TRANSCRIPT: Rockhampton Interview with Michael McCormack, 14 August 2019
E&OE
With: The Hon. Michelle Landry MP, Assistant Minister for Children & Families
Subjects: Pacific Islands; Rockhampton Art Gallery; Rookwood Weir;
JOURNALIST:
The Deputy Prime Minister – in fact, I think Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack is in the studio, and Michelle Landry, the Member for Capricornia. Good afternoon to you both.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Fantastic to be in Rocky.
MICHELLE LANDRY:
Hey.
JOURNALIST:
Where is he, the Prime Minister, if you’re acting?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
He’s in the Pacific Islands where-
JOURNALIST:
[Interrupts] That’s right. What’s that for?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, we’ve got a campaign at the moment, a step up with the Pacific, and the Pacific Islands is our neighbourhood, and we need to-
JOURNALIST:
[Interrupts] It’s not a bad idea, because the Chinese are leaping in – aren’t they?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, we’ve always cared and protected the Pacific Islands, and we’re ensuring that they’ve got the right infrastructure, that they know that Australia cares. Obviously we get a lot of workers from there, I know down in my electorate in Riverina in South West New South Wales, and I’m sure in other electorates too; jobs that can’t or won’t be done by Australians, such as fruit picking and horticulture and all that sort of thing, Pacific Islanders often fill that void where we can’t either find the labour or the labour just isn’t there, and it’s important to them; it’s important to us.
JOURNALIST:
Yeah. And it’s good for us too because other countries will fill the void if we don’t. [Indistinct]
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
And look, there’s close ties there with Rugby Union and other such things, so.
JOURNALIST:
Are you- since we’re talking about that, real quickly, are you worried that Papua New Guinea have sought money from China?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, Papua New Guinea’s got a new leader, but you know, the Prime Minister’s quick to congratulate the new leadership team in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea’s one of our closest neighbours and one of our friendliest neighbours, and we’ll go on making sure that that relationship is strong.
JOURNALIST:
Now, I know you were down the road turning the sod – is that what the [indistinct] is called?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
No, quite the opposite actually.
MICHELLE LANDRY:
We had lots of fun today, we had- what were they?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Sledgehammer.
MICHELLE LANDRY:
A sledgehammer. And the Mayor, Michael, and myself…
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Talks over] We were wrecking.
JOURNALIST:
Did you get to smack something into my most unfavourite building? I loathe that building.
MICHELLE LANDRY:
Yeah, yeah.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, it’s less of a building now, let me tell you, after Michelle took to it with a sledgehammer.
JOURNALIST:
Well, good for you because-
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Interrupts] She normally builds, today she was tearing down.
JOURNALIST:
It looks like a bathroom from about halfway up, with the bathroom tiles on the front. I would have loved to have been there with you, it’s a shocker, and what it’s going to be replaced with will be magnificent.
MICHELLE LANDRY:
Oh, it looked beautiful, and the view from up the top there is just going to be fantastic, and that whole art collection, the Cream art collection, is going to be on the top floor. So imagine that, it’s worth about $16 million. And actually Mayor just telling us today the story about that. I knew that old Rex Pilbeam knocked on business doors and all the rest of it, but there was funding available through [indistinct], I think she said, and we got three quarters of the money right across Australia for it. Because, the mayor at the time, while Rex Pilbeam got in, and bought all this artwork. So, an incredible collection.
JOURNALIST:
It's one of those stories that gains great gravitas and gets bigger, but I'm led to believe that Rex used to phone ministers and say: if you do this for me, I will never phone you again.
[Laughter]
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Surely not, surely a local mayor wouldn’t do such a thing.
JOURNALIST:
That was his modus operandi.
MICHELLE LANDRY:
He was such a character too, you know, he built the barrage and they got permission afterwards. Well, what are you going to do it down? Pull it down?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Build it first and ask forgiveness.
JOURNALIST:
But he did-
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Interrupts] But that was in an era when they could do those sorts of things, the 1970s. And perhaps that's why so much stuff got built, because there wasn't the environmental and the cultural tick offs. But look, we've got good laws and protocols to process this now. But the fact is, they've got Sidney Nolan's kept away in the dark recesses of a council archives, which should be on display…
JOURNALIST:
[Talks over] I’ll just get you to turn that microphone around a little bit.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
… and the fact is they are talking about increasing their visitor numbers from 41,000 to 90,000 a year. How much money is that going to bring to town? And then those people who come and see the Sidney Nolan's and the other great artworks that Rocky's got in hiding at the moment, they will go until others. And so, of course Rockhampton’s place as a destination will only increase.
JOURNALIST:
Absolutely, absolutely. I know Bianca who runs the Rockhampton Art Gallery and does a fantastic job, she wants to model it on what Bendigo and Victoria with their art gallery, and they do wonderful things.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
She was telling us it will be the biggest art gallery regionally in Queensland, and as big as and as impressive as the one in Bendigo in Victoria. And anybody who's been there, and I have, it's pretty impressive in Bendigo. So, to all intents and purposes Rockhampton will have the best regional art gallery in Australia, and largely thanks to the lady sitting next to me – Michelle Landry.
