TRANSCRIPT: ABC CAPRICORNIA BREAKFAST INTERVIEW, 14 July 2020
E&OE
Subjects: Rockhampton Ring Road, Coronavirus, COVIDSafe app, ABC funding;
PAUL CULLIVER
I welcome to the program, Michael McCormack, Deputy Prime Minister of course, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development and of course, Leader of The Nationals. Good morning.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Good morning, Paul.
PAUL CULLIVER
What brings you to Rockhampton today?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, I'm here visiting Michelle Landry and we're here calling for tenders for the Rockhampton Ring Road. Appreciate that's one of and is going to be, one of the largest road infrastructure projects, certainly in regional Queensland but indeed, in Queensland. And we're also bringing forward $8 million funding for the Queensland's Rockhampton-Yeppoon road upgrade and I know how many people have been waiting for that. So certainly, we're getting on with the job of building infrastructure and certainly around Rockhampton as part of the $100 billion record amount of infrastructure that we're spending across the nation over the next 10-years.
PAUL CULLIVER
All right. If we open up the tender, what are we going to find in it? What are the parameters?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, look, it's not just for the big tier one companies, I want to make that quite clear. There'll be many small businesses which will be able to have a slice of the action as part of the procurement process in this. And so, I know we work very closely with state governments of course, they run these projects. They run the construction tenders, but I want to make sure that local businesses can play a part and I want to make sure that as many local jobs as possible can be involved in this.
And I know when we had the Second Range Crossing, almost all of those jobs came from around the Toowoomba region and similarly with this, I know that as many as 90% of the jobs could well come from in and around the Rockhampton region and that is so important because what it does is it stimulates the local economy. It puts money through the tills of the cafés and the hairdressers and the places of accommodation and everywhere else, because whilst, yes, some of the workers will come from outside and they will need to be fed and housed, most of the workers are going to be coming from the Rockhampton region and that just stimulates local economy – good for everyone.
PAUL CULLIVER
Is there any requirement on that? The percentage that should be local?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, as I say, the Queensland Government has that in their procurement guidelines and that is encouraged. And I work closely with governments of all political persuasions. I just want to get on and build things. I think one of the things that we've learnt, certainly through COVID-19, is that the public expects, moreover, demands that we do that. They deserve the very best when it comes to infrastructure. And I don't care what the political persuasion of any government is, I just want to get on and build things such as the Ring Road, water infrastructure. Of course, we will be talking about Rookwood Weir and Urannah and all those other dam projects, water infrastructure projects that can happen with the states' say-so because we can't build these things alone.
The Constitution says that we need to build them in conjunction, in collaboration with State Governments. So, when we have got willing state government partners, I'm willing certainly to get the cheque book out and once we get those business cases and once we fast-track through the approval processes, we can get some really good infrastructure for Central Queensland and Northern Queensland.
PAUL CULLIVER
All right. What kind of timeline are we expecting for the Ring Road for Rockhampton?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, the Ring Road pre-construction is due to start in 2021, the major works early-2022, completed by 2025. So that's the timeline. A major project. It's a $1 billion project and the Federal Government is providing $800 million of that. So, it's an 80:20 split with the Queensland Government. That is normally the split for these types of regional road projects, these regional infrastructure projects. We're getting on. We're getting it built. We're calling for tenders. Local procurement, that’s key getting jobs, getting people back into work through COVID.
I mean, one of the great things that regional Queensland, regional Australia has led through COVID-19 are the recovery efforts, whether it's resources, agriculture and certainly infrastructure. It has been a time when, while the rest of the nation has suffered of course, Paul, as we all know, regional Australia has got on with the job of the recovery efforts.
PAUL CULLIVER
You also mentioned $8 million to progress the Rockhampton-Yeppoon road upgrade which is $8 million towards the $80 million. Why have you decided to go with that?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, because this is a good start and we now know that we can begin crucial works on the corridor master plan, options assessment, community consultation, a business case for stage corridor upgrades, detailed concept design and on-site preparatory work. So, you know, we're getting on with the job. This is a major link artery, of course. So many of our transport companies, Tony Hopkins was only telling me the other day just how important these sorts of upgrades are. This is the beef capital, of course, for Australia. And we want to make sure that we've got the right roads, we've got the right infrastructure and we can get people to where they need to be sooner and safer.
PAUL CULLIVER
Well, on that, [inaudible], has given us a call and just let us know that they wanted to know, Fran wanted to know what's being done to improve the Capricorn Road, especially west of Emerald. She's told us that it's a death trap. Do you know anything of that?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, look, I do know and I do know about the fact that many of our roads are in need of upgrades. But when you compare the roads of today to what some of us used to drive on 20, 30 years ago, they are vastly improved and of course, vehicles have vastly improved too. And people should always drive to the conditions. But we are spending a considerable amount of money, a third of the hundred billion dollars on regional infrastructure and the bulk of that is on roads. And we've got the Roads of Strategic Importance. Of course we have got the Beef Roads and we're working through councils, through state governments, that identify these roads and the Roads to Recovery funding, we've just given all the local governments a top-up of their Roads to Recovery funding and in most cases that was up to a million dollars for the 537 councils right across the nation. And so, we're spending a lot of money on roads.
