Transcript - Doorstop - Perth - Sunday, 3 October
PATRICK GORMAN, SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Like 500 Labor Party members who are here at Ascot Racecourse. I am very excited about the upcoming Federal Election. We know that this is going to be one of the most complex, hard-fought elections in living history. We've seen the Prime Minister for New South Wales attacking our state week on week, month on month. And sometime in the next six months, Western Australians will get their chance to have their say - to tell them what they think about Scott Morrison's attacks on Mark McGowan, to say what they think about the fact that the WA Liberals, all of them stood quietly as he handed hundreds of thousands of dollars to help Clive Palmer's campaign against Western Australia. And when you look at what Labor has done here in WA at the State Election, we know that the expectation is very high on us to perform well at the Federal Election. We have pre-selected fabulous candidates. We've seen them in action over the last two days at the WA Labor conference. We've seen Tanya Lawrence, Zaneta Mascarenhas and Tracey Roberts getting out there into their communities, showing the Liberals they can no longer take Western Australia for granted. And when it comes to making sure that we look after Western Australia's interests, we need a party that stands up for WA. That's the thing that we know. When you are voting Labor, you are voting for someone who will stand up for Western Australia every day in the Federal Parliament.
REPORTER: Do we have any internal polling on some of those seats, like Tracey Roberts and any you are quietly confident? Any dark horse seats, maybe they're targeting where they might have a good result?
GORMAN: I would suggest that people read the campaign review that was released this morning. You'll see a copy in there. It says that Labor should be putting in a strong campaign in every seat, and that's what you're going to see us do. We're continuing to roll out our candidates, continuing to look at how we best put pressure on those Liberals who stood silently. They don't stand up for WA. They've been silent on so many issues over the last three years, and they've been silent now when it comes to what's happening in New South Wales, where it's very possible that the person who will be New South Wales premier in the next couple of days is the Attacker-in-Chief of the GST deal that finally gave WA a fair share. The current New South Wales treasurer. So we will have strong campaigns. We don't talk about those matters. You can look at the public polls. They're out there every couple of weeks in the various newspapers and indeed online and with the various news organisations.
REPORTER: How important will WA be to the federal election results will come down to seats in this State?
GORMAN: I said and Anthony Albanese has said that Western Australia is a battleground state. We can't leave it to the Eastern States to make sure that we get a Federal Labor Government. I want to make sure that we continue to grow our federal representation. That means targeting very strongly seats like Swan, Pearce and Hasluck - all seats where if you look at the performance of the members in those seats, they have failed to stand up for WA. We've got candidates who will stand up for WA and I want to have more Western Australian Labor members in Canberra. That's what I'm focused on. That's what the entire Labor team here at state conference is focused on.
REPORTER: Winding the clock back to 2019, and your party was also a commanding position and it was optimistic going in and obviously saw a serious defeat. We haven't seen since the last two decades has been very many Labor opposition that have won federal elections. How do we make sure this one is different?
GORMAN: I know it's incredibly tough to win Government from opposition. We know that here in WA, it was incredibly tough to defeat Colin Barnett in 2017. He can't take any seat or any election for granted. And what we have to do is put forward those policies that stand up for WA and make it really clear that we're not going to let the Liberal Party who month on month, week on week are attacking WA, get away with it again. I'm not saying in any way it's going to be easy, but we need to put our absolute best foot forward and we've got the best candidates to do exactly that.
REPORTER: How complex will this campaign be? given the border closures. It's not likely that the Prime Minister or Anthony Albanese will get to spend much time at WA.
GORMAN: Well, the Prime Minister didn't come to work when the borders were open. So I don't think changes much for him. When it comes to the complexity, it is going to be a very different election. We've seen Mark McGowan run an election under the guise of COVID in March of this year, where we had lockdowns, we had a lot of complexity, but you just kept putting your values and your ideas forward. We're saying Anthony Albanese, join us virtually for State Conference here. But you saw in that speech the passion for Western Australia, for listening to Western Australians, a clear commitment on the GST, a clear commitment to Western Australian manufacturing. That's what we need when it comes to campaigning, whether it's virtual, whether it's in person. And myself, Madeleine King, the whole WA Labor team will be out there on the ground in Western Australia with those fabulous candidates. That's what we've got to do, whatever circumstances we can test that election.
REPORTER: In the state campaign, it was no secret that you know safety in WA, you know, COVID zero status basically was a huge reason why Labor was returned to power. The Prime Minister and the LNP are going to be using opening up of different states and borders and getting that life back to normal. They've already flagged returning it, being able to open up international travel, which is not going to be happening here in WA. How much of a hurdle is that going to be to clear here in WA when we have states like New South Wales and Victoria opening up and you know, international Australians and living internationally where it's looking like that might not be happening for months yet?
GORMAN: Yeah, although obviously the rolling crisis in Victoria, New South Wales is definitely not the sort of situation we want to see here in Western Australia. It does change their profile in terms of how they can start to return people, and we've had some 20,000 to 30,000 people on that Australian list waiting to get back home. It's been heartbreaking to see families separated, but we can't rush these things. I mean, the Prime Minister and his ministers have been obsessed with borders since July of 2020. If only when they were focusing on borders more than a year ago, they were focusing on ordering enough vaccines, we wouldn't even be having these debates now. Right now, the focus is getting Western Australians vaccinated. And remember, October 1 was when the Prime Minister said we would all be fully vaccinated. That deadline has passed and because he didn't order enough vaccines is the reason. We've got all of these States in different stages of process because of the Prime Minister's failures on vaccination.
REPORTER: Anthony Albanese was obviously just very complimentary of the Premier here in WA in that address. How big a role do you think the WA Premier will play in this Federal Election campaign?
GORMAN: Well, the Premier is an incredibly busy man. He has the state to run, but he's also a passionate Labor member. I'm sure he'll be out there, but I think this is one of those elections where, like, we just said it is going to be very different. It's going to be a mixed mode, partly virtual campaign. I think Mark is very complimentary to Anthony. Anthony is very complimentary of Mark. They have quite similar leadership styles in many respects. That's what I've worked closely with Mark McGowan and worked closely with Anthony Albanese. I see the similarities in their leadership style. I think it'll be a good thing for WA.
REPORTER: Is the plan for the campaign to basically leverage Mark McGowan's success and boost off of that into federal seats.
GORMAN: It's really clear we're going to make sure that our candidates are saying they stand up for Western Australia. That they stand up for Western Australia when it comes to our GST share. Stand up for Western Australia when it comes to WA jobs and manufacturing. Stand up for Western Australia when it comes to questions of letting people like Mark McGowan make decisions about their state. We'll all back Mark. We've got great candidates. If you look at Tracey Roberts, Tracey Roberts is a phenomenal Labor candidate who has incredibly strong support in the electorate she'll contest in Pearce because of her work as the Mayor of Wanneroo. I think what we're focusing very strongly on our candidates who, each and every one of them, have a great story to tell about what they would bring to the federal parliament.
REPORTER: We're at Ascot, do you have a tip of when the election will be?
GORMAN: I will admit that I've always been in the camp of saying, well, better to be prepared for an early election than be caught off guard. So, I saw the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party are bringing their preselections forward. People are quitting the State Parliament in New South Wales to be able to run in seats. They've finally got some candidates for the Liberal Party preselected here. I don't know what's happening with Vince Connelly, so they've got a few problems to sort out. Maybe once they've done that, they'll preselect a candidate to run against me. I've been waiting month on month, but I do think it's entirely possible that we will see an election this year. You never know. I don't trust Scott Morrison when he says many things, and I don't trust him when he says the election will be next year. So that's how I approach it. You never know. I'll leave it at that. Thank you.