PM: Good morning, I'm here in Brisbane for the first meeting of the Prime Minister's Business Taskforce. Leading corporate figures from around the country are gathering here today for our first discussion about how corporate Australia can work even harder to assist the people of Queensland during this difficult time.
Just like we've seen Australians pull together in so many ways around the country, we've seen the business community pull together to help the people of Queensland. But through today's Taskforce I want to see corporate Australia doing more, doing more to make more donations available to help the people of Queensland, doing more to make more in-kind support available and to coordinate the delivery of that in-kind support so it's doing the best possible work that it can, and working together to make sure that the great expertise that the Australian business community has is brought to assist people in Queensland and communities in Queensland as they recover. So I'm very much looking forward to the day's discussion and I do want to thank each member of the Taskforce for joining this effort.
JOURNALIST: The in-kind donations (inaudible) in that regard?
PM: Well we have in the room people with expertise in transport and logistics, in retailing and food, in telecommunications. There is obviously going to be a role as we work through emergency housing and support to rebuild communities, to look at the sort of in kind assistance people with that expertise could bring.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) this morning said that it'd be good if they all kick in a bit more cash (inaudible) pass the hat around the table?
PM: Well I've certainly been sending a message to corporate Australia that we need to see more donations into the Premier's relief appeal, I wrote to many Australian leading businesses and I'm very pleased to see some of our major companies have stepped up with large donations. So we do need more money, we do need in-kind assistance, and we do need the benefits of the kind of expertise that leading businesspeople have going direct into communities that are rebuilding after all of the devastation.
JOURNALIST: How much do we need Prime Minister?
PM: Well we still don't know what the total damage bill is and of course we've got to be very clear here, the Federal Government is going to step up and do everything we need to do to rebuild Queensland. The efforts through this Business Taskforce are about complementary efforts to make sure that we're seeing the maximum level of donations into the Premier's relief appeal and the maximum coordination of in-kind assistance from the provision of expertise; that'll work alongside what Government does, it's certainly not a substitute.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister when will you decide whether a levy (inaudible)
PM: These are extraordinary times as we recover from the widespread devastation we've seen here in Queensland; these are extraordinary circumstances, and in these extraordinary circumstances I'll be making the decisions we need to - some of them very difficult decisions - to make sure that we can support the rebuilding of Queensland. When I have made those decisions, which I will be doing soon, I will of course be explaining them to the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: We've already made available hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of emergency assistance. Obviously one of the things that the recovery authority is going to do is to work through the best use of the money flowing from the relief appeal, but we've got to be very clear here about all of the assistance that Queensland's going to need; people needed emergency money and we've made hundreds of millions of dollars available; people will need assistance replacing household goods and we're making that assistance available. Small business and primary producers will need assistance with clean up money and getting back on their feet and we're making that assistance available. Then we've got to rebuild all of the infrastructure that's been damaged and that's going to take a lot of resources which is why in these very difficult times, we're working our way through the decisions to make that amount of money available. What can be achieved today through this Business Taskforce is complementary to that, corporate Australia has already been generous, I want to see them step up again.
JOURNALIST: What's delaying the levy decision?
PM: Look there are very difficult decisions to make here and of course we're still waiting for the full details of the damage to be known, flood waters are still pressing in many parts and we can't know the full scale of the damage and have full information until floodwaters recede.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: I want to make sure I'm working off the best possible information I can get and as soon as I'm in a position to explain my decisions to Australia I'll do that.
Thank you.