Transcript - Sky News Interview with Tom Connell

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS ON THE HOUR
THURSDAY, 30 JANUARY 2020
 
SUBJECT: Prime Minister’s NPC Address; Gas policy; climate change; coronavirus.

TOM CONNELL, HOST: My next guest on the program is Labor MP Patrick Gorman. Joining us for the first time in 2020. Thanks for joining us Patrick. Well I think we'll have your old sparring partner Jason Falinski back next time. So I suppose I'm playing his role. I'll do my best today. Let's begin on Scott Morrison's speech yesterday a lot of talk about gas being an important transition as Australia perhaps reduces reliance on coal over the next 10 years. Do you agree? He really pointed to the moratoria from New South Wales and Victoria being unacceptable.

PATRICK GORMAN, LABOR MP: Well firstly I think on the Prime Minister's speech yesterday it seemed like the old campaigner Scott Morrison was back in the room. The first half was very much a campaign stump speech. When it comes to gas policy obviously I'm sitting here in Western Australia. We are very lucky to have a gas reservation policy which has been a huge benefit to local industry. A huge benefit for electricity prices and just makes a bit of common sense. So I know that a number of members of the National Party are looking at a gas reservation policy and I encourage them to continue to push the Prime Minister in that direction. And on the reality of gas as a transition fuel – of course it is. We should look in any sort of effort to reduce carbon emissions. We should look at the simplest lowest cost ways to reduce carbon emissions. That doesn't mean going from 100 to zero straight away you know, gas is very effective at doing that. When it comes to nonconventional gas the reality is Australia has huge gas reserves both under the ground and under the sea. 

HOST: Doesn't this mean though Victoria in particular having a total ban on even conventional gas exploration. That's absurd right now isn't it?

GORMAN: Well I think the reality in Australia is that we are lucky to have an abundance of energy sources. We do have an abundance of coal. We have an abundance of gas. We have more sunshine than most parts of the world. We have better locations for wind power and hydro than many parts of the world. So some of these things we are lucky to have the choices. And indeed in terms of Victoria, people have made their voice very loud and clear on that issue locally.

HOST: Have they on conventional gas? But when was that made loud and clear on conventional gas exploration in Victoria. Where's the clear vote or decision that they'd rather for example keep using brown coal?

GORMAN: Well I think Victoria has an ambitious renewable energy target. I couldn't name what it is right now. And of course as we know gas is purchased on the international markets. One of the things I mentioned earlier was a gas reservation policy. One of the challenges that Australia has is that we end up buying our gas on the international market more expensive than had we've had our reservation policy that said we're going to put Australian industry and Australian electricity generation first.

HOST: So it's a lot easier than gas reservation isn't it. If there's a big new source of it somewhere that'll be a lot easier than reservation. 

GORMAN: Well there's there is heaps in Western Australia absolutely heaps, and there are a range of new projects coming off the North-West Shelf that will provide energy not just for Australia but for international markets well into the future. So as I said we're a country with an abundance of energy and abundance of options.

HOST: What did you think when the PM said no the way we get there to a lower carbon future is not with a tax?

GORMAN: Well as I said it was campaigner Scott Morrison back on the stage just rolling out slogans. The reality is we do need to look at the most cost effective way of reducing carbon emissions; a market based mechanism is one of the smartest ways to do that. And the price on carbon essentially while a market based mechanism there's some would argue that the National Energy guarantee indeed was a market based mechanism that sought to do a few things one of them was to help the government achieve its carbon emissions reduction targets. He just wants to fight on wars. Simple as that. I still question whether the Prime Minister really believes that climate change is a challenge that we need to address. I think he just sees it as a political challenge that he needs to have a smart answer to. I was disappointed that he didn't rule out using Kyoto credits in meeting their 2030 carbon reduction targets.

HOST: He pointed out that was something in previous agreements Labor had helped deliver. Anyway I do want to get to a couple more topics.

GORMAN: Look this but let's be honest, Labor hasn't been in government for more than six years. There's been numerous international conferences, huge changes in technology, huge changes in what science is around, and how quickly we need to address climate change. I think that saying Labor did something seven plus years ago – I’m just a bit sick of it.

HOST: Christmas Island. Is this a good strategy of being able to get people out but still making sure we're avoiding contagion on a large scale?

GORMAN: Well obviously Labor has supported the government's efforts to do whatever is necessary to help Australians in coronavirus affected areas of China. That's the appropriate thing to do when it comes to Christmas Island. It's appropriate that people would ask questions of is this is the best way to manage this particular outbreak. I'm not a medical scientist nor am I an infectious disease specialist so I don't know the answer to that but obviously it was done in a very rushed way which doesn't give much confidence. It doesn't give much confidence to the fact that the proper policy processes were gone through. I did see the local government on Christmas Island say that they were very concerned about this and obviously no one had spoken to them. The Premier here in Western Australia said that no one had spoken to him as premier about using Christmas Island. I think there's a bit of a pattern here that when crises happen proper process seems to go out the window.

HOST: They’re saying their advice in this area is following the medical experts and you know I'm going to put my hand up as well, I drowned in humanities for a few years at university, but it does seem strange this direct flight from Wuhan the last one that came into Sydney a direct flight was the 24th of January not long ago at all. Now anyone that's been in the whole Hubei province is being told that they should be isolating themselves. I mean are we at a point where we can question whether or not Australian medical experts within the government are being cautious enough

GORMAN: Well it when it comes to what level of caution it is. I mean that that's ultimately I guess a measure that different people have different takes on. I know that for my son's day-care notices went up saying that they're asking parents who've been affected provinces in the last couple of weeks to stay home as a precaution. That was before there was advice from the Education Department. I think it's appropriate that people take precautions without being completely panicked. As for how the government continues to handle this crisis obviously the World Health Organisation is the authoritative voice in terms of how these matters are addressed. And I think the Australian public just want clear unambiguous direction about how they protect their own health. That's the most important thing and that's for the vast majority of us. We need to be given clear advice on what to do what not to do. And that's all it is. For those people who are being evacuated out of China, they also need to have a clear path of what is going to happen to them. Are they going to be able to get onto that plane? What happens once they leave China if they're going to Christmas Island what are the conditions that they're going to be accommodated in. What access to support will they have once they arrive back in Australia. And of course whether they will actually be able to leave Christmas Island in 14 days’ time. I think some clarity on all those things will be important.

HOST: We’re running a little bit short on time. We were going to get to Bridget McKenzie but we might save that up for when Jason Falinski is back. I'm sure you will enjoy making comment at that stage. 

GORMAN: We will still be talking about it. 

HOST: I suspect that might be the case. Patrick Gorman thanks for your time. 

GORMAN: Thank you Tom. 

ENDS