Subjects: Coalition reunification
E&OE
STARTS 3.14pm
Ends 3.19pm
PERRY LIVINGSTONE-SLADE
I have just started recording are you ready to go?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I am.
PERRY LIVINGSTONE-SLADE
Thank you so much. So, what does the reunification of these two parties mean for each of the four policies the National Party were determined to keep in place?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, the Liberals have agreed in principle with those four key policy areas, with nuclear, with divestiture, with the Regional Fund and with the Universal Service Obligations as far as telecommunications are concerned. So, we’ll go forward now, united together, to form a credible Opposition and certainly the Australian public can be confident that we’ll be doing our jobs every hour, of every day to make sure that this bad government gets held accountable.
PERRY LIVINGSTONE-SLADE
You’ve held the very senior positions in the past. Are you disappointed that you missed out on a Shadow Ministry portfolio and do you have any future leadership ambitions?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Yes and we’ll see, is the answer to that question, that double-barrel question. Yes, I am disappointed, look, you wouldn’t be, you know, you’d be telling fibs if you said anything other than that. I still think I’ve got the experience to contribute, I still think I’ve got the drive and energy and knowhow, and I’ll be doing that from the backbench. But future leadership ambitions, look David Littleproud is the leader at the moment and, certainly, you never rule yourself out of contention because the moment you say to a journalist, to a reporter, that no, never ever again, is the moment you get that tape replayed, when in fact people are tapping on the shoulder saying, “can you run again?”. So, look, we’ll see what happens. Look, David is the leader, he’s doing the best job he can do. We’ll see what happens. And I just want The Nationals and the Liberals to now work towards a common goal and that is defeating Labor. But we need to listen, we need to conduct our reviews of where the election went so badly wrong, certainly, the Liberals do. We retained all our Lower House seats as far as The Nationals are concerned, but there were still missteps made and we need to have a good, hard look at ourselves, at our policies, at where we need to be in three years’ time to get the public’s faith back in us to ensure that we are a credible Opposition, a united Opposition, to what, as I say again, I think will be a very bad Government, certainly for the next three years.
PERRY LIVINGSTONE-SLADE
And as you said, it is very much the Liberal side of the Coalition which needs to win back its previously held seats to win back government. Will The Nationals support the creating of policies that will help win back these metropolitan seats?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
We’ll work with the Liberals closely, we’ll make sure that our regional people don’t get left behind. That’s the important thing. I mean, I think all parties could learn a thing or three from the way the National Party works, the work we do in between elections. We’ve now won all of our Lower House seats, our House of Representative seats for six elections in a row under four leaders — under Warren Truss, Barnaby Joyce, myself, and now David Littleproud. That’s something I think that we can be very proud of, something that other parties could learn a thing or three from. Now, we’ll work closely with the Liberals. What we don’t want to do is blow the show up, I mean, that would be counterproductive to what we need to be, and that is a credible, united Opposition.
PERRY LIVINGSTONE-SLADE
How will this Coalition create a broader coalition of Australian people to bring back your numbers up in the Parliament? So what demographics are you leaving behind at the last election?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, that’s what the reviews will show us, hopefully. But, you know, look, a week is a long time in politics, and we’ve seen, you know, how messy the past week has been. I think what we need to do now is, the Shadow Ministries have been announced, get behind those people, get behind uniting the teams as one to ensure that we listen to people, we go out there back into our electorates, listen closely to what the people are telling us, act upon. Look, it’s three years away from the next election, it seems like an eternity, it will be a long time, and anything can happen in that time in politics.
PERRY LIVINGSTONE-SLADE
And on that, the new Shadow portfolios, all the Ministers, significant names like Jane Hume, Sarah Henderson, Barnaby Joyce, all left out. Do you think that the Coalition leadership has been successful in allocating the right people for each portfolio?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, time will tell, but certainly people who do get left out are always going to be disappointed, that’s human nature. But you know what? We’ve all still got our jobs, the Senators have got their Senators’ jobs, the Lower House Members who were left out, are still Members for their various electorates, and that’s their first and foremost duty, is to represent those electorates that people in them, are fiercely and proudly and passionately in the Federal Parliament. Now there are people out there today who’ve, you know, their livelihoods have been wrecked by the floods in northern New South Wales, people who are mopping up inches of mud out of their houses. They’re the ones I’m feeling for. There are there are farmers who are worried that they might not get follow-up rains here in southern NSW and concerned that they may not be able to continue to grow the world’s best food and fibre that that we produce as a nation. So, you know they’re not sure where their next pay cheque is coming from, the politicians do know where their next pay cheques are coming from. And look, it’s our job now is to represent the people who we’re sent to Canberra to do a job to represent them the best we can possibly do. And that’s what I’ll be doing. That’s what my focus is and always has been.
PERRY LIVINGSTONE-SLADE
Michael McCormack, thank you so. Much. For your time.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Thanks, Perry, anytime at all. All the very best.