TRANSCRIPT Press conference – Launch of Katrina Hodgkinson, Nationals campaign for Gilmore Moruya, NSW 28 February 2019

With:

Ms Katrina Hodgkinson, Nationals’ candidate for Gilmore NSW

Subjects:  Katrina Hodgkinson, Nationals in Gilmore; action on the issues of concern to people of Gilmore; Princes Highway; health facilities; Nationals contesting Gilmore; information in electorates; Nationals’ branding; achievements of Nationals in NSW Government; fuel prices and reserves.

E&OE:

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

Thank you so much everybody for coming here to Gilmore today, to be in the beautiful heartland of Gilmore in the town of Moruya. It’s fantastic to have been preselected for The Nationals to run as the endorsed candidate for the federal election coming up for the seat of Gilmore. I’m so thrilled to have Michael McCormack, our Deputy Prime Minister, here to officially kick off the campaign – thank you Michael for being here.

I’m really excited about being The Nationals candidate for this seat. I’ve got 20 years of experience in Parliament. I have experience as a Cabinet Minister. I owned my own small business for many years, so I’ve got great retail experience and small business experience. I want to see tax breaks for small business. I want the Coalition to win this election. I am worried about Bill Shorten and Labor getting their hands on Government in Australia. I don’t want to see that happen. I don’t want to see higher taxes.

So it’s absolutely fantastic to be here, to fight Labor and to be here for the Coalition, for The Nationals in particular in the seat of Gilmore today. 

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, if Katrina’s excited I’m doubly excited. I am so so pleased that my great friend, a friend for longer than just her political career – I’ve known Katrina Hodgkinson for many many years – and she is a fighter. I am absolutely thrilled, delighted that she’s putting her hand up for the seat of Gilmore for The Nationals. And The Nationals need Katrina Hodgkinson in Canberra, fighting for rural and regional people, fighting for those people in Gilmore – who need better services, who need better health, better education and who certainly don’t need the retirees tax. I need Katrina Hodgkinson and every other National Party candidate who are running for rural and regional Australia. They’re running for the people outside the margins; they’re running for the people outside the metropolitan areas who need better services, who need better infrastructure.

There’s no greater fighter than Katrina Hodgkinson. I have followed her career closely, as a newspaper editor at Wagga Wagga when she was a local Member representing in my readership area. I have seen her as a National Party backbencher and I’ve seen how hard she fights, as Minister for Small Business, as Minister for Primary Industries in the NSW Parliament. And certainly as the National Party Leader, as the Deputy Prime Minister, I’ve also seen how much she cares about regional Australia. She has been the Vice-President of the Federal National Party. That’s the sort of person I want – somebody for whom The National Party runs in their veins; somebody for whom, after her State career had ended, she still wanted to give back – and now she wants to give even more back, by running for this federal seat.

I know the people of Gilmore will be well served by Katrina Hodgkinson. She has experience. She has a wonderful, wonderful family – Jack, her husband, children Georgia and Hamilton. She has been a small business person. She understands agriculture. She understands just how important it is for the seat of Gilmore, indeed for regional areas, to be represented by National Party people. I’m just delighted that she has put her hand up. When she told me some time ago that she was considering a tilt at the federal seat, you can’t believe how excited I was. You can’t believe how thrilled I was at that news.

I need fighters like Katrina Hodgkinson in my team – fighting hard for the people of Gilmore, fighting hard for rural and regional Australians. I know that if the people of Gilmore give her their vote this election - whenever that might be, probably May but who knows – but whenever, that is, that the people of Gilmore will not be disappointed. They will have in Katrina Hodgkinson somebody who is such a fighter, somebody for whom rural and regional Australia is a passion, somebody who is going to be an advocate as I say for better infrastructure. Katrina has already been campaigning to me for more funds for the Princes Highway. She has already been talking to me about the needs, wants and expectations and indeed demands of the people of Gilmore.

We’re here at Moruya, here at the the airport where quite a significant development has gone on. I’m looking forward – and have no doubt Eurobodalla Shire Council is too – to the Rex planes landing again next week on the redeveloped airport.

