly denied foraging, insisting that the mushrooms for the beef wellingtons were sourced solely from Woolworths and an Asian grocery. We will never know whether revealing the use of foraged mushrooms would have made a difference.

Kathleen O'Connor: Justice Beale labelled the crimes as horrendous and said they fall into the worst category of offending. However, conditions for Erin Patterson in prison will be harsher than normal, as she remains in solitary confinement for her own protection. In the absence of a motive, Justice Christopher Beale told Erin Patterson only she knows why she committed her crimes, calling it an enormous betrayal of trust.

Justice Christopher Beale : Your victims were all your relatives by marriage. More than that, they had all been good to you and your children over many years, as you acknowledged in your testimony. Not only did you cut short three lives and cause lasting damage to Ian Wilkinson's health, thereby devastating the extended Patterson and Wilkinson families, you inflicted untold suffering on your own children, whom you robbed of their beloved grandparents.

Kathleen O'Connor: The only lunch guest who survived was Ian Wilkinson. He was inside the courtroom throughout the 10-week trial and the pre-sentence hearing when he spoke about the unbearable loss of his wife. He spoke after the sentence today.

Ian Wilkinson: My purpose here today is to give some well-earned thanks. Firstly, to Victoria Police, in particular, the Homicide Squad and the team led by Detective Stephen Eppingstall. They made a professional, efficient and effective investigation into what happened at the lunch. They brought to light the truth of what happened with the death of three good people.

Kathleen O'Connor: Justin Hannebery KC is a criminal barrister.

Justin Hannebery KC: Sheer volume of the offending put this into an extremely rare category, as did the fact that Justice Beale could also identify a number of aggravating features surrounding her premeditation and surrounding her actions after she'd committed the poisoning. So clearly, this was an offence where it was unsurprising that Justice Beale considered it in the worst category of sentences for murder.

Kathleen O'Connor: Justin Hannebery says even though Erin Patterson has a parole period set for when she's 82 years old, it doesn't mean she will ever be released.

Justin Hannebery KC: All that the judge has done is set a time, which is the earliest time at which Ms. Patterson can make an application for parole. Whether she gets parole or not at that time will be entirely a matter for the parole board. Parole has got a number of criteria to it, one of which is the protection of the community, another of which is promoting the rehabilitation of the individual. They've got to assess whether there are risks to the community in releasing someone on parole.

Kathleen O'Connor: Erin Patterson now has 28 days to appeal her sentence or conviction.

Samantha Donovan: Kathleen O'Connor reporting. A senior Victorian police officer who was killed in a shooting at a rural property last month has been remembered at his funeral today as an adventurer and protector. Detective leading senior constable Neil Thompson was just days away from retirement when he and his colleague Vadim de Waart-Hottart were allegedly shot dead by self-proclaimed sovereign citizen Dezi Freeman, who remains on the run. Isabel Moussalli prepared this report.

Isabel Moussalli: The second of two funerals for the officers killed in a shooting at Pawpunka. The Police Academy Memorial Chapel in Melbourne's east was packed with 3,000 people, family members, friends and colleagues of detective leading senior constable Neil Thompson.

Lisa Thompson: Neil was an incredible man with whom I was privileged to build a life, a partnership and a family. Words cannot convey the depth of sorrow and grief that his loss brings.

Isabel Moussalli: His partner Lisa Thompson reflected on their life together. They met in 2016 during a shift that changed the course of her life.

Lisa Thompson: I knew Neil to be an intensely private person, a provider and a protector. We ran, hiked, climbed, fished, farmed and travelled together. We were the opposites in every way, but together we were unstoppable.

Isabel Moussalli: She says he was the only partner her parents ever approved of.

Lisa Thompson: To Neil, every day was a new adventure. He took us to places that few ever go and showed us how brilliant life is if you have the courage to try. And through it all, he taught me how to love without fear and how to be brave when I'm scared. And honey, I am so grateful you did because I am scared. I don't want to live life without you and I don't want to finish our dreams on my own. But I will, I promise. I will be brave. I will love you. I will honour you and cherish every moment that I spent with you.

