TRANSCRIPT: BRIDGES RENEWAL PROGRAM AND HEAVY VEHICLE SAFETY AND PRODUCTIVITY PROGRAM PRESS CONFERENCE - WAGGA WAGGA, 17 March 2020

E&OE

Subjects: Bridges Renewal Program, Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program, local infrastructure, airlines, coronavirus, Murray-Darling Basin Plan

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
It's great to be here at Eunony Bridge with Damian from BMD Constructions and Silas from the Wagga Wagga City Council and of course, behind us the is Eunony Bridge and the Eunony Bridge is a project under the Bridges Renewal Program and other funding which is going to play such an important part for the Riverina Intermodal Freight and Logistics Hub, RiFL and of course, Federally-funded to the tune of $4.9 million. 

Today we're announcing the next round, the latest round of the Bridges Renewal Program as well as the Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program. Now, together, it's a combined $300 million. $150 million for each program and across the Riverina there have been 13 projects which have been funded under the Bridges Renewal Program, including Gobarralong Bridge in Gundagai Shire, which has made such a difference for the farmers there who were, after the floods, isolated to the extent where they couldn't get trucks to and from their farms and of course, when you can't get trucks over a particular, well, in this case, the Murrumbidgee River, when you can't get trucks to and from your farm, you can't get your stock to the sale yards, you can't get goods in or out, it creates such a problem. 

We know living in regional areas how important connectivity is for our farmers, for our small businesses and that's why the Federal Government has come, again, to the tune of $300 million for these two programs. 

This is the national launch of these two particular programs. They have been so popular in the past and I encourage and recommend to each State Government and Territory Government and, indeed, Local Council to apply for the funding. They will be able to apply up until May 29 and we'll be making announcements soon after. But as I say, $150 million under each stream, they're going to be so vital to making sure we get the right projects, we get the right connectivity in regional areas in particular and I know, as The National Party Leader and as the Deputy Prime Minister who's responsible for Transport and Infrastructure, just how vital these projects are and it's also important that we get employment out on the ground. 

We've had the drought, we've had the fires, now we're struck with the coronavirus and the implications that follow that. So we need to keep people in work. We need to keep people gainfully employed and that's what we're doing with this particular infrastructure roll out. I say again, we know how important connectivity is to the regions and that's why under these two programs there's $150 million being announced today under the latest round of these two programs. 

JOURNALIST:
So bushfire funding, is this for particular communities who have been bushfire affected, the bridges around that area, or they get priority?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, we certainly encourage those councils which have been afflicted and affected by bushfires to apply under both of these programs and we'll certainly make sure that they, if they are certainly eligible for the particular programs that they put forward, that they get fast tracked, if they are funded. I would love to see bushfire-affected councils apply. I would love to see some of those wooden bridges in those Local Government Areas that have potentially been burnt out and I encourage those councils. I have already written to all the councils to make sure that they know about this program, to make sure that they apply because they need to replace those bridges and they need to replace it in very fast time. 

JOURNALIST:

This project has highlighted the need for a duplication of the Gobba (Gobbagombalin) Bridge, it's something people have talked about for a while. We still don't have a Wagga bypass let alone a duplication of the bridge, but this extra funding, how far will it go towards addressing that, you know, some work?   

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

As you'd know, Moyra, because you’ve been around Wagga Wagga as long as I have, when the Gobba Bridge was built it was funded by the State Government. It is a State road and I appreciate the Olympic Highway is an important part of the national network. But I'm always working with State Governments and certainly talking with Paul Toole about the need for, yes, a Wagga Wagga bypass. 

The Gobba Bridge, yes, of course, it has to be placed on a priority list by the State Government before the Federal Government will come in to look at it. At the moment it isn't on a priority list for the State Government but we know, living in Wagga Wagga, that it is needed but it's one of those things where there are other priorities elsewhere in the State since the bushfire season having knocked out a number of roads and bridges. That does have priority at the moment. 

