Doorstop - Mt Barker, SA
24 December 2019
Prime Minister, Premier of South Australia
THE HON. STEVEN MARSHALL MP, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: In particular, I want to acknowledge the great work done by the SES, the Department of Environment and Water, the South Australian Ambulance Service and all of those people that are back supporting those people. What we've seen in South Australia is a great outpouring of community support - support to help those people who are struggling through these extraordinarily difficult times, and we are not through those difficult times yet. There's still a massive effort underway to extinguish the two major fires that we have in South Australia. They are both ongoing. Neither of them are controlled at the moment, in particular, I speak about the Kangaroo Island fire and the fire here in the Adelaide Hills, now known as the Cudlee Creek fire. So our message is very clear - we must be alert. Yesterday afternoon, there was a flare-up with the gully winds that were going through and we saw another home which was lost. So we are doing everything that we possibly can in South Australia to make sure that we can contain the fires, especially ahead of the very tough weather which is coming towards the end of the month.
I do want to also announce that late yesterday we had a meeting with His Excellency the Governor and we established the Cudlee Creek Bushfire Appeal and I've got to say that we have been absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity. Earlier today, the Prime Minister and I were in the car and we had a text message through from a very generous company which had said that we're going to put $100,000 straight in and I've had text messages for the rest of the day. So we're really delighted by the community response. There are some people who are doing it extremely tough. We hope that the people of South Australia, the businesses of South Australia, are generous and support the Cudlee Creek Bushfire Appeal and that will be running for months and months to come.
It has been great to have the Prime Minister in South Australia today. He has been around and visited the communities that exist in Woodside and also in Lobethal and now here at the incident control centre in Mount Barker. And at every single opportunity, he has been able to ask questions about exactly and precisely what has been going on here, and time and time again, what we have seen is this incredible community spirit. People who have been supporting victims of these terrible, tragic fires in South Australia. Being there at their time of need. We're very grateful for the support which has come from the Federal Government. It's come in record time, absolute record time. For that, I'm very, very grateful to Senator Anne Ruston who has made sure that that is exactly and precisely what has happened. We have been really well supported in the work that's been done here by the local members, in particular Dan Cregan, Rebekha Sharkie and John Gardener, and also the local government sector. The mayors, the chief executives, the officers right throughout the local governments that are affected by these tragic fires. So this is a team effort, a team effort, a community effort to support people through these tough times. And now I'd like to introduce the Prime Minister to go through what he's seen today and his support for South Australia. Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Premier, and to Anne Ruston, the Minister for Social Services, great to have you here with us and the Commissioner and the local incident control, Richard thank you very much for the opportunity to come and thank your team here today and the volunteers who are outside serving up meals to our firefighters. And Steven, can I thank you, as a New South Welshman, on behalf of all of those in New South Wales, for the tremendous support that South Australia has provided to those devastating fires also in New South Wales. I remember when the first crew was loading up here in South Australia and heading over, you sent me a picture of it and it was so encouraging. And 1,500 South Australian firefighters have been over helping their fellow Australians in New South Wales and on behalf of all of my friends and colleagues, the men and women of New South Wales thank South Australians very, very much for your generosity, and particularly even now, when you are facing your own challenges here in South Australia, there are still South Australians there. Now, they'll be coming back - of course they will, because there are needs here now and that's why I'm here today. The fires in New South Wales have obviously been terrible. But they're not the only place where there are fires. There are fires here in South Australia. There are fires in Victoria. There are fires in Queensland. And I want to also commend the premiers of all of those states, as well as in New South Wales, for the tremendous job that they're doing in leading the operational response and the fire chiefs that sit underneath them, they're doing a tremendous job.
The Cudlee Creek fire here and how quickly it moved and the devastation that it's wreaked and over 80 homes lost in South Australia just in the last week or so. And the destruction to businesses that have taken a lifetime to build - particularly vineyards and things like this, which so much underpin the tourism industry and the economy of the Adelaide Hills. This will all have to be rebuilt. But the great spirit of the community, as we saw up there this morning, the way that they've stood up centres, the way they’ve helped each other, the way that they've had case managers providing accommodation for those who need it. And out in the Lobethal village tonight, there will be the usual Christmas lights spectacular despite all of this, as a sign of both defiance to the disaster that they've lived through, but also, I think, as a way of bringing the community together in a very special way. It is Christmas Eve after all, and kids - Santa will find you, whether there's been a bushfire or not. He will find you, I'm sure, tonight, as you go to sleep and you wake up in the morning. So it's been a privilege to be here with the Premier and to see that tremendous spirit on the ground and over today and tomorrow where the weather conditions are a bit more improved, it enables them to deal with the spots and to deal with the flare-ups. The weather conditions will shift, and particularly as you move towards the new year and they're in readiness here as I've seen in the planning.
