TRANSCRIPT: ADDRESS TO THE NATIONALS FEDERAL CONFERENCE, 27 March 2021

10:47AM

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Subjects: Address to The Nationals Federal Conference;

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MICHAEL McCORMACK  

Thank you, Larry.

It is great to be with you all.

I do acknowledge we are on Ngunnawal territory. I acknowledge Aboriginal people in the room, any emerging leaders and certainly those who went before us.

At the outset I’d like to acknowledge Larry Anthony and thank him for his great service to our Party, to our nation. It will continue.

I’d like to acknowledge Kay Hull, the incoming President, for the service she will contribute to our Party and to rural and regional Australians.

I’d also like to acknowledge Jonathan Hawkes, our Federal Director, who has served magnificently, doing a great job. Those present yesterday would have seen the sort of effort he went to enabling so many people to come and let us know how important business is and how important it is to have a strong economy. We are working very hard, of course, to do just that.

I’d would like to of course acknowledge all my Federal, State and Territory Parliamentary colleagues.

Indeed, I would like to acknowledge everybody in the room because you are all important. Life is there for those who turn up and turn up you have. We’re going to have a great conference.

But as we meet, there are families in Australia who are mourning – mourning the loss of loved ones in these devastating floods. We should think of them, pray for them. We wrap our arms around them, but it is so tragic to have the loss of lives in these devastating floods. Many families, many businesses have lost a lot.

I want to acknowledge the efforts of David Littleproud, our Deputy Leader, for doing what he has done to be up there with the Prime Minister, to provide that support – that tangible financial support which is going to be so important for those people in the days, weeks and months ahead.

I’d like to also acknowledge David Gillespie is with us. He came down especially for today. I know he is going back tonight to be with his community. I appreciate that Pat Conaghan, that Mark Coulton are with their communities and that’s important that they be there.

These floods have been devastating but we will, as always, get through it, because as always Australians are very, very resilient.

I’d like to make some comments at the start about the abhorrent behaviour and events reported to have taken place in Parliament House.

In recent weeks we have seen behaviour not befitting our Federal Parliament and that is gut-wrenching. It’s heartbreaking.

Australia’s house of national democracy and debate has been mired in the behaviour of those who do not represent our principles nor our values.

These individuals are small in number, but have been reported as representative of the majority.

This is, of course, not the case.

The vast majority of staff, Members and Senators who come to Canberra to represent electorates, States and Territories right across this nation, do so in a very hard-working manner. They are honourable people.

Behaviour of this nature must stop, and must stop now.

We need to respect each other. That is why we have been sent to Canberra and it should never be forgotten.

We need to be our best selves.

As with all workplaces in our nation, all homes, all places where people gather - we should be respectful. Now and always.

No female, no person, should ever feel unsafe in their workplace.

No person should tolerate harassment of any kind or other inappropriate behaviour.

For anyone who needs to, please speak up.

We can all do better and we must do better.

And – if there have been those people who tell us they haven’t had that support they needed, then I am sorry. I’m sorry for those people and I will work, as I know all my colleagues will, to provide that support, to provide that respect and to provide that decency.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Australia is at the crossroads.

For decades, for many many years, regional Australians have cried out for stronger infrastructure, better services and more jobs.

The Nationals in Government, as we always do, have heard the call. And we’re taking action.

I don’t know about you, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I watched that video of the statue unveiling again of Black Jack McEwen.

His spirit looms large. It’s in this room. It’s in the book Senator McKenzie wrote. I urge you to get a copy.

Holding Government is a privilege. We heard from our friends a little earlier about how long we’ve held Government, the job that we’ve done in the past, what we’re doing now and the job we will do into the future.

We’re not just there to mind the shop. No way. Never have been, never will be.

The last federal Budget was amongst the best, despite the difficult times, was amongst the best ever for regional Australians.

It resulted in a massive Government workload as we act to deliver on our commitments as quickly as possible. You would expect that. Our regions would demand that.

And the results are everywhere. Everywhere you go in regional Australia you can see the results of what we’re doing, for and on behalf of you.

Regional Australia is leading the national economic recovery from COVID19, but of course there’s still much more ground to make up, much more work to be done.

Australians are moving out of the cities like never before. 7,782 Sydneysiders moving into regional areas, mainly New South Wales, in the September quarter cannot be wrong.

