TRANSCRIPT: HUNTER PRE-SELECTION PRESS CONFERENCE, 29 May 2021
11:53AM
E&OE
Subjects: Announcing The Nationals’ Candidate for Hunter;
ANDREW FRASER
Good morning, Andrew Fraser, Chairman of the New South Wales Nationals, we are here this morning to announce that James Thomson has been pre-selected to run for the seat of Hunter at the next Federal election. James is a young family man with a lovely wife and a gorgeous daughter and he is a man that is very knowledgeable – lives in the electorate – and I believe he will make a great candidate for the election but also a great member for the Hunter. So, I will now hand over to the Deputy Prime Minister.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, I am delighted that James Thomson has been pre-selected for the Nationals for the upcoming Federal election, we don’t quite know when that is going to be but the seat of Hunter is so important. We want people to know that The Nationals stand up for the Hunter. We stand up for those who will support The Nationals. We stand up for those who perhaps won’t support The Nationals, but they need to know too that James Thomson is their person. The person to send to Canberra to represent their interests because for way too long, their interests have been taken for granted. For way too long, the Hunter has been ignored as it has been a Labor seat for many, many years. Well, this bloke behind me, James Thomson, he isn’t going to take things easy, he isn’t going to take the Hunter for granted. He is going to fiercely represent those in the Hunter that need better representation and he is going to provide it. I am really excited – he just gave one of the best pre-selection addresses that I’ve heard and I have heard a lot. So, he stands up for business, he stands up for resources, he stands up for families and he is a person with great zeal, great determination, a great work-ethic, a family man and I am really looking forward to working and campaigning with him through this process as we work towards the next election, whenever that may be.
JAMES THOMSON
Thank you, Deputy Prime Minister, the seat of Hunter is a great electorate filled with great people and so many incredible industries from tourism, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, small businesses and my commitment to the people of the Hunter is to see more jobs created right here. I have an 18-month-old daughter and I want a future for all of our kids and grandkids where they don’t just get any jobs here in the Hunter but they can land their dream job right here in the Hunter. I am committed to backing each and every person that goes to work to work hard, whether you go into a coal mine or to a power station, whether you’re a tourism operator or you run a local small business, I want to make sure that you know that when you vote for The Nationals, you get a candidate that is in your corner and has got your back. We are very committed to each and every hardworking man and woman in the Hunter.
JOURNALIST
James, what do you see as being your priorities for this patch? Where are you from, what’s your background?
JAMES THOMSON
Well, my wife and I, we live in the electorate and we absolutely love the Hunter and we’ve made it a home and it is a great place to live and raise a family and I think that is the great thing about the Hunter – it is about creating more opportunities for those your families. It is a big electorate, you’ve got from Cooranbong through to Cameron Park, down to Cessnock, you’ve got the historic towns of Singleton and Muswellbrook and a whole lot of new suburbs like Huntlee and Billy’s Lookout there near Teralba and it is about making sure that there are not just jobs now but that there are jobs into the future for each and every one of our young people. Regional Australia’s best asset is our young people and I am very passionate about seeing young people be able to get a job here in the Hunter but all the way through to our elderly residents and everybody in between. My job is to represent each and every one of you and I cannot wait to meet as many people as possible and to hear your ideas and thoughts for the future right here in the Hunter.
JOURNALIST
And how important is fossil fuels, are they a factor in that?
JAMES THOMSON
The coal mining industry is very important to the Hunter, the problem is that the Labor Party have dropped off in the Hunter, they are almost ashamed of the coal mining industry but I stand here with the Deputy Prime Minister and a party that are committed to coal miner, we are committed to the coal mining industry but we are also committed to the agriculture industry as we have been for 100 years. We are committed to the tourism industry – we are committed to backing each and every job no matter the industry because we know, when a person goes to work, they go to provide for their family and to get ahead in life and that is what the National party has always been about.
