TRANSCRIPT: Interview with MICHAEL CONDON ABC RADIO COUNTRY HOUR, NSW, 29 October 2018

E&OE

Subjects: Drought Fund; Drought Summit; Climate Change; Multi-Peril Crop Insurance

MICHAEL CONDON:      

Well to get some more detail about the Fund, we’re joined now by the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack. Good afternoon.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Good afternoon Michael.

MICHAEL CONDON:

So $5 billion; we heard from NFF, they want more detail. When can we hear more detail about who’s going to be able to access the money and where it’s going to be spent?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Of course it has to be legislated for a start, but look, we'll get into that detail. The NFF were there at the Summit in their numbers, but represented specifically by Fiona Simson. It's going to be a good Fund. It’s going to be a necessary Fund. But the details of how people will access that in the future, of course, need to be thrashed out. When we talk about $100 million or thereabouts being able to be accessed each year, people might say well we're not in drought every year. But Australia is a large country and indeed, unfortunately, we are. There's always some part of Australia in drought.

MICHAEL CONDON:

Well Joel Fitzgibbon makes a point, we’re already spending more than $100 million now.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well we are, we’re spending $1.8 billion and thus far that's had bipartisan support. I am disappointed to hear Joel Fitzgibbon, the Shadow Agriculture spokesperson, come out and criticise; he was there at the doorstop criticising it before the Summit even began; he was there criticising it after it finished. I am a bit disappointed to see his reaction to it. I would like to think that Labor would approach in a bipartisan way - and there's been bipartisanship, as the Agriculture Minister indicated the other day, since 1992 - about drought and how we tackle it.

MICHAEL CONDON:

Well isn’t the point that he made though, he sort of was alluding to the point about some of this money being used for maybe National Party seats, maybe a bit of pork barrel.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well that's just ridiculous. It’s pork barrelling and it’s National Party seats, I mean indeed, a lot of National Party seats are in drought - because we hold those seats. Labor don't hold those regional seats and to suggest that it's pork barrelling is well quite frankly, it’s preposterous.

MICHAEL CONDON:

Now the other issue is the $5 billion and where the money is coming from. We’ve heard a number of commentators say it looks like it’s going to be taken out of the NDIS Disability Fund; is that true?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well again, that's not true. The fact is the economy is stronger and we had very, very good economic figures that Labor could only have dreamt of ever achieving when they were in power, even though we left them with a very, very good set of books. But the NDIS, even though it wasn't funded by Labor, it has been under us. I've always been a strong supporter of the National Disability Insurance Scheme; always have. I was the first New South Wales federal politician to actually sign up to it, even though Labor were in power at the time, because society's most vulnerable have to be looked after by the Government. That's one of the first orders of business. We have funded it and it will be funded out of general revenue going forward. We need to make sure that we have a disability sector which is looked after, but we also need to make sure that we look after those people who are in drought and this Future Fund is going to be a good way of doing that.

MICHAEL CONDON:

Michael McCormack, now we’re talking to the Deputy PM about the Drought Fund. You can send us your texts as well. Michael McCormack, the other point that Joel Fitzgibbon made was there’s no real talk in the fund about action on climate change or setting a price for carbon. And he’s saying farmers could tap into that, make money from growing trees, those sorts of things. Why wasn’t that issue raised?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Indeed climate change was mentioned and was talked about at the Summit. But I'd far better like to hear Joel Fitzgibbon talking up farmers, talking up agriculture. It’s $60 billion industry. We want to make it, as Fiona Simson wants to make it, a $100 billion industry. We can do that. We should be praising farmers for the fact that they do use every drop of water to its maximum effect. They do make sure they have the technology, they innovate. They are the world's best farmers. We have them here in Australia. They're also the most resilient. And I tell you what: as an industry, our farmers are way above the pack when it comes to making sure that they address the issues they need to on innovation, technology and making sure they care for their environment. They are the best environmentalists in Australia, make no mistake about that. I wish Joel would say it a bit more often.

MICHAEL CONDON:

So if they are growing trees, they might get a, maybe a tax refund from the Fund or something like that? I mean the other issue with climate change, maybe some tax deductions for putting in solar or other renewable energy like wind farms?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Indeed, but there’s already farmers doing just that and there's already farmers making a lot of money out of it. But what we don't want is farmers being told what they can do, how they can do it and where they can do it by a Labor Government.

MICHAEL CONDON:

No, but maybe some incentive from the Fund?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well maybe that might be part of it. We've got to have that discussion going forward. But the fact is we've established the Fund. There should be bipartisan agreement that the Fund is a good thing and I look forward to Labor actually supporting the Fund, supporting the establishment of it and then we can work out the details of how and where it should be distributed.

MICHAEL CONDON:

The other issue that was raised was there didn’t seem to be any money or real discussion or underwriting of crop insurance and there’s been a number of companies upset about that, a number of commentators upset about that. That surely isn’t a drought preparedness issue that could’ve been on the table?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Indeed it was raised and we can have that discussion going forward. The Drought Summit was a really good forum. There were some robust ideas put forward.

MICHAEL CONDON:

But insurance sector, they felt that they were dismissed. I mean, I was talking to them on Friday.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well indeed we can have that conversation, as I say, going forward.  I mean no idea was dismissed on Friday, let me tell you; they were canvassed in a good and sensible way. Let's have the conversation about such things as multi-peril crop insurance. Let's have the discussion about where we can do even better with reforms as far as the farming sector is concerned.  But let’s understand that farmers need a bit of a hand up at the moment. They're getting that $1.8 billion with even more money put on the table on Friday. But let's get through the relief and recovery assistance at the moment and how we build resilience in the future.

MICHAEL CONDON:

Deputy PM, thanks for joining us on the program.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Any time at all, Michael. Thank you very much.

MICHAEL CONDON:

Michael McCormack there, talking about some of the detail, we got a little bit of the detail about the Drought Fund.

Shane Manning