TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW ON TRIPLE M RIVERINA, 19 November 2020
8:15AM
E&OE
Subjects: South Australia, Coronavirus, Afghanistan Inquiry, Australian Local Government Association;
LEIGH RYAN
Now I have been corrected, we are saying a good morning this morning to Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack because –
POPPY PENNY
He’s been demoted.
LEIGH RYAN
Yes, he’s been demoted. The boss flew back into town.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
ScoMo’s back in town, back in Canberra. Flew in last night from Japan, just in time to watch New South Wales lose the State of Origin. Not to worry, but Sweet Child O’ Mine is my favourite of Guns N’ Roses song, if you’re interested and a shout out to Georgina, she’s a sweet child of mine.
LEIGH RYAN
Father of the year right here.
POPPY PENNY
Wow, well done. It’s good you’ve got that out of the way.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I won’t say that about the two boys, they’re not that sweet. Good kids they are, but they’re not that sweet.
LEIGH RYAN
You can get tickets through Ticketek as of next Thursday from 11am, Ticketek.com.au.
POPPY PENNY
We cannot use Michael McCormack as a promotional tool.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I think he just did.
POPPY PENNY
Do you feel cheapened?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
No, not at all.
LEIGH RYAN
Michael, it’s been a really interesting week in Australia. I mean, we’ve been speaking with you so much time about COVID-19 and it’s been so good to get it under control in New South Wales and Victoria and indeed, around the country until that outbreak in South Australia just over the last couple of days. What’s the latest on that and how’s that going to affect their recovery process?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Two more cases overnight, that takes it to 22. I’ve been speaking to Premier Steven Marshall. They have obviously gone into lockdown for the next six days and that’s probably the right move to take and to make. I’m not convinced about border closures and I think a reaction when you’ve got a population of 25 million to hard lockdown all your borders again for some of those states, which have been obviously now opened, reopened to South Australia, such as New South Wales, I think would be a bridge too far because when you look at last Wednesday in America, 220,000 cases in one day. We’ve had 22 cases. So, look, they’ve got it under control, as they believe. They went out hard, they went out early, they went out with a robust public health response to this outbreak. And we are going to get these outbreaks as returning travellers come back. Sometimes there are these little chinks in the armour of the quarantine. We are going to get these. But until we get a proper vaccine, and everybody takes it and it works effectively we will get these little pockets of outbreaks, but we’ve done remarkably well. And I say to the listeners again – thank you for doing what you’ve done. Everybody’s social distancing, everybody’s making sure that they use hand sanitiser etc. And if you’ve got a sniffly nose or a raspy cough, go and get tested. It’s pretty easy.
POPPY PENNY
You touched on the vaccine there. And just on that, do we have anymore clarity about when that is going to be available? The tests are obviously looking really positive for a couple of the trials. Do we have any more on that?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Pfizer is looking good, AstraZeneca, the molecular clamp and much of it is actually Australian technology, Australian know-how working in conjunction with our international partners. Look, we will get the vaccine right. It will be going to those Australians who need it the most, but we will properly test it. We’ll go through all that and when we get it right it will be freely available to each and every Australian and freely available to each and every person in the South Pacific as we look after our neighbours, we look after our region. And hopefully it will be available next year.
LEIGH RYAN
Now we’ve seen over the last week or so, last week we saw Scott Morrison hold a press conference in relation to this report into Afghanistan with the Defence Force. We hear that that’s going to be released in a fuller version today. What are we likely to see from that and what do you think the impact will be on military communities? I mean obviously Wagga has such a large military presence.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, those who come to Wagga Wagga are turned out to be the best of the best, the home of the soldier – Kapooka. If you spend any given time in the Air Force you end up at RAAF Forest Hill. We’ve also got a Navy base even though we’re a long, long way from the nearest drop of sea water, so this is a tri-service city, this is a garrison town. We’ve, in fact, got the Veterans’ Affairs Minister, Darren Chester, here later on today talking to our defence people. Angus Campbell will get up, the Chief of Defence, and make some comments today about the report. I won’t pre-empt anything that he says or he’s going to say. But we need to let this process run its proper course – run its proper and fair course for and on behalf of those people who may be mentioned in the duration of these investigations.
