Have Your Say

TRANSCRIPT: POST-ELECTION PRESS CONFERENCE, 5 MAY 2025

5 May 2025

MICHAEL McCORMACK:
Well, I’d like to say that it was a very pleasing result on Saturday and certainly want to thank the voters, my family, my staff and the hardworking volunteers who stood out on pre-poll for two weeks on the hard cement, in the heat, in the cold, and handed out because they believed in something, they believed in someone. They believed in The National Party – rightly is the party of choice, the party that is going to take the fight on to Canberra for and on the people of the Riverina’s behalf. And I will certainly do that again for another three years, as I’ve always done. I’m very humbled and privileged to be the Member for Riverina and to continue that job, that work, that advocacy. That very much humbles me because I know we had a lot of interest and competitiveness in this election – the second-highest number of candidates in Australia with 13.  To the other 12 candidates, thank you for taking part in the democratic process. Certainly, it was a hard fight and the most interesting campaign at times. But to the people of the Riverina, you have my pledge that I will continue to work hard for you. Of course, it’s difficult because, whilst looking at the local results and being very pleased with those, the fact that, nationally, it has been quite a wipe-out this is something that The Coalition will now take stock of.

Certainly, the Liberal Party will regroup. There’s some good people left there, and they’ll regroup, they’ll reform, they’ll elect a new leader, and it goes on from here. We need to ensure that we earn the trust of people who vote for the Coalition. The Liberal Party needs to regain the respect to help with the Coalition, with The Nationals, form a credible Opposition and come back in three years’ time and see what happens.

INTERVIEWER:

So, what does the sequel situation of a national Labor Government, what does that look like for the Riverina?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, it’s been done before, obviously, in the last three years. I’ve advocated very hard for the people of the Riverina, even though we’ve had a Labor Government, we have been able to retain the mental health services of Gundagai when Labor withdrew those services in most other regional centres.

I was able to convince him abroad because of the good relationship I have with the regional Minister for Health (Emma McBride), that it would be too important to take away those services. We’ve been able to continue to deliver, and I’ve got a good relationship with the Prime Minister. I’ve got a good relationship with the Labor Ministers. I’ve built bridges over my 14 years of political life with all people from all sides of politics. And I think that’s something that I do bring to the Riverina, to the voters, and people know that, in me, they have somebody who can be very bipartisan. The fact that I went to the Pope’s funeral, something Anthony Albanese – I discussed the fact that he was very pleased that I did go there and represent Australia and its people.

I know that Labor knows that I’m someone who can be trusted, I have a good relationship with the Prime Minister. I can ring him any time, and he’ll answer the phone. I can have a meeting with him any time I want, but I’m a National Party member through and through. I’ll fight the good fight; I’ll make sure that the Government remains accountable. I am very worried about regional funding, I know in the last Budget, all that regional funding, the Growing Regions Fund, the Local Community Infrastructure Fund that I put in place as Deputy Prime Minister, which gave local councils – the 12 of them I represent all of the autonomy to be able to invest in potholes, to be able to build the local infrastructure that they need. $27 million would have gone to those councils, but that money is all dissipated now that we’ve got a Labor Government. And I think it’s incumbent upon this incoming Labor Government, a re-elected Government, to respect the regions and to make sure that they do look after the regions, particularly as though the regions are going through a very dry spell.

I didn’t hear a lot of talk other than, quite frankly, particularly from the farmers in the last couple of weeks of pre-poll, all they wanted to talk about was how brown the soil was and how desperately dry it is around the Riverina.

We’ve already got two Local Government Areas which have already been drought declared and that is becoming a real worry. Now the Government is going to have to address that if this dry spell continues with some funding, for farmers with sheep and cattle, and indeed, make sure that we’ve got that fodder assistance that Coalition Governments have always been able to manage. It’s going to be up to this Labor Government if this drought continues to provide that assistance.

