Prime Minister
The Hon. Kevin Hogan MP, Member for Page: Well, look, thank you everybody, and I am here to welcome, obviously, the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison here. We also have the Minister for Emergency Services Bridget McKenzie, and we’ve got two Mayors here, Steve Krieg from Lismore City Council and Robert Mustow from Richmond Valley Council - two of three very affected councils for this event.
Obviously you’ve all been here for some time, some of you live here. What we have had happen in this region is quite a traumatic event. Everyone in this region is going through great trauma. We’ve had some great visits today with farmers in our region, with householders in South Lismore, and we went to a number of small businesses in the region, as well. This, as you know, has been an unprecedented natural disaster. We are not saying this is a flood. This has gone beyond a flood. We know how to deal with floods in Lismore and the Richmond Valley and elsewhere, but this was a natural disaster of unprecedented destruction.
Beyond Lismore, I do want to note that I was in the lower Richmond yesterday, as Woodburn and Broadwater and Coraki become, where the floodwaters had receded and the devastation down in the lower Richmond is as severe as it is in parts of Rich, in parts of Lismore.
Announcements today, I just want to make some [inaudible]. The Prime Minister and the Minister will go through today's announcement and what's in it. But I do want to make the very important point that today is not the end. These announcements today are not the end, it's just a part of [inaudible]. The Prime Minister’s here today, day one out of COVID, to come here and survey the scene. Everyone knows, everyone tells me that you cannot know what has happened here until you see it physically. This is why the Prime Minister’s here and today is just part of that. Three focuses of mine with the Minister and the Prime Minister is ongoing income support, help to get families back into their houses, and also business support so they will reinvest in this community.
This is going to be not a week or a month. This is going to be a multi-year journey for this community and we are aware of it. We have issues like homelessness, rebuilds and flood mitigation that we need to deal with. We are hurting and we are hurting bad. And this today is about getting everyone on the same page, aligning it, we identify what we need to do and to make sure that we do this, so our communities have faith in that they will, they will reinvest and they will stay to live and thrive in this community. And on that, Prime Minister, welcome. And I thank you for being here.
Prime Minister: Thank you. Well, thank you, Kevin, in particular for the great work you've been done here in your local community. Can I acknowledge also the many other local members, I know you’ve been working closely with Janelle, who we were able to be with earlier today, and the others who are working right across the Northern Rivers area. Major General Thomae who's here with us of as well, who is the Major General heading up the Joint Taskforce, not just here in the Northern Rivers, but right across the country - in New South Wales, in Queensland, and coordinating the ADF effort, and he’ll make a few comments in a few moments, and is obviously available to take questions. To Minister McKenzie, who I’ve, this is not her first visit during the course of these floods, it’s her second and certainly won't be her last, and I don't suspect it will be mine either.
It was just over a week ago when I was in Brisbane and I was there at the start of that major, what was described by the the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as a ‘weather bomb’, that had fallen on Brisbane at that time, but it was moving fast towards the Northern Rivers. And while I was still there in Brisbane, that event was already unfolding here as the rain was pouring down, particularly on that Sunday night, which was the most devastating night here in the Northern Rivers that has ever been seen when it comes to a flood event. There is no flood event that has occurred in this part of Australia like this in anyone's living or recorded memory, and that is a profound statement. You don't make those things lightly. I'm advised it's a one in 500 year flood. And so we're talking about not just a flood event, because here in the Northern Rivers people prepare for flood events, and in the Northern Rivers here people prepared for a flood event on this occasion, whether it was where they moved their dairy herd to, whether it was how they shift their stock and their supplies up to a higher shelves, or move things from downstairs up to upstairs, expecting what the flood heights might be. That's not what happened. It overwhelmed everything, and it did it in an alarming and disturbing pace. And so that is the catastrophe, that national catastrophe that we're now dealing with here.
