PM: Thank you very much for coming to a press conference at what I understand is an unusual time of day to have one. I've just got a brief statement to make about circumstances in Egypt, and then I'll be very happy to take a few questions.
As Australians know, the Government has been monitoring the situation in Egypt very closely. Yesterday, I advised Australians that we had moved our travel warning to do not travel. We had advised Australians and we continue to advise Australians in Egypt to travel out of Egypt if it is safe for them to do so.
This afternoon, I have been briefed by relevant officials and talked to relevant ministers. Following those discussions, I have determined that we will make available an evacuation flight for Australians from Egypt.
The flight will be a Qantas plane that the Government has chartered.
The evacuation flight will be available to take people from Egypt on Wednesday.
The circumstances in Egypt are that we are saying to Australians to travel out of Egypt. As a result of that advice, many Australians have already made arrangements, commercial arrangements, to leave Egypt, and they have confirmed commercial bookings.
Cairo airport is still operational, and commercial flights are leaving Cairo airport, but there is significant pressure on commercial flights, and some disruption and delay. In these circumstances, I have determined that the best course of action is to make this assisted evacuation flight available to assist Australians to leave Egypt.
This flight will be made available at no cost to Australians who travel on it. The flight will return to either London or Frankfurt. Officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be available to meet people who come off the flight to assist them with making their further arrangements for where they wish to travel to next.
Obviously, a number of Australians would have airline tickets that they can change bookings in relation to. A number would have travel insurance. A number would have been stopping off in Egypt on their way to further locations, but officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be available to assist people, and obviously to provide assistance if there are cases of particular hardship and Australians need assistance to move from either Frankfurt airport or London airport.
My highest priority is the safety of Australians. Australians will have seen the circumstances in Egypt and in Cairo and would have recognised the dangers that are there. As a result of those dangers, that is why we did move the travel advisory, and I do want to stress it remains do not travel to Egypt, and that is why we are making these special arrangements to assist Australians to move out of Egypt.
We will obviously monitor demand for this assisted evacuation flight and, depending on demand, we will make further flights available as necessary.
Now, I'm conscious that it is morning in Egypt and there would be a number of Australians who are trying to work through their travel arrangements and work out how they are going to get out of Egypt, so if I can take what is a bit of an unusual course in a press conference but advise people of the right telephone numbers to ring.
For people who are in Egypt, the number that they can contact is our embassy there. The number there is 202 2575 0444.
For Australians who want to ring in to the DFAT consular emergency centre here in Australia that number, ringing from overseas, is 61 2 6261 3305.
For Australians who are ringing in Australia but want to contact the number on behalf of family or friends, they should ring 02 6261 3305.
We now have operational a calls arrangement so calls will be answered 24/7 both in Cairo and in Canberra using those numbers.
I'm very happy to take any questions that people may have.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how many people can get on board this flight, and how do they get a ticket?
PM: Well, they ring those numbers.
We know that there are around 1,100 Australians registered with our embassy in Egypt. We anticipate that there are more Australians in Egypt than that, but the only hard number I can give you is the number registered and that's the 1,100. We know a number of those Australians would have confirmed commercial travel arrangements, so that's why we're making the flight available.
It's a 747, so obviously it has a large number of seats, as big planes do, and we will monitor demand, and if it is necessary to make a further flight available then we will.
JOURNALIST: One class of seat?
PM: Oh, look, I can't give you all the details of the configuration of the aircraft. We've urgently this afternoon sourced a Qantas plane that we can charter for this purpose. It's coming out of Europe, so I'm not sure we had every choice in the world about its internal fittings and fixtures.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how concerned are you about the safety of people in Egypt, given that you've it to do not travel, but how concerned are you as a Government about the situation in Egypt?
PM: Well, we are very concerned and we wouldn't be taking these steps if we weren't concerned. The highest travel advice we can give Australians is those very plain and simple words - do not travel. That's our highest travel advisory, do not travel, and so we have issued that deliberately because we do not believe that it is safe for Australians now outside Egypt to travel into Egypt, and at the same time we gave Australians the advice for them to travel if it's safe to do so, and obviously with disruption on the streets people will need to take account of the circumstances that they find themselves in.
So, we do want people to be safe. It's my highest priority that we keep Australians safe, and that's why, as a Government, we have determined to take this decision and to make available this charter flight to assist with evacuations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, can this be taken as a signal, Prime Minister, from your intelligence or whatever, that the situation in Egypt's about to deteriorate significantly, this (inaudible)
PM: People should take this on face value for what it is. People will have seen on their TV screens very significant disruption on the streets. That's not only been in the form of mass demonstrations. That is also in the form of looting and crime, so in those circumstances I just think, as a matter of commonsense, people can work out that it would be very easy to be caught up in a situation where people could be subject to violence, and we want to avoid that.
Highest priority - keeping Australians safe. I've talked to officials this afternoon. We took a step up in the travel advisory yesterday, and today we're taking this further step of assisting with the evacuation.
There is significant pressure on commercial flights, and that is what is causing the disruption and delays at the airport.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what level of concern is there about the protection and security of Australian officials in Egypt, and has there been any consideration of evacuating Australian staff, Government staff?
PM: At this stage we are staffing, and indeed have increased resources so that we're in a position to provide consular assistance to people in these circumstances.