INTERVIEWER:

As you said, you made a multitude of multi-million-dollar commitments Wagga Airport, a number of sports grounds, the $27 million towards councils. Can the Riverina kiss that funding goodbye?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Yes, but I’ll be advocating, certainly. Hopefully, there will be regional funding. I mean, all I can do is basically cross my fingers and hope, because in the last Budget, it was all taken away.

And, you know, none of the Labor regional members or regional candidates were prosecuting that argument. I didn’t hear Kristy McBain screaming from the rooftops about the fact that Growing Regions and Local Community Infrastructure funding had all been taken out of the Budget. There’s no funding for those regional funds, regional communities and, you know, regional communities are the communities which carried the nation through COVID and have carried the nation ever since.

It’s where the power comes from, it’s where the food and fibre come from, it’s where we get our balance payments supported, it’s where our resources come from – yet completely ignored in the Budget. And you know, I didn’t hear any Labor Member, not the Minister for Resources, not the Regional Development Minister. None of them was screaming about it; they just accepted it. But, you know, this is the very case our regional communities need money. And unfortunately, we didn’t have the Labor candidate here, supporting my bid for the Wagga Airport Terminal. I put $24 million on the table, just like I put more than $20 million on the table for the 2022 election, but unfortunately, I didn’t get that support.

And it’s such a shame, because Wagga does need a new airport terminal. I hope that if there is a big ticket, funding program for the regions put up, I hope Wagga City Council makes it a priority because they haven’t in the past, I have to say, they’ve had other commitments, the Equex Centre, Riverside Precinct, the Botanic Gardens Museum, all infrastructure projects which are very good and which I’ve been able to help fund. But even the Levee Bank, that was $10 million. But they prioritise those over the airport terminal. We do need a new airport terminal. I acknowledge that, and we need to make sure that we can get some of that regional funding back.

INTERVIEWER:

As you mentioned, 13 people put their hand up for the sake of Riverina. So it’s clear that some people believe there needs to be a change in this electorate. Are you going to consider that moving forward, or maybe reviewing the way you lead?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, you say there were some people. Yes. There were 12 other opponents who decided that we needed a change. And when you look at the Independents’ vote, you know, it was at 4 and 5 and 2%, and less. So, you know, this election, it’s up to anybody that can put their hand up if they are an enrolled voter.

They don’t have to even live in the Riverina; they can put their hand up for election, but I think the results speak for themselves, quite frankly. And, when you when you look at the fact that I’ve got a three-point something per cent swing towards me, you know, I think that says that people are satisfied and happy with the delivery that I’ve done, and you only have to drive around Wagga Wagga and indeed not just this city, but indeed all of the parts of the electorate which were in the Riverina boundaries, prior to the redistribution, I’ve delivered for each and every one of those communities. You know, you can have 20 candidates, if they if they’re a voting age, they can put their hand up for election. And you even see that with some of the candidates who, we didn’t see a corflute, we didn’t see somebody handing out for them. They have still been able to put their hand up and still get votes. That’s part of the democratic process. And isn’t it great that we actually have that process? But I think if you look at the results, the results speak for themselves.

INTERVIEWER:

The Nationals themselves actually did quite well on election night. Most of their seats have been retained, and yourself got quite a large swing back into your favour. How do you promise these people who have elected you back and The Nationals, back into their seat, that they’re going to be able to deliver something in the next three years, despite the complete wipeout by Labor everywhere else. How do you promise that you’re not going to just be sitting on your hands?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Trust me, I won’t ever be sitting on my hands. I’ve already been out of town once this morning. I spent six hours in the car yesterday driving to Cowra and back, to meet people, to honour a commitment that I’d made. This is how I do it, I mean, it’s a large electorate, we’ve got, three-and-a-half-new local government areas, the eastern end of Hilltops, Upper Lachlan, Yass Valley, Snowy Valleys areas that I will absolutely turn up to. I will represent those people as fiercely as I’ve represented all the other areas.