And I also want to thank Steve Krieg and Robert Mustow, the Mayors of Lismore and Richmond Valley. Sadly, last time I met with Robert was on the occasion of bushfires at Rappville. And here we are again. There was another occasion when it was about the completion of the Pacific Highway, but that was a more pleasant day. And to you, Steve, talk about a baptism as a, as a new Mayor. And I want to thank you for your leadership here on the ground, and particularly as I've just learnt from speaking to those directly involved in the response effort here. So many, whether they're working for the Council or State Emergency Services, even those in the Defence Forces called up as reservists - they're not just dealing with the flood and the catastrophe here, they're dealing with it themselves personally. They've lost their own homes, they've got their own family members who have been affected, and they're tired. And it's an emotional time. But they continue to press on and their endurance is nothing more than inspirational.
Already, through the course of this terrible flood event right across New South Wales and Queensland, the Commonwealth Government, together with the Queensland and state governments, have committed a billion dollars, and that is for the normal flood event response at a very severe end, called Cat C and Cat D funding, and that involves providing grant support, delivered through the state governments, of small businesses of up to $50,000, up to $75,000 for primary producers. This is the high end of the normal Cat C and D response that we provide in response to natural disasters such as this. That will not be enough here in the Northern Rivers, as we assessed this as a National Security Committee over the past week, and in particular as we came together as a Budget Committee, what’s known as the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet, yesterday.
We know very clearly that what we're seeing here, particularly in Clarence Valley, Richmond Valley and Lismore, is on a whole another scale to the floods being experienced in other parts of the country. As bad as they are, whether that be in Brisbane - I'll be up in in Queensland tomorrow - or down further south in Sydney and out in the Hawkesbury and Nepean, where they’re also used to floods. What has been seen here as I toured around the town centre today and many other areas, was nothing more than heartbreaking. And Kevin is absolutely right. You have to see it. You have to smell it. You have to feel it. And most importantly, you have to feel the incredible emotion.
I stood in a dairy farm today that they have worked on and bought together for about 30 years, wasn't it? This is a dairy farm where they raised their kids and would have run around that milking shed. And today that milking shed is a disaster zone. They no longer have a farm. They showed me where they buried 60 head of their dairy cattle. And as people who know dairy farmers know, they know them, they call them out by name, and to talk to the dairy farmer, who said he had to sit there and watch as his, as his herd suffered, it broke me up. And when I speak to businesses, when I speak to neighbours who knew there were elderly people trapped in roofs - this is a tough town and they've responded in an incredible way in compassion towards one another.
So the Commonwealth has responded - a billion dollars in what we’d call, I would call what is the expected normal response to a natural disaster. But we must go further. The Commonwealth Disaster Payments that we've paid around the country now total some $385 million. That's money already paid by the Commonwealth, 100 per cent, directly into people's bank accounts, and that’s some 330,000 claims that has been done in one week, and that will continue as those claims continue to come forward.
But in the, in the first instance, in the council areas of Richmond Valley, Lismore and Clarence Valley, we will be extending those Commonwealth Disaster Payments for a further two payments. So those who have already received that $1,000 payment or $400 for their children, for each and every child, automatically from the 15th and and the 22nd of this month, they will receive exactly the same payment again into their bank accounts. Now, on average, those who have received payments on each claim are pulling in $2,300 to $2,400 in those Commonwealth Disaster Payments. So that will be a further two on average payments of that order for those families. For those with more children, obviously the payments are higher. For those as an individual, it would be $1,000.
Now that will be an extra $33 million that will be put directly, we estimate, into cash flow, income support for those most affected through the inundation and impact of these floods. That's on top of what is already the $16.5 million that has already been paid. So that's $50 million directly going into the pockets of those most affected in just three council areas. The National Recovery and Resilience Agency will be assessing whether that would be extended to any other council areas in this, what we call this high impact zone, this high catastrophe impact zone, and they will make further assessments, and the Minister will make announcements subsequently as to how we might do that.
In addition, I'm announcing today that we will be providing, together with the New South Wales Government - and I've spoken to the Treasurer, to the Premier about this - support for Norco in northern New South Wales on a bespoke business support package. We are identifying and will be working with the local councils to identify what I'd call other anchor businesses that are so critical to the future of the Northern Rivers economy to help them get back on their feet and ensure we're providing tailored economic business support.
