TRANSCRIPT: TRIPLE M HOBART INTERVIEW, 6 April 2020
E&OE
Subjects: Coronavirus;
BRIAN CARLTON:
The Deputy Prime Minister and also the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to him this morning. Michael McCormack, welcome to Triple M. How are you going?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Good thanks, Brian. A little bit worried that you're talking about weird and then you transfer straight to me. It's okay.
BRIAN CARLTON:
No, there was no deliberate segue or attempt at a link there, I promise you. Look, a couple of things have popped up on social media that have been kind of freaking people out a little bit. There were some suggestions that our food supply here in Australia and this is broad nationally, is under some kind of threat. When you have a look at the raw numbers, that can't possibly be true. Wearing your Minister for Regional Development, specifically, is it true, is there any threat to our food –
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Social media posts and the sharing of it can be placed very much in the weird category, Brian. We produce enough food to feed 75 million people. That's three times our population. We will not, repeat, not run out of food.
BRIAN CARLTON:
Okay. The other thing, I guess, we need to get across is the extent to which we'll be able to maintain supply lines to get said food and everything else from where it is now to where it needs to be. How vulnerable are our supply chains internally?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Lindsay Fox told me the other day that his truck drivers are 25 per cent plus busier than what they would be on their ordinarily best Christmas pre-lead up to December 25. So they are very busy. Our roads remain open, our truckies remain continuing to do what they do as heroes of this nation always, our train drivers are busy, we are getting supplies, we are getting, most importantly, medicines to where they need to be around this country and no matter how much they close the borders, we will still get that food, we will still get those products through.
I know at the Queensland border, Minister Mark Bailey told me the other day, the most hold up is about four minutes so the trucks pull up, they indicate that they're, of course, an essential service, as they are and they're straight through and that's the case with the WA borders, no matter where you go. Appreciate you're broadcasting from Tassie, you probably don't have those internal border problems.
BRIAN CARLTON:
No, we just have a significant moat between us and the mainland which is both a blessing and a curse depending on what day it is and what we're talking about.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Indeed and we've even addressed those issues with making sure that we get the ships to Tassie. We've made sure that the supply chains are not restricted, are not held up in any which way. So I've been meeting almost on a bi-weekly basis with the Transport Ministers around the country. We've been talking every day but we've been having a formal teleconference twice a week, every week, since this crisis happened, to make sure that our supply chains remain open.
BRIAN CARLTON:
One of the other things that's concerning the Federal Government and I know it is also at the State level, given the reactions of many State Governments and the new policies they've put in place, but there is a genuine concern, isn't there, of what you might call a more affluent city folk packing up the kids and the car and heading off to the coast, say, in New South Wales, heading out of Sydney, they're heading to the Central Coast, they're heading to the Mid North Coast and the Far North Coast. Obviously people in and around Brisbane are heading to the Sunshine Coast and surrounds.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
People on the beaches at the Gold Coast on the weekend.
BRIAN CARLTON:
This is happening all over the country where even here in Tassie there's a push on for people to be able to access their coastal shacks, for example, even though they might live here in Hobart. The reason for that is very clear, isn't it, but it's such a concern for regional Australia that many, many cases of coronavirus will be imported into areas where, A, there are vulnerable populations and, B, not necessarily the medical facilities to take care of them should they become ill.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Brian, you are so, so right and we are worried that people from the city may come – may not even know that they're carriers, may not even know that they've got COVID-19 and may indeed come to a regional area, like they normally do of an Easter weekend, as you say, to either go camping or to visit the beaches, et cetera. But the message is quite clear this weekend. The message is quite clear, not from the Government but indeed from the Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Brendan Murphy, who says please stay home and you know, put on your favourite old movie, watch one of those classic football matches that I notice the channels were playing on a weekend. You know, enjoy each other's company but do it at home.
Our regional medical services aren't geared up, like those, perhaps, necessarily in the city areas and there's that tyranny of distance in the regional areas between medical services and so if somebody from, you know, backwards of Hay or somewhere in New South Wales –
BRIAN CARLTON:
Well, let me give you a specific example. The West Australian Government announced yesterday that the travel from Kalgoorlie South to Esperance is going to be forbidden. But I wonder, how does the West Australian Government police that? I mean because there's lots and lots of people travel from Kalgoorlie down to Esperance.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Trust me, Mark McGowan will police it, don't worry about that.
BRIAN CARLTON:
Seriously, because we are going to end up having to lock down certain parts. A local example; there appears to be a cluster developing in and around Burnie, the North West Hospital here in the north-west of Tassie. There's some early indications that the Premier here, Peter Gutwein, might declare that area out of bounds, off limits to either travel in or travel out.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Your new Premier's right, Peter. He's a good man. I know he was one of the first to shut down Tasmania when the other States were still just contemplating it. He moved quickly and we need to stop and minimise and prevent the further spread of this insidious disease. And if people are going to be complacent about it, they do so at their own peril. They need to think of others. That's the message.
