HOST: Prime Minister Gillard, I imagine there are days when you wonder just how tough this gets?
PM: I did sign up for this and I signed up for leading the nation in the best of times and in the worst of times and we are seeing some of the worst of time right around the nation, but most particularly in Queensland. So I still view this job as an absolute privilege and we are extending as much support as we can to the people of Queensland, the Defence Force is doing a fantastic job helping the people of Queensland and I've certainly said to Premier Bligh that anything she needs from the Defence Force we will supply and we are also of course making payments, emergency payments to help people in Queensland whose homes are inundated by water. The number to ring for that is 180 22 66, we've already processed more than 10,000 claims and paid more than $13 million and Phil this is just the start. There will be more payments and support for people in recovery and then all of the rebuilding to do for the many many months ahead. We're going to be working with Queenslanders to get through this crisis.
HOST: Prime Minister, you used the word extended and that strikes me as very apt. Every time we seem to think we've got to the point where we might start the recovery and clean up, we go back into the emergency phase of this and this morning more military, we've had Federal Police involved in search and rescue operations here, a couple of days ago the Singaporean Airforce offering their help. How long can we maintain this operational tempo, as this crisis seems to continue?
PM: We can keep sustaining the Australian Defence Force effort, there is on double about that. You are right, we've also had very generous offers from overseas, we do have some New Zealanders on the ground in Queensland helping out, the Singaporeans have offered their helicopters to assist and nations around the world, the United States, the United Nations, the EU, China, Indonesia, East Timor, almost you name it, they've offered assistance, so if we do need to call on the resources of the world we can. But our Australian Defence Force has got the resources it needs and that have been asked for now and if more is needed then it will certainly be swung into action.
HOST: I suppose it's one of these things that we have, we learn to think in terms of states and localities, but disasters like this do not know borders and the co-ordination must be very challenging between local authorities, as this water moves across the border into northern New South Wales and the you sit in the Federal sphere and try to work this through. How efficient are we finding the co-ordination and the logistical work between the levels of government?
PM: The levels of government are working together well and there are very clear arrangements as to how we work together. So of course Premier Bligh and the Queensland Government have their co-ordination committee, their emergency management committee, but the Defence Force sits alongside that, they participate in those meetings, so they know immediately what is needed. At the Federal level we have a crisis co-ordination committee; I am briefed by that, through our National Security Adviser, so you know we've got right across government people swinging into action. Defence Force on the one hand, but more than 1000 Centrelink staff on the other to process payments and to be able to give advice to people about how we can support them during this difficult period. So people are working together tremendously well and everybody seems to be bringing to it a real can do spirit, let's get the job done.
HOST: There has been a high level of honestly and openness in briefing right through to a public level, I appreciate that you're background briefings are far more detailed than that and you have warned us to expect that the death toll may well rise and there will be more emotional hardships for us in the days that are ahead. You're not expecting this to get better quickly?
PM: I am asking people to brace for the unfortunately and tragically likely news that the death toll has gone up from nine. Now obviously I would love to be proved wrong, but I believe the nation does need to brace itself for knowing that more Australians have died in those tremendous walls of waters that we've seen on our television screens and which crashed through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. So it's a very very tough period, a lot of Australians bereaved, a lot anxiously waiting for news.
HOST: The emotional impact takes a long time, the economic stuff takes a long time as well. Are there already arms of government starting to look at how long the effects of this spin out for in terms of everything from our transport infrastructure and the way that affects exports through to primary production and mining? I mean those kind of things.
PM: We're certainly looking at it in every dimension, from the absolutely urgent, how do we get and emergency payment into someone's pocket when they've had to evacuate their home and their home is full of water, through to how do we help people who can't get to their place of employment any longer because of flood waters, through to how do we help people when they return and they start rebuilding their homes, through to how do we help small businesses and primary producers recover with clean up grants and concessional loans. We are working through every dimension of this, and then of course there will be the infrastructure rebuilding. We can't know the true dimensions of that until flood waters subside and we can see the damage underneath and which bridges have been swept away, which roads have been damaged, which schools have been damaged and when we get to that stage we will continue to work in partnership with the people of Queensland and to be there for the rebuilding.
HOST: Prime Minister, before I let you go, on a personal note, I was on the Darling Downs when you were visiting St George and we all saw you in Rockhampton and so on. How important is it for you to, to actually be there and put your arms around someone?
PM: I think it's really important for me as Prime Minister of the country to work in Canberra and make sure that government is doing what it needs to do, but also to be out on the ground seeing people and hearing their stories. It is about putting your arms around someone when there are tears, but it's also about listening to them, so that I can understand whether government is working for them and you always learn something, you always learn something that you can then bring back and make sure than we are doing right. For example in St George the real pressure that people are under, who had their homes flooded in March, just got back into their nice new renovated homes, thinking gee this is fantastic, Christmas is here and now we're back, we're over the floods and then the floods come again. Understanding the dimensions of pressure on those people and having seen that with my own eyes in St George, I've been able to work through, to make sure that we are tracking people who have been hit more than once and offering them a special level of assistance in terms of access to counselling, because it's a lot to go through in less than a 12 month period.
HOST: And a long way from the sometime rarefied atmosphere at the Cabinet table in Canberra. Prime Minister, thank you for making the time to talk to us. Are we likely to see you in this neck of the woods again soon?
PM: I'm actually flying from Canberra through to Brisbane tonight, so I will be in Brisbane tomorrow. Once again, working through, meeting with Premier Bligh, getting briefings and making sure that we understand around that Cabinet table, as you put it, but understand in the decision making structures of government what is actually happening on the ground, so that we don't miss things that are pressing on people and we need to address.
HOST: Prime Minster Gillard, thanks you.
PM: Thank you.