TRANSCRIPT: LATE AFTERNOONS WITH NARELLE GRAHAM, ABC NORTH AND WEST SA 17 April 2020

E&OE

Subjects: Coronavirus, regional media, Aviation Support Package;

NARELLE GRAHAM

Michael McCormack, welcome.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Thank you, Narelle.

NARELLE GRAHAM

I know you’ve been talking a lot about airlines today, we will get to that. But to the Government’s regional media bailout package first. How will this $50 million Public Interest News Gathering Program work? How will it be distributed?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Paul Fletcher, the Communications Minister is still working those details up. The important thing is, there are going to be relief measures for those country newspapers, for those television networks, for those people who distribute news in our regional centres. It’s going to make such a difference because there’s going to be such things as a 12-month waiver of Spectrum Tax. Now I know for commercial television and radio broadcasters that an impost that they’re going to now be doing without for 12-months. With regional journalism, there’s a $50 million Public Interest News Gathering Program. So what form that takes is still being worked up, still being finalised, but the important thing is we want to back regional news bureaus. We want local people covering local events and interviewing local people for other local people. Because I know as a former regional newspaper editor and somebody who has lived in the regions all my life, I don’t want to be swamped all day and night with national news and international news. I want to hear local media, I want to hear about local people and read about them and see them on television and hear them on the radio and that’s why this initiative is so important. And there will also be some short-term red tape relief. You know, we can all do without, I suppose, some of that red tape and this will include emergency suspension of content quotas in 2020 as well as harmonising regulations to support Australian content.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Let’s focus in on regional newspapers for a moment. When will Communications Minister Paul Fletcher have ironed out those details? Because ACM, so Australian Community Media, now they’ve got something like 15 mastheads throughout South Australia.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

I talk to Antony Catalano every other day.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Do you? Well I wondered about that. So when will Paul Fletcher have ironed out those details? Because those papers, all 15 of them, are not a daily and what ACM have said is that well, “we’re going to mothball all of the papers that are not a daily paper.”

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

No, I do speak to Michael Ellis from the Yorke Peninsula Country Times and others as well in other States who own little independent newspapers. I know that they are also struggling. Yes, I appreciate Antony’s made that decision and certainly he’s looking at cutting back costs and I know that for those people who work in those smaller country mastheads, they’ve lost their jobs. I appreciate that JobKeeper will assist and JobSeeker as well, assist companies like Antony’s. We want to keep as many mastheads open and printing and publishing as possible. And I appreciate that many of those South Australian publications are in the ACM, you know, stable. I get that and I understand that they’ve been closed and people will have to live with that. Hopefully out the other side of COVID-19 and hopefully that’s only months away and that’s not going to be too long. I hopethey can resume publication when the crisis is over.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Okay, so you say you’re speaking to Antony from ACM every other day. How have they responded to the $50 million regional media bailout package?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well he’s been pleased with it. Of course, as with any company, whether it’s a publishing company, an aviation company, whatever the case might be, you know, they would always like more. But, you know, the assistance can only go so far and of course they’re tax payers’ dollars we’re using so we have to use them wisely, we have to be accountable, we have to be transparent, we have to keep people in jobs. The main focus of the Government is actually saving lives and we’ve certainly helped to do that. We’ve protected livelihoods with the JobKeeper announcement. That’s been a huge impost. $130 billion, that’s the sort of money that a Federal Government, well since Federation, that’s never been spent. There’s been no measure, even during war that’s seen the Government dig into the reserves and spend as much money as we have. But we’ve done it to keep the economy, as best we can, ticking along because we don’t want to take a deep dive into those scenes that we saw in the, you know, that we saw in the newspapers and on televisions back in the 1930’s during the Great Depression.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Okay, we know that the Government is doing the best that it possibly can under these circumstances and I understand that health is the main priority. Have you been given any assurances from ACM or other regional newspaper owners that those newspapers will be able to continue given this bailout package that’s been announced?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

No I haven’t and that’s obviously a commercial decision that the individual companies will take and make in due course.

NARELLE GRAHAM

What would be a good outcome from this? If we continue to focus on ACM with those 15 local mastheads in the broadcast patch of my program, do you expect that all of them should be able to survive? What would you say if some of them could merge, what would be a good outcome, like if we had 10? If we had five at the end of this?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Oh look I don’t want to put a number on it, it’s not mine to put a number on it. I don’t sit on the board of ACM, I don’t have a stake in any media company. I’d like to see all of them, of course, resume and all those workers who work so diligently, whether they were printers, whether they were journalists, whatever the case might be. I’d like to see them all back in their jobs when the COVID-19 crisis is over or indeed the restrictions are eased. But you know we’ve at least got another four weeks of tight and tough restrictions where people are going to have to self-isolate, they’re going to have to stay at home, they’re going to have to do all of those social distancing measures that we’ve put in place and that’s going to save lives. I’d like to think as many of the people will be back in jobs and as many of those mastheads will be back on the newsstands when the crisis is over.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Other papers seem to be working things out. Broken Hill, the Barrier Daily Truth has been able to garner some community support. The Taylor Group, they’ve moved things around, certainly, but at least are putting papers out there. Do you think maybe ACM is not pulling its weight?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

