TRANSCRIPT: ABC SOUTH EAST NSW BREAKFAST, 18 December 2019

E&OE

Subjects: Bega Saleyards Upgrade; Drought Communities Funding; Future of Farming.

SIMON LAUDER:

The Acting Prime Minister and leader of the National Party of Australia Michael McCormack is in the southeast today, making a few appearances at some facilities which have been upgraded with funding from the Australian and New South Wales governments, including the Bega Saleyards later this morning.

Michael McCormack, good morning.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Good morning Simon.

SIMON LAUDER:

You’re making a few appearances and announcements this morning?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Yeah look, as you say, we've got the saleyards opening in Kerrisons Lane in Bega which is going to be really good. I mean, that project consists of installation of rubber matting in- on concrete livestock pens, an open-bay shelter over dirt pens and a rainwater tank off the shelter and a few other bits and bobs. I know it doesn’t sound real grand in the scheme of things, but it's going to make sure that facility is fit for purpose going into the future. And animal welfare, of course, is something near and dear to all of our hearts and then of course the official opening of the Merimbula Visitor Information Centre. So a couple of things and I’ll be out and about and happy to chat with people et cetera.

SIMON LAUDER:

And the Bega Saleyards’ upgrade comes courtesy of funding through the Federal Government's Drought Communities Program. No doubt very welcome in the community. A lot of people in the Eurobodalla and Snowy Monaro regions wondering why those council areas missed out?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well there has to be transparency over these things and they would have had- they would have had a shower event where over their areas their farmers would be probably better off than some others I know. That's not to say they're not in drought, they are. But also it does work out on a percentage of employees who are actually engaged – fully engaged – in agriculture or agriculture-related industries. And I know that in some of those areas, you know, there's other industries and there's other sectors such as Defence and et cetera where people are gainfully employed, and of course they don't then have that agricultural component in those particular local government areas.

I know as I come from Wagga Wagga. Now, Wagga Wagga is a huge agricultural hub and yet the agricultural component of our workforce is less than 5 per cent. And so for every shire around my home town, yes, they've received the government assistance, the Drought Communities Program but Wagga Wagga has not. And so that therefore- there has to be some sort of criteria around the funding. That's the criteria that has been set and that's the criteria we've stuck to.

SIMON LAUDER:

And will there be a way in the future of targeting Federal Government funding in a different way? Do you think that the criteria is right at the moment?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well absolutely, and I would urge those councils and those local government areas which are not part of the Drought Communities Program to still apply for the Building Better Regions fund. Now, they've only got a day or two left for that, for that particular fund, but they can apply. I've written to all the councils, all of more than 500 councils right throughout the nation, and those councils which are in drought areas can still apply for that, the $200 billion drought dedicated round. And I’d urge and encourage those local government areas, if they haven't already done so, dust off one of their previous applications because I know we always get over-subscribed to the tune of about six fold for this particular popular fund and I would urge and encourage them to do that today. If not today, do it tomorrow.

SIMON LAUDER:

And you mentioned your hometown of Wagga Wagga, your electorate Riverina just over the other side of the mountains, and we've been talking a lot this week about the new estimate of wild horse numbers in Kosciuszko National Park increasing …

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Yes, it’s tripled I’m told in the last five or so years, so …

SIMON LAUDER:

Yeah, from 6000 to 19,000. What's your response to that new estimate and what do you think needs to happen now?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, I listened closely and I read that New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro championing that strategy of a sterilisation of the brumbies. I think that's probably- is a good balance because of course there are those who still stick firm to the romantic notion of brumbies running wild in the Alps, and yes, I understand where they're coming from whilst also appreciating the fact that they are an introduced species and they are causing some environmental damage. And so I get where John's coming from in this regard. He wants to see a balance. I appreciate that and I think let's see if that actual process can work.

SIMON LAUDER:

Do you think sterilisation might be key?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well look, it is very much a state issue but I do think that John has reached a balance there and I think that's probably a good trial to attempt and I support him in that regard.

SIMON LAUDER:

Okay. Now, some new analysis by the government agency ABARES making the news this morning and pointing to climate change for cutting profits of Australian farmers over the past two decades by around 22 per cent when you take into account the loss of rainfall and the dryness that we're having now. That's a huge figure, isn’t it, 22 per cent.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

It is a huge figure and of course, ABARES doesn't give out these statistics lightly and doesn't make predictions and doesn’t look at the recent events and make analysis drawn on that. Fact is we are, as a government, endeavouring to increase agricultural output of this nation from where it is today at $60 billion to $100 billion. And we've got a lot of measures in place to do just that and of course with our new free trade agreements ratified just in the last week of Parliament with India- with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru. I know the Prime Minister’s going to India in January to, you know, to talk trade over there. We want to make sure that we build on our free trade agreements with China, with Japan, with South Korea. We're doing just that. Of course, yes, it’s tough. I- I’m a generational farming family son and you know, it is difficult, I get that. My brothers-in-law, they're both farmers. My sisters tell me often, and I visit them often, how tough it is and I get that. I mean, I live in a drought area at the moment. I live in an area where, you know, I talk to farmers every day and it is tough. But, you know, there is a future also. That's why so many young people particularly are going to farming and so many women are going into farming. That's why the course at Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga, the agricultural course is very, very popular. So, I don’t want people to think there’s not a future in farming because there is. I don't want people to think that there's not a profit to be made in farming because there will be and whilst I appreciate what these reports tell.