I’ve represented a large chunk of southern New South Wales and the Central West. If you look at the number of Local Government Areas I’ve represented since 2010, this has been the most changed electorate since Federation, quite frankly, no electorate has ever been shifted around as much as the Riverina. It’s shared a common border with South Australia, Queensland, Victoria-still does-and now the ACT. I mean these are substantial changes but each and every time National Party Members Noel Hicks, Kay Hull, John Sullivan, myself, we’ve turned up we’ve represented these areas, and we’ll continue to do that. And even though I’m in Opposition, rest assured, Labor will know I am there. It is substantially reduced Coalition numbers, we’ll have 36, maybe more. But the point you make about the National Party doing well, we’ve now retained each and every one of our House of Representatives seats for six elections in a row through the leadership of Warren Truss, Barnaby Joyce, David Littleproud and of course, myself, when I was the Leader in 2019. We’ve retained each and every one of our seats. So, The National Party must be doing something right. And other parties, I think, could learn from that. Other parties could actually look at what we’re doing, the representation that we give. We’re not just people who put a name on our shirt, and turn up for six weeks of a campaign, bag the incumbent and pretend as though we care.

That’s not what I do, it’s not what I’ve ever done. That’s not what other National Party members do. I mean, I’m back at work, jacket on, tie on. I’ve already been out of town this morning. I was out of town yesterday. That’s the job, that’s the role. It’s not that to just turn up six weeks out from the campaign and pretend to say you want to be the Member because you’re some sort of entrenched local.

INTERVIEWER:

Without the Coalition, The Nationals would be a minor party. So, do The Nationals need to reflect on some of the policies, such as nuclear and how they might have played out in metro areas and take some responsibility for that as well?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, we’ve retained all our seats – regional seats. I think the Liberals need to do a lot of soul-searching. And we’ve been in a Coalition for decades, since the Liberal Party formed back in the 40s, we’ve been a very close Coalition. Australia’s done best when we have had a Coalition Government. But obviously, as I said before, there’s some soul searching to do not just the Liberals, but The Nationals too, will reflect on the performance.

We’ll have a look at our policies, we’ll have a look at the people leading the parties, and we’ll make sure that, when we do come back, we come back better and stronger. There’s still some very, very good people left in the Liberal Party. We need to regroup, restructure, look at all our policies, our suite of policies, where we went right, where we obviously didn’t go right. And, that review, I think when the Liberal Party does do its review, you need to have very good people doing that review and not just giving them the information they want to hear, but make it a warts and all review as to where they need to get better. It’s important now that we don’t get bitter, that we get better.

INTERVIEWER:

David Littleproud spent some time in areas on the East Coast in or near areas and electorates where there were National Party candidates, campaigning against offshore wind areas. Areas affected by offshore wind have swung towards the Labor Party. Was that misguided and maybe unhelpful to the Coalition’s campaign?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, I know in 2019, when I was Deputy Prime Minister, I spent so much time outside the electorate, obviously being the National Party Leader and being the, Minister for Infrastructure, that one of the reporters, from one of the stations that is right here, right now, none of you individuals, but one of the reporters from one of the stations, suggested I was the missing Member, missing in action.

Well, I’ve never been missing in action, but it’s important when you are a senior Minister, that you turn up to those seats which are not necessarily held by your party, but making sure that you get the national message out. And by national, I mean national, as in Commonwealth, not necessarily Nationals, and David Littleproud did that. There are a lot of people who were very against offshore wind turbines in those coastal seats. And rest assured, just because the votes didn’t go our way for whatever reason, those people will still be there. They’ll still be against those offshore wind turbines. It’s not just a necessarily an endorsement that we should litter our coast with offshore wind towers.

And rest assured, you even look around here, at the objection to these solar factories and the amount of transmission lines that 28,000 km are going to be constructed. And a lot of them throughout the Riverina’s electorate, the new boundaries, there are a lot of people who objected to those. Just because Labor has won doesn’t give them, necessarily the mandate to go and litter our coast with offshore wind turbines.