No, I wouldn’t say that either. And look, different newspapers have different objectives, of course and they have different situations. The situation in Broken Hill would be vastly different than say the situation in Mildura. I know the Mildura paper closed some weeks ago and that’s the first time in a hundred years that it’s ceased publication. Let’s hope that throughout the other side that it can resume operations. The only media operating in Mildura at the moment I’m told is basically the ABC. And good on the ABC, we’re always pleased that our regional stations are operating and operating well and producing local news for local people.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Yes.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

But you know the newspaper game is a tough game. I spent 21 years, the last 11 of which as editor, of a daily newspaper where my newsroom had 58 people in it. I mean those days are long gone. I appreciate that probably about eight or 12 people now do the jobs that those 58 back in the days when I was a newspaper editor in the 1990s. But we want our newspapers to be vibrant, viable places and that’s why we’ve put $50 million on the table to help them as best we can.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, I do note too that the JobKeeper, credit where it’s due, has managed to at least to revive The Sunraysia Daily in Mildura to, at least one day a week so they’re saying that they are able to do that.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

And a good paper and I know that Anne Webster down there, is very appreciative of the coverage that they give.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Second newspaper I ever worked for. You’re on ABC Radio South Australia and Broken Hill and my guest is Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. I’ve spoken to several regional South Australians this week who are stranded at the moment. So first we’ll talk about the ones who are stuck in Australia. So there’s a few in Perth; they’ve come off cruises, they have completed their quarantine requirements but there are no flights home. Now the Government’s announced a package; $165 million dollars so that Qantas and Virgin can resume key domestic air services. When will these people be able to get from Perth to Adelaide? Is that considered to be a key domestic air service?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Hopefully they’ll be able to do it very, very soon and the full schedule is up on Virgin and Qantas’ websites now. Bookings actually started last night at 9.02pm. The announcement was made at 9 o’clock and two minutes later all the booking schedules were online. So those people should make sure they look at those schedules. Of course they’ll be demand driven, the Federal Government as you say is backing them to the tune of $165 million. So we’ve got 220 flights going to 60 routes, over the next eight-weeks. So there’ll be 220 flights per week for the next eight-weeks. That’s good. I’d like to think that those people who are stranded in some of those capital cities, far from home will be able to now return home. Of course, they may have to self-isolate for another 14 days. That depends on the jurisdictions, depends on the rules that each State has in place. But the fact is at least they’ll be in their home state.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Is there a chance that Rex could be used on routes that it doesn’t usually fly?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well Rex are already partaking in the $198 million that I announced at Wagga Wagga Airport, actually my home town, on March 28th, put down so that Rex and other regional airlines could operate to those 138 destinations that they’ve done. And look if Rex wants to fly to a port that they haven’t done they can apply and they can work through that. Look I don’t think that anybody would be against this so long as there’s the demand, so long as Rex sees that it’s viable and there’s the ability to be able do that working with the Transport Infrastructure Department. I’m sure they’d be amenable to getting people home to where they need to go. Of course, Virgin can partake in that, as is QantasLink, all those regional airlines. We want them to come out the other side. We’ve also put down $100 million for those regionally based airlines, underwriting them to ensure that they are viable out the other side. We want to make sure that we’ve got two airlines in a major sense in the sector coming out of this. Aviation is so critical and no one knows that more so than anybody who lives in a country area.

NARELLE GRAHAM

My guest is the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. We’re just on Rex, they have been trying to negotiate a good deal for regional airports themselves. Lasting something like eight years and Senator Rex Patrick has come out against that saying, you know, that’s just using bullying tactics and said maybe, maybe we should look at Virgin flying some of those routes. Are we going to see a massive shake up of the airline industry in Australia where we will see routes that have been traditionally known to belong to one particular carrier where we’ll get more and more overlap?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well the competition in the aviation sector is intense. I have to say that balance sheets of airlines, they’re tight. They run on tight margins. It’s a difficult industry, it’s a volatile industry. We are very well served in Australia by our airlines. We want every airline that’s flying now to still be flying in six to 12 months’ time. We want to make sure we’ve got a viable aviation sector. That’s why we as a Federal Government have put down more than a billion dollars already in the aviation sector to ensure that we’ve got those regional runs, to ensure that we’ve got those domestic routes, to ensure that we get people home from overseas. We’ve invested heavily in making sure that we have some mercy flights. I’ve worked very closely with Marise Payne, the Foreign Affairs Minister, to get people home from all sorts of destinations; South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, you name it. We’ve brought people home and we want to continue to be able to do that. So long as we’ve got people overseas stranded, who want to come home, we’ll try and assist them to get here.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Well on that I’ve spoken to a couple of people who are stuck overseas from regional South Australia this week. An example is a few cruise entertainers. We’ve got a lady called [inaudible] stuck in Miami. [Inaudible] is another cruise entertainer from the south east of South Australia, he’s stuck in Tampa. That’s just two examples. And I understand, I get it, you’re dealing with thousands of Australians. Now these two in particular, they didn’t say, “nah, don’t want to come home” and now they’ve changed it.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