We've done this before in other parts of the country, most notably when I think of the North Queensland floods back in 2019 and late 2018. That was an area that was devastated by floods. They lost almost their entire cattle herd, and they were looking at the future. Not unlike I know people in the Northern Rivers are looking at their future today and wondering whether there will be one. What I want to tell them, there is a future for you, just as there was a future for those in North Queensland. They are now back on their feet. They are farming again. They are exporting again. Their towns are alive again, and they've pushed through with the support of the Commonwealth Government, the local government and the State Government in Queensland. That is what will happen here in the Northern Rivers.
In addition, there'll be $10 million of support for mental health of school aged children in the Northern Rivers. There's some $5.5 million dollars to boost existing legal assistance services, which will be matched by the state governments, for operating within affected communities. There's a lot of legal support you need to go through when you're dealing with a disaster such as this, and we'll be providing that support.
There's $25 million additional to the emergency relief and food relief and financial counselling services. These are supports going over the entire New South Wales and Queensland flood affected areas. There's $31.2 million to deliver immediate and longer term mental health support services in for individuals, families and communities. There are other measures that just set out in the statement, which I won't go into detail about.
The point is, economic support, mental health support, helping businesses get back up on their feet, providing that immediate cash flow assistance right now over the next few weeks. Why are we doing that? We're doing that to give the breathing space so people can have the confidence that tomorrow morning they'll be able to put food on the table in those most affected areas. They'll be able to put petrol in the car, if they indeed have a car, or they'll be able to make some other arrangement, and they won't be completely devoid of economic resources to do those things over the next couple of weeks.
Over the next couple of weeks, that will enable the Federal Government and the State Government to put in more sustainable arrangements for income support, for business support, to see those grants processes flowing. The National Recovery Allowance, the Disaster Recovery Allowance, which is a 13-week payment for those who actually can't work because work's not there or they can't get to work because they're cut off, that payment is already in place now, and we'll be looking at its adequacy over a longer term period.
The next steps, as we've discussed with the, with the Mayors today, and I've discussed with the Premier - he and I have been in constant contact and he's still here in the region and has been for many days now - is that we need to get the economy back on its feet and that is through the payments that I've referred to, the income support. We also need to get all of the rubbish off the median strips and get that taken away. I think that's going to be a major lift for the community once we can do that. The estimates I have, speaking to the Council today, is that we're still looking, that'll probably take around about a month, we expect to achieve that, and we're going to need even more trucks. The ADF has rolled all of those in, but the ADF on its own will not be able to complete that task. In fact, it will need far more than what even the ADF can bring to this task to achieve that. And so getting those trucks in to remove all that rubbish, but I've got to tell you, to all of those, what they've done in these last few days to clear out those homes in such an incredible rate of speed has been extraordinary, and I commend everybody for that work that they've been doing, which has, of course, involved the ADF, SES and many others, and just neighbours helping each other, people travelling up from other parts of the state to help family members and friends, and I thank them for doing that.
We've also got to give people hope about the future of the Northern Rivers. Now these issues have been debated in in and around Lismore for a very long time. I’ve spoken to it with the Mayor and the Minister and the Premier. We need to get this sorted. We need to ensure that once we can finalise the works that need to be done as part of managing the flood mitigation impacts here in the Northern Rivers, get done. Enough of the talk. People have known what needs to be done for a long time. That needs to be driven by the local decisions here, by the Council. If further hydrology work is required, then we will support that with additional funding to get that completed. But this isn't about if, this is about what and when, and that's where we need to get to and we need to get there.
The Emergency Response Fund of the Commonwealth will be used to support doing those works, and I'm not talking tens of millions. I'm talking more than that. And those costings will be settled between the Commonwealth and the State Government and the local governments, to the extent that they're able to contribute to those works, because we have to get this done, because this is how this works. I've seen this in North Queensland, as well in other parts of northern Australia. If you can't insure, then people can't build houses there. If you can't insure, people can't run businesses there, people can't rebuild and restock their dairy farms if they can't insure. And for the insurance companies to be able to insure, then we have to be able to increase the certainty that they have about how these types of devastating floods can impact this region. That's the future I want for Northern Rivers. That's the hope I want to give, and I can give you an absolute commitment on behalf of my Government that we will fund those works, together with the State Government and the local government, to ensure that people can have confidence about rebuilding here in the Northern Rivers. Sorry to take so long, I'll take some questions in a few moments. Bridget, did you want to say a few words?