Just the same as it doesn’t give them the mandate to now legislate the voice by stealth, and that also worries me because obviously, Australia voted in that referendum 60% against The Voice. And, what worries me now is that Labor thinks they can just pass legislation carte blanche, without any worry as to what might or might not be the repercussions of passing that legislation.

INTERVIEWER:

You’ve mentioned several policies that you are scared that the Labor Party are going to move forward on and secretly push forward. Is this going to be a challenging time for you? Is this going to be the most challenging for yourself?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, I sat through the Gillard Government of 2010-2013, when we had obviously a minority Government, and that was an interesting time.

Look, it will be difficult, there’s no question. I mean, you sit on a very reduced Coalition team in the House of Reps. You don’t have as many seats, and you have Labor with the ability to just ram legislation through the House of Representatives. And obviously, given the fact that Perin Davey will no longer, potentially be in the Senate and, we’ve got less of less voices there as well.

That makes it far more difficult to be able to even amend legislation. So, yeah, of course I agree with you, it will be difficult, but we have to, as an Opposition, return the trust of the Australian voters. We have to look at our policies, we have to look at our people, we have to make sure that we can win the respect of people.

And let’s hope that the damage done, over the next three years, and there will be some damage, particularly to regional Australia. You know, I give credit to Anthony Albanese, and they’ve won the election and good on them. I mean, you’ve got to be upfront and honest, and you’ve got to say when someone’s won the election, obviously the Australian people, at that point in time – that’s what they decided.

And that’s the best thing about democracy is that the Australian people will decide. And you like to think that the Australian people get it right. You can’t just stand here at these microphones and just say, that every everything is terrible in the world, the sky’s not going to fall in, but we will keep the Labor Government accountable.

I think just because they’ve got a thumping majority doesn’t give them the right to now do some of the things that they said that they weren’t going to do, and obviously, which were unpalatable for the Australian people in the recent past. But look, they are the government, they’ve got the majority in the House of Representatives and obviously with a much more malleable Senate situation. So, we’ll see what happens.

INTERVIEWER:

Just on the soul searching for the Coalition. What would you make of, just down the road, Sussan Ley becoming Leader of the Liberals?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, I don’t get a vote in the Liberal Party room, and the Liberal Party will determine who their leader is going to be. I’m sure Sussan Ley, if she feels as though she wants the job and, is up to the job, not that she’s not up to the job, but that’s up to her to put her hand up for that position. I’m sure will be a good leader. Well, she’s proven that, she’s been a very good Deputy Leader. But it’s up to Sussan, it’s up to the Liberal Party room as to who leads them.

INTERVIEWER:

Do you think The Nats need a new leader after this particular result? Have you put your hat back in the ring?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

We’ll see what happens. David Littleproud has done a good job, I support him.

I’ve been speaking to Barnaby Joyce over the last two days and, for those of you who were present on Saturday night, you would have seen that I actually thanked him, for what he did to help, raise awareness in the part of the electorate, as to some of the issues that were concerning them. The National Party – we have our squabbles from time to time, as does every party, but generally we keep them internally, and that’s important. David Littleproud has led a party – which has won each and every one of its Lower House seats, and potentially, with Bendigo on the knife edge, we could even pick up a seat, which nobody would have given us a chance of picking up 12 months ago. We’ve also laid much of the policy debate, indeed in Opposition, in the Coalition. You even look at the supermarket divestiture powers and, putting out a tough supermarket commissioner on the beat, making sure that farmers are price makers rather than price takers in one sense, and getting people a fair deal at the checkout. They were National Party policies that were even adopted by the Government.

Some of those policies and some of those campaigns that we pushed. So, David Littleproud has done very well with Perin Davey as the Deputy Leader, and I’m shattered that she’s not going to be able to continue in that role.

