MATT “MACCA’ Maccarthy, HOST: I'm joined by Senator for New South Wales, Tim Ayres. How are you?
SENATOR TIM AYRES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR A FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA AND ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TRADE: I’m really good Macca. I'm here in my office in Canberra, and I am ready to go.
MACCA: Quite a bit going on at Parliament at the moment, obviously, the Future Made in Australia policy being the big one that you're talking about. But what's come across on the agenda for this week?
SENATOR AYRES: The Net Zero Economy Agency, which is obviously related to Future Made in Australia, that is our ambition, our approach, which is about attracting investment to regional Australia, re-industrialise regional economies, building our manufacturing industry back on shore, particularly in those energy intensive regions like the Hunter Valley, just to your south. That's where the comparative advantage and the engineering capability is and that's going to be the focus of the Government's effort here; regional Australia, good jobs and investment in good, smart and modern manufacturing.
MACCA: Just explain to us, and this is on the security side of things, Tim. One of the questions I wanted to ask last week and can ask it this week with a bit more information - Australia moved to a probable threat. Now, I know there's a lot of propaganda as a lot of the media wanting to get attention and ratings. How in trouble are we?
SENATOR AYRES: It's certainly an upgrade in the security alert. It doesn't mean that an attack is inevitable. It is just a clear direction on the basis of the security advice that the Government's received that the threat level is elevated. The Director General of ASIO, Mike Burgess, was very clear about what has promoted or what has assisted them to develop that view. The increasing level of violent extremist language in the community is driving some individuals to a position where they consider violence. That is one of the reasons why we as a government are being very direct about how important it is. There is plenty of room for vigorous democratic debate in Australia. We are a strong, robust democracy. But all of us in political leadership, in parliament, in the political parties, need to be really cognisant of the power of words. There has been too much engagement with the conspiracy theory stuff on social media. There has been too much violent extremist language and that has led, at least in part, to an elevation of the threat level.
MACCA: Yeah, okay, and are there any steps in place from the government at the moment to dissipate this, or try to dissipate, or is this something where we've just got to be on standby?
SENATOR AYRES: Two things, one that I can talk about, and one, obviously, that is a matter for the security agencies. The first is, as a community, make sure that we're relying upon the facts, that we're using trusted news sources, that what people say on social media ought to be exactly what they would say to somebody in the street. I just see some of the language, the hyperbolic, violent extremist language employed on social media is not something that people would dare say to another person because it would be unreasonable. Let's take that spirit of Australian reasonableness to the way that we're communicating. I think that's one thing that we can do to lower the temperature. There's a lot of things that are driving anxiety in the community at the moment. Of course, conflicts overseas. There's been some very challenging periods. The period of COVID isolations and the COVID health measures drove a lot of anxiety in the community, naturally. Let's, as Australians, recognise what's important, and it's about how reasonably we disagree, that's fundamental. The second box of stuff, as I said before, an elevated threat level means that security agencies approach things in a particular way. Listeners can be very confident that our security agencies, the police, the National Intelligence Community, all of those parts of government will be doing their job and discharging their obligations in a very thorough way indeed.
MACCA: Just regarding the term conspiracy theory earlier, I just want to run this one by you. Quite a few of my listeners have called regarding the amount of planes in the sky. I just want you to put this one to bed. Federal Government behind anything at the moment, as far as cloud seeding, blocking out the sun or chemtrails?
SENATOR AYRES: No. This stuff is an ancient conspiracy theory. Like, really, we've got to call it out mate. It's a fringe view held by people with no foundation in evidence at all, and there's a cluster of these sorts of conspiracy theories, and you have to wonder, who starts these kinds of things and for what purpose? I just urge people to rely upon the trusted news sources, to have some confidence in their fellow Australians about the way we approach these things and all of those sort of conspiracy theories don't help anybody. They're not true. There's no evidence for them. It's a bizarre idea, really, if you just think about it for a moment, a bizarre proposition and it ought to be dismissed in those terms.
MACCA: While we're in the air, Rex Airlines, of course, looking to sell off some aircraft at the moment. Has the Government come to them with any help as far as relief or looking to check out bailout strategies here? Are they on their own, needing to sell these aircraft? And how's that going to impact us all?
