TRANSCRIPT: Radio 2CC, Breakfast, 31 January 2019
E&OE
Subjects: Aircraft maintenance, safety and costs; Bushfires in Tasmania; Fuel excise; Roads infrastructure; Fish kills; 1.25 million new jobs pledge; Financial services for small business; Labor and franking credits; National Agricultural Museum
TIM SHAW:
It’s great to be joined by the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, in the great city of Toowoomba then heading to Mildura and on to Melbourne: Michael McCormack, welcome back.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Good to be back.
TIM SHAW:
I spoke to Dick Smith this morning, former chair of CASA, concerned that 40 contractors at Canberra Airport are going to be out of work because Qantas are moving heavy maintenance operations to Singapore. Now Dick Smith’s blaming the Federal Government and rising costs. You’re the relevant Minister. What do you say about keeping aviation jobs here onshore?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
We all want to have aviation jobs in Australia; we want to continue to promote those aviation jobs here on Australian soil. The fact is that Qantas is an international carrier, an international airline that has 100 years of proud history, and they operate in a global village. We all do. The majority of maintenance on the 717 fleet is going to continue in Australia. They’ve made this decision. I appreciate it does affect some workers. We don’t want to see anybody lose their job but as I say they’ve taken this decision to contract out the work. I appreciate that it is very much a commercial decision but again I say Qantas is very much an international carrier, operating in an international market and it’s made its decision.
You mentioned at the start of the show I’ve just left Toowoomba. Late last year Qantas actually announced its regional pilot training academy in Toowoomba and is about to announce the second regional pilot academy somewhere in a regional city in our wonderful country. So they are also investing heavily in Australia. Qantas is investing in the future of aviation.
TIM SHAW:
It is important – safety is paramount, I think we all agree with that, Michael McCormack, but costs: Are you satisfied that across the Australian airline industry we’re getting fairness and equity and that as many of those aviation jobs, particularly in servicing, can take place here onshore, particularly pilot training?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Indeed they are and they do. Of course cost is a factor, I appreciate that, and when you are flying out, around and about the countryside, people want value for money. They want to make sure, particularly in regional areas, that if they’re going to have to catch a plane to go to an appointment, particularly a medical appointment, that it’s not going to cost them an arm and a leg. I know airline carriers are conscious of the fact that they are running a business. They have to look at costs. The fact is, we want as many jobs in Australia as possible and the fact is we also need to have the balance, as you talked about, with safety. Safety has to be paramount and at the end of the day for the person catching a plane, that’s got to be their first priority.
TIM SHAW:
Tasmania is on fire. We found out this morning the extent of these Tasmanian fires – 28 of them, many burning uncontrolled. It’s the size of the Sydney Basin. There’s calls for the Australian Defence Force to join firefighters. Do you agree?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Linda Reynolds is keeping me very much updated with the situation in Tasmania. Our Defence always stands ready. Our Defence people are not trained to fight fires. They are trained to help in clean-up operations, logistics operations; they’re not trained to fight fires. But our Defence always stands ready to help, when asked of course. I know Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman also has his finger very much on the pulse here; Linda Reynolds is keeping me updated by the hour. It’s a worrying situation. Senator Steve Martin, The Nationals’ Senator in Tasmania, has spoken to me about it. I know everybody stands ready to help our Tasmanian friends in any way we can and of course it’s a constant watch, see and wait.
TIM SHAW:
Yes. Now we have calls from AAA this morning – you’re the Transport Minister: They want you, the Federal Government, to shift from that fuel excise of 41 cents a litre and replace it with a road user charge. Here in the ACT, Michael McCormack, a back-of-the-envelope calculation is about $178 million was collected in fuel excise from the 20 billion that the Federal Government received. Do we need a fairer system and more of a spread of that money invested in roads around the ACT, from the $178m which petrol users paid last year?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
The situation too is that as we move towards more automated vehicles and more electric vehicles and the like that we’re going to have to look at how we pay for our roads and how we fund those. We are pumping record amounts of money into roads, into road infrastructure. We’re getting out and about the countryside looking at those black spots and making sure – I am indeed making sure - that we address that situation. There’s never been more money spent on our infrastructure than there is right now. Whether it’s the ACT or indeed whether it’s Queensland where I’m travelling at the moment with Scott Morrison announcing an additional $243 million being spent up here on congestion-busting – we’re doing that right around the countryside. Road safety is paramount.
TIM SHAW:
Yes. More dead fish. We’ve got dying waterways. You have a plan to reduce and to wipe out $350 billion of Federal Government debt over the next 10 years if the Morrison-McCormack Government is re-elected and yet down in Victoria they’re doubling their Government debt and they’re doing big infrastructure projects. Do we need a big infrastructure project to capture and save water and to get our waterways healthy again?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
We’ve got one. It’s called the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund. We’ve just put another half a billion dollars on the table just for that. I was looking at Emu Swamp Dam near Toowoomba just yesterday with the local Member here, David Littleproud, who also happens to be the Agriculture Minister. Agricultural output can expand, potentially by $60 million a year – I would argue even more – creating 700 jobs, but storing water to help to drought-proof our nation. We also need to put money into water infrastructure to flood-mitigate.