LAUREN PEZET:

Just on Perin Davey, with her gone, you do have Alison Penfold coming in, though the number of women in the National Party is still very, very low. If you can’t sort of rely on female senators to bolster the female representation in the National Party, do you need to look very seriously at putting women in safe National seats?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, you say it’s very, very low, but I look at Bridget McKenzie and Anne Webster and Jacinta Price and Susan McDonald and Michelle Landry, and it’s like naming the Seven Dwarfs, you can only ever get six of them.

But, you know, the number of women – Alison Penfold, you just mentioned. The number of vibrant, forward-thinking, wonderful women that we do have in the National Party, and I remember when I was the leader, we were down to two women in the National Party, and we tripled that under my leadership. We made sure that women did feel as though our party was the party of choice.

I know how many women would only take my how-to-vote card at the polling booths. We’ve got a policy that women can put their names forward, of course, like anybody else. And, we’ve really promoted women in the past, we have had a Deputy Leader in Perin Davey, Senate Leader in Bridget McKenzie.

I mean, all of the women in the National Party Senate team were actually Shadow Cabinet Ministers. And so I think we’ve done some very, very good things. The Women’s Council, for instance, is one of the most vibrant, progressive branches of our National Party Executive. And that’s fantastic.

The Liberal Party, too, has too in Sussan Ley had a great Deputy Leader. Our parties are putting women to the forefront, and this is a good thing. And the number of candidates, across the board, has been significant to running for the National Party. Mia Davies and Sue Gilroy, just to mention a couple.

INTERVIEWER:

Most of those are senators, if the trend against coalition continues, do you need to look at bolstering numbers in the Lower House where women might have a chance of becoming National Party Leader?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

I’d like to see more Members of the Lower House. Men and women for The Nationals, of course. But again, look, look at the results. We have held every one of our seats.

And, whilst you can look at numbers and look at genders, I think we should be actually looking at the National Party as a party which has actually done reasonably well at this election. Of course, you can’t be crowing about victories and whatnot when obviously the national result was disastrous – and it was.

But, I think you should take the same questions to The Greens and put it them to them. I mean, The Greens have been wiped out, and thankfully so at this election and, let’s give some praise where praise is due and I think The Nationals deserve some praise for what we’ve done, what we’ve been able to do as the tide very much goes out for The Coalition at this time.

INTERVIEWER:

With the increased representation of all of The Nationals in the Coalition party room. Will you be seeking, an increased number of ministries?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, we will get an increased number of ministries because it’s worked out on a per capita basis with how many seats you hold as part of a joint number in the Coalition. That’s how it’s worked out. So, it’s actually based on a ratio and obviously with The Nationals, holding potentially 15, 16 seats in 36 or so, a strong position within the Coalition. Obviously, we will get more seats in the Shadow Cabinet and certainly more seats in the Shadow Ministry overall. That’ll be a good thing, it’s not such a bad thing having regional people, telling the Opposition where it needs to go. I think that’s actually a good thing.

INTERVIEWER:

Bringing it back locally, there was quite a high percentage of informal votes, and a lot of the votes actually preceded more than 10 of the 13 candidates in general, in terms of formal vote percentage. Is that concerning for you to hear that, you know, between 10 and 13 per cent of this electorate, their vote meant essentially nothing?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, the last time I looked the informal ran third, 11,000 votes. I mean, this is shameful, really. And you had a look at the last Local Government elections hearing I think there was 6,000 people who didn’t vote at all.

You know, I mean, there are 103,000 names on the Roll of Honour at the War Memorial so that people could get a free and fair vote. Those are the people, men and women, who went to war and died so that we could have a fair and free and democratic society. Anybody who wastes their vote, you know, needs to take a good, long, hard look at themselves.