BRIAN CARLTON:
The Health Minister late last night, Greg Hunt, announced a significant influx of what we call PPE, personal protection equipment, including masks, et cetera, literally millions of the things. There were some messages apparently coming out of Government over the weekend that masks may well be dangerous. Can you just clarify or qualify for me exactly what the Government's position is on wearing masks in the general public?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, it's probably going to be something that if there is the available supply then you will see that most people will do it irrespective of whether the Government asks them to, tells them to, whatever, they will do it for their own needs and probably psychological state of mind, but look, at the moment, it's okay to walk around so long as you're needing to go outdoors, so long as you're needing to go from point A to B and you've got a reason to do so.
You can go outdoors, you don't have to wear a mask. If there is a mask available and you own one and it's an approved –
BRIAN CARLTON:
If you can get one, that's the problem, you can't actually buy these things. They're like hen's teeth.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
That's why Greg Hunt is moving heaven and earth to make sure that we manufacture them locally, to make sure that we can get a supply in from overseas but anything that comes in from overseas needs to be to the Australian standard and they will be checked at the borders. They will be checked as they come in and they will be necessarily ensured that the right measures are put into place so that they meet specifications.
BRIAN CARLTON:
As the Minister for Regional Development, again, we're in an interesting and perhaps opportunistic period where much manufacturing that's currently being done in China and elsewhere may come back on board, come back onshore. This is not a bad thing in the long run, surely?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well, we need trade. Trade equals jobs, more trade equals more jobs and we need to be making sure that we meet our export obligations just like we always have. Foreign capital indeed, so long as it's good trade, has made this nation what it is today. But we have moved so that the Foreign Investment Review Board is not making – well, it's making sure, it's making sure that any foreign investment takeover bid at the moment is very much, as it always is, looked at closely but distressed businesses that have been affected by COVID-19 will not be available for sale at the moment to foreign interests. They will be looking at every single foreign acquisition attempt much, much more closely than perhaps they otherwise normally would, even though the foreign – of course, the foreign investment laws that we've got in this place are very strict at the moment.
BRIAN CARLTON:
Yeah, I was more referring to the opportunities, I guess, once we get through the crisis to bring manufacturing back onshore and create jobs in regional Australia. Perhaps it's a little premature to have that chat just now. Tell me, the one key thing that we're all hanging on later this week, on Wednesday to be precise, is the parliamentary vote that will pass ultimately or not the JobKeeper program and the $130 billion-odd spending attached to that. There's been a little bit of argy-bargy as to the process there. Are you confident that legislation will get through the House?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Yes, it will. I know that we've been meeting with the Opposition, we've had a couple of meetings with them. They will get the legislation. They know that it's necessary and look, this is above politics. COVID-19 is above politics. We've shown that. We've talked with Anthony Albanese, I spoke to him on Friday, in fact. You know, making sure that we get the legislation through is critical, not only for the nation's economic health but also, of course, for the health of the nation, which, of course, is first and foremost at this stage.
BRIAN CARLTON:
How long do you expect Australians to be in what is an effective quasi-lockdown? How long do you expect this to go?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
The Prime Minister has said that it's going to be months, not weeks and he's put a figure on it at least six months and you know, we hope that it's not that long but if it is, it is. It will be what it is and we need to make sure that we don't get complacent, even though the curve may well be flattening, even though the numbers, the growth of COVID-19 cases is not growing as it is in other nations. We need to continue to be vigilant. We need to continue to stay at home, we need to continue to practice hygiene, social distancing, all those things that Dr Brendan Murphy has asked us, implored us and begged us and pleaded us to do because it is in the best interests of our nation that we do that.
BRIAN CARLTON:
World famous Tasmanian economist Saul Eslake projected that if this wage subsidy, particularly, continues much beyond, you know, four to six weeks, a couple of months tops, we're looking at half-a-trillion dollars of Government money flowing into the economy by way of ongoing support. Half-a-trillion dollars. That's not sustainable, surely?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
It's a lot of money. I suppose keeping people in jobs is critical. We need to keep the economy functioning along and we need to keep business doors open as much as we can and you know, people need to be able to survive and to put food on the table. That's what it's all about. It's about being able to keep the economy, yes, in a little bit of hibernation but still motoring along as much to get through the other side, Brian.
These are extraordinary times and extraordinary times, of course, require measures by the Government to get us all through. We need to get all through together. We've spent $320 billion of taxpayers' money to help the economy to be its best self. We also individually, personally and collectively need to be our best selves to help each other to get through this crisis.
BRIAN CARLTON:
Just finally, a message to city-siders who, you know, big city folk who want to go and spend some time on the coast at the coast house or, you know, at the shack or wherever, it would be, what? Nick off, in two words?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Stay home.
BRIAN CARLTON:
Stay home. Alright, that will do. Appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Any time at all, Brian.
BRIAN CARLTON:
Michael McCormack, the Deputy Prime Minister. This is Triple M.