PREMIER WEATHERILL:
I would like to express our gratitude to the people who have fought this fire and have done such a wonderful job in protecting life and property here in the Adelaide Hills.
I just want to give you a brief update. We now know that the fire is 100 per cent contained. We also know that there’s some relatively good news on further assessment of a range of these buildings which were feared to be lost. We can now say that there has been 27 homes lost, not 32, so 27 homes lost. What we do know, though, is there are many hundreds of people who would have, in the face of this extraordinary threat, feel traumatised and so the process of recovery now begins.
We pledged $1 million to begin that process of recovery, which will involve both financial grants and also other forms of assistance. But that will be the long and difficult work now as people seek to rebuild their lives. Even those people that didn't lose their homes, many of them have lost stock or pets or outhouses. Many of them will have had disruptions to their businesses. Some of them, indeed, will have lost entirely their businesses. So now the process of rebuilding begins as we also complete the process of making the fire grounds safe.
I want to express and in the clearest possible terms my gratitude to the courage, skill and dedication of our paid firefighters, but also our volunteer firefighters and all the other emergency services and support agencies that come to the fire ground to lend their support.
It also needs to be remembered that fighting a fire is not simply about getting on the ground and putting water on the fire; it's about the communications effort that alerts people to make the correct decisions. It's about the preparation in the months leading up to this. It's about important pieces of data, such as the data that’s provided by the Bureau of Meteorology with their excellent forecasts about what we are to expect about weather conditions and how that then interacts with fire conditions. This is a massive team effort. It's been seamless, it's been effective and the reason we are not standing here grieving the loss of life and even greater loss of property is because of the skill and dedication of the people who are around us.
So, I would like to now introduce the Prime Minister of Australia. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks very much, Jay.
Like Premier Weatherill, I want to thank on behalf of the Australian people everyone involved with fighting these fires. The courage, the professionalism, their dedication has been simply exemplary and but for the efforts of the firefighters, the police, the ambulance services, the various support services, the State Emergency Services, the Salvation Army and others, but for those efforts, there would have been much greater loss.
We have learnt many lessons in recent years in dealing with disasters such as this and it's good to see those lessons being put so successfully into effect here in the Adelaide Hills.
As Premier Weatherill has said, we now focus on the recovery and I am pleased to say that Australian Disaster Recovery Payments will be made. The Disaster Recovery Allowance will be paid. The Australian Disaster Recovery Payment is paid through Centrelink. People have got six months to apply for it and if you have lost your house or your house has been severely damaged, it's a payment of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child. If your income has been destroyed as a result of this disaster, you can apply for up to 13 weeks of payment through the Australian Disaster Recovery Allowance. It's estimated that some hundreds of people will qualify for these payments and this will cost about $4 million over the coming year.
As well as this assistance, over the weekend the standard Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements were put into place with the South Australian Government and, as all of you are probably aware, RAAF Base Edinburgh has been crucial in supplying the fire fighting aircraft that have done such splendid work over the last few days.
So, while we grieve with those who have lost, we can nevertheless feel proud of the efforts that have been put in and we can be relieved that a disaster which looked potentially catastrophic on Saturday afternoon has, to a considerable extent, been averted because of the magnificent work of the people who are represented here in this Fire Control Centre this morning.
I'm going to ask Jamie Briggs to say a few words as well.
ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE:
Thank you, Prime Minister. Can I thank the Prime Minister for the interest he's shown over the last few days, since Saturday particularly, when he was travelling to the Middle East and made contact to check how the fire response was going and to see how it was likely to pan out over the following days with regular phone calls seeking updates.
This is, of course, the operation centre which has done so much great work in the last few days to protect communities in the Adelaide Hills. We are not surprised that there was a fire in the Adelaide Hills. We’re prepared for fires in the Adelaide Hills. We live in a magnificent area of Australia but we know that there are risks, but what I think was surprising, certainly from Saturday morning, was that we have survived this crisis without significant loss of life and with relatively small amounts of property damage. I think from the Premier right through the South Australian Government and the services involved, they should be congratulated at the messaging and the management of this fire and this incident. The Police Commissioner, the Chief Fire Officer, the messages on Saturday morning for Adelaide Hills residents were clear, people followed them and we escaped without a serious fatality or without a serious injury. Indeed, I think we should be very proud of the efforts and the Premier and his should be congratulated.
