Subjects: Flood damage
E&OE......
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister what's the message you've been given just now in this meeting?
PRIME MINISTER:
The message that I have been given is that it is a disaster greater than any that has befallen this part of Australia. It jnvolves not only immense damage but also the destruction in many cases of the crop for the third year in a row, in some cases both a winter and a summer crop at the one time and the stories are quite heartbreaking. I feel very deeply for these people. They work hard. Many of them don't have a lot and then they get clobbered with something like this which is beyond our and their control I do feel sorry for them.
We are going to give additional help over and above what has already been given. Mr Anderson; who has been a tower of strength as the local member in this area, and I will talk again about it in the next few hours and then we will discuss the matter in Cabinet on Monday. But they do need extra help.ยท When things like this happen Australians expect their government to be sympathetic and accommodating because the rural community is very important to Australia. It is not only important economically but it is also important socially and emotionally to the fabric of the country. And when you have the stuffing
knocked out of you the way these people have the rest of the country has got to be willing to help and I believe the overwhelming majority of Australians will feel that way.
JOURNALIST:
What sort of help?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, there are a variety of things that we can do and rather than hint at those things in an ad hoc way we will address those matters on Monday.
JOHN ANDERSON:
Before you get on to banks ... when you reach the bottom there is only one way and its up. And one point about this, yes it's extraordinarily bad and because of the narrow base of the economic foundations of the region knocking the crops out three years in a row has done immense damage. However, there is every reason to believe, given the productivity of these regions, given the right sort of incentives to put it all back together again and go again, the sky's the limit, we will pull through. We will make it. There is going to be a future.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, you. said yesterday on radio that the banks make handsome profits, partly from the fanning sector. Do they have a moral obligation to help the funding of the relief program?
PRIME MINISTER:
We]l the banks have got to help yes. They have got to be understanding, they have got to be accommodating. They have to realise that you have got to take the bad with the good and we will expect the banks to play their part. I am not going to get into the detail of what that is. I simply make the observation that they do have a moral obligation.
Everybody's got an obligation to do something. It is also important to understand that there is still a lot of fight, a helluva lot of fight in rural Australia and John Anderson is right to point to the fact that even in a dark and difficult period such as this, there is a Jot of hope on the horizon because we have a highly productive farm sector. That of course, is what makes something like this even more heartbreaking. It's happening to a group of people who are highly efficient and highly productive by world standards and receive less protection than many of their competitors in countries like the United States and especially the European Union and Japan.
JOURNALIST:
Given the [inaudible] of the country vote at the next election, how much do you see your electoral fortw1es riding on how you handle this situation over the next few months?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, this is not a political issue. This is a human issue which goes to the very responsibilities of government and I have made it plain already that we will work closely with the Carr Labor government in New South Wales to help. This is something quite separate from politics and I don't care to put it in any way in a political context. It is quite separate from that.
JOHN ANDERSON:
If I can just comment as the local member, no one is more affected by this than me and I just want to say this. I don't give a damn about the electoral consequences. This is about getting outcomes to help the people I represent get back on their feet. That's the only game in town as far as I am concerned.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you.
[ends]
25 November 2000