The other thing that I wanted to announce today is that earlier today, I issued a directive to all Commonwealth departments and agencies that will see the full paid leave for emergency services be lifted to a minimum standard of four weeks. Four weeks. And with additional leave able to be provided by those agencies on an as-need basis. This will lift emergency services leave to effectively what is the same standard for the Defence reservists when they're called out. What this will do is a number of things. There's some 150,000 Commonwealth employees, and they're not all in Canberra. They're in Adelaide, they're on the Gold Coast, they're over in Western Australia. They're down in my home community in the Sutherland Shire in southern Sydney. They're all over the country and they are involved in their local brigades, some of them, and what this will mean, as a big employer, on top of what is done by the Defence Force and some of the other agencies, is this will enable them to be able to commit more time in their brigades and relieve particularly those in small and regional towns that draw their volunteers from their own self-employed arrangements or small businesses for whom the continued support to have their volunteers out fighting fires and not working in their businesses is becoming very strained. And I would be calling on, as we've been in contact today with some of the large companies, for them to also work with us on this. And I acknowledge what ANZ did yesterday, in particular. I thought that showed great leadership and I commend them for doing that and we would be looking for more companies to be taking that role on.
This means that we have more people able to be deployed out of those mainly metropolitan brigades and to be able to relieve those in country and rural areas and allow those very tired firefighters, particularly in parts of New South Wales where they've been going for weeks on end, and if they can go home to their families and their businesses, and if you like, the reserves can come out of the cities and the metropolitan areas with Commonwealth employees and state employees. Already I know in New South Wales, they have arrangements which provide very generous leave for people in emergency services. I think that this is one thing that we can very practically do right now, and that directive is effective from today. I issued it earlier today and that will also carry a very clear requirement to other Commonwealth-related organisations like Australia Post and the AFP and of course, the Defence Force already have their own arrangements which enables them to be deployed on these issues.
The other thing which we've done in the last 24 hours after consulting commissioners and state premiers, where I've had that direct interaction, is to ensure that our ADF is taking a more forward-leaning and proactive approach with response centres like we have here in Mount Barker or anywhere else around the country. So we can be proactively looking for those opportunities to ensure that the ADF is there and available to support in any which way that they can. But I’ve got to tell you, they’ve been there already, from up in Canungra where I was many months ago in Queensland, all the way through since September. Just this week, we saw amazing support provided by the ADF rescuing people there down there on the south coast of New South Wales round Nerriga. In the chopper that I was in yesterday as I flew across the scorched earth of the Blue Mountains, they were showing me where they were airlifting and dropping people into those places to fight those fires over the last week or so. So the ADF is very much involved and they're leaning in. They're leaning forward to provide that support to Australians, whether they're in rural communities or wherever they need to be. And I want to thank the ADF and the Minister for Defence for taking that initiative and to ensure that they're leaning into this task together.
The fire season has a long way to go yet. Today may be Christmas Eve, but for so many firefighters, it is going to be another day out there protecting their communities and I thank them for their service and I thank all of those volunteers who are supporting to keep them out there. And I thank their families for their forbearance at a time which should be a family time, and I want to thank all of the employers out there that are really are backing in those volunteers. And it's not just the RFS or the CFS or the various state agency fire service volunteers that I'm talking about. It's St John's Ambulance, it's the emergency services, it's all the other volunteers who are out there supporting this national effort. So these are practical things that need to be done. More decisions will be taken day-by-day, as they have been now for many months, and we'll continue to work through the highly coordinated effort that is being run across the country. But at the end of the day, it comes down to places like where we're standing at the moment, planning and directing the response here on the ground. I wish you, Steven, all the best over the next few days and all of those out there fighting the fires. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, some of the fires have been raging for months [inaudible]. Is four weeks going to be enough? What don’t you follow ANZ’s leave and make it uncapped?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it effectively is, because if there's a requirement for any further leave beyond that, then the request needs to be made and I can see no reason why it wouldn't be granted. What I'm effectively doing is under the various agencies, there are some 100 agreements, and they all have various forms of leave which are written into those agreements, from a few days to a couple of weeks. I'm establishing, as the Minister for the Public Service, not just as Prime Minister, a new minimum standard that there must be four weeks for emergency services leave, and then additional leave can be granted on application.