Senator the Hon. Bridget McKenzie, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience: Just briefly, PM, thank you. It's great to be back in Lismore. One of the things Steve, the Mayor, said to me when I was here on Sunday, when we were discussing about next steps, what are, what is the Commonwealth's role? What is the local government's role? What is the State Government's role? And there was debate around, you know, are we going to rebuild in this fabulous community? And the Mayor said to me, Lismore loves Lismore. And so I've taken that back to Canberra and to the meetings that I've been in since Sunday about how do we ensure that Lismore that loves Lismore, and wants to stay and rebuild a sustainable future here in Lismore, is able to do that. And I think the Prime Minister has outlined some ways, some first steps that we're taking as a Federal Government to provide that certainty to individuals, to households, to businesses that you have a bright, sustainable future in this region, not just Lismore. But I do want to give a shout out to Coraki, to Broadwater, to Woodburn, to Wardell, those smaller outpost communities who are also devastated by this event in the Richmond Valley.
We've decided that three LGAs are going to be able to access specific and special support, and the Prime Minister has outlined some of those. Didn't matter whether I was in Gympie and Maryborough on Saturday, or Lismore here last Sunday, wherever I go in this particular event, mental health is raised time and time again. What we have to remember in many of these communities is the compounding impact of disasters - of drought, of bushfire, of COVID, and now in this community, a catastrophic natural disaster - and the impact that that has not just on communities’ confidence, but long-term mental health impacts. I'm particularly excited that we're investing in a resilient kids program. This is a program that we know works on the ground with school aged children. It's for children who are experiencing anxiety, who have autism, to really get that specialist targeted care they need, not just in the immediate aftermath of the event, but in the years that follow it. We know that most of the people impacted at the moment are running on adrenaline, and the till will get open, and the shopfront will be furled, and then it'll be bang, the impact will be felt on their mental health. So we are committing for the long-term here.
I've been tasked, obviously this is the first step in what's going to be a long, long road to recovery. And I'm excited to be part of a Government that's going to partner up with the New South Wales Government around that flood mitigation strategy going forward with the Lismore Council to make sure that primary producers, businesses and householders can invest in confidence. We're going to give you that confidence. I'm going to be working on more of those packages, as outlined by the Prime Minister, with the New South Wales Government, and I'm confident that we'll be having more to say about that shortly. But PM, that's it for me for now.
Major General David Thomae, Australian Defence Force: Thank you, Prime Minister. I'd just like to start by acknowledging the efforts of all of the emergency response forces, the Australian Defence Force, the SES, and the local community here in Lismore, who responded to that catastrophic event. From an Australian Defence Force perspective, we were here actually before the event occurred, and our local reservists from the 41st Battalion of the Royal New South Wales Regiment have been on the task from that first day. Additionally, we had aviation assets conducting search and rescue operations in those days, saving 113 people off the roofs in south east Queensland and northern New South Wales. Those reservists often did it at considerable personal cost. The Commanding Officer of the 41st Battalion is a helicopter rescue pilot, and she has stood aside from that responsibility to support her community and come from that community to support.
The Australian Defence Force has ramped up its presence in the Northern Rivers. As of today, we will be 1,800 people, building up to 4,000 in the coming days. That will be a combination of engineers, general duties, people to support each of the communities, and I have nine aircraft helicopters to get around and push people into those most needy communities as we move forward. Our engineers have been on the streets of Lismore and conducting assessments and, across into those remote communities to find out where the need is. We've been conducting airdrops of food and water, and supporting the Indigenous communities south of Lismore, and we will continue to do so. Thank you, Prime Minister.