But I say to people if they are concerned about roads, drive to the conditions, of course. We want people to get to where they need to be sooner and safer. We want them certainly to get there in one piece. So that's why we're investing heavily in roads and that's why road safety is paramount. And I say that not just as the Leader of the Nationals but as somebody in Parliament. I know that view is shared by Mark Bailey, by everybody right across the nation. And people also, I have to say, should get off their mobile phones. Paul, it's such a killer on our roads these days, that driver distraction and people should really obey the rules and make sure they do stay off their mobile phones.
PAUL CULLIVER
It's ABC Capricornia that you're tuned to. Paul Culliver is my name. My guest this morning, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Michael McCormack. Just in our news we actually heard from Bill Bowtell. He's Adjunct Professor from the University of New South Wales. He's a leading epidemiologist in the country. He said that it's time to implement more ambitious quarantine and lockdown measures. Obviously, with the outbreak we're seeing in Victoria, it now seems to have spread to, or at least also popped up in New South Wales. What do you make of that, going hard and fast now locking down again rather than having to contain more outbreaks?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Until there's a vaccine, we're not going to be able to eliminate COVID-19 from Australia, let alone anywhere else and so, we take the best and expert advice of Professor Brendan Murphy, his offsider, Paul Kelly as Chief Medical Officers of the nation. Of course, the Chief Medical Officers of the various states, they are part of that national network of Protection Principal Committee doctors and professors who have guided us through this situation. And it has been a tragic situation for 108 families who have lost loved ones and our sympathies and condolences go to those families. But, as a nation, we've done very, very well compared to other nations.
You look at the United States at the moment, tens of thousands of cases a day. Yes, we're getting you know, upwards of 200 and that's unfortunate, particularly through this outbreak in Victoria in particular and of course, The Crossroads Hotel in Sydney. But we'll get through this, and what we want people to do is make sure that they be their best selves, as they have been. And our thanks go out to so many, so many Australians who have done the right thing. And, you know, the social distancing and all that, all the new provisions, they have been difficult to come to terms with but people have, by and large, done the right thing and that's why we've kept our rates, our cases, low and certainly the mortality rate extremely low compared to any other nation in the world.
But we can't lock down the economy totally because that would just cruel so many businesses and so many workers. And the other thing too is whilst the Government has put on the table more than $260 billion worth of assistance, all that money has been borrowed and all of that money has to be repaid, plus interest. And so, we need to ensure that we get the economy resuming again. And you know, so many of those parts of regional Australia, they're wondering why they have to face the same quarantine and same lockdown conditions as some of the metropolitan areas when they haven't had a case.
I come from a city in regional New South Wales, a city of 70,000 people. Now, we haven't had a positive test of COVID in my city and we've had one death down the road, but 120-kilometres down the road and that's very, very sad. But you can't lock down the entire nation just to get through a situation where there's still no vaccine in sight.
PAUL CULLIVER
I mean, you say we can't do that. New Zealand has eliminated the virus compared to our approach to suppression –
MICHAEL McCORMACK
But have they? That's the question. Has New Zealand eliminated the virus? Now, you're only going to need one international traveller or one situation there where somebody, for some reason has it, and community transmission is now occurring in Australia and that's unfortunate. But we can't lock down 26 million people and stop them from working and stop businesses from operating on the risk that everybody is going to do the right thing because, as we've seen in Victoria, those security guards did not do the right thing and that indiscretion has led to the outbreak in Victoria which has now resulted in 150, 170 new cases a day.
And once the virus gets out, you know, you lock down for another month. Somebody else might then get it, a traveller back from overseas who may not show any symptoms may come out of quarantine and still be harbouring the symptoms but not be showing it and the next thing you know, we've got another outbreak. And we've got university professors and I respect his qualifications, but then calling again for another lockdown. We can't just keep starting and stopping and starting and stopping the economy. It just doesn't work that way.
PAUL CULLIVER
This morning, Bill Shorten, the Shadow Government Services Minister has called the COVIDSafe app an expensive dud. It hasn't been used to find a single case of contact in a COVID confirmed case. What has gone wrong here?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, I don't really regard a lot of what Bill Shorten says with too much credibility, quite frankly. But the COVIDSafe app, I would encourage and urge Australians to download it. It –
PAUL CULLIVER
But there's credibility to the fact that it hasn't found a single case of contact between positive cases.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, that's not to say it won't and I'll take the advice of Professor Brendan Murphy over Bill Shorten any day of any week. I mean, Bill Shorten and some of his Labor mates need to realise that they are on Team Australia and some of what they've said and some of what they've called for lately has not really been in the national interest. So, I'll believe Professor Brendan Murphy, as I say, over the failed former Labor leader any day of any week.
