TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW ON FIRST EDITION - SKY NEWS, 4 November 2019

E&OE

Subjects: Recent Rainfall, Drought;

LAURA JAYES:

… Look, we’re trying not to get too excited because we know not everywhere did get it, do you have some reports back from your electorate and further afield?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Oh, indeed Laura and while one swallow doesn’t make a summer certainly one downpour over the weekend doesn’t end the drought and I really need to emphasise that. Mirrool Creek is running for the first time in South West New South Wales for two years and the Bureau of Meteorology are reporting 66 millimetres at Bourke and that is really, really important for the Darling River and indeed right around that fantastic farming area. We’ve got reports of 9.5 millimetres or thereabouts at Blackall in Queensland so the rain has been patchy, it’s been sketchy but it has come and for some farmers this means just settling the dust for others it means topping up their dams but it just puts people in a better spirit - a better frame of mind. So, it’s been very welcomed and of course we need a lot, lot more rain and we need it to be far more wide spread and we need it for weeks, indeed if not months. This drought is going to take many more months and indeed even some years to recover from but the Federal Government, The Liberals and Nationals, will be there supporting our farmers every step of the way and rural communities know that.

PETER STEFANOVIC:

Yeah and Michael, what does this allow people to do? Those farmers in Bourke have got in excess of over 90 millimetres over two days and that allows green shoots to come up, I mean as a farmer, what does that allow them to do?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well indeed, you’re totally right. It enables that bit of a green sheen over the ground, a bit of a green pick and we all know that fodder is so, so important. I drove from Cookardinia into central Victoria just last week and there were some hay bales but unfortunately those hay bales are the crops that they were hoping that they were going to flourish but they haven’t they’ve cut them to hay, they’ve cut them to silage and fact is, we know that fodder is so important to keep the breeding stock going. What it also does, it does provide for some agistment opportunities, so in areas where they’ve got a bit of rain, they’ll get a bit of feed, they’ll have a bit of hay available so they can indeed look to have some agistment opportunities for those areas that didn’t receive rain or indeed where it is very, very dry and they can perhaps move their stock to those areas so the Federal Government is looking at what we can do to support those farmers, looking at what we can do to make sure that we still have the breeding stock and I know state governments are very much, that is their role and their responsibility but The Federal Government wants to work hand in hand with our farming communities with the National Farmers Federation and indeed with state governments to help our farmers. Yes, the rains have been good but yes there is much more that we will need to do, that we must do and that we will do and of course as I say, one down pour doesn’t solve the drought.

LAURA JAYS:

No it doesn’t and we have many more questions for you. We’d like to pepper you but we won’t, I know you’ve got a media conference so you’re not quite off the hook but it was good to squeeze you into the show, see you soon.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Thanks Laura.

Shane Manning