TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW ON FIRST EDITION, SKY NEWS, 16 June 2021

7:47AM

E&OE

Subjects: Free Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom, Sri Lankan Family;

PETER STEFANOVIC

Let’s go to Canberra now and joining us live is the Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack. Michael, thanks for your time this morning. So, on this free trade deal that’s been announced overnight between Australia and the UK, for the Australian consumer, when will they start to see cheaper whisky, cheaper biscuits and English cars?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Probably from as soon as we get those arrangements in place and we’d like it to be ASAP. It could be out until July 1 next year, but the fact remains, Peter, what we’re doing is we’re ramping up all of those things, but particularly for our farmers, 35,000 tonnes of duty-free – absolutely duty-free – beef, sheep meat, 25,000 tonnes, sugar, 80,000 tonnes of free access to the 68 million customers in the UK and for dairy it’s 24,000. So, they’re big numbers. They’re a big increase on what we’ve had in the past and more trade equals more jobs and so for Australian producers, indeed for Australian consumers, this is historic – this is a fantastic outcome.

PETER STEFANOVIC

But farmers have got to wait 15 years to see that full benefit. Have we had to give up ground there?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Not necessarily. It’s only eight years for beef and sheep meat. It’s 10 years for sugar.

PETER STEFANOVIC

It’s still a way off.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

But it’s in increments. So, immediate access, as I said, to 35,000 tonnes for our beef producers, 25,000 tonnes immediate access for our sheep meat producers and we know that Australian sirloins and Australian lamb chops are the best in the world. We’ve got the very best produce in all of the world. So, there’s immediate access, duty-free access, no tariffs for those tonnages that I’ve mentioned before and they are big tonnages. These big numbers and this is a good, good deal.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Farmers in the UK are still making some noise about the quality of our meat, is it that bad?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

What, the fact that they’re making a noise or – 

PETER STEFANOVIC

Well, they say – 

MICHAEL McCORMACK

I don’t think the quality of our meat is bad? Our meat is the best in the world.

PETER STEFANOVIC

The quality of our meat is not at the level or the standard that they’re setting.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Absolute tosh, our meat is the best in the world. Look at our farms, they’re green, they’re clean. I mean, our feedlots are the best in the world and you only have to look at the way our farmers produce, the environmental concerns that they all meet, the fact that we have animal-welfare standards second to none anywhere in the world. Our farmers love their animals. Our farmers love producing the best in the world and they’ll continue to do that.

PETER STEFANOVIC

I guess we use growth hormones and pesticides, though. Do we need to raise our standards?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

We have the best beef, the best sheep meat in all of the world. This is great news for Casino beef producers, for Rocky sugar cane growers, for Junee lamb producers. This is good news for Gippsland dairy farmers. Wherever you go – I’ve just named four – but we grow the best dairy, the best produce in all of the world and we’ll keep diversifying our markets.

PETER STEFANOVIC

I know it’s the best, but do we need to raise those standards?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, I’m not going to listen to a Glasgow farmer and set our standards by what he might suggest. I’m going to set our standards by what somebody in Gundagai suggests because I know, I say again, that our farmers are the best in the world. They are the best environmentalists, they’re the best carers of country, they’re the best producers.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Is our meat the best in the world, Michael?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Absolutely. No question. I had a steak last night at the red meat event that Susan McDonald hosted and I’m really pleased she’s opening up an inquiry in the definition of what actually is meat. So, we’re getting on with making sure that our food labelling laws are also the best world. This is what we’re doing as a nation and I’ll rate an Australian farmer as number one against any other farmer anywhere in the world always, every day of every week.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Speaking of that inquiry, is that just being done to annoy The Greens?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

We don’t do things just to annoy The Greens, although I think The Greens annoy the hell out of everybody. I’m yet to ever see them condemn the Extinction Rebellion protesters. I’m yet to ever see them exalt what our farmers do. They want to take all the water away from our irrigation producers. They want to upturn regional communities in a way that has never been there before. They want to destroy the social fabric of society. That’s why I sit with The Nationals. That’s why I’m in the Coalition, Peter. We always back our farmers.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Back to the trade deal. Now, your colleague, David Littleproud, he had some concerns about this trade deal, about workers, there might be a shortage of up to 10,000 workers in our farms because of this trade deal. What has been done to assuage those concerns because now it appears that people who come from the UK won’t have that caveat that they’ve got to spend the 90‑odd days – or the 88‑odd days – picking fruit out on farms and what have you?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

That’s correct. That’s correct, but what we’re also doing and David Littleproud has been working very hard and has been for several months passed on working through an agricultural visa, a specific agricultural visa, for our Pacific rim. I know he’s done some diligent and good work in that regard. We’re 90,000 backpackers short of where we would be at normal times because of COVID and so this is difficult. Our regional areas have 67,500 jobs at the moment and they’re not just on farms. They’re not just in orchards or boning rooms, in meatworks. They’re in accountancy firms, they’re in law practices, they’re in health, they’re in education. The Regional Australia Institute has identified that. I want people to come to the regions – big enough in which to get a good cup of coffee, small enough to still care. The regions are the best place in which to have the best lifestyle, the most affordable lifestyle and friendly communities and they’re waiting for those viewers of yours who want to make that tree change, want to make that coastal change. Come to the regions.

PETER STEFANOVIC

But how are you going to plug that gap? I mean, 10,000 workers, that’s a huge shortage and now you’re looking at South-East Asian nations.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, look, it’s no question it’s a huge gap and of course COVID‑19 restrictions and travel limitations have exacerbated this issue, but we’re working through it. As I said, David Littleproud, the Agriculture Minister, is working very hard on making sure that we have got the right outcomes as far as the ag-visa is concerned, making sure that we get the rights arrangements through this UK deal. It’s an historic deal. We are diversifying our trade. I’m pleased that barley is going to Mexico for the first time, sheep meat into Saudi. We are diversifying our trade. We’re getting on with the job, as Australians would expect.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Just on to this Tamil family who is still trying to get home to Biloela. We just had Queensland’s Opposition Leader on the show. David Crisafulli is calling for more compassion. Does the Federal Government need more compassion with this family?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

We’ve so much compassion and I know the Yazidi families who came to Wagga Wagga simply because we had that refugee status available because we stopped the boats. We stopped the boats. If ever there was a compassionate side of politics, that’s the side that I think Australians would like to see us have. We didn’t see 1,200 people die at sea on our watch. Now, the Tamil family, well, they’ll go through the legal process. They have full access to health and education and all the options available to them. They’re being looked after in every which way and of course, they’ll go through that legal process. But if ever there was a compassionate Government that stopped the boats, that is what we needed to do. That was showing full heart because we didn’t make people go on that risky voyage to Australia and we didn’t lock up 55,000 foreigners who came here on more than 800 boats. That was not showing compassion. We have shown the compassion –

PETER STEFANOVIC

The family is unlikely to go back to Biloela though, aren’t they?

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Well, that will be a matter for the courts to decide. That process is happening.

PETER STEFANOVIC

Okay, Michael McCormack, appreciate your time. Talk to you soon.

MICHAEL McCORMACK

Pleasure.

ENDS 7:55AM

Shane Manning