TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW ON RICHO & SMITH, SKY NEWS, 10 JUNE 2020

E&OE

Subjects: Border Closures, Protests, Australia’s Aviation Industry, Trade Relations with China;

CHRIS SMITH  

We thought we'd better catch up with the Deputy Prime Minister tonight. Michael McCormack, thank you very much for your time.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Pleasure to be here and congratulations Richo, an accolade well deserved mate.

GRAHAM RICHARDSON

Good on you mate, thank you.

CHRIS SMITH  

Firstly, have these reckless protesters just delayed our re-opening, do you think?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, they have Chris. It remains to be seen, I suppose we'll wait until many of them, hopefully they have the COVIDSafe app very much downloaded and active, we'll wait and see in a couple of weeks as to whether there is an outbreak of cases. There are 102,500 names on the War Memorial Roll of Honour.  Now those men died in war and women too, so that we could have protests today – free and democratic protests. It's people's democratic right if they wish to protest.  But this year we weren't able to go to ANZAC Day ceremonies. This year we weren't able to commemorate those war veterans and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. Harry Edmonds, a mate of mine, turned 90 today in Wagga Wagga, former RSL local sub branch president, he wasn't able to go and march as they normally do on April 25 and he and all his mates had to stay at home. They did the right thing and so should have those people on the weekend. Tens of thousands of people absolutely flouting the social distancing laws, absolutely going against what Professor Brendan Murphy has said and asked, requested and begged people to do. But more importantly they placed at risk all the good work that so that many Australians, themselves included, have done for so many weeks past.  And let's hope that over the next fortnight, when many of them may well come down with flu-like symptoms, let's hope it's not COVID-19. Let's hope they haven't made the restriction easing, which we all want to happen, let's hope they haven't put it back another few weeks, another few months and let's hope they haven't placed others' lives at risk.

GRAHAM RICHARDSON

Look I actually agree with him, I'm normally one who says the right to protest is paramount and you must do it but when you've got a COVID problem like we have, it changes the rules.  And if you don't realise it should change the rules, you're a mug and I think the people who are marching and they're flouting those rules, they're only doing themselves harm. They're the ones at risk. And then, of course, they could pass it on to the rest of us during their daily lives as they get around. This is a really serious business and I just don't think that enough people realise the gravity of it.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

It's literally life and death, it's literally life and death and we've done so well, we are the envy of the world. I know how hard Greg Hunt and other Ministers have worked, but more importantly, thanks go to all those Australians who so far, so good, they've done the right thing, we've kept the cases to a minimum, we've kept the number of deaths to 102 and of course our sympathies and condolences go out to those families who have lost loved ones. But what we don't want to see is a second wave of attacks.

CHRIS SMITH  

But what were those six federal politicians doing turning up as well? Then refusing to get tested, because what? It wasn't important? They're somehow immune from the virus? How did they get immunity?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, as politicians, we need to lead from the front. We need to show that the sort of advice that we are getting from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee actually means something. So, those politicians should take a good, hard look at themselves. They did it for their Instagram moments, for their Twitter moments. But so irresponsible. 

GRAHAM RICHARDSON

Well I agree with it 100%, I think people on my side of politics might expect me not to but it's a mug's game going out and demonstrating when you've got this COVID thing. I think people have got to take this really seriously and you can't laugh it off and say, "well, here's my opportunity".  But the trouble is there's a lot of people in those demonstrations who just love demonstrating. You know, they can just wipe the placard off and put on the new slogan, off they go again.

CHRIS SMITH  

Michael McCormack, what's your message to these Premiers, who I think are destroying more lives from the economic ruin that these small businesses are about to face? The borders need to open. They keep complaining about states like New South Wales, New South Wales has had one community transmission in the space of 13 days. It's time to open the borders, surely?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, it's hurting the aviation industry, it’s hurting small business, it's hurting so many people who want to re-engage with work and so many people who want to get back to work. But we're now going to have to wait a fortnight because of these protests. We will have to wait a fortnight to see and I know the National Cabinet sits this Friday and let's see what's said there, let's see what Professor Brendan Murphy and his cohorts as the Chief Medical Officers say. We can't afford another outbreak because if we have that, or if we open up the borders too early and we absolutely ease the restrictions too early and then these protests form a whole lot of other cases, then it's going to be so hard to close everything down again, Chris. So, what they have done is they have delayed the easing of restrictions. They have done that. And so let's see what happens over the next fortnight. Not a long time to go given the fact that it's been so long now. But we've done so well, we just don't want to put at risk any further, the good work that everybody has done.

