MICHELLE LANDRY:
It’s wonderful to have the Prime Minister here today. I’ve been down in Canberra this week lobbying for more help for Central Queensland and, look, it’s been an emotional week for everybody. I know there’s a lot of people here in very dire circumstances, so I thought it was very important that I get the Prime Minister to Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast to actually see first-hand. So, as well as the Prime Minister, I have the Minister for Social Services here and the Minister for Justice. We’ve been arranging meetings with some of the local mayors so that the Prime Minister can hear first-hand the devastation that we’ve been facing in Central Queensland.
So I’d now like to hand over to the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thanks, Michelle, and it’s good to be here with Michelle Landry who’s been an incredibly hardworking local Member over the last week or so since this terrible disaster hit the people of Capricornia. It’s good to be here with Michael Keenan who, as Justice Minister, is responsible for emergency management of Australia and also with Marise Payne, the Minister for Human Services who is responsible for Centrelink and a whole range of Commonwealth government payments to people in these circumstances.
I’m here today, first, to be with the people of disaster hit areas. The people of Rockhampton, Yeppoon, Byfield, Biloela, all the other towns and villages that have been hit by this dreadful cyclone and the associated floods need to know that the entire Australian nation feels for them at this very difficult time. We don’t just feel for them, we want to do everything we humanly can to help them, not just today, not just this week and this month, but in the long and inevitably difficult recovery period. I expect to be making a series of announcements, often in conjunction with the Queensland Government, in the weeks and months ahead, as we help the Capricornia, the Fitzroy, the Wide Bay-Burnett districts to get back on their feet after this disaster.
Today, I can announce that the Australian Disaster Recovery Payments will be extended from the Fitzroy to the Wide Bay-Burnett areas. These go to people who have suffered significant damage to property. I can also announce that the Disaster Recovery Allowance will be made available to people who are unable to work as a result of this disaster in both the Fitzroy and the Wide Bay-Burnett district.
So, this is tangible help from our nation to the people of this disaster-struck region, and again, I want to say thank you to Michelle Landry. She has been the authentic voice of her people over a very difficult and painful week. Her speech to the Party Room last Tuesday was one of the most powerful and emotional pleas I've listened to in our Party Room and I've been there for 21 years now. So, Michelle, you have given voice to your people's pain over the last week and I want to thank you for what you've done. Michael, over to you and then to Marise.
JUSTICE MINISTER:
Well, thank you, Prime Minister. It's good to be in Rockhampton with you and Michelle and Marise, but obviously, not under these circumstances. We know that this has been a very tough week for Central Queensland. Michelle has been keeping us informed prior to the cyclone hitting and afterwards about the needs of the community, firstly based up here and then she came down to Canberra and she spent an enormous amount of time talking to the Prime Minister, talking to myself, talking to Marise to make sure that we're fully aware about what's going on up here and what the community needs to recover.
We’ve got a comprehensive package of assistance that's provided by the Queensland Government under long-standing national arrangements but cost-shared with the Federal Government – we cover at least 50 per cent of those costs – and as the Prime Minister has just announced over and above that, we provide Commonwealth assistance in terms of the Disaster Recovery Payment and the Disaster Recovery Allowance. We will be continuing to work with communities up here. Michelle will be continuing to keep us in touch with what's going on and we'll continue to work with the Queensland Government to do everything we can to assist central Queensland in its time of need.
HUMAN SERVICES MINISTER:
Thanks very much, Prime Minister and Michelle and Michael. Good morning, this has obviously been a very traumatic experience for your community, Michelle, and I'm very pleased to be with the Prime Minister and Minister Keenan. The human services service centres here were able to open on Monday and we also have staff in the recovery centres in the area here.
We've taken over 5,000 calls in the last few days from individuals and families in the community who have been through this very traumatic experience and our staff are here to help them in that context. We also have social workers available for family support, particularly because these are very difficult circumstances, and I do encourage the community to take advantage of that and to take up any issues they may have through Michelle and her office. She is the best representative you could possibly hope for and we are very keen to continue to support her and to support those members of the community who need our help at this time.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok. Do we have some questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, you said you wanted to see for yourself the damage that cyclone Marcia left. What have you thought about the experiences that people have been through here?
PRIME MINISTER:
Plainly, this is by far the most serious cyclone to hit this part of Queensland in living memory and it has been devastating for people, whether it be people whose homes have been badly damaged – in some cases destroyed – whether it be people whose businesses have been devastated. Last night, for instance, down at Yeppoon, I was talking to farmers who'd lost their crops, I was talking to the workers from the local sailing club who, despite in some cases having lost their own homes, were there to organise a magnificent meal for the emergency services volunteers and the Army.
It's so typically Australian. The worst of times bring out the best in people and, sure, there's some frustration, sure, there's some disappointment, I don't think anyone who's gone through an experience like this wouldn't at times feel utterly down and miserable, but on the other hand, people are rising magnificently to these challenges.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, I appreciate the enormous amount you’ve focused obviously on the cyclone here, but there must be some back in Canberra, too. The leadership speculation goes on, you’re on your way to New Zealand. Any concerns leaving the country if all of that continues to bubble away back home?
PRIME MINISTER:
We are getting on with government and I'm getting on with government and I will leave the Canberra insider gossip to others, but as far as I'm concerned, as far as all of my ministers are concerned, there is a job to be done, it's working for the betterment of the people of Australia. That's what we're focused on every hour, every day, every week: doing the right thing by the people of Australia. That's what we were elected to do and we're getting on with it.
QUESTION:
Is it gossip, though? Most of the media are running with it now and it appears that your colleagues are backgrounding journalists. What do you have to say to your colleagues plotting against you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, again, I am just getting on with government. I'm not going to be distracted and none of my ministers are going to be distracted because, obviously, today there is an absolutely vital task to be done by the Government, by individual ministers and that's what we do – we get on with government. Other people can obsess about this kind of insider gossip, but I'm certainly not going to.
QUESTION:
Does it frustrate you you've already been through one round of it in the last few weeks and now it appears another round’s brewing? Would you not want it to sort of come to a head finally, once and for all? People promised that would happen, but it doesn't appear to be going that way.
PRIME MINISTER:
Again, the task is to get on with government and, frankly, it rather diminishes the pain of the people of this part of Central Queensland when their difficulties are intruded upon by this kind of Canberra nonsense.
QUESTION:
Doesn't it annoy you, though, while you're here looking at the damage, talking to residents who’ve been through so much, that some of your colleagues are plotting against you?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't accept the premise of your question. As far as I am concerned, every single member of the Government is focused on doing the right thing by the people of Australia – getting on with the job – and that's what I'm doing today, that's what I will be doing over the weekend, that's what I've been doing over the last week.
If you look at the last week, you've seen a Government which has been dealing with important national security issues, a Government which has been dealing with practical concerns like country of origin labelling. The week before that, I announced new dams in Northern Tasmania and I opened an important export meat processing facility in Darwin. We changed the deeming rules to put more money in the pockets of part pensioners. We sorted out the foundation for awarding the future submarines contract.
So, every day we are getting on with government and I will leave to others the insider gossip.
QUESTION:
Do you think you will be Prime Minister by the end of next week?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, I was elected to be Prime Minister. The Government was elected to govern the country. The people expect the Government and the Prime Minister they elect to go forward doing the job that we were elected to do and then to submit ourselves to their judgment at the next election and that's certainly what I expect to be doing.
Thank you.
[ends]