Have Your Say

TRANSCRIPT: BALLOT DRAW PRESS CONFERENCE, 11 APRIL 2025

11 April 2025

AUSTRALIAN ELECTORAL COMMISSION, RIVERINA DIVISION CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS, COPLAN STREET, WAGGA WAGGA

 E&OE

STARTS: 12:43 PM

ENDS:  12:51 PM

EMILY FRANCIS:

So, number 11, how are you feeling?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well I have batted number 11 in cricket plenty of times and it has still made runs. People find who they want to vote for on the ballot paper and there are 13 names on it. And I think they will look to me, I hope, not knowing that I have to leave it to the referendum. Knowing that I will turn up, knowing that their concerns—knowing that I have the experience, the capability to decide, to drive, the determination to go to Canberra and to represent their interests fiercely as I ever have—I will certainly turn out.

That’s something I’ve always promised the people of the Riverina. I won’t remain silent when I speak. This is the most hotly contested, not just election, that you’ve ever seen here in the Riverina, but ever.

EMILY FRANCIS:
How are you feeling?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

It’s a hotly contested election right across the nation, and it’s one of those generational elections where Australians, I hope – don’t get it wrong, because only a coalition will get Australia back on track.

Only a coalition will fix this country. We’ve had three years where we’ve had promises broken—$275 power bills promised that never materialized. We’ve had a Voice referendum that just divided our nation and cost $450 million. Australians now, giving the coalition—they can trust us with the economy, they can trust us with national security. And the question before voters is: are they any better off now than they were prior to 2022? They know they’re no better off. They’ve had real wages fall. We’re not safer than we were back prior to 2022. In fact, we live in a volatile world, but we live in a country where, seriously, there have been very dangerous incidents taking place. And I just hope that this election is fought both nationally and locally, with respect.

And I hope that what we’ve seen in recent weeks and months—some of the things candidates have put up on Facebook, some of the things that the candidates have said—they need to reflect on that. And they need to know that this should be about respect. It should be about policies. It’s a contest of ideas. And that’s how it should be.

EMILY FRANCIS:
You know, this has historically been a safe seat for you.

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

It’s not a safe seat. I never, ever would agree with the reporter who says the seats safe, never take any vote for granted. I never have, I never will. And yes, people have voted for the Nationals for many, many years, but in my home in the northeast, John Sullivan and all the previous National Party representatives—we have delivered, and we have turned up.

And that’s why people vote for us. And if it’s safe, it’s only because of our hard work. It’s only because of our delivery. And just yesterday, David Littleproud, the Nationals leader, launched the Regional Australia Future Fund, and that is a $5 billion fund that is going to make such a difference. That money is going to go to local communities in perpetuity.

Guaranteed funding for regional communities, building up to $20 billion. And no other candidate—no other candidate—might need to pay themselves. Oh, they’ll say, “Look, I’ll agree with everybody,” but what can they really produce? What can they really deliver in Canberra? Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we haven’t seen anything from the likely candidates to suggest that they will match this regional fund.

In fact, it was the Labor Party that stripped away all the regional funding at the last budget introduced just a few weeks ago. So, as it stands now, if Labor is re-elected—and if Labor is re-elected in a majority or is re-elected with the two who are just masquerading as Greens, quite frankly, the Greens masquerading as independents, or indeed the Greens themselves—we’ll get no regional funding. The only way to get regional funding for communities such as Wagga Wagga and all the little towns—

Junee, all the towns—Temora, Cootamundra, Ganmain, Coolamon, Lockhart, all those communities—Gundagai, Tumut. I could go on and on, is to vote Nationals, is to vote Coalition, because we’re the only ones with a plan to get Australia back on track. We’re the only ones with a plan for regional Australia. And it’s regional Australia where the delivery of this country comes from. It’s the resources, it’s the agriculture, it’s everything that comes from the regional areas which makes this country what it is. And its regional strategy to carry this nation through, country and beyond.

 

 

EMILY FRANCIS:
Finally, from me, looking at the declaration of—sorry, the number of vote enrolments this year—12,500 more than 2022, probably also because of that shift in the border—what do you make of that?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, that is because of the redistribution of the boundaries and the electorate has very much moved east. We’ve picked up the eastern end and Boorowa to the end of the Hilltops Council, we’ve picked up Snowy Valleys, we’ve picked up Yass Valley, we’ve picked up Upper Lachlan, and I’ve been to all of those areas. I’ve talked to Paul Cullhane the Mayor of the Upper Lachlan Council, in Crookwell, just the other day.

And this is a great opportunity they are at least to turn up, to listen to the concerns, the wants and needs and expectations of those people. Good country people just like the rest of us. And they want better telecommunications. They want cost of living issues addressed.

That’s why I’m really glad we’re having the fuel tax. We’re making sure that for every person who turns up the day after we are elected—hopefully that will happen—that they’re going to get $15 off at the bowser, $15 relief. That’s cost-of-living measure relief right now. It’s not 70 cents in 15 months’ time, which is what Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese are offering.

It’s real money in your pocket right now.

GEORGIA ROBINSON:

Just one question from me. So, despite the increase In scope and competition , are you still confident that the voters is are confident in you?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well I’d like to think they would be confident in me, they see a local. They see somebody who’s turned up. They see somebody who’s delivered. They see somebody who’s been a Deputy Prime Minister but never, ever forgotten where I come from.

I come from Wagga Wagga. I originally come from Marrar. I’m a Riverina boy, born and raised, schooled here, raised here, family farm, worked here all my life. Love the area. Love the people. Serve them. Represent them fiercely as I have. And I love this place. Not some blow-in who’s just thinking that’ll be a good thing—”Sign up to see how I go in the federal election.”

I’m not a career politician. Although I entered politics in my 47th year—just think about that. I had a career in newspapers, in media, and I ran a small business. I know how hard it is to run a small business. I feel for those people who go and run a small business, open their doors. Sometimes they take home less money than their workers.

They do it tough. I want to be there for them. I want to be there for people struggling around the family dinner table to meet their family budget, struggling to put groceries on the table. That’s what I’m about. People know who I am, I would like to think that they trust me, and I can certainly always be contacted.

Thank you.

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