JOURNALIST: Will this also apply to other emergencies, floods and those sorts of things or just bushfires?
PRIME MINISTER: It will apply to all of those arrangements.
JOURNALIST: Why not offer cash or cash for firefighters or some sort of reimbursement? Wouldn’t that help the volunteers on the ground more?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, that's not the advice that I'm receiving from the premiers or the fire commissioners. I need to restate that these fire services are run by state governments. They're not run by the Federal Government. And we work as a team with the state governments to determine what the priorities are in maximising the force that we can put out there on the fire ground and we listen to those experts about what the priorities should be. And those priorities are being set by those fire commissioners in their regular hook-ups and in their own jurisdictions. They're being affirmed, then, by their own ministers, and indeed, premiers. I've been in discussions with premiers about the issues. What they need is for the focus to be on the things that they say the focus should be and I've got to back in the operational agencies that are fighting these fires.
JOURNALIST: How much is this extra leave going to cost the Government?
PRIME MINISTER: All of the costs will be absorbed in the agencies. There will be no net additional cost.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in the last couple of days here in South Australia we’ve had some scammers targeting bushfire communities pretending to be from the bank and asking for people’s bank details. What do you make of that?
PRIME MINISTER: I think they're scum. It makes me sick. And you know, in these fires, we have seen the best of Australia. The overwhelming story of these fires is the best of Australians in their response. But in some cases, we've seen some ugly stuff, and they should be ashamed of themselves.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said you’ve been encouraging other companies to also follow suit on this. Which are the large companies, private companies, that you've reached out to?
RIME MINISTER: Well, they're private conversations. I'm not here to name any or do anything like that. It's really up to each and every company to make their own decisions. We're seeking to be a model employer about how we do this. We've sought to do that, not just on things like this, but frankly, how quickly we pay our invoices. And we've encouraged private companies to follow us on that front as well. So this is a general encouragement, an invitation, to continue to join the cause. I know that these companies are already very generous in the way they continue to provide leave. For many, it won't require much, if any change at all. For some, it might. So I invite them to make that assessment and to support that effort.
JOURNALIST: Is it tokenistic on the Government’s behalf considering most of these volunteers say they would have come out anyway, if they didn’t get the leave?
PRIME MINISTER: Why would you suggest that?
JOURNALIST: The volunteers I’ve spoken to today said they would have taken leave anyway, unpaid they would have come out and done their duty.
PRIME MINISTER: Well I think that this actually supports the effort. And I've taken this decision, I should say, particularly in consultation with the fire commissioner in New South Wales, as well as the Minister in New South Wales, where most of this effort has been required. I know that there is a very strong effort here Steven, as there is in Queensland and Victoria. But this was seen as being a very practical and a very helpful thing to be doing, and was warmly welcomed when we walked through this issue yesterday. There's 150,000 Commonwealth public servants, and beyond that, there's the ADF and many other agencies, and this will just provide a further opportunity for call outs to be able to be made. And people to be in a position where they can respond to those call outs. It isn't the solution to the whole issue, but it certainly is a practical assistance, and the longer-term issues when it comes to how these things are considered - well, they'll be considered by our Chief Ministers and Premiers and myself, when we come together at COAG and the work for the things that will be considered post fires, is very much underway right now.
JOURNALIST: Were you struck by the randomness of this fire in the Hills? As opposed to what has happened in New South Wales?
PRIME MINISTER: You always are. Whether it’s here in the Hills or anywhere else. One home standing and the home next door is obliterated. One vineyard is flush with grapes and the one next to it, is torched. That's hard. That is just so hard. The loss is one thing, but the mystery of that is torture for those who have had to live through it. But the spirit to rebuild, the spirit to come to terms with this, and in a lot of these cases, almost all of these cases, people who have endured these terrible losses, have worked so incredibly hard to build up what was there. And they're very determined people. And my encouragement to them today has been to make access to the help that's available. People can be very resilient, and that's wonderful. But equally, whether I've seen it in floods up in North Queensland, or drought or fires, people need to feel good and comfortable about reaching out to the support that's there for them. It's designed to be there for them. No-one is invincible. No-one can carry all of this on their own. And it's important, like we saw in the community today, just how much people are prepared to reach out and help each other.
JOURNALIST: Premier, just on the Prime Minister's directive today, obviously there are Commonwealth public servants in South Australia, but there are many more state public servants. Would you consider making the same directive?