SENATOR AYRES: They are certainly not on their own. The Federal Government, the Transport Minister and the Department of Transport are engaging very closely with Rex. Nothing is off the table in terms of the kind of interventions being considered by the Minister and by the Government. The focus in particular is about Rex's regional network. I imagine that sale of aircraft and that kind of rationalisation, I don't know for sure Macca, but I'm half confident that those that are due as Rex's attempted intervention into the major city routes. The big national interest here is making sure that regional communities are looked after and that there is an ongoing service from Rex and other airlines too. There's a number of other airlines engaged in regional routes, including Qantas, but some of the even smaller airlines. It is vital for regional communities that this service be continued, and the Government is not rushing to a solution here. There's an administration in place. We're going to make sure that it's the right approach that delivers the right outcome for regional communities. It may take a few weeks to resolve that and I'd rather we took our time to get it right than rush in with an outcome that might not be sustainable in the long term.
MACCA: Are you across the QantasLink news here? The news last week to shut down their heavy Tamworth maintenance base here, with fifty families being affected here, no longer being needed in this particular case, for this heavy maintenance. What I want to know is, should they be penalised for this, and can the Government do anything about it? Our local member has come out, tried to communicate, tried to write a letter to Qantas saying they need to reverse this decision. Should there be any penalties for this?
SENATOR AYRES: Mate, that's the first I'd heard of that. I'm glad you raised it with me. That's very disappointing news. As a trade union official in the AMWU, I used to look after that site. I know it very well. Highly skilled aircraft maintenance workers working in that facility. It's an important part of Australia's regional aviation capability. Very disappointing to hear that. I know what that'll mean for that group of workers. Some of them will be the same men and women who I knew when I came up there very regularly to support them in collective bargaining and in their work with Qantas. There's some absolutely gold star, rock solid community members and aviation workers there and I'm very sorry to hear that's happened. I'll make some enquiries myself, but that's pretty disappointing news, mate. I'll obviously keep my eye on that. But very, very sorry to hear it, core part of Tamworth’s economy. Very disappointing news.
MACCA: Absolutely, it's not just the families affected, but the supermarkets, the mechanics, everybody that those families use. You know, even schools for school fees, and we all know how a community like this can be affected when fifty jobs go begging, or even more.
SENATOR AYRES: It's a big facility, highly skilled aviation workers with very strong trades and engineering skills. That is a real shame.
MACCA: One more question for you before we let you go, mate. How much investment did the Federal Government put into the Australian Olympic breakdance team?
SENATOR AYRES: I'm not sure how you'd separate that out for the breakdancing team. I don't know. I know certainly, there's been a high level of support to make sure that our Olympic athletes got the support that they needed in the lead up to the Olympics. It's been an absolutely fantastic Olympics, where Australia has done outstanding work right across all of the sports categories. I think we can be really proud of, not just the performance of our athletes, but also the way that they have performed and the spirit that they have brought to this Olympics. They have done the country proud in the best tradition of the Olympics. This breakdancing business, she is an extraordinary performer. She does things that I'm not sure - I was always more of a wallflower than a dancer, I have to say Macca. I was always the fella leaning up against the wall when a band was playing, not dancing. She's braver than all of us, I reckon. And she's having a go. I think that's an incredible thing. She has gone viral on the internet, and I hope she had a good Olympics.
MACCA: She certainly put Australia on the map.
SENATOR AYRES: She certainly has. But we've got a whole Olympic team there that all of them, whether it's the breakdancer or the traditional athlete, the skateboarders or the surfers or, our women's football team, soccer team, or the basketballers, they have all been absolutely marvelous, whether they've got a medal or not. I think we can be really proud of them, and I know that many of them come from country and regional communities where sport is just so important. That’s why the Government provided so much support to the Institute of Sport, and our sporting efforts more broadly, and in our Olympic efforts, because when it goes down to the grass roots country sport is just so important for country communities, and the people who get to represent us at the Olympics are very special indeed. But so are the kids playing rugby league or soccer every Saturday and Sunday morning. Community sport really matters. I reckon this Olympics is a bit of a message to young kids out there to get involved, get engaged in sport. It's so important for them, so important for their schools, and so important for their communities.
MACCA: Good on you, Tim. Thank you very much, Senator Tim Ayres, for the yarn. We'll talk to you next week.
SENATOR AYRES: Good on you Macca, catch you later.
ENDS.