Prime Minister: Now the other thing I should have mentioned, it's already been flagged earlier today, that the national state of emergency declaration, which was established after the Black Summer bushfires and the Royal Commission that was held, I announced my intention to recommend to the Governor-General a national emergency declaration, covering the severe weather and flooding events across both New South Wales and Queensland, to ensure all our emergency powers are available and that we cut through any red tape that might be faced. That's the principal purpose of that declaration, and that declaration requires me to consult both with the New South Wales Premier and the Queensland Premier. I've spoken to the New South Wales Premier today. The way this occurs is they both write to me requesting that that be put in place, and I've had that a positive discussion with the New South Wales Premier today. I’m meeting with the Queensland Premier tomorrow when I'm in Brisbane, and all of that being in train, I intend to meet with the Governor-General on Friday in Canberra to be able to complete those formalities. So that would be the first time a national emergency declaration has been put in place for a natural disaster since those powers were established after the Black Summer bushfires.
Journalist: Why was the media banned from the tour this morning?
Prime Minister: Sorry?
Journalist: Your tour of the farm this morning - why was the media banned? No cameras were allowed there.
Prime Minister: Out of respect for the privacy of those I was speaking with. I came to speak with them and, you know, in disasters like this, not everybody wants a camera shoved in their face while they're trying to share their heart with you. So I came up here to listen to them and what they're going through and understand what was needed for their primary production business or their local paint business, or those of householders themselves, about what was needed to ensure that we can get this town back on its feet. And that has assisted me in the other meetings I've had today, particularly with the Mayors, in talking through very practical issues like getting rid of the rubbish, as well as working through practical issues involving the re-establishment of businesses. Now you'll be joining me for a visit this afternoon, I understand, but my primary purpose is to be, come here to ensure that I understand fully what we need to do, and the alignment of what our plans are and our announcements are, with the needs that are here in community.
Journalist: Is it not a flawed plan that the premiers have to write to you in writing to be able to get this to be declared a disaster? Everyone could see last week that it was going to be a disaster here.
Prime Minister: Well, that's the requirement of the legislation.
Journalist: Does it need to be overhauled?
Prime Minister: Well, I'd make two comments. First of all, we have moved from a major flood event to a natural disaster. That is what has occurred over the course of the last few days. And at this stage, state of emergencies have not been declared at a state level in either New South Wales, or to the best of my knowledge, in Queensland. And so it will actually be the Commonwealth that’ll be the first to move on that. All this does is effectively remove some red tape when it comes to how Commonwealth agencies are able to perform their duties in relation to this disaster. It doesn't impact on the ADF resources. They're already fully available. It doesn't trigger any payments. Those payments have already been made. It doesn't trigger Cat C, Cat D or Cat A or Cat B assistance. The arrangements under that model have already been implemented. So, you know, it’s another part of the process, but, frankly, it’s not the most urgent. The most urgent has been making $385 million in payments in one week. The most urgent was ensuring that the ADF was in place, as they were here on the Friday before the terrible event that occurred on the Sunday night, and the rotary wing [inaudible], the helicopters were here on that Monday, rescuing people. I met with one of the team who were part of those rescues today and thanked them.
I particularly want to thank all the ADF. Now I know there's been some criticism, both levelled at Federal Government, State Government, but don't blame the ADF, ok. We won't cop that. The ADF are doing an amazing job.
Journalist: Who should people blame when if the vast majority of rescues carried out on that Monday were carried out by private citizens in private vessels, some of them were even on kayaks. And if they had not been there, hundreds of people would have died. So who who do those people blame?
Prime Minister: What I'm going to do is thank those. This is about thanking those who, in the midst of that disaster, were able to be first on the scene. I think we have to be realistic that in any natural disaster we don't have those resources which has ADF just waiting around the corner. I mean, we were assembling those resources. We were pre-positioning those people. In fact, there were ADF saving people with helicopters, winching them off roofs on Monday, and that was occurring. But in any natural disaster, everyone has a role to play. And the suggestion that it is only the governments that are involved in an emergency response - I don't think the community agrees with that, by the way, and they certainly showed that by what they did bravely. I met a young man today who, after fishing his father out of his dairy flood, got on his, on his jet ski, and went into town and was rescuing people over the course of that day. That's what Australians do, and I think always there will be a community response in disasters such as this because the community is already there, and the resources move and they come in, as you’re seeing now, but they're not available on a moment's notice. And I think it's unrealistic to have that set as an expectation. What has occurred has been a flood event, which even on the Sunday, before this occurred on the Sunday evening, was still not being forecast to tip above what was the highest level flood ever in the Northern Rivers. It has taken everybody, including the community, by surprise. No one expected it to get to those levels. And so what we're dealing with here is an extraordinary event. Australia is becoming a harder country to live in because of these natural disasters. And that's why we've established agencies like the Recovery and Resilience Agency. That's why we held the Royal Commission into the bushfires. That's why Resilience New South Wales has been established, and that's why the lessons from all of these disasters have been applied. And so it will always be a joint response from community, from governments and other agencies to ensure Australians get through.