Isabel Moussalli: Neil Thompson was one of 10 officers who attended a property in Porepunkah in North East Victoria to execute a warrant. Two of them were shot and killed while another was wounded. At today's funeral, the 59-year-old's love of the Essendon Football Club was on proud display, with the anthem playing through the chapel. Neil Thompson's friend Jason Williams says he'll forever miss their catch-ups, joking they'd often discuss his delusional view of Essendon's prospects. He says Tomo had a friendly and infectious personality and was known for leading outdoor adventures.

Jason Williams: I think it would be fair to say at least six people in this chapel would have had a fishhook jammed into their skin, courtesy of Tomo. And as the last two weeks have gone on and the memories have flowed across a couple of group chats, I believe that counts now up to about 11. That being said, that's 11 people who most likely might never have experienced the top end, might never have caught a Murray Cod or a Barramundi. Some lost some skin, but no one would ever ask for a single minute back.

Isabel Moussalli: He added Tomo was loyal and would run through a brick wall to help people. His younger sister, Lois Thompson, also spoke of his protective nature, even as a child.

Lois Thompson: We will always love you. We share our grief with Lisa and your mates. You were the golden boy, the adventurer and the protector. You were our big brother. You will always be our big brother. Rest in peace, mate.

Isabel Moussalli: Victorian Police Commissioner Mike Bush told mourners Senior Constable Thompson served 38 years in the police force, spending half of his career in Melbourne and the second half in Wangaratta. He announced the awarding of the Victoria Police Star, which recognises those killed or seriously injured.

Mike Bush: Neil was taken far too prematurely, just before and robbed of a very well-deserved retirement. Neil, you will be missed, but you will not be forgotten.

Isabel Moussalli: Also in attendance was Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen and the parents of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, who was also killed in the shooting at Porepunkah last month. The search for the alleged gunman, Desi Freeman, continues in the Victorian high country, with police now offering a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Samantha Donovan: Isabel Moussalli with that report. Senior Liberal Party MP Alex Hawke has again called for his colleague Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to apologise to the Indian community for comments she made last week. The Senator was forced to correct remarks, suggesting the Labor government was bringing in more migrants from India to support its vote, but she's refused to apologise. Today Mr Hawke has denied berating one of her staff members after the Senator accused him of cowardly and inappropriate behaviour over the weekend. In a social media post, Senator Price said Mr Hawke had called her office and made threats after she made the comments last week. Alex Hawke explained his actions to the ABC a short time ago. That's Liberal MP Alex Hawke. For an update on where things stand, I spoke to James Massola, the Chief Political Commentator for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

James Massola: Samantha, it's been five days now and the controversy is yet to be resolved. We saw some fairly extraordinary scenes both yesterday and today in terms of Senator Price criticising publicly a colleague from the ministry, publicly, that's Alex Hawke. Hawke coming out this morning and essentially telling Price, I think it was eight times that I counted, that it was time to apologise, reflect on her actions and what have you. The bottom line of all of this is that this is a massive headache for Susan Ley at a time that she doesn't need it, at a time when she's trying to start putting the Liberal Party back together.

Samantha Donovan: And James, just remind us about Alex Hawke's role. What role does he play in the party?

James Massola: He has two roles. He's obviously in the shadow ministry, but factionally, he's extremely consequential insofar as he's one of the most influential people in New South Wales. He has stepped in in the past to preserve sitting members like Susan Ley, who faced pre-selection problems. I mean, I'd call him her concierge, you know, it's the key advisor, essentially. So when someone like that, it'd be the equivalent of Tony Burke for Anthony Albanese. So when someone like that comes out and says on national television, you have to pay attention. And the question is, will Senator Price do so?

Samantha Donovan: James Alex Hawke backed Susan Ley in the Liberal leadership ballot, whereas Senator Price was a backer of Angus Taylor. So what is this controversy telling us about the current tensions in the Liberal Party?

James Massola: There's a minority theory, I don't subscribe to it, but that Senator Price is being egged on by certain more senior conservative MPs expressly to cause trouble for Ms Ley, to undermine her, to damage her and potentially, I guess, clear the way for an Angus Taylor assent at some point in time. Now, I think that would be madness. I'm not saying that's on the cards this week or anything like that, Sam, but there are deep divisions in the Liberal Party and they haven't healed since the last election.

