DAVID ILIFFE, HOST: Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning. Good to be with you, David.
ILIFFE: Thank you so much for your time this morning. At the moment, I mentioned the financial support on offer to those affected by these natural disasters, but some of the recipients are questioning whether those payments keep up with the rising cost of living. For instance, a generator if you're on Mount Tambourine, had to invest in a generator, that's around $2000 - $2,500 fuel for it if it's working constantly, can be in the vicinity of $500 a week. And some people were without power for nearly two weeks. Is $1,000 for adults and $400 for kids enough? Does it keep up with the cost of living?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is a significant contribution that the Federal Government has made in conjunction with the State Government. In southeast Queensland alone, in the Logan, Gold Coast and Scenic Rim local government areas, there's been some $10.5 million dollars has been paid out already, benefiting more than 60,000 people. In far north Queensland, almost 26,000 people have received payments adding up to $4.5 million dollars. And as of Sunday, the processes have been preceding, those figures, $15 million being paid out. So, the important thing is that that immediate income is available and it's been made available very quickly. We realise that at a time of natural disasters, then some people will be doing it really tough - we acknowledge that. But what this is aimed at doing is making sure that people aren't left without, as well as the contributions that we have made, $64 million for tourism, primary producers and small businesses already we have made. And today we'll be making further announcements between us and the Queensland government. A total package of some more than $50 million will be made today comprising a range of programs - tourism recovery, a cleanup program for both the southeast Queensland storms, as well as for the impact of the Tropical Cyclone Jasper. We will be making grants for local resilience and recovery grants for the three councils in southeast Queensland. In addition to that, we'll be announcing a cyclone industry recovery and resilience offices program, and we'll be in addition to that, providing funding for project managers for Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council and Douglas Shire in the north and the scenic Rim Regional Council in the Gold Coast hinterland.
ILIFFE: This may be in response to this, but the Australian Defence Force, ADF personnel, were deployed to help with the storm cleanup in places like the Scenic Rim and parts of the Gold Coast. And yet, while they did help with the initial evacuations in the far north, they haven't been deployed to help with the cleanup up there even though some towns up there remain isolated. Why would they be available in one part of the state and not the other? Even though what you're announcing today, it sounds like, will be an answer to that to an extent?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Australian Defence Force personnel were on the ground supporting the far north Queensland communities very quickly. And indeed when I visited Far North Queensland, which I'll be doing again later today, after visiting the Gold Coast, I met the ADF personnel on the ground who are providing that direct assistance. The ADF will work with the Queensland government. We have been very pleased with the support that they've given up to this point, and they stand ready to further assist with the recovery both in the states north, but also in southeast Queensland. In addition to that, of course, we've had the SES and various organisations there providing, once again, magnificent support. When I was in Cairns in response to the cyclone, it was extraordinary, the people from Rocky and from right throughout Queensland who were there providing their assistance. One of the things that always strikes me is that at the time when Australians need to pitch in and help each other, that's what they do. Whether it's the ADF, whether it's our police and emergency services, or whether it is council workers, or whether it be volunteers, including the magnificent volunteers we have in the SES.
ILIFFE: Having said that with talk of the ADF, defence warned your government last year that it can no longer rely on the ADF to help with disaster responses and there was a call for the creation of what they termed a standing reserve body to help out with the aftermath of disasters like these. Is that a request that your government is going to follow through with?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we're giving consideration to that, but the ADF not only had people on the ground but had assets on the ground as well. That played a really important role, including the evacuation of people from Wujal Wujal for example in ADF helicopters. Now, that's something that from time to time when you have a natural disaster, you have to be flexible enough to use whatever assets are at your disposal. And that is certainly something that the Australian Defence Force has been able to do. They've been able to do it over a considerable period of time when that request is asked for. We know at the moment Victoria is also having flooding impact tragically as well, with several towns in central Victoria affected as well. Tragically in this beautiful country of ours, natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more intense. We were told that that would be an impact of climate change and unfortunately we are seeing that play out in practice.
ILIFFE: Given that, do you believe it's time that governments learn from these experience? And I guess in the example I'm about to give, it's a state government responsibility, but is the onus on, say, state governments to start investing in things like putting more electricity infrastructure underground, particularly for areas like Mount Tambourine that are repeatedly devastated by storms and have power cut to towns for weeks, given that we're going to be seeing these sort of things more often?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, anytime there's a natural disaster there's always an assessment afterwards and a thorough examination of what went well, what could have gone better, what changes are needed for infrastructure. Years ago, more than a decade ago, when Labor was last in government federally, it used to be that you could only build back to the same purpose of an infrastructure asset that had been washed away for example, and that made no sense at all. It made sense to build back better, if you like, and make it more resilient. And that is a change that was made and that has been quite effective. I've got to say that Queenslanders should be really proud of their emergency responses that we've seen across the board to floods and other areas. Other states, indeed have looked at some of the structures that are in place in Queensland and are modelling their own structures and changes based upon the very quick response that we've seen historically there in Queensland. And when I was last in Brisbane just a couple of weeks ago at the Emergency Coordination Centre there, you could see all of the agencies working with each other in real-time. Whether it be the people responsible for meteorological issues, the police and emergency services, the volunteers, the ADF, everyone was all in there, all operating very effectively along with federal agencies such as government services to make sure those payments could be made very quickly as well. We had four offices up and running in far north Queensland in a matter of days, and Bill Shorten, the Minister, travelled up there personally just after Christmas to make sure that those measures.