JOURNALIST:
Now, has Michelle told you about the call I had about the other pet project of hers, Rookwood Weir?
[Laughter]
Last Friday I had a-
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Michelle is on the phone to me every second day about Rookwood Weir.
JOURNALIST:
Yeah, well, I had I had a phone call from a farmer last Friday, he said: I’ve received an email that says they want to lop two metres off the top of Rookwood Weir. Have you discussed this?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Talks over] Well look, we want to have Rookwood Weir at the capacity that is going to produce the agricultural output, that is potentially able to- that it is potentially able to. So we've put down- we originally put out 130 million. We then increased that to 176.1 million. And we stood there and we announced it with then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Michelle was there, David Littleproud was there, Matthew Canavan, Ken O’Dowd was there, I was there – May last year. You know, the time for talk is over. And I appreciate we've got to now go through some more negotiations with state, I'm willing to work with them, I'm willing to work with anyone of any political persuasion; I just want to get the thing built.
JOURNALIST:
Do you sense the Labor Party here are dying? Do you know they are? [Indistinct]
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Talks over] Well, look, I work with Anthony Lynham, the minister responsible in good faith.
JOURNALIST:
Yep.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
And look, two Saturdays ago he signed off on Emu Swamp Dam. Appreciate it's a long way south from here, but it is in Queensland, and he was good enough to sign off on that, that will be the first dam that we build in Australia for decades. So you know, that is the catalyst for change, I believe. And I think once we get shovels in the ground and people can see that this is going to be a dam of national significance, not notwithstanding that it's going to be great for Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt in Queensland.
JOURNALIST:
Will this be a dam that will also help-
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Flood mitigation, agricultural output, irrigation, yes.
JOURNALIST:
All those words that were at the tip of my tongue, yes.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Yep. [Indistinct] you talk about, yes, absolutely.
JOURNALIST:
No, but will that dam there help that? We had a dam in the north as well.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Not necessarily for flood mitigation, but certainly everything else. They’re talking about increasing their agricultural output, you know, thousands of hectares, and then thousands of tons of produce. These aren’t insignificant numbers. And the locals there have put up $24.3 million of their own money – of their own money. So, they’re backing themselves. And I know the irrigators here are backing themselves, they just want everybody to get on with the job. So we’ve stumped up our money. And look, if they come back to us and say: oh look, we need to change this, we need more money here – I’m happy to talk with them, I’m happy to work through the project with them. But let’s get it started.
JOURNALIST:
Because I sensed that your government this time will not be judged on health and education; you’ll be judged on dams and electricity, because flood mitigation [indistinct].
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Talks over] Well, we should also be judged on health and education…
JOURNALIST:
Of course.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
… because it’s a good story, it’s a really good story.
JOURNALIST:
Governments always get judged on that, and Labor [indistinct]-
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Interrupts] I want to get judged on delivery, and so therefore, to be judged on delivery you need to deliver. Now, Michelle Landry has delivered so much, so much for this area, and we’ve put up tens of millions of dollars, we’ve written the cheques, they’re waiting to be issued, we just need a state government to get on board. Local councils are keen. You know, we’ve got stakeholders who want us to see the work happening, and you know, stand here, ready to deliver.
JOURNALIST:
Labor Party say of the $100 million dollars of infrastructure money you've promised…
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Interrupts] Hundred billion.
JOURNALIST:
…$100 billion- But Labor Party is saying not much spent in the next four years it's all on the Never Never; true or untrue?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well indeed when they talk about the Never Never, I always correct them. So well, yes, we are spending money in the Never Never, the Outback way is getting a significant amount of money from Winton here to Laverton in Western Australia. That's going to be significant too, so that is the true Never Never. We're spending a significant amount of money. Look, the fact is we do things in gradual stages, and I'm happy to bring forward funding, and I'm happy to do it with Labor state governments if they're willing to bring the projects forward. Because generally, in a regional project, we write 80 per cent of the cheque. They provide 20 per cent. They then do the tendering, they do the contracting and they build the thing.
JOURNALIST:
They do the delaying in a lot of cases too.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Your words, not mine. But yes, so true. The fact is we want to get on and the Prime Minister has indicated the Reserve Bank Governor Dr Philip Lowe has indicated that we need to bring infrastructure work forward, whether it's urban congestion busting in the capital cities, indeed whether it's building roads of strategic importance and roads of linkage to provide supply chain efficiencies, et cetera, in regional areas, we want to do it. So you know fact is, I’m a minister, standing there ready to work with state governments. If they want to bring the projects forward, I'll get them through Treasury will get- so long as we've got the labour, as long as they've got the engineering and the cultural and the enviro- everything ticked off, happy to do it.
