TRANSCRIPT - Interview with Prime7 News Wagga Wagga - Bushfire recovery - 22 January 2020
E&OE
Subjects: Bushfires; Sports Grants; Bridget McKenzie;
JOURNALIST:
You've obviously seen the damage, quite devastating. What do you just make of what community has been reduced to here?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
This is a very resilient community, and we’re in Batlow at the moment and just had coffee at Debbie, Wiltshire’s Coffee and More, and I urge people to come and revisit Batlow. Come back and have coffee and more. She makes the best apple slice. You've just got to have a slice of it to believe how good it is. But Debbie and her business and other businesses in Batlow want people to know they are open for business, and of course we've got the Cider Fest’ coming up in mid-May. The ninth annual Cider Fest’ and that's going to be such a big event. But we want people to return to Batlow. We want people to go back to Tumbarumba, to see what these great mountain towns have to offer. They're going to really be doing it tough with tourism, obviously with the pine plantations burnt out, with the apple orchards - many of them incinerated. They want people to still know, though, that they're a very resilient community. They want people to know that they're open for business. So drive on up the road, spend a bit of money in town, have a chat to the locals, you won't find friendlier people anywhere in Australia, and they want you to know they're open for business.
JOURNALIST:
Just driving here, you can see a lot of our rivers are kind of turned to black from ash and sludge falling down. Appreciate these are a bit of a state issue as well, but is there going to be that collaborative effort from federal and state governments to really move forward?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, there's been a collaborative effort from day one, and certainly I spent a day yesterday with my New South Wales Nationals colleagues, talking about what we can do, what we've already done and how we can even do more. Yes, there needs to be a proper review, a proper inquiry. Whether that's a Royal Commission, that's to be decided. But we need to have a look at how we avoid these circumstances in future. Better land management, back burning, all that sort of thing. Reducing the fuel load. If there's one thing that people have told me, that's what they've said. Making sure that we reduce that fuel load. But we will bounce back, we will recover. We always do. We're resilient, regional Australians. And whether it's Batlow, whether it's Tumbarumba, South Coast, Mallacoota, no matter where the case might be in regional Australia, these people are tough. People just don't quite understand how tough these regional Australians are, but they’re going to show it over the next weeks and months. For many of them, yes, they've lost businesses, they've lost homes, and sadly all too many have also lost loved ones. And that's absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. But we'll bounce back. We always do. We're Australians, but we're going to need that tourism support.
We're going to need that support from capital city Australians, from regional Australians to get out to these communities, to support their festivals, to support their small businesses, and we'll bounce back bigger and better than ever. We will build back better, and I'm really pleased that as part of the infrastructure component of that $2 billion bushfire national recovery effort, that there's going to be a lot of discussion over how we can make those wooden bridges and turn them into concrete bridges. Many of them are now- the integrity has been compromised because of the fires, in some cases they've been burnt out. We will replace and we will replace better. We will build back the tourism, we will build back the infrastructure, and of course I've had many meetings with all my national counterparts as far as roads and infrastructure to see just how we can do that.
JOURNALIST:
This servo behind me has got all the infrastructure to get up and running and start pumping fuel, but they can't because they've been having teething issues and can’t get the green light. Can you make a commitment now to get them up and running?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Yeah, we can talk through that, we can make that happen. We need fuel here in Batlow. It's not good enough that people have to either travel to Tumut and Tumbarumba to get fuel; they need fuel here. So we'll work through that. I've already had a discussion with the Deputy Mayor John Larter about that very thing. Catching up with James Hayes, the mayor of Snowy Valleys, this afternoon - we'll discuss those issues. More than just fuel, there’s obviously – there’s a lot of rebuild needs to happen, and we will do it. We'll do it as a Federal Government, we'll do it as a State Government, and we'll do it in conjunction with local government. Local government plays a vital role in the recovery efforts. And whilst there's been a lot of money pledged from Canberra, a lot of money pledged from Sydney, we will do it in conjunction with local governments because they are the key to this rebuild. It’s the local – a locally-led recovery. It has to be. I'm really pleased that we've got very, very good people here at a local level leading our councils, so whether it's the Snowy Valleys, whatever the case might be. Right across the Riverina, where we've got good people in charge and we'll rebuild with them in collaboration and co-operation with them.