Indeed, regional Australia has been one of the safest places in al the world, if not the safest place in all of the planet in which to live during the last year or so.

Why wouldn’t Australians want to go to regional Australia?

A more affordable lifestyle, not sitting in traffic looking at the brake lights in front of you for an hour to and from work, in a community which is big enough to get a good cup of coffee and small enough to still care, to still have those valuable friendships. It means we trust in our community, to do the job we need to do.

We will deliver the infrastructure and services we need in these times, particularly in these times of crisis.

We have the right policies. They are in place. I’m sure you are going to debate and decide, a number of other policies we will take around our Party Room and endeavour to improve regional Australia’s lot even more.

It means a redoubling of our effort to earn the ongoing support, trust and respect of the Australian people, to get this job done.

Regional Australia is at a crossroads but we will forge ahead, thanks to the spirit of Black Jack and the enthusiasm of everyone in this room.

A jolt to the left, a shift to an uncaring and city-centric, anti-regional Labor-Greens Government, would impose a devastating cost.

We must not and we will not allow curiously well-funded Independents and the Greens to ever be part of a Government. The Gillard/Brown alliance: We all remember how damaging it was.

The risk of Labor and their friends is very real.

As the campaign in 2019 showed, they will make it up as they go along.

What might be right in Melbourne, what they might say in Melbourne – they will say a completely different thing when they get to Moranbah. They will say completely different things when they buy a brand new pair of RMs and journey out to the bush.

Regional Australians knew Labor wasn’t serious at the last election and they voted accordingly.

They know we’re serious. They will back us all the way.

Now this morning I sat at a table with Senator Matt Canavan. I noticed Matt was unusually nervous. He was quaking in his boots, trembling with fear that Adam Bandt is going to announce his Queensland pitch. I saw Matt Canavan’s very nervous about that. I’m sure when Matt Canavan hears Bob Brown is coming back to Queensland, well that’s going to make those coal miners absolutely fear.

It was the best thing that happened in Queensland last time, wasn’t it Matt!

Matt believes in jobs. He believes in regional Queensland, as we all do.

They can knock and mock a certain coal mine but yesterday I heard they have just hit past 1,600 workers. It’s power generation of the future, making sure Australia and other nations have that great energy force.

And of course, The Greens are against gas as well. Well, Keith Pitt is opening up Beetaloo Basin in the NT. We are getting behind job-creating, economy-building promotions, innovations, job-building prospects and we will do it, we will continue to do it because these sorts of things promote regional security. They promote regional wealth. They promote regional jobs.

When the challenges are there, The Nationals act. We always act. The Greens and Labor, well they just want to tear anything down. We build them up.

We are there for regional Australians.

The highest priority is also building water infrastructure.

Yes, it’s about protecting jobs but it’s also about growing jobs.

Never before has Australia dared to dream of regional development through a National Water Grid, backed with $3.5 billion.

Now think for a moment how fast a Labor Government, hand-in-hand with The Greens, would stop – you can see from the slide there all the regional projects we’re getting on with and ineed what we’re going to do in the future – you could imagine what Labor would do if it got back into power.

It would stop this nation-building, wealth-generating, job-promoting progress in its tracks!

We have a vast array of water infrastructure works already underway.

We’re building the momentum. We’re going to carry it on.

Already, seven works are complete, those projects from Warwick Recycled Water in Queensland to the Coolanie and McLaren Vale projects in South Australia.

…And there’s so much underway in Victoria, from the Sunraysia Modernisation, Macalister District and South West Loddon works. It’s not just water in Victoria – it’s rail, it’s road, it’s air facilities…

…Senator Bridget McKenzie, Anne Webster, Damian Drum, Darren Chester – they are pushing this point. Without their actions this just wouldn’t happen.

Farmers in the Granite Belt of Queensland have invested $23 million out of their own pockets to back in the Australian Government investment in the Emu Swamp Dam.

Rookwood Weir upgrading is confirmed – to deliver an extra 10,000 megalitres capacity. You can imagine what that’s going to do for agriculture: more water security. Well done to Ken O’Dowd. Well done to Michelle Landry. Well done to Team Queensland.

Business cases are already well underway for Dungowan and Wyangala Dam upgrades in New South Wales. You need fighters for outcomes of this kind and we’ve got a fighter, certainly for Dungowan but other water infrastructure as well, in Barnaby Joyce. Thank you for continuing to do what you do, to build our water capacity – all those job-promotion activities.

