Transcript: Qantas Regional Grants Program, 14 June 2019
E&OE
With: John Gissing, CEO QantasLink
Subjects: Water Infrastructure; National Water Grid; AFP Raid; Qantas’ Regional Group Grants program; Qantas’ regional flight schools;
JOURNALIST:
Can you just tell us what you’re announcing today please?
JOHN GISSING:
Yes. Good morning everybody and thanks for joining us here in Wagga. Always special for me to be back here in Wagga, my hometown, and in fact here at Mount Austin High School where I went to school all those years ago. And I do remember, as you all know, Wagga is a very big sporting town. And behind us we have the boys playing footy. I remember back in the day, sport-mad as we were, playing lots of sport. In fact one season I remember playing four codes: the NRL, AFL, hockey and soccer. So sport was a big thing in our day. But it was also quite difficult to get around when we needed to play in places like Temora, Culcairn. Seven kids in my family, one car. Often difficult to get around.
But they’re relatively short distances. Right across regional Australia, the tyranny of distance makes it very difficult for communities to come together in a whole bunch of ways. And my sporting experience reminds me that there is a responsibility to try and close down those distances wherever we can. And we believe that companies like Qantas in Australia can help in some way. And so today we're very pleased to be announcing that Qantas is setting up a multi-million dollar grants program to support community groups, not-for-profits, charities, individuals to really help communities come together in a better way. We're announcing today that the Qantas Regional Grants Program will be $5 million over five years.
The grants will come in the form of cash and flights and marketing support, and there will be an eligibility criteria. It's open today. You would have seen it advertised in the Wagga Daily Advertiser this morning and on our website, Qantas.com, are all the details for aspiring applicants to get online and to start filling out your applications. The applications are open until August 30 and then we'll be making the announcements of the winners late September, October and then issuing the grants.
And it's also for me to be here back in in Wagga, here at Mount Austin High School is important, but for Qantas to be here at Mount Austin where a very special academy is operating, the Clontarf Academy, which is a major program that Qantas sponsors which is helping Indigenous boys build their capability through education so that they can be great role models for their communities. And so the grants program that we're announcing today is on top of the many other ways that Qantas is contributing to regional communities, and the Clontarf Academy is just one of those. For those of you unaware, the Clontarf Academies are growing quickly around Australia: 6000 boys- over 6000 registered in schools like Mount Austin right around the country. And they have plans, big plans, to grow to over 10,000 boys in the next year or so. Their motto is from little things, big things grow. And we're very proud to be the key airline sponsor for the Clontarf Academy as it grows around Australia. So when I think back to what would have really helped me and my teammates in the day to get some support in terms of community, this great program is going to be doing that. And so we're very, very proud of the program that we're announcing today and we're encouraging people to get online and start applying. And good luck with the application.
JOURNALIST:
Can you give us some examples of community groups that might be able to take advantage of, say, free flights? What sort of groups do you envision?
JOHN GISSING:
Yeah look, using our imagination we think there'll be all sorts of groups, whether it's small healthcare providers that this might encourage them to take their skills and capability to more remote places. It could be very special interest cases of individuals who have enormous talent that can't afford to get to major training or sponsorship programs in the big cities from a sporting or education point of view. It could be just really community groups who play a very special role in communities and communities like those here in Wagga that just for a little bit of funding aren't able to really maximise the benefits that they're contributing to the communities that they serve. So we think there's many examples. And Qantas with our experience, the largest regional carrier in this country, and as the CEO of Australia's largest regional airline I'm more than aware of the opportunities that are out there. But the design of this program is specifically turning back to communities and asking communities where they think we can better help rather than us making those decisions.
JOURNALIST:
When you're talking about free flights, are those flights just within the Qantas network or between any two places in the country?
JOHN GISSING:
Yes look, the program is open to everybody across Australia and not just to those places that we fly. But clearly for applicants who are living and looking to create benefits for the communities where we do fly, the flight option is there. But as I said the contribution, the $5 million, the multi-million dollar program over five years will be cash, flights and marketing support or any combination of those depending on what communities we're hoping to serve.
JOURNALIST:
Can you tell us just briefly what the likelihood of Wagga getting the pilot school will be?
JOHN GISSING:
Yeah look, yet another example of how Qantas is contributing to regional Australia. Very proud of our recent announcement for the first site in Toowoomba in Queensland. We've been very, very busy. Taking a little bit longer than we first expected but we're very pleased to be opening that academy. Applications are open at the moment and we'll be choosing the first cohort of lucky students who will start attending Toowoomba late September, October this year. That has potential to grow, as we've said, to over 500 students a year and there are still seven cities – Wagga one of them – in the running. It has taken longer than we first expected. We've been very focused on getting Toowoomba up and running, and we hope we'll be ready in the not too distant future to announce the winner of that second site.
JOURNALIST:
Thank you so much.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Michael McCormack, the Deputy Prime Minister, Federal Member for Riverina, and perhaps most importantly today, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Regional Development. This is regional development. This is fantastic. QantasLink, I congratulate the company for being so generous and supportive of Wagga Wagga, but not just Wagga Wagga and district, but indeed the entire regional community for the fact that they're putting $5 million up under a multi-million dollar grants program to help not-for-profits, to help young people, to help old people, everybody to take part in this program. And whether it's direct cash grants, whether it's free flights, whether it's marketing, QantasLink wants to get on board and help these organisations to be their best selves. To get them to other places, to other destinations if their travel requires it. And I know, when you're a parent, you've got a talented young sportsperson who needs to get from A to B and just can't afford it, then QantasLink are going to be one of those organisations which is going to help that young person out. To realise their dreams, to realise their potential, and we've only seen just in recent times how young people, Ash Barty with the winning the French Open, how they can be their best selves. A program like this can realise the next French Tennis Open champion, it can realise the next AFL champion, it can do all sorts of things.
