E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO

TUESDAY 18 JANUARY 2022

SUBJECTS: Disaster funding, recycling and pandemic response

STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: Well our first federal political panel is back for the year and we are in the election year and not that far away from an election, although we don't know what the date is going to be as yet, although most pundits speculate. Joining us for the first time, Kristy McBain is the Labor Member for Eden-Monaro. Morning, Kristy.

KRISTY MCBAIN, MEMBER FOR EDEN-MONARO: Good morning Stephen.

CENATIEMPO: Well, it's not actually the first time you and I have spoken this year, but it's the first time you hear for our panel. And joining us is the Liberal Member for Farrer and Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley. Good morning, Sussan.

SUSSAN LEY, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Good morning Stephen and good morning Kristy.

CENATIEMPO: An election year Kristy, I'll start with you. From your perspective, what changes in an election year when it comes to the way you operate?

MCBAIN: I guess for my part, not much changes. I'm a federal member who's pretty intent on making sure the voice of Eden-Monaro is being well and truly talked about in Canberra and beyond. As a lot of people in Canberra know, the electorate has been hit pretty hard. So for me, it's still about going around talking to communities and making sure that we're following up on the issues that matter most to them.

CENATIEMPO: Sussan, one of the criticisms that Kristy has had for quite, and I think it's a fair criticism, is that the federal government has set aside all of his money for disaster mitigation and disaster assistance, but the money doesn't seem to be flowing. I mean, at some point, that money is going to have to start to get out there. And you can understand that if it starts to flow, now, we're all going to get a bit cynical about it.

LEY: Look, I know that that frustration is in many people's minds. But I also know that the response is happening and the regeneration after disasters, while sometimes appearing slow, is real. And I know that because in my environment portfolio, I'm seeing the recovery on the ground of our environment, but with it the communities who are so connected with the natural world around them. And you know, I was listening to some folks the other day talk about the comeback in Mallacoota after the fires, and their biggest frustration was they just couldn't get trades people. They just couldn't get anybody to do the work that was funded by governments and supported by local council and with community backing. One of the things we're doing is making sure we've got the tradies, we've got the workforce, I hope most of it local, some of it International, and that's necessary too to get us out of COVID in a way that keeps us strong. And I'm out in western New South Wales so I'm kicking off the year in some of my smaller communities. And that's what they're saying workforce, we're worried about our workforce, and we want the government to continue to support those supply chains.

CENATIEMPO: Kristy, Labor has announced a plan to use the government's Emergency Response Fund $4.7 billion. Labor says it's going to spend $200 million a year from that fund. So realistically, this is not a new policy. It's just sort of, I guess, skinning the cat.

MCBAIN: It's getting the money out the door. We’ve had over a million hectares burnt across Eden-Monaro. We've had 35 declared natural disasters in the last five years alone. And when I'm going around talking to community groups, to local councils, to people that have been directly impacted, the one thing they want to see is mitigation and resilience measures being put in place as soon as possible. And you can talk to any community group, any local council across my electorate, and they'll give you a list of priorities. This is what we want to see, we actually want to see that money being spent so that when the time comes for the next natural disaster, hopefully the impacts are less because we've been able to mitigate against the worst of the worst. So we've been able to make our infrastructure more resilient. The evacuation hubs across this electorate aren’t up to scratch, so many of them don't have disabled access. And when you've got populations where the demographics are a bit older, we need to make sure we're catering for people who will have to come to evacuation hubs. So it's about getting that money spent in communities. And we should be taking that locally led approach these communities and local councils know what needs to be done, and we need to be backing their ideas and spending that money as soon as possible.

CENATIEMPO: Sussan it's hard to argue with all of that.

LEY: We’ve done an awful lot since the last bushfires. And of course, today is the anniversary of those awful Canberra bushfires which I remember quite well in 2003. We've got a lot more happening around aerial firefighting, we’ve bought a new large air tanker. Initially it will be based in WA this disaster season where we've seen a couple of fires. We've got the National Recovery and Resilience Agency led by Shane Stone, a very practical person, someone who I believe, and I have seen cut through the red tape and actually get things done. And we've got a lot of planning within what's called the Australian Climate Service within my portfolio, but actually is about Preparing for fires, noting that their intensity and frequency is likely to be greater. SoI disagree with Kristy in that there's absolutely no sense in the government of sitting back. We are stepping right into this. And on many, many fronts doing a lot. Of course there is state government work to be done. There is local government work to be done. And it works best when everyone is in partnership.

CENATIEMPO: Kristy my real concern with the Labor policy is this $200 million a year figure it strikes me of the public service. Well, let's spend the budget even if we don't need it, just so that we get it again next year. I mean, you can't put a dollar figure on it on an annual basis. Surely this has got to be on a needs basis.

MCBAIN: Well, you can go out to any community and the need will be there, Steven. I guess the point is, there is a $4.7 billion budget sitting there, which hasn't been spent on anything. I mean, as I just said, 35 declared natural disasters in my electorate alone in the last five years. There are a ton of mitigation and resilience projects that money could be spent on which is just sitting there. So I hear Sussan say that the government is doing a lot, but you haven't touched a single dollar out of that fund. And there's been no mitigation put in place. When communities go through this significant trauma, what they want to see is the government stepping in and actually saying, we're prepared to back this idea, because we know you're going to need it in the very near future again. So the money's sitting there - why isn't it being spent to help communities get through pretty tough and traumatic periods when those natural disasters occur?

