TRANSCRIPT: Interview with Gerry Taveira, STA FM radio, Inverell NSW, 28 June 2019

E&OE

Subjects: Nationals conference at Inverell; drought funding; Federal election

GERRY TAVEIRA:

It’s an absolute honour to have the Nationals Leader and Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack in the studio. A very good morning, sir. How are you?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Good morning, Gerry.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

Should I ask you what the answer to this morning’s riddle is?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Look I know the answer because my adviser - who is one of the smartest people - he's got a brain as big as a wheat silo - has just said it and you nodded. So I know that’s the answer, but I'm not going to spoil it for those listeners who are racking their brains. Anyway, it’s a top of the mind answer.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

Top of the mind. Rightyo. Now, of course in town, the conference - you're basically here for the conference. Tell us a bit about the conference, how Inverell got it. Obviously it’s bringing a lot of people into Inverell at a time where drought is pretty severe.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

And that's the case. We share our conferences around. It’s a different regional New South Wales town or city every year. And this year it's particularly special. Inverell got it because it deserved it. Inverell got it because it said it had the accommodation, it had the facilities, and it certainly does. Last night's welcome was fantastic. We had our annual meeting out at the rugby club yesterday where Andrew Fraser was elected as the chairman to succeed Tamworth egg farmer Bede Burke after five years, stepping down after five years. So we had a six-hour annual meeting yesterday at a great facility. But it's also special because it’s Wacka Williams - Senator John Williams’ – home town. Given the fact that he's just got a couple of days left in the Senate after a stellar career of representing fiercely the interests of Inverell and all people who live in regional New South Wales, indeed all regional Australians, it's only appropriate that we hold the annual conference in his hometown.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

And we said off air, he's going to be a big loss to the National Party. He's made an impact over his 11-year service.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

He has. He's really fought hard for better infrastructure, for better services, certainly taken on the banks where he felt there was a need to do so. He has always stood up on those issues particularly for the little person, Mr and Mrs Average, who sometimes miss out when it comes to the big Canberra debates. Wacka never forgot those people. And I think he was kept very grounded by his wife Nancy, of course, who runs the great little paper here, The Bingara Advocate. He's a great fighter but he's being replaced, he is being succeeded, by Perin Davey. I know she'll be a fierce fighter too, and she'll bring a different perspective but a similar perspective. So Perin Davey is going to do a great job in that Senate spot. The Nationals will always be well represented, but certainly moreover people in regional New South Wales always will.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

The conference: tell us a bit about the conference, what will be discussed? I believe a number of branches bring motions forward, discuss and then see if it becomes policy …

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Yes: Health, education, infrastructure, better roads, more water storage infrastructure. I met a group of about 20, 30 farmers last night on the windswept hill of the rugby oval and, yes, it was getting a bit chilly. But, look, you don't complain about whether it's cold or the certainly the weather when you're talking to farmers who are desperate. They are. There’s no question, we need rain. And those farmers, they’ve been well looked after by the New South Wales Government. They made another announcement of another suite of arrangements and measures and assistance last week at Coolamon in southwest New South Wales. We've already put more than $7 billion on the table as a Commonwealth, as a Federal Government. But we can and we must and we always will do more. We'll continue to monitor the situation.

Paul Harmon, the Inverell Shire Council Mayor, and I spoke last night about what we could further do together. But they've got the million dollars and they're spending that on keeping employment in the town, keeping money generating around the town. I know even bringing conferences such as this are helpful, and that's what city people should particularly do, and other people in regional New South Wales besides: Go and spend some money in a regional town. That will really help and bolster and keep money generating, flowing throughout a local economy. So that's what the Nationals are doing, and look, we'll certainly continue to monitor the drought.

Water storage infrastructure and water security is something that's front of mind. I'm pleased that we announced during the election the National Water Grid authority to take the petty politics out of building dams and extending pipelines and heightening and lengthening weirs. So we'll get on with doing that. I’m having some really important discussions next week about how we formalise that process. We have another $500 million on the table to build more dams and to do that sort of thing, but it's been way too long since we've actually built a dam. We want to get on board with the States to do just that.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

What about the Bradfield scheme? Our local member, Barnaby Joyce, is really pushing this particular project. Have you- what’s your thoughts on it?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Absolutely, and look, there are elements of the Bradfield Scheme which we're already doing, certainly in North Queensland where Bradfield suggested that we build water infrastructure in the catchments where it falls and make sure that we have it there for the dry times. I'm not so sure that filling up Lake Eyre is going to happen anytime soon. I'm not so sure that turning rivers - the Hastings, the Macleay, and other rivers - in on themselves to wash back into the inland would ever pass the environmental or cultural or feasibility tests at the moment. But there are certainly elements of the Bradfield Scheme which we are putting in place right now under the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund.

