HOST: The Prime Minister Julia Gillard joins us now, good morning Prime Minister.
PM: Good morning Julian.
HOST: Prime Minister you've spent the last few days in Queensland, can you tell us what support the Federal Government is providing on the ground at the moment?
PM: I certainly can. We've been supporting the people of Queensland through the Australian Defence Force, they've been helping with search and rescue tasks, we've had 19 helicopters available to support and of course unfortunately, tragically, there's been a lot of work for them to do. They did do earlier in the week some rooftop rescues and there are some amazing stories of courage by our Australian Defence Force in incredibly difficult circumstances. I had one of the chopper pilots say to me yesterday, he's been flying the chopper for 20 years and it's the worst weather they've ever put the chopper up into, so amazing.
And then of course the Defence Force has been moving supplies around, getting supplies into isolated places has been one of the tough things that's needed to be done, so we've had C-17s, which are huge planes, and C-130s moving supplies around the state and that's been vital work.
And the Defence Force at every stage has stepped up to do a bit more, they are doing things now like tanking water into the Lockyer Valley where water supplies have been disrupted.
At the same time we've been making emergency payments to the people of Queensland. If you imagine the circumstances where you've had to flee your home, you're in an evacuation centre, you urgently need cash. We've been making payments available through Centrelink and they, for example through their special hotline, took 20,000 yesterday and it's more than, well more than $20 million that's got into peoples' pockets to just help them through the first few days. Now that's just the start of the relief payments and recovery payments to come, but it's been really important to turn that around quickly, and it hasn't been easy because Centrelink - its main office is in the Brisbane CBD - so like other CBD buildings it hasn't been able to work and we've had circumstances where we've sent Centrelink members to Dalby and Condamine to help out there, then they got isolated and couldn't get back when their own homes were flooding in Ipswich and Brisbane. So some real tales of hardship but Centrelink, despite all of that, has turned it around and has been out there with staff in evacuation centres helping people through.
HOST: There's been a lot of focus this morning on the role of insurance companies and many people who do have insurance policies finding out that they might not be covered for this particular flood damage. What's your message to insurance companies this morning about dealing with victims of the flood?
PM: Well a really clear message which is that insurance companies should be doing the best for people, I would be hoping that we see insurance companies extending as much compassion as they possibly can and today in Brisbane the Treasurer Wayne Swan and the Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten are meeting with some of the major insurers to talk to them about just that.
HOST: Prime Minister many insurance experts are in favour of a compulsory pooled national disaster insurance scheme that's low cost for everyone concerned. This has worked in other countries, and we know that compulsory schemes in say, accident compensation in New Zealand and of course third party compensation for drivers work well. Would you in favour of a compulsory pooled national disaster insurance scheme?
PM: Look I think we will have to work through after we recover in this immediate crisis period I'm sure there will be many policy issues that we need to consider and talk about. It's in a different area but we are actually having the Productivity Commission look at the prospect of an insurance scheme that would help meet the needs of people with disabilities, because I think we all know that as a nation we would like to see people with disabilities, whatever their circumstances around the nation treated with dignity and respect. So we're looking at some models through that Productivity Commission.
We have our own standing ways of responding to disasters and crisis around the nation, they include long-standing arrangements as to how the Federal Government works with State Governments, and of course in the centre of the crisis there's always a lot of pressure, a lot of stress, a lot strain, a lot of logistical challenges, but I think as this has unfolded really people have stepped that extra yard and the emergency services personnel have been remarkable, so has the ADF, and generally the systems have worked well.
HOST: Prime Minister you've committed to getting the Budget back into surplus by 2013, but obviously the cost of this flood situation is going to be massive, definitely in the billions, is it irresponsible for you to maintain that commitment to getting the Budget back into surplus at this time?
PM: We will do what we need to with the Budget to make sure we're meeting the needs of the people of Queensland, and we will make choices within the Budget so that the Budget comes to surplus in 2012-13-
HOST: Regardless of the amount of reconstruction work that's required?
PM: Look budgeting is about choices and we will supporting the people of Queensland as they rebuild from this disaster, brick by brick, piece of concrete by piece of concrete there's going to be a lot to do.
Now we don't even know yet what the total bill is going to be, we can't know until floodwaters subside and we can do things like have roads tested and see whether they've still got their structural integrity and they're safe or whether there's repair work that needs to be done, we don't know all of the damage to bridges yet, public infrastructure like schools. So part of the recovery work and an urgent part of it will be getting to grips with how much needs to be done, and of course we've made Mick Slater available, one of our senior Defence Force officers, to work with the people of Queensland and the Queensland Government on precisely that, that recovery effort.
HOST: And just finally Prime Minister, obviously as result of this disaster fruit and veggie prices are going to rise, the rebuilding's going to be immense, surely nationally this disaster presents real problems for inflation?
PM: We will work through all of that. Look this is a big disaster, a big disaster, it's cost Australian lives, we've tragically lost the lives of some very young children, there's a lot of rebuilding to do, there are going to be a lot of economic impacts. All of that we will have to grapple with in coming days. Necessarily the focus of the last few days has been on the immediate crisis response, getting people rescued, getting water to them when they need it, getting them into evacuation centres. We will now turn to the hard work of recovery and we'll be there working with Queensland day by day in what is going to be a difficult period.
HOST: Prime Minister thanks very much for joining us on Radio National Summer Breakfast this morning.
PM: Thanks for the opportunity.