RICK WILSON: Ladies and gentleman, thank you very much for coming today. It’s a great privilege to have the Prime Minister here in the electorate and he was on the phone very quickly when the scope of this disaster was becoming known and passed on his best wishes and he made it a priority when he came to WA to call into Esperance and visit the people of Esperance and pass on his condolences and best wishes for the recovery.
So, Prime Minister – over to you.
PRIME MINISTER: Rick, thank you very much – and it’s good to be here too with Senator Chris Back.
We’ve just had a very good discussion with the Shire President and the fire brigade workers. It’s been a shocking fire, and I just want to thank again the volunteers for the outstanding service they’ve done, grappling with these tragic fires.
We have had a very good discussion – practical discussion – about communications, about the importance of mobile communications. As you know, we have announced a Mobile Phone Black Spots Programme and there is $54 million going into your whole electorate, Rick, and about $9 million into new towers in this Shire alone. So, there will be increased mobile connectivity.
I would also add that the NBN satellite service – the satellite has now been launched as I am sure you know, and the satellite will be available from April. We are committed to getting those services available as soon as possible, whether it is on the terrestrial side with the mobile phone towers or on the satellite side, so communications will improve.
But, at the end of the day, Australia in summer can be a very dangerous place. Bushfires are part of our environment and the best defence is always going to be the commitment and the professionalism of Australians, especially the volunteers who work with the fire service here and right around the country.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in the briefing, it is quite clear that one of the major problems was not just not having mobile phone coverage but the fact they weren't powered. Do you have to look at the technology behind these mobile phone towers in making that sure they can be powered in emergency situations?
PRIME MINISTER: Well they all have batteries, Andrew, and the problem is the battery life. This is something that I look forward to discussing with Telstra. I note they’re not the only Telco obviously, but they have most of these towers. But there clearly are issues with batteries that if they only last eight hours, what can we do to have longer battery life, more batteries, more support. Of course, one of the advantages of the satellite connectivity is that it won't be affected. As long as the user, as long as their device is powered, they will be able to connect to the satellite. There will be a lot more redundancy in the future, but we just have to keep on improving the technology. I think that battery life is a very big issue. Of course, if the tower itself gets knocked out, then no amount of better batteries will help you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, a lot of people have asked for a review of DPaW’s prescribed burning programmes and maintenance of fire breaks. It’s alleged that both of those responsibilities of DPaW were inadequately managed in the lead-up to the fires. So, what message do you have for farmers who feel frustrated by this red tape in stopping them from preventing catastrophic fires?
PRIME MINISTER: I might defer to my West Australian colleagues on this. But I can assure you that the absolute primary objective, the number one duty of government at every level, is protecting the safety of Australians in every respect and so that takes priority over everything else.
Chris do you want to comment on that?
CHRIS BACK: Certainly – Western Australia boasts the fact that that we probably have the best preventive burning fuel reduction programmes in Australia. I am one who believes that we still need to do more. I think evidence down here in Esperance indicates that. But once again, there is the communication between the local community and in this case the farming community, the brigades, and indeed the department.
But I am of the view that we need, right across the nation, to be very, very diligent in this process. Land management fire control of course is a state issue, but at the same time, through the Prime Minister, we contribute enormously at the federal level and I have certainly agitated for a long time that the Federal Government can have a role with the State Governments in ensuring that there is adequate fire protection and I think it is an area that here at Esperance, we probably will need to refocus on.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what did you take from that briefing? How was the overall management of the fires and are there any areas that you potentially flagged that could be improved in the future?
PRIME MINISTER: Can I say from Victoria Brown, the Shire President, her husband Tom Brown, the rest of the team, the presentation that we had from the Shire, I was very impressed with the professionalism of the personnel, of the people and of the presentation. But we learn from every natural disaster. Whether it is a fire or a flood, we learn something from it so that we can respond to the next one, better.
These are very adaptive – it is a very agile way of dealing with natural disaster. We have to keep on responding with better technology. We talked about batteries and battery life. That has clearly become an issue. We have to look at how we can have – particularly in bushfire-prone areas – better batteries that last for perhaps 16 hours – rather than 8 hours – or 24 hours ideally. They are the sort of issues that we have got to address. It is something, for example, that we should – and this is one of the takeaways and I will talk to the Communications Minister, Mitch Fifield, about this – we have a second round of the Mobile Phone Black Spots Programme, we should consider whether part of that money should go to providing for more battery support, more battery capacity, in areas that are prone to this type of bushfire disaster.
JOURNALIST: There was also some issues raised about data alongside mobile coverage. You mentioned the NBN before. Is the NBN satellite – when it comes online – going to address all of those black spot issues in regional WA?
PRIME MINISTER: The NBN satellite will ensure that wherever you are in Australia you can get very fast broadband. That is the virtue of the satellite – 97 per cent of Australians will be covered by either fixed line or fixed wireless. The great virtue of the satellite is it is a very high tower, it’s right up there in the sky and can see all of Australia. So, yes, once it is operating, it will be everyone in Australia – they won't all get connected on day one – but everyone in Australia will be able to get a service. It’s going to be a very good service, it will be 25 megabits per second down, five megs up. That is comparable to city speeds, it’s better than some people in the cities have – although, as the NBN rolls out urban broadband is getting a lot better too. But, yes, it will be a comprehensive service. That is exactly what it’s intended to do.
Thanks so much.
Ends