TRANSCRIPT: Doorstop – Aged Care Approvals Round funding for Riverina and Central West Gumleigh Gardens Hostel, Wagga Wagga NSW, 10 March 2019
E&OE:
Subjects: Aged Care Approvals Round (ACAR) funding; royal commission into aged care; coal-fired power; power affordability in Queensland; building for the future; surplus Budget on 2 April; risk to regional funding from Labor; leadership.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
It’s so good to be here at Gumleigh Gardens here at Wagga Wagga to announce that this facility is getting 20 new aged care beds, 20 new aged care places under the latest round of ACAR funding in which the Riverina is a huge beneficiary. There are going to be 206 more places for Riverina and Central West aged care facilities, 130 of which are in Wagga Wagga. And we have the facility at Lockhart going to benefit to the tune of $3.8 million. That’s exciting. We have seen right across the region, whether it’s Lockhart, here at Wagga Wagga, Junee, Cowra, Coolamon, Forbes and elsewhere – aged care facilities are getting new places and additional capital funding to ensure that we can address the aged care problem – and it is a problem, because there are more people wanting facilities, there are more people wanting beds. We have an ageing population. We need to make sure that we address this issue.
The Federal Government, the Liberal and Nationals’ Government, is doing just that, and certainly in the regions. I was delighted to have the Minister responsible for Aged Care, Ken Wyatt, come to Wagga Wagga last June to announce that rural and regional Australia were going to be the big winners in the latest ACAR Round. That didn’t happen without me being the Deputy Prime Minister, without me being The Nationals’ Leader. I can bring those sorts of things to Wagga Wagga, to the region, that’s what you can do when you are in this position you do have this ability to bring Ministers to town and to make these exciting announcements for rural and regional Australia.
I’m delighted that Mackenna Powell is here, the NSW Nationals’ candidate for the seat of Wagga Wagga. She is working hard; she’s out there listening, she’s out there making sure that people’s concerns are heard. I know that when she gets to Macquarie Street, she like all other Nationals Members of Parliament will be a real fighter for this region, for this seat.
QUESTION:
Is it possible that further changes will be made to beds or staffing as a result of the royal commission into aged care that’s got going just now?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
That royal commission is underway using the Terms of Reference; we’re looking forward to making sure that we listen to what comes out of that royal commission. We’ve just had the banking royal commission; we’ve got a royal commission into the aged care sector – we need to make sure that we take heed of what recommendations are put forward because we have stakeholders right around the nation who are relying on those recommendations, relying on what’s heard and what’s said and then what comes as a result of these royal commissions. That’s why we hold them. That’s why the Federal Liberal and Nationals’ Government has been on the front foot with these royal commissions, to make sure that where there are problems that they get addressed – where there are issues that need to be fixed, we’re fixing them. We’re taking advice from the people who are giving evidence (break in audio).
QUESTION:
Did you attend last night’s Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I was in North Queensland yesterday. I was there announcing a new aquatic and sports precinct for Mackay. That’s what I do as the Deputy Prime Minister and as the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development. This afternoon I will be in Port Macquarie – my feet don’t stay on the ground too long, I’m always out and about the countryside right around the nation. I heard it was a great event. I heard there were thousands of people – and good on them; I heard that they had a great celebration. I wished them well for last night and I’m sure that given the success of the event, it will be held again and again for many more years to come.
QUESTION:
I understand there was a climate change rally yesterday. What’s the Nationals’ stance – are you still committed to coal as baseload power?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Absolutely. It is providing two thirds of our energy needs in Australia right at the moment. It’s providing $66 billion in export income. We need a reliable energy mix and under the Liberal and Nationals’ Government that’s what we have. We do need coal to be providing baseload energy requirements. Two thirds of energy requirements come from coal. So if we go down the 100% renewables line, what are we going to replace that with in the near future?
We don’t want to push prices up so that households find it unaffordable. We don’t want to drive businesses to the wall because we can’t provide them with affordable power. So it has to be in balance, and that’s why I was delighted Scott Morrison turned first sod for the Snowy Hydro 2.0 just the other day – this is an exciting announcement of renewable energy that’s going to provide storage, going to provide power for 500,000 – half a million - homes and businesses, particularly in NSW and right up the eastern seaboard. So that’s exciting news.
We will continue to work with those sorts of projects and continue to deliver for the environment – but at the same time we don’t want to de-industrialise Australia. At the same time we don’t want to make it absolutely impossible for our manufacturing industries to be able to operate. When people turn the switch they need to be able to have affordable power.
