Leader of The Nationals Matt Canavan - press conference
CANBERRA PARLIAMENT HOUSE PRESS CONFERENCE WITH SHADOW WATER MINISTER MICHAEL McCORMACK; MURRAY-DARLING; NARRANDERA; WATER BUYBACKS.
MATT CANAVAN
Well, look, it's great to be here with my friend, Michael McCormack, who's the newly appointed Shadow Minister for Water. Yesterday, Michael and I were in the small town of Narrandera, just a few hours north from here, and, I wanted to use the opportunity we have in the nation's Parliament to raise a major issue in that town. This here, ladies and gentlemen, is the drinking water, the tap water of the town of Narrandera. It looks like something that might come out in a different part of the household than the kitchen, but it comes out from the kitchen tap.
We saw it ourselves running the taps, there in the hall we were at with the ladies who brought this issue to us. This is unacceptable in our nation, that a town of this size has to put up with this kind of rubbish. It's even more unacceptable when we have spent $13 billion dollars on a Murray-Darling Basin plan, that we can't provide clean drinking water to the towns of the Murray-Darling. This plan is clearly not delivering for the people of the Murray-Darling.
Since this government came to power, this Labor government here in Canberra came to power, they've restarted the buybacks. They've restarted taking the economic rug from underneath our farming communities, the food bowl of our nation, and people have had enough out there. Mike and I met with irrigators, with the councils and the business chambers, all all around from the Murray-Darling, not just in Narrandera yesterday, and people have had enough. We believe that there's been too much buybacks.
We believe that it's time to stop the buybacks and actually instead it's time to give back, to the farmers and communities who put our food on the table. It's time to give back to them with clean drinking water. It's time to give back to them with proper investment in their economy, and most of all, it's time to give back to them their respect and pride in producing the food of this nation. Forty percent of our country's food comes from the more than two million people who live and work in the Murray-Darling, and so it's great to be able to bring this issue, but it'd been better.
We're going to work hard now, having listened to this. We were there yesterday with The Nationals candidate Brad Robertson for Farrer. We've listened to their concerns, and I've taken this up with others here today, in Canberra, with you in the media, and we'll be fighting for a solution. Michael.
MICHAEL McCORMACK
I've just got four words: Would you drink this?
Now, I'm opening that to anybody, who, quite frankly, I wouldn't. But Narrandera people have to.
This is their town's water supply, and it's not only their drinking water, it's also their washing water. Could you imagine putting a white shirt, white anything, any colour clothing through water that colour? That also said, imagine bathing your bubs in that. Imagine bathing yourself in that. That's coming out of the shower as well. It's coming out in the bathtub. It's simply not good enough, and Matt Canavan said $13 billion dollars on the Murray-Darling Basin plan, and Narrandera gateway to Farrer, gateway to one of the greatest food bowls, not just in this nation, but in the world, has to contend with water like this and has had to for the past four years, since the floods.
They need a water treatment plant. They need clear drinking water, which is a basic human right. Narrandera is a great town. Five and a half thousand people, wide tree-lined streets, got the best country footy ground in country Australia. It does. But the people shouldn't have to put up with that. They simply shouldn't. Not in 2026. So we intend to do something about it. Brad Robertson, The Nationals candidate for Farrer, is on the job. But it's simply not good enough, and we'll work with state, we'll work with the local council.
Neville Kschenka is the mayor there. He's distraught, as are the town's people. Simply not good enough.
JOURNALIST
Senator Canavan, what's causing this discoloration? What's causing this?
MATT CANAVAN
Okay. So the current, I'm not the expert, but what we're told yesterday, was the situation is they're relying on a bore for this water. It's been known, as Michael said, since the floods occurred a few years ago, that that bore is producing this dirty water, and there's a need for a water treatment plant that can bring it to the quality that we would all expect or should expect, in this developed nation we all enjoy, especially here in Canberra, beautiful, drinking water here. Now, the issue here is the current government doesn't really seem to be taking this seriously enough.
They have been successful in getting funding from the National Water Grid, which Michael McCormack set up. They've been successful, the local town, in getting funding for a business case, which I think is about one point eight million dollars in total, and council's having to contribute to that cost themselves. But really, what is needed is this water treatment plant, which has costed about $30 million dollars. They've put in an application for that through the National Water Grid, but, they haven't been given the tick off on it. I don't think you need an evaluation. This is not acceptable. We should just be getting on and building it.
The funds are there here in Canberra. Why can't the government take action to this.
JOURNALIST
Senator, for a city slicker like me, seriously, what has that got to do with the water buybacks? Can you explain that link?
MATT CANAVAN
Well, well, the situation here is if we can afford to spend $13 billion dollars, and the most of the biggest chunk of that was water buybacks, if we can afford to spend $13 billion dollars on the environmental issues of the Murray-Darling, why can't we spend $30 million dollars fixing the human water issues of the Murray-Darling? That is the connection. That’s the point, because seemingly the town of Narrandera has been told, "Sorry, sorry, we don't have the money to afford to a water, $30 million dollar water treatment plant."