Journalist: Australian’s couldn’t get through on triple zero. Australian’s couldn’t get through on triple zero, mate.
Prime Minister: Let’s just do this civilly, and let’s, I'm happy to take questions one at a time.
Journalist: Prime Minister, last year you said that you understood climate change. Climate change is real and climate change is happening now. And you said you've met with the National Security Committee about this. We've seen all sorts of issues raised about Defence, deployment of Defence resources. Do you now consider climate disasters a national security issue?
Prime Minister: Well, I think that, I've said as much in the past. I mean, we are dealing with a different climate to the one we were dealing with before. I think that's just an obvious fact. And Australia is getting hard to live in because of these disasters. This is why we have put in a $10 billion reinsurance pool to ensure that we can insure livelihoods and businesses and homes in the north of Australia. I mean, we are already taking action on all of these. The practical consequences of what you're talking about are the policies that the Government has been enacting. And so we do recognise that. We have committed to net zero by 2050. But the things that will actually help save people here in flood events like this are the sort of mitigation and other works that frankly haven't been done here for some time and have been frustrated over a long period of time. So that's why I'm saying it's time to get over that and to get it done to ensure that people can have a future here on the Northern Rivers.
Journalist: So whose fault is it that those things haven't been done?
Prime Minister: Well, I can only say that those who have resisted them being done.
Journalist: The Government?
Prime Minister: Well, these are not things, the Mayor might want to have a chat about this because he's just run an election campaign on this very issue. And that's a local issue, which I don't intend to get into. Other than to say the Council are keen to go ahead with this, and I can tell you, the Commonwealth Government’s keen to get ahead with it.
Journalist: So is it the State Government’s that holding out?
Prime Minister: No, the State Government yet will be there too. We'll all be there.
Journalist: Prime Minister, is it not unreasonable the community, is it not unreasonable the community, who have been so hard-hit, have borne such a burden in the rescue and coordination in this response? Aside from physical rescues, as the ABC mentioned just here, people couldn't get through on on triple zero. There was a local Lismore woman who set up a database of people urgently waiting to be rescued from their homes. Is that not unreasonable? They had to do so much.
Prime Minister: Well, I think Australians will always step up, regardless of how tough the circumstances.
Journalist: But should that burden be on them?
Prime Minister: Well, I think, I think state governments in those situations and the premier has, I think, already addressed that, when he's, when he's spoken to you over the course of the week. Of course, those responses are managed by the State Government. I'm not making criticisms there. That's just the assignment of those responsibilities. The Commonwealth Government does not run the triple 0 service, but all of the services with an event like this, which has put unprecedented strain on local and state resources in particular and federal resources when it comes to responding to an event of this scale - unprecedented, unforeseen - is obviously going to have an impact. And it doesn’t matter whether you're the most advanced economy in the world or a developing country. Natural disasters of this scale have a brutal and terrible impact, and what you do is you get in and you work together and you seek to restore the situation as quickly and as compassionately as you possibly can. You work with the local community to achieve that, and that's exactly what we're doing. We've spoken today about every arm of government - federal, state, local, all the agencies - doing their job, doing the job they're responsible for, focusing on getting that job done. And that's exactly what's happening.
Journalist: [Inaudible] there is actually the reason why people on the ground feel like they've been abandoned. That's what they've said. They feel like they've been abandoned by government - State Government, Federal Government. Do you understand why they feel that way?
Prime Minister: Yes, I do. And it is, it is very common in natural disasters that the frustration and the anger and the sense of abandonment, this happens in almost every natural disaster, because of the scale.
