PM: I'm here in Bundaberg with Premier Anna Bligh, we have had the opportunity today to be briefed by local emergency services personnel and to be briefed by the local council and I thank Tony very much for that.
I'm also joined by my Federal Parliamentary colleagues the Member for Hinkler and the Member for Dawson.
As Prime Minister I wanted to come to Queensland and see firsthand the effect of these devastating floods, I wanted to be briefed by the people who have been battling these floodwaters on the ground, and I also wanted to talk to Queenslanders who have been affected by these floods.
Here in Bundaberg the situation is improving and we're very, very happy to see that. I had intended to travel to Emerald today, that is not possible today because the situation there is a difficult one, aviation fuel supplies are short and we want to make sure that those aviation fuel supplies are used for emergency purposes.
I will later today be travelling to Rockhampton, and of course Rockhampton is still bracing for the floodwaters to come, the peak of the flood for Rockhampton is still some days away.What I can say and what I've been able to discuss with Premier Bligh is the fact that as devastating as these floods are we are seeing a magnificent response by all levels of government and by emergency service personnel. People are there on the ground making a difference.
We are also seeing a tremendous response by volunteers and I've had the opportunity to meet some of those volunteers today. Whether it's the SES, the Red Cross, Life Line, people who've just walking in off the street and donated their time, their efforts, their labour, to make a difference for their neighbours, we're seeing a tremendous response from volunteers.
All in all this is the Queensland way, coming together, pulling together in times of difficulty and we are seeing on display the best of that community spirit. In the evacuation centre I had the opportunity to talk to a number of people who haven't been able to return to their homes, some of them don't even know what circumstance their homes are in today, but the overwhelming sentiment from those people is one of resilience and one of care and concern about their neighbours. Many of the people I met with actually said "I'm ok, I'm worried about others", so that sense of community pulling together, that Australian sense that when times are tough we work together and look after each other.
So I'm looking forward to going to Rockhampton for further briefings and meetings there in Rockhampton.
In terms of the Government response the Federal Government and the State Government are working closely together to work through our national disaster relief and recovery arrangements and we'll continue to do so as the effect of the floods in different regions becomes more manifest over the next few days.
I'll turn now to the Premier for some comments.
PREMIER BLIGH: Thank you Prime Minister. I'm very pleased to welcome the Prime Minister to Queensland today so that she can see for herself the dire situation emerging in so many parts of our state. Here in Bundaberg I'm very pleased to see the water levels starting to recede, but that is only the beginning of the recovery task here in the city. There are still many people out of their homes and unable to return for another few days.
We are now seeing a very serious situation, a dire situation emerge in Emerald, the waters at 16 metres and still rising, there are more than 1200 people out of their homes in Emerald and more to come. We now have, thank you to the Prime Minister, the Defence Force setting up temporary accommodation outside of Emerald, to cope with what we think will be a very large group of people who will become homeless over the next 24 hours as a result of continuing levels of water rising in Emerald. So we're very grateful for the assistance from the Commonwealth Government, the Prime Minister and I have been in regular contact and the facilitation of particularly the Defence assets, the Blackhawks and now the temporary accommodation are making the difference and we really do want to thank you for that.I'm also very pleased this morning to see that we're continuing to see people contribute to the relief appeal, the Commonwealth Bank have announced this morning a $1 million donation, we now have the relief appeal at over $6 million.
When you meet with people in evacuation centres as the Prime Minister and I have just done and realise just how difficult their life now is as a result of this flood, relief appeals like this will add to all of the government funds that are available and make the difference in people getting their lives back together.
So I thank everybody who's making those donations and I'd encourage Australians to please dig deep, Queenslanders are doing it very, very tough.
We now have three major river systems in flood, we have 17 evacuation centres and we have more than 1000 people in those evacuation centres and many more thousands living with relatives and friends because they can't get back into their own homes and we've still got major places like Rockhampton with floodwaters coming down the river and what may well be the biggest flood they've ever experienced, so a lot more to go until we can really say that we're in full recovery mode.
JOURNALIST: Would you say that the Federal Government's $1 million funding is pretty poor given this is a billion dollar disaster?
PM: Can I just answer that first because your question's based on a complete misconception.
The Federal Government's funds flow through our national disaster relief and recovery arrangements, they flow in the forms of assistance to individuals, assistances to businesses, we'll obviously be working together to help communities recover through the infrastructure, so that is the stream of Federal Government funds that is there to assist in circumstances of natural disaster like these devastating floods.