THE HON. STEVEN MARSHALL MP, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: We really welcome what the Prime Minister is doing with the Commonwealth public servants being able to take paid leave to undertake these important firefighting duties. We've had this same arrangement across the public service in South Australia for some time. There are 15 days that volunteers can take from the public service for volunteer work.
JOURNALIST: Does it need to be lifted though? To four weeks or more?
THE HON. STEVEN MARSHALL MP, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: The advice is that this is what is required at the moment. But like the Prime Minister has said, you can look at issues on a case-by-case basis and we're happy to do that in South Australia.
JOURNALIST: Sorry just on another topic, Kylie Gilbert-Moore (sic) she’s in an Iranian prison there and she’s written that open letter, will you be providing her any assistance?
PRIME MINISTER: She's been receiving consular assistance for some time now and she had a visit very recently. We've been working discretely and conscientiously on her case now for some time. And she's very aware of the efforts we're making, as some of you may know. Foreign Minister Marise Payne and her team at DFAT have had some great success over the course of this past year in being able to extract a number of Australians who found themselves in these types of situations. But the key to getting that success is the determined way in which they pursue this, the patient way in which they pursue it and also the very discreet way in which they pursue this, and obviously, that's why I can't comment too much on the nature of the efforts that Australia is making. But I can assure you, and I know that Kylie also knows the extent that the Australian government is going to, to do everything that we can do bring her home.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned for her welfare?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes of course I am. As I am for any Australian who finds themselves in these types of situations. But I’ve got to tell you, our team that works these consular cases in these very, very complex situations, does an extraordinary job, absolutely extraordinary. There's no-one better and they get great support from our partners in other countries who have been very helpful to us in ensuring the return of other Australians more recently. The Weeks case in particular - the tremendous support we received from the United States. So we'll work with other governments around the world. We'll work with those governments where we are seeking to get an Australian home, and we'll continue to do that in a very professional way, but in a very quiet and discreet way, because we know she’s [inaudible].
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we've just been told that the court has dismissed the case against Frydenberg and Liu, are you relieved? You’re reaction to that?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised because of the nature of the case. There is another case that is ongoing in relation to the Treasurer, and I've got to say, it's the most despicable case that I've seen undertaken against a member. You know, I’ve called it out as being anti-Semitic, and I still think that it is.
JOURNALIST: Specifically on this case, to do with the [inaudible] signs outside polling booths-
PRIME MINISTER: I know that it is a separate case.
JOURNALIST: Legal issue aside, are you concerned the Liberal Party acted unethically here?
PRIME MINISTER: No, and I think that the court decision bears that out. I mean, it was a smear job and it's been chucked out.
JOURNALIST: New Zealand has suspended the search for two people missing after the White Island disaster. One of those is an Australian. Are you satisfied that everything has been done to find those? Have you spoken to the New Zealand government?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven't had the opportunity to talk to the Prime Minister today about those issues, for obvious reasons. I've been focused on the fires here. Jacinda, Prime Minister Ardern and I have spent quite a bit of time working together on that incident in New Zealand and I know that the New Zealand Government has done everything, and is doing everything they possibly can. These decisions would not have been taken lightly by them. They have been very thorough in wanting to ensure, not just the recovery of the bodies of those who were affected and I've got to tell you, over the period before they went in and did the recovery, I mean, the risks to those who are going on the island - this is as had been demonstrated, a very dangerous situation. And the careful risks that were assessed and the brave actions that were taken from those who were doing recovery, I can only say thank you, kia ora to New Zealand, and for everything that they've done to assist those Australians and those Australian families. That was ANZAC mateship at its best. So I have no doubt that they are exhausting every, every channel available to them to recover those remains.
JOURNALIST: What do you have to say to firefighters who say they have had to take out loans to stay financially afloat?
