MCGUIRE: The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard joins us on the Hot Breakfast this morning, good morning Julia.
PM: Thank you, great to be here.
MCGUIRE: Julia can we just spend a bit of time with you- first of all on the cyclone that's about to hit Far North Queensland. We've been talking to people up there all throughout morning. It's a horrible situation. What can you do in the lead up to it, and what can we do in the next couple of days?
PM: I think horrible is the word Eddie, it's just another big, big blow to Queensland on top of everything people have had to put up with so far. We've had the Australian Defence Force out helping and working alongside the Queensland Emergency Services personnel, so we've had four of the aircraft, those huge C17s and the C130s, the Hercules aircraft evacuating the Cairns private and public hospitals, so all of those patients have been taken to Brisbane.
We worked alongside the Queensland Air Ambulance to do that.We're moving sandbags in, we're moving food in so that there are those supplies there, we've also helped evacuate some residential aged care, and we've got soldiers out now working alongside Queensland personnel doorknocking the low-lying areas where it is a mandatory evacuation situation, you've got to go because of the fears about tidal surges.
MCGUIRE: We've had callers this morning saying they can't get people out, is there any more planes that we could get in, is there, is there any way we can set this up to get people out? It's so hard to airlift the entire city, obviously.
PM: A lot of people have got out, they've self-evacuated and then the role of the Defence Force has been to take the people most at risk, the ones that we couldn't look after in an extreme situation if we lost power for a long period of time, like people who are unwell. And we're going to be there working on the ground, we've got a bit Defence Force base in Townsville, so that's a good thing in a bad situation.
We also built a Emergency Management Centre in Cairns a couple of years back, we did it as part of economic stimulus and that is Category 5 rated, so it can withstand this cyclone and the local emergency response will be run from there.
BUCHAN: Prime Minister we saw you right out front and centre helping to manage the devastation caused by the Queensland flash floods- excuse me. But we've also had some calls this morning, we know that there's going to be a lot of aid going to the Queensland towns that have been devastated. We've had a few calls from Victorians who are suffering in the floods, this is just one of them, this is Wayne from Carrum:
“I've been up in the flooded area up in a little country town called Litchfield fighting the floods. You don't seem to hear much about the Victorian floods at the moment, and it's 95km long and 50km wide this flood. We've got cousins that are there and they've been under water for 11 days now, they're isolated. Maybe we need Anna Bligh down in Melbourne.”
MCGUIRE: The point that that caller also wanted to make was that Telstra have helped the Queensland victims as far as replacing phones etcetera, that hasn't been afforded to the Victorians. So from a parochial point of view, how are we going with the Victorian people?
PM: Look it's fair enough for people to be focussed on their own situation, obviously Queensland's bigger in terms of scale, just the geography of it, but if you're home's under water your home's under water, whether it's in Queensland or in Victoria.
We're making the same levels of assistance available as a Government, so there are the same emergency payments and our arrangement with the state is that we pay for replacing the infrastructure up to 75 percent of the cost and the state Government puts in 25 percent. We'll do that in Queensland, we'll do that here to rebuild Victoria.
MCGUIRE: So you are thinking of Victorians?
PM: I've been out and about talking to some of those Victorians, I was in Swan Hill for example the other day and that was my second visit into the flooded areas and people are doing it tough. Many of them did say to me ‘well, you know, we know Queensland's a bigger problems, but kind of don't forget about us', and we certainly won't be forgetting about Victorians that need assistance.
MOLLOY: Prime Minister yesterday you were in the fire ravaged areas of Melbourne on a pretty eerie day, it was 38 degrees and hot and windy, very similar to the conditions when it actually went up. Did you learn anything about how that money went that informs how you're going to spend the money you're going to make from the levy for the flood victims?
PM: There are some lessons- people would remember that here in Victoria the government created the Bushfire Recovery Authority that's lead the reconstruction works, and Anna Bligh is picking that up for Queensland, she's going to have a Recovery Authority. So that's a good move, and everything we've learnt here can go and help with that huge reconstruction in Queensland, and obviously Victoria's absorbing lessons that will help with our reconstruction here, so we have learned some things about how to do it.
With the levy I understand that people want reassurance that every dollar is going to be spent rebuilding infrastructure, and it will be. And I understand they want reassurance that value for money is going to be got. And we're working on all of the accountability arrangements to make sure we know where they money's going and that we're getting good value.
MCGUIRE: Prime Minister, the levy- we're not going to have that debate that's already been and gone and maybe the events of Queensland in the next 24 hours will make it a moot point, that we actually have to have some money to rebuild things and we can't just stop the entire world, when every time we have a climactic situation. This show has been fervently in favour of the levy and so have our callers to a person over the last week.
One of the things we did bring up though was compulsory insurance; the one thing that seems to go sideways whenever this happens is those who are either underinsured, not insured or have bad insurance policies. Is it time for us now, and we have suburban houses going up every other week as well and four families out on the street, is it time to get past the angst of those who do the right thing and then resent those who don't and all that sort of stuff?
There is no win in this, other than I can see, of having a government compulsory insurance. Some will say that's another big fat tax and all that sort of stuff, but it might be one we need in this country, because the one thing we can bet on is that we're going to have more of these situations.
PM: I'm open to the sort of national discussion I think we're going to have about long term disaster management. Anything we do has to work with private insurance, we wouldn't want people to get the message ‘don't worry about being insured anymore because if anything happens the government's going to fix it'. I mean we're never going to be able to have a scheme like that, so people do need to have their private insurance.
I think we'll end up looking into some of these issues, but we can't hold up the flood recovery we need now, here in Victoria and in Queensland with the $5.6 billion package. So let's get that done, get the levy through Parliament and then explore some of these questions.
DARCY: Prime Minister, we have to take a break, a lot happening here in Australia but also a fair bit happening over in Egypt at the moment, an old team mate of mine Danny Southern, we spoke to earlier this week and we'll come back and ask you some questions about Egypt, what's happening with the Australians over there and play your some of Danny Southern, I think one of your favourite players I reckon in the early days, Western Bulldogs. We'll come back with the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard. [BREAK]
DARCY: The Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard is with us, and I was very excited myself Julia, about 12 months ago, I thought I was the first person ever to do that (inaudible) apparently everyone has done that who's ever been behind a microphone. But I tell you what everyone hasn't done though Prime Minister, and that's live in Cairo for six years as has Danny Southern, who's an old team mate of mine who'd you know from playing over a hundred games for the Bulldogs. We spoke to him a couple of days ago, his wife's pregnant and this is what he had to say:
“We're on a road sort of heading south of the city to another city called Faiyum and there was a big prison breakout, around 6000 prisoners escaped from this one prison which is on my side of the town. So the looters and the thugs are basically everywhere, and yeah, you know, I've actually barricaded the front door to be honest with you, I just to make sure my pregnant wife's alright, I don't mind looking after myself and obviously if push comes to shove then I'll defend my family and my wife obviously with everything I can.”
What's the situation in Egypt at the moment Prime Minister?
PM: As people would see on TV the huge demonstrations continue, talking about a million man march, so huge demonstrations continue. Our advice is for Australians to leave. Now, we provide the best advice that we can to people, and so we're saying if it's safe for you to get to the airport then you should leave. We're going to keep putting on a jumbo a day to help people get out, and we've made some arrangements with other countries, like we got some Australians on a Canadian flight that was going, and commercial planes are still going so people can go out on normal flights, if I can use that terminology.
But I understand that people have to make their individual choices, not everybody's in the same position, and not everybody would have as as strong a connection to the place as obviously Danny does, I mean most people who are in Egypt are there as tourists and looking to leave as soon as they can.
MCGUIRE: Prime Minister if you are Time's man of the year and you're from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, normally you'd be a shoo-in for Australian of the Year, there'd be a tickertape parade, anything like that. Julian Assange however is not feeling the love. This is what he said this morning:
“ASSANGE: Gillard needs to declare publically that this is not an acceptable treatment of an Australian organisation, Wikileaks is registered in Australia, and nor is it an acceptable treatment of an Australian.
JOURNALIST: Will you return to Australia eventually?
ASSANGE: I'd like to return to Australia immediately.”
MCGUIRE: Right. Julian Assange from Wikileaks wants to come back. It is a very difficult situation for you and the Government, because obviously you have you have your international relations with the United States of America. However, as we always say in football land, they might have fleas but they're our fleas and he is one of ours, what do we do? We're airlifting everybody in from everywhere, do we put the arm around Julian Assange as an Australian citizen, and then fight the battle from there and let him face whatever charges, what is the situation at the moment?
PM: Look, we've always had, to use terminology, our arm around him as an Australian citizen, he's had all of the consular support that we give Australian citizens overseas when they're in trouble. Unfortunately Australians do get into a bit of trouble sometimes overseas, end up with legal problems, and our Embassies assist them, they've been assisting Mr Assange. He's entitled to that as an Australian citizen and that will continue to be provided to him.
What we can't do is we can't make legal problems that people get overseas go away, so he's in a situation where there's extradition proceedings in relation to some charges in Sweden that people would be aware of, and those proceedings are going to have to go through their, you know, independent judicial work to get to a conclusion. And there's not anything the Government can, or indeed should, do about that because they're charges, you know, and they've got to be worked through proper processes.
MCGUIRE: Until he faces those would you have any issue with him being domiciled here in Melbourne?
PM: Look, certainly, if Mr Assange wants to be in Australia and there's no legal reason in terms of, you know, legal proceedings overseas preventing him coming here, he's entitled to be here as an Australian citizen. I mean, it's not, you know, I don't go round issuing invitations to come to Australia, if you're an Australian citizen you are entitled to be here unless of course there is some legal obligation keeping you overseas.
MCGUIRE: Wikileak is massive, the fact that he is Australia is a by-product until it actually gets to your level, how much heat do you get from the other governments particularly the United States over this?
PM: Look, I haven't got any heat in that sense, I've made my own decisions about it, and I've got a different view than Mr Assange about Wikileaks. I understand that there can be moral force in being a whistleblower, someone who works for a big corporation, a big government department that's doing the wrong thing and they've got to get the truth out. I respect that, I understand that, it's what gave us things like Watergate into the public eye. That is conduct I can understand.
Wikileaks is something else, it's not about, you know, making a moral case it's really about all of this information and just putting it up there and whatever happens, happens. And given my concerns about national security, proper diplomatic relations, I've expressed my view about that- I think it's an irresponsible thing to do.
So Mr Assange and I are never going to see eye to eye about that, but I don't have to see eye to eye with people-
MCGUIRE: Is he a security threat to Australia if he was here?
PM: No, no, Mr Assange is not a security threat. I don't agree with his conduct, I don't think it's been responsible, but it's, you know, that isn't about his rights as an Australian citizen. I mean with 21 million people, you know, I agree with some of them, I disagree with others. I think people have behaved well, I think people have behaved badly. Whatever I think, we always extend protections to Australian citizens.
MCGUIRE: One final topic, we've got the 8:30 news and of course Prime Minister I understand this, that Adrian Anderson from the AFL's coming in so we have to have affairs of state ready to speak to him later on.
PM: I understand my place Eddie, I get it.
MCGUIRE: The workforce, you want people back in the workforce. We seem to have this never ending battle where West Australians, in fact Julie Bishop in the run up to the last election said on this very program that she would welcome having refugees coming into West Australia to help fill the void in the mining sector over there, it was changed later that afternoon when Tony Abbott came out and said that he'd turn back the boats, and that all happened in a 12 hour period.
Let's leave the politics of it all aside- we've got an opportunity now to get skilled and unskilled workers in from countries all over the world, we've got the pick of the world at the moment. Ireland's all over the place, Europe's all over the place, the Middle East is all over the place, and of course the war-torn areas. Are we going to look to maybe look at assisted migration as we have done right throughout our history, at a time when we need skilled and unskilled labour in this country?
PM: We are going to need skilled people and we will be getting some of those people from overseas. And you would have seen that for flood reconstruction I said we'd have a streamlined process for the skills we need. But what I want to see too, Eddie, is us focussing on training and getting our own people into jobs. It is not acceptable to me that I can go to the north west of this country and meet with mining owners and they say ‘I need workers, skilled, unskilled, I just need them, I can't get them' and then I can go to Perth and youth unemployment rates are more than 10 per cent. That's not acceptable to me.
HOST: Well it's 15 per cent in Broadmeadows at the moment.
PM: Yeah, and we need to harness this mining boom to make a long term difference to that. And even making that long term difference, we'll still need some skilled migrants from overseas. But let's leverage this to make a real difference for those pockets of disadvantage around the country. And people are going to be saying, listening to this, that's ridiculous, a mining boom can't fix unemployment in Broadmeadows.
When I was last in the northwest, I was on Barrow Island where the Gorgon Project is, $43 billion, I'm wandering around in my steel-cap boots. I get talking to a bloke, he's a Western Bulldogs supporter, and he says to me ‘I live two streets from you in Altona' I said ‘you what?' He flies in and flies out to Barrow Island from Altona, that's his life, that's his job.
So there's a tremendous opportunity here to leverage this mining boom to make a real difference to unemployment right around the country and underemployment, people who want more work and people we've just pushed out of the workforce and said, you know, the disability pension is good enough for you but they've got some work capacity.
So let's try and make that difference as well as look as we need to for skilled people from overseas.
MCGUIRE: Prime Minister thank you for joining us this morning, we've got through a fair bit there and we really appreciate your time. Wow, the weather in Australia, what do you do? You must just get up every morning and say ‘what now?'
PM: I saw Anna Bligh at the cricket on Sunday and we were just both shaking our heads saying ‘do you remember running over a black cat, did all of Queensland run over a herd of black cats, what on earth is going on?' So, look, it's another really, really tough day, tough few days for Queensland and then the aftermath to follow.But they're tough people. Our Senator Jan McLucas, one of my Labor colleagues is in Cairns, she lives there, I talked to her last night and yep, she's a little bit anxious and it's an eerie period of time but one of the first things she said to me is ‘yeah, we've lived through a lot and we'll get through this' so that's the kind of Queensland spirit.
MCGUIRE: Prime Minister we need strong leadership, we wish you all the very best.
PM: Thank you.