TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW ON 4CA 846 AM CAIRNS, 23 July 2020

E&OE

Subjects: Live Cattle Exports Federal Court Decision;

JOHN MACKENZIE

Now on the line I've got Michael McCormack. He's the Deputy Prime Minister, he’s just called in over this matter and I'm pleased he has. Michael, good morning.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Good morning, John.

JOHN MACKENZIE

Justice at last.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Absolutely and this will be of great relief to those cattle producers right throughout your part of the world, right throughout to the Top End indeed. I know I’ve just got off the phone from the Member for Leichhardt – my good mate – Warren Entsch. He said he was thrilled with the decision. Nine years this court cases has gone on, it has gone on way too long. And justice has finally been done. And they can get on with doing what they do and what they've done superbly for many, many years and that’s turnout the best cattle in the world.

JOHN MACKENZIE

Michael, actually go back to 2011. I don't know what you were doing back then –

MICHAEL McCORMACK

I was in Parliament at the time and I do you remember it well. We had a television program, then the next day, Labor moved very swiftly, very quickly, as a knee-jerk reaction to a flood of tweets and other social media barrage from all those people who live in the capital cities and don't always understand exactly what life is like out in regional areas and certainly in remote Australia. They called on the Gillard Government and Joe Ludwig, the Agriculture Minister at the time, to do something and they did something – they banned live cattle without even telling Indonesia. They found out about it via the media. It was a knee-jerk reaction. The wrong decision to take and it put the lives and livelihoods of those cattle producers, those fine people at risk.

JOHN MACKENZIE

It's appalling to think that somebody with no understanding of what they were doing could actually have such a powerful position in politics in Australia. Do you remember your blood boiling when you heard the announcement of the decision?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Absolutely, as did all my National Party colleagues and indeed the regional Liberals for whom also understood. They understood full well, because a lot of their cattle were put on the ships and sent into Indonesia. You know, animal welfare has always been front and centre of our trading relations with other nations, whether it's the Middle East or whether it's indeed our friends to the North. To make this decision in such haste, I say again, it put these cattle producers, you know, they didn't know where to go or what to do or where to turn to. Their livelihoods had been cut off virtually overnight by the Government. And that is why Brett Cattle and others have taken this course of action. The wheels of legal process, sometimes take a long time to turn and understanding that you've got to let these core actions take place and run their full course but having received the judgment and the decision by the Federal Court of Australia, Christian Porter was faced with a dilemma – and it was a dilemma because we can’t have every decision taken by a Minister pulled through the rigors of the courts. Our Government – the Liberal Nationals Government – always takes careful and measured decision making processes when we do pass legislation but unfortunately, this time, back in June 2011, was taken in haste and was the wrong decision to make.

JOHN MACKENZIE

Yes, you know, it is sad for those graziers and exporters etc, that are no longer with us, they didn't survive the last nine-years. However this is justice for their families isn't it?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, a lot of Aboriginal stockmen too who, you know, that was their job, but for that industry, they might not have had work and many of them found it difficult to transition into other work, if at all. There's a number of people this affected not just, dare I say, the cattle exporters and the shipping companies and the producers on these remote stations who turnout the cattle but indeed many indirect industries. I mean, regional Australia props up and supports the nation as you know coming from where you do in fine North Queensland. You make a lot of money that's spent in Brisbane and elsewhere across the nation and the value to our nation for what regional Australia is not always front and centre of those people's minds when they're sipping their peppermint tea in salubrious cafes in capital cities. They don't always understand just how hard these people work and the fact that their livelihoods were stripped away from them.

JOHN MACKENZIE

They wouldn’t know one end of a cow from the other.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, they wouldn't certainly know one end of a steer from the other and this decision steered, pardon the pun, the nation in the wrong direction. Thankfully, justice has not only been done but is seen to be done.

JOHN MACKENZIE

Now, Michael McCormack, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, what did you ring Warren Entsch about, am I allowed to ask?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

I ring Warren all the time He's a great mate of mine. Warren is in there fighting hard for infrastructure. What I will tell you is that I've got an Elvis Festival in my electorate and Warren often calls me Elvis and a lot of Queenslanders actually journey down to the Central West of New South Wales to attend that wonderful festival in early January in Parkes. But Warren and I always talk about infrastructure, we talk about the dams and the highway connections that we need to put into place and he's always wearing the carpet out into my Canberra office to make sure he gets a better deal for the people of Leichhardt. He does a wonderful job. Obviously, he's a great mate of mine and if there were more Members of Parliament like Warren Entsch, the place would be better suited for it.

JOHN MACKENZIE

Good on you, Michael.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Thanks, John.

Shane Manning