TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH KATIE WOOLF, MIX 104.9 DARWIN, 11 August 2020
E&OE
Subjects: Northern Territory Election;
KATIE WOOLF
Well, thanks for joining us, sneaking in there while we played that bit of audio talking about the hotspots for the Northern Territory and we're all a little confused this morning because we thought that the Chief Minister had maybe announced that the hard borders are back in place. It seems that's not the case, we are sticking with this hotspot policy. Otherwise, you might find yourself quarantining here for 14 days.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, there’d be worse places to quarantine in, they might worry when I didn't return to Parliament, but that wouldn't be so bad to be stuck in Darwin, would it?
KATIE WOOLF
It’s a good place to be, no doubt about it, particularly during what is a real health crisis for the rest of the nation and we are going pretty well here in the Territory at the moment.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Look, I've just got off the phone from the Prime Minister and he made that very point.
KATIE WOOLF
And how is the Prime Minister, is he wishing that he could come to the Territory at the moment?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, it'd be a lot warmer than where he is at the moment but then when I left Wagga Wagga on Saturday, it was minus two overnight and I got up here and it was about 31˚C. So it's very nice. Look, I love Darwin, I love the Northern Territory and I'm a regular visitor here. You know I am here to support Lia Finocchiaro obviously and the Country Liberal Party team and Senator Sam McMahon and they're doing a great job.
KATIE WOOLF
Well, Matt Canavan was here last week, you're obviously here this week, the CLP certainly bought in the big guns in the lead in to the election. I mean realistically, there is a bit of a push from The Nationals, you’d have to say, to support the CLP here in the Territory, you must feel pretty strongly that the Gunner Government maybe isn't doing the best job that they could be?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Look, I know back in May when Lia announced that every Territorian was going to be saddled with a $25,000 debt to pay back the $6.2 billion as it was then – it's now blown out to $8.2 billion. So what we don't want to see is Territorians being saddled with even further debt and that is the unfortunate situation. Re-elect the Michael Gunner Labor Government for another four years and the spiralling debt will only increase and Lia has a plan, she's got a blueprint, a vision to get out of that. She's put up a platform of policy for jobs, safety and opportunity. I could think of no three finer principles upon which to have an election campaign and so I say, go Lia! Vote number one Lia!
KATIE WOOLF
Well, I mean, a lot of those things are easier said than done and we know that there's a lot of talk about diversifying the economy at the moment and diversifying industry. But what do you think we could really be doing differently here in the Northern Territory in order to do that?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, when you say easier said than done, you're right. But what I'm really impressed about is the fact that should she be elected Chief Minister on Saturday week, she's going to take the Police portfolio. So she's going to not only talk the talk when it comes to crime, she's going to actually walk the walk and she's going to make sure that the measures that are put into place by her Government and certainly as far as anti-crime measures are concerned, that she's leading the way. That takes a bit of guts when a politician who could take an infrastructure portfolio or take another portfolio which might not have that day-to-day pressure, yes, they've all got day-to-day pressures but she could easily take a different portfolio. But, she's prepared to lead from the front and that's what I'm so impressed about her. Look, Territorians – I know lot of them already voted yesterday, polling opened yesterday and I was at one polling booth with, you know, hundreds upon hundreds.
KATIE WOOLF
More than 6,000 people have voted already –
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Indeed, across the Territory. That's a lot of people and so with the COVID-situation, people are being encouraged and urged to vote early. But of course, the big day is Saturday week, August 22 and after that, we'll see what happens.
KATIE WOOLF
Well, just to go back though, to, you know, the way that we could be doing things differently and obviously, there's a lot of discussion about the Northern Territory’s debt at this point in time. And I know the Chief Minister Michael Gunner last week, made some comments about seeing whether the Federal Government could potentially wipe some historical debt, is that something that's realistically even on the cards?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
We will work with the Northern Territory Government going forward as we do with the ACT too and the six states. We always work with our with governments of any political persuasion, but it makes it a whole lot easier when you've got a government in there who knows how to handle money, it makes it easy when you've got a government which has an economic plan. Lia has, I’m not so sure that Labor does have.
KATIE WOOLF
I mean? Do you feel like they're flying blind with the economy?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, it’s easy to spend other people's money and that's what Labor Governments do. And generally, when CLP, National, Liberal Governments take over, they are saddled with a big debt that they then work hard to repay and they repay it without burdening people with big taxes – that's the Labor way. They do it by growing the economy. They do it by growing agriculture. They do it by making full use of the resources that are available and this Territory is blessed with natural attributes and resources and assets. And so we want to make sure that we take advantage of those by building more water infrastructure, by building better roads to get product to port quicker and then of course, we can avail ourselves of all of those export opportunities that we've grown and created over the past six years, federally.
