MITCHELL: On the line is Prime Minister Rudd, thank you for speaking to us.
PM: Good afternoon Neil on what's an awful day for Victoria.
MITCHELL: It's just staggering the extent of this devastation, isn't it?
PM: Yeah. I flew down to Melbourne this morning early and went to the State Disaster Centre and just, if you look at that map of the whole of Victoria and see the state erupting in front of you. Then been up to Kangaroo Ground and now just to Whittlesea, there've been a whole lot of people who have just come out of devastation in Kinglake, Kinglake West and places like that, and it's not just vast in its scope, it's just immediate, personal and horrifying as well.
MITCHELL: Now I understand you've been in $5 million and the State Government as well. I'm afraid this is just going to be the beginning isn't it. There's a long way ahead.
PM: Absolutely, I was speaking to John Brumby earlier this afternoon at Kangaroo Ground, and we just both agreed we needed to kick off a community appeals straight away, so there's $10 million. A lot of people want to give and we just want to get that up and going. The detail in terms of the account et cetera to give to, we should hopefully have up by about six this evening. But when we get it up and running, but you're right Neil, this is just very much a first step. The personal devastation, the personal losses, quite apart from the human losses. It's going to take a long long time to rebuild.
MITCHELL: New South Wales, there's trouble as well, although the New South Wales Premier is just offering all the help to fire victims possible. Have you, you've spent quite a bit of your life in country areas. Have you ever seen anything like it before?
PM: No, the fire I remember as a kid were called the Queensland bushfires of 1967 and they were large, but talking to your fire authorities here, and simply listening to what they have said to me, and I'm in no position to judge but they regard these as worse in their intensity and the bringing together of the record temperatures, record dryness over ten or eleven years, and the most appalling wind conditions that you can imagine, they say the worst in the settled history of Victoria.
MITCHELL: What do we need to do now. What can, the people are anxious to help as they always are at a time like this. What do you think we need to do?
PM: Look, the State Government through the relevant Management Authority has its hands on the reigns and look, it's very important that we work in a coordinated fashion with them. In the immediate task which is dealing with the dead and the bereaved and the injured, of course we at the commonwealth level offer the state government every level of assistance including the defence force, including I'm with Jenny Macklin at present, the Families Minister, the provision of counsellors, social workers, people to deal with the immediate personal devastation in their lives.
Then, there's the question of a real need and some of these fire affected areas for heavy duty army bulldozers to clear paths, clear tracks, make firebreaks, that's the question John and I discussed on the phone late last night. And that's been activated today. Any form of assistance that the Government Victoria wants from the Australian army, the defence force or generally, is forthcoming. And that we will do whatever is within our power.
Then you get down to practical questions of, that effect the people I've just been talking to out at Whittlesea, these are the people who literally just come down, you know off the mountain with you know, the shirts on their backs. Their stories are just heart-rending. And the immediate thing of where do they go to get cash overnight and in the morning in order to buy some clothes, buy some toiletries, et cetera, that's why Jenny Macklin has recommended to me and have agreed that the Commonwealth Emergency payments will be forthcoming - a $1000 for eligible adults, $400 per child - and they are available immediately, and the contact number is the Centrelink Victorian's Fires Hotline on 180 2211. So they're the practical and immediate steps Neil, but that's just what we need to do now.
MITCHELL: Thank you very much for your time. I know you're very busy. Thank you Prime Minister.
PM: And to all your listeners Neil, can I by the way say this service you're providing this afternoon is very important. People are feeling isolated, they're feeling fearful, they're feeling alone and I think having the community talking with them and through them through the radio is very important, and I just wish your listeners the very best in what is an awful day for the good people of Victoria.
MITCHELL: We'll help anyway we can. Thank you for your time.
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