CENATIEMPO: I want to change topics for a moment, Sussan, the government is investing in domestic recycling capabilities, which will include further new projects in Victoria. This is a long time coming. And we've known for a number of years now that exporting our recycled waste isn't an option anymore. Are we a little bit slow off the mark here?

LEY: Well, we the federal government has stepped into a space that's previously been state and local. And that came about when we saw those piles of waste on our docks a couple of years ago, and the Prime Minister said look it’s our waste, it's our responsibility, we'll process it here. So this was never constitutionally something the federal government was responsible for. But what we did was generate new manufacturing capacity around that recycling. So the important thing is, it's not about just preventing the waste going offshore and putting it in a hole in the ground. We don't want that we don't want more landfill. It's about saying waste is a resource, plastic, rubber tires, which goes back on roads, plastic that is turning into new products, like outdoor benches, and furniture and tiles. And of course, the plastic drink bottle that needs to be recycled to and it will be by domestic processes that thing that bring manufacturing and jobs to Australians. In fact, in regional Australia, where I am 10,000 new jobs in domestic recycling. So it's pretty exciting and I'm loving visiting some of the projects.

CENATIEMPO: Kristy, it's fair to say that every government, state or federal across Australia has made mistakes during the course of this pandemic. There's nobody who was ever going to get 100% right. Some of the criticisms that have been levelled at the federal government, though have been a little bit disingenuous for me.

MCBAIN: Such as?

CENATIEMPO: Well, I mean, the criticisms about the vaccine rollout and the inference that you just pull up to Woolies with your trolley and fill it up with vaccines. And the same with rapid antigen tests. I mean, it's not as simple as you guys are trying to make it out to be.

MCBAIN: No, look you’re right, there's been a very, very difficult period over the last couple of years to state and federal governments. And no doubt, there's been some tough calls. I guess, from a federal government perspective, we sit in the southern hemisphere at opposite ends of the season to the northern hemisphere. We should have been understanding what was happening overseas and making sure we weren't going to make the same mistakes. Planning for this stuff should have been the easy part. implementing it and rolling things out can be a little bit more difficult. But you know, making sure that your head of the queue in terms of vaccine rollout would have been a good idea. Understanding that you're changing pace and you've decided to move away from PCR testing to rapid testing is fine, but you've got to actually make sure that you've got the rapid testing to take over from PCR testing. So I guess the planning part has been probably not done very well. And it's not just a one off. We've seen it numerous times now. Initially when the Labor Party called for wage subsidies, it was called dangerous. Then we saw it repackaged as JobKeeper and it was a great idea. We asked to do vaccine deals with five or six different companies, so if there was a problem with one we would still have more to roll out, and we were told that that was overkill but it was needed.

CENATIEMPO: But as it turned out, the problem with the one vaccine was the Labor Party, deliberately demonising and what has turned out to be the best vaccine worldwide?

MCBAIN: Well, I think the Prime Minister's late night press conference at 10.30 at night telling people that we were moving away from AstraZeneca was the problem. The Labor Party isn't in power, as much as I'd like to see it. These decisions rest solely with the federal government and with the Prime Minister.

CENATIEMPO: Sussan, we've handled this probably better than any other country in the world.

LEY: We have in terms of acute incidences, clinical instances of COVID, our hospitalisations, our each one of them very sad deaths. And the fact that our economy is continuing to power through and I say that because all of the indicators nationally are, but we coming out of this very strongly. But I understand Steve and Kristy would know this within her community. People have gone through a lot. And some of them are quite anxious, and they're quite frustrated. But the ones I talked to, they see themselves coming out of this, they say, look, we feel like we're over the worst. And I was reflecting on your earlier point, we might not really be like going out down the street right now. But I know we will probably next week or the week after. So they've got that sense of pausing before they pick up that Aussie resilience, that determination to get out there, with the confidence that this government has their back because it is about the supply chain. It is about making sure that while there might be short term interruptions, you know, the shops are open, you can get what you need, nothing's going to run out. And while there's been a slowness, in getting rapid antigen tests, and I was very interested in getting those for my border communities and one state government wasn't too keen, but this is not about pointing the finger. This is about recognising that shortage is easy. The rapid antigens are coming back, I'm seeing my PCR lines in my communities get shorter, and I'm seeing that confidence come back to my community. But I just want to thank them because they really have done incredibly well. And they recognize that governments have to respond. And we don't have a crystal ball Omicron hit South Africa, hit the world, it hit us pretty much in quick succession. And we did respond and we did what we needed to do.

CENATIEMPO: I think this is going to be fun moving forward as we head into the election. Kristy McBain Susan Ley, thanks for your time this morning.

MCBAIN: Thank you very much.

CENATIEPMO: That's our political panel. The Member for Farrer and Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley and Member for Eden-Monaro Kristy McBain.

ENDS