Samantha Donovan: And in her attempts to try and mend this situation with the Indian community, Susan Ley went out to Harris Park in Sydney last night. How was she received there?

James Massola: Mostly she received a good reception. There were a couple of important groups that said, basically, we won't meet you though, unless Senator Price apologises or you sack her from the ministry. Now that hasn't happened. Ms Lee hasn't said sorry herself either, but she's been very clear that Senator Price was brought to book and said the wrong thing, was told as much. I think the issue here is this fight, if you like, is a proxy for the tensions in the party, Sam. Lee does not have the authority in the Liberal Party that Peter Dutton had, for example. Taylor certainly doesn't have it as the shadow Defence Minister. It's not clear that she has the sort of political strength to force an apology from Price. So we could end up at a stalemate, basically.

Samantha Donovan: James, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, of course, defected from the National Party to the Liberals. You've written a piece today about her performance over the last few months. What's notable to you?

James Massola: The thing that stands out to me, Sam, is that Senator Price has made three fairly significant errors in the last six months, seven months. First, there was the story about her expenses and having to repay some of the taxpayer expenses to which she was, sorry, in fact, was not entitled. She did that. It was publicly available information. But then she attacked the media, in this case, I was the journalist, for misleading people. Then into the election, she did the same thing with the Make Australia Great Again speech, that infamous speech, which she claimed, I don't even remember saying that, and the media is obsessed with Donald Trump. It's crazy. Forget about him. Again, not taking the blame. And now she's doing it again with this current controversy about Indian migration and saying that the woke media has an agenda that's out to get her. I mean, I think the common thread here, Sam, is Senator Price. She's the one who keeps making these mistakes. She needs to own them in the same way that John Howard did back in 1994 with his comments about Asian immigration. She needs to fess up and she needs to move on. Shooting the messenger never works.

Samantha Donovan: James Massola is the chief political commentator for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. This is PM. I'm Samantha Donovan. You can hear all our programs live or later on the ABC Listen app. Venezuela's say they're feeling anxious about the possibility of US military action as tensions escalate between the two nations. Last week, the American president, Donald Trump, took a new approach in his war on drugs by approving a strike on a Venezuelan boat allegedly transporting narcotics. Tanya Dendrinos has this report.

Tanya Dendrinos: It's been a week of rising tensions between the US and Venezuela.

Press: Are you considering attacking the cartels inside of Venezuela?

Jason Williams: Well you are going to find out.

Tanya Dendrinos: Boarding Marine One, the US president was leaving all possibilities open. On Tuesday, the US military killed 11 people in a strike on a vessel from Venezuela, which the US alleges was carrying illicit drugs. Some Venezuelans say they're feeling uneasy.

Opinions: Some don't know if they'll wake up alive tomorrow because of a possible bombing. I would say it's irresponsible because people want peace. We don't want war. We don't want war. We are not at war with anyone. In my lifetime, I have never experienced wars.

Tanya Dendrinos: In an effort to stem the flow of drugs, the US has bolstered its forces in the Southern Caribbean, deploying additional vessels and 10 stealth fighter jets. Overnight, the vice president, J.D. Vance, took to social media to defend US actions.

J.D. Vance: Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.

Tanya Dendrinos: But that was met with fury from US Senator Rand Paul, a fellow Republican who echoed existing concerns about the legality of the attack.

Rand Paul: Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.

Tanya Dendrinos: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the US should abandon its plan of violent regime change. He was sworn in for a third term in January, six months after disputed elections. The opposition and other countries, including the US, rejected his victory. But Donald Trump says regime change isn't the objective of this latest military action. Professor Gordon Flake is the CEO of the Perth US-Asia Centre at the University of Western Australia. He says it's part of a reshaping of US military posture globally.

Professor Gordon Flake: But beyond that, I think the particular focus right now is tied to domestic politics. And it really has less to do with foreign policy and more to do with being seen to be tough when it comes to immigration and law enforcement issues.