We’re not far from a $2.3 million federal contribution to a new hatcheries for the fishing industry. Of course Katrina, as a former Primary Industries Minister in NSW, understands the importance of fisheries, the importance of aquaculture and agriculture.

So in Katrina the people of Gilmore have a fighter. I know that the National Party are right behind her and I’m sure the people of Gilmore will be too.

QUESTION:

What do you hope to achieve; what are your policies?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

What I’m hoping to do is be the best and most effective representative for Gilmore. In the meantime during this election campaign, now that I’ve been officially preselected I’m conducting a listening tour. I am getting around to meet as many people as I possibly can. Just this week I’ve attended a meth forum. Now ice is a major problem in the local area and ice residue in rental properties for example is an emerging issue. It’s something that’s quite new on the scene but it’s something that needs to be looked at.

Disability employment services is something that I’m very passionate about, and getting the NDIS right for the people of Gilmore is an absolute priority.

The Princes Highway in so many places remains a death trap and I want to see a lot more Commonwealth involvement with that. The Commonwealth contributed, of course, heavily to the Pacific Highway in the north of the State and also to the New England Highway. I want to see a much greater contribution to the Princes Highway so that we can help ameliorate the death trap that much of the Princes Highway currently is.

I want to see better aged care services. I want to be able to help those in need. Defence personnel are of very significant importance to the local area. There are so many areas – mental health is a passion of mine and I’ve got experience in mental health issues in my own immediate family. I want to help those who need help. And Parkinsons, Alzheimer’s – these are both passions of mine as well.

So I want to bring my 20 years of Parliamentary experience here into Gilmore and work at very much a local level to help all of those areas, to help people in need, to help people up if they happen to be down. So I’ll be bringing all that experience with me, hopefully, if I am elected as the Member for Gilmore.

QUESTION:

(inaudible) …you think about what you can do to counter the ice epidemic in this electorate?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

It’s an emerging issue. Ice of course has been on the street now for quite some time and as a former State MP it was something that I was involved with, conducting fora around the electorate, around different towns, to make sure that people understood the gravity of actually taking ice but also to help parents and carers identify if somebody in their family was taking it and how to respond.

It’s as much about education, I think, as needing to undertake preventative measures. We are still in the learning space I think with this relatively new type of drug that is so heavily on the streets, particularly in the regions. All the anecdotal evidence is that is has greater use in the regions than in the metropolitan areas. So it’s very significant for us and it’s something that I really want to get in there and help to crack – it’s going to take the entire community to help to crack this.

But we all have to be really vigilant about it. I really condemn the use of drugs, particularly illicit drugs that are so dangerous. But you can’t just stand there and tell people not to take them. They have to be educated. So I’m very passionate about that.

QUESTION:

You said you want to look into mental health services and improving them in regions like the south-east. We’ve had thousands of dollars go into Headspace in our region. Do you see yourself as continuing stuff like that, or further work?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

I believe we need additional Headspace facilities, particularly in the areas such as Batemans Bay. Headspace is a wonderful service but we need to see it rolled out through many more regional areas, many more country towns. So often, young people in particular feel isolated.  There is a lack of public transport. There are a lack of things to do in country towns. I grew up in Yass. I know what it’s like. It is not easy.

People are naturally driven to sometimes do the wrong things. That may involve drugs; that may involve depression, and depression is a very significant issue in the regions. I have lost a loved one to depression and it’s very tough on the family and the people who are left behind. That happens all too commonly in regional NSW. As well as that, it’s not just mental health and depression – while they are significant, other really important issues, Parkinsons Disease and Alzheimer’s, are still mysteries to us. I want to make sure that we have the research funding available to really help those people who develop these highly debilitating illnesses. So that’s a personal passion of mine and I want to continue that fight to help those people in need.

QUESTION:

What about residential mental health facilities – there are zero from the base of the border: Would you step in and fight for this?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

There is a real paucity of residential mental health care in NSW and in Australia. If one in four people have some sort of mental illness or a mind problem, where are our facilities for those people? Or where’s the respite for the people who have to care for those? Yes, obviously, as I’ve just mentioned it is a passion of mine and I want to see a lot more facilities established. But of course you have to have the recurrent funding for that and the personnel to be able to look after those people who come into those facilities.