It is great to have the PM here this morning to see the damage. It is significant, but it could have been far worse. I think we are lucky that we have got such great volunteers, such great professional services who prevented a complete catastrophe on Saturday.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok. Do we have some questions?
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, there has been a call for the state Labor Government to drop the Emergency Services Levy for CFS volunteers. Do you agree that that should be waived for those people?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously, the Premier may have something he wishes to add, but as far as I'm concerned, the Emergency Services Levy is a matter for the state government and who is subject to it and the quantum of it really is something for the state government to determine.
Look, as some of you might know, I'm a member of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service myself. I'm a member of the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade, a brigade which I did at one stage think we were going to be sending people here to the fire in Adelaide, but that particular call was rescinded late on Saturday night. Speaking as a rural firefighter – as a volunteer rural firefighter – we do what we do not because someone tells us to do it, but because we want to do it; not because we are paid, but because we are committed to the community. This idea that you should start to pay volunteers, I think is an idea which should be treated with great caution and certainly whenever this subject is discussed around the bar of the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade, the feeling is that we are doing this out of commitment to our community, not because someone is offering us money or other forms of incentives to do it.
QUESTION:
The state Government said it increased the ESL because of federal budget cuts. Do you think you could show South Australia some slack and ease the budget cuts for the state?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, these are all perfectly reasonable questions and I daresay there’ll be all sorts of discussion at all sorts of different levels and in all sorts of contexts between the Commonwealth and the states about the financial arrangements in the weeks and months ahead. We’ve got a reform the federation white paper process underway and these are the sorts of issues that will be discussed there. But, in terms of those specifics, I think, really, that is a question for another day.
QUESTION:
Will there be any more money coming, particularly for community infrastructure and so forth that has to be rebuilt?
PRIME MINISTER:
Under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, the Commonwealth pays about 50 per cent of immediate relief that is provided by the state governments and we then cover 50 per cent, and in some cases more, of the cost of restoring infrastructure that has been damaged in the natural disaster.
Now, there is a lot of discussion going on at the moment in the context of a Productivity Commission report which the Commonwealth and the states are now considering. As to whether we need to move beyond merely repairing infrastructure towards disaster-proofing infrastructure, again, that is a discussion for another day. The main purpose today is to say thank you to all those who have performed so magnificently in averting what could easily have been a much greater disaster and focus on what is being done here and now to help people recover and that's where these Australian Government Natural Disaster Recovery Payments are important.
QUESTION:
Can I just turn to Paris very briefly? Are you concerned for Australians here and abroad? Should people be concerned?
PRIME MINISTER:
As you know, there are various warnings which the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provides to travellers and travellers should consult the DFAT website before they go abroad.
Obviously, this is a horrific atrocity – an absolute atrocity. Sadly, we can expect more of this because the ISIL, or Daesh, as they call it in the Middle East, death cult has declared war on the world. These are people who hate us, not because of anything that we have done, but because of who we are and how we live. They hate our freedom, they hate our pluralism, they hate the welcome we extend to people of all faiths, all cultures, all sexualities. They hate that.
The point I make is that we will defend our way of life. We will defend our values. What we can never do is compromise our values in defending them.
So, look, as for Paris, an unspeakable atrocity, but it is of a piece with what we saw in Martin Place a couple of weeks ago, it's of a piece with what we saw at the Victorian Police station a couple of months ago, it’s of a piece with actions that have been perpetrated by extremist fanatics in France before. We have to strengthen our security intelligence services and as you know, we have a strong Australian military contingent in the Middle East right now to tackle the Daesh death cult at its source.
QUESTION:
What’s your response to news that Indonesia is looking to execute two Australians?
PRIME MINISTER:
Australia opposes the death penalty. We oppose the death penalty for Australians at home and abroad. We obviously respect the legal systems of other countries, but where there is an attempt to impose the death penalty on an Australian, we make the strongest possible diplomatic representations and as Julie Bishop has indicated, that’s happening right now.
QUESTION:
What does this mean for Australians heading over to Gallipoli in a couple of months’ time?
PRIME MINISTER:
My plea to Australians at home and abroad is do not let terror deter you from living your normal life because if you change the way you live because of the activities of terrorists, you have given them a victory and the last thing we should want is to give terrorist fanatics a victory.
QUESTION:
Back on the fires, you obviously did a tour already. Can you tell us what you saw and what your impressions were having had a look around?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, this has been a very serious fire – one of the most serious fires in South Australia in a decade or so. Fires are part of the Australian landscape. This is probably the worst fire this summer so far. Let's hope we don't get any more serious fires in the coming weeks, because the fire season has still got a couple of months, at least, to run. But this is a very serious fire and it could have been so much worse but for the very effective response of all of the agencies involved and fire fighting. So, again, with the Premier, with the South Australian Minister, with my friend and colleague, Jamie Briggs, an enormous thank you to everyone involved in fighting this fire.
QUESTION:
There has been some criticism that you didn't get here quickly enough. Could you have gotten here faster?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I was on my way to the Middle East on Saturday when I first started getting calls from Michael Keenan, the Commonwealth Emergency Services Minster, and from Jamie Briggs, whose electorate was badly impacted by the fire. I've been in regular contact with them at all times. I got back to Sydney yesterday afternoon and here I am this morning. So, I'm very pleased to be here and I'm very pleased to be able to say thank you to everyone involved from the Premier down.
QUESTION:
How do you think the $1,000 will help families and is it enough for families who have lost everything?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's not the only support people will get. There are state government programmes that will assist. I imagine that insurance will cover a great deal of the damage. Normally, in circumstances like this, there are appeals of one sort or another which are launched and I would expect that to happen now. So, while you can never really bring back the memories which go up in smoke, you can never really bring back all of those things which are so precious to people, I am confident that that which money can restore, will be restored.
QUESTION:
If Indonesia does execute these two Australians, is that going to change relations between the two countries?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have a very strong partnership with Indonesia. This is a critically important relationship to Australia. Our friendship is very important to Indonesia as well. My profound hope is that these executions will not go ahead. What I'm not going to do, though, is jeopardise the relationship with Indonesia. That would be foolish to jeopardise the relationship with Indonesia and we believe that we can make the strongest possible representations on behalf of our citizens on death row in Indonesia while at the same time preserving a strong and constructive relationship.
QUESTION:
Do you think there has been a political angle to the lack of clemency, given the spying history from Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, do you have full confidence in Gillian Triggs as the President of the Human Rights Commission in light of the story out of The Australian recently?
PRIME MINISTER:
I thought it was a pretty bizarre ruling from the Human Rights Commission. I think it shows what can best be described as extremely questionable judgment. The Human Rights Commission does have an important role to play, but decisions like this do, I think, tend to shake people's confidence in institutions such as the Human Rights Commission.
QUESTION:
Is she fit to be President?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to go into that. I just think that it was a bizarre judgment and not a judgment that is likely to strengthen confidence in the institution that she heads.
QUESTION:
Should the Government be spending more on fighting climate change given this disaster?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, climate change is real. Humanity does contribute to it and it's important that government make a strong and effective effort to combat it and that's exactly what the Australian Government is doing. We are absolutely confident that through the various policies that we have in place, particularly our Direct Action Plan, our Emissions Reduction Fund, we are very confident that we can reduce our emissions by 12 per cent on 2005 levels by 2020.
So, we think that Australia is making a strong and effective contribution to reducing emissions, but I think it is wrong to try to attribute particular natural disasters to climate change. That's certainly the warning that the CSIRO has given, it's the warning that the Bureau of Meteorology gives and while there is no doubt that over time, climate change could make a difference to these sorts of occurrences, fire, flood and storm are a part of living in Australia – always have been, always will be.
The important thing is yes, we do our bit in tackling climate change, but also that we remain very well placed to deal with whatever comes and I think the response to this particular disaster shows that we are well placed to deal with these problems and again, I do congratulate everyone involved in the response to this fire.
[ends]