The Greens will take you down this nonsense claptrap that we can provide our energy needs from 100% renewables. It is rubbish. It is absolute garbage. And when you look at the sorts of candidates they have – Julian Burnside, I mean give me a break. That bloke is off with the fairies. And then you have Bill Shorten saying there needs to be a 45% emissions reduction target – the bloke’s living in fairyland. You can’t do that at the moment, it’s just not possible. He’s nuts. He can’t provide the sort of baseload energy needs – I mean sure, go down that path but forget night footy; forget night cricket. And you’ll have pensioners turning off their power because they won’t be able to afford it, and they will be shivering all winter, and they’ll be melting all summer. That’s the future under Bill Shorten, and if The Greens get their way well we might as well just pack up and leave the country.
QUESTION:
Your colleagues in Queensland want the federal taxpayer to underwrite coal-fired power stations. Do you want the same?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
We need to make sure that we have the energy needs for the future. I’m not against coal-fired power stations. I’m not. The fact is though – and it’s absolutely true – Queensland can solve their energy power crisis tomorrow, because the Queensland State Labor Government runs the turbines, runs the generators, they own the poles and wires and yet they keep the prices uniformly high – they do – so they can get at you, so they can rip Queensland taxpayers off – that’s what they do – so they can rip Queensland businesses off.
We stand for affordable power. If the future means building another coal-fired power station, or building one indeed in North Queensland, then we’ll certainly look at it if the business case stacks up. There are HELE (high efficiency low emissions) type power stations that provide much cleaner, efficient coal-fired power at the moment and we can look at that. The fact is we have on the Notice Paper the big stick legislation and if there’s time in the last three days of Parliament well that will get put to the Parliament. But what do those who sit opposite us in the Parliament stand for? High prices. They don’t stand for businesses; they don’t stand for households and they certainly don’t stand for lower power prices. We’ve seen that.
The Nationals in Government have always worked hard to make sure that there’s reliable energy but at the same time that there are lower power prices, and to a degree the power prices have come down – I’ve been speaking to a number of people around the countryside for whom power prices have come down. Journalists won’t write that sort of thing but the fact is we have seen a decrease in some people’s power bills – and we will continue to work towards that. Angus Taylor, the Energy Minister, is doing a very good job of making sure that the big power companies - once run and owned and operated by the state, this was once the responsibility of the state – he has waved a finger at them and made sure they understand that if they continue to have prices uniformly high then divestiture is something that we will certainly look at. We could break up those power companies to make sure that we get cheaper power for all Australians.
QUESTION:
But yes or no, do you want the same as your colleagues in Queensland?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Yes as far as what, the coal-fired power stations? Well if it meets the business case and it’s going to provide more energy in the system and it’s going to bring prices down, of course I am in favour of that. Of course I am.
We have plenty of coal here for export and for domestic use. As I said before, two thirds of Australia’s energy needs are being met by coal. Why would people want to have a problem with that? City people can complain and whinge about it all they like, and I know there were a few people having a protest march in Wagga Wagga yesterday – and that’s fine, that’s their democratic right to do that. But we live in the 21st Century and when the flick the switch on they expect it to come on; when they want to have their soy latte warmed up they need to be able to flick the switch on and make sure that the barista machine actually works. But it won’t work if we take away two thirds of our power supply. What’s going to provide energy then?
QUESTION:
Would building a coal-fired power station do anything to lower electricity prices given it would be five years in construction?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
We must have a plan for the future. Too many people look at Parliament and look at politicians in general and they say they’ve got no vision for the future; they’re only here for the here and now. And largely, unfortunately, when you have two and a half year election cycles federally that’s probably the case. We want to have a plan for the future. Snowy Hydro’s not going to come on board for quite some time. The Western Sydney Airport that we’re building at the moment won’t be open until 2026. The Inland Rail, that’s years away but we are laying down the plans for the future. We’re building for the future, right now.
I went to a road opening in Darwin not that long ago, the Tiger Brennan Drive – we’re duplicating the Drive and the journalists couldn’t get their heads around it: They said this isn’t going to be needed for five years’ time – but that’s what we’re doing. We’re planning; we’re visionary; we’re making sure that the needs of tomorrow are being looked at and built today.
