TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW ON SKY NEWS ON WIN, 29 October 2020

7:15PM

E&OE

Subjects: Bushfire Royal Commission, Qatar Airways, Regional Workforce, Borders;

PETER GLEESON

Meanwhile, the Bushfire Royal Commission has handed its final report into last summer's horrific season to the Governor-General, with a government response expected in coming days.

Joining me now is Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals Leader Michael McCormack. A regular on Sky News across Australia. Deputy Prime Minister, thank you for joining us tonight. I really appreciate your time.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Pleasure, Peter.

PETER GLEESON

Can we just address the Bushfire Royal Commission first? Now I know you're probably not at liberty to go into too much detail because it hasn't been officially released yet. What are you hoping to get out of it?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, what we need to see is, certainly we don't want the summer that we've just had and what we do want to see is co-operation between states and between the Commonwealth and making sure that as best we can, address these issues for getting the back burns done. For making sure that somebody takes responsibility and there is an audit of those back-burning activities. That has got to be done. And to be knowing that we've got the right capabilities in the right places at the right time and the ability to be able to call up additional help and whether that becomes a state matter or whether the Commonwealth can override it. To have the recommendation that somebody at the end of the day has the call and we don't see what we did last summer and that is sometimes resources not being mobilised as quickly as they could, because the call wasn't made by the States. So what we absolutely –

[Audio Issue]

Another thing that I would like to see is certainly when people donate money and donate it to a charity that that money gets rolled out right when it needs to. Not months down the track; not kept in some big pot and then doled out at a later point in time. The Federal Government was very quick and I commend Stuart Robert, the Minister, for getting money into people's pockets straight away. But what we do want to see is if people in all fairness to them, they give money. Australians are very, very generous, Peter. But when they give money to a charity, that money needs to get into the pockets of the people who need it most and when they need it most, not months down the track.

And of course, the recovery efforts when we are recovering from bushfire that we have the right money, hitting the right places and that everybody gels together - local government, the states and of course, the Commonwealth.

PETER GLEESON

Michael, the Working Holiday Maker Program, do you empathise with the NFF on this?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

I do. But generally we have 173,000 backpackers in the country, we've got about 80,000 short of what we normally have. Perhaps the figure is even higher. And so it's going to be very, very difficult to get the numbers of people, of labourers, into those farming years.

That's why we've done a lot with the Harvest Trail. We did it as part of the Budget. We did it as part of making sure that if people had the ability to go into those country areas, then we certainly are encouraging them to do so. Look I'd love to see more New Zealanders come in, more Pacific Islanders come in and, of course, they can in that COVID-free arrangements that we've set up. So, we can get people coming here to take up that work. There's going to be a lot of fruit needing to be picked. A lot of sheep needing to be shorn, there's work in other areas of endeavour – the hospitality sector. But of course, we also need the border restrictions eased and eased very quickly. Appreciating that Queensland is going to be making more announcements about that on Friday. Can't come soon enough because we have to get our economy opening again. It’s very, very difficult because we've got those international flight caps, of course, determined by quarantine measures. It's going to be very hard for our farmers. We've put in place the right measures, we're working on it all the time. It's difficult and we've got a bumper harvest, Peter, as you'd understand we've had good rains. We have a bumper harvest and we need people to pick it. 50,000 jobs in regional Australia right now, Peter, has identified by the Regional Australia Institute.

PETER GLEESON

There you go. There you go, fantastic stuff.

Now, before we go, Qatar has apologised over this strip search of several or about a dozen Australian women in Doha. Do you think that's enough?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

They need to put in place measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again. I think that's the bottom line and an apology is very much warranted. It shouldn't have come to this. It should never have come to this. But, of course, very much, our thoughts should be on the baby. Unfortunately, this is just a sad and tragic situation not helped by what has transpired. The invasive nature that then took place for the searches on those Australian women – should never have come to this. An apology was warranted, it's been given and what we need to make sure is that it doesn't happen again.

PETER GLEESON

Deputy Prime Minister, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Michael McCormack, I really appreciate your time.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Pleasure, Peter.

ENDS 7:21PM

Shane Manning