CAMERON REDDIN, HOST: Patrick Gorman, thanks so much for your time. This is a tremendous day. It's a big weekend. But I think one of the real beauties of today, but also tomorrow, is that we get to shine a bit of a spotlight on the Australians that don't always get this kind of recognition. A lot of ordinary Aussies who have gone about their patch in life and have achieved some degree of excellence. This is a real opportunity to acknowledge that, isn't it?
PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: Yes, it is. I think for the entire country, when you have the Australian of the Year announced on the night before Australia Day, it's a moment where we see someone who reflects the very best of us. Someone who reflects Australians lending their helping hand to others, Australians who almost always never expect to get the award. I was even talking to Mark Taylor, who was an incredible Australian cricket captain, but he never expected to be nominated and receive the Australian of the Year award. But they recognise it's a great honour and responsibility to share their story and inspire other Australians to do that little bit more.
REDDIN: Good sports captains are great, and music stars and movie stars as well. They're very important, but, I think what's so fascinating about this year, and it has been in recent years too, we have such a diverse array of fields of people who've dedicated their lives to things like child protection, there are agriculture innovators in there, music, the arts, medical research, kindness, but this is a real vertical slice of Australia, isn't it?
GORMAN: I was sitting in the Great Hall of Parliament yesterday, we did a lunch with all of the nominees, and I just thought, this looks like the full breadth of Australia. From the Young Australians of the Year through to the Senior Australians of the Year, you've got age diversity, you've got diversity of professions and diversity of life story, about how people have come to be Australian citizens. Some of the work that Dianne and Ian Haggerty are doing in terms of natural farming, showing the rest of the world how to be more sustainable in agriculture. Australia has always been great at agriculture, but this is taking us to the next step. What Kath Koschel does with the Kindness Factory, reminding us that we can all be a little bit kinder in our day to day work, I think excellent work. It's just so great to have these national awards where we shine that spotlight on these people, and not just them, but their entire team. You'll see tonight, when we announce the awards, everyone who stands on that stage, they never say, 'this was me alone.' They always thank their teams, the people they've worked with, and their families.
REDDIN: You mentioned some of the nominees there. And I think of someone else, just to throw another name, is Sam Elsom in Tasmania, for example. This is a gentleman who had a really good idea of how to turn seaweed into like an agricultural feed essentially, to solve this global problem of getting emissions down from agriculture and from livestock. Now this is something that the whole world has been struggling with for years, and people would say, 'well, how are you going to get cows and livestock to reduce their emissions?' And then here's an Aussie from Tassie, who's come up with this great idea, cracked a bit of a code, and now has achieved excellence in his field. So there's a bit of a life lesson in that, isn't there? If whatever your patch is, apply yourself, you can achieve excellence and then get recognised.
GORMAN: And again, it reminds us that Australia, when it comes to science, we are world leaders. We see that in Richard Scolyer and Georgina Long, who are this year's Australian of the Year, doing that excellent work in finding new ways to treat and cure melanoma, great cancer breakthroughs there. In terms of Sam's work, a 90% reduction in methane emissions from livestock using his breakthroughs and just being on a mission to share that now with Australia and the world. And even if they aren't the recipient of an award tonight, as the state nominee, there's still so much opportunity to go and keep using this platform of Australian of the Year to share their story and to inspire Australians.
REDDIN: That's fantastic, we will be watching tonight. I know the Prime Minister tomorrow will be at the big national event here in Canberra. What do you make of Peter Dutton's proposal to essentially force councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day? If the date is January 26, which it is, at the very least, for now, is that fair enough that those events be held only on that day?
GORMAN: I respect councils have a whole range of reasons why they came to us and said it was difficult for some councils, a very small number, to hold events on that day. Some councils don't want to have to make the choice between holding a big community party and holding a citizenship ceremony. Other councils say, well, the council next door is doing it, so if people want to become a citizen on that day, it can be done there. And councils do love holding citizenship ceremonies. And the event that myself and the Prime Minister will be at tomorrow is the National Citizenship Ceremony. It's our flagship event for Australia Day, where we welcome our newest Australians. The invitation is there for Mr. Dutton to come to that event.
REDDIN: I believe he's not taking that up.
GORMAN: He's not taking that up, and that that's fine. He can be accountable for his own decisions. But this is our premier national citizenship ceremony. It happens here every year. It is an incredibly special, heart-warming event. And Australians can watch themselves, and Canberrans can come down, as they do, to watch.
REDDIN: And just finally, before I let you go, you are a West Australian, a very proud one I know. It's a big couple of months on a political front there. A state election coming up, a federal election looming, maybe the other way around, there's still time, who knows, we'll see. What are the prospects, realistically and the expectations at a federal level for your perspective in WA? It's a high water mark for Labor with nine seats, that's before you factor in the new one of Bullwinkel. Is the realistic expectation that you will hold most of those, do you think?
GORMAN: Well, I back every single one of my colleagues, and I want them all to win their seats. I will even note that the tie I've got on today is a gift from my good friend Tracey Roberts, the Member for Pearce, who I'm very confident will hold the seat of Pearce at this election. We had an excellent result in 2022 because we respected Western Australians, we listened to them, and we put forward a plan to build Western Australia's future. We will do the same thing at this election. What I see from the Liberal Party is that the WA Liberals are in a particular mess right now. You've got infighting between the Liberal Party and the National Party, they can't agree. These people say that they can be in Coalition in Canberra in a future government, they can't even agree who the right candidate is for Bullwinkel. We've got Trish Cook, an excellent local nurse. She'll make a huge contribution. I understand the Leader of the Opposition will be in Western Australia in a couple of days' time. Guess which campaign he's launching? It's not any of the ones that Labor holds. He's launching a campaign in the seat of Curtin. I think that actually was a blue-ribbon Liberal seat, a seat that they should never have lost.
REDDIN: The Teal Kate Chaney, yeah.
GORMAN: But they're putting all their focus there. I think that tells you that the Liberal party knows they're in a bit of a hole in Western Australia. Until they can sort out their infighting at a state and a federal level, they're not going to go anywhere.
REDDIN: Patrick Gorman, Happy Australia Day.
GORMAN: Happy Australia Day.