TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH TRIPLE M NATIONAL NETWORK, 23 March 2020

E&OE

Subjects: Coronavirus;

LEIGH RYAN:

Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Leader of the National Party and Member for the Riverina. Michael McCormack, good morning.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Good morning, Leigh.

LEIGH RYAN:

Now, look, it's been an intense weekend, an incredible 48 hours. I don't know that anyone has lived through anything like it, really and last night, of course, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, announced a heap of new measures to try and prevent the further spread of coronavirus through our communities. Can you run us through those measures, please?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

From midday today, Leigh, pubs, registered and licensed clubs, excluding bottle shops attached to those venues; hotels, excluding the accommodation areas attached to those venues; gyms; indoor sporting venues; cinemas; entertainment venues; casinos – not that there's too many casinos around where we live – nightclubs, they are all shut from noon today. So, they will be restricted from opening from midday, 12 o'clock, today. Restaurants and cafés, they'll be restricted to takeaway and/or home delivery. Churches, places of worship or funerals in enclosed spaces and other than very small groups where one person per four square metre rule apply, they are also restricted, of course. We don't want people gathering en masse. We cannot afford to have the number of people that we've seen at various events, such as the beach over the weekend – and that's probably what prompted this but what's also prompting it, of course, is the impending coronavirus.

We've already seen a lot of infections, particularly in New South Wales. What we don't want to see is that infection spreading such that the death rate goes through the roof. Seven people have already lost their lives. We don't want any more. We've seen what's happened in Europe, we've seen what's happened in Asia, we want Australia to, as best we can, flatten that curve, so that people are not getting infected in huge numbers, so that we can protect the most vulnerable in society. That's our older Australians. That's why visitations to aged care facilities and the like have been restricted. What we want to do is have Australians be their best selves. Think of yourself certainly but think of others. So, if you have to self-isolate, then you have to self-isolate.

If you are asked to stay home from work, then stay home from work. We've put a number of measures in place to help people through this. The stimulus package yesterday, another $60 billion on the table. That will help Australians through and we've now put two stimulus packages out there. We're going to pass those through the Parliament today and tomorrow. And what we need to do is have Australians be their best selves.

LEIGH RYAN:

Now, we will talk about those stimulus packages in just one moment. Just one other question: of course, all the Premiers were part of that meeting last night with the Prime Minister. Yesterday, Gladys Berejiklian, the Premier of New South Wales, flagged further measures for New South Wales. Will that still go ahead, or will the federal measures be likely to be the only ones in place in terms of what's shutting down?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, there was a lot of talk yesterday about what's essential and what’s not essential. At the end of the day, what I've just read out to you, what I've just listed as far as those venues, that is the venues that are shutting. So, business as usual for other businesses. The Premier, yes, had flagged that there were going to be other announcements made. Went to the National Cabinet. As a consensus decision, they agreed, as the Premiers, as the Chief Ministers and as the Prime Minister, to only shut those venues I mentioned - the pubs and the clubs etcetera, the gyms and the indoor sporting venues, of course excluding bottle shops and the accommodation areas attached to those pubs.

So that is what is shut. But for the rest of business, it's please continue to operate as normal. If you want to send your workers home and get them to operate from home, then that's a decision, a commercial decision, businesses will take and make. But the fact is, for those listening out in the Riverina, if your business – you know, it's operating hours as normal. And for those pubs and clubs etc, it's from midday today. So, I'm sure bosses would have sent emails out last night and text messages etcetera. So just follow – pretty much these days it's information overload. Follow what the Chief Medical Officer says, follow what the Federal Government is saying and State Governments of course, and you won't go too far wrong. But, essentially, the Chief Medical Officer's advice needs to be heeded. Make sure that you practice washing your hands and use all those hygienic methods that we've all been told as kids to do and that we should have been practising at any rate.