JOURNALIST:
Just on some other matters, should Bridget McKenzie have declared her interest with the Wangaratta Targets Club as well?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well the fact that the allocation of money was made, as I understand, before she was offered that membership of the club and Members of Parliament are members of lots of clubs whether they’re sporting, social or history clubs. Fact is you do get asked to be a patron, you do get asked to be a member of a lot of clubs and fact is the money was allocated, as I understand, to the club, to the gun club, before the offer was made to her to become a member.
And so the fact is that sporting grants program has been very, very good for many, many sporting clubs right across this nation and it’s like any of these funding allocations. Yes, there’s been this outcry that clubs which were eligible, clubs which had good funding applications had missed out; that’s always the case. We'd love to be able to spend more and $100 million didn't go far enough. I know with the Building Better Regions Fund and other regional funding programs that the applications are sixfold to the money available. And so unfortunately, some good applications and some good organisations and clubs in this instance sadly miss out. But that's why we have these rolling funds.
So we will have more funding programs for sport, for regional infrastructure. The fact is when we do a funding program, as Liberals and Nationals as in the case of a regional funding program, it actually goes to a regional community. When Labor were doing it, the fact is those regional funding programs did not go to regions, they went to capital cities. So that is not fair and the fact is Bridget McKenzie oversaw this program and made sure that all the applications that were funded were eligible and further than that, despite the fact that the Sports Australia made recommendations, under Bridget’s jurisdiction, she made sure that there were about eight per cent more funding allocations to Labor seats than there otherwise would have been.
So - and I'm really pleased that Anthony Albanese and Catherine King who seemed to have a lot to say about it in the last few days and weeks. The fact is their electorates didn't miss out. They got very, very good funding allocations as part of this program and welcomed at the time. We're not too shy then to sing from the rooftops the praise of Bridget McKenzie in the case of Anthony Albanese and to say that this is a good funding allocation. There'll always be – there'll always be people who miss out on these funding allocations; there's just not enough money always to go right around and to fund every single application that is submitted. But it's good that we've got a government which actually has good fiscal management that we're able to do these as rolling programs, rolling funding allocations.
So for those clubs which have missed out, they might be doing better next time when they reapply. And that's the case with infrastructure and I oversee a $100 billion infrastructure package and not every organisation, not every council always gets what they want when they want it. But rest assured, with the Liberal-Nationals Government in charge, eventually those funding allocations are made. And I know that even with the Snowy Valleys Council, I've had many number of discussions with the Mayor James Hayes, with the Deputy Mayor John Larter about what we can do to build a better Snowy Valleys Council, build a better Adelong, Batlow, Tumbarumba and Tumut.
We want to make sure that these towns not only survive but thrive through bushfires and through any other crisis right before them.
JOURNALIST:
Still happy to say there was no conflict of interest there even though she'd been a member for months and …
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well the funding allocation …
JOURNALIST:
… didn't declare the interest until after or it became public when the rollover had come over for her to you know …
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well in the light of day, I suppose Bridget perhaps wishes she had of said: well yes, I'm a member of the Wangaratta Gun Club.
JOURNALIST:
Do you wish she did?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well that was a matter for Bridget.
JOURNALIST:
But do you wish she did?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well you know, again I say that's a matter for Bridget. But the fact is the funding allocation was made before the offer was made for her to become a member and Bridget's a member of a lot of sporting and gun organisations, clay target organisations. She's an avid shooter; she likes to get out there with a gun and shoot clay targets and do all those sorts of things that shooters like to do and good on her. I mean there's a - there's any number of people in country areas who actually like to use rifles and guns as part of a sporting club and Bridget's one of those.
JOURNALIST:
Thanks, Michael.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Pleasure.