Scott Morrison Interview with Macca, ABC All Over Australia
- Written by Scott Morrison
IAN ‘MACCA’ MCNAMARA: Good morning, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER: G’day Macca, how are you? It’s been a little while, good to talk to you.
MACCA: Yeah, you too. Tell me this, are you still in lockdown?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, I'm in isolation down here in Canberra, coming into the final stretch now. Just a few more days. I get to go home and see the family on Thursday night. So I'm looking forward to that.
MACCA: Are you on your bike?
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah not yet, but I have been most days. It was quite a busy day this week. I missed a couple of days. But, you know, you've got to keep yourself active and it’s very important doing those things.
MACCA: So that's an understatement. You say had quite a few busy days. You've had quite a few busy days since I think you came to office, because I remember talking to you that day and there was a raging drought on and it doesn't seem to have stopped, Prime Minister. It doesn't seem to have stopped.
PRIME MINISTER: No, it hasn't. It's been a very, very tough few years here for Australia, of course. But Australia's resilience, Macca, and you'll hear this every week from your listeners, has just shown through. That's been the secret for Australia. I mean, we've done, especially in COVID, better than almost any other country in the world. But in rural and regional parts of the country, dealing with these trials and stresses was something they were very familiar with, particularly over the drought and the terrible floods, you know, up in north Queensland and in other places and, of course, the Black Summer bushfires. And then we rolled into COVID. So it's been quite a period, but Australians are amazing. I said at the start of the COVID pandemic that we know we're a strong people but we're just about to find out how strong we are. Well, we're strong and it's going to be continue to be necessary going ahead because the world is no more certain than it was before. And in fact, there is a lot more uncertainty out there. But we'll get through it. We always do.
MACCA: You talk about resilience. And I, look, I marvel at you and other people too, other politicians especially, but all sorts of people. But I marvel at- I don't know how you front up and have a shave and come out and walk out to the little lectern and start. Somebody said to me, probably unkindly about Daniel Andrews, that he should get the Logie because he's on television, on the TV more than anyone else. But you're just about, I mean, to actually have to gird your loins and get out there and put on a brave face and I mean, you're just a human like everybody else. And I mean, it must be, how do you look back on this time you've been there? I mean, it's just an amazing time in the world. I mean, you can talk about Donald Trump and the sort of things that people have been going through and, you know, look at Italy and Spain and the carnage that's happening now with the virus. But how are you holding up?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm fine. Thank you for asking and I really appreciate that, Macca. But look, this is the responsibility and throughout, particularly whether it was the drought or more recently through COVID, I mean, people need good information. They need to know what's happening next. They need to know how we're getting through these things and whether it was when we announced JobKeeper all those many months ago, which has proved to be probably the single largest, it is the single largest economic intervention the government has ever had in Australia. But it was what was needed. And at a time when people were frightened, unsure, uncertain about what all this meant for them, it was our job to make sure that we brought some certainty back into their lives. And that meant that tomorrow morning, regardless of what was happening, you know, through JobKeeper and JobSeeker, they could at least know that would be there and would help them to get through what were some incredibly difficult months. And there have been many more since. And we've endeavoured to do that and standing up in the Prime Minister's courtyard or premiers doing the same thing has really just been about letting Australians know that they're not alone, that services and support have been delivered in a way we've never seen in this country. It hasn't just been the scale, but particularly on something like JobSeeker. I mean, we had to process more applications to get people that income support in about six to eight weeks than we normally did in about two years. And had people who normally working in, you know, attendants and admin jobs and in Parliament House, we set up rooms up in Parliament House where they were on the phones, taking people's details and getting JobSeeker applications processed. I mean, government literally flipped on itself to be able to respond to what was massive needs.
I've had an enormous team behind me, Macca, I suppose the answer to the question. A massive team or just doing the best they possibly could to help Australians and, you know, that goes back to whether it was the work Shane Stone has been doing on the floods and the drought, together with his really great expert panel that's helping him with that, getting out on the ground, having field officers out there or, you know, indeed, the work that was done by the Bushfire Recovery Agency, which continues to roll out that support. Great people just doing their best and I'm very appreciative for the work they've done.
MACCA: Yeah, well, but I'm not sure that everybody well realises what you've got to do and wake up every morning and do that because you're the boss, you're the man, you're at the top, and that's, you know, that can be a big pressure. And I know, it's the same as me around here, you've got people who look after me and make sure I don't stray too much.