This sort of spending comes when you have a strong economy. This is what we’re looking at. I stand ready to work with any State Government to look at any water infrastructure projects where we can store more water and we can help avoid situations like we’ve had in Menindee in more recent times. But again I say, it hasn’t rained in the catchment for seven years. Then you have water temperatures rises and falls. You have a situation in Menindee which has occurred before. We’ve had hundreds of these events. We’ve put $5 million on the table for a Native Fish Water Management and Recovery Strategy. I look forward to Rob Vertessy who is going to undertake a review to see what we can do as far as the Murray Darling Basin Plan is concerned, tweaking the overall situation there in Menindee. I’m looking forward also to visiting the area and listening, seeing first-hand exactly the concerns of locals.
As the Federal Government we can do a lot of things. We can put infrastructure in place. We’ve put half a billion dollars on the table for dams. But we can’t make it rain.
TIM SHAW:
1.25 million jobs over the next five years – how many of those will be in regional Australia?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I hope a lot, Tim. I’m sure there will be a lot because regional Australia has wonderful potential that is being unlocked with better infrastructure, being unlocked with more markets – I know Mark Coulton is doing a fantastic job as the Assistant Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, making sure that we’ve got even more markets overseas to send our wonderful produce – and if we build more dams which can lead to more irrigated agriculture then the sky’s the limit as far as being able to produce the world’s best food. We do it already. Our farmers are the world’s best food producers, the world’s best fibre producers and the world’s best environmentalists. I’ll give them that plug. But yes, 1.25 million jobs pledged by Prime Minister Morrison: We’re getting on with the job. Since coming to office in September 2013 we’ve already helped business create a total of 1.239 million jobs.
And we’re getting on with helping small business by way of extending that instant asset write-off to $25,000, helping them to cut through some of the red tape that they need to: I know Michaelia Cash is dong a wonderful job in the portfolio.
So we’re getting on with the job of helping business create more jobs. It’s business that creates jobs and we’re backing them all the way.
TIM SHAW:
You need a strong banking sector but Justice Hayne is handing that report to the Governor-General tomorrow. The big concern from Kate Carnell in this morning’s Australian is the massive concern regarding a credit squeeze for small business. You and I don’t want to go back to the recession we had to have in the 1990s – high interest rates which meant many small businesses closed. They couldn’t get the credit, Michael McCormack…
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I remember it well.
TIM SHAW:
…Are you concerned that small business will be limited on the amount of credit they can get because if they can’t get the overdraft, they can’t get affordable funds, if they’ve got the bank putting the squeeze on them for the security – that’s going to limit job growth and that’s going to limit their ability to grow their sales. What’s the Federal Government going to do to protect small business credit?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
That’s why I’m backing Josh Frydenberg and what he’s doing. He has a plan and a vision. The only plan and vision that Chris Bowen and Labor has is to tighten up the conditions for small business. We need to back our small businesses, and that’s why we’re doing it. Credit squeeze is an issue. I’m very much looking forward to Justice Hayne’s report and seeing what the royal commission is going to recommend as far as banks are concerned. We need to back our small businesses. The Government is doing it. The banking sector needs to do it. But of course, I say again, the credit unions and Customer Owned Banking Association members: they always stand ready, particularly in regional area, to fill those gaps where banks can’t or won’t or don’t. So there are options.
The Government has a plan and a vision and I back the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg all the way in what he’s doing.
TIM SHAW:
Chris Bowen doesn’t want voters to vote Labor if they don’t like his policy on the franked dividend changes. Do you want them to vote National?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
It’s almost like telling them to let them eat cake. There are so many people who rely on those franking credits, those imputation dividends to help pay car rego, help pay when a washing machine breaks down or to have a holiday. Those people have worked hard. The company has already paid the tax so why should they be forced to dip into their retirement savings, that money they look forward to, that little bit of extra that they’ve got that has already had the tax paid on it: Why should they lose out under Labor?
TIM SHAW:
Your Nationals candidate in Eden-Monaro Sophie Wade, and I caught up with her at the Australia Day barbecue in the Yass Valley – she’s looking at a big idea, the Australian Agricultural Museum located at the Yass Valley. We have the big tractor up there.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I like it. She is someone with vision and purpose and commitment. I really like that idea. We’ve got a National Maritime Museum – why wouldn’t we have a National Agricultural Museum, something to showcase all that we do in agriculture, all that we do in rural and regional Australia? And why not have it at Yass? It has so many things going for it as far as the wool industry and its history and links there and artificial insemination which has helped our agricultural industry no end - it’s the founder of AI. Wool of course – well the nation used to ride on the sheep’s back. So I back Sophie Wade all the way in what she is trying to do there.
TIM SHAW:
All right. Just finally, Dick Smith is coming to Canberra. Have you got time for you and me and Dick to sit down and have a chat about aviation?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I’ve always got time to sit with both of you fine gentlemen.
TIM SHAW:
Good on you. Thank you for your time.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Good on you Tim.