BONGIORNO:
Well there's an eerie pool of smoke over Canberra at the moment, it's reminiscent over the early darkness that preceded the firestorm on Saturday. I'm joined now by the Prime Minister. Mr Howard, you've described it has the worst bushfire disaster you've seen but perhaps the worst isn't over.
PRIME MINISTER:
No that is the figure, it's certainly the worst I've seen, the suburban devastation of this is far greater than any that I've experienced or seen. I worry that the worst may not be over, that's what the experts are saying, everybody has to remain vigilant and ready.
BONGIORNO:
So have you got much sympathy for the cause for at least a broad independent commission into how this could have happened on the scale that it did?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think they're the sort of things that you can make a decision on now. When it's over, if you can put it like that, then there may be an opportunity and there may be a need for some reflective look at how, why and can things be done differently. When in the end of course under our system of government fire services and the like are handled by state and territory governments and not by the Federal Government. But I think it's important to deal with the immediate challenge, not lapse into any unnecessary finger pointing but be willing to look at things from a bit more distance when we're able to do that.
BONGIORNO:
As Prime Minister have you been encouraged by the Australian spirit that the Canberra community has...
PRIME MINISTER:
We're all Australians, I mean we're Australians before we're Canberrans or people who live in Sydney or Melbourne or whatever, that's always been my credo. And Australians are essentially the same wherever they are in our country, in adversity they chip in, club together, work together, help each other and extend the hand of mateship to somebody else who's done it hard. And it doesn't surprise me that people living in Canberra would do that, they're Australians.
BONGIORNO:
Thank you very much for joining us today Prime Minister Howard.
[ends]