TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH ELLIS GELIOS ON FLOW FM RADIO, 22 AUGUST 2024
Subjects: Visa vetting for Gaza refugees, regional air transport industry, National Youth Summit in Canberra
E&OE
ELLIS GELIOS
And welcome back to the Country Viewpoint program here on your Colour of Country Life FLOW FM. Michael McCormack joins me now, the Federal Member for Riverina and the former Deputy Prime Minister, of course, appears on the program quite frequently. It’s great to be back with you, Mr. McCormack. How are you?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Really good, thanks.
ELLIS GELIOS
Well, there’s lots going on. Let’s go first to the issue of the visa vetting for people in Gaza. We saw a bit of a to-and-fro play out between you and the Prime Minister earlier in the week in Canberra. Tell us what your position is on this right now.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, the Albanese Labor Government has approved 2,922 visas for Palestinians since that dreadful day on the 7th of October last year. Now included amongst that of more than 2,500 tourist visas. Now are they doing all the biometric testing? Are they doing the person-to-person testing? The answer to that question remains to be seen because Labor just keeps avoiding it in Question Time. But when you have the Prime Minister who then selectively quotes Mike Burgess, who is in charge of National Security, Director-General of ASIO, when you have a situation where, you know, and I meet with many groups from all over the world and some people are being kept out of Australia, unfortunately, because of the policies of this Government. And I refer there to Tibetans; we used to get a number of people from there who’d fled what was once their homeland, fled into India, and now can’t make their way to Australia. And you’ve got others who are also seeking refuge in Australia but can’t seem to get here. And yet you have more than 2,900 visas approved for Palestinians. And there’s questions about the checking, the veracity of the checking. You have to prosecute that on the floor of the People’s House of Democracy, which is the Federal Parliament. And the questions aren’t being answered. And I do fear that there is a situation where people are coming into this country who haven’t had the proper checks and balances and I worry about national security and that the Government should be more concerned about national security. After all, the first order of Government is to keep people safe. And I do really worry about this situation. I know a lot of people are, too. And what is going to happen in the future in relation to this? Well we don’t know. And there should be a much better vetting process. And it’s not happening as we understand it.
ELLIS GELIOS
I feel this is an issue that many Australians would feel needs to be probed further. Do you fear that it may become a bit of a narrative from the Opposition, whereby they say that your party and also the Liberals, are politically weaponising the issue?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Okay, well, let’s look at the situation across the globe. The United States has only accepted 17 Palestinian refugees as of the 31st of July. The UK – 168 protection visas issued to Palestinians since that dreadful day when Hamas perpetrated the atrocities that they did. New Zealand – 153, Canada – 254. You know, I mean, and you compare that to 2,922 in Australia. I mean, really? I mean, this is out of control. And they’re the questions that people are asking us to ask in the Parliament. We’re not getting the answers on the floor of the Parliament. So we’ll keep prosecuting it. It’s not, as some might suggest, racist. It’s not as some might have claimed, dog whistling. It’s actually asking the questions about national security. Which should be being answered by the Labor Government and they’re not
ELLIS GELIOS
Michael McCormack, the Member for Riverina, joining me in our first hour of the Thursday Country Viewpoint program. We’ll link up with him again right after we do a weather cross here on the Country Viewpoint, which is coming your way next. Don’t go anywhere.
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ELLIS GELIOS
And welcome back. It is the Country Viewpoint program here on this Thursday afternoon on FLOW FM, you’re with Ellis Gelios. I’m with the Member for Riverina, Michael McCormack. Let’s move on to another issue that’s not in the control of most people and that’s Rex Airlines. Now the latest information is that obviously Rex will continue to proceed with, providing services to regional and rural areas. What’s the latest from your understanding as to how this may play out from here?
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, I’ve spoken to the Prime Minister. I’ve spoken to the Transport Minister about the situation with Rex and did that on the day that, unfortunately, Rex went into voluntary administration. And they knew my position even before that took place when it looked as though it was, obviously, a situation that Rex was facing, pardon the pun, but turbulent times. What the Government has done, and rightly so, is has guaranteed those tickets to ensure that people can fly or get a refund. We don’t want to see cancellations of Rex services because for many remote communities, many regional centres, Rex is the only airline that flies into those towns. And for those people, for those communities, they only have Rex to get to the capital cities to meet important business arrangements, to seek medical help, to make vital medical appointments. And Rex is their only airline – it’s not an airline of choice – it’s their only airline. So it was important that the Government underwrote Rex. Indeed, we kept Rex that flying during COVID. We kept the aviation sector – I kept the aviation sector in the air because I knew that planes in the air meant jobs on the ground. And it was a difficult time but we put in place the provisions so that Virgin, which was, you know, we all remember how badly Virgin was going with their financial situation. Well, we kept Virgin going. Qantas was also facing desperate times and we kept the entire aviation sector stable. We made sure that Rex had the necessary financing. And, of course, after COVID and as we as we came out of COVID, and we’re not out of the woods yet, people are still dying from COVID. We need to remember that and always understand it, but hopefully the worst is behind us. But, certainly when the conditions changed after the global pandemic, then we saw the situation where Rex then decided to take on the capital city routes and invest in bigger aircraft, take on Qantas and Virgin for those capital city routes and, we all know what has happened since that. My feeling, my advocacy will always be for those regional communities which need airline services. We need a viable Rex and I would urge and encourage people to make Rex, if they do have a competitor, to make Rex their airline of choice, because if we don’t use it, we will lose it and we can’t afford not to have Rex flying. We need competition. But certainly for those communities which only have Rex, that’s where my thoughts, that’s where my advocacy was certainly directed with the Prime Minister, with the Transport Minister. I’m glad they heeded the call and are underwriting Rex.
ELLIS GELIOS
Tell us about the National Youth Summit which was acknowledged recently in Canberra.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
Well, look, young people came together from all parts. These have been very successful, these youth summits, certainly in New South Wales and Victoria. But we had the inaugural National Youth Summit hosted by Together for Humanity. We’ve got a lot of really talented young people who, you know, they want to see a brighter and a better future. They’ve got all sorts of ideas to propagate that. And it was good to have them come together as individuals from throughout their communities, representing not just their communities, but the nation as a whole to share their ideas. I mean, Canberra’s always been a robust contest of ideas, but great that we can have as many young people as possible to talk about the things that are important to them and, of course, there are a lot of things on the front of national discussion, not least of which at the moment is cost of living. But, you know, there’s jobs for the future, AI, climate, environment, you know, what are we going to do with all the landfill, we’re facing an ecological disaster or in that regard and ideas in relation to that are always welcomed. There’s so many things. The Pacific, I know with my Shadow Portfolio hat on, I know how important that is at the moment for many young people who want to see a brighter, better future. And this summit gave them the opportunity to do just that, to discuss the issues which are important to them and their communities, which was a great thing.
ELLIS GELIOS
Michael McCormack, thank you so much for your time. We’ll speak with you again on Monday’s program.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
No worries at all.
ELLIS GELIOS
Michael McCormack, the Member for Riverina rounds out our first hour of today’s show. Lots more coming your way. Don’t go anywhere.
Ends