On top of that, in addition to that we have made a million dollar contribution to the Premier's disaster relief fund, that fund of course can go to do those extra things to make a difference for families and people of Queensland who have faced these floods, but Federal Government funds are flowing, this is a natural disaster across Queensland that is going to occasion between levels of government literally hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of expenditure and we'll work in partnership to do that in addition to those usual flows of funds to work on a natural disaster together, we put in a million dollars to make that extra little bit of difference.
JOURNALIST: Is there a figure on funding from the Federal Government?
PM: The way the arrangements work is that we respond as the disaster unfolds, this of course is still unfolding, the circumstances in Rockhampton, the circumstances in Emerald today, so our natural disaster recovery and relief arrangements include payments to support individuals and businesses. I can't give you what the total figure is because I can't tell you what the damage is going to be because we are still in the middle of the floodwaters coming to places like Rockhampton, but we'll be working in partnership now and through the recovery efforts.
JOURNALIST: And will you donate more to the Premier's appeal then?
PM: Well the appeal is there, we put in a million dollars as has the Queensland Government, there has been some very generous big corporate donors, I thank them for that, but I think the great thing about having that fund is there'd be lots of Australians who'd be sitting in their homes seeing the various spectacular footage of these floodwaters, seen interviews with people who have lost their homes and thought "What could I do, what could I do to make a difference myself?" It's a great way that they can make a difference, they can send a donation. So we'll see some big corporate donations and we have, but I think we'll see a lot of $5, $10, $15, $20, $50 donations from people who just want to make a difference.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) back into surplus?
PM: The Budget will be back in surplus in 2012/13 as promised.
JOURNALIST: So it's not going to affect the Federal Budget at all?
PM: We will manage the Federal Budget so it's in surplus in 2012/13 as promised.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, I guess you're hearing up the back there people are concerned that we're donating more to overseas disasters, should charity begin at home?
PM: I think Australians as individuals do give money overseas when they see natural disasters, here in a Christmas season our minds probably do go back to the tsunami in Indonesia and Australians opened their hearts and opened their purses and wallets to assist in a natural disaster like that. Here, with the Queensland floods, there is the ability for Australians to open their hearts and their purses and wallets for their fellow Australians. I'm very confident Australians are a generous people, we want to look after each other and we'll see a response.
JOURNALIST: How does the scale of this flooding compare to previous natural disasters?
PM: Well these are devastating floods, the Premier is the expert with the comparisons with floods past, but here in Bundaberg, we were talking in the evacuation centre, this is the biggest flood which Bundaberg has seen since the late 1940s. It was a much smaller place then. I'm not looking a Paul in the sense that I think he was Federal Member then, I don't think that that's true-
PAUL NEVILLE: I'm working on it-
PM: But these are big-
NEVILLE: 1942 it was.
PM: Biggest since 1942 and whilst we don't know yet exactly what the circumstances in Rockhampton will be, it may be the biggest flood event Rockhampton's ever seen.
JOURNALIST: Given all the cane farmers around here, obviously we've had the best sugar price we've had in years, and in the beginning of 2011 there's not going to be much cane, what assistance are you giving to cane farmers?
PM: Well as we work through the natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements they do include some support for businesses but we need to keep dealing with the immediate crisis of people being evacuated from their homes, things like making available Defence Force resources and then we will work through the kind of assistance people will need in recovery.
JOURNALIST: Is this funding getting through to people as quickly as possible, are they getting it today, tomorrow?
PM: Well I think we see from the kind of efforts we've seen here locally in Bundaberg that people are responding, governments are responding, local government, our wonderful police and emergency service personnel, volunteers, everybody is responding as quickly as possible to try and assist others.
JOURNALIST: You've just had a lady (inaudible)
PM: I did get hug from a lady called Sandy who did wish me a happy new year and it is humbling, I think is the word, that people in such difficult circumstances would be giving me their best wishes. I had another man who said to me "You've got a lot on your shoulders and I'm worried about you" and I thought well that's just amazing, that someone who's here in these circumstances would actually be concerned about my welfare. I'm fine; my concern is for people who are facing very difficult situations with floodwaters in their homes, so a humbling moment.
JOURNALIST: Will you be going down to the water to see the houses firsthand?
PM: We're on our way as we speak.