TRANSCRIPT: ABC CAPRICORNIA RADIO INTERVIEW, 15 October 2020
7:11AM AEST
E&OE
Subjects: Grosvenor Mine job cuts, Rookwood Weir, Central Queensland infrastructure, ICAC Inquiry;
PAUL CULLIVER
The Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, also the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development and the Leader of the Nationals is my guest this morning. Good morning to you, Deputy Prime Minister.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Good morning, Paul.
PAUL CULLIVER
You're obviously in the region. Can I go first to something that we've learnt late yesterday, the Grosvenor Coal Mine obviously, had the incident with the explosion leading to severely injured workers there in May. We've now learnt –
MICHAEL McCORMACK
About six workers, yes.
PAUL CULLIVER
We've now learnt that they are laying off 100 jobs there and many of those people may not see redundancies, the CFMEU have told us because they are casual workers. What's your reaction to that?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well of course any downturn in jobs, particularly as we try to recover from COVID-19, is unfortunate and I appreciate that the company is obviously going through what they need to do as far as answering questions about that unfortunate incident and accident. And of course, we think about those who have been hurt in that particular event. I'm told that those who are working full time, their pays and their conditions and of course all their redundancy payments will be met, as you would expect.
The difficulty with, of course, casual work is that sometimes when people start getting retrenched and laid off, then there is no sort of provisions for that for them. That's one of the unfortunate things about casual work. Of course, with casual labour people who either choose to be casuals or go on casual work because they can't get full time work, they do get paid at a higher rate and they understand that when they sign on. They do get that higher rate to compensate for the sorts of things that they do miss out on that full time workers receive. So, it's an unfortunate event. I'm sure that, as you say, the union there will be fighting hard for the right outcomes for the workers. But at the end of the day, it's just an unfortunate thing and I'm sure the community will rally behind those people who have lost their jobs and I say to those workers as well, there are jobs elsewhere. I know the Regional Australia Institute identified more than 45,000 jobs across regional Australia, albeit it is a big country and workers do like to stay put. Obviously, it's only just broken that story and so we'll obviously be monitoring and I'm sure the Industrial Relations Minister as well will be looking at it closely and obviously, if there's anything that other mines and whatnot can do then I'm sure that will happen.
PAUL CULLIVER
Obviously, as the Minister for Infrastructure, if there's big money coming to Rockhampton it's going to be through your office. I want to go through a few projects that the Federal Government is funding. The Rookwood Weir, I'm curious about this because Annastacia Palaszczuk, the Premier of Queensland, every so often takes a swipe at the Federal Government saying she hasn't got the money from the Feds yet. What's going on there, why isn't that transferring happening?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
This is just politicking and particularly politicking in an election period. The Federal Government has always paid money on milestone achievements. So when projects began to get built – and these projects are run by states, their contracting is done by states, the tendering is done by states and when milestones are achieved, as in a length of road or a length of rail or indeed a milestone for a dam, a certain level of a dam wall or whatever the case might be, then the Federal Government pays milestone payments. That's how it's always been done.
I can remember going to Rookwood back with Michelle Landry, of course our fantastic local member here and Malcolm Turnbull who was then Prime Minister back in 2018 and making the announcement and I can remember well then how the State Government were changing the rules just as we were making the announcement as to who would own it, who would run it, who would maintain it. All those things. So, the Queensland Government have been playing ducks and drakes with this project right the way through.
PAUL CULLIVER
Just to be clear there though, there's no milestone the Rookwood Weir has reached that you haven't paid out on?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
The money's there. The money is good. We want to build the Rookwood Weir. We want to –
PAUL CULLIVER
I just want to be clear. You're saying you pay out as a project reaches milestones. The Rookwood Weir – I just want to be clear from you – the Rookwood Weir hasn't reached any milestones on which the Federal Government should have paid the States for yet?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Anthony Lynham knows full well as the former Water Minister, I appreciate he's retiring at this election, I appreciate the Government is now in caretaker mode, he knows full well the Federal Government's money is good and if any money is good it's going to be the Federal Government's. We stand ready to work, with hopefully the Deb Frecklington LNP Government, after October 31 to build the Rookwood Weir.