So it is a big big project. It’s a big idea. And it’s one that we will continue to need to work towards.

QUESTION:

Are you going to be based in the electorate?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

I have a place already in the electorate and I have a small farm just over the boundary as well. So we’ve been concentrated here for a long time. This is one of the most amazing parts of Australia here, I’m sure that everybody would agree. It is so beautiful. It is absolutely a delight to have been preselected for the seat of Gilmore and I couldn’t be happier to be nominated to stand for The Nationals here.

QUESTION:

Is there a risk voters will see you as another parachuted in candidate?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

I certainly don’t see how they can say that. Yes, I was born in Yass and I grew up in a small country town. My first election was in Southern Highlands and then we saw redistributions which headed me further west. But it’s great to be back here, with my family and to have my family’s 100% support.

QUESTION:

Does the Coalition think it’s an advantage for you to run against the Liberal candidate?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

I’m not going to comment about that other candidate. I’m very much focused on the people of Gilmore and making sure that I get the issues right and that I can be the best possible representative that I can be.

QUESTION:

Ms Hodgkinson, do you think that you stand more of a chance given the internal splintering in the Liberal Party? Will The Nationals stand to gain most?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

There’s no doubt that there have been concerns on the ground, but my focus is squarely on representing The Nationals. That has been my goal over the last eight to 10 weeks. It has been a very very thorough and exhaustive preselection process. There’s certainly no parachuting in The National Party….

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Certainly not…

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

…And I couldn’t be happier to be here and in this situation, with the Deputy Prime Minister to make this really important announcement today.

QUESTION:

One more thing: This man standing next to you – will you make his life hell to see 80:20 funding deal for the Princes Highway?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

I have been lobbying the Deputy Prime Minister already on this issue, and I look forward to continuing to do so - on a daily basis if I need to, Deputy Prime Minister – to make sure that the level of Commonwealth funding is there. The Princes Highway has not only seen too many lives taken from it but also too many injuries, and quite often the people who end up with those injuries and their families are the forgotten ones. We need to make sure that we have got safe passage from the Victorian border to Sydney, straight up the Princes Highway.

I would ideally like to see a dual freeway situation right through the length of the road. We’ve seen some repairs on the road; there’s been some excellent work done by Andrew Constance, Shelley Hancock, Gareth Ward, but too much of it has been band-aid work. Where there is the capacity to make it a straight road, a dual freeway, that is where it should be. With so many heavy vehicles passing through our country towns it is dangerous for our communities.

QUESTION:

Are you talking about all the way through to the Victorian border or just all the way through the Gilmore electorate?

KATRINA HODGKINSON:

My focus is of course on the Gilmore electorate, but ideally I think that that is what I would like to see at the end of the day – it would be terrific if it could continue on. My great focus obviously though is on this electorate and that’s where I will be concentrating.

QUESTION:

Some questions for Mr McCormack: Is the preselection of a Nationals candidate here a sign that you don’t have faith in the Liberal Party to win the seat here with Warren Mundine?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

The fact is that when incumbents retire, as Ann Sudmalis is, the opportunity arises for the other Coalition partner to run a candidate. I ran a three-cornered contest in the Riverina in 2010 and the importance is that we keep Labor and The Greens out of Government, that we keep Labor and The Greens away from the Treasury coffers, that we keep Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen away from retirees and their hard-earned savings.

We want to make sure we get a Nationals Party candidate - that’s certainly for me my focus and my priority is to get the National Party in with as many seats and as many representatives as we possibly can. That’s why I’m delighted that Katrina has put her hand up. I’m also delighted that Perin Davey has put her hand up for our Senate spot. We’ve got some outstanding candidates and some outstanding female candidates running in this election and I want each and every one of them to be elected to Parliament so it makes my job easier. But it doesn’t just make my job easier – it makes the lives and lots of people who live in rural and regional Australia easier because when you’ve got a fighter like Katrina Hodgkinson in the Parliament, you know that rural and regional Australia will be very very well represented.

Gilmore can be assured that this lady beside me - this wonderful, outstanding, experienced person who has such a great CV, such a high calibre candidate - you can guarantee the people of Gilmore can be assured that they’re going to have a fighter and a campaigner, whether it’s the Princes Highway, whether it’s better mental health services, whether it’s more infrastructure for Gilmore – they are going to have someone who is going to champion those efforts.