I mean, some of my scrutineers reported some absolute filth being written on ballot papers, people going in, taking the names and writing an obscenity on the ballot paper and putting that ballot paper in the ballot box. I mean, they disrespect our Diggers, that’s what they do. And obviously, with 13 candidates, you will get a higher informal rate than normal because you have to fill out all 13 boxes. You have to fill out a number in every box and in sequential order, you know, one through 13, in the order of your preference. But, obviously having a high number of candidates, a record number of candidates, you will increase the informal vote. But, people need to actually start looking at, you know, actually, how they vote and take some care and interest in it. I do think, to be honest, I do think we need uniformity across local council, State and Federal voting. I think where you can turn up to a State election, just put a one and your vote counts, and then you have to number every box in the Federal election. I think that’s madness. Quite frankly, it all should be the same.

And I’m not against preferential voting. I think it is an ideal way. But, again, that’ll be up to the Australian Electoral Commission to determine those sorts of things. But I think the high informal vote was really disappointing.

INTERVIEWER:

It was above 10% as well

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, they also had 10 candidates.

INTERVIEWER:

It wasn’t everywhere, I appreciate it was not everywhere. I appreciate you pointed that we’re a lot of candidates, but do you do you, expect that there might be a level of apathy amongst some of those 10%. They felt like they didn’t have anyone to vote for.

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

They’re always going to have somebody to vote for and, I think, again, the numbers speak for themselves. You’ve got more than 40% who voted Nationals, and again, we’ve won the two-party preferred with 62 or 63% or whatever the case might be. So, you’re always going to have somebody vote for, but don’t waste your vote.

If you are going to waste your vote, don’t complain when things don’t go your way. Because, quite frankly, you get an opportunity, you get a choice. Use that choice and exercise that right wisely. I mean, how pointless is it to turn up and just waste your vote?

I mean, there’s always going to be somebody to vote for. There’s always going to be a couple of people to vote for. I don’t think there were any of the 150 seats which only had two candidates. But there’s always going to be somebody to vote for. If you are that exercised about it, run yourself, if you think there’s nobody to vote for, put your own hand up, take some, take some courage, put your hand up to run for public office, whether it’s a council, State or Federal election. You know, have the courage of your convictions to not just curse at those who do put their hands up.

INTERVIEWER:

We count five different media organisations here.

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

And that’s fantastic, I love regional media.

INTERVIEWER:

They have all contributed to writing articles and producing stuff for this election.

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

And thank you for that.

INTERVIEWER:

Do you believe that if people are informally voting like that, it’s just due to lack of education or lack of care?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

I do think we need to promote it more in schools. I do think we need to get it in our civics classes, and can I just say in that regard, thank you to the House of Representatives Speaker Milton Dick, who has made it one of his objectives to get more education particularly secondary schools, about the importance, of the Federal Parliament … about the difference between Local Government, State and Federal parliaments. And good on Milton for that. Or spoke to him just yesterday and if there is one shining light about this Election, from a Coalition point of view, from a Parliamentary point of view and from accepting that Labor is actually, won in a bloodbath, it’s the fact that Milton Dick will be back as Speaker because he’s done an absolutely fine job, and he’s really made a point of, of teaching children, the difference between the various levels of government. And I think we do need to do that, people have never been better informed. I mean, we live in the information age, they’ve got so much at their fingertips. What worries me is the misinformation, and it does, and even some candidates just spruiking stuff that just wasn’t right, spruiking stuff that they knew in their heart of hearts that it was a lie, and some of these people are representatives of people in public offices. And yet it still didn’t stop them from spreading lies and, you know, you’ve got to be able to be a person of conviction and a person who’s going to own up to the truths that you tell. Also, those things which you know are porkies. But we need to get back to schools, and I’m glad I’m going to The Riverina Anglican College this afternoon to do just that, to talk to kids about the importance of Federal politics.

And I’ll keep it very bipartisan, as you’ll probably be pleased. But thank you all, each one of you, for your media organisations, and for what you did, and I think that’s a good thing. We need more regional media, at least informing people, the truth. Because there’s one thing you will say about regional media is that I might not always like, what you what you print the slant you put on it and broadcast but at least you do it truthfully, which is more than I can say for some of the trash that we saw on Facebook and other social media platforms, in this election campaign locally.

