TRANSCRIPT: Sky News Live with Kieran Gilbert, 13 September 2018

E&OE

Subjects: Malcolm Turnbull’s Tweet regarding Peter Dutton; leadership spill; Wagga by-election; National Party’s achievements for the regions in 2018.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Deputy Prime Minister, thanks very much for your time.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Pleasure.

KIERAN GILBERT:

The former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed that he has been urging his colleagues to refer Peter Dutton to the High Court. What do you make of that?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, Peter Dutton has explained on the floor of the House of Representatives that he’s been compliant with everything that Cabinet needs and requires of him as a Minister. And so, he’s told Parliament; if anyone wants to take this further then they can go through the normal processes. But Peter Dutton has said that he’s right, said that he’s been compliant with Cabinet processes. And I’ll respect that.

KIERAN GILBERT:

So, what do you put this down to from Malcolm Turnbull, the fact that he’s still obviously buying into this?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, look, I don’t want to buy into it. I just want to talk about the things that are important to Australians. And I think Scott Morrison summed it up yesterday, let’s move on. Peter Dutton has said on the floor in the House of Representatives…

KIERAN GILBERT:

Okay, I can understand how the Government would want to move on but when you get these interventions from the former Prime Minister from New York overnight sending this Tweet confirming that he has been talking to Liberal colleagues, saying you need to refer Mr Dutton, just as your colleague Barnaby Joyce was, your predecessor, it’s hard to keep the focus where you want it.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, the Government’s Solicitor General has also said that, the Commonwealth Solicitor General, rather, has suggested as well that Peter Dutton is not incapable of sitting in Parliament. And so, the advice is that he is right; read into that, that he is okay. Peter Dutton has said, himself…

KIERAN GILBERT:

But is there a double standard, given Mr Joyce was referred?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, Mr Joyce was referred as far as citizenship, as far as that he had a New Zealand father and that made him ineligible. The Greens also fessed up, I’ll give the Greens credit in that, they fessed up and they went to- they resigned. And of course, they were then replaced by others. Fiona Nash did the same. Barnaby Joyce went through a by election process, as did John Alexander. The Coalition has done the right thing in that regard. We heard, of course, that Bill Shorten had said that his members had a rolled gold reason to remain in Parliament, when in fact quite the opposite was the case. So, I think that was more of a case of Bill Shorten holding out rather than anything we’ve ever done in this regard.

KIERAN GILBERT:

It shows you that legal advice can sometimes be wrong. And that’s the point. If there’s some doubt, as constitutional experts are seeing there is doubt about Mr Dutton, it’s a very important portfolio, Home Affairs. Wouldn’t it be- shouldn’t there be clarity?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Indeed. And I think there are people who probably would like to see Peter Dutton out because of the strong border protection that he has implemented; the fact that we have stopped the boats, the fact that we have made sure that we didn’t get 55,000 unauthorised arrivals and 800 boats and 1200 deaths at sea….

KIERAN GILBERT:

But wouldn’t it be good, as well, to just clear it up once and for all?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, he said on the floor of the Parliament, just yesterday and the day before that, he has complied with everything that Cabinet requires of him to do. The Solicitor General has said overnight that he’s not incapable of sitting in the House of Representatives. I'll take that Solicitor General's advice and take it as read. But the fact is Peter Dutton’s doing an outstanding job and I hope he continues to do just that.

KIERAN GILBERT:

When you look at the other question that's asked of the Prime Minister, why is he the Leader of the Liberal Party, it still can't be answered though, why the predecessor was dumped?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, I think people will unpick this for many more days and for weeks and months and probably years ahead. There'll be books written about it. But the fact is, I guess, ambition, Newspolls. The economy was going well, the economy is going well but when you combine those sorts of things, ambition and Newspolls and the like, opportunity, people take those opportunities and we've got a new Prime Minister. But he's hit the ground running, he's doing very well. I'm glad that he's placed drought as his first priority. And Scott Morrison is doing an outstanding job in the first few weeks of his Prime Ministership.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But what would you say to Malcolm Turnbull now then, in terms of what he should do?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, Malcolm was an outstanding leader as well. He left the economy to Scott Morrison in a very good shape.  And if you're an Australian you don't want to hear these inside beltway stories. Let’s appreciate that we changed the Prime Minister or the Liberal Party changed their Leader but the fact is Australians just want to move on. They want to make sure that if they've got a job, there's one there to go to. And there is.

