Former MIA rep now Deputy PM: is it good for our region?

Wagga-based Michael McCormack, who represented the MIA as part of the Riverina seat until a re-distribution in 2013, was elected National Party leader on Monday, following Barnaby Joyce’s resignation

The MIA’s state representative, Nationals MP Austin Evans, said we now have a “fierce advocate for rural areas” occupying the second highest office in the land.

“We have a good champion. He knows this area very well, and he has a good track record on water”. 

Mr McCormack’s rise even received some unexpected praise from Helen Dalton, the Binya farmer who tried to oust the Nationals from power in the recent Murray (state) by-election  

“I welcome the appointment of Michael McCormack. He voted against the Murray Darling Basin Plan in 2012 so hopefully he will stand up for irrigators, support rural regional communities and our local environments”.

Ms Dalton will be pushing for further action, at a time the Murray Darling Basin Plan’s future is under threat. 

“Michael knows that we need a 10 year moratorium [on Basin Plan water recovery] to evaluate whether the water they have acquired is actually needed… [he] could support a royal commission into water involving all states.”

Mr McCormack, who spent the first few years of life on a farm at Marrar before moving with his family to another property at Brucedale, pledged to never forget his roots.

“I want the people of Riverina to know that I am still a country boy and always will be,” he said.

“I understand the trust and faith that’s been placed in me, not just by the party but also by the people of Riverina.”

Griffith resident Scott Williams, however, doubts whether the new Nationals leader will bat for the region in which he resides. 

“I don't particularly think having one of our boys as Deputy PM will directly benefit the Riverina for two reasons.” 

“One, he will have to tow party lines (especially the Liberal ones, as the Nationals are the weaker partners), and two, his portfolio will have a national focus not a regional one.”

“He may act as a conduit to the executive levels for local lobbyists, but I think that's where it will end. I'm not sure agitating for our local interests would best serve his interests as the number two man in the country.”

Mr McCormack has also come under fire in the national media this week for views on homosexuals expressed while the editor on The Daily Advertiser in 1993.

“A week never goes by anymore that homosexuals and their sordid behaviour don’t become further entrenched in society,” was how he opened his column.

“Unfortunately gays are here and, if the disease their unnatural acts helped spread doesn’t wipe out humanity, they’re here to stay,” he wrote. 

But one the the areas most prominent LGBTI groups, Rainbow Riverina, aren’t holding past views against him.  

“As a committee, we feel that any comments made many years ago were, in the context of the times, what one could consider to be a reasonably held position by many people, given that many had zero or limited experience with homosexuality generally, with the added fear and hysteria of the AIDS crisis contributing to the holding of these views,” Rainbow Riverina member Kat van der Wijngaart said.

“Mr McCormack has shown he has moved forward in his thinking, as he did vote ‘Yes’ in the Marriage Equality amendment to the Marriage Act, accurately reflecting the view of his electorate. He has apologised for his infamous editorial in the past and claims to have changed.

“We have to be mature and give him the benefit of the doubt, as we would with any other person.”

Mr McCormack has since apologised for his 1993 column and stated he no longer holds those views.