Journalist: Do you take responsibility because of why they feel abandoned?
Prime Minister: I feel deeply and empathise absolutely with how people feel when they find themselves in these situations. As the rain comes pouring down and places are cut off and the inability of get help, to be able to get help, whether they be Defence Force assets or trucks and vehicles and others. This is a very complex and very challenging environment in which to operate. But I am in awe of the collective response that has been put in place, so I absolutely understand the frustration. I understand the anger. I understand the disappointment. I understand the sense of abandonment. So what do we do about that? We restore. We support. We fund. And as I said, making sure that we can get that emergency financial assistance into people's pockets, which was done in a matter of instantaneously, within a week. And we'll continue to do that.
Journalist: Prime Minister, when the flood waters did recede and people were able to get back into their homes and started cleaning them out.
Prime Minister: Yes.
Journalist: People were saying that they did not have enough support from government agencies, particularly, you know, the Federal Government support that they wanted. Are you saying that people were lying when they were saying that they weren’t supported?
Prime Minister: No, I'm not saying anything like that, and I haven't suggested that remotely, and I, and I don't agree with the way you've phrased the question. I don't think in situations like this there can ever be enough support. There can never be enough support in a natural disaster such as this. I mean, no amount of support is going to measure up to what people need in a desperate situation like this. I'm just being honest with you. I mean, every resource can be applied, but I can guarantee you, whatever is supplied will still not measure up because of the sheer desperation of the situation people found themselves in. But what I am amazed at, as we've seen this in disaster after disaster around this country, is the combination of both the community response together with the response provided by local, state and federal governments, means right here, right now, we are in the process of rebuilding, and we will, we will rebuild.
Journalist: The Premier has apologised for the response and for the issues raised here by my colleagues. Do you, and he’s also said there will be an enquiry into the response. Do you share, I guess, does the Federal Government share any of that, you know, do you also apologise for the way the response has been carried out? And do you also want to see an enquiry into the way this response has been handled?
Prime Minister: On the enquiry, we would fully cooperate with any enquiry undertaken by the New South Wales State Government. I think they’d be the appropriate jurisdiction to do that. I think the floods that we've seen here, the catastrophic event that we've seen here in the Northern Rivers, is on a scale beyond what we've seen more broadly in the flood events across New South Wales and in Queensland. You’ll recall after the Black Summer bushfires, we called the Royal Commission into that. Royal Commissions were not called by state governments in New South Wales, Queensland or Victoria, but there was cooperation with the Federal Royal Commission. In this case, a state-led commission of enquiry, Royal Commission or whatever the Premier thinks is appropriate, well, that is something, of course, the Commonwealth would wholly cooperate with.
Journalist: And the apology - do you believe that the Federal Government owes the people of Lismore an apology for the response?
Prime Minister: As I said, I don't think any amount of support was ever going to be enough. And so every Federal Government would always be apologetic and would always apologise that you're never going to be able to provide enough support in these situations. And so I do understand that, and I do respect that. And that's why I do apologise that the amount of support that has been provided and continues to be provided, I still don't believe will always meet the expectations that are just at, you know, very high levels, and understandably so. But I can tell you what, we're going to pull out every stop and every resource to ensure that we meet it as we can, and it won't be the first time we've achieved that … Hang on, I haven’t finished. I've stood in rooms just like this with the same questions, whether it be in North Queensland and other places, and on every one of those occasions I've said the same thing - that we will stick in and we will get this done. And that is what has occurred. And so for those sitting at home who may be listening to that, who are in the flood-impacted zones, I know that right now you're going, how’s this all going to work? How am I going to get out of this? What does this mean for my job, my family, my business, my farm? Am I ever going to see a time again where I'm living here in the Northern Rivers or up in Gympie or places in Hawkesbury and Nepean where it's going to be like it was? Well, I'm going to tell you that has been achieved before in other places, provided we address the things that need to be addressed, whether it's the the longer term resilience to flooding here in the Northern Rivers, and we act on that, it's the rebuilding of the businesses which we commit to today with the New South Wales State Government, or indeed the immediate financial support, which is being provided to ensure that people can get through tomorrow. And the Defence support, which will continue to roll in and ensure that we continue to clean-up and we move into the recovery phase.