Well, we have had the money, to buy back all this water, for the environment. Well, I think humans are part of the environment. They deserve good outcomes as well.
JOURNALIST
Senator, can I ask you, you've been warning internally for some time about the rise of One Nation. What's your response to the in South Australia on the weekend?
How does it affect the way you're going to go forward?
MATT CANAVAN
Well, look, the South Australian election shows what we all know, that people are very frustrated with the political process. They're frustrated with political parties. We've got to deliver for people. We've got to solve these types of issues for people, and so that's why I'm concentrating on that now. But look, it also shows that politically, when the conservative vote splits, the only winner is Labor. There are no second prizes in politics. There's only one winner, and, on Saturday night, the winner was the Labor Party. I congratulate them, but I commiserate for myself and the country.
I don't want the Labor Party to be in charge in South Australia. So I'm not popping champagne corks over the result. I'll let One Nation do their victory lap. But what I'm doing today is not doing a victory lap. What I'm doing with Michael is doing a lap around regional New South Wales, on the weekend, to find out what these issues are and getting on with the job of getting them solutions.
JOURNALIST
Senator, do you back removing or heightening, sorry, removing or lessening Russian sanctions on oil products, in the wake of this fuel crisis?
Your colleague has raised the idea of lessening Russian sanctions on fertilizer?
MATT CANAVAN
I'm not sure if that's quite true. But, I think there are lots of options available before we have to necessarily get to that. But right now, given the serious security issues that are being felt, given the interruptions of supply we've already seen, especially to farming, we really do need to keep all options on the table. I don't want to see us, though, do anything that weakens our support for Ukraine and the opposition to the illegal invasion there. So let's exhaust all other options first. I don't know why Chris Bowen has only extended the relief on the sulfur restrictions, at Lytton for only sixty days.
Why not just permanently stay that right now, and give them certainty? We would like to, of course, or should be trying to keep all fuel refined in Australia, here in Australia. And if there are some regulations we need to change to ensure that, let's do that. Let's do that for good.
JOURNALIST
What about biofuels like ethanol…
MATT CANAVAN
I was about to get onto that very thing.
So there are other options too in this country. We have lots of production of agricultural products that can be converted to ethanol, and that could help supplement the diesel and petrol that we already have available in this country. I mean, you know, just look back to COVID. When that hit, almost every alcohol producer in the country started producing hand sanitizer. And very, very quickly, we had more hand sanitizer than we knew what to do with. So, so surely those sort of domestic options can be exhausted first before we have to rely on products from Russia.
JOURNALIST
What needs to come out of the EU and the UK trade deal, this week, do you want?
MATT CANAVAN
Well, I'd like to see a proper trade deal. We've had a strong record as Australia of only signing deals that are proximate to be calling free trade deals. Obviously, in practice, you never quite get there to the utopia of free trade. But, we've got a proud history of signing extensive deals, including from the former Coalition Government, when we signed a UK free trade deal. That led to, or will lead to very soon, tariff-free, quota-free access, for Australian red meat to the UK.
From early reports here, it doesn't look like this EU deal will even get close to that. So I'll wait and see to the detail of what we've got. But I don't want to see farmers short-changed just for the sake of it. As the government has said, the government has said previously that a good deal is better than any deal, so we should be holding out for that good deal.
JOURNALIST
Senator, it's been about a thousand days since a committee led by Peter Murphy recommended some pretty serious changes to gaming, including gaming advertising during sporting events. One thousand days, where does The National Party stand on this? And given the government's apparent inability to find a way through a thousand days, are you happy to offer bipartisanship to work with them?
MATT CANAVAN
Look, I just don't know enough about that issue, Matt, to comment directly. But always happy to work with the government on proper restrictions on gambling advertising, especially kids.
JOURNALIST
Senator, One Nation, Barnaby and others have been demanding that the Coalition Party should direct preferences towards them, but they're not prepared to return the favour as we saw in South Australia over the weekend.
What way are you going to go in Farrer? Are you going to do a preference deal with the Libs in Farrer?
MATT CANAVAN
Well, look, look, I'm absolutely certain we'll be exchanging preference with the Liberal Party as we always do, so I can say that. In terms of other parties, look, I'm always happy to have discussions. But, it's got to be a quid pro quo. I want to have the Labor government defeated.
I hope that other parties like One Nation think the same. That's why we should be working together on things like preferences, but it's up to them, as you say. In South Australia, the South Australian election, One Nation did not preference the Liberal Party, and that put a lot of seats into the Labor column. So, we'll wait and see what One Nation's priorities are for Farrer.
But our priorities are very clear. We want a change of government, and I think to deliver a change of government, you need to vote for a party of an alternative government.
