TRANSCRIPT: 2AAA WAGGA WAGGA LOCAL RADIO INTERVIEW, 24 April 2020

E&OE

Subjects: Coronavirus, ANZAC Day;

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Letter boxes around the Riverina, you have probably received a commemorative ANZAC Day booklet, one of the more welcomed items to make its way into our homes.  Well, the man responsible, Federal Member for the Riverina and our Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, joins us now.  Michael, thank you for your time and welcome to Friday Magazine.  How are you today?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Yeah, good, thanks, Marguerite.  You know, it's tough at the moment, as you well know, with so many people having lost their jobs, so many people having a downturn in hours and you know, it's really tough out there and I understand people who are confined to their homes and getting a bit of cabin fever.  So it is pretty tough. I understand right across the nation in every sector of the economy, this pandemic is reaching in and taking such a toll on our society. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Indeed. Well, like the rest of us, this year is profoundly different to past ANZAC Days.  So what's your message as we are forced to stay away from such a sacred tradition that usually sees thousands gathered to commemorate our servicemen and women?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, it is going to be a unique and very different, as you say, ANZAC Day but I think people should still mark the occasion by perhaps going to the end of their driveways at dawn in the morning and shining a torch or perhaps lighting a candle and pausing for a moment to remember the fallen and remember those who are currently deployed.  Remember those who are either ex-servicemen or women who came home, having done their service and you know, now can't march. 

And certainly, for Wagga Wagga and the Riverina region more generally, it's a significant day because our city is the only inland city in Australia where there are all three arms of the defence apart from Canberra of course, but we've got the Kapooka Army Base, if you spend any given time in the Air Force you end up at Forest Hill RAAF Base and of course we've even got a Navy presence in our city, even though we're a long, long way, Marguerite, from the nearest drop of seawater. 

So, ANZAC Day is a very special time for our city but, of course, the cenotaph at the Victory Memorial Gardens will be very much a different place as it normally is on ANZAC Day.  April 25 normally attracts 15,000 to 16,000 people down the main street to the march.  We hear a wonderful speech given by somebody with a real understanding of what our military means to our city and our nation and that just won't be happening tomorrow. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Well, I guess we're all experiencing new things with it all but as Deputy Prime Minister, what has been the most difficult aspect of navigating Australia's COVID-19 restrictions and the exit plan to allow us to safely transition into life post-coronavirus?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

We've had more Cabinet meetings and more Ministerial meetings just in the last six weeks than we normally have in 12 months and that's not to say we don't keep busy but the number of teleconferences and meetings that we've had at a top level with people such as Professor Brendan Murphy, who is the Chief Medical Officer, with frontline medical people and just making sure that we get the right outcomes, making sure that the right advice is not only listened to by Government but then it is followed by the average everyday people and to their credit, Australians have been magnificent and that's why we've had only 77 deaths and I know that's tragic for those 77 families.  But it's a long time since James Kwan on March 1 lost his life and he was the first, that retired Perth fellow and it just seems an eternity ago but it's not that long ago. 

But you look at our record, compare it to, say, the UK, which has got two and a bit times our population and they've lost, you know, in the order of 16,000 and you see the temporary tent cities set up in Central Park and many people have visited New York and understand what a beautiful city it is but to see that city in such a lockdown and such a drastic situation.  I think Australians can be truly proud of what they've actually achieved. So I suppose the difficult part for us is to make sure that we've put these restrictions in place because it's not easy to tell Australian people that they need to stay away from the pubs and clubs and their large gatherings.  It's awful that we've had to restrict funerals the way we have. It's awful have stopped birthday parties and those sorts of things and for Australians to have complied with that just goes to show that they do understand that they are saving lives.  They may well be protecting their own life but indeed they're saving lives of others they may not even know.  It's been tough to have to do that but, I have to say, Australians have been magnificent through this and hopefully they will continue to be. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

I was having a chat to David Gardiner, the President of the Wagga sub-branch of the RSL earlier in the program about how the difference is at the moment, in wartime, particularly with the imagery of ANZAC Day, our soldiers and our servicemen and women had to rush to the danger but now with coronavirus we have to stay away to save lives. It's this juxtaposition, isn't it?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well yes, it is and look, Dave, I know he's a student of history like so many of us are and he would well have read about what happened when our Diggers came back from World War I and we lost 60,000 on the battlefields of Europe and northern Africa in World War I. But when many of the other 300,000 returned home, of course, Spanish Flu was a pandemic worldwide and it took anywhere between –  the figures aren't really well known – but anywhere between 60 million and 100 million people but in Australia it was 12,000 that died.

