PM: Of course St George has been on alert about rising floodwaters for many days now and as the Premier and I were remarking when we toured the town, not one minute of that time has been wasted.
Emergency preparations here have been done at a very high level and I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Donna, the team she leads, the Emergency Services personnel, who have done such a great deal of work in St George to ready for the flood.
We know that as flood waters rise it's going to get tougher here in St George and it's tough for many many people throughout Queensland.
We've been talking today about dealing with the flood peak, we've also been talking today about the recovery work that lies beyond and certainly we will stay in touch in close partnership with the Queensland Government and the local council here as those recovery works unfold.
I am pleased to be able to say standing here with the Premier of Queensland that we are making emergency payments, dollars into people's pockets who are affected by this flood emergency throughout Queensland, that are making a difference to them right now.
Already around $4 million in total, between Federal Government emergency payments and State Government emergency payment have been made to individuals and families are doing it tough in Queensland floods.
Of course that is the money in the pocket, money on the ground now, but there are hundreds of millions more dollars that are going to be required to help Queensland through and to help with the rebuilding.
It's been great to be here today and to see the extent of what St George has prepared for first hand and I do very much thank the local community for hosting me here.
I'll turn now to the Premier for some comments.
PREMIER BLIGH: Well thank you Prime Minister. It's very heartening to see the Prime Minister back in Queensland again, touring some of the flood affected areas.
There is no substitute for first hand eyewitness assessment of the damage floods are doing, they havoc that they're wreaking in communities, the pain and suffering that they're causing to individuals and families.
We know that between all three levels of government, we've got a bit rebuilding task ahead of us and I'm very pleased to see the Prime Minister here with the Mayor of St George Donna Stewart, having a firsthand look at this damage.
I'm very heartened by the fact that Australians are digging deep to help Queenslanders in need. The Premier's Relief Appeal has just today gone over $20 million, tonight there'll be a telethon on a national TV station, I ask people to get behind us when we need that help.
To those people who have already donated and we've had more than $5 million come in through the banks, from ordinary mums and dads, thank you.
Whether it's $2, $5, or whatever it is it's all making a difference. $20 million worth of aid over and above the hundreds of millions of dollars that each level of government will be contributing to the rebuilding effort will make a huge different, particularly to those families who really have lost everything.
So thank you Australia, we're absolutely thrilled that you're here standing with us in our time of need here in Queensland.
There's been a lot of relief here in St George as we've been able to establish that the water is not going to get above the previous record, or may only slight, we're not going to see the worst case scenario here. However we are going to see a long time for these waters hanging around St George, causing road damage.
This road out here is the main road out to Cunnamulla, we don't know when it'll be open again and we don't know when we'll be able to get vehicles on it until we see the damage that's done.
We also know that there's many other towns downstream, Dirranbandi, Bollon and Hebel are likely to be cut off and isolated for many weeks, so getting supplies into these towns will continue to be a big priority and for all those people who are in isolated properties and smaller towns being cut off and isolated, we do know about you and we're getting supplies in to help you.
STEWART: I would like to say that I'm delighted that the Prime Minister Julia Gillard accepted my invitation to come to our community so promptly and also as always lovely to have our Premier here and I'm very pleased that they can come and speak with members of my community and understand not only the emotional anguish, but also the ongoing problems with infrastructure and getting that infrastructure back into a workable place so that commerce can continue and bring money back into our community. So once again thank you on behalf of my community.
PM: And can I say we've also had the opportunity while we've been here today to touch base with Senator Barnaby Joyce and I have brought with me one of my Queensland Labor team, Graham Perrett. This is his home town but I haven't really got the full details of his school days yet, I've been asking local people for stories about his naughtiness at school, but I'm going to have to keep that enquiry going.
So, we're very happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: I've got a question from Canberra, Channel Ten understands (inaudible), what's going on there? He's saying it's not enough (inaudible)
PM: Look, as reported in papers today an out of court settlement has been reached. The settlement is confidential. Clearly this is a matter that has been a long time in the making and in the interests of the Commonwealth, it's wasn't in our interest to have a long and protracted litigation, so the matter has been settled.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, has the Government offered Mamdouh Habib an apology?