KATIE WOOLF
Speaking of some of those major projects, we would obviously like to see things get moving in the Territory and a lot of those things do require support from the Federal Government, when you talk about water infrastructure and things like that. The NAIF is seen as being one of the things that is incredibly helpful in this space. Now the Federal Opposition reckons that it could take more than a century though to spend the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facilities total $5 billion in project loans if funding’s released at the current rate. Labor's spokesman for Northern Australia, Murray Watt, was out yesterday saying that an analysis of the NAIF’s annual reports and questions on notice show that over $33 million – nearly the same amount released for projects yearly – has been spent on executive and staff salaries, as well as office space, travel, board directors, advertising and more over the duration of the NAIF. Is the NAIF just far too slow and cumbersome?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Keith Pitt has made changes to the NAIF to ensure that more money gets out the door quicker but of course, as with any fund, it has to be accountable. It has to be transparent. And as with any fund, if private entities or governments or whoever are playing in that space, then any proposal that they bring to the Commonwealth needs to have the ruler very much run over it. It needs to – at the end of the day – have the Auditor-General's tick of approval long off into the distance. And so any project that is approved today, must stack up tomorrow. So that's what Keith Pitt is doing with the NAIF. We've shown a commitment to Northern Australia, we’re the first government to actually have a Minister for Northern Australia. So Matt Canavan, now Keith Pitt, are doing great jobs in that area. Matt, as you said earlier, was just up here last week, talking to people and more importantly listening to people and their ideas.
KATIE WOOLF
Is that true though? That there's more money being spent on executive and staff salaries and office space than what there is, you know, actually being invested?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
That's why Keith Pitt has tweaked the rules, has tweaked the arrangements, has tweaked the principles and protocols around the NAIF to ensure that more money can get out the door and these things do take a lot of money to establish, these things do take a lot of money to get up off the ground, these things do take a lot of money in accountability and transparency. But everything with the NAIF is geared to boosting Northern Australia and that, of course, largely includes the Top End. So Keith – having been up here not that long ago – I know we've already discussed my trip here this week. We've discussed it at length and what we can do to make sure that some of that loan money can get out the door to players in the Northern Territory to build the Northern Territory economy because that is what is needed. It's not more taxes – that’s the Labor way. Lia’s got a plan, working with us, with the NAIF to build the Northern Territory economy.
KATIE WOOLF
Are there any sort of particular industries that you'd like to see invested in, that you'd really like to see get moving here in the Territory?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
So where do you start? Where do you stop? I mean, there's so much! There's gas, there's all sorts of mining and the mineral wealth here is quite extraordinary and of course, those rare earths. We want to explore and utilise many more of those rare earths that are now so valuable in all sorts of things from mobile phone technology to everything else. We want to make sure that we grow agriculture and of course, The Nationals, well we were the Party that made sure that that terrible decision back in June 2011, to stop the live export cattle industry that we didn't progress with legal action against those proponents who were so unfairly treated by the Labor Government back in 2011. But that's Labor Governments all over. They treat people unfairly and then they wonder why the economy is in such bad shape.
KATIE WOOLF
I'll tell you what, there's some fighting words going around in the next two weeks, no doubt about that ahead of the Northern Territory election.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Bring it on.
KATIE WOOLF
Now, I do want to ask you while you're in the studio though, two Members of Federal Parliament currently, obviously in Canberra representing the Northern Territory, those numbers are set to go down to one in the House of Representatives. Do you support this happening or should we keep two seats?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
We'll have those discussions but the Northern Territory is a very, very large place and what representation for people means is that they have access to their local Member – their local House of Representatives Member or, in the case of Sam McMahon, they’re Upper House Member. But what we want to make sure is that regional people have access and so when you look at the map of the Northern Territory, it's a long way from Alice to Katherine, it's a long way to Tennant Creek, it's a long way to Darwin. I know, I represent a large electorate but my electorate being about 50,000-square-kilometres pales into insignificance with the size of the Northern Territory and so for that Member who represents Solomon or Lingiari, they need to be able to get around and represent their people and have accessibility to their people. But I've got to tell you, I bumped into Warren Snowdon, as the small as the world is, I bumped into him walking down the street last night and we chatted about it and that's what you’d expect politicians to be doing, is chatting about these sorts of things that are of interest to them. And moreover, of interest to their constituents. So, we'll have those discussions going forward, I can see the benefit of having two seats in the Northern Territory. But what we want to do is grow the population of the Northern Territory such that there's no question about how many representatives it has. That's what we want to do and that's what Lia has the plan to do. Grow the economy, therefore grow the population and therefore there won't be any question as to how many seats that the Northern Territory has. In fact, it could even extend to more than two – the ACT has and that's what we want to do, grow the population, grow the economy.
KATIE WOOLF
Well, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, we are going to have to leave it there. Good to catch up with you. Thanks so much for coming in.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Tremendous, thank you so much.