Scottsdale Dam in north-east Tasmania: Started in 2018, well it’s finished, because we care. We got on with it. We built it. We did it.

If Tim Flannery, The Greens and others understood regional Australia, they wouldn’t say such things as the rivers will never run again. They would not do that. They would know there’s a changeable landscape, a changeable environment. We’re getting on with the job of making sure we have water security, and we’re not going to be lectured to, we’re not gong to follow what they tell us about our land. We are not.

It’s not just water infrastructure – we’re working to deliver fair outcomes to water users, not least across the vast Murray Darling Basin. Thank you, Perin Davey and Keith Pitt particularly for your work in that regard.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In an agenda as big as ours, there’s always new action underway.

Today I am absolutely delighted to announce the Government will establish through the National Water Grid Authority, a fund dedicated to building more smaller, targeted dams, weirs and pipelines throughout rural and regional Australia.

Much of our current focus is on building bigger water infrastructure, but the little ones count as well.

They also promote economic activity. They also create jobs and more wealth.

We will seek applications of up to $20 million from each state and territory, to be matched by the Federal Government to rapidly build smaller water projects across the country.

They are so needed, so wanted and so expected.

We want to start and complete these smaller water projects in every state and territory inside two years. So it’s ambitious. I have already had good reports from some of my state counterparts. I want to get on with the job. So that’s great, that’s encouraging.

These are projects which will be of benefit to farmers, to help build our agricultural industry into a $100 billion industry by 2030, and I know how much David Littleproud is working for that. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

Regional communications are thriving as never before.

I understand, I get the emergency motion at this conference and the need – yes, we will continue to do what we  can to make telecommunications even better across the bush.

The $380 million Mobile Black Spot Program is delivering on the Government’s commitment to do just that, improve mobile coverage and competition.

Better mobile phone coverage is crucial for people living in working in our regional areas. We saw that last year like never before, when people were staying at home, working from home, communicating from home and attached to the rest of the world.

The result of our work? An $836 million delivery of more than 1,200 mobile base stations across Australia, with more to come! Great job, Mark Coulton.

How many mobile phone black spots did Labor fix when it was last in Government? It had six years.

Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nil. None. Absolutely none.

Imagine the risk of Labor in Government stopping that particular program, stopping our delivery, stopping our telecommunications in its tracks. We can’t afford that.

The total value of contracts committed for Inland Rail is now past $2 billion. I am really enthusiastic about this. I know Barnaby is too. The first section, from Parkes to Narromine, is completed.

Just as a couple of little anecdotes – 99 small businesses around that area benefited to the tune of $110 million. $110 million, 1800 jobs, 762 locals. That’s fantastic.

Just as another little anecdote – Matt McCabe from McCabe Ready Mixed Concrete in Parkes, said there was a huge boost in turnover and confidence; they had basically three years’ work in one year.

Employment went from five to 12. That’s huge. That’s significant. That’s delivery.

Never before has Australia seen an infrastructure program like the one we have now, a record $110 billion, spawning 100,000 jobs, $60 billion of which is allocated over the first four years and a third of which is going into rural and regional Australia.

Through the tremendously successful Building Better Regions Fund, we’re closing in on 1,000 project approvals.

Another $200 million has been announced for a fifth round.

This is real delivery for the regions! This is getting on with the job!

Roadworks are happening right across the nation: Better roads, safer roads, obviously helping work towards Vision Zero as far as the road toll goes. Sadly, tragically, regional people are all too often over-represented in our road toll statistics.

Upgraded highways, better regional thoroughfares – those highways, those byways, those dusty country roads which we want to have sealed – we’re getting on with it.

Duplication of the Pacific Highway – done!

Well done to Pat Conaghan, Kevin Hogan, Dr David Gillespie and our NSW Nationals colleagues in cutting two and a half hours from Hexham to the Queensland border – and halving, halving the road toll!

The Pacific Highway is only duplicated because of our Party, the Nationals Party, at Federal and State levels over decades, spending billions of dollars to do it. We’ve lobbied, they’ve campaigned because that’s what we do. We fight for better outcomes, always.

We’re getting on with the job of building safer and better roads everywhere. The Bruce Highway – what an important task that is.

