Press Conference - Wollondilly Emergency Fire Control Centre, NSW
22 December 2019
THE HON. GLADYS BEREJIKLIAN MP, PREMIER OF NEW SOUTH WALES: Good morning everybody, it’s good to be here with the PM, with Commissioner Fitzsimmons, with the Minister for Emergency Services in New South Wales and of course the local members to offer our support to the community down here in the Wollondilly and Wingecarribee shires that have experienced the most horrific and horrendous circumstances in the last 24 hours, in fact in the last couple of weeks or so. And we had the privilege and the honour of meeting with families who’ve lost everything but not lost their lives, and they’re eternally grateful even though they’re going through a lot of shock and a lot of hardship they couldn’t speak highly enough of our amazing firefighters on the ground who tried to save their properties but again at least saved their lives and again other examples of people who are so grateful to discover their properties are ok and it was wonderful to see that in a very short amount of time, even though literally hundreds of people have walked through the evacuation centres at Picton and Mittagong and also Narella, that many families have been billeted and alternative accommodation has been provided until they find out whether their properties are safe or until they get the devastating news that they’ve lost everything. We’re making sure that whether it is through our chaplaincy services, family and community services or, in fact, through all of our state and government agencies that everybody is supported during this very difficult time. I, in particular, want to thank community members who have opened up their facilities, whether they are clubs, other facilities, to allow community members to come in and use those facilities. The generosity of the community down here has just been outstanding. It really exemplifies what we've seen if other parts of the state and for some communities, experiencing this devastation since July. But now obviously this community has been hit as well. We have got the devastating news that there's not much left in the town of Balmoral. Very sad to hear that. And many residents, of course, have had that news in the last little while. Of course, communities like Buxton and others have been very hardly hit. Commissioner Fitzsimmons might want to comment about this himself, but obviously the milder conditions in the next few days will allow us to be proactive when next weekend we expect weather conditions and Monday week, in fact, for weather conditions to worsen again. I also want to say thank you to the federal government - the PM and his team - because jointly we have ensured that Wingecarribee and Wