Transcript - Radio Interview - 6PR Weekend Brunch with Michael Genovese & Carmen Braidwood

RADIO INTERVIEW
6PR WEEKEND BRUNCH WITH MICHAEL GENOVESE AND CARMEN BRAIDWOOD
SUNDAY, 5 JULY 2020
 
SUBJECTS: Eden-Monaro by-election; Western Australian redistribution; Mathias Cormann retirement.
 
MICHAEL GENOVESE, HOST: There is a by election, well it was under way yesterday, the counting is now underway today. Neither side has called it. Patrick Gorman is the Federal Member for Perth and a Labor member - Patrick thanks for your time this morning. Has Labor won it yet?
 
PATRICK GORMAN, MEMBER FOR PERTH: I am also not willing to call it off but I'll try to be consistent on that throughout the entire interview. But I think that ...
 
GENOVESE: It's looking pretty good, isn't it?
 
GORMAN: Kristy McBain has done an amazing job and surprised a lot of people in terms of where the predictions were even as late as last night. So I'm hopeful that Labor gets over the line but I think given the amount of effort that goes into a by-election Kristy herself should be the one who gets to call the outcome of this.
 
GENOVESE: Fair enough. What do you make of this stat that normally the average swing against the government in a by-election is about four per cent. That's obviously not going to happen because it's really close this time so can Scott Morrison chalk that up as a win?
 
GORMAN: Well I think at the end of the day politics is about how many seats you have. As John Howard famously said, it's the simple mathematics of votes. And if Labor get over the line then I think Scott Morrison will be very frustrated. They spent a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of policy announcements for this part of the world, to try and get over the line. And the people of Eden Monaro - and we should be careful about these elections and this is a very unique area of Australia that's gone through drought, bushfire, and coronavirus - you know they've made a decision about who would be best to represent them. And I think it reflects well on the candidate that Labor and Anthony Albanese chose in Kristy McBain
 
CARMEN BRAIDWOOD, HOST: Is it a sign that they are not in a hurry to forget the mistakes around Christmas time and the bushfire management, whereas the rest of the country is probably more fresh in their memory the management of the coronavirus pandemic.
 
GORMAN: I think people will analyse the decision that the people of Eden Monaro make once we know the final outcome. We should also note that the Liberal Party put up a very strong candidate, a very strong candidate in Fiona Kotvojs in terms of trying to make sure they had put their best foot forward. The other thing I think we will see some analysis on is the fact that there was a lot of infighting between the Liberal Party and the National Party. We even saw the National Party Deputy Premier of New South Wales John Barilaro last night admit that he'd actually preference Labor's Mike Kelly over the Liberal Party. So I think there's going to be a bit of fallout on the Coalition side now that they can all speak freely now that the by election is over.
 
GENOVESE: We're talking to Patrick Gorman Labor's Federal Member for Perth. Let's bring it back to WA now because one of the stories last week, the Electoral Commission announcing that they're going to scrap a seat here in WA. We go from 16 to 15 Is that's going to be sort of an outer fringe seat and it's going to be merged and if so who's sort of in the firing line there?
 
GORMAN: Look what we know is that every time politicians try and guess what the Electoral Commission will do, we get it wrong. So I'm very cautious that we probably won't know and we'll probably all be surprised on both the Labor and Liberal side. What we do know is that Western Australia will have one fewer voice in the Federal Parliament and that's a really bad thing. Having fewer West Australians in the massive Federal Parliament means it's going to be even harder to get our case heard about things are important to us as Western Australians. I'm really disappointed that we're losing a seat. It's the mathematics of politics that we don't have the population and that's a shame.
 
GENOVESE: Yeah that's what I was going to say it's based on population figures and so Victoria gains one, WA loses one and the Northern Territory loses one.
 
BRAIDWOOD: And I guess the concern is that it may take a long time, I suppose, for that seat to be reinstated. A long time with not much population growth on the horizon. Mathias Cormann, Australia's longest serving Finance Minister as he has pointed out at great pains - no one's done the job longer than him. Any thoughts on the career of Mathias Cormann this morning Patrick?
 
GORMAN: Well he and I disagree on many things of policy. But he is a true parliamentarian and someone who has fought for his cause in the Liberal Party incredibly well. He's managed to serve as Finance Minister for three different prime ministers which is not  something that I don't think anyone else can say in terms of the consistency over a quite a tumultuous time.
 
GENOVESE: But they all knifed each other.
 
GORMAN: But I think if your heart and your head is not 100 per cent in this role and you see an opportunity to leave as he has then I think that's doing the right thing. Not just by the voters of Western Australia who voted him into the Senate but also by his family and his supporters. I wish him well and he did - even in a couple of times, he made the right call in terms of JobKeeper and increasing Newstart or what we now call JobSeeker. So I give him credit for that and he also not just as Finance Minister but he's Special Minister of State which for people who aren't politics nerds means he's the one who looks after all the things that politicians have to worry about in terms of our offices and things he's done a very good job in that role as well. I just wish him well. He's gone above and beyond in terms of what his side could have expected of a Senator and he's set the bar pretty high for whoever follows him.
 
GENOVESE: Certainly. Patrick Gorman thanks for time this morning. Look when you're ready to call Eden Monaro just flick it through to us - we're on for another hour and a half.
 
GORMAN: I'll leave it to Anthony Albanese and Kristy McBain to deliver the good news.
 
GENOVESE: Patrick, thank you for your time this morning.
 
BRAIDWOOD: Well done.
 
GORMAN: Thank you.
 
ENDS