CHRIS SMITH  

There are pleas coming from all sectors of industry at the moment about extending JobKeeper – Virgin Australia in particular. And when you consider, you've raised it, the aviation industry are going through such a horrid time, almost a total shutdown, is it not time to extend JobKeeper for the aviation industry as Virgin Australia has mentioned today?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well, we've got JobKeeper going until the end of September and we're making sure that we monitor all industries. The assistance that we have provided for the aviation sector has been industry-wide. It's been right across the board. That's the responsible and considered thing that you would expect the Government to do. We've made sure that we've extended, just on Sunday in fact, those regional domestic services and let me tell you, those 138 regional communities are very grateful that we've extended that service because many of them wouldn't have received any personal protection equipment, masks or indeed frontline medical personnel had that support not been there. So, they're actually getting an aviation service, albeit minimal but it has been very essential.

CHRIS SMITH  

I understand all of that but I'm talking about JobKeeper. Come September, if JobKeeper stops, it could be the case that the economy just falls straight through the floor.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Well let's hope that the border restrictions are lifted. Let's hope that the restrictions across the board have been eased. Let's hope people are back at clubs and pubs and doing all those sorts of things. I realise that NSW has lifted the community sport restrictions today, to a degree.  That's good, people need to get back to normality and need to ensure that they can't continue to rely on Government assistance because they're the ones who will have to pay it back. It's the small business community, it's the workers of this country. They are going to have to be paying that assistance back because they are the taxpayers of this country. And what we need to do is make sure we can get life back to normal as much as we can. Yes, life will be different, there's no question. But what we need to do is get life back as much as we can to normal and put it down to a bad experience but also put it down to the fact that we were able to avoid the huge calamity that we have seen overseas with tens of thousands of people in some countries perishing as a result of this awful, awful disease.

CHRIS SMITH  

One question on China if I may and by all means, a supplementary question from you, Richo. China are saying, "Don't visit Australia.” They’re saying to their students, "Don't study in Australia.” How long can we put up with this garbage?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

We want Chinese people to come here, to study, to travel here. It is the best multicultural country on Earth, make no mistake. We want them to visit our regions. When the airline restrictions are lifted, we want Chinese people to come here in their numbers, as they've always done, we've always been welcoming. I mean this nonsense that there's racial attacks and there's violent attacks, it is nonsense. You know that, I know that, we all know that. We're very welcoming and we want our Chinese friends to visit us in as many numbers as possible because Australia is a great place to visit, great place to holiday and there’s no better place to holiday than regional Australia.

GRAHAM RICHARDSON

The relationship you know, goes up and down with China, it's a bumpy road.  But when do we get to the stage of putting the finger up and saying, "This is nonsense, you know it, we know it, why don't we sort this out?" It just strikes me as playing diplomatic games and arguing about words. That's just pedantry. That doesn't help anyone. Let's just sort it.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Yeah I understand that Richo but there's also $149.7 billion of trade reasons why China has been a very good deal for Australian farmers, for Australia's resources sector. It is the workers in meat processing plants at Casino, they're the ones who hurt when we go too far in the commentary about China and the relations. We want to make sure that there's jobs for those people. We want to make sure that if farmers are planting barley at the moment, then they can do so with every confidence there will be a market for that grain. I appreciate that, yes, there have been some difficulties in relations of late but let's work through those in the considered, calm manner that we always have. I know I've got every faith in our Trade Minister, Simon Birmingham, to do just that, the Agriculture Minister, David Littleproud, Marise Payne, the Foreign Affairs Minister, we'll work through this as we always do.

CHRIS SMITH  

Michael McCormack, thank you for your extended time tonight, it was much appreciated.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK

Pleasure Chris and well done again, Richo AO.

GRAHAM RICHARDSON

Thanks, mate.

CHRIS SMITH  

The Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack.