Transcript – Doorstop with Michelle Landry MP, Rockhampton

ANGIE BELL MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS, SPORT AND YOUTH
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR MONCRIEFF

MICHELLE LANDRY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CAPRICORNIA

TRANSCRIPT

JOINT DOORSTOP, ROCKHAMPTON

Topics: Olympic Rowing in Rockhampton, Migration Plan

MICHELLE LANDRY
It’s wonderful to be on the banks of the mighty Fitzroy River today, and great to have my colleague and friend Angie Bell, who’s the Shadow Minister for Sports, Youth and The Arts, and also Sarah Black, the President of the Rockhampton Fitzroy Rowing Club. What today is about is that I had asked Angie to come up here as the Shadow Minister because all we’re hearing is complaints from the Federal Minister. Now we’ve had the Premier and the Deputy Premier say it’s all systems go. We’ve had Andrew Liveris, who’s in charge of all of the Olympics, saying it’s ready to go, and we have the Federal Minister saying, you know, well maybe there needs to be a bit more paperwork. Well, I’m just calling on her because perhaps she needs to get up here to Rockhampton and see what a wonderful place this is. We had the school championships here a couple of weeks ago, and it was absolutely fantastic seeing all the families here along the riverbank, and everyone that went away said how wonderful it actually was. I just think that we’re getting this negativity from State Labor, and from Federal Labor. I’ve called on the Minister to come up here, and then she threw it on to Catherine King, who is the Transport Minister saying, “Oh well, you know she’s got a fair bit to do as well. Well, Catherine King does come up here a bit. She came up here to rip money out of the Rocky Ring Road, then put money back into the Ring Road, cancel the money for the Rocky Sports Club, and then that was canned totally. So maybe they should come up here with their cheque book and look at what we are planning on doing here, because this will be fantastic. This is life-changing for a lot of people, and this will be enormous for Central Queensland. And after attending the meeting with Andrew Liveris last week and hearing about the proposals on the table, it will be incredible. And something that I have been talking to council about with this is also Rockhampton becoming an international airport. As we know, it has the length, it has the capacity to do it. We just need the business case, which council are working on. So, I think there are a lot of opportunities here. Now I’d like to hand over to Sarah to say a few words.

SARAH BLACK (ROCKHAMPTON FITZROY ROWING CLUB)
Thank you. Sarah Black, president at Rockhampton Fitzroy Rowing Club. Our Rockhampton rowing community is just so thrilled by the recent announcements confirming that we will be hosting the rowing and canoeing Olympic and Paralympic games here in Rockhampton. It’s great to be able to be here with the Shadow Minister for Sport today, Angie Bell, and just be able to walk around and show you our facilities, talk about the opportunities that we have moving forward, and what legacy there could be for Rockhampton and the region. I think our club and our community are just so excited and so proud that Rockhampton will be this host, a host Olympic city, and we just want to make the most out of this opportunity moving forward.

ANGIE BELL
Thanks, Sarah. It’s great to be here on the Mighty Fitzroy, as your hardworking member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry, has outlined. This is an opportunity of a lifetime for Central Queensland and for Rockhampton. I’ve been coming here for decades in my former life as a businessperson, and I’ve watched Rockhampton develop over the years. But I’ve also watched the neglect from State Labor when it comes to Rockhampton. And now what we’re seeing is a Federal Minister who is completely and utterly uninterested in regional Australia. And what we are asking of her is to come up here and have a look. Michelle has been advocating for Anika Wells to come up to Rockhampton and stop having a go at Rockhampton when it comes to the 2032 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee has made the decision that the water here in Rockhampton is perfectly fine for rowing, and the State Government, of course, have said that it’s all done and dusted. And so, what we would like to see is a Minister who is interested in the portfolio, who is interested in Rockhampton rowing, and we ask that she come up to Rockhampton and have a look at the Fitzroy River and see what’s going on here. Can I thank Sarah for showing me around this wonderful place. It is beautiful here in Rockhampton today, and as you can see behind me, this is where the Olympics is going to be, and we’re pleased to be here with Michelle Landry, who is a fantastic advocate for Central Queensland, and a fantastic advocate for Rockhampton. So Anika Wells, where are you? I don’t know whether you’re in New York or whether you’re in Brisbane, but come up here to regional Queensland, have a look at where the Olympic rowing is going to be situated on the mighty Fitzroy River, and come up and support regional Queenslanders when it comes to the opportunities and the benefits that this is going to deliver for young Central Queenslanders, and young children in the regions who have a dream of being an Olympic athlete. This is where it is going to happen – in Central Queensland. Where are you, Anika Wells?

JOURNALIST
Have you spoken to Anika Wells?

MICHELLE LANDRY
No, I haven’t. But we are heading back to Canberra on Sunday, so I’ll certainly have a little chat with her while I’m down there.

ANGIE BELL
I’ll just say this, the 2032 Olympics is for all Queenslanders. This is going to deliver a legacy for Central Queensland when it comes to rowing, and it’s going to deliver opportunities that regional Queensland children and young people wouldn’t otherwise have. And that is the greatest thing about what the State Government is doing in delivering this, and what the International Olympic Committee is doing in delivering this to Rockhampton and Central Queensland.

JOURNALIST
Why do you think she’s not coming to Rocky?

MICHELLE LANDRY
I think she is avoiding the area, and it does make me wonder. What sort of pressure is coming from some of those rowing communities around the Brisbane area because as we’ve seen, there’s been a lot of people basically saying that they feel that it should be down in the southeast corner or down in Sydney. So I think that she needs to put her sports cap on and realise that she is the Minister for Australia and she is a Queenslander. This would be a great venue and the regions deserve their fair share as well. This is not all about the southeast corner. This is about regional Queensland getting their fair share, but it’s also about the legacy that this will leave us for generations to come.

JOURNALIST
What has she explicitly said that you guys take as ‘having a go at Rockhampton’.

ANGIE BELL
Well, the minister has said that this venue is not in the bag, and there are further processes to take place. That is true that there are further processes to take place. But what we’re asking the federal government to do is work with the Queensland government to deliver those processes to make sure that Rockhampton is the venue. The Premier has said that this is done and dusted. This is a deal that has been done. The International Olympic Committee has signed off on it as the venue for the 2032 Rowing Olympic and Paralympic Games. And so before the Minister has a go at Rockhampton, she should be up here having a look at the venue – as we are today – to understand how rowing is going to work in this venue, and it’s going to be a beautiful environment with the mighty Fitzroy behind us. I mean, this is a rower’s dream, and as Sarah has outlined, she rows on this river every morning and has been enjoying it for decades, and has very young children that, who knows, could be Olympic medallists at the 2032 Olympics.

JOURNALIST
I’ll ask Michelle a question on migration, if that’s okay. I was speaking with the Chamber of Commerce earlier this week, and they fear that migration has become a bit of a political football. That there hasn’t been enough on-the-ground conversations with those regional businesses who rely on overseas workers. What’s your response to that?

MICHELLE LANDRY
Look, obviously I have catch ups with the Chamber of Commerce regularly, and I think I’ve got one due soon. But what we are trying to do is solve the immigration issue in this country because it’s just out of control at the moment, and what we are seeing is people that haven’t got homes, basically because there is just so many people coming into this country. So, the Coalition is working through this. We’ve got a plan that we want to help people in Australia, and we realise that the backpackers are very essential. We’ve done media on that this week about how the backpackers are so important for our agriculture sector, for our small businesses, for our restaurants. So you know, obviously we’re still planning this, and I’m happy to meet with anyone that wants to discuss it with us. But we are doing the whole big picture of this because the feedback we’re certainly getting from people is that there’s too many people coming into the country. So we are very focused on who’s coming into the country, the skilled labour that we want to come into the country, and we want people that can help on the ground, help our restaurants, help out in our agriculture sector, and Labor is putting an axe through that.

ANGIE BELL
What I would say just further to that on immigration is that the Coalition does have a plan to bring immigration and housing back into balance, and that’s what we need to do because under the Labor Government we’ve had 1.5 million migrants come to our country in four and a half years and every Australian can see that is too many people for our infrastructure, too many people for our housing, and so what the Coalition has done is release a plan to bring down the numbers, but make sure that we bring up the standards. And what that means is that we want more skilled migrants, and we want less temporary visas. Because at the moment, 1 out of 10 people in Australia are here on a temporary visa. What we want to do is make sure that the migrants that we are bringing in are skilled migrants that contribute to our economy. Now, when it comes to the backpacker visa in particular, Senator Canavan has made it very clear that in tourism and trade, that the backpacker visa for regional Australia- the backpacker visas will include all of regional Australia, including the Gold Coast, I might add. And so, if you’re working in a regional area, you will not have to pay that fee. There will be no fee increase for Regional Australia. So, the backpacker visa will not change, and I think that’s very important because that is misinformation that is out there. It is not broken. There are 65,000 backpacker visas at the moment in this country, and that will not change. We’re not touching that.

JOURNALIST
Did you speak with many businesses in regional Queensland when you were developing this plan.

ANGIE BELL
Well, we have, of course. Matthew Canavan actually visited the Gold Coast just last week, and we were talking to tourism operators, the tourism peak bodies on the Gold Coast, and of course, owner operators as well. And so, yes, we have consulted widely with business.

JOURNALISTS
That’s all for me. Thank you. Thanks very much, guys.