Prime Minister
PHIL THOMPSON OAM, MP, MEMBER FOR HERBERT: Thank you all for coming here today. And it's always good to be joined in Townsville with the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison. The PM is a frequent flyer to this region. He spends a lot of time in Townsville and I'm sure that he'll be up again soon to come to a Cowboys game, since we've poached Townsend from the Sharks. But I'll get him in a Cowboys jersey very soon, I'm hoping.
PRIME MINSTER: You hope.
PHIL THOMPSON OAM, MP, MEMBER FOR HERBERT: We're here at Simsha, with Sharda. This local business was affected during the floods, the monsoonal event. But this is a great story. It's a story that started in a garage, a story that has seen local engineering, local produce, and locals that are working here with a plan. And the plan is to send out Australian grown bananas to the whole nation. This is something that I think is a great story for Townsville, because it shows local innovation. It shows people that did it a bit tough, got impacted by the floods, were able to get a grant through the Federal Government to be able to get back on to their feet, get out in ‑to a different shed and to grow bigger and better than ever. The PM's been here and we've spoken about a reinsurance pool, that's fantastic for our region, and the announcement today about the Recovery and Resilience Agency. And also Shane Stone is standing behind me, who's leading that agency. This is about looking at making our communities in northern Australia resilient for the inevitable. We know that we get cyclones. We know we get natural disasters. But we need to be prepared, because we've been spending a lot of time and a lot of money always on the recovery. We need to flip that. We need to be spending the appropriate amount of money on the resilience ‑making sure that our communities are ready. And this takes in all three levels of government. The Federal Government has stepped up and put a great deal of money on the table for this agency, but local councils ‑local and state governments also need to step up, because this isn't about politics; this is about three levels of government doing what's best for the people to ensure that when the next cyclone comes ‑because it will ‑that we are ready, we are resilient and we can adapt for the minimal damage that we see throughout northern Australia. So, PM, thank you so much for coming to Townsville.
PRIME MINSTER: Thanks, mate.
PHIL THOMPSON OAM, MP, MEMBER FOR HERBERT: And I'll hand over to you.
PRIME MINSTER: Thanks, Phil. And a shout out to everyone here at Simsha. This is a great multicultural business success story, like so many all around the country, something that I know Shane Stone knows a lot about, because multicultural businesses and communities in the north of Australia, whether it's in Darwin or whether it's here in North Queensland, or indeed in other parts of the country, a great multicultural business success story. And it's great to have Joe Buffone here as well, who's the head of Emergency Management Australia. Together we made a major announcement this morning to establish the National Recovery and Resilience Agency. Now, "recovery" and "resilience" are two words that people who live in North Queensland know all about. And Sharda knows all about it here, because it wasn't that long ago, as the floods hit and his business was hit ‑their family business was hit, the six employees who work here ‑that he needed the support through the flood agency, which Shane has been the Coordinator-General of, to help their business get back on its feet. So through the $50,000 grant that was supporting businesses like Sharda's here, and all across the north where they were affected, that has enabled the north to rebuild after those terrible floods. And we've learnt so much as a result of so much loss as well, as we've been dealing with these disasters over these many years. And the establishment of the National Recovery and Resilience Agency will mean working together with Emergency Management Australia, working together with the highly capable ‑particularly here in Queensland, I've got to say ‑the highly capable other emergency response agencies and those who provide support here in the state. That is enabling people to get back up on their feet.
