MITCHELL: Prime Minister thank you for speaking with us.
PM: It is a pleasure Neil and it is an extraordinary day, an extraordinary day for Victoria, an extraordinary day for the country.
MITCHELL: What do you hope will come out of today, what do you hope it will achieve?
PM: A national day of mourning is to provide a single national opportunity for all people who have been affected by this extraordinary tragedy to grieve, to mourn. Some say that mourning and grieving is an entirely personal matter and I understand that. But when you have events which go across whole communities and by the extension of the national family, the whole country, it is appropriate that we grieve together. There is one thing.
And then the other is to provide an opportunity for the nation to resolve together to work together to rebuild these communities which have been, in so many cases, destroyed.
MITCHELL: So this is the, the point from this, to move on? From here, we move on?
PM: I think we must now set our sights absolutely squarely on the rebuilding task. And this will be a bumpy road. Each one of the families who have lost loved ones, who have lost their homes, their circumstances and details are going to be unique to them.
But the responsibility of the community and government at all levels, is to bind together with each of them, in each of their circumstances and to help rebuild. And to stick with them. Not just for the next week, the next month, the next three months, but into the next year and the year past, until the rebuilding is done.
WALTER: Prime Minister, Dennis Walter. The outpouring of emotion from politicians, Julia Gillard, yourself, from all sides of politics, has been just an amazing thing for people to experience and a very humanizing thing to see the deep effect that it has had on people of all walks of life.
PM: I think all Australians, from you know, Cape York to Cape Lewin, have just stood still and watched and cried as they have seen what has happened to these poor communities. And at the same time, and I think in a great Australian way, have said one simple thing to themselves, ‘how can we help'.
This morning for example, I was talking to our ambassador in the United States, Dennis Richardson. Last night in Washington, he tells me that there was a function organised by the business community there, which in a small dinner raised $70,000 for the bush fire appeal and with other pledges of corporate donation, that figure will go into $200,000, plus.
That is one dinner in one city, in one part of the world, of Australians affected deeply right across the world, and our friends who are not Australian, in the same way.
I think it says so much about who we are as a people.
MITCHELL: Just to pick up on Dennis's point, you have been, you have covered all the areas, you have been there since the very early stages, is there one moment that defines it for you, one person you met or one incident or one thing you saw that really defines it for you?
PM: You know, it is always hard isn't it Neil, you have spoken to so many people. And I have got to say by the way, I think your program, what you have done through your radio station is absolutely fantastic. That is, you helped to bind people together and provide opportunity for expression and to convey basic information over the weeks since the fire.
And I just take my hat off to you. You have been very good at this.
MITCHEL: Thank you.
PM: On my own experience. I think standing in Kinglake itself last weekend, with the Kinglake CFA and just being, having the privilege of being among them, standing among them, for just a bit and just knowing that I was standing in the company of heroes, because I knew what they had done. And it is not, of course as you know, just them, the CFA, it is every volunteer. But it was standing, if you like, in the epicentre of hell and looking in these faces of men and women and saying, ‘you have stood the test', and being quite awestruck by them.
MITCHELL: They are heroic, they don't like being called heroes do they. They are a very humble lot.
PM: No they are actually, they, you know what struck me is that they are all up for a joke. And you know that is very Australian, amidst tragedy just finding an opportunity to find some humour. And I take my hats off to them. But you are right, they don't stand on ceremony, they don't expect all that sort of stuff. But you know something, they deserve all that sort of stuff.
WALTERS: Prime Minister, being out, just going out shopping yesterday and just wandering around and people coming up and saying hello and talking about it. This outpouring of emotion, that one of the things that came through to me yesterday were people wanting to, they want to watch the rebuilding and all aspects of it very closely. That they don't want to feel detached from the process. And that is marvellous snap of our wonderful community.
PM: I think that is absolutely right, as I said before to Neil I think, you know the big thing here is not just what we say and how we feel today, the big test of us all, including me, is where we are a year from now.
And what I want to be able to do a year from now is to put the measure over it and say, ‘how much progress have we made, what still is to be done and what is the plan to complete the task'.
And I think you are saying something else as well Dennis, which is, the people themselves, those who have dug deep, those who have volunteered, in fact the entire country, wants to be kept closely engaged with you know, progress each step of the way. And it is going to be uneven. There will be problems, I just know. I mean, (inaudible) there is going to be problems, because at the end of the day we are all but human beings involved.
But what I have said to the communities when I have spoken to them, and I say to your listeners today is that we intend to stick with them every step of the way as each problem rears its ugly head, we are going to tackle it, get through it, so that we can turn around one day and say, ‘the rebuilding is done'.
MITCHELL: I know they will be very reassured by that because there is a fear of, you know that time will move on and they will be abandoned. Prime Minister just one final question if I may, these reports today that you are supporting the idea of permanent memorials, what is the thought there?
PM: The Premier of Victoria John Brumby and our own Government, Jenny Macklin, have been talking about how best to provide an appropriate memorial. We are still working our way through the detail of it. But certainly, if is the view of the community, and if they are behind this idea squarely, then I am sure the Victorian Government and ourselves will do it.
What it is, where it is, how it is shaped, I think we are going to have to involve everybody you know. Because these are very sensitive matters as I know you know most particularly.
MITCHELL: Final, final question, just watching you move around and a couple of very emotional moments on television and I am sure more privately, has this changed your life?
PM: You know Neil, I think it has probably affected the likes of you and the likes of me quite deeply and perhaps in ways we don't quite yet fully understand. I mean, it is, when you and others are upfront and close and personal with people who have lost everything and who are without hope, we are all engaged totally by that. And I think it affects us.
But you know, how I feel, how you feel, slides into nowhere compared with those who we honour today in this national day of mourning, who have lost everything.
MITCHELL: Very true. Thank you very much for your time, I appreciate it, thank you.
PM: Thanks Neil, thanks Dennis.