JOURNALIST:

Mr McCormack, what is your response to Qantas's decision to cut capacity and ground 150 aircraft?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

We live in troubled times and I've spoken to Alan Joyce, the CEO at Qantas on a daily basis, as you'd imagine and I've been speaking to Paul Scurrah from Virgin, again, this morning and he also, on a daily basis, as well as the Deputy Chairman of REX, Regional Express Airlines, John Sharp. These are difficult times and when you have the national carrier, Qantas, 100 years this year they’ve been servicing Australia, they've been servicing domestic routes, they've been servicing international routes and for them to come out and curtail their international runs by up to 85%, their domestic routes by 60%, shows just how difficult these times are. 

We'll work with the airlines. The last thing we need is for the airlines to be in trouble. They already are, of course, tight. They’ve got tight balance sheets at the best of times, the margins are never great with the airline industry, it's a very volatile industry, but with the worldwide shutdown due to coronavirus, many countries are making drastic decisions. This places grave and great implications on our airlines. So we'll be working with them. 

The Federal Government is having daily meetings at the national security level and Cabinet level to see what we can do. Yes, we've been asked to look at the fees and charges as far as air services and other things are concerned and we'll be making decisions on that over the next couple of days. We've already put $17.6 billion on the table for a stimulus package to keep cash flow in businesses, to keep people employed. But these are difficult times and whilst last week the urgency was not as great as this week it's changing on a daily basis. It's almost changing on an hourly basis and the Government is there to address these issues as they occur and to get in front of the curve as far as making sure that public health and safety is number one. 

JOURNALIST:

How worried about you about their viability, though, all three of those airlines you mentioned?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, the airlines tell me that, at the moment, they're okay. The airlines tell me and they want to reassure the Australian public, that if they're able to, to keep flying domestically and to do whatever they can to ensure that the airlines stay viable. We absolutely need our airlines to stay viable and we remember back in 2001 that the Ansett collapse, just how terrible this was for regional communities when we had Kendell Airlines, Hazelton and Ansett had such difficulties at that time and it was thanks to Lim Kim Hai and REX who came in – a Singaporean businessman who came in to create and establish REX at that time in 2002. It saved Wagga Wagga because Wagga Wagga was without an airline.  Of course Kendell had Wagga as its home, as REX has for the last 18 years. We need our airlines to be viable. We need them to be flying. 

Yes, a number of routes have been cancelled and the airlines are facing difficulties but they tell me that they're okay at the moment. We'll keep looking at what we can do as a Government to help our airlines but it's not just the airlines. It's so many sectors right across the community. It's the sporting industry but also it's the local codes which are looking at whether they will have seasons, whether they will have competitions this year. It's small businesses right across the regions which are really facing difficulties because either they've got customers coming in and doing stupid and frantic things such as buying up toilet rolls or indeed, not even coming out at all and servicing their operations. So these are difficult times. We're addressing these as a Cabinet, as a Government, on an hourly basis. I'm in lockdown with the Prime Minister and the Treasurer and continue to do that to address these issues as they arise.

JOURNALIST:

Wagga has missed out on being one of the corona crisis clinic areas [Inaudible] in New South Wales, are you disappointed with that decision? Should we have one of those here?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

We're working with the State Governments obviously and the Prime Minister has set up a COAG, a first ministers powerhouse group, to ensure that all these sorts of issues are addressed. Now we're working with the State Government. I appreciate that NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has made certain decisions about where certain services will be allocated but as the situation unfolds, we haven't had any coronavirus, thank goodness, issues yet in the Riverina but let me assure you, if we do get an outbreak in Wagga Wagga or elsewhere in the Riverina, well, we'll need to address that and we'll need to make sure that we've got the right medical services and the right personal protection equipment for those nursing staff, for the doctors, for anyone who works in or near a hospital, will have those available. 

So it's, as I say, it's an issue that we're addressing as these issues arise and even before these issues arise. Rest assured, the Federal Government is doing everything it can in conjunction with State Governments and indeed, Local Governments to make sure that we address these issues. 

JOURNALIST:

Should Australian manufacturing be put on a war footing to help make things like sanitisers, face masks, that sort of thing?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

It literally is. I have to say we are literally pulling out all stops to ensure that we have the right personal protection equipment, face masks, hand sanitisers and all those things. We're lucky we're a nation which produces a lot of things and we've got a lot of product here that we can actually manufacture things and in times of crisis as we're having now, we're making sure that we can be in a position to ensure that we've got the right machinery, we've got the right people to be making things such as personal face masks and the like. 