One Nation has traditionally instead sought to target the seats that are already in the conservative column. And it's a competition. There's no problem with people challenging us. But the actual goal is to change seats from the left-wing column, the Labor column, over to the right. And, and that's what I'm staying focused on doing.
JOURNALIST
Just on your position that a vote for One Nation is a vote for Labor. Isn't it true that under the preferential voting system, the Coalition is still better off as an alternative, as a party of government than One Nation?
And just in the lead-up to the next federal election, will you consider seat-by-seat preference deals with One Nation?
MATT CANAVAN
I'll, look, I'll leave the next election. We've got a while there. But, in terms of the preference question you asked, Rosie, look, I think it's very important, for people to understand that preferences are not controlled by political parties. They're controlled by each individual voter who puts the preferences on the ballot themselves. And so, the issue for us has always been, where we have exchanged preferences with One Nation, which has been done in the last three federal elections, and The National Party did it in 2016 as well.
The preference flows from One Nation to the Liberal or National parties have not flowed very strongly, often only between 60 and 70 per cent, and the other 30 or 40 goes to the Labor Party, and that's because voters can make their own choices there.
One Nation as a political movement doesn't always man the booths. They don't have the how-to-vote cards in front of people. So, you know, if they don't have that how-to-vote card, it's potluck once the individual gets to the booth. So that is not a solution. You can't just add up the votes for one side, and we saw that very clearly in the South Australian election where, yes, the Labor Party got sixty-odd percent of the vote, but they're going to end up with seventy, eighty percent of the seats, because the preferences didn't flow between those parties.
Because for one reason, One Nation didn't allocate them to either party.
JOURNALIST
Just on food security, the government said that it's going to do a supply chain assessment into fuel to coordinate a task force. Is that really adequate given the scale of the problem? Like forty percent of farmers could be impacted and not be able to get their fertilizer for quite some months?
MATT CANAVAN
Well, look, I think the government just needs to speed everything up. They have been talking about that food security task force for now nearly two years, I believe. So it's hardly going at the pace of a gazelle. They just need to hurry up here. As I say, all options should be on the table to get the fuel and the fertilizer needs for our country. We have fortunately, a strong position, a strong bargaining position as a country. I'd hope that the government here now fully embraces coal and gas.
Penny Wong should be hugging a lump of coal right now because it's her only chance along with the gas.
I don't think you can hug gas and probably wouldn't sniff it either. But, it's the only way that coal and gas that we're going to be able to keep our fuel and fertilizer coming to our country.
We are in the very lucky position that the countries we do import a lot of our food and fertilizer from are also the countries that rely on our coal and gas. So we should be making that point. Thank God for our coal and gas industries. If it weren't for them, we'd be in a much, much stickier situation.
JOURNALIST
I kind of want to come back on that, sovereign capability point. I was wondering if you'd respond to a story that we wrote about Diatreme Resources, the company that's chaired by Wayne Swan? About how silica mining, selling to a Chinese, solar panel manufacturer. I was wondering what are your thoughts on that?
MATT CANAVAN
Yeah. Well, look, that story you did write just shows the bankruptcy of the government's green agenda, the net zero agenda. When the government promised net zero, they promised that it would lower power prices, expand jobs into new industries and protect our environment. Net zero is failing on all of those fronts. And to highlight the one you, you have in your story, we were promised that we'd have a burgeoning nickel industry, a burgeoning lithium processing and battery industry. And yes, we were promised, explicitly promised, and we put funds towards saying that we would produce solar panels in this country, including from the resources like silica that we do have here in this country.
They've just failed. They've failed. The government's net zero agenda has failed on its own terms. We haven't built those industries. Instead, we are helping support the production and manufacturing of these things in another country, primarily China. And, no wonder China is getting away with blue murder by building two coal-fired power stations a week to build the solar panels, electric cars and other goods that we import back from them. It's not helping the environment. It's certainly not creating Australian jobs. And that's why we should focus again on an agenda which is about building up what we are good at, whatever the thing it is, and forget the net zero goal and focus instead on a cost of living goal, a jobs goal that is important for Australians.
Last question.
JOURNALIST
Do you accept that a great political displacement is going on here in Australia with One Nation? And if so, has the the Liberal and National parties taken up their fight from One Nation a bit too late?
MATT CANAVAN
Look, I'll let you be the judge of all those things. I'm too busy being on the football field to watch the scoreboard. I'm interested in scoring tries for Australia, so, I'm working with Michael McCormack. He's given me a great pass here to go through the line, make a line break, for Narrandera, and that's what I'm focused on doing. I'll let you write the commentary piece. Except to say I do understand why Australians are disillusioned, with politics. There's no doubt that is true. I can understand, why they have left traditional parties and gone to support others, because we have let people down.
But, but we are back. We are fighting. I do think that a change of governments, the next change of government from this terrible Labor government will have to come through support for Liberal and National parties. So that's what I'm focused on. Thank you.
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