With $10 billion from the Commonwealth Government, work is underway right along this 1700 kilometre stretch, and more will be done. What an effort of all our Team Queenslanders. I’ll mention what George Christensen, Llew O’Brien and others have done to make this a reality, to make this funding happen, to fight for better outcomes.

Upgrading of Australia’s Outback Way, our nation’s longest short-cut from WA through NT to Queensland – great progress is being made, along with works being delivered right across the Northern Territory. And to that end I say: Thank you, Dr Sam McMahon. She’s getting on with the job, wearing out the carpet into the Ministers’ offices to make sure it is happening, in every aspect of life in the Top End to improve the Northern Territory.

And it’s happening right across the nation.

Roads of Strategic Importance is injecting $4.6 billion on key freight roads from the west to the east of our continent. Our team including Senator Matt Canavan, Susan McDonald, Ken O’Dowd – they have played an instrumental role in making sure those beef roads, cattle roads, important roads are getting built across these key corridors in Queensland and elsewhere.

The Newell Highway is seeing road upgrades like never before through this program.

Black Spots, heavy vehicle safety and bridges renewal, the road safety program of $2 billion are all dedicated programs targeted at improving safety and saving people’s lives.

Under Roads to Recovery, ten-year funding of $6.2 billion is being distributed right across the nation.

This is what our Party does. This is why we’re so important.

Just for a moment, turn your mind back to Labor refusing to pay their share of the Pacific Highway upgrade. They crippled live exports. They raised taxes. It’s the only way they know: jack up the taxes, ignore regional Australia – that’s Labor.

An if they are in Government with The Greens, that makes it even worse.

We can never be complacent. I know you won’t. That’s why you turned u today: to build a better country.

When our regions are strong, so too is our nation.

Northern Australia has the massive Infrastructure Facility, the NAIF – strengthened even further just this week in the Parliament. Keith Pitt will see to it we are delivering even more.

These aren’t just nice ideas, these things. They are realities. They are things we are putting in place to promote regional Australians, to get on and build a better regional Australia, targeting and changing the way the Government delivers to and serves regional people.

We’re building Stronger Communities with small capital projects in every electorate.

Australia’s 537 councils need and deserve support. I know there is big support for local government in this room. Our support is not least through our massive Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program – injecting one and a half billion dollars into important work we have; we’re building community resilience and more importantly creating jobs through the pandemic downturn.

That Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program is moving forward at a pace.

Every one of those 537 councils have now signed on, and I thank them for that.

This is delivery in action.

When you drive around and you see those hi-vis vests, you see the work, the excavators, the shovels in the ground: Thank The Nationals. Thank The Nationals because that’s what we are doing, in every council area right across the country.

Almost 5,000 projects have been nominated and there’s $450 million already paid to councils across the nation.

This means the money is also supporting those local businesses that councils use, supporting the resilience of local economies as we are expected to do.

Regional aerodrome upgrades – well they’re coming to a country airport near you!

We’re building the essential services: Just this month we announced up to 400 general practitioners will train and work in regional Australia over the next four years through our Rural Generalist Training Scheme.

This complements a range of actions in the health area, not least of course the Murray Darling Medical Schools network – encouraging our medical service providers, making sure young doctors, regional doctors start their training in a regional area, finish it in a regional area. You know what:

Three quarters of them, hopefully more, hopefully 100% of them, will stay in a regional area to practice, to fall in love with that town and might even fall in love with someone in that town. Then they will stay. It’s happened before. Trust me.

All of us here believe in lower taxes. That’s in our DNA.

Tax cuts are delivering stronger household budgets. Some $9 billion has landed in the pockets of 8.8 million Australians during the course of the pandemic, and that is good – it’s more money that you have earned, that you get to keep.

There was no textbook on how to handle the health pandemic challenge across this nation.

So the Government took the challenge head-on. We went, as you would expect, as hard as we could.

Today, COVID vaccination clinics are popping up across the nation as we build new confidence for the future.

Importantly, Australia is the nation with the largest capability in the Southern Hemisphere to manufacture COVID vaccine. Just yesterday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in Victoria showing how this domestic manufacturing sovereign capability  is in place and gathering pace.

The COVID challenge required a significant investment – JobKeeper, the JobSeeker supplement, the huge Instant Asset Write-Off along with a dedicated Regional Growth Fund have got on with the job and they continue to deliver.

