PM: Well this is truly horrible. I've just got back to Brisbane and I am here with the Lord Mayor and the Premier of Queensland looking at what has happened to families' homes on a large scale.
As I have been briefed this morning by the SES and others - some 4,000 homes with structural damage, some 200 to 300 with serious major structural damage, 20 - 30 homes at least uninhabitable. This is a natural disaster, big time, and it affects so many families in this part of Brisbane.
And this is when Australians pull together. You see it in the streets, neighbours looking after each other. You see it in the different levels of government working with each other. You see it with our fine men and women in the SES and the Australian Defence Force as well.
In response to the request of the Queensland Government we activated the relevant arrangements to release the Australian military to help - 350 military are hitting the streets, and have been hitting the streets - and we have also been assisting with the supply of tarpaulins.
If we need more troops to help clean this mess up, they will be provided immediately.
And we will respond immediately to the requests of the disaster management coordination authorities.
The other thing that we have done in response to the request of the Queensland Government yesterday was activate the national disaster relief arrangements and the payment details of those you will be familiar with.
What I further announce today is that the Commonwealth through Centrelink, will be making available further payments - $1,000 per adult, $400 per dependent child - in circumstances where there has been significant damage to the principal place of residence. And the Australian Minister for Families Jenny Macklin will be making a further statement today on the details of that. For people (inaudible) access to money, you simply go to Centrelink and that will follow.
This is just the beginning of what is going to be a very long-term clean up and I think the thing for us all is to keep faith with the people who have been horribly affected by this with only a few minutes' notice in many cases.
I just visited the home of the Wallaces and you can see, you can begin to see I should say, the effect which this has on a person's life when all those collectibles, all those things that they put together in the course of their life are exposed to the elements and damaged. And you can just begin to get a sense of how this would affect people's state of mind, their sense of wellbeing. This is a real assault on the soul, this storm, for the families it's affected.
These good folk haven't yet got back but their kids are looking after the place and I commend them for doing so.
So the key thing for us all is house by house, street by street, go through this methodically, make sure that the levels of government are working intimately with each other, dealing with each problem as it arises and we will do that.
Problems will arise in this, they always do in natural disasters. Then, if the aid hasn't got through within the hour that it has been promised, our job is to make sure that each of those problems is dealt with on the way through.
We the three of us resolve to do that.
JOURNALIST: Is it possible the military will be brought in from other areas?
PM: Well, we have a large military base at Enoggera, which isn't far away, and we'll deploy those as is necessary. If we need more troops, they will be deployed. It is as simple as that. And they will be here quick smart.
JOURNALIST: How do you feel coming back to your home city and seeing this?
PM: It looks like a war zone and feels like a war zone. What is good about it is the people pulling together and neighbours looking after each other, that is really good.
But you know my experience of these over the years is: day one, two and three, that is important. It's day 21, day 22, day 23, that is what is really important, when people are trying to put their lives back together and have to work out where you get the money from and how do you actually organise your accommodation, how do you look after the Christmas presents, all those sort of practical things. And that's where the community really has to come together.
The great thing about Australia is that when natural disasters hit, we pull together. That's as we should do, that's part of being an Australian and you see the evidence of this in the streets in Brissie today.
JOURNALIST: Premier, how do you feel about the emergency response? Do you think it was adequate?
BLIGH: There's no doubt that this is a very significant event and we have to throw every possible resource at it. I am very pleased to see up to between 700 and 1,000 more people out on the streets today between extra army resources and additional SES volunteers.
We've got people coming from northern NSW, far north Queensland, they'll all arrive this morning.
The army is out on the streets now. I certainly hope that these streets look much better by the end of today than they do right now.
JOURNALIST: But the initial response, do you think it was adequate? There were reports that SES crews still hadn't been ordered out on the roads at two o'clock in the morning and things like that.
BLIGH: There is no doubt that all of our resources were overwhelmed when the storm first - when the damage from the storm was first realised. But I think it is fair to say that many of our workers, the Energex workers, the SES, the council workers, have really pulled together.
Every level of government, council, state, the army, the federal government - they are all out there and everybody is pulling together and doing their best. That is what happens in these sorts of circumstances. And I'm very pleased, I have to say, that we've got extra resources where we need them on the streets today.
JOURNALIST: What about yesterday?
NEWMAN: Can I answer that? Look, this is an unparalleled sort of scene of disaster here in the Gap. If you go back to Sunday night, the power's out, the streets were dark, there were 560 cables down across the greater Brisbane area. The mobile phone network was affected and landlines were also out as well in this area.
I wanted to actually come out on Sunday night myself to inspect things and see what was going on. I was literally told, you will not be able to get in because of the police road blocks. And that was by talking to a number of individuals. I couldn't even get into the area.
I was out here first thing yesterday morning. A lot of work had already been done overnight to actually make the cables that were down safe and to permit access. And that was the first moment that decision makers like myself, and people in the SES, people in Brisbane City Council could get in to assess the damage.
At 8 o'clock at our meeting yesterday morning, I conveyed the urgency of the situation, the magnitude of the problems, but that was the first time, literally, that a clear view of the extent of the devastation could be established. So at that point, we did ask for the army assistance. And army assistance was requested at about 9.00, 9.30 yesterday morning, and that was happening by just after lunch.
So could we have done things better? Well if we all had cell phone implants in our ears or something like that and could have got the message out, maybe.
But I'd say there has been a superhuman effort by Energex, by the SES, by council workers, and I think we are going to see some very big efforts by the Australian Defence Force over the coming days as well.
So it is the magnitude of the event, it is the loss of communications, it is the danger presented by power lines down, and also the impact of huge amounts of vegetation blocking streets.
You couldn't move around these streets at dawn yesterday morning. By last light you could move around.
So a lot has been achieved over the first 24 hours of the response.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: I'll just say this. You know the key thing is, it is how we deal with this from now. This is massive. And as I said, the clean up is going to be what really affects people.
I congratulate the SES, I congratulate the coppers, I congratulate the military and the council workers and other volunteers who have been out helping in the field.
From a Commonwealth point of view, I will also, I am about to go to Canberra, I will get a cabinet Minister up here for the rest of the week to ensure that our part of the recovery effort is being delivered so that when problems arise we can attend to it and punch through really quickly.
The experience of natural disaster recovery is that problems always arise, that is just the way it is. The challenge for us all is to deal with each of those practically and quickly as they hit. And that is what we will be doing. See you later folks.