Tanya Dendrinos: Still, he says the actions of the president are likely to be more divisive than uniting, particularly among traditional factions of the Republican Party.

Professor Gordon Flake: There is so much internal contradiction. And at some point, one seems to think that contradictions come to a head. And I think, we have seen now for a long period of time that there is apparently almost nothing that President Trump can do that will cost him support among his Republican base. And that's probably true for now. But every time you have a big contradiction like this, the eventual break, when it does come, it's going to have multiple causes and multiple sources of divisiveness. And I think that's what we're seeing right now.

Tanya Dendrinos: What do you think this means for allies, including Australia?

Professor Gordon Flake: Well, it makes it more difficult for us to support the United States, because when the United States was unquestionably a force for good in the world, and a force for maintaining the international rule of law, the rules based order, then it was much more easy for us to just think about our own domestic internal needs and our own national security being benefited by alliance with the United States. If the United States is not so unambiguously good, and the United States is much more ambivalent as a player, that makes it more difficult. It doesn't change our core security calculus in terms of we don't really have a good plan B to the United States, but it certainly makes it harder.

Samantha Donovan: Professor Gordon Flake is the CEO of the Perth US Asia Center. That report from Tanya Dendrinos. The men's title at the US Tennis Open was decided overnight our time, and the US President Donald Trump was there to see Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz beat the Italian Jannik Sinner in four sets. That sends Alcaraz back to the ranking of world number one.Dijana Damjanovic prepared this report.

Dijana Damjanovic: A performance hailed by tennis aficionados. Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz not only claimed the US Open, he also reclaimed the number one world ranking.

Commentator: In a sensationally bold and broad performance.

Dijana Damjanovic: In a much anticipated final, Alcaraz refused to let the reigning champion Italian Jannik Sinner into the match.

Commentator: That is filthy, that slice backhand. That is a Roger Federer slice.

Dijana Damjanovic: After the match, which he won three sets to one, 22-year-old Alcaraz was humble. Clutching his Grand Slam trophy, he joked about the incredible rivalry he and 24-year-old Sinner have developed, pointing out they seem to be spending a lot of time together.

Carlos Alcaraz: I'm seeing you more than my family, so it's great to share the court, share the locker room, to share everything with you.

Dijana Damjanovic: This is the second year where Alcaraz and Sinner have swept all four majors between them. It's men's tennis's big rivalry. John Fitzegerald is a seven-time Grand Slam doubles winner and Davis Cup captain.

John Fitzgerald: Well, I think it's just an evolution of the current two best players in the world, isn't it? They're going from strength to strength. In my lifetime, I never thought I'd see what happened in the previous 15 to 17 years. And now it looks like it's starting to happen again with two players, two dominant men at the top of the world game who are both continuing to improve, by the way, as you'd expect from a 22 and a 24-year-old. They're awfully good, these two.

Dijana Damjanovic: These two players have met in the final of the last three Grand Slams. Alcaraz beat Sinner at the French Open in June, but Sinner beat Alcaraz at Wimbledon in July. Their match-up is only a few years old, but it's clearly replaced the old three-way rivalry between Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

John Fitzgerald: I think the difference with Alcaraz compared to so many players we see is that his top level is, you almost can't deal with his top level. It doesn't mean he's going to play at that level all the time, but his best tennis is extraordinary.

Dijana Damjanovic: And this year's US Open men's final had an extra dose of dramas. The start of the match between Sinner and Alcaraz was delayed by 30 minutes because President Donald Trump was attending and security caused a major hold-up, leaving hundreds of spectators stuck outside the stadium while he got in. The United States Tennis Association also advised broadcasters not to televise any boos or cheers the President might receive from the crowd, which he did. In the women's final, defending champion Aryna Sabalenka had a solid straight set victory over Amanda Anisimova, atoning for her losses in this year's Australian and French Open finals.

Samantha Donovan: Dijana Damjanovic with that report. Thanks for joining me for PM. I'm Samantha Donovan. The podcast of the full program is available on the ABC Listen app, and we'll be back at the same time tomorrow. Good night.