TRANSCRIPT: PARLIAMENT HOUSE DOORSTOP, 4 February 2020
E&EO
Subject: Leadership, Regional Australia
DAMIAN DRUM:
Well thank you everyone for being here this morning. The National Party has just conducted the ballot for both position of Leader and Deputy Leader of the National Party at the federal level. The leader’s position was won by Mr Michael McCormick and the Deputy Leader’s position has being elected to David Littleproud and without any further ado I'll hand it over…
JOURNALIST:
[Interrupts] What was the count?
DAMIAN DRUM:
That you will never find out.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, it's a great honour and a privilege to continue to serve as the leader of the National Party and I congratulate David Littleproud for his election to the Deputy Leader’s position.
I also look forward to working and continuing to work with Barnaby Joyce, who put his hand up for the leadership. I also continue to look forward to working with Keith Pitt and David Gillespie, who put their hands up for the Deputy Leader’s role. Never, never before has there been such an important time for the National Party to continue the representation we have done for 100 years. The challenge is there, of course with the fires, with the ongoing drought. I commend David Littleproud as the newly elected Deputy Leader for the role that he has played this very worrying and troubling summer in drought, in bushfires, and everything else that has beset regional Australia. We will continue as a united team to put the people of regional Australia first and foremost. I want to thank my colleagues for again placing their faith in me. I also want to acknowledge that regional Australians are out there hurting, they are and we will be there for them. Their interests are our interests, first and foremost. I have never shied from the responsibility of making sure that every waking minute of every day, I work hard for regional Australians as does David, as does the entire National Party team. We will continue to serve in a very good government. We have been very responsive to the needs and wants and expectations this summer, and particularly for regional Australia. I might get David to make a few remarks and then I would be happy to take any questions.
DAVID LITTLEPROUD:
Well, thanks, Michael. This is a proud day for me. I joined this great party 22 years ago, in my own electorate, the little town of Stanthorpe. I believe very much in the values of the National Party. This is about hope this is about vision for our people in regional and rural Australia. This is about now back to business. The shenanigans are over. It's time to get back to looking after those people that are facing drought, that are faced up to these fires. It's time for us to focus on them, not us. The party has to focus on that. We will, we've got a commitment from everybody in that room that we have a responsibility as being elected from regional and rural Australia to stand up here in Canberra to be able to articulate clearly their needs and their wants and their desires because regional and rural Australia has a great future. The story of regional and rural Australia in particular of agriculture is just add rain and it will rain and we shouldn't talk ourselves down. And there's been too much of that. Yes, we're doing it tough in some parts at the moment but we will come through and it's important that we have a policy framework that supports our future and those that we've lost over many generations, we've lost too many young people out of regional and rural Australia, it's time to bring them home. It's time for them to believe in regional and rural Australia and the National Party is the party to lead them to that.
JOURNALIST:
What's your message to the regional Australians you just spoke about who are watching The Nationals come back to parliament on the first day and have this leadership contest instead of focusing on those other things you spoke about?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
We have your back, we have your back whether it's drought. We have your back whether it's building new dam infrastructure. We have your back whether it's dealing with the bushfires and everything else that is troubling regional Australia. Regional Australia has a bright future and we will be there to ensure that the right policies and the right infrastructure is in place to realise the potential of that future.
JOURNALIST:
Will Matt Canavan return to Cabinet?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well Matt Canavan has resigned his commission as Resources Minister and I wish him all the best.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible]
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
I'd like to think that the entire National Party team and I know, they will now unite. We've had way too much media speculation. Way too much speculation in general about the leadership role. It's time to put all that to bed and I would also say to the media; sometimes I think that there's been media speculation heightened only by stories that were quite frankly, untrue, quite frankly backgrounding. If they're not prepared to put their name to it, I don't understand why it actually makes the paper. I mean if people are going to be - I've always been up front, if ever I’ve said something to a journalist I have asked them to put my name to it. That's the way I am and that's the way I think we now need to go forward from here we need to unite. We will unite. The people of regional Australia come first not us. We were sent here to do the job and we will do that.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] Do you think Barnaby is doing that?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
The fact is, I shook hands with Barnaby. We are going to move on. We’re going to move on and we’re going to work hard together he and I and the rest of the National Party team for regional Australians. That’s what regional Australians expect, that’s what they deserve and that is what they will get.
JOURNALIST:
Did you ask if [Barnaby] would challenge again?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
No I didn’t, I don’t expect him to challenge again. I’ve been endorsed as the Leader. I was endorsed as the Leader when we came back here after the May election last year. I was endorsed as the Leader when he stood down in 2018 so that’s three times in less than two years, I think that’s enough to warrant me leading the party going forward.
JOURNALIST:
Do we know what the margin is in the leadership?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
No and look, the first time I stood for the leadership after Barnaby Joyce resigned in February 2018, George Christensen stood and I still don't have the result of that election. National Party votes are never revealed. The whip knows and that's always been the convention of the National Party, a party I might say that has been going for 100 years, hundred years of secret ballots.
JOURNALIST:
[Inaudible] The Nationals have really distracted a day that has been dedicated to the fires.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
And I think we need to draw a line in the sand and concentrate on the five victims. There've been many, many who've lost loved ones, and our thoughts go to them. They've been many who've lost their businesses, lost their homes, lost their farms. That's the people we're going to be concentrating on and I think today is a day where we reflect upon those. I think today we concentrate on what we need to do for the recovery efforts, the relief efforts and continuing to provide the assistance that we have already done and to that end I know the government has acted very responsibly very quickly to help those fire victims and we will continue to do that. This clean-up is not going to take weeks or months. It's going to take years. The National Party, the government will be there for those people.