PAUL CULLIVER
Should the app have been useful by now?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, who's to say it hasn't been? I mean, I would rather take Brendan Murphy's word than Bill Shorten's. As I say and –
PAUL CULLIVER
Well, we've got an outbreak happening in Victoria, so if there's contact tracing underway and the COVIDSafe app hasn't been useful, I would say it hasn't been effective.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
But the COVIDSafe app works when people have been in contact and they've got to be in contact with them for 15 minutes. I mean, if somebody coughs in your face and has COVID, you may not have been in contact with them for 15 minutes but you may well get COVID-19 from them because they've coughed in your face or –
PAUL CULLIVER
Does that mean the parameters in the app are wrong, then?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
No, because the COVIDSafe app works when it picks up people who have been in touch or in contact with people for 15 minutes or longer. So, for Bill Shorten to come out and say this, I think it's highly irresponsible. But, then again, I've always thought Bill Shorten's fairly irresponsible when it comes to economic management and everything else. I mean, he had his chance to be the Prime Minister of Australia and he mucked it up and now he's still there and still trying to run the show. Well, as I say, the Government has taken the best possible advice, medical advice. I didn't think Bill Shorten was a doctor, last time I looked he wasn't. We'll take it from Professor Brendan Murphy and we'll follow that advice and we'll make sure that Australians feel calm and considered and measured and knowing that their government is working for them, not somebody who could have, should have perhaps, been the Prime Minister but mucked up his opportunity.
PAUL CULLIVER
Sure. Bill Shorten aside though, just on the app, so you're saying there are cases where you're going to have transmission, someone could cough in someone's face. But the COVIDSafe app isn't designed to detect that. So, should the COVIDSafe app be redesigned to better contact trace?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
The COVIDSafe app is working as the experts in both technological data and of course, the information too is sacrosanct and secret and only available to those health authorities who absolutely need it. I'm not sure Bill Shorten is one of those people. So, again, I will say I'll take the advice and the Government will take the advice of Professor Murphy and we'll take that advice well and truly over somebody who, quite frankly, has been a failed Labor leader.
PAUL CULLIVER
All right. Just a few other quick things, if you've got some time, Deputy Prime Minister. I do want to ask you, obviously Queensland has just opened up their borders to everyone other than Victoria. You, along with a lot of other Federal Government Ministers were critical of the Queensland border closures. Given the virus outbreaks that we've now seen in Victoria and New South Wales, do you think the Premier of Queensland was right to keep the borders closed as long as she did?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, if you ask somebody in South-East Queensland whose business was very badly hurt by it – I mean, you can't just lock down your economy or your state and expect businesses to survive through this. Look, I was with Annastacia Palaszczuk on Sunday at the opening of the new runway at Brisbane Airport. We were very cordial to one another, as we've always been. I would have to say the difference in optimism on Sunday compared to what it was two weeks ago was stark. And people are very pleased. In fact, the comment was made to me by a lot of people that the border reopening, was well overdue. And now that we've got that runway it's going to double the capacity of Brisbane Airport. It's going to lead to so much more tourism to places such as Rockhampton.
PAUL CULLIVER
To the question though, does the outbreak prove that the border closure was justified?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, the border closures may have been justified in the first instance, but you have to ask Annastacia Palaszczuk that. Our best medical advice was that border closures were not necessary. Whilst appreciating that New South Wales has now closed its borders to Victoria that is entirely a matter for State Premiers and State Governments. It's not something that the Commonwealth Government had jurisdiction over and whilst I appreciate –
PAUL CULLIVER
But you did have criticisms for it, though.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, the National Cabinet processes works very well, and again I say we took the best available advice at the time by the Chief Medical experts who said that those border closures were unnecessary.
PAUL CULLIVER
All right. I do want to just ask you one final question because I did get a call from [inaudible] earlier and very much wanted to put a question to you. To paraphrase her query, she said to me, "Look, the Nationals are for farmers, people living in regional areas.” She's very concerned about funding cuts coming to the ABC, things like the news being cut and such and she really just wanted to put to you her concerns over the Federal Government backing cuts to the ABC and the resulting lack of services in the regions because of that.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, I can tell [inaudible] that there'll be a lot of media organisations in Australia who would love the billion dollars of funding that they are able to resource their newsrooms with and the services that they provide both online, via the airways and via television screens. There are a lot of media outlets which would love that money. And we haven't – we have not – cut funding to the ABC. And of course, coming from a regional area, I know how important the ABC is, particularly when you have a natural disaster. And any decisions of news services or whatever that are withdrawn are entirely a matter for the ABC.
I think what the ABC could do and I've said it before, is that they could have an even more regional focus. And the money that they're spending on its Ultimo headquarters and having many, many services concentrated in metropolitan areas, I'm just glad the National Party have made sure that we've got very much a regional voice on the ABC board. And I'm very pleased that the ABC, thanks to the Nationals, have got more of an emphasis on regional services and regional news services and I appreciate the role that the ABC plays.
I appreciate that when I come to Rockhampton the ABC always wants to talk to me and talk to Michelle Landry and it's one way of us being able to tell the message about the good things that the Federal Government is actually doing in Rockhampton, in Capricornia and in central Queensland.
PAUL CULLIVER
All right. Deputy Prime Minister, always appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Thanks, Paul.