We're doing that right now and we'll continue, as part of the National Water Grid, to make sure that we put water storage infrastructure in the catchments where the rain falls. And look, it will rain again. I said not that long ago in North Queensland: It'll rain again, when it rains we’ll probably curse the amount that falls. We got that monsoonal trough that came over that put way too much water on the land, and of course so many cattle were killed and we had a flood situation to deal with. But we need to store the water when it falls, for help in the dry times to grow agriculture when we're in a drought situation.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

The Federal Government's Drought Communities Program: Inverell Shire received about $1 million late last year. Is that something that the Nationals will be looking at taking it out and making that another amount of funding available to communities such as Inverell again?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

It's going to be part of the future National Drought Fund. Certainly we've already put on the table more than $110 million for 110 councils, so a million dollars per council. And I know there are still councils which haven't received that money because they've just received a bit of a decent recent shower, so they haven't actually qualified, but we'll continue to monitor the situation. For those councils who've already spent their million dollars updating a town hall or putting in a roundabout or keeping employment and money in the town - if the drought continues when it might need to look at giving them further assistance. We're certainly not blind to that process and to helping those councils which haven't received it.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

The drought packages: A lot of people have been saying that when they tried to access it was a lot of paperwork, a lot to actually get some funding. They needed the funding immediately. Is the Government looking at streamlining it a little bit better for them to access that funding?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Absolutely, and we have, and I know when David Littleproud was the Agriculture Minister he did just that. Now what we have done as part of getting re-elected and the reshuffle of ministers is that we've actually elevated drought to its own portfolio in the Cabinet. So it has its own portfolio title in the Cabinet. David Littleproud is going to be doing a great job in that, bringing the attention of the nation to the drought; but I don't need to bring it to the Prime Minister’s attention because he's well aware. Scott Morrison is well aware of how hard hit these rural communities are, and that's why he made his first order of business when he became Prime Minister in August last year to visit a drought community and when we were re-elected after the May 18 election he made his first order of business to revisit, to go back to a drought community, to show people that we care and we've got that sort of assistance on the table and that we are open to what else needs to be done.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

My word. Let's go back a couple of months when all those polls suggested that the current Government was going to be losing that election. What were your thoughts, seeing all these opinion polls coming out with a small deficit? I found it rather interesting that Scott Morrison was the preferred Prime Minister in all those polls. What were your thoughts going …

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

…There was a reason for that. That reason was writ large on May 18 when people overwhelmingly endorsed the Liberals and the Nationals to continue in a third term in Government. And look, those pollsters should give themselves an upper-cut, they really should, because they got it wrong federally; they got it wrong in New South Wales when they wrote off the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government; they got it wrong in South Australia, in Tasmania and I probably don't even need to mention Brexit or Trump. So they continue to get it wrong.

The fact is the quiet Australians spoke. The fact is people wanted our policies and our agenda, our Budget to be unfurled and unrolled and played out, and we're doing just that. We want to get the tax cuts through. I don't think Labor still has learnt the lessons of May 18. They're still saying that they're going to block the tax cuts. That's what the Australians voted for. They're still talking about so many of the other policies that we took to the election that the overwhelming majority of Australians wanted because they put us back in. And they're still saying that they're going to be blockers, they're going to be negative, they're going to stymie all our plans and our agenda. That’s not what the Australian people voted for. We now have a mandate to make sure that we continue to roll out the infrastructure, to continue to roll out the policies that we took to the election and we will do that.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

Leadership also was pretty high on the agenda leading into that election, obviously with Malcolm Turnbull and obviously Scott Morrison. Sitting back and watching all those issues that were happening, what were your thoughts going into that period of time? It must have been rather frustrating, sitting down and seeing what was going on because we've seen that through the Labor years with Rudd and Gillard and Rudd. People got frustrated.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

In the six weeks leading up to the election during the campaign, the one thing that people were crying out for was stability, for unity. And I know it might be sexy and popular for newspapers and news studios to rake over those old coals now and to dig up why it happened and all the whys and wherefores - but the fact is, it's history now.

People want to get on with making sure that they give the Liberals and the Nationals breathing space to do what we were elected to do. I know Scott Morrison's going to be one of the great modern day Prime Ministers and I know there's going to be stability and unity going forward now, and that's what the people want.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

How do you know that?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, because that's what the people asked for. I know the Liberal Party now are right behind Scott as they should be. The Nationals, we’re in there fighting hard for regional Australia. I know also, having had all our 16 seats returned, I know there's also that stability and unity there. Let's get on with the job that people elected us to do. And the fact is, people just don’t want to be continually force-fed politics. We've had the State election in March, we've had the Federal election in May and I think people now just want to get on and watch the World Cup cricket, they want to watch Ash Barty win Wimbledon, they want to watch Hawthorn win the footy, the Inverell Saints - they want to just get on the watch a bit a local sport, they want to get on a bit of watch bit of national sport, and just put politics aside for a while; just get on and let us do what they elected us to do and have a bit of breathing space from politics for a while.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

I must admit - I think people are getting breath back into them because we had the, as you said, the State election then the Federal election and we were sort of all politician-ed out. But we've had that little bit of a break and it looks like now the Government's on its way to try to deliver what they've promised.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

We'll continue to work hard. We didn't stop. Scott and I both went out and worked on the Sunday after the election, May 19, and I haven't stopped. I know I've been out there every day - and going back and thanking, thanking our branch members. That's one of the processes of this weekend's conference, to say to the National Party people who handed out during that three weeks of pre-poll and never lost faith, always believed in what we had on offer, always believed in the principles and the priorities of the National Party, to say thanks to them – but also to say thanks to the community as well and to make sure that the community knows we're back at work, we've got the sleeves rolled up, we're doing the job and we're going to do what we said we would do.  

GERRY TAVEIRA:        

Michael, thank you for spending the time with us.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

It’s a pleasure Gerry.

GERRY TAVEIRA:             

and over the next couple of days looking at spending a few more dollars or maybe getting the wife to do that?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, Catherine certainly went down to the shops last night and yesterday afternoon and was quite impressed that there's a big town-wide sale on so Inverell, look out.

GERRY TAVEIRA:               

Okay. Appreciate your time. Thank you for making time in your busy schedule.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Pleasure.

GERRY TAVEIRA:

That is the Acting Prime Minister and Leader of the Nationals, Michael McCormack joining us this morning here at STA FM.

Shane Manning