LEVINGSTON: Prime Minister Julia Gillard, good morning.
PM: Good morning Rebecca.
LEVINGSTON: Who's eligible for the $25,000 grants?
PM: If I can go through it a step at a time, because I do want people to get the accurate information.
Firstly there is an immediate relief payment for people across 41 local government areas that have been affected by this devastating flooding. So that's an immediate payment for people who are out of their homes, in evacuation centres and they need some cash. That amount is $1000 for each eligible adult and $400 per child and that helps people right in the middle of the crisis.
We have had a hotline open over the weekend for people to make contact if they need that payment and people's details have been taken and payments will start to flow from tomorrow and if I could just remind that that number to ring is 180 22 66.
LEVINGSTON: And Prime Minister, can I just check there, is that separate to the emergency assistance payments being offered by the State government?
PM: Yes it is. So to be just really clear with people about the details, that's a federal government payment, it's called the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment and for people who believe they could be eligible for that the right number to ring is 180 22 66.
LEVINGSTON: And can you only receive funding from one or the other, or are people eligible to ask for money from the Commonwealth and from the State government?
PM: No, they build on each other, so people can be eligible for more than one type of assistance.
And Rebecca if I can just explain the next type of assistance that's available. It's assistance that Premier Bligh and I are announcing today. It's assistance that's available under our natural disaster arrangements and it's assistance to help people as they go into recovery mode.
So the Australian government disaster recovery payment, the $1000 per adult, the $400 per child is for people right in the middle of the crisis, in an evacuation centre, needs to buy some clean clothes or something like that, it's to help them through that time.
Then as we move into recovery mode and we've triggered these payments for nine local government areas, then people can be eligible for further emergency assistance grants. Grants to help them replace their household contents and that assistance can be up to $4980 per family.
Grants to help them repair their houses and that assistance can be up $13,800 per family.
And then there are grants for businesses, because of course this is about people and their homes and the damage to their homes, but it's also about the damage to businesses, and so businesses can be eligible for grants of up to $25,000 to small businesses and primary producers are also eligible for that assistance.
We know primary producers are looking for some of that assistance to help with emergency fodder drops, food for stranded animals, so it can be used for that kind of purpose and then as people rebuild they're eligible for concessional interest rate loans of up to $250,000 for small businesses and primary producers.
And then beyond that Rebecca, when floodwaters recede, we're going to see a lot of damage to roads, to bridges, to schools, to the community facilities that everybody relies on. We can't assess what that's going to cost until we can see the damage when the floodwaters have receded, but we will obviously be working with the stage governments, with Premier Bligh's government to rebuild that essential community infrastructure.
All in all we know that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to flow into Queensland to help deal with these circumstances and I did want to be as clear as I could today about how that assistance is going to work for people.
LEVINGSTON: It's a lot for people to get their heads around and Prime Minister, you've seen the mess first hand, that people are dealing with at the moment and indeed in Rockhampton are still waiting to deal with.
In terms of paperwork and proof of damage, what sort of things will people have to show in order to access these payments immediately?
PM: The best thing is for people to ring the right numbers and I can give you those numbers.
So for the $1000 emergency payment people should ring 180 22 66. For people who are looking for what I'm referring to as the recovery payment, that's when they've gone back to their houses, they can see the damage, for small businesses, that number is 1800 173 349. And for primary producer, because they have special needs they've got their own dedicated hotline 1800 623 946.
Rebecca, I understand and our emergency services personnel understand, that if you've had to flee your home with rising floodwaters, you may not have had time to get the kids in the car and get organised without running around trying to find all of your business paperwork.
I understand that, our emergency services personnel understand that, so they are able to work through with people in these circumstances, and they've obviously done it before, for example when we had the very devastating bushfires in Victoria, payments were made and processed for a lot of people who had understandably lost all of their paperwork and documents when their houses went up in smoke.
LEVINGSTON: You're listening to the Prime Minister Julia Gillard detailing disaster recovery payments for flood affected small businesses and famers and also individuals and I'll run through the phone numbers that the Prime Minister gave at the end of the interview today.
Prime Minister, when can people apply for these grants up until?
PM: Look they will be kept open for a long period of time, I'm talking about a number of months, clearly the emergency assistance $1000 is the payment for people right now when they're in circumstances like they've lost their homes, they're in an evacuation centre, so that is the payment that's immediately available.
But the recovery payments like rebuilding your house, your household contents, the damage to your business, people will be able to make applications for them for many months to come, because we understand that people will need to get back home, will need to get back to their businesses and assess the extent of the damage.
LEVINGSTON: You mention that it's difficult to know until the floodwaters subside exactly how far reaching the damage will be, but are you anticipating that the impact of this on the Queensland economy and the Australian economy will be felt for months and possibly even years to come?
PM: We are going to see an economic impact, there's no double about that. We're seeing people sustaining losses, it is going to have implications for many businesses, but we'll work through with all of that. The thing that's most on my mind is making sure we're getting the assistance to people who are facing being out of their home, or who are at the stage where they are able to go back and assess the damage.
LEVINGSTON: You've been to Emerald, was it a shock to see just how much water is soaking Queensland right now?
PM: I had the opportunity on Friday to go to Bundaberg and talk to people in the evacuation centre and go and see some of the affected houses and the thing that stays with me from that Rebecca, is the remarkable courage that people are showing in such difficult circumstances.
I met a woman called Sandy, I met a woman called Jackie, they were out of their homes but were actually full of good cheer and full of sort of stoicism, so remarkable response. It said a lot about them as individuals, said a lot about the toughness of Queenslanders.
I had the opportunity to fly over Emerald, I wasn't able to land because of the circumstances in Emerald that day, but even from the air, you could see how high the floodwaters were and how much of the town was under waters and the clean up job there is going to be a very very big one.
And of course Rockhampton is still bracing for the worst, I've been in contact with our local member Kirsten Livermore, she lives in Rockhampton, she's there on the ground, talking to her about how the community is responding. I had the opportunity to go to Rockhampton on Friday and once again saw the preparations that have been made, the sense of courage and we're going to deal with this and we're going to pull together which was written on everybody's face, it was truly remarkable.
LEVINGSTON: Do you know when your next trip to Queensland might be?
PM: I'll certainly be up in Queensland later in the week, talking to people as they work through the recovery mode and many of my Ministers will be touching base with places in Queensland this week. We have opened a Defence co-ordination facility at Enoggera Barracks in order to co-ordinate the work of the ADF as it goes about assisting in flood relief and the relevant Minister Warren Snowdon will be there today.
We obviously want to make sure we're staying in good touch with affected communities, so people from the federal government will be available, including me later this week.
LEVINGSTON: Prime Minister, I appreciate your time today, thank you.
PM: Thank you.