These disasters, sadly, are things that people who live in northern Australia particularly deal with. They understand that it's part of the cycle of what can impact on their businesses and their livelihoods and their homes. That doesn't make the loss any less, it doesn't make the job any less difficult, but these are things that we need to plan more for and we need to have the supports there for when those disasters come about. These disasters we're seeing happen more frequently. I mean, that's why building our resilience is a key plank of our government's response to climate change. And I want to commend Minister Littleproud on the work that he has done, together with myself and Shane Stone and the National Bushfire Recovery Agency, and Joe Buffone, and all those over at the Bureau of Meteorology and the many other agencies that have come together to ensure that we are preparing for Australia's future, and particularly here in northern Australia. The announcements on the reinsurance pool that we made yesterday, the great work that's been done here by Phil ‑but, of course, Warren Entsch and so many others in North Queensland ‑have got us to that position, and I think that's going to make a great difference for certainty for businesses and for households and families living here in the north of Australia. But the multicultural success story here of this wonderful business ‑ come as a migrant ‑came first as an engineer, and you can see his handy work on some of the equipment there in this facility, all done from tinkering in the shed, no doubt. But to be able to establish this business and a livelihood for themselves and their families, and so many others, I think is just a great success story. And we don't want that to be taken away by floods and cyclones and all of those other disasters, and that's why we're doing exactly what we are with the resilience and ‑the Recovery and Resilience Agency. So, look, I'm happy to take a couple of quick questions. We've had quite a few press conferences in the last few days, but I'm happy to take a few questions here while I'm in Townsville.
JOURNALIST: Queensland obviously has quite a lot of natural disasters. Did you have any conversations with the Queensland Premier prior to this funding or anything?
PRIME MINSTER: This has been an iterative process. I mean, we've worked hand in glove with the Queensland Government and I've got to ‑and, Shane, you might want to comment on this as well, as you ‑as well you, Joe. I mean, when disasters hit, the states and the territories work very closely together with the Commonwealth. And, you know, when we were deploying our ‑particularly our programs for the flood - affected areas out west, QRIDA was a critical delivery agency for us in getting that support out there. So, what you see here is the culmination of the lessons of all of those various responses we've been through, and putting it on a permanent footing and ‑so that becomes part of the permanent planning arrangement. So, I know this is strongly welcomed by state and territory governments. It's a result of the work done by the Royal Commission that all the states and territories also participated in with their joint Letters Patent but, Shane ‑I mean, this is a product of a working relationship with the state and territories.
THE HON. SHANE STONE AC QC, COORDINATOR GENERAL, NATIONAL RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE AGENCY: Very much so. Our cooperation with QRA and QRIDA has been defining in the way that we've dealt with the floods in the north and the north‑west, and that's certainly on the public record. So, I pay tribute to that state agency for the way that they have worked with us. But can I just also say, ladies and gentlemen, today is historic in the sense that for those of us who have lived and worked ‑and, in my case, been in government in the north ‑to finally have a single agency and to have a government, led by the Prime Minister Morrison, who had political will to say, "Let's do it." And we're doing it. And this will make such a difference. As you heard this morning, we spent 97 per cent on cleaning up ‑really good with cleaning up. Not real good on the preparation. So, we've got to get better.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when will Australia lift the ban on flights from India and are you concerned that this has done damage to our relationship with India?
PRIME MINSTER: Yes, I'm happy to address those questions, but I just want to deal with the things we're here to talk about today. But I'll come back to those.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, with the reinsurance pool coming into play in July next year, what can the Federal Government do in the short term and will you have to introduce new legislation to get it in place.
PRIME MINSTER: Well, a couple of points there. The first one is there's a consultation program we're now going through and we expect a draft [indistinct] before the end of this year. And we've already had a very good response from the insurance industry. And two particular companies, as Minister Sukkar indicated yesterday, have already indicated their preparedness and willingness to now reenter the market in northern Australia. And so, by taking the step now, this enables those companies to plan. And so, the process has already begun. It's becoming part of the furniture now [indistinct] it will come into effect on the 1st of July of next year. But between now and then, the certainty of its arrival and its preparation to engage with the sector will already mean that we I think we'll start to see [indistinct] starting to flow through. Now, we, of course, will have to take this through the normal parliamentary processes that are associated with these arrangements, and that's all part of the budget process as well.
JOURNALIST: When will this national agency be set up?