INTERVIEWER:

Should there be laws passed to crack down on misinformation?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Didn’t we do just that – haven’t we gone through that whole process? But look, well, you know, I suppose people have to be accountable for what they write and what they post. When you see the results and even locally, and you know what I’m all talking about, when you see the actual results, the results speak for themselves. They were people who put up stuff on social media and talked down to the people of local Wagga in particular, and looked at their vote. Look at the vote that they returned.

And I think people work out who the serious people are, people look at when they’re being told things that just aren’t true, and, you know, when some of those people went low, I continued to go high.

INTERVIEWER:

Would you advocate for laws in that area?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

There is a lot of grey area and look, I just think it’s incumbent upon people to tell the truth, not hard.

INTERVIEWER:

Mr McCormack, you have a lot of history with Andrew Gee. How much of a blow was it to see that seat formally lost in Calare?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, Andrew Gee entered State Parliament on the back of National Party volunteers handing out for him, then into the federal parliament – same arrangement. I made him a Minister, Andrew Gee left the National Party because he believed that the people of Calare were going to support the Voice. And, of course, they voted overwhelmingly against the Voice. Incumbency is powerful in a Federal seat. I’m glad that Sam Farraway stood. I’m proud of the fact that he actually topped the primary vote. The people of Calare obviously wanted Sam Farraway as a Member. But unfortunately, Andrew did a deal with Kate Hooke, the Climate200 advocate. Somebody who represented a movement that he never believed in, something that he always advocated against. But Andrew Gee is very transactional. He’s done this dodgy deal. He’s got his way back into Parliament, and good luck to him, I suppose.

INTERVIEWER:

Speaking of preference deals, do you put the swing towards you down to the One Nation preference?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Absolutely not. I mean, One Nation we’re lucky enough to get, number one on the ballot paper the second time around, for the second time in a row, we didn’t say much from the actually One Nation candidate. I mean, I didn’t see a single corflute, a single flyer, anything at all. I mean, I’m not quite sure they even put their bio when the local newspapers actually asked him to say what they stood for. But look, I think somebody mentioned earlier the high rate of informal votes. I think there was a high donkey vote as well. And that number one gained a lot of that, people just going 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 all the way down the page, right through the 13. But again, that’s up to the voter. And Pauline Hanson’s name is obviously high that that that would have helped the One Nation vote. But I do think a lot of people have had a donkey vote.

INTERVIEWER:

I just have two questions from Yass. Are you planning to hold Kristy McBain to her promise to fund Barton Highway and the Yass Valley water plant upgrade?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:
I am so pleased you asked that because just last week, Kristy McBain actually came out on her social media pages and talked about the duplication of the Barton Highway. And Mark Jeffreson, the Labor candidate here, said that now that Labor is back in Government, the duplication will continue, “unimpeded”. So as far as I’m concerned, the Government is going to honour all those commitments, the Yass Valley water situation, where they’ve been forced to have brackish water for way too long. There was $31 million put up last December, by the State and Federal Labor Governments and they said that was budgeted. Budgeted, not the forward estimates, not the never, never, but budgeted. So as far as I’m concerned, Labor now needs to put some cement, and some water where its mouth was. So, they’ve said they’re going to do it, so it’s up to them now to do it.

INTERVIEWER:

And are you concerned that Yass will be left behind now that it’s no longer in Labor’s electorate?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

I will turn up to the people of Yass, I’ll give them that commitment. I’ve just been off the phone with Peter Walker, who very much has been a former Yass Shire President, and Jasmin Jones, and I’ve had many, many discussions. I will turn up for the people of Yass, just like I turned up for the people of West Wyalong, Parkes and Forbes, which are no longer in the electorate. People of the Riverina know that I’m somebody who turns up, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a rally, school presentation day, sports event, debutante ball. I am somebody turns up, I do that, I listen, I care, and I’ll take the fight to Canberra.