Now, we are going to monitor this closely, day by day, indeed, hour by hour, and if we think any further action is required, then we'll take it and we'll certainly advise people of it publically, but people should take the message from this announcement that there will be staff at the Cairo embassy who can assist them, that there will be people to answer their telephone calls both if they ring the Cairo number or if they ring the Australian number, and that, in addition to normal commercial travel arrangements, people who have confirmed commercial bookings, there is now this assisted evacuation flight available.
JOURNALIST: Have you sent other staff from other posts in the region to Cairo?
PM: Look, at an earlier point in time we did increase resourcing because we recognised that there would be a number of Australians who would need assistance in these circumstances.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are you confident that Cairo airport will remain open, and does the Government have contingency plans in case it closes, given reports of violence and rioting near the airport?
PM: We're continuing to monitor the situation, and if we form any view about a change to the advice that I've just given people, then we will obviously update about that advice, but at the moment the advice to me is commercial flights are flying. Cairo airport is open. There is significant pressure on it, and consequently significant delays, but if people have confirmed commercial bookings and they believe they're in a position to access those bookings, then that is one way to leave Egypt.
Obviously, another way to leave Egypt is to use the numbers and information I've just given people and to register for the flight which will go on Wednesday.
JOURNALIST: Can I just clarify, Prime Minister, if you have a commercial booking and there's a big flood of people going there, will you be able to get on the Government flight instead, or will there be a priority given to people who haven't been able to get on-
PM: -Thank you for that, and that's an important clarification.
People will not be refused access to this assisted evacuation flight because they have a commercial booking.
Having said that, if people have a confirmed commercial booking, and it is going soon and they believe that they are in a position to access that flight, then that is going to work for them as a way out of Egypt, so I am not suggesting to people that they cancel commercial bookings that they believe they can safely go and access, but I'm also not saying that if you cancel a commercial booking you will be denied access to this flight.
I think in these situations where, clearly, you know, our highest priority is the safety of each individual, we've got to show some flexibility and generosity and make sure that we're assisting the maximum number of Australians. At the same time, I think if someone can travel, say, today, and they've got a confirmed commercial booking to do so, then there is no reason to delay their departure until this flight is available.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, apart from those Australians who've officially notified the embassy that they're there, have you got any, are your officials making any estimate of how many Australians, unregistered, might actually be there?
PM: Look, we do have estimates, and they are in the numbers like 2,000-3,000, but we can't be sure. The number we can be sure about is the number who are registered with the embassy.
JOURNALIST: What's the cost of this exercise, and have you given thought to recovering some of the cost through claims on their travellers' insurance?
PM: On the question of cost, obviously, there is a cost associated with chartering an aircraft, but we are going to bear that cost in order to put the safety of Australians first.
We are not seeking, we will not be seeking, cost-recovery arrangements for people who fly on that flight.
Other nations are also making available planes to take people from Egypt. The United States, for example, has announced an arrangement today. Their practice is to have a cost-recovery arrangement. It's not our practice, and there won't be a cost recovery arrangement for accessing this flight.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, has the Government received any advice about the reports of Egyptian police and Egyptian internal security forces redeployed onto the streets in the next day or so?
PM: Look, I'm not going to go to intelligence reports, but the situation is as people have seen it on their TV screens. It's a situation which people can be caught up in dangerous situations, either because of street demonstrations, reaction to street demonstrations or associated crime whilst there is such significant disruption on the streets. You would be aware there's been reports of looting, crime, gunfire, and in those circumstances it's, you know, very easy for someone to end up injured or something worse, and that's why we have advised do not travel why we are advising, if you are in Egypt, to travel when it's safe to do so.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, given what you've just said about gunfire, will it be necessary for the embassy to organise buses or convoys or anything like that to make sure Australians get safely to the airport?
PM : Well, the best thing, the best advice I can give people now, is contact the number, register for the flight. DFAT officials will work it through with people, where they are, how to get to the airport. I mean, the airport, we just do need to remind ourselves, the airport is still functioning. People have been travelling to the airport and getting on flights and they've been doing that in circumstances where they've been making their own way to the airport, so the best advice I can give people is ring these numbers. We are monitoring the situation day by day, hour by hour. The travel arrangement we'll make for Australians to get on the flight will obviously be appropriate to keep people safe in the circumstances of getting to the flight on Wednesday, but, you know, let's just deal with the fact as we know them know - as we know them know.
People have been travelling to Cairo airport, which is open, and they have been accessing commercial flights.
JOURNALIST: Ms Gillard, is it the Australian Government's position that President Mubarak should stand down?
PM: Look, the position of the Australian Government is the one I spoke about a little bit earlier today. We understand the aspirations of the people of Egypt for freedom, for democracy, for the kind of things that in Australia we largely take for granted. We have said that the Government of Egypt should recognise these legitimate aspirations by the people of Egypt; that the future government of Egypt is in the hands of the people of Egypt.
It is not for me to determine what should happen. The essence of people being able to participate in a democracy and to have the benefits of the kind of freedoms that we take for granted here is that the people of Egypt need to shape their future.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, have you received a briefing today on the threat to the Queensland coast of Cyclone Yasi?
PM: I'm continuously receiving updates, and I've also been contacted by Premier Anna Bligh, so amongst other things we are very closely watching that weather formation and staying in very close touch with the Queensland Government about what it could mean for the people of Queensland.
Thank you.