STEVE PRICE:
Another member of the National Party in New South Wales, but he's the Federal MP for Lyne, and Dr David Gillespie joins us on a regular basis; Regional Health Minister as well. Got any inside info for us, David? Who's going to win?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
It's always dangerous reading the tea leaves but I think- I know both the candidates. Melinda Pavey has been around in my whole time running for Parliament and representing Lyne in Parliament. She's overlapped to in the Upper House and then as a Lower House member. We overlap common areas. And I also know Paul Toole. I've known him since I got involved. And they're both good people and the wisdom of the party room will make a decision. It's not for us in Federal Parliament to pick these things.
STEVE PRICE:
Northern part of your electorate marries up with hers. Melinda has been on this program on a regular basis. She's a really strong advocate for regional Australia. Her and I had a great conversation the other day about how the COVID virus, the only good thing it's really brought to us is the ability to work from home, and regional towns are being muscled up with populations of people moving to these great centres around the country. So, she is a good advocate. If she doesn't win the job, it'll be disappointing for her, but I'm sure she'll continue to advocate and do a great job for her electorate.
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Yes, she is a very powerful advocate. You don't die wondering what Melinda thinks. She calls it straight, that's for sure.
STEVE PRICE:
How are you finding the fact that New South Wales has lost both the Premier and the Deputy Premier in less than a week? And was John Barilaro's resignation a surprise to you?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Well, in one way, it was, but considering what he's been through, I'm not totally surprised. Obviously Gladys Berejiklian's resignation set in train a lot of events, and one of them was bringing forward his decision. Look, I've spoken to John. I've known him- we both grew up in Queanbeyan. Think my father brought him into this world. He was the local GP so he's got this-
STEVE PRICE:
[Talks over] Oh really?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Yeah. He has been a champion both in his own professional career before Parliament, running a small business, being a tradesman and a small businessman, and he's been an outstanding advocate for regional New South Wales as Deputy Premier. And he's had pressure from all fronts for a long time and he's called in- just basically said he's done. The timing was right. There's never a good time, but given the other ministerial changes, Constance leaving, Berejiklian leaving. To then sign on again, knowing that he was going to pull out, he's obviously brought his decision forward.
STEVE PRICE:
You're going to get in his ear and suggest that he makes the move to Canberra?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Look, I've already put that to him, but he thinks he's done with politics and he's looking forward to a career out of politics. But no politician says always, and no politician ever says never. So I take him at his word, but we'll follow with interest.
STEVE PRICE:
Natasha was just telling us that New South Wales has reached 69.17, or very close to 70 per cent of the double vaccination rate, which means there'll be major changes on Monday. Part of those changes does prevent people from still moving out of Greater Sydney into regional New South Wales. Do you think that's right, David, to be a little cautious on letting people just flood out into the regions immediately?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
I think it is cautious and it is appropriate. There are some areas, including my own local government area, that are way above other areas. So we want to get a pretty uniform coverage of above 70 per cent and above 80 per cent before the full restrictions are lifted. And you can always find somewhere that is lagging behind. But overall, New South Wales is in a really good spot compared to many other states, and particularly in the western New South Wales outbreak. The work of all those AUSMAT teams, ADF teams, the state system, the GPs, the Flying Doctor, the pharmacists, has been second to none. I've never seen such a massive mobilisation before.
STEVE PRICE:
I note with interest in the Newspoll is this week, David, that the idea of Australia having its own nuclear industry is gaining some traction. I'm a big supporter of us using our assets to build nuclear energy. And it is clean, it is green. And the modern nuclear facilities are safe. Do you think we need to now start politically to push a bit harder on this?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Well, as you know, I've and many other National Party members have been quite open in their support of that. But look, the Federal Government position is still of a bipartisan status quo of the legislation. But that being said, we in Australia have an amazing history of being good regulators of nuclear capability. We've run two research reactors in Lucas Heights. We're part of the non-proliferation agreement. And we have a broad reach scientific background with ANSTO. And I oversee- I have legislative oversight of ARPANSA, which is the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. So I'm really aware of our capability. The subs, though, are not anything more than nuclear-powered. They're not nuclear-armed. And it will definitely increase our defence capability.
STEVE PRICE:
You're Regional Health Minister, this doesn't really fall under regional health but I know it'll disturb you. I had a call from one of my listeners, Sue, who has an elderly mother in nursing in Orange in New South Wales. She described the condition in which she found her mother when she went in there. We've sent this audio onto your colleague, Richard Colbeck, who, of course, is the Aged Care Minister. The second part of the conversation that I had with Sue, I'll just play a little - it's very brief - little bit of it here for you. Here it is.
CALLER SUE:
So we went to Coffs Harbour for a week to see my grandchildren. I come back, her whole mouth was covered in thrush. I told the nurse on the desk. She said: we can't do anything. We have to wait for the doctor. I come into town and got my daughter-in-law, was going to try the old-fashioned Glycerine way to clean her mouth. When we got back, they wiped it out. We took her false teeth out. We had to pry them out. And they weren't cleaning the teeth. They were green underneath and my daughter-in-law and I were actually dry heaving in the kit- in the bathroom sink so that [indistinct] clean them.
STEVE PRICE:
It's very distressing to listen to. I mean, we've had royal commissions. We've had so many, you know, politicians have lost their jobs. We still don't seem to have got on top of rogue operators. And I'll name this operator tomorrow. Is there anything we can do, anything that you can do to help?
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
Well, look, it is very distressing. What I've heard there is not acceptable. That's basic nursing care that's gone missing in action. So maybe after this interview, if you give me the details, we can take it up. I understand you've already mentioned to (Minister) Richard Colbeck, but there are regulatory authorities, quality and safety commissions that need to know about this sort of stuff.
STEVE PRICE:
We'll definitely pass it on to you. Thank you, as usual, for being generous with your time. Have a great rest of the week.
MINISTER GILLESPIE:
My pleasure, Steve. Anytime.
STEVE PRICE:
Dr David Gillespie there. He'll hang on and we'll give him the contact details of that facility and we'll make sure that he has, like I have, the name of that place.