Radio interview - ABC Far North

CHARLIE MCKILLOP, HOST: Assistant Prime Minister Patrick Gorman is in the Far North to gauge the mood in the room. Assistant Prime Minister, good morning and welcome. 

PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Charlie, good morning and good morning to all of your listeners.

MCKILLOP: Firstly, what's it like to constantly be playing second fiddle to the PM?

GORMAN: Well, I talk to a lot of local government people around Australia, and I always have a little bit of sympathy for, you know, the newer members of council. I always give a shout out to the deputy mayors, not just the mayors, but I would say it’s a real honour to work with Anthony Albanese. He has given me this incredible opportunity to be his assistant minister in the portfolio of Prime Minister and Cabinet, making sure that we deliver on the things that we said we would do as a government, making sure that we listen to people, and that’s one of the things I really believe in. The Prime Minister always says to us, you know, you’ve got one mouth and two ears, and I’ve been trying to use those two ears on my visit here to the Far North.

MCKILLOP: And does it also give you carte blanche to wear the Socceroos jerseys to meet your appointments and and business around town?

GORMAN: Look, I just couldn’t bring myself to be in this beautiful part of the world, here in Cairns, and not go for a walk along the esplanade, so I squeezed that in before I came into your studio. And yes, while your listeners can’t see it, I’m wearing my - I'm honoured to have my Matildas jersey on.

MCKILLOP: It's the Matildas, of course, the green and gold. You're wearing it proudly, and so you should. I think you could get away with it, wearing it all day long. Patrick Gorman.

GORMAN: I think that would be a risk, and probably not a trend I want. I don’t want to be the one who sets the trend of politicians wearing athleisure wear all day long. I don’t think the Australian public want that, and I don’t think they’d welcome it.

MCKILLOP: Alright, well, let’s get down to some serious business, because you just heard in that package from Christy that, okay, so diesel, we accept that it’s eased. It’s now only 100% more than it was, not 160%, which is what it got to. What’s the government’s intentions?

GORMAN: We, firstly, want to acknowledge that there are people who are doing it really tough. This conflict that we’ve got in the Middle East is not a conflict that Australia is a party to, but we are feeling the impacts of it. And in my conversations yesterday in the Daintree, people were feeling the impacts really acutely. Obviously, you’ve got people who rely on diesel to power their businesses. They rely on diesel to get the tourists to their businesses, and all of those things are making life difficult. We’ve done - the first thing we did was to try and make sure that we had security of fuel supply. Because, while we don’t want to be arguing over these huge price increases, it would be far worse if we didn’t have the sorts of supply that we’ve been able to secure from the international market.

MCKILLOP: Well, 22 days, I think, was what we initially were told. That does sound fairly tenuous. What's it at now?

GORMAN: I think, in terms of the fuel supply that, in Australia, it’s around, the 40 day mark. I don’t have the final figures, but Chris Bowen is giving those out on a regular basis. And on top of that, we have our strategic reserves, so we are seeing fuel flow to where it’s needed. And we’ve got really good responses. You know, we’ve brought together the national cabinet to talk about this. We’ve had state and territory energy ministers talking about how do we make sure the fuel is getting to where it’s needed. Everyone’s stepping up to make sure that we work together, and I include the business community in that as well. They’ve been really good at making sure that we get out there into the international market, put the bid for Australia to buy the fuel that we need, and that fuel is flowing.  But the other part of your question was about the price, and the price has gone up. We’ve obviously got that fuel excise reduction that is running for three months. We’re really open to hearing what other—what businesses think we need to do going forward. I got both, you know, some of the concerns about the ongoing increase in price of diesel in particular yesterday, but also people were saying to me that they were noticing that the prices had started coming back into a slightly lower range, and that that was welcome.  And one of the reasons I’m here in Cairns today and the Daintree yesterday was that, obviously, I think everyone is going through those questions about whether they should travel or do things, and I didn’t want to send that message that people shouldn’t be getting out and about. I wanted to send the message that we’ve been sending, which is, people should go about their business as they would, think carefully about their use of fuel, because there are things we can do where we can reduce the use of fuel without reducing our activity.

MCKILLOP: Okay, isn’t that a bit of a contradictory message, though, Patrick Gorman, because that has been an observation made by tourism operators, that you have this national advertising campaign saying, 'Be careful with your fuel and reassess and make sure it’s being efficient - you’re being as efficient as possible'.  And then, on the other hand, you’re saying, 'Yeah, but still go on holiday.'

GORMAN: We were consistent in saying that we encourage people to enjoy the Easter break, for those who did, or school holidays. We recognise that some people are having to make difficult decisions, but one of the best things we can do is to make sure that we continue to listen to people about how they’re feeling the impacts of this war on the other side of the world, that I think we all would like to see come to a diplomatic solution very soon.

MCKILLOP: Patrick Gorman is with you. He is the Assistant PM, has the ear of the Prime Minister, and is happy to hear from you today here on the Breakfast programme. If you’ve got a question for the Assistant [Minister to the] Prime Minister, send it through, ring it through 1300 801 222. We’d love to have you as part of the conversation. That uncertainty is certainly a big part of the equation. We’ve got airlines cutting flights left, right, and centre. Our economy relies on bums on seats. Is there targeted and specific measures that the government is considering that might be able to alleviate that pressure?

GORMAN: Well, I’ll firstly note that the flight I took from Perth to Cairns was full, and it was really encouraging to see that. And one of the things we know is that we’ve got a great tourism economy here in Australia, and we want to back that, not just for our domestic tourists, but also for international tourists. When it comes to specific measures, obviously, we’ve had the work that we’ve done to make sure we keep trucking moving in Australia. We’ve got the work we’ve done around the fuel excise, the work we’ve done around the fuel security supply coordinator, and we’ll have more measures in the budget. We’ve been really open about that. We continue to listen. That budget is now just 13 sleeps away - probably fewer sleeps for the Treasurer, who’s up all night making sure that it all gets put together - but 13 sleeps away, and that’s where we’ll have more measures about supporting the Australian people at large, supporting businesses where we can, but also making sure this budget is framed in the backdrop of this horrible conflict. It is shaping our economic response.

MCKILLOP: Patrick Gorman, I know you're not going to be allowed to steal the Treasurer's thunder for budget, so we'll watch this space. But thank you very much for dropping by in the studio today. 

MCKILLOP: Thanks for having me. 

ENDS