TRANSCRIPT: A DOORSTEP INTERVIEW WITH JOURNALIST, 15 OCTOBER 2023

Subjects: The Voice

E&OE

STARTS: 9:43am

ENDS: 9:53am

ANDREW PEARSON:

I guess, pretty overwhelming results to the No across the Riverina electorate.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, every one of the 95 booths has voted no, and that reflects the community concern over the fact that there wasn’t enough information provided by the Government about this massive change to our Constitution. Australians don’t like their Constitution being readily changed. It has been in place since 1901 and it’s only been changed just a few times in 45 referenda. Again, yesterday it showed that Australians like the founding document the way it is written, and they don’t readily accept change. Particularly when that change hasn’t been explained to them. We shouldn’t be dividing our country by race. Yes, there does need to be more done to close the gap and I know that full well, not just even locally. I know that certainly having travelled right around the country, visited most of those remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, Queensland, even New South Wales. They are desperate communities and they do need help, but the Voice wasn’t going to bring that. It was just going to provide another layer of bureaucracy and Australians weren’t quite sure how that was going to actually close the gap and bring about the needs and expectations that Aboriginal communities do need. So, we now have to work together, united, to get those outcomes that Aboriginal communities deserve, need, and expect. I visited Mornington Island in the last days I was Deputy Prime Minister. They need an aquatic centre there, it’s in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I gave Kyle Yanner the Mayor, the assurance that I would work hard, with every breath I had until my dying day to bring about that aquatic centre. But, you know, they still don’t have one, even despite my best efforts, even despite the fact that I’ve visited the Infrastructure Minister many times – she doesn’t quite understand why I’m pushing it so hard. But you know when you get a little community, who don’t have a swimming pool and then they’re getting asked to vote for something that still won’t bring them that swimming pool.

We need practical, sensible solutions to the disadvantage that Aboriginal people have, particularly in that those communities, but the Voice wasn’t it.

ANDREW PEARSON:

What are those solutions, I guess? What next, particularly from you, what are you going to be campaigning for?

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

Well, I think we should reintroduce the cashless welfare debit card forthwith. It was taken away, it was something that Aboriginal women, particularly in remote communities, said had ended the cycle of violence, said had ended the cycle of pornography, said had ended the cycle of alcohol abuse.

This is something that they had told use when we were in Government and it’s something that the Labor Party just took straight away. They just removed it forthwith, without proper consultation. We need to have consultation with the right people, many of whom are the women in those communities. Not the activists, not those who push their grievance all the time, and who live in very well-to-do capital cities, and you know often you saw in this whole debate, cities like to lecture the country.

Well, they don’t necessarily understand regional Australia, particularly remote Australia and worse – they don’t care. And you know, you’ll get some of them and they’ll campaign in the streets over all manner of things, but they’ve never been to those communities, they’ve never spoken to, probably, an Aboriginal person in their life. Mark Coulton represents as many Aboriginal people in the seat of Parkes, as anyone in the Parliament. Indeed, he’s got as many Aboriginal people than he has farmers, they voted overwhelmingly no. So what does that tell you? He has many of those communities that do go without.

What we need to do is we need to reinstate the cashless debit card, we do need to have a full Royal Commission into how Aboriginal money is spent, $34 billion, where is it going? Is it meeting the needs? Is it targeting those areas that most need it? I do agree with Peter Dutton, he’s been on this campaign for quite a long time, about the violence against children, the sexual assault issue against children. That is simply not good enough, and we do need to have a Royal Commission into that as well. Get the terms of references right. Those three things I think are very important. I do pay credit to Jacinta Nampijina Price and her leadership. And I think it’s also an endorsement of the National Party and how we went out early and we stated our case well before it was very popular to do so, when people were seeking more information, the National Party said no, we were the first political party to do it. Others might have got on board since and might be now, well taking the credit for something. But there’s no credit to be taken here.

Today is a day of reflection where the Prime Minister should think long and hard about the priorities that he’s had over, particularly the last six months.  He's been doing nothing but campaigning for the yes case, we’ve had power prices going through the roof, we’ve had the cost-of-living place enormous pressure on particularly young people and young families but also older Australians. And they feel very concerned, and they feel very upset. And I don’t think it’s a day for gloating, I don’t think it’s a day for pats on the back and self-congratulations because Aboriginal people do need help, they do need assistance, but this wasn’t it. This wasn’t going to provide what they most desperately need.

ANDREW PEARSON:

What do you say to the people, I know it was a very small majority though in your electorate, that are probably hurting today, that really wanted this and the yes to get up, what do you say to them, I guess you know, it’s been said that you know the no result is not necessarily that you know Australians don’t want to close the gap, we do want to close the gap but the Voice just wasn’t the right mechanism to do that.

MICHAEL MCCORMACK:

It wasn’t the mechanism. So, I say to them keep up your hope, make sure that you support the measure to have a full and proper inquiry into how Aboriginal money is being spent. And I genuinely think the people that voted yes, voted yes for what were the right reasons, I certainly don’t criticise. I know this has divided families, I know this has divide workplaces, I know this has divided long term and long-time friends. And that’s so sad. But people shouldn’t criticise or knock somebody because they voted the opposite way to their feelings. But I say to those yes people that certainly a Royal Commission is needed, I support that. Have a look at what the cashless debit card provided and try to look beyond the racial divide. I mean, I read this morning some of the commentary about how Australia should be embarrassed by the result. But no Australia shouldn’t, this was Australians exercising their democracy and that’s what the democratic system provides.  And aren’t we lucky that we can have – albeit there was a number of ugly things said, a lot of racist taunts made, on both sides. Jacinta Nampijina Price has put up with, if not more than anyone, and yet she wasn’t coming out complaining about it. She’s a very brave woman, I’m amazed by her remarkable spirit and her remarkable attitude. I note the interest that Linda Burney, who I know very well, she is a Wiradjuri woman, she comes from Whitton, which I represented for the first six years of my Parliamentary career, and I have a lot of respect for Linda Burney. And she was subject to taunts and remarks, that she didn’t deserve either. Let’s now put a line in the sand, let’s move on and let’s try to united together seek the answers we need. The Voice wasn’t the answer we needed, but certainly there must be a better way, there is a better way and there will be a better way.

ANDREW PEARSON:

Thanks Michael.