But it was when the second wave of outbreaks occurred after the initial lockdowns and racing stopped and community gatherings in large masses stopped and then, of course, we did pretty well.  We resumed life as normal and that's when the outbreaks really occurred and that's when sadly we lost so many lives.  So we don't want a repeat of that because history, all too often, Marguerite, as you would well appreciate, has a habit of repeating itself and we want to make sure that we don't have this time because this is a deadly virus.  It's particularly insidious for older people and you know, the experience overseas has been disastrous.  We've done well so far but we need to continue to follow the advice of those medical experts who have been so correct so far. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Well, part of the transition is getting Australia back to work and this week you gave an interview to the Australian Financial Review in which you said the Federal Government's $100 billion infrastructure program is still intact despite coronavirus taking a wrecking ball to the budget. And you mentioned the way forward was through patience to overcome supply issues. Can you elaborate?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, what we have experienced is because of the shipping downturn and indeed, China's economic stall, what we have seen is some supplies, some services, indeed asphalt, bitumen, but also parts for heavy vehicle machinery componentry for that, haven't been able to be produced and haven't been able to be shipped to Australia.  So that has caused some problems, particularly for some of the larger infrastructure projects, the Bruce Highway, etc, in Northern Queensland. 

Thankfully we are using Australian steel from Whyalla from South Australia for the Inland Rail and the Parkes to Narromine section, which has already engaged the services of more than 1,600 local people continues and the Western Sydney Airport, they're still moving dirt around there.  Thousands upon thousands of tonnes of dirt has been shifted around there.  That is an amazing project and still on track to be opened in the mid 2020’s. $5.3 billion of Federal Government expenditure investment there. And so those big jobs are still continuing but some of the other road projects have stalled but the thing is, we can use infrastructure and construction as a way forward and just later on today I'm having a teleconference with the State Transport and Infrastructure Ministers from each of the six States and two Territories and we'll see what we can do. 

I had a long meeting with the Prime Minister yesterday about what we can do in the area of infrastructure to bring projects forward.  I've certainly discussed these issues by way of letter to every one of the 537 councils around Australia and they've brought forward their infrastructure projects, including the local councils which has been great.  So we will get on with that job and get high viz on the ground and shovels on site, etc.  So we need to move forward.  We need to make sure that we get the infrastructure built and that's one way that we're going to rejig the economy through this pandemic.

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Any infrastructure dollars you can send the Riverina's way will be more than welcome. 

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Indeed.

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Finally, Michael, a candid question. Some observations as Deputy Prime Minister that you never expected to see in the current circumstances, do you have any that come to mind? 

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

I think the real tragedy has been the number of people who have had to bury loved ones and just Skype the funerals.  That's been just devastating and I've spoken to both Bance Funeral Homes and Alan Harris McDonald Funeral Homes in Wagga and they've told me of the different way of doing these things because of the pandemic because of the social restrictions that have been put in place.  That's heart breaking for loved ones who have had to bury people, many of whom have been such public figures in our community, who, under normal circumstances, probably would have attracted in the order of 400, 500, 600 people to their services and of course, they're only allowed to have ten and in many cases, because their partners or their spouses were over the age that is probably safe to be going outside and may have been in aged care facilities, they haven't been able to attend, you know, the funerals of someone who they have lived their whole lives with, raised families with and been such a part of. That really is heart breaking. 

I'm sure that when we get through this crisis, that, you know, they will be properly remembered as well but it is so hard at the moment.  And even special events, I know my own son had a graduation there a couple of weeks ago, we weren't able to go to it and the graduation was still held but they had to stand 1.5 metres apart and weren't allowed to have any loved ones there.  Those sorts of things, birthdays, all those things, are special events and special memories and they've had to have been held in isolation and via Skype.  So that's been really, really tough but, again, Australians doing the right thing have saved lives and particularly here in the Riverina where we've been able to avoid any mortalities so far.  I know they've had a death in Orange, I know they've had a death at Albury, but regional Australia has been very much able to get through this without too much loss of life and that's been really, really gratefully received by those health professionals who, of course, as you know, Marguerite, always do such a wonderful job. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

They're amazing.  We are incredibly lucky.  If you look at America today, they have passed 50,000 deaths related to coronavirus.  Well, local Federal Member and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, thank you so much for your time.  I know you're very busy and Skyping and everything you have to do.  It's stressful.  Stay safe. Is there a song I can play for you?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Indeed.  If I can just give one plug to the Glenrock Country Practice.  There is a respiratory clinic there and if people are feeling symptoms of COVID-like conditions, raspy cough, you know, runny nose, those sorts of things, please use that facility because we don't want Wagga Wagga Base Hospital's emergency wards overrun.  So, please, that facility in Glenfield Park, Tanda Place is there to be utilised and I would encourage people to do that.  It's the first respiratory clinic set up in regional New South Wales and people need to use that if they do have COVID-like symptoms, because what we don't want to see is anybody coming down unwell with this insidious virus, Marguerite. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Absolutely.  Michael, thank you very much and that's in Glenfield, the Glenrock Country Practice. 

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Indeed. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Thank you again, and all the best to you and our thoughts will be with everyone over the ANZAC Day long weekend.  A song I can play for you, sir?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Why don't we play Eric Bogle's 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'. It's a good war song.  It is an antiwar song but it really tells a message about, I think, how important it is and the suffering that some of our soldiers did endure overseas and certainly when they came home. 

MARGUERITE MCKINNON

Pertinent choice.  Thank you again.  Here it is. 

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

All the best.

Shane Manning