JOURNALIST
[Inaudible]
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, Scott Morrison will go to the election when Scott Morrison will go to the election. He has said that he wants to run full-term because we have got a lot of work to do as we build through the recovery from COVID-19. We obviously have the vaccine rolling out across the country. We are obviously helping and supporting businesses right throughout the nation. The unemployment rate is actually lower now then what it was pre-COVID and that is what we want to continue to sustain. We want to continue to sustain jobs, sustain industries, sustain agriculture. We are growing resources, we are growing agriculture and we are doing it with the right policies. We want to put in place, obviously, our tax cuts which Labor wants to take away, Labor wants to tax more. This pre-selection process, this was always happening right throughout the State, right throughout Queensland and Victoria where The Nationals proudly represent our great Party in the Federal Parliament. Indeed, in the Northern Territory we’re doing pre-selections now not only for incumbents but also for those seats that we are targeting, those seats that we want country people to know that the best candidate is one who is in The Nationals.
JOURNALIST
What is the task ahead in terms of being able to secure this seat? [Inaudible]
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, there is a whole host of infrastructure projects which we are working on through the Hunter – right now. The Singleton Bypass, it is a $700 million project, $560 million of which is coming from the Federal Government and of course, that process is being worked through with the State Coalition Government. There is $23.4 million of Local Roads and Community Infrastructure funding going to the four councils in the Hunter electorate. That would not have happened under Labor – that would not have happened – and certainly, I have never heard of Joel Fitzgibbon sticking up for that sort of Infrastructure. I mean Anthony Albanese, he had six years of opportunity to build the sort of infrastructure that people in the Hunter needed, wanted, expected and deserved but he didn’t deliver. We are delivering. We are delivering in spades and when people meet James Thomson, they are going to like what they see. They are going to like what they hear and more importantly, he will be listening to them because that’s what Nationals Members do. That’s what Nationals Candidates do, they listen to people and then they go to Canberra and they act and they deliver on what they want.
JOURNALIST
Moving onto other matters, there was a music festival – the fresh Produce Festival – which has cancelled its Maitland and other events due to the uncertain environment surrounding live music, it received $1.2 million in federal funding to keep it going, just – with the vaccine roll out and with the delays [inaudible] Melbourne’s lockdown situation [inaudible]?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, these sort of events are organised by – they are arranged by – individual organisations and whether it is a sporting competition or whether it is a live music event or social event, these decisions are taken by the organisers themselves. I was only just at the Singleton Diggers club a minute ago and I had somebody come up to me and thank me for the funding that their show society had received and we have given millions of dollars of support for shows, for these sorts of live events. I know Paul Fletcher the Arts Minister has been absolutely committed to making sure that – as best as we could – to get live theatre and live shows and all of those sorts of things back up and running but of course, there is uncertainly. Absolutely, that is why we are encouraging people to get vaccinated, to get those jabs and that is why we have got a strategy in place and that is why we are working with state governments and state health authorities to make sure that we get the vaccine out.
JOURNALIST
[Inaudible]
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, the funding is ongoing. The funding for these sorts of events is ongoing and as a Government pre-Budget, we had already committed $253 billion of support to make sure that we kept people in jobs. To make sure that we kept events happening and that is record support – record support, record funding – and we will go on doing that because we are a Coalition Government and we believe in jobs. We believe in regional Australia. That is the James Thomson I know, he’ll deliver that too, if he is elected the Member for Hunter – we have a very good man here and I support him all the way.
JOURNALIST
Just jumping back, how much do you think the Labor leader situation in New South Wales will influence this Federal election campaign [inaudible]?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, people should listen to Joel Fitzgibbon, Labor should listen to Meryl Swanson. I mean Joel is very worried about the future direction of the Labor Party, he said so this week. He said, “It is time for them to wake up to themselves.” Meryl Swanson, the Member for Paterson said, “They are sleepwalking over a cliff.” So, if anybody has any doubt about what Labor is doing and the direction it is going in, they only need to listen to Meryl Swanson and Joel Fitzgibbon because they have given those statements this week – they’re headed over a cliff, sleepwalking. They need to wake up to themselves, we don’t need to wake up to ourselves, we have the determination and a plan and a vision, as members of the National Party in Government will deliver for the Hunter.
ENDS 12:04PM