The regions are the hot spot opportunity with 56,510 job vacancies showing online – 56,510 job vacancies in regional Australia as identified by the Regional Australia Institute. Andrew Gee is doing great work.

There are jobs out there. There are good paying jobs. There are jobs in agriculture, in mining, in law firms, accountancy practices; there are jobs in hospitality, in health, in services, in education. You get the drift, I think. There are jobs out there. We need to spruik country living, country lifestyle and the benefits thereof.

Whether it’s a coal miner or a nurse or a farm labourer to those magnificent truckies – good jobs are there, and we’re backing our people all the way.

We’ve kept planes in the air. We know planes in the air means jobs on the ground. We’ve put billions of dollars into making sure that those airlines service our country communities.

Yes Labor criticised and said ‘You’re giving it to the airlines’. It wasn’t about the airlines. It was about the workers, it was about the country communities which but for The Nationals would not have had any air services and therefore would not have received personal protection equipment, respiratory devices, face masks and perhaps most importantly frontline medical personnel but for that aviation support we gave. I’m proud of that; I’m proud of what we’ve done and will continue to do.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In partnership with the Liberals, your Nationals team in Government is working in the Ministry and the Parliament representing the views of regional Australians, for the benefit of our nation. We know that. You know that.

The Nationals, in our one hundred and first year, are working every day to build and maintain the trust of Australians – so we can keep this momentum going.

Not everyone will agree with everything we’re doing. Like any Government, we’re not perfect. No-one ever said we were. But we have the vision. The Nationals understand the job, and we’re mucking in and we’re doing it! We’re getting behind the trust that you place in us and we’re getting on with the job.

We’re looking to the future. We are looking after our soils, most importantly, and indeed the environment.

Our primary producers are the best in the world and indeed they are the best environmentalists in the world. Make no mistake. It’s in their interests we look after and they look after our planet for the future and for the here and now.

If there are aspects of our huge agenda needing further development – I’m so pleased today we have so many good motions – then that will certainly happen.

We are in Government. The opportunity is ours now and into the future and we will not let you down.

If we are to represent communities such as those in the Hunter, well we’re up for the challenge.

We must, we can and we will win Hunter. Lingiari as well. We will get our word out there. We will build our numbers and we will make sure people right across regional Australia feel supported, know they are supported, know they have the backing and trust and respect of a team 101 years in the making: 101 years of delivery, of service, of commitment to rural and regional Australia.

While speaking of our Nationals teams I want to pay special tribute to our State and Territory teams.

Lia Finocchiaro, what an Energiser Bunny she is. Peter Walsh, he’s fantastic too, they all are. John Barilaro and David Crisafulli are doing an outstanding job representing our values in their States and the Top End…

…but a special mention to Mia Davies who has managed to help make the West Australian Nationals the Opposition m in the west. The Opposition – who would have thought! She stood her ground against a whole host of popularity from Perth and she made sure The Nationals were there, in their numbers, in regional WA. I love going over to WA. I know we have a number of West Australians here. We have James Hayward, also soon to become a Member of that Parliament in WA: Thank you WA, thank you for being the second-most force in the west. Well done to Mia.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I say to all our supporters: Give us your feedback. Don’t be backward in discussing our progress in building the new Regional Australia.

At this conference we say farewell, but not a total farewell, to Larry Anthony. We thank him for his service.

We have mourned in recent times two giants of Nationals Leaders – Larry’s dad Doug and former NSW Deputy Premier Ian Armstrong.

We recognise their lasting legacies – but more than this, we honour their efforts by helping to build the new regional Australia of the 21st Century.

We are builders. We are sustainers. We are doers and we’re getting on with the job.

In New South Wales at the next election we are going to welcome a new NSW Senator to help Perin Davey and what she does in the Upper House.

In Western Australia and South Australia, we will again field a diverse and strong team of candidates – doers, believers. Tassie – they are getting on with the job. We have people right across this nation who believe in what The Nationals stand for, who believe in our family values, who believe in our core principles, who believe in what we have achieved in the past, what we’re doing now and what we will do in the future.

So, please, each and every one of you: go on fighting; go on helping us to deliver; go on advocating for your regions. They are the best places in all the world in which to live, to work, to play, to invest.

And I leave you with this: Think positive, test negative.

ENDS 11:18AM

Shane Manning