Subjects: Telstra Outage, Pacific Island Relations, New Veterans Cap
E&OE
STARTS: 1.19pm
ENDS: 1.28pm
TRUDY MCINTOSH
The Prime Minister says the nation deserves answers, as the probe continues into the cause of Telstra’s major outage. Joining me live now is the Shadow Minister for Water and Veterans Affairs, Michael McCormack. Michael, good to see you. Is this the new reality we have to accept, that there are going to be these sorts of issues and when they happen, we’re so interconnected and rely on these sorts of telcos?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, almost too reliant, Trudy, and we’ve only seen in recent months, in relation to the fuel crisis, and this government, which had plenty to say when things went wrong when the Coalition was in power, haven’t really handled everything all that well. We had Chris Bowen outsource his job when we had a fuel crisis to Anthea Harris, who was already doing a busy job making sure that the water review was done. And then, of course, we’ve got Anika Wells overseas and Kristy McBain, we haven’t seen her or heard from her in relation to this outage. We’ve heard from the Prime Minister, but answers need to be given, and they need to be given, not only by Telstra, but by the government as well, because at the end of the day, they’re in power, and there are people who couldn’t apparently make Triple Zero calls this morning, why that is so, I don’t know. And the fact remains we’ve also had transport systems in utter chaos. Now, usually it’s union activity that’s causing chaos with our commuters, now it’s an outage with Telstra and answers need to be given. The Australian public needs to know.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
Michael, I expect we are going to get those answers this afternoon. Anika Wells, as a clarification, she was on holiday in Australia, she’s back from that now, I’m told we’re expecting an update from her this afternoon here in Canberra. I mean, obviously Labor is … she would be acutely aware of the criticism that came in amongst the Optus debacle with Triple Zero, the discussion about her expenses, of course. I mean, you’ve got to give her credit, she’s back, she’s here on the day of the outage, she’s going to be fronting up.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Oh, well, that’s good, then, that is good, then, and that is appropriate, because, as I say, I mean, every time there seemed to be something go wrong when we were in power, it was somehow Scott Morrison or my or one of the other ministers’ faults. Well, there are answers that need to be given, I look forward to the answers that are forthcoming from Anika Wells, I’m not disputing the fact that everybody needs a holiday and its winter recess. I get that, I understand that. But there are answers that need to be given, and Telstra also needs to absolutely give some clues as to what happened and to make sure, give verification as to the fact that it probably shouldn’t happen again like this because I was in Mildura this morning and the town was in absolute meltdown. The taxis couldn’t be ordered, of course, there were flight delays, not to mention trains out of operation in regional Australia. And I know we rely on our communications, perhaps we rely on some forms of communication way too much, more than others, and it just goes to show how vulnerable Australia is when we have outages or shortages such as this.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
We still don’t know the root cause of the outage, Telstra is investigating that. This morning in that void, Barnaby Joyce, your former colleague, speculated that it was potentially a cyber-attack, he was concerned about how close this was to China’s missile test. Angus Taylor, the Opposition Leader, even speculating along similar lines. Is that all a bit too premature? Everything we’ve heard from the PM and Telstra is that there’s no malicious activity at this stage.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
OK, well, I’d like to think there was no malicious activity. We don’t know what we don’t know, but Barnaby will always comment about anything. I mean, he was commenting about Kylie Minogue the other day. I mean …
TRUDY MCINTOSH
… Do you think that was a bit rich for him to weigh in on those matters by the PM?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well stick a microphone in Barnaby’s face and he’ll say something. But look, let’s wait and see. Let’s wait and see what the actual cause was. Let’s not jump to too many conclusions too quickly. But it is on the government to front up and to front up reasonably quickly. You know, I know in this situation, it’s like, goodness gracious, I ran the 2016 census, and I know there were answers being demanded within minutes of that going down. I fronted up first thing the very next morning and that’s what you’ve got to do when you’re a minister. You can’t leave it hours and hours, you’ve got to, I mean, I’m doing this via Zoom, via Wagga Wagga. So, you know, there are ways and means that you can get in touch with the public. You can do a stand-up wherever in Australia, so long as you’ve got the right equipment, you only need a mobile phone or an iPad. So, look, let’s see what the government comes up with. There are answers that need to be given, and we’ll wait and see what those are.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
Michael, the Prime Minister is continuing his Pacific diplomacy, he’s speaking to three of the leaders this afternoon in Brisbane. Tonight, they’re all going to the Origin decider, perfect timing. Football diplomacy is certainly being used as a part of this effort. Do you give Labor some credit? There has been, it seems like, major breakthroughs to strengthening some of these crucial ties in the region.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, it’s building on the work that we did, and Marise Payne did in the Pacific. And look, I’m certainly not going to criticise making security pacts with Pacific Island nations. We need to do that, it’s our neighbourhood. We face situations at the moment that we haven’t seen for decades, if at all. And so obviously, if the Prime Minister and others are making sure that those security pacts and agreements are put in place, well, that is the appropriate course of action to take. I acknowledge that Papua New Guinea, the Chiefs, are coming into the National Rugby League competition and, you know, there are several ways and means that we can do diplomacy via the security pacts, via soft diplomacy through sport, faith, football and family. They’re the things that Australia is very close to the Pacific Island nations, no other nation can offer those sorts of things, those sorts of partnerships and synergies than Australia with our Pacific friends. And we’ll go on doing that. We’ll go on being the very best of friends and neighbours with our Pacific Island countries. And that’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it should continue into the future.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
Michael, I wanted to finish on a really important issue which we’ve been following here on Sky News, that is Labor’s proposed $5,000 allied health cap for veterans. I’m due to speak to the Minister, Matt Keogh this afternoon to try and get some clarity here. What’s your message to Matt Keogh here? Are you urging them to go back to the drawing board on this?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, they need to because the veterans are very concerned. Now, the government says “nothing to see here”, but the trouble is the stakeholder engagement was not done prior to the budget, and the government is telling us that they’re going to conduct stakeholder engagement for months now, leading up until July 2027, when the changes will be put in place. Well, if they’re also going to have a $748 million saving, that’s three quarters of a billion dollars, then there’s obviously cuts going on somewhere, and the cuts are going to our veterans, to our allied health, to their psychology, to their podiatry, physiotherapy sessions, and why should our veterans, who’ve had our backs when we sent them to war on behalf of the government, on behalf of the nation, when they come back and they’re broken, we should have their backs then? And sadly, we haven’t. And the veterans don’t know what is going to be facing them and the minister has to come clean on this, the minister has to front up and make sure that he explains in clear detail, clear articulated detail, what is actually going to be the changes to our veterans so that they aren’t left confused and angry, and that’s what they are at the moment.
TRUDY MCINTOSH
We’ll try and get some of those answers this afternoon on Politics Now at 4pm. Michael McCormack, really appreciate your time, thanks.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I’ll tune in, OK, thanks, Trudy.