Journalist: [Inaudible] declare a national emergency. Why did it take so long?
Prime Minister: Well, I don't think it has taken long and I don't think it, I mean, we're following the process that is required for such a declaration. And so, you know, as yet, we still haven't received a formal recommendation from either of those states. And that's why I've taken the initiative to request such a direction or a recommendation. And I look forward to that to be completed over the course of the week.
Journalist: But why wasn’t it done seven or eight days ago?
Prime Minister: Because the nature of the disaster over a week ago was different to what has emerged over the last week.
Journalist: Where are people going to live? So we’ve got thousands of people, most of whom do not have flood insurance. They’re saying $1,000 barely gets them a bed back.
Prime Minister: Yeah, the, I want to be very clear. The Commonwealth Disaster Payments are not intended to solve every single economic need that people have. That is not their purpose. The purpose of those $1,000 payments, which for a family is on average about $2,300, and so within a matter of three weeks there, for those three local government areas, there'll be payments of an average of around $7,500 provided to each of those families. It's designed to deal with the most immediate of needs, even if that involves, you know, a night's accommodation here or travel to an area where they can get where they can find accommodation. The accommodation requirements here are going to be significant. And so I'm looking forward to seeing the package of supports and measures that will come from the State Government who will, who will manage that response in dealing with the accommodation issues, as we have done in other places with other state governments. And we will be financially supporting those initiatives that are put in place by the State Government. But the point, the point I'm making today is, right now people will need some more cash in their pocket to get us through the next week or so.
And that's what we're doing today, and that will give us further time and space to put more economic measures in place so people can see the next step ahead. In these disasters, it's very important to remain focused on the next step ahead. What's the next step ahead? Getting the rubbish off the street into trucks and getting it removed. What's the next step? Getting some more money into people's pockets so they can get through the next few days as they deal with the trauma of what's occurred to them over the course of what has just been a week. What is the next step? The next step is ensuring that the packages of support to deal with businesses, with accommodation, with primary producers, are finalised, and the business liaison teams and advisers and others can come and sit down with people and make sure they're getting the support they need to ensure they can get back on their feet again. And it's about ensuring that the Commonwealth, state and local governments are working together to deal with the longer term resilience issues for floods in this area and to get that work finalised, detailed, funded and done.
Journalist: As more Australians are impacted by extreme weather events, are you concerned that more and more people are going to become very angry because they don't think your Government is doing enough to wean Australia off coal and other fossil fuels?
Prime Minister: Well, I'd make two points. Obviously, climate change is having an impact here in Australia, as it is in every country around the world. And that's why, as a Government, we committed, we are the first government to commit to net zero by 2050 in Australia. That's what our Government did. That's what we've done. Our Government has now seen emissions fall by over 20 per cent. You know, they can't say that in New Zealand. They can't say that in Canada. They can't say that in Japan. They can't say that in the United States. You can say it here in Australia, because that's what we've achieved through the climate policies that have seen emissions fall. And we've got $21 billion invested over the next 10 years to ensure that we continue to reduce those emissions. But this is one of the big differences between our climate policies and perhaps some others. I'll tell you what's not going to fix climate change. What's not going to fix it is just doing something in Australia, and then in other developing countries, their emissions continue to rise. That won't change the climate here in the Northern Rivers. What changes the climate in the Northern Rivers is if the global climate is affected, and that's why the technology work that we're doing, which we're doing with Indonesia, which we're doing with Vietnam, which we're doing with India, with countries that have rising emissions profiles, we need to be able to give them the commercial technology that enables their countries to get on a lower emissions net zero emissions profile over the next generation. Now, if you don't achieve that, you know, you can get a warm, fuzzy feeling here in Australia. And I think it's great that we have reduced emissions by 20 per cent, and I think it's great we've got a commitment to get to net zero by 2050. But the real challenge of addressing climate change is ensuring that we're working together with other countries in our region, and particularly developing countries, to ensure we have the technology that changes how they're able to grow their economies. And that's what Australia is seeking to do. And as a leader in the world is seeking to do. Thanks, everyone.