PM: Look, as you've seen the terms of this settlement are confidential, that's part of what has happened. It was in the interests of taxpayers to bring this matter to an end. I think Australians understand this is a matter of long standing, it did not start under the current government, it started a number of years ago, but it was in the interest of taxpayers to settle it and that has been done.
JOURNALIST: So as far as you're concerned (inaudible)
PM: Well, as I am advised the matter has been settled.
JOURNALIST: And where did it come from, Mamdouh Habib says he didn't tell the press about this, so it must have come from somewhere else?
PM: Well you may have to make enquiries amongst your press brethren to work that out.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
BLIGH: We have a number of major coal mines which are flooded in the Central Queensland area. These are big major local employers and we want to get them back operational as soon as we can.
We are working with every one of these mines about how they can discharge their water out of those big pits. Some of this water will need to be treated before it can be discharged, others have tested OK.
What we do know is that sometime the best time to discharge is when the water is moving quickly through the river, so it can move out. So, we're working with hydrologists and with environmental scientists and with the companies to do everything we can to get these mines operational. They're some of the biggest employers in Central Queensland and the best thing we can do for those communities is to get people back to work.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this is obviously pretty tough for St George, second time in ten months. Has there been any discussion of what the first steps are to get these people back to normal life and is there any preventative measures being talked about for the future?
PM: We've had a good discussion this morning and what I can say about this community is it is facing a tough time, very quickly after the March floods. There is a real sense of resilience and pulling together and being prepared and it's very impressive. It's a real tribute to the community.
Yes, there's going to be a lot of work to make sure that infrastructure is built; that businesses can get back to normal, so people's jobs are there, the product is getting to market so that people can be selling what they produce and earning their income.
We've been talking about that today as well. It's obvious that until we see these flood waters recede we're not going to be able to see the true extent of the damage.
Donna, for example, has been explaining to me that the bridge that is normally there is completely out of sight because the flood waters are over the top of it. Something like that bridge, we'll only be able to assess the true damage when the flood waters recede.
But we will keep working together, Federal Government, State Government and Local Government in that recovery.
JOURNALIST: Is this dam proposal being considered at all?
PM: As I said yesterday, my focus is on working with local communities as they face flood waters and then recover. That's my focus, being out and about with these community members.
Any proposals and I understand the Leader of the Opposition's announced a plan for a committee, on any proposals that some from that, obviously there will be plenty of time to talk about that in the future.
My focus now is on immediate work to work with communities.
JOURNALIST: Can we ask please ask for your impressions of St George and the preparations there?
MAJOR GENERAL SLATER: Flying into St George you can see that there's an awful lot of water out there. I think that the people of St George have been a little luckier than they could have been the way things are looking at the moment, but one of the things that's struck me already about the organisation in St George this morning is that the community has come together well.
They have learnt from previous experience and the last twelve months about how to prepare themselves for such a food. The Police, Emergency Services, the local civil authorities have done a really great job and if the water does rise more than we're expecting at the moment, then I don't think any town could be better prepared.
JOURNALIST: Premier, can I just ask you, there's around $20 million in the donation fund at the moment. Can you say where that money will go? Will that go to help people whose homes aren't insured?
PREMIER BLIGH: The funds in the relief appeal will all go to individuals and families and communities. All the major infrastructure, like roads and rail will be dealt with by Government.
The purpose of the relief fund is to top up, for those families who are either uninsured or uninsurable or whose insurance doesn't cover all that has happened to them. To make that little bit of difference between getting something and being able to get your life back on track.
So there are people who are, who have some insurance but it won't cover everything. Some people who because of the nature of their insurance policy will find that they thought they had flood coverage and it won't cover it, and that's what this relief fund will do.
This will make the difference between people being able to put their lives back together or not and it'll be administered separate to government, by the Red Cross and the Red Cross are the ones staffing our evacuation centres at the moment. They are the people who know the families that need it the most. So this is a fund that is about people and about recognising the human face of this tragedy.
JOURNALIST: Is it a situation where people have to apply, or (inaudible)
PREMIER BLIGH: What we've done in the past and we'll have to look at the circumstances here over so many different places which is a bit unique, but in Cyclone Larry for example the funds, the trustees of the funds will determine the criteria and then yes people will have to (inaudible)
But obviously we'll make sure that we're encouraging people to being forward their claims.
PM: Thank you very much.