QUESTION:

Why has it taken until now to endorse her candidacy?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well because we don’t parachute candidates in, and you have to go through the full process. The National Party has this long and exhaustive process. Even for me, and I’m the Leader of the Party, I’m the Deputy Prime Minister, I still have to go through the full documentation, fill it all out and make sure that everything is as it should be. The National Party always does that, with every possible candidate. That’s the way we do it. That’s the proper way to do it. We get people who have their passion and their heart in rural and regional Australia and we run them in the best seats that they feel they can represent.

Katrina Hodgkinson knows this area. She has her heart in this area. She wants to further represent rural and regional NSW through the Federal Parliament and I commend her for doing that.

It takes a bit of courage to put your hand up for Parliament, and it takes a big effort for somebody who has rural and regional Australia at heart to put their hand up and say: I want to represent my community; I want better services for my community and no-one’s going to stop me from doing that. This is Katrina Hodgkinson writ large.

QUESTION:

Do you think the Liberal Party’s failure to follow through in that way will affect both (inaudible) conservatives in Gilmore?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

That’s a matter for the Liberal Party. I’m not worried too much about what the Liberal Party are saying or doing in Gilmore. I just want Katrina Hodgkinson to be elected. I want Bill Shorten kept out of The Lodge. There’s no question – I do not want that person in The Lodge, and Australia has a great mistrust of Bill Shorten. They have a great mistrust of Chris Bowen, particularly retirees – you don’t have to go too far down the South Coast or anywhere throughout Gilmore to understand that, because there are so many retirees whose savings are going to be raided if Bill Shorten ever becomes Prime Minister. Certainly I want the best Coalition person to represent Coalition seats. I think the best Coalition person for Gilmore is Katrina Hodgkinson.

QUESTION:

What’s the Nats’ stance on MPs using taxpayer-funded electoral allowances to pay for TV and radio ads?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

The fact is that in the past we have been able to do mailouts, we’ve been able to do electorate brochures. The fact is we are living in the 21st Century and so many people are now no longer looking at the printed version of these sorts of things. They get their news, their information, their data via their phones, ipads, televisions and radios. That’s just a natural progression. We need to get our messages out there. We can’t urge and encourage people to ‘vote one insert name of candidate here’ but what we can do is tell people what the Government is doing, what our policies are, how we want to build a better regional and rural NSW, how we want to build a better rural and regional Australia. That’s what I use my electorate allowance for as far as communications are concerned. I do it in a responsible way. I’m sure that all Members use it in a responsible way including, dare I say, those who aren’t in the Coalition.

QUESTION:

What’s your stance on National MPs removing party branding from their websites?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

That’s a matter for them. I’m proud to – as you can see behind me, the National Party banner, green and gold, what better colours! I love the National Party. I’ve been a member for many many years. I love the fact that our Members fight for rural and regional Australia and whether they have the green and gold with The Nationals’ branding behind us, the fact is we’re representing rural and regional Australia. That’s our main focus. Our heart is in the country and country people. That’s what we do every day of the week, every waking minute of every day. I know Katrina Hodgkinson will do that over the next three months and indeed for many many years into the future. I know she will be fighting hard for the people of Gilmore. That’s my focus. Let’s not worry too much about branding and that sort of thing. The fact is I’m quite proud to stand in front of the National Party branding. If others don’t if they just want to have a greenish sort of banner with a country scene behind it well that’s a matter for them.

QUESTION:

Do you think voters might interpret that as a sign of someone stepping away from a struggling Party?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

No. Not at all. We’re not a struggling Party. We’ve been going for 100 years. We’ve been proudly representing the interests of rural and regional Australians and we’ll be going on doing that too. The naysayers have been trying to write us off for decades but you know what, we’re still there, we’re still delivering, and if you are talking about the NSW Government, well look at the 48 MPS (Multipurpose Services) right up to regional hospitals that the Nationals have helped build throughout NSW.