LEIGH RYAN:

Now, 11 days ago, a $17 billion package was announced to help kick-start the economy. Four days ago, we had more money coming in from the Government and yesterday a further $66 billion in stimulus was announced. For people in regional areas, there's a lot of anxiety, I guess, about the impact that has already had. It's already being felt, particularly for people who are in the workforce, the casual, particularly people who are self-employed and people who are at non-essential businesses, I guess. Can you talk to us a bit about the safety net that's being put in place for those people with this package?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Sure. There's an $18 billion package for welfare recipients. So they'll receive an extra $550 on top of their current Newstart. Essentially, it doubles the Newstart. Coronavirus supplement, time limited for the next six months. There'll be waiting times and asset tests for Job Seeker payments waived. There'll be an extra one-off $750 payment for welfare recipients, veterans, on top of the $750 announced for them in the last round or the first round of stimulus measures. Job Seekers, casuals and sole traders will be able to access their superannuation. So, they'll be able to access up to $10,000 before July 1, 2020 and another $10,000 in the three months after that. So that's unprecedented.

Minimum superannuation draw-down rates for retirees and others are reduced by half until 2021. Deeming rates are lowered in line with the RBA's emergency rates cut. So that's going to benefit 900,000 pensioners and as far as employers are concerned, small to medium enterprises, of course we've got many of those throughout the Riverina, they're going to get up to $100,000 to keep staff in their jobs. There is an apprenticeship program. I'd advise people to have a look at the various Federal Government websites. They can go to mine and access the information. You know, all sorts of businesses are eligible, businesses with turnovers up to $50 million. Charities are eligible. There's going to be cash incentives there for businesses.

Obviously, we want them to stay open. We want them to continue to employ people. Trouble is, Leigh, as you know, you drive down Baylis Street, you drive down Hoskins Street, Temora, Cowabbie Street, Coolamon, anywhere you go it's very quiet. It's very, very quiet. So please try and continue to support your businesses. What I would also say is people don't need – do not need – to hoard at supermarkets. They do not need to go and raid every item off every shelf at every supermarket. That has to stop. We've put in place measures to ensure that does stop; there's going to be additional security etc. But obviously there's also limitations on any products that you can buy from supermarkets and what we've seen in recent days and weeks is quite beyond the pale.

LEIGH RYAN:

Now, you also announced a billion dollars to support disproportionally affected areas, those reliant on tourism, agriculture and education, and I mean particularly around our area that certainly applies. Any word on those measures …

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

We'll be having more to say about that in coming days. Obviously, we need to get the stimulus packages through the Parliament today. But, yes, there will be – there will be a billion dollars on the table. And that's just – that's just the start of the sort of money that we're going to need to spend on these communities. Of course, there was the money that we've put up already for the National Bushfire Recovery Agency Fund. We have already, of course, got drought measures in place, $8 billion on the table. So there'll be recovery relief efforts for those communities already enduring the drought, then hit by bushfires and now coronavirus. These are troubling times.

These are unprecedented times, as you said. We haven't lived through something like this. It's almost like a war-time situation. We will get through it. It's not just the Riverina, it's not just New South Wales or Australia, it's a global pandemic. It hasn't hit us fully yet. We want to make sure as best we can, to get as many Australians through this without losing their life, without losing their business, without losing their job. But there’s one thing that Australians won't lose and that's their hope. And we will get through this. The Government is there and we will support people, and we will make sure that we'll come out the other side together.

LEIGH RYAN:

Mate, there's a lot of people, as was said, who are a little bit worried about what this means for them.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

I understand that.

LEIGH RYAN:

For their jobs, for their workplaces. What's a good place where they can go to get a bit of information and to get a download, I guess, of what to do in this situation where they can reach out for help?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

If they just google ‘Federal Government and Coronavirus’ and they will go straight to the Treasury website. That's probably as good a website as there probably is. It's treasury.gov.au/coronavirus. But if they just google ‘Treasury and Coronavirus’ it will take them there. It's as good a website; it has got it all there in plain English speak. It has got it all there in dot point form what you're eligible for, what businesses need to close, where things are at and it's obviously being updated on the hour every hour.

LEIGH RYAN:

Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Thanks Leigh. We'll talk again soon.

LEIGH RYAN:

Thanks Michael.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

All the best.

Shane Manning