QUESTION:
New polling by The Australia Institute shows one in four people don’t know who Scott Morrison is – why is that?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I tell you what, he’s out there working hard for Australians. A lot of people just want their power bills to be low, they want to make sure they have a job, they want to make sure their kids have a job, that they have the ability to get home, to and from work sooner and safer, they want good recreational facilities. Scott Morrison and the Liberals and I as the Nationals’ Leader and the National Party are doing just that. We’re out there – we’re not screaming from the rooftops like Richard Di Natale and Adam Bandt and Julian Burnside – if he ever gets elected to Parliament we’re all in trouble – but the fact is we’re out there working. We’re out there – not getting on the TV channels all the time and spruiking about how good we are; we’re just getting in and doing what Australians expect us to do, what ordinary everyday Australians would like us to do, that’s it. We’re working. You take that poll that day – look, polls are just something that journalists like to do and I know, I used to be a journalist once, I understand that you go and ask five people a question and you get the responses you like and all of a sudden you think oh, this is dreadful: only 20% of all the people I surveyed knew the answer to a question. That doesn’t mean to say either the question was right or the answer was right.
The fact is Scott Morrison is doing a very good job as Prime Minister of this country. The fact is on April 2 we are going to produce the first surplus Budget this country has experienced in 12 years.
Labor doesn’t know what a surplus is; they don’t even understand a surplus. We saw Jim Chalmers, the Assistant Finance Minister faffing about on Insiders this morning – they don’t understand how to run an economy. They don’t understand the needs of everyday ordinary Australians to balance their budgets. All they want to do is go down the unions path. All they want to do is appease Green voters in inner-city elitist seats so they can get those votes and try and run this country.
Well if they do, if they get that opportunity, they will run this country into the ground. Make no mistake about that.
QUESTION:
Have you spoken to Barnaby Joyce recently?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Yes I speak to Barnaby a lot. I speak to all my colleagues a lot. He’s very excited that the (interrupted) – he’s very excited about the fact that under the Building Better Regions Fund that the New England area, the New England seat that he represents is getting a lot of funding as are all those rural and regional seats whether they’re National, whether they’re Liberal or indeed whether they’re Independents or otherwise – they are getting a lot of funding because of the policies of The Nationals in Government.
This funding would not happen without The Nationals in Government and rest assured if Bill Shorten becomes Prime Minister of this country - that will be a sorry day – but rest assured if he does, all those Building Better Regions funds, Regional Jobs and Investment Packages, Regional Growth Fund – they will all go. The $500 million for the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund: Gone. All these sorts of things will go, because Labor doesn’t know how to run an economy and they don’t care about rural and regional Australia – I can’t emphasise that enough. Independents – well they will shout from the rooftops too but they won’t deliver either. They will not deliver, because they stay outside the tent, throw rocks at the tent but they’re not inside the tent making the decisions like the National Party is – like I am, all the time, making those decisions for and on behalf of rural and regional Australia…like Mackenna Powell will be. Mackenna Powell is going to make sure that she delivers for the seat of Wagga Wagga.
QUESTION:
But are you convinced he will be faithful to you as Leader?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
There’s no leadership challenge – it’s a figment of one journalist’s imagination. Quite frankly there were so many mistakes in that story you could have run one of the tanks from out at Kapooka through it. I’m getting on and doing the job – in Mackay yesterday, in Port Macquarie tomorrow and later on tomorrow afternoon I’m looking forward to going to Rockhampton. I’m out and about the countryside; I’m doing what people expect me to do, I’m doing what my Party elected me to do and that is to deliver, to achieve things for rural and regional Australians who need that sort of achievement.
What I love is when I picked up a paper this morning and the National Party got accused of pork barrelling. I mean hallelujah – that’s what people elect us to do, they want us to make sure rural and regional Australia does not miss out. I had a journalist from a country paper, believe it or not, say to me: Oh but doesn’t this mean that city seats are going to miss out? Well heaven forbid that city seats miss out. I’m here for rural and regional Australia and I’m going to work darn hard, as I’ve always done, to continue to deliver for rural and regional Australia, for the people out in these suburbs of Wagga Wagga and beyond, right throughout the Riverina, right throughout the Central West – that’s my focus, making sure that people who decide not to live in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or any other capital city get the delivery that they deserve, expect and demand. And why shouldn’t they demand it? We live in the best part of the world, in regional Australia, and I want to make sure that those people who choose to live in regional Australia have the best opportunities and the best lifestyle and the best future. That’s my focus.
Thank you very much.