PRIME MINISTER: Again, these are matters for our state agencies. And any proposals that are believed to be the priority right now - I mean, let's be very clear about what we need to focus on in the fires at the moment. These fires always raise many issues - hazard reduction, how you manage national parks, how you manage communications to ensure that there isn't carelessness - at best, or arson at worst. Consulting Indigenous Australians about their practices and how effective they've been in managing fire hazards over centuries. How you ensure and maintain the best turnout and callout of your volunteer force around the country, particularly over sustained periods of time. Now, these are issues that you don't have knee jerk responses to. You carefully consider the options. You work up proposals. They come up and they come to leaders and then you make a decision that will work, not just for now but into the future. If there are any urgent issues in relation to what you've raised, then that, I am confident, if it were considered to be a priority of those agencies in relation to the firefighting effort, it would be elevated. And it would be recommended. That is not what is taking place. So I'm going to continue to follow the lead of the priorities that are being set by those who are tasked and have the responsibility of fighting the fires. That's who I'm listening to. I understand the great sacrifice so many Australians are making in fighting these fires. I was out yesterday at a tiny little brigade out on the other side of the Blue Mountains. And those guys - they were tired - really tired. And they're also dealing with the drought. There were farmers who were dealing with stock losses at exactly the same time. So that's why the announcement I've made today, in part, is designed to try to assist to ensure that we can get more of those who, for example, are Commonwealth public servants or working for large companies, able to turn out to provide some relief to those. We will consider looking at other options that can provide support to small businesses and others where we think that that can be delivered appropriately. But again, it comes up through the state agencies. The Commonwealth is not going to go around telling the state agencies how to do their job, or what their priorities should be. Those priorities should be set by the people who are fighting those fires and have command responsibilities.
JOURNALIST: But you accept that this is a problem?
PRIME MINISTER: I accept that it is a great challenge. We have 210,000 volunteer firefighters around the country, and the challenge of these fires, particularly in the eastern states, and God forbid that it becomes the challenge here in South Australia, is that people are out for three or four weeks at a time. Particularly over this period of the year and that is what the Commissioners are looking at closely on a daily basis. If they need to initiate something in that area, then I have no doubt they will. But I’ve got to tell you, I was there with Steven today and we were out there at the –
THE HON. STEVEN MARSHALL MP, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Woodside.
PRIME MINISTER: At the Woodside Brigade.
THE HON. STEVEN MARSHALL MP, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Yes.
PRIME MINISTER: And you know, you talk to people, and if there is resource for these sorts of things, then they say - well, it would be good to have a shower. Now that one has one, but the one down the road…
THE HON. STEVEN MARSHALL MP, PREMIER OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Lenswood.
PRIME MINISTER: Lenswood doesn't have one, or it would be good to have a new kitchen or something. They think about their facilities. They think about, because you know, these fire brigade buildings are community hubs in rural towns. They are places of community. And you walk into them and they are spotless, the care that they take with these, and the equipment and the materials and the assets that they have. And there are many views, as you've seen, on this very topic that you've raised. There are many different views on this topic. And you know, I live in the city. I'm going to listen to those who fight fires for a living, and for those who do it out of great volunteer spirit every single day. And there's a command structure that they respect. And that's what I'm going to listen to. And as much as I empathise with those who are going through economic hardship as they fight these fires, at the same time, I'm going to listen to the experts that we've entrusted with responsibility of fighting and commanding those forces.
JOURNALIST: Is that the long-term challenge here though as these fire seasons get longer, these fires get more difficult to fight, you’ve got more and more fatigued firefighters. Is that going to, past this fire season, going to require a systematic change to the way these volunteer firefighters work?
PRIME MINISTER: It is certainly a challenge that's been identified in this latest set of fires. And that is certainly the challenge that now needs to be addressed through the policy process. There's no doubt about that, and I've made no secret of that. But it's not going to be done on Twitter. It's not going to be done on social media. Social media is not going to set Government policy in this country, whether it's at a Commonwealth level, or I'm sure at a state level here in South Australia. There are always lots of experts when any of these things happen, but I can tell you as Prime Minister and as the Premier, the experts we’re listening to are the ones that have the command responsibilities. They have thousands of people whose safety and lives they're responsible for - property, operations, resources, budgets. We task them with a very big job, and in the middle of fighting a fire, I'm not going to seek to distract their agenda. I'm not going to seek to try and change their priorities when they've set them out clearly and they understand what they need to do each day. It's my job, and as the Premier knows, it's his job, to back them in and to support them and the decisions that they've got to make on a daily basis. The longer-term planning and the longer-term policies. That's what you do in the sober light of day post the event, and you consider all the options. And you make sure that the work gets done. You just don't run out of a press conference and just make something up because you think that it is going to give you a headline. What you do is you do the careful work to actually deliver the response and deliver the support that is absolutely necessary.
JOURNALIST: Just quickly PM, just very quickly on one other final issue…
PRIME MINISTER: Sure.
JOURNALIST: What do you make of the Sentencing of 5 people to death over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi?
PRIME MINISTER: I haven't been briefed on this issue, to be honest. And it’s not something that I would likely respond to. But when we're dealing with the sorts of issue that is this case relates, then obviously Australia has always taken a strong stance. But our positions on things like the death penalty never change. Thank you.