[Inaudible] I would say, gets herself and I know Tampa’s in Florida, so it’s going to be difficult to get to LA but we’ve got flights coming out of LAX and so that’s something that she could potentially do. Look it’s difficult. We can’t send planes to every far-flung destination in every corner of the globe to get Australians home. We’re doing our best. I would say that she needs to, or both of them need to contact their nearest embassy, send an email to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and we’ll see what we can do for them.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Are you comfortable at the moment with the Government’s stance on schools staying open?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, yes I am. Schools are, of course, run by State Governments and I think the best place for kids is school. My daughter is a school teacher in Victoria and she’s complained to me about the difficulties of actually trying to teach kids from her home via Skype and via the internet, via any means they’ve been able to do so. She said it’s far easier to teach them face to face and the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy I’ll take his comments over most people’s any day of the week when it comes to health matters and he says that kids should be at school.

NARELLE GRAHAM

And do you have any level of concern about discussions already taking place about lifting restrictions?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

I have concerns in as much as when we, any student of history knows that the Spanish Flu, 1918, when the disaster really hit was the second wave, the second outbreak of attacks that beset Australia and beset many other nations besides. Now the death toll globally was somewhere between 60 and 100 million, no one’s quite sure how many but in Australia it was 12,000. Most of those deaths occurred when restrictions were eased. So mass gatherings and the like. There were severe restrictions put in place when the outbreak first occurred. Of course, we had a lot of returning soldiers from Europe etc. and they came back. Restrictions were put in place, horseracing was stopped. All sorts of mass gatherings – restrictions were placed around them and they were limited. And of course when we did reasonably well back then, restrictions were lifted and that’s when Australia lost around 12,000 people. Now we’ve lost 63 so far, it’s been a long time since March 1 when James Kwan was the first Australian in Western Australia to pass away from this. Of course, we mourn and we send our condolences to the 63 families who have lost loved ones from this. We don’t want to see any more, we certainly don‘t want to see thousands upon thousands of people presenting to hospitals and clogging up palliative care bed and ICU wards, we don’t want to see that.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said yesterday that if they have an infection rate of one person infects 1.1 other persons, their health system can cope. Once it gets to one person infecting 1.2 that means that their health system will be overwhelmed within a few months. Given that the margins in this are so absolutely tiny, have we worked out in Australia, Michael McCormack, what the infection rate is that our health services can cope with?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well I’m sure that they have, what we don’t want to see is more cases, what we don’t want to see is more outbreaks like we saw in Tasmania the other day. So, provided we can contain that. Our Health Minister, Greg Hunt, has been doing a remarkable job making sure that we get the personal protection equipment sourced, if not made. I know Karen Andrews has been working very hard as Industry Minister to retool some curtain making places and some other like-minded manufacturing businesses to actually get them to make facemasks and the like. We’ve been distributing those as best we can and they’ll take also advantage of being able to be freighted around with this new aviation package announced today. What we also need to do is just contain and minimise the spread of the virus. You know I don’t want to get into the “one versus one-point-two and if we’ve got this, we’ve got that”, we just want to make sure as a Government that the number of cases is reduced.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Just finally, Michael McCormack, do you reckon at the end of this we’re going to see a heck of a lot more Australian based manufacturing, a heck of a lot more Australian based industries?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Absolutely and we need to. And look, we’re a very ingenious nation, we’re very innovative. And, you know, we produce a lot of stuff already. I think we get a bad rap sometimes for not being able to do the sorts of things in many cases we already are, it’s just that people haven’t realised it. And we are a high wage nation too, we are a high wage economy and so that limits us sometimes when we import gidgets and gadgets to keep our factories running and the like. But I think there will be more of a reliance and more of an emphasis on manufacturing. I know Karen Andrews is working towards that and working on a plan. You’ve got to have a plan, our Federal Government has got it, that’s why we were re-elected last May and I know that we’re doing our best to reduce this pandemic as best we can and to save lives and protect jobs in the meanwhile.

NARELLE GRAHAM

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, thank you.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Thank you Narelle, pleasure.