TRANSCRIPT: TODAY SHOW INTERVIEW WITH KARL STEFANOVIC, 22 April 2020

E&OE

Subjects: Virgin Australia, coronavirus, Infrastructure bring-forwards;

KARL STEFANOVIC

Let's get the Government's response now. We're joined by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack. Thanks for your time.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Good morning.

KARL STEFANOVIC

Virgin will get back into the skies, won't it?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Virgin's in the sky at the moment, Karl and that's thanks to the regional air routes which we laid out on March 28. That's thanks to the domestic trunk routes, the capital city to capital city, taking in some of these regional capitals as well which we also put down just recently. We've made sure there's also an international freight mechanism. We've also made sure that those repatriation flights, Virgin can tap into all of those and they are.

KARL STEFANOVIC

You know what I mean though.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Yes, it's very lean, only minimal but essential services. Thankfully, we're very appreciative of Virgin and its staff moreover, for taking part in that.

KARL STEFANOVIC

Have you asked the CEO of Virgin, who I did think inherited a lot of expenses, why their own shareholders, their own foreign shareholders, haven't stepped in and stepped up? They clearly don't have any regard for their own workers.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, I suppose that's a matter, Karl, for the foreign shareholders. I suppose that's a matter for Sir Richard Branson, who does own a Caribbean island, for Etihad, for the Chinese consortia, indeed for Singapore Airlines.

KARL STEFANOVIC

There you go.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

But we need a solution out of this. We want two commercially viable airlines coming out of COVID-19. There is now a clear flightpath forward for Virgin, a future for Virgin, they've taken the courageous decision with Paul Scurrah, with the board, to go down voluntary administration and to go into it. And I'm sure, with the help of Deloitte, I'm sure with the Government looking at it carefully through Nicholas Moore and his reporting back of course, to Treasury, that we will get that flight path forward and for the 10,000 workers and 6,000 suppliers, they're all Australians. We want as many, if not all of them, to come out the other side and I appreciate what that fellow said just before, you know, JobKeeper was a saviour, not just for the aviation sector and indeed Virgin in particular, but for so many businesses and so many workers in Australia.

KARL STEFANOVIC

So what you're saying, basically, is that people like Sir Richard Branson at this point, on this topic in regards to Virgin workers are full of hot air. They’ve got a big hat but not a lot of cattle in the game?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

You could say that. The fact is they haven't helped. They haven't bailed out their own airline and it should've been up to them in the first instance. We've provided $1.28 billion of assistance to the aviation sector. Virgin has been able to take advantage of that by way of waiving of Airservices fees and fuel excise and security screening fees and those sorts of things. Been able to take advantage of the routes that we've put in place right across Australia. Yes, it's minimal but it's an essential service that we're providing to take vital defence personnel, indeed medical personnel and medicine around our country and we want as many Virgin employees to come out of this as possible. They're hard workers. They wear their red uniforms very proudly, as you know. You've flown Virgin, I've flown Virgin. So many have and we want that to continue into the future.

KARL STEFANOVIC

Virgin 2.0 will be leaner but hopefully they'll keep as many staff as possible. This is good news today and The Sydney Morning Herald has the exclusive, a huge new stimulus program fast tracking road projects. I love this idea. More infrastructure. You are spending at least $100 billion, as we all know, some roads run through safer seats than others. How will you ensure there’s no sports rorts?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

It will be fine. If COVID-19 has done one thing, it's actually brought Governments together. Governments of all political persuasion. Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister and his National Cabinet have worked very well in a bipartisan way. Indeed, I've had weekly meetings, teleconferences, with my State Transport and Infrastructure Council Members and Ministers and indeed many of them, if not all of them, have spoken to me outside of those meetings on a daily basis and we've put politics aside. We want to get on and build Australia. One way we can do that is through infrastructure and construction. Of course, even in the aviation space there's a lot happening with Nancy-Bird Walton International Airport at Western Sydney. A $5.3 billion commitment by the Federal Government. There's new runways being built...

KARL STEFANOVIC

Just on the roads, we want to make sure there are no rorts and people will be looking closely and you will provide those mechanisms. Michael, thank you so much for your time. I wanted to talk about Anzac Day, but we'll save that for later in the week.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Pleasure. Indeed. Let’s do that.

Shane Manning