E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
2CC BREAKFAST WITH STEPHEN CENATIEMPO
TUESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2022
SUBJECTS: Disaster funding; koalas and skilled work shortages.
STEPHEN CENATIEMPO, HOST: Joining us today for our federal political panel is the Labor Member for Eden-Monaro Kristy McBain. Kristy good morning.
KRISTY MCBAIN, MEMBER FOR EDEN-MONARO: Good morning Stephen.
CENATIEMPO: And Sussan Ley, the Liberal Member for Farrer and Minister for the Environment is with us, Sussan. Good morning.
SUSSAN LEY, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Good morning Stephen and good morning Kristy.
CENATIEMPO: Now Kristy something you and I have spoken about numerous times over the last 18 months is funding for bushfire recovery. $30 million in funding has been announced more than two years after the bushfires. I guess the hope is now that it actually lands somewhere.
MCBAIN: Yeah, look, there was an additional announcement made down on the south coast on Sunday, talking about bushfire and natural disaster mitigation, especially in regards to estuaries and our coastline, which is great. But, we want to see some action taking place, not just the announcement. I've been calling for it for a long time now but we do finally have some announcements made in regards to the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Fund. It's taken a long time and a lot of community groups have been frustrated. But look, I'm genuinely happy that money is now rolling out into the electorate for community groups. It won't help those directly impacted, but it will give communities a bit of a lift after a couple of years of what's been pretty trying circumstances.
CENATIEMPO: Sussan the money is there. The federal government has put together a fund for bushfire mitigation and recovery, but the money seems to be very slow flowing. Why is that?
LEY: Well, that can be the impression particularly for people who are impacted in different and complicated ways. But in fact, an awful lot of money has gone out the door. And I really want to make that point. And I was pleased that Kristy welcomed this latest round in Parliament of the $2.2 billion in our national Bushfire Recovery Fund. 1.7 billion has already gone to communities. The announcement Minister McKenzie made on the weekend actually boosted a medium term response funding round to $390 million so an additional $110 million was put in. And there were some really valuable projects. And, as I said, medium term recovery, you need to know exactly what communities need. And I'm pleased to see small business support. You're absolutely right, Steven everywhere across the country, small businesses are struggling with COVID, community halls, campgrounds because tourism, particularly in the south coast is vital. Supporting our fruit grows and processes. I saw what happened in Batlow. Very close to my home, and of course supporting our traumatised recovery workers.
CENATIEMPO: Kristy, what more needs to be done in your electorate? Because I mean, it's fair to say your electorate was one of the hardest hit.
MCBAIN: Yeah, look, we lost over a million hectares of land and over 1000 homes in the Eden-Monaro electorate and look every day I speak to people that are still traumatised, people that are still living in caravans. There's a whole range of issues that need to be dealt with by three levels of government, including the planning system, fast tracking and getting people into homes. We still have a myriad of problems on the ground, especially around insurance. It's a really difficult time for people. And there's a feeling that people have moved on, turned their minds to something else. And this will just become something that community and volunteer groups end up picking up the pieces. So look, I'll keep banging on about bushfire recovery, because it's so important to make sure that our communities feel like the government has their back. Rural people are pretty stoic and they don't need or want government assistance a lot of the time but after the last couple of years, they really are crying out for some help. So as long as those decision makers have open ears and open hearts, I'm sure that we can get through this. Because at the end of the day, it's communities and people that we need to support.
CENATIEMPO: You know what I like about the two of you is? Of this rotating political panel we have, you two are the least likely to play politics and I like that. Sussan, I want to move on and continue on from fires. Koalas were particularly affected by this they've now been listed as endangered across the east coast which I’ve got to say surprised me. I thought they already were. Tell us about the new funding you've announced to help recovery of the koala population. Or just
LEY: Just recently Steven, I listed the koala as endangered in the ACT, in New South Wales and in Queensland. The Victorian koala is not included in this. Your listeners may know it's larger, it's fluffier, and it's in quite substantial numbers. But what we are concerned about particularly coming out of the bushfires is all the pressures on koalas. So I've taken the advice of my scientists and up listed the koala and recently announced $50 million to pick up on an earlier $24 million to work on koala habitat, koala health, and koala genetics. And understanding better how we can allocate priority conservation actions. In the Monaro South Coast region, we've got, for example, $2 million supporting private land managers. And they actually are learning more of the sounds that koalas make, so that we can get details about their numbers and their distribution, because we don't know a lot of information about exactly where they are and the strength of the genetics, particularly within some of the population. So a whole lot of science is going on, a whole lot of counting and monitoring, which will really give us the baseline data as we work for the koalas’ future. So in short, the government's doing a lot across many fronts, including bushfire recovery for the koala, and I'm optimistic about its future. But we are making sure that that future will be strong.
CENATIEMPO: Kristy the both the Coalition and Labor are heading into the election campaign with a jobs focus. The Coalition says we've got record numbers of apprentices Labor says there's been a drop in the number of apprentices, how do we the punter know the truth?
MCBAIN: Look, it's all down to the data. And I think that if you review the data, and Eden-Monaro alone, under a Labor government, we had 5,512 apprentices complete their training. Over the same period under the Liberal government, we've only had 2,922 apprentices complete their training, that's a drop of nearly 47 per cent just in my electorate alone. We run a plumbing business that we've run that for 10 years, and it's been incredibly hard to get qualified plumbers to come work for us, especially given the amount of work that is happening in bushfire recovery areas. So from a firsthand perspective, that's incredibly difficult. And we know that over time, we've had money taken out of our TAFE system. Again from a personal perspective, our apprentices come to Canberra to TAFE. A three hour drive there and a three hour drive back, not really conducive to great occupational health and safety when you've got 17 to 21 year old kids in the car six hours a day on top of their TAFE training. So the data and statistics are there. In Eden-Monaro, it's 47 per cent drop in apprenticeship completion in and of itself. So it's time. We've got skilled and staff shortages across this country, we really need to be focusing on Australian jobs, making sure that we are putting people through training and education. We are becoming a not a very self-sustainable nation. I think we're second last in the OECD. And it's a huge focus for the Labor Party, but it should be for the whole country because we need skills back in this country right now.
CENATIEMPO: Sussan, I don't think you'd disagree with any of that. The need the need for us to build our skills base. And look, and I always point back to the Dawkins years, where we told anybody that didn't go to university that they're a failure. And that has led to a skill shortage. But it's all well and good to say we're creating more apprentices. But that completion rate is a real concern.
LEY: Well Kristy says we should be focusing on Australian jobs. Absolutely. That's the number one thing that the Morison government is focusing on. And I think people know that if you want those jobs, and you want a strong economy, we are the government that will deliver that. We've got more apprentices than ever before, since the 1980s. I think the figure is, and that number is increasing. Now I see the pressures in the job market. But that's not because of a lack of available training or lack of available apprentice position. My employers say to me, I've got these vacancies, I just want someone to fill them. So there is that sort of pressure in the job market. And that training is available. We will be judged by our unemployment rate, I mean, that flows through to every single area of the economy. A year ago, it was 6.6 per cent, it’s now 4.2 per cent. The Prime Minister said he wants it to come down to something with a three in front of it in the second half of this year. And that's really good news for the economy. And I know trades and training is a vital part of that.
CENATIEMPO: I'm not going to make either of you respond to this, but I'm going to create leadership tension on both sides and nominate both of you for leadership your parties. I think you're fantastic. We’ll leave it at that, Kristy McBain, Sussan Ley, thanks for your time this morning.
MCBAIN: Thanks so much, Steven.
CENATIEMPO: That's our political panel for today.
ENDS