I mean you can't make this stuff up. The fact that one of the largest manufacturers of face masks is actually Wuhan in Hubei province in China where coronavirus began, I mean you literally just can't make this stuff up. But, of course, we're well placed in Australia. 

We produce these face masks in an outlet at Shepparton and the Federal Government is working with that particular outlet, with that company to make sure that we increase production, increase to almost a rate of five or six-fold to ensure we've got the right amount. We have, of course, been very much prepared, we've stockpiled a lot of these things and we're getting them out to ensure that hospitals, to make sure that clinics, surgeries and even indeed, funeral directors homes have the right equipment in the right places and the right number at the right time. 

JOURNALIST:

The rice industry has told me just today that most Australian rice is almost sold, that they've obviously been processing the two lowest crops on record almost and that next year they're potentially facing another year of zero water allocation, but they say the Murray Darling Basin Plan and current water management is behind the fact that they could be with a zero allocation. They say this is the first time that food security has really hit us in the face in Australia in regard to having our own rice on the shelves and having to import it. So what can you say to the industry about what changes, what has been learnt because as the Chairman of SunRice said to me today, if they had known when the Basin Plan was being adopted back in 2012, the outcome for general security irrigation as it's working now, no-one would have said yes to the Basin Plan. 

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

What I would say to that – it’s a very long question with a number of elements – is the fact that the Basin Plan was adopted, yes, in 2012. I crossed the floor to make sure that we had a limit, a cap on buyback. I made sure then that we were going to ensure that as much as possible we had the right balance for environmental water, bearing in mind that the Murray Darling Basin Plan was an environmental document but that we, as much as possible, had those social and economic implications built in to the Murray Darling Basin Plan and of course the 450 extra gigalitres of water that were signed away by the Julia Gillard Government, that did come with a triple bottom line approach back in 2012 because of the fact that the Liberals and Nationals were returned to Government in 2013 but also because of the fact that I crossed the floor and made sure we capped buyback. 

Of course, when you have a drought, as prolonged as we've had, as long as we've endured in recent years, that is going to have implications for the Murray Darling Basin. Yes, of course, given the fact that the Murray Darling Basin Plan is an environmental document, the environment will always be, as even a lot of farmers would expect, need to have those environmental implications built in, first and foremost, to ensure that the river system remains sustainable and viable and of course, we do, obviously, need food security. Fortunately, we do have food security. It's rained in recent weeks. Of course, we'd always like more and as the Bureau of Meteorology Chief Andrew Johnson told me just the other day, looks as though we could potentially have an average year and an average year for Riverina farmers means a good year because if we get the right falls at the right time on an average, as based over 110 or so years of records, then that's going to be a hell of a lot better than what we've seen and what we've endured with very little water and zero allocations in recent years. 

We'll continue to work with Mick Keelty and I know that David Littleproud as the Minister for Agriculture is talking about what we can do as far as the Murray Darling Basin Plan with his New South Wales counterparts and with other States and Territories. Yes, it would be nice to have allocations such that we could have a rice harvest. Of course, it's not just about rice, it's about all other things that we grow here in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and elsewhere in the Riverina, and indeed, right up and down the system. But we'll continue to address these things. 

We do have, and I want to assure people with the coronavirus, that we do have food security. It's one thing that we do have in Australia and with recent rains, I know farmers are very, very pleased that there is now some subsoil moisture in the ground so they have the confidence to be able to go and buy seed, go and buy fertiliser and to be able to have a crop this year. I know they're already doing the preparation work to plant a crop this year and that's something that we haven't seen in some areas, indeed including in the Riverina, in recent years. 

So, yes, we'll continue to work with the rice industry, we'll continue to work with those irrigators. They are very much needed; they are very much required. One group of farmers feeds 450 foreigners and 150 Australians each and every year. Their output is incredible and as a Government we want to thank them for their continued efforts. We'll work with them to make sure, but rest assured, water allocations, it's not just a Federal Government thing. States obviously play a big part in that and we'll continue to work with the States to ensure we get the right outcomes. Thank you very much.

Shane Manning