E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA
MONDAY, 14 FEBRUARY 2022

SUBJECTS: State by-elections; nurses striking; Religious Discrimination Bill.

KRISTY MCBAIN, MEMBER FOR EDEN-MONARO: Good morning and over weekend we had the Super Saturday of by- elections. The results in Bega in and of itself tells us that people are well and truly sick of Coalition Governments across this country. The first time that Labor has ever held the state of Bega, with swings up to 16 per cent in some boots. The seat of Willoughby a swing of 18 per cent. The seat of Monaro, which the Labor Party didn't win, but there are swings of up to 7%. I think the message is clear. Both Premier Perrottet and Prime Minister Morrison have taken people for granted. They have failed to take people with them. And they've failed to deal with some of the big issues facing our country and our state. This week alone, we will see New South Wales nurses strike across the state because of what they've had to deal with over the last two years. To not be rewarded with an actual pay increase, but a new set of words is further evidence of how out of touch his government is. New South Wales nurses will be striking in places like Yass and Bega tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. In the case of the Yass hospital, wards were closed down over Christmas. They kept getting sent messages to say it will be closed another week. Another week. Another week. The wards the Yass hospital only reopened on the 31st of January. I mean, what message does that send to our nurses? And what message does it send to community? We don't value you? That you don't need the services? That you can go somewhere else? Once again, the clean message to the state government and to Prime Minister Morrison is that people have had a gut full of you saying you're doing okay. Because out on the ground it is a very different story. And people talking to me and talking to other candidates and members across this place, the message is clear. These guys do not get it, they do not have your back and for two years they have been unable to deal with the big issues, because they're too busy fighting with themselves.
 
JOURNALIST: With the by-election results over the weekend in NSW, does that give you confidence about the upcoming federal election? 
 
MCBAIN: Obviously it was a state by-election, and we come to a federal election in a few months’ time. And the results may be a little bit different. But I think it sends a very clear message to the government that they are not doing their job, that they need to pick up their game, and that people have had enough of the rhetoric. They've had enough of the internal gameplay. They've had enough of text messages. What they want out of this government is action. They wanted action during the bushfires, they wanted action after the bushfires, they wanted action when it came to quarantine, they wanted action when it came to ordering vaccines. They wanted action when it came to rapid antigen tests. But each and every time this government has failed. Failed to listen, failed to act and failed to understand that at its core, its job is to lift people up, provide for them and protect them. And I can tell you the amount of people in the Eden-Monaro electorate that do not feel any of those things by this government.
 
JOURNALIST: Over the weekend, the PM said that he had no regrets about bringing forward the Religious Discrimination Bill. Does this surprise you considering the amount of hurt it caused within the trans community over this past week? 
 
MCBAIN: Look, I think that it's very clear that it was flawed legislation. That whilst it might have dealt with an issue of discrimination in one sector of our community, we didn't deal with a whole range of other issues of discrimination in our community. And what we saw on the floor of Parliament was an absolute disgrace where you even had the government voting against their own legislation. I mean, this is a rabble of a government that is held together by disunity, dishonesty, and distrust at this point in time. I think the Australian people have worked out that this government is there for its own reasons. It's there to try to create its own little dynasty and power. It's not there to protect anyone in our community.
 
JOURNALIST: So should the PM have regrets about the bill?
 
MCBAIN: I will leave the PM to his own devices, and he can figure out how he feels about it himself. But what I can tell you is that people in my electorate, are saying what was the point of this legislation? It was rushed and flawed. We need to be dealing with the big issues like bushfire recovery, bushfire mitigation, affordable housing, the list goes on. There are real world problems out there in this point in time and as I said this government's interested in fighting itself instead of fighting for the people of our nation who are doing it really tough and have been doing it really tough for a number of years now. 
 
ENDS