PAUL CULLIVER
The other project of course, $23 million for Rocky Stadium at Victoria Park. There's, as I'm sure you're aware, lots of conjecture over which project, Brown Park, which is obviously in the Labor camp, Victoria Park has LNP support. Why is it you think Victoria Park, what's the evidence you have, a feasibility study, something else, that shows that Victoria Park is the project to back here?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well look, I'll always back what the community says and I'll always back what Michelle Landry tells me. We want of course the best outcomes for the people of this area. We want the best outcomes so that it's going to achieve what the community needs and expects and deserves. And whether it's the Rocky Ring Road, whether it's the sports stadium, whether it's Rookwood Weir, we want to get the best outcomes that have been settled of course, through local councils working with state governments and of course our outstanding member Michelle Landry. I'll take Michelle Landry's word over the Labor candidate’s words any day.
PAUL CULLIVER
$23 million, it's a really big investment and something that obviously people would be very excited to see, a big Rockhampton stadium built, but you're basing a decision to spend $23 million purely on Michelle Landry's word that it's a good idea?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
No, I didn't say that. I said we're meeting expectations of the community. When we discuss things with council, I met Margaret Strelow yesterday, I have discussions with councillors and mayors regularly. We take all that feedback. Of course, there are business cases done, there are feasibility studies done. There are usually environmental impact statements done. It depends on the project of course and we take all that into account. These aren't just slap dash measures of just throwing money about. Although that said, of course we do need to invest a lot of money in a lot of areas to get regional communities in particular through COVID-19, because these areas have been hard hit by tourism downturns because of the border closures brought about in Brisbane where we haven't had too many, if any, COVID cases in many areas of Central and North and Tropical Queensland and yet despite that they're still wearing the same conditions that they are on the Queensland-New South Wales border down near the Tweed, down near the Gold Coast and it's been so difficult for so many businesses and that's why the budget last week was all about business. It was all about jobs. It was all about COVID recovery.
PAUL CULLIVER
The Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack – and I understand you've got a lot of things on today, so we probably only have a few more minutes with you. I do need to ask you, this is obviously shifting focus to New South Wales, Sarah Vasey and apologies if I've got that pronunciation of her name wrong. The Sydney Morning Herald reporting that she's given evidence obviously in the Daryl Maguire, the ICAC hearing there. She was working for Daryl Maguire at the time. She gave evidence that she discreetly transferred data from three devices on to a USB, she removed that from the office and then later passed it back to Mr Maguire's son, James. She now works in your office in Wagga Wagga for your Riverina electorate. What was your reaction to learning of that evidence?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, of course I've been shocked by a lot of the evidence given by a lot of the people who have appeared before that ICAC inquiry, but I'm going to leave those matters to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. There is a hearing going on at the moment. It's just got a couple of more days to run. I appreciate that the former Member for Wagga Wagga is again giving evidence today and tomorrow. So, I'll let that ICAC inquiry run its course before anything I need to say is said. We are in the midst of an investigation, albeit with some explosive claims being made by a lot of people. I'll leave those things to the ICAC inquiry. And Sarah, yes, she works for me one day a week, has done for about 12 months or so. Of course, I had no knowledge of anything that she'd either done or not done during her time with Mr Maguire and you know, I like to give people a go. I take people on good faith and Sarah's always done an outstanding job for me. But for me to comment any further about what's gone on or what's transpired or what's been said or what's not been said at an ICAC inquiry would be inappropriate at this time.
PAUL CULLIVER
Deputy Prime Minister, you've been generous with your time, thank you.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
No worries at all, Paul, good on you.
END 7:21AM AEST