POPPY PENNY
How worried are you about the impact that this might have on the image of the Australian Defence Force?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
We send our soldiers to do our job for and on behalf of Australians and for and on behalf of the rest of the world. And those who serve in the Air Force and those who serve in the Navy, I say again they are the best of the best. They are brave. What they did in Afghanistan as far as outcomes for girls and women, getting them into school, getting them into university, getting them into jobs – and I know we lost 42 of our wonderful, wonderful troops and that is incredibly sad for their families and for our nation. But the Afghanistan of today compared to the Afghanistan, which was run by the Taliban, you know, all those years ago, is incredibly different. I’ve been there. I’ve seen the difference that our troops made. And so, I will always defend them as far as the outcomes that they provided. And that was our largest and longest military conflict, of course. And we’re still there. And the world is still making sure that Afghanistan needs to have the democracy that its people have been craving for and we’ve shed a lot of blood for.
POPPY PENNY
Do you have an idea of what the process will be after this report is released? What will be, I guess, explored from here in terms of any legal action or anything like that?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, we’ll wait till General Campbell stands up today, the CDF. But there will be a process, a special investigations process that will take its course. And it will do its due diligence. We await that. But let me tell you, any young person – male or female – who still wants to join the Australian Defence Force, I say it’s a great career. And you won’t get trained any better than right here in Wagga Wagga. And I’m very proud of our military heritage here in this city. It is a military town. It has been tremendous, the links that we’ve had with the military for decades and decades, and that will continue, and the pride of the nation is right here in Wagga Wagga.
LEIGH RYAN
Now, Michael, earlier in the week you met with the Australian Local Government Association here in Wagga. What were the outcomes of that meeting? I know that they’re keen to have a bit more of a say with the National Cabinet. Where do you think that’s going to go?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, that process will continue under a committee that I actually chair. And they will still have buy-in and feed-in very much to the National Cabinet process. Local government, of course, is the child of state government, as it were and it’s the first –and perhaps sometimes for some people – it’s the only phase of government that they actually see: collecting their bins and doing all those service utilities around town. And Wagga Wagga City Council and the other 11 councils I represent, I’m pleased to say they are very, very good. I’ve met Mayor Greg Conkey out at CSU. It was great to have Linda Scott, the new Chair of the Australian Local Government Association here in Wagga Wagga with the Local Government Minister, Mark Coulton, a colleague of mine. We’re spending an incredible amount of money – a billion dollars actually – on local roads and community investment as part of the Budget. Wagga Wagga City Council is getting $5.1 million as part of that to upgrade roads and to look at community infrastructure. They were very pleased with that. Of course, they will continue to have their say, as they should, in the national debate. And that’s under a committee that I chair. So being a big fan of the tiers of various government and making sure that they do get a voice, I’ll ensure that that happens.
POPPY PENNY
If you’re working on the roads, do you reckon you could have a little whisper to them about Dobney Avenue? I reckon I’ve chipped a tooth driving down that quite recently.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
That’s nearby where you live and of course, we’ve all got our own parochial requirements and requests about roads that we travel often. But, as I say, Wagga City Council has got $5.1 million. That’s a huge top-up from what they normally receive from the Federal Government to invest in doing just exactly what you described – filling in potholes and resurfacing roads.
LEIGH RYAN
Very quickly, you did mention just that Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in Japan. What’s the outcomes of the meetings that he’s had over there?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, there’s been some good discussions as far as trade. There’s been a good military buy-in as far as new ties and new bonds for our various arms of the military. And so, there’ll be more Japanese military training here. There’ll be more Australians in the ADF training in Japan. And those bonds and those ties will be very close. And, of course, we’ve got a great free trading partner in Japan, and our farmers right here in the Riverina, right across the Murrumbidgee, sell a lot of food and product into Japan and so those were only enhanced by the Prime Minister’s visit to Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
LEIGH RYAN
Very good.
POPPY PENNY
Well done. That was very well pronounced. You’ve practised.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Straight off the top of my head, too.
LEIGH RYAN
Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, thank you so much for your time this morning. Really appreciate you coming in.
POPPY PENNY
Also thank you for the coffee.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
From Meccanico, there’s a plug.
ENDS 8:25AM