SIMON LAUDER:

And if we've got government analysts saying profits are down what, 10 per cent, more than 10 per cent per decade as a result of climate change what's to stop that decline?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Good Australian innovation and know-how and hard work. And I know that the rains will return and we all do. The fact is we need to reach a balance with, of course, such things as the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Yes, it's very tough and it's very dry at the moment but we just hark back to when the Millennium Drought ended, in that period in between the drought ending there in about 2008-9 and a couple of years ago before this current drought began and they were pretty good times for most farmers throughout Australia. There’ll always be part of Australia in drought, that's why we've got a Future Drought Fund which is going up to $5 billion with $100- $100 million draw-down each year.

So the good times will return but my father always used to tell me, my late father Lance always used to tell me that farming is a nine year cycle – there’s three really good years, there’s three really average years and there’s three pretty terrible years. So farmers, they plan. That's why we've got the Farm Management Deposits where they can actually level out their taxation, minimise their taxation in that sort of way, putting away money for when it is bad. That's why we've got the Regional Investment Corporation. We've got other measures to help farmers through and we will do just that as Liberals and Nationals in Federal Government.

SIMON LAUDER:

And it's been more than a month since you said people linking bushfires with climate change are raving inner city lunatics. Fires still going of course-

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well those comments were made at two in particular, Adam Bandt and Richard Di Natale, who I thought were unfair in labelling the Prime Minister, well virtually saying that he was responsible somehow some way for the deaths of those people in that tragic bushfire events of course of some weeks ago which of course sadly continue to this day. But I was specifically mentioning those two, but yes there are a lot of people who are making a lot out of this who quite frankly don't know half the story and it is a concerning.

SIMON LAUDER:

Do you still believe though that it's mainly people in capital cities who are alarmed by the role climate change is playing in these bushfires?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

[Inaudible] ask people right across the country and I understand that too. I appreciate yeah, climate change is a factor and, but so also is, there are many factors as to why we've got bushfires at the moment, why we've got drought at the moment. It’s also to do with the Australian weather cycle. I mean, this has been occurring since day dot and we need to address it, yes obviously we do, and we need to have the, but right now we need to have the right proper resourcing and that's why we're spending more money – $11 million dollars announced last week on aerial bombing of these fires. That's why we are making sure that, I know the New South Wales Government built fire sheds and fire brigade stations all around the areas which were never looked at previously when they, when we weren't in government – we weren’t in coalition government in the state sphere –and that's a good thing. But we need to obviously have the right resourcing in place, were attempting to do just that of course.

SIMON LAUDER:

But to say that the rains and the good times will return to the farm, does that gloss over the main point that ABARES seems to be making here which is a 22 per cent decline in profits over two decades and climate change continues unabated.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

No it doesn't at all but I don't also want any young person who's contemplating, who’s just their HSC results yesterday who’s contemplating a career in agriculture, or indeed maybe wanting to go and work as a farmhand, or do whatever the case might be but agriculturally related to think I'm not going to go into that. Because there is profits to be made, there is a great lifestyle to be had working in farms, working in agriculture and I don't want it all to be doom and gloom because it’s not. It absolutely isn’t and as the National’s Leader, as somebody who’s lived in the regions all my life it's a great place to live. There is a future in farming, there is a future in agriculture and I want the young people to know just that.

SIMON LAUDER:

Well Michael McCormack I appreciate you coming on ABC South East. While you're in the region what are you keen to check out apart from all of the areas you’ll visiting as part of those announcements today?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, I'll be talking to local government people, I'll be talking to ordinary everyday South Coasters and people who, you know, will no doubt pull me up in the street and have a chat and tell me what they think – and course you always get free and frank and unfiltered advice when you do just that. So very much looking forward, I’m no stranger to the area. I‘ve spent, always spent a lot of time down there and it's a great country, this one we live in, it's the best country on earth and I want to make sure as a member of the government that we continue to make it so.

SIMON LAUDER:

And we like talking about language on Wednesday mornings here at ABC South East, of course it's ever evolving. Have you noticed changes in the way people express themselves over the last decade or have you gone to a word to sum up the decade?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well look, I would call it a decade of achievement and life is better now than it was a decade ago. Look at the technology we've got as far as how mobile phones have come on. I mean the fact that we can watch anything we want, any time. You know, it has been a decade of technological achievement and of course in regional areas where it's just such a great place to live there has been so much achievement. And I mean I know even with the HSC results yesterday, I heard your news bulletin, and so many young people have done so well in the HSC. For those who didn't, not such a bad thing you know, there's more to life than just a piece of paper with a mark on it or the exams that you may have done. And it is, there is so much, so much potential in this country and so much potential in the people who live here. It has been a decade of achievement. Let's build on that over the next decade.

SIMON LAUDER:

Michael McCormack, good to have you on the program. Thanks very much.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Thanks Simon, all the very best.

SIMON LAUDER:

Michael McCormack, the Acting Prime Minister there.

Shane Manning