Look at the delivery that The Nationals have helped to bring about whilst we have been in the Federal Government. I know as Small Business Minister, I helped bring about the lowest tax rate for small business since 1940, for 78 years at the time. That doesn’t come by chance. It comes because you’re in a strong partnership with a strong partner, i.e. the Liberal Party, but you are in there representing the interests of rural and regional Australians. You’re in there, fighting hard.

That fact that the instant asset write-off has been extended to $25,000 doesn’t happen by chance. The fact that we’ve got strong borders does not happen by chance. It is because you have a Government which is meeting the needs and expectations of the people we serve.

QUESTION:

Why do you think the Leader of the NSW Nationals has removed any Nationals branding from the website?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

That’s probably a question you need to ask John Barilaro but having been at the launch for the NSW Nationals in Queanbeyan on Sunday, he is a fighter. He is passionate for better outcomes for rural and regional NSW. The fact that he was able to quarantine the entire $4.2 billion – billion, that’s thousand million dollars – for infrastructure for the needs of rural and regional NSW: not Newcastle Sydney or Wollongong, I think shows the measure of the NSW Nationals Leader. He is a fighter. He will win his seat of Monaro again. He will go on leading the Nationals in Government, in a very strong Government with Gladys Berejiklian, and they will go on continuing to make NSW number one. I mean, the unemployment rate 3.9% is the lowest of any State in Australia. When they took back over in 2011 after 16 years of quite frankly Labor not caring a jot about rural NSW, look at the difference now against what it was back in 2011. Make no mistake, the NSW Nationals are very much in the game, very well led and I have every optimism about their future and more importantly the delivery that they will produce for regional people in our State.

QUESTION:

Can I ask just one more question on that: Do you think that other Nationals State MPs and voters may see that as a sign that their Leader is stepping away from the Party, the fact that he has removed all the Nationals branding from his website?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

No I don’t.

QUESTION:

Does the Coalition support a national fuel reserve?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

We have enough fuel. The variation is between 24 days and 49 days. I’m told it’s 49 days. The fact is we need to look at that and we certainly will. In the future we need to make sure that we’ve got enough fuel stock. I’m very pleased that I come from a city, Wagga Wagga, where we have a fellow by the name of Tim Rose who has developed the Southern Oil Refinery there; he’s also developed it thanks to his initiative and some very good people around him in Gladstone, the Northern Oil Refinery, where he is converting sump oil into brand new oil. He is converting a prickly acacia into energy. He’s converting trash into oil. I think we need to invest more in those sorts of things as well. But we can address those things and we certainly will.

There’s a lot of issues on the table. At the moment we are focusing on $75 billion record amount of infrastructure. My focus is also on building better roads including the Princes Highway. My focus is on making sure that we continue to have secure borders – unfortunately Labor and The Greens have weakened those along with that cabal called the Independents. We also want to concentrate on making sure our retirees can spend their savings, their hard-earned, on the sorts of things that they need to be able to spend it on: Whether it’s a holiday, whether it’s fixing a fridge if it goes bung, whether it’s on their grandkids’ Christmas presents or birthday presents, they don’t need it to be stolen by Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen.

QUESTION:

Are petrol prices too high at the moment and what should be done to help Australians get relief from high prices?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

I would urge people who are concerned about the petrol prices to download, particularly in NSW, the app that is available to see where the competition is. Yes, we do need more fuel competition, particularly in rural and regional Australia. What we also need is the ACCC to continue put a spotlight, a lens across petrol prices, because whenever they look at certain areas and they do it as a matter of course, amazingly the petrol price sometimes dips. But the fact is the independent operators do not make a lot of money. They are small businesses. They don’t make a lot of money out of petrol. It’s an issue that is of course a concern particularly for rural and regional motorists who travel further, who have far longer distances to travel. I understand that. I also understand that the ACCC continues to monitor it very very closely.

QUESTION:

So if re-elected will The Nationals address this issue?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

We can have a look at that along with a whole host of other issues – the fuel reserves you mentioned, making sure that cost of living pressures generally are coming down. You will always pay less under a Liberal and Nationals’ Government than you ever will under Labor. Labor stands for higher power prices, weaker borders, more taxes and they will rob retirees of their savings. We stand for everything that’s opposite to what I have just said.