Even for organisations requiring somebody to be moved in a health capacity, I'm sure. They’re going to benefit from this generosity by QantasLink. And it's a homecoming of sorts for John Gissing, his family has been very, very supportive of our community. Indeed, they've helped run pharmacies in Wagga. They've helped run the city as mayors in the past, and the Gissing family is synonymous with Wagga Wagga. So it's only appropriate that John Gissing, the CEO of QantasLink, comes here today to make this announcement in his hometown - Wagga Wagga - at the school which he was educated. But it's not just as I say, for Wagga Wagga, it's for the entire regional Australia, and regional Australia will benefit from this generosity by QantasLink. I urge and encourage people to apply, to see how they can benefit from this very much, this very much great generosity by QantasLink. I congratulate QantasLink for giving back to the community, a community which has supported QantasLink for many, many years, will continue to support QantasLink for many, many years, and now only made stronger and more prosperous thanks to QantasLink’s generosity.
JOURNALIST:
Just on, if I can ask you about the talk of a class action against the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. There have been community meetings over the last week that generate some more interest beyond those initial eight landholders. Are you concerned that that might go ahead and what are your thoughts?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well look, let's see what comes of that. I appreciate that people are aggrieved. I appreciate that we're in the midst of a prolonged drought. I also appreciate the fact that there are reviews going into the Murray-Darling Basin plan at the moment, not least of which is being done by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission - the ACCC - so let's see what comes of that. I met with a number of stakeholders, Edward River Council and part of the Lower Murray and Murrumbidgee irrigation and communities last week in Deniliquin, and spoke to them at length about what they wanted to see. Of course, some of them want a pause in the plan. Some of them want to see the plan scrapped, but to put the plan back through the Parliament might end up with a worse outcome than what we already have. Fact is, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was introduced on a bipartisan level.
Fact is the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is, you know, part the way through a long process of getting water policy right, and not everybody's always going to be happy with water policy. Irrigators want more water, of course they do. And at Deniliquin they've had no allocations for about three years. Not uncommon in the situation of a drought, and, of course, then you've got environmentalists who want all the water to go out of the mouth of the Murray-Darling. So we've got to have balance. We've got to have equity, and we're achieving that. Let’s see what the ACCC comes up with. Let's see what we do as far as the National Water Grid is concerned as well. I’m forming that at the moment, established it during the election campaign to build more water storage infrastructure. It’s been too long in this country since we've last built a dam. I want to get on board; I want to take the petty politics out of building water storage infrastructure. I want to build dams. The National Party wants to build dams. We want to increase height and length and strengthen weirs. We want to make sure that if pipelines, like the one at Scottsdale in Tasmania, at Forth in Tasmania, Mitiamo in Victoria, and elsewhere. I know we're doing a number of projects in North Queensland at the moment, and indeed, right throughout New South Wales. If they stack up, if state governments want to come on board, well, that's fine. But we want the National Water Grid to make sure that we take the politics out, we put the science in, and we have key stakeholder engagement at a local level to be able to the build water infrastructure that this country needs, which is going to further drought-proof our nation.
JOURNALIST:
The Riverina Murray’s pretty well represented in our cabinet now, with Sussan Ley there as well. Can you promise [indistinct] more influence on water policy?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well there's always going to be more influence on water policy, particularly when The Nationals are in government, particularly when the Liberals are in government. What we would have seen had Labor won the election is a poor policy when it comes to water, and that's more buybacks. Now, I crossed the floor on the Murray-Darling Basin in 2012 to ensure that we put a cap on buybacks, because buybacks just ruin country communities. They ruin river towns, and it would have absolutely destroyed, not decimated, but destroyed Griffith and the entire Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. So that's why I stood and made that firm stand in 2012. Fact is, we've got the Murray-Darling Basin Plan in there. It is an adaptive plan. We can tweak it and make sure that it realises the best outcomes, and when it does rain again, and it will rain again, the fact is we want to have more water storage infrastructure in place so that we collect that water. So that we harvest it, harness it and harvest it, for times when it's going to be dry in the future. Because if we know anything- if we learn anything from history, Australia is a country of flooding rains and then droughts. And that cycle will continue, but we need to make sure we've got the right water infrastructure in place to make sure that we can collect that rain when it falls.
JOURNALIST:
Just finally, as a former newspaper editor, you would have been watching the AFP raids in the last couple of weeks with a great deal of interest, I imagine. Is press freedom under threat as well?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, press freedom is very much, very much, something that we take great pride in. I mean, there's a 102,500 names on the War Memorial at Canberra, on those bronze plaques for people who fought for free speech, who fought for free government, to make sure that we have democracy in place in this nation. But nobody is above the law, so let's see what comes as a result of these AFP raids. They don’t do things lightly - the Australian Federal Police - but they do do them, at arm's length of government. Thank you very much.