TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH PETER STEFANOVIC – SKY NEWS FIRST EDITION, 11 MARCH 2021

7:32AM

E&OE

Subject: Tourism rescue package

PETER STEFANOVIC

Well 800,000 half priced air fares will form the centrepiece of the Morrison Government’s $1.2 billion tourism rescue package. Joining me live now is the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack. Michael, good to see you. Thanks for joining us this morning. So what guarantees have you had from airlines that they won’t then prop up prices?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

No, they won’t. And they’ve told us that. I’ve had long discussions with both Alan Joyce and Jayne Hrdlicka from Qantas and Virgin respectively. They’re not going to do that. Of course, the ACCC has been monitoring air prices right throughout the pandemic and making sure that it is as what it should be. You can hear the roar of the engines in the background, Peter, and that’s what we want to see. We want to see planes and more of them getting in the air, because planes in the air means jobs on the ground. And this is supporting not only those destinations to which those planes will go but also the workers who fly those planes and who work on the ground.

PETER STEFANOVIC

What happens if you buy a ticket and then the Premier shuts a border?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, we don’t want – we don’t want Premiers to do that. And I think as the vaccine rolls out, as JobKeeper comes off, we’re through those election cycles, surely common sense will and has to prevail. We need to get back to some sort of pre-COVID normality. We need Premiers to follow the lead of Gladys Berejiklian here in New South Wales and not make those knee-jerk hasty decisions to close their borders when there’s just a one or two community transmission outbreaks. We need to make sure that we get those borders remaining open and that people can travel not only interstate but always intrastate, Peter.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Okay, so there’s no continuation of wage subsidies. So where is the help for non-airline related businesses?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, indeed, those destinations to which people will be travelling on the half price tickets, every dollar spent on an air fare means $10 spent at the destination. We’re also backing the travel agents, and there are 40,000 people, 80 per cent of whom are women. We’re giving them a $132 million package as well. And the flow-on benefits from this, Peter, will go right throughout the sector. Aviation was hit first, it was hit hardest. It continues to be hard hit and we want to protect those thousands of jobs in the airline sector and that’s exactly what we’re doing today.

PETER STEFANOVIC

So there’s a bit of a trade-off going here – your MO is to get tourists into those centres with the hope that they will spend money so that saves you the job of then paying extra to these other businesses?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, indeed, we’ve discussed this with the tourism sector. I know that Margy Osmond has been out today. She supports what we’re doing. I know Darren Rudd from the Australian Federation of Travel Agents, he does too. We’ve seen third-party endorsements everywhere. They know that this is a good package. They know it’s going to work, and we’re confident it will too.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Okay. So how is more debt, though, going to help cash strapped small businesses?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, it’s going to get people back in jobs, Peter. And when people are back in jobs, they’re benefitting the economy, they’re making sure that we get on with getting that economic recovery rebuild happening. And that’s what it’s all about. And I know that we’re supporting also small and medium enterprises. Josh Frydenberg has got those arrangements with them, which is also being announced today. It’s a big package – $1.2 billion of support. Yes we’re adding to the debt but we need to get the economy back working. You’ve got to spend money to make money. That’s what we’re doing. Australia’s been the envy of the world when it comes to what we are doing as far as the economic outcomes are concerned through this global pandemic. And when you look at what we’ve also done on the health front many other countries elsewhere in the world would love to be where we are in that regard.

PETER STEFANOVIC

It comes a long way short of expectations from the tourism sector, though. How many jobs do you think will be gone by the end of this month? How many businesses, especially in the tourism sector, will still fold?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

I can’t put an estimate on that, but what we do know is that this is going to support those tourism businesses in those areas hardest hit – hardest hit by Premiers closing their borders at the drop of a hat, hardest hit by the fact that they haven’t been getting the planes in. Well, they will be now. And they’ll be getting those planes in with people on them having paid half price tickets, Peter.

PETER STEFANOVIC

But businesses will fold. There will be some businesses that still fold.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, yes, and that’s unfortunate. And we’ve supported businesses all the way. They’re paying the lowest tax that they’ve paid for nearly 80 years. We’re making sure that we back in all sections of the economy. We’re doing it with this package today. I know it’s going to be such a boon for the tourism industries in those areas which have been so hard hit, Peter.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Have you got an update, just finally, Deputy Prime Minister – it looks like there’s a bit of movement behind you – have you got an update on when you believe international travel may well be on track here in Australia given that we are so far behind with the vaccine rollout?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, we’re not behind in the vaccine rollout. We’re getting that out. We’re doing it sensibly. We’re doing it practically. We’re doing it as the Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, has advised us all the way through and we’re getting it out to regional Australia. But, indeed, Alan Joyce would like to see some of those travel bubbles with perhaps Japan and South Korea where the vaccine is also rolling out at the moment by October. But early next year we’d like to see, you know, international travel at some sort of pre-COVID normality, some sort of rate that compares to what we had before the pandemic.

But this is going to be a long haul. Many of those nations are still beset with people dying at the rate of two a minute. And, of course, our quarantine limitations are such that we can’t just get people coming into Australia, you know, without having the vaccine or without quarantining. These arrangements are going to take a long time to put into place but this package today is going to benefit the country enormously.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, I know you’ve got to scurry off to that press conference now, so I’ll let you go. Appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Good on you, Peter. Any time at all.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Talk to you soon.

ENDS 7:39

Shane Manning