JOURNALIST:
So you can, in this day and age, walk into a bureaucrat and say: I want to do a big project, I want to- let's just do- it won't happen, but let's just do the big project that everyone talks about in Queensland, the Bradfield Scheme. So, right, I've decided I want to do that. Okay, can you walk into a bureaucrat and say: don't tell me why I can't do it, tell me how I can do it. Do Governments do that now?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well the fact is, I'm very lucky I've got a department headed by Dr Stephen Kennedy, who is just about to go to Treasury, working very diligently and very well. And sometimes, all too often I think, the bureaucracy get a bad rap from the members of the public and, dare I say, sometimes the media, for being procrastinators. I'm lucky I've got a department that works very well. But they do so at our direction. We are the government of the day and the bureaucrats work for us. More importantly, they work for the public. That's why they call public servants, because they're supposed to and they do serve the public. So the greater good is served by bureaucrats who understand that for every time that they get on and do something, that that has a large – not a ripple effect – but a very large direct effect on the people who we are there to serve. And I'm a public servant, Michelle's a public servant. We are there to serve the public for the public good. And so for every road we build, that potentially saves lives. It increases productivity, it increases efficiencies. But at the end of the day it's getting people home sooner and most importantly safer.
JOURNALIST:
And how's the drought in your neck of the woods?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Oh, it's bad. There's no question. I mean north of to my area, park west [indistinct], there's a distinct line halfway through my electorate. Anything further north that they haven't grown a crop, and so they're going to need a you know more than just an arm put around them they're going to require further assistance and further help. We've already put $7 billion on the table. And anything further south of that they've got a crop in. Whether or not we get those follow up spring rains remains to be seen. But you know North West New South Wales, parts of the Central West, indeed where David Littleproud represents, and the Darling Downs of John McVeigh's electorate, et cetera. It's pretty dry, it's pretty awful.
JOURNALIST:
Just quickly before I let you go- you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. Julie Bishop was attempting to rewrite history last night on The Andrew Denton Show.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I did not watch it, I was busy.
JOURNALIST:
Well she was saying there was a huge amount of bullying and she was disgusted by it. In Julia Gillard's time, she was the biggest bully that was going around in that time. Should she be allowed to rewrite history that way or will people, like us, find her out?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I think people in the public just want unity. They want us to just get on and do the job. Sometimes, things are catastrophized beyond all semblance of what they were to begin with. But I think people just want us to get on with the job. I know, Michelle and I, that's what we do; when we talk, we talk infrastructure, we talk delivering. That's what we do in the Nats party room. That's why I've got such great colleagues as Matt Canavan and Kenny O'Dowd and George Christensen. And honestly, we don't bully in the Nats, we just get on and do the job, because that's what we're paid to do. You know, if the other parties want to want to talk about that, it's distracting from the good message, from the good narrative that we've got to tell. That we did successfully sell on 18 May, that the general public voted us back in to get things done. Let's not try and regurgitate history. Let's certainly not try and rewrite history. Let's look to the here and now and most importantly let's look to the future and get on with doing what people voted us to do.
JOURNALIST:
Well good to talk to you. Up here they want dams don't they, Michelle?
MICHELLE LANDRY:
[Talks over] They exactly do.
JOURNALIST:
They want mitigation. They want the water that fell in Townsville to be harvested and used.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well the Ag Minister Bridget McKenzie is coming here later on today, and I know she's got some important meetings and engagements tomorrow. Now, Bridget has been tasked with the job. Of- well, she's Australia's first female Agriculture Minister, so how good is that. But she wants to grow, as does our Government, agriculture from a $60 billion sector to a $100 billion sector. Now you can only do that with water. You can only do that with a vision, with a plan, and with backing our farmers all the way. That's what Michelle does all the time. That's what I do. That's what Bridget does. Let's get on and do it.
JOURNALIST:
Because the Prime Minister has been talking a little bit- he rattled off a list not so long ago, but it was pipelines, it wasn't dams. I don't know whether he knew that or not when asked the question about dams.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well there's some important pipelines being built in at the moment to battle, but dams- well probably he was saying that, and you say a little while ago, because potentially, we need to have the tick off from state governments. We can't build dams alone. We have to get the states on board. And there was that argy bargy, that procrastination happening with states. The New South Wales Government is only just finally- you know, I asked for it last October only, only last week they came to me with their priority list. I want to work with state governments, so let's put all the politics aside. I don't care whether they're Labor. I don't care what political colour, creed, or persuasion they are. If there's dams there to be built, local engagement there that's promoting it, if there's investment there at a local level that they want to do and the states will come on board, let's get shovels in the ground. Let's get excavators working and let's have a vision for this nation. I think it'll inspire other dam projects. I know Emu Swamp is really important. I'm thanking Anthony Lynham for actually finally getting on board and doing it. He's a good man. I know he is. I've worked with in good faith with him. And now that we've got that done, I think it will be the catalyst for change. I think it'll be the catalyst to drive future dam projects and the $3 billion that we've got on the table. To build dams is going to be a wise investment and we will get it out the door.
JOURNALIST:
Good to see you. Thanks for coming in.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Always lovely.
JOURNALIST:
The Deputy Prime Minister and currently acting Prime Minister of Australia Michael McCormack and Michelle Landry, the Member for Capricornia. Thanks Michelle.