KIERAN GILBERT:

So, they’re not interested in this sort of issue…

MICHAEL MCORMACK:

Well, I think they want politicians to stop talking about themselves, they probably think they want the media to start focusing on the real issues…

KIERAN GILBERT:

Has Mr Turnbull texted you about this issue at all or called you?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, I've had a few chats with Malcolm Turnbull both over text and, of course, I was his Deputy Prime Minister and of course I…

KIERAN GILBERT:

So, he's urging you to put pressure on them to refer Mr Dutton?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

No, no, not at all in that regard. I've just reached out; how are you going, how are you doing? He's replied. A couple of times he's messaged me about certain things such as the Wagga by-election, he wanted to know how that was going. And of course that didn't go all that well for the Coalition or the Liberal Party. But the fact is we're getting on with the job of focusing on Australians, not focusing on ourselves. And that is so important.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Does that worry you, that result in Wagga, given it's within your federal electorate?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Yeah look, I would have liked to have seen the result go the other way. But of course when you've got a Member who stood aside in the circumstances that he did, these things are understandable. When you've got a candidate who wasn't actually living in Wagga Wagga, that was perhaps a bit of a concern for some voters; and the fact that the Nationals didn't run and I understand why we didn't run. I appreciate and accept why we didn't run. But the fact is we didn't have that third option and, of course, that gave a perfect storm of opportunity for Dr Joe McGirr to step up and he'd been a candidate before in 2011, a fully credible candidate. I know Dr Joe McGirr very, very well. He's been in charge of the Notre Dame rural medical school. And Wagga people gave him a chance. And good luck to him. I’m happy to work with him.

KIERAN GILBERT:

But federally, you'll be able to get that support back? It's not some mood against the Coalition  ground right there?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

No, I don't believe so. Look, I stood on those polling booths and the mood towards me and the National Party was very good. In fact the mood was okay. I mean, they weren't there with baseball bats like they were in, I guess, 2007. More silent smiling assassins really. But they went in, they voted the way they wanted to; that's democracy and how good is democracy?

KIERAN GILBERT:

Yeah well, we're going to get another test of it on 20 October…

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

We are indeed.

KIERAN GILBERT:

…in Wentworth. And that could see the majority; well, will see the Government's majority in the House of Reps tested.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Look, it will.

KIERAN GILBERT:

The whole show could fall over.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

The fact is we’ve won a lot of votes on the House of Representatives on the floor, passed a lot of legislation through the Lower House this week with the support of the crossbenchers. But we're getting on with the job of Government. It's business as usual for the Government; jobs, drought, health, education, all the things that people want us to talk about and want us to be focusing on, that's what we’re doing.

KIERAN GILBERT:

If you don't win Wentworth then the question over the Government will be huge in terms of whether or not…

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, again, I say we’ve won votes on the floor of the House of Representatives this week. We don't have that Wentworth number at the moment. So look, we're just wanting to govern well and continue to work for Australians. 

KIERAN GILBERT:

You don’t have the Wentworth, but also the house is one less because…

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Of course it is, yes.

KIERAN GILBERT:

…so if you lose Wentworth, therefore you go into minority.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, it's an issue and we're hoping that that doesn't happen. So the Liberal Party will be putting its best foot forward in Wentworth, good candidate, making sure that we get on with the job.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Finally, what are the three main things that the National Party have achieved for the regions this year?  Obviously  we're on WIN around the nation now, on WIN television. I'm just wondering what are the three main things that the Nationals have achieved for the regions?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

The Murray-Darling Rural Medical School Network, that will be fantastic because people in the bush need more doctors and if you train doctors from end to end, from start to finish, chances are they'll stay in the bush. A focus on drought  and we were the ones who certainly made sure that we led the charge as far as getting relief and recovery efforts for those suffering from the drought. We'll continue to do that. We've had three tranches of support thus far. There needs to be more. There will be more, there must be more. And I was delighted that the CSIRO report came out the other day supporting dams. We're going to build dams. That's a real focus to drought-proof, to flood mitigate. And, of course, Rookwood Weir, $176.1 million, we've finally solved that piece of the puzzle as far as Rockhampton is concerned. Michelle Landry has fought so hard for that. It's been talked about for decades. But I'll just add a fourth in there; Inland Rail, already signed two intergovernmental agreements with Victoria and New South Wales, hopeful one will happen with Queensland very, very soon. I have been in discussions with Mark Bailey, the Minister there. That is going to be transformational for farmers and regional businesses throughout that 1700 kilometre  corridor of commerce.

KIERAN GILBERT:

Deputy Prime Minister, as always thanks so much.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Great, thanks Kieran.

[End of excerpt]

KIERAN GILBERT:

That’s the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack.

Shane Manning