PRIME MINISTER: You draw inspiration from others, too, I mean. You know, people have done this job before. I have a pretty regular chat with John Howard, which I really appreciate. He's not the sort of person who will offer you advice, you know, gratuitously. He’s sort of like bloke who you’ll just quietly, you know, have a bit of a natter with you and it's good to talk to people who've been there before. There was a book I read earlier in the year, actually, and it was about Joe Lyons, and he was a pretty amazing fellow. A Tasmanian and he was, you know, leading Australia during that period of the Great Depression and prior to that, you know, taking over from his predecessor there. And, you know, just how he dealt with that, how he engaged with Australians. It was obviously different then. He didn't have the technology and all the rest of it, but he made just a big effort to just keep encouraging people. And, you know, Australians have been doing that with each other. You've been doing it Macca as well. So many have just been encouraging people, getting them to look forward, supporting each other. Mental health has been a big challenge during all of this period. So and, you know, the telehealth work that we've done this year, I mean, there are things that have come out of COVID that, you know, are good lessons and good improvements in services and telehealth, particularly in rural and remote areas. I remember when the floods hit up in north Queensland, that was one of the things we were terribly worried about, people being isolated and cut off and not sort of, you know, prone to go and seek that sort of health support. And these services now are so much better than they used to be and so it doesn't matter where you are in the country, you can get support for mental health in this country. And I think, you know, it's not one of the things we talk about much in our COVID response. I mean, when I talk to leaders around the world, you're talking about vaccines, you're talking about respirators and testing and tracing regimes and all of that. But another tool in our kit has been to really support people's mental health.
MACCA: Prime Minister, some time ago when I think when Brexit was on, one of my listeners and I love the listeners because they are my research, otherwise I wouldn't know where I am. They talked about bossy Brussels and one of the reasons why the Poms got a bit browned off with the EU was bossy Brussels and we're faced with the Beijing bullies I think in the Communist Party there. How are you, how do we push back against that? And with the latest thing with the wine and I mean, I thought, well, we should encourage people who drink to buy Australian wines if they can. But that's going to need more than that, isn't it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is a difficult time and there are tensions. And the point I made yesterday was that Australia is no stranger to that. I mean, you'll have many listeners this morning who will remember what happened in the early 70s with the European Common Market and markets that had been very important to Australia all of a sudden, there was a massive change and that really disrupted; you got to the oil price shocks, the resource boom and bust, the commodity boom and bust. All of these things economically have caused shocks into the system. And what's quite amazing about Australians is, and particularly those who work in our ag sector, is how resilient they are obviously, to the weather and climate. But also they had to deal with these things in the past as well. I mean, you can't control everything in this world but one thing you can control is who you are and your values and the things that you know are important and it's important to remain steadfast with that.
We'll do everything we can, Macca, to ensure that we can try and address these trade issues that have come up with China, the technicality issues that they've raised. But obviously we're very concerned about that. But that's one of the reasons why over the last seven years, we've expanded the amount of our trade that's covered by agreements from 26 per cent to 70 per cent. So much of our trade now is covered by these agreements. We've finished the Indonesian agreement, that's now come into force. We've got a digital agreement with Singapore. Now we're working on the EU. I had a meeting just this past week in the annual summit I have with the EU leaders, President Michel and Ursula von der Leyen. You know, we're working on that agreement. There's the UK agreement with Borris, which he and I are pushing hard on. So we've been working very hard on expanding trade opportunities and even like a sector like wine which is obviously impacted by this decision. The great thing about everything we might produce here is it's really good. Really, really good. That's its best advocate and we've got to keep focusing on the quality and keep expanding our trade opportunities. As a government, we will be looking to see how we can get a number of our producers through this difficult time. We've done that through COVID, as people would know when, you know, the airlines basically shut down, the bellies of planes weren't there to put things like crayfish and other things in. That's why we introduced the freight support subsidies, which has kept those planes in the air, and that's kept businesses in business and that's kept them connected to markets. But with all of that news, Macca, I mean, it is somewhat pleasant when Michael McCormack comes into the cabinet rooms and he tells us while, you know, we know that so much of the country is still actually in drought, the improvements in particular in New South Wales is welcome, very welcome. And we're looking at a winter crop right now, which is, you know, potentially going to be one of the largest on record.
MACCA: The best. The best.
PRIME MINISTER: And that is just, I mean, when we've spoken before, that just seemed like such a dream. And, well, the dreams have become real. And the problem we've got now is getting those workers out there to help them harvest it. And I know you've been talking about that on your programme and I want to thank you. There was a great response to that. And so, you know, we want to encourage people to get onto that Harvest Trail website and if they need a job, there's jobs out there and they need you.
MACCA: And we need you, Scott Morrison. Keep up the good work, keep taking the tablets, as I always say, and stay on your bike.
PRIME MINISTER: I will. I'll get back on my bike. Good on you, Macca, nice to talk to you.
MACCA: Merry Christmas.
PRIME MINISTER: To you too mate. Cheers bye.