INTERVIEWER:

Any comments on Richard Foley’s behaviour during the campaign?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

I think it speaks for itself. Just look at his vote.

INTERVIEWER:

He says that you won’t be able to complete your full term.

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, I’ll tell you what if I do two days, and I resign tomorrow, it’ll be two more days than he’ll ever do in the Federal Parliament.

INTERVIEWER:

Will you run full term?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Yes.

INTERVIEWER:

Will you put your hand up for the next election?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Oh, that’s 2028, it’s now 2024. It’s a long way away. Look, I love this job, and I do it seven days a week. Every waking hour of my day is spent representing the people of the Riverina. My daughter came up from Melbourne yesterday with her daughter, to campaign for me, as she’s always done about.

It was a big, big effort by Georgina and little Adeline to turn up. And yet despite the fact that they were home, despite the fact that I’ve only ever seen that little one once, I got in the car and Catherine got in the car with me, and we drove three hours to Cowra. So, I’ve put the electorate before I put my family, more fool me, I suppose.

But, you know, I’ve always put this job as number one. My wife has supported me, you can’t do this job without the love and support of family. And my family knows how important this is. My family knows how important the communities are and representing them. I’ve always given the people of the Riverina that commitment. But honestly, I want to make sure that the Riverina people know I will be there for them.

INTERVIEWER:

You say that the National Party has its arguments internally. But doesn’t every party, one of your LNP colleagues has called for David Littleproud to resign. Do you share that sentiment?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

I haven’t heard that. I’ll be honest, I haven’t heard that. But I spoke to Col yesterday, I congratulated him on his efforts in Flynn. Obviously, there’ll always be differences of opinion. Col has that view. He probably might be putting his hand up himself, but, as far as the Leader is concerned, his latest job is concerned. I haven’t heard those comments; he certainly didn’t express those comments to me yesterday when we spoke. But look, everybody will always have different views, and obviously, the national result is extremely disappointing. And, you know we would have liked to have formed a Government. You can do a lot more in Government than we can on the Opposition benches. Trust me.

INTERVIEWER:

Finally, is the Coalition, with so many National Party seats, maintaining its representation at risk of lurching even further to the right, and what they do with the last election, and we’ve seen how that’s panned out at a national level. And, you know, what does the coalition as a whole need to do to become a viable government again?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, we’re a centre-right party, that represents rural and regional people. That’s what the National Party’s always been. People have been writing us off, media has been writing itself. You know, the experts have been writing us off for 100 years. We’re still delivering, still winning our seats, still turning up. Good on Labor, you know, well done, they won the election, and, you know, got to give credit where credit is due. We’ll go back; we’ll have a rethink. We’ll look at our policies. We’ll look at everything. Everything will be on the table. Everything has to be on the table. All the positions will be on the table. There was a vacancy after an election, at any rate, that’s what always happens. And we’ll have that review. We’ll have that soul searching, we’ll have those debates. We’ll do it internally.

Hopefully we won’t get any … from what you said before with people, you know, being free and frank far too much with the media, with you know what I would think would be great. And what I would really highly recommend is that those, those anonymous liberal people who so often background and brief journalists in Canberra, shut your bloody mouths. Seriously. It’s not hard, and if you want to say something about your party, about the policies, about what might have gone wrong, say it in the confines of the party room, don’t share it with the rest of the world. And if you do share it with the rest of the world, have the courage and conviction to put your name to it.

It’s not that difficult. I’m a former journalist myself, so I know how journalists operate. I congratulate you all for trying to get information out of me. But anything I ever say, I’ll do it publicly. I think it is a gross insult to democracy that so many of these, you know, these politicians just better and brief it’s the coward’s way, don’t do it. If you’re going to have something to say, say it out loud, out proud and side with your name to it. Not hard, not difficult. It’s no good for democracy.

Thank you.

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