PRIME MINSTER: It's happening now. It's underway. There are eight people ‑and Shane might want to talk a bit about this. Where is it going to be? All over Australia. All over Australia. And that's the way that both the National Bushfire Recovery Agency and the Flood and Drought Agency have operated; people working in mobile offices, out of their vans. As I said today, "Boots on the ground and a beating heart on the other side of the table," as they're sitting down in people's farms, in their businesses, in their homes, working through the challenges and connecting them to the significant support and services that are available. One of the biggest challenges we often have when you're dealing with the recovery from a natural disaster is the people you need to help are people who never ask for help. They're very self-reliant. They've built their businesses. They have taken their risks. They love being self-sufficient. They've never put their hand out for their government and it can be really hard for them to do that. Now, I was talking with the beautiful Greek family I met in western Sydney, and I had to implore them to get on the phone that day to access the disaster recovery payments. He was refusing to do it. So, I got his son to do it for him. But that's the pride. And I get that. And so that's why you need the human dimension to the recovery. And that's what these agencies do, 80 of them across the country connecting with communities. And this also includes the Rural Financial Counsellors as part of the agencies' network now, which I think will be really important. And so, of course, their headquarters ‑operations are in Canberra and Brisbane and that's ‑you know, that's appropriate, given that the back end of the operation and linking up particularly with Emergency Management Australia, with Joe and the other climate research agencies, and so on. You need that connection at that level, but on the ground you need people on the ground, and that's how it will operate.
JOURNALIST: Now, Prime Minister, the announcement mentions a new Australian Climate Service. How is this different to the government funded Climate Change Agency and whose job will it be to provide a quote ‑provide expert advice to the Australian Government on climate [indistinct] issues?
PRIME MINSTER: Well, this will come through multiple agencies, including the agency that Shane will operate with the administration of the $600 million fund which they'll be putting in place, but we continue to take advice from the chief of the CSIRO ‑ the chief scientists, the agencies which are being established as part of this arrangement, the Bureau of Meteorology. Australia is well ‑well blessed with the best scientific advice in the world, and particularly for our part of the world. And so we will continue to look ‑to be informed by all of those agencies. Yes?
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when will Australia lift the ban on India and are you concerned that this has damaged the relationship that Australia has with India?
PRIME MINSTER: No, not at all. I'm not concerned about that. Today the humanitarian support, the very significant humanitarian support for India has already departed Sydney, in the 100 oxygen concentrators we're working to deliver for them, the ‑the masks, the respirators, the humanitarian support. And Minister Payne is over, actually, at the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, where also the Foreign Minister for India, Mr Jaishankar ‑he'll be connecting with Minister Payne there. No, there's a ‑there is a partnership effort with India to support them as they deal with this terrible crisis. Our pause will be in place until the 15th of May, as we said, and that pause has already working ‑this pause is enabling us to get on the right footing to be able to restore those repatriation flights, and we're making good progress to that. We're already starting to see, as a result of the pause, the incidence of those cases at Howard Springs starting to come down. We've got a bit more distance to travel there, but the pause is working, and that means the pause will enable us to get Australian citizens and residents and their immediate families back to Australia under those repatriation flights. Had we not done the pause, we would have been eroding our capability to do that over the medium to longer term. So this was a necessary step to ensure that we could help more Australian citizens and residents get home and, at the same time, bring them home safely in a way that did not risk a third wave here in Australia. Now, that's what we want to achieve. So, we're working closely with the Indian community. Minister Hawke is engaging regularly with the Indian community and explaining these decisions and ‑as are members of Parliament and others in engaging with the community, and we thank them for their patience and understanding and continue to work closely with them, but I'm pleased that that humanitarian support is getting out and getting to India and it's on its way even as we speak. India is a great friend of Australia. We form many partnerships. And most recently ‑not just our own comprehensive strategic partnership which I signed with Prime Minister Modi only last year, but also through our new quad relationship at a leaders' level, and working together with the other quad partners to provide whatever support we can provide to India in this time of their great need. Thanks very much, everyone. It's great to be here with you today. Cheers.