TRANSCRIPT: PRESS CONFERENCE WAGGA WAGGA, 19 MAY 2021

E&OE

Subjects: Mice Plague; Half-Price Flight Scheme

4.16pm

JOURNALIST

Deputy Prime Minister, what do you say to the people from PETA today who said we need to be more humane towards the mice and not use poisons against them?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Our farmers are the best in the world. They are the most humane in the world. But when they are absolutely overrun by mice, I sometimes wonder about people who’ve probably never left the city, why they say such stupid things. I mean, what we should do is, if they really want these mice to be rehomed, is yes, we can rehome them. What we’ll do is we’ll put them in the backyards, we’ll put them in the homes of these people who are making these stupid comments. Let them gnaw at their feet of a night. Let them eat through their cabling of their computers. Let them run amok in their kitchens, in their food pantries and see how they like it.

Let them ruin their livelihoods and see how they enjoy that prospect. No, they wouldn’t. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, they really should grow up. This is an abomination for them to come out there and say this about our hard-working farmers; our hard-working farmers who grow the food and fibre that feeds our nation and others besides. How dare they say those things about our farmers who are being over-run at the moment.

This is just an absolute disgrace and I am appalled at what these comments have done for our farmers. Indeed, you know, when they are - have been suffering from drought, suffering from, in some cases, bushfires, suffering from floods, cyclones, COVID-19, and now they’ve got a mouse plague. They’re worried about their livelihoods. They had the prospect of a good harvest. They had the prospect of a good season, and they were looking forward to making some decent money for the first time for a long time.

They get over-run by these rodents and they get these city rodents who come out and say these sorts of things. Well, these dirty rats shouldn’t say this sort of thing. They should think twice before they say these sorts of things about regional people who work damn hard for and on behalf of this nation.

JOURNALIST

But is the bottom line, when it comes to a mice plague, that baiting and poisoning really is the only way to control it?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, it just about is because these mice are in such plague proportions that the only way through is to bait them. The only way through is to exterminate them, and if that means baiting, well so be it.

I’m pleased that the state government has put down a significant sum of money, $50 million, towards this program. It is the State Government’s responsibility, but of course we will work with the states through the APVMA, through making sure that regulatory processes follow, and this is, of course, going to be very, very difficult for these farmers.

With the onset of winter that may well stop the spread and reduce the numbers of these mice but it is a real problem. In northern New South Wales, in the west of the state, in the Central West and in the Riverina area I represent, I mean in Boree Creek, Tim Fischer’s home town, I mean, people are telling me they’re catching 75 a night in their homes. I know in Ungarie, just near West Wyalong – famous for its footballing Daniher family – they are shovelling mice out of their homes each and every morning.

I mean, shovelling. How would PETA like that? How would these people like that if they were having to endure mice. The sheer stench of them is enough to make you puke and these people, what they say is enough to make most of the farmers vomit too.

JOURNALIST

No worries. Look, that’s all good for me. Are there any other points you think need to be [indistinct].

MICHAEL McCORMACK

No, I think I’ve made my points clear.

JOURNALIST

Yeah, for sure.  No –

MICHAEL McCORMACK

The only good mouse is a dead mouse. The only good mouse is a dead mouse and PETA should acknowledge that. 

JOURNALIST

Michael, there’s a suggestion that the half-price flight scheme, which has been incredibly successful, may be expanded. If that were to be the case, what possibility of Albury Airport, and I may get a separate grab on Wagga, being included this time around?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, what we’ve done the whole way through is we looked at those areas, as identified by Austrade, which were suffering from a lack of international tourists. Now, I don’t see some of the country centres that obviously are pushing to get these half-price fares. They weren’t, and wouldn’t be, overrun by international tourists at any given time, and so that’s why they were going to Cairns and Darwin and Kangaroo Island and those sorts of destinations.

Last week, the numbers were around 663,000 of the 800,000 half-price tickets had been snapped up by Australian holiday-makers and they have obviously taken advantage of that initiative which has been very, very well received. But we’ll look at it, as we’ve done the whole way through, and that’s why our four and a half billion dollars of aviation and tourism support has meant such a difference for those people in that industry.

Planes in the air means jobs on the ground. And tourists visiting Australian destinations means that those pubs and charter boat operators and hospitality areas were absolutely full of tourists which otherwise they would not have been but for that half-price offer. And so we’ll look at it, as we’ve done the whole way through, we’ve provided that support to industries, to various sectors. We’ve done it on a sector-wide basis and we’ll continue to look at the sort of assistance that we can provide as we endeavour to recover from COVID-19.

JOURNALIST

Yes, certainly Albury wouldn’t see the number of international tourists anything like Cairns or the Gold Coast. However, the Murray is obviously an international tourist destination. Would you consider taking into account the fact that border closures hit the Albury-Wodonga community, north-east Victoria and the Riverina a whole lot harder than some other areas and, therefore, that might be another argument for including Albury in the scheme?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, look, indeed. And I appreciate that. I come from Wagga Wagga. It’s not very far from Albury. Indeed, my wife went down there today to do some work and she said that the – these areas have been hard hit by COVID-19 because they’ve been forced to have shut-downs of borders.  Having worked in that situation, she understands fully well, just like a lot of other business people do, how hard it’s been for those border tourism operators, by those border businesses, indeed, to have the Victorian and New South Wales border shut, sometimes at the snap of the fingers by the Premier, Daniel Andrews.

Indeed, it has been very, very difficult but I think those regional Australians, being their best selves during this, they’ve followed and complied to social distancing, to wearing masks, for doing everything they’ve been asked to do so; and indeed shutting their businesses when there was difficulties with those border transitions made at a short moment’s notice.

I’ll have a chat to Kevin Mack, the Albury Mayor, as I often do, to see how hard hit that Albury is, and indeed Wodonga as well. It’s a very vibrant area. We need it to be humming along as the border economy should be. But it’s not just Albury Wodonga, it’s other areas as well. It’s other regional hubs which have also suffered from COVID-19. That’s why we put in place the JobKeeper assistance.

That’s why we increased the amount that we were paying to JobSeeker recipients, and that’s why we produced such a good Federal Budget just last week, which certainly identified regional Australia as the leader out of COVID-19, leading the way through the recovery – agriculture, resources, construction and infrastructure. That’s why we put another $15.2 billion into the $110 billion of support as far as infrastructure is concerned, supporting 100,000 workers leading into the Budget; an additional 30,000 jobs provided by the measures that we put into the Budget as far as infrastructure is concerned.

JOURNALIST

You are a gentleman. Thank you very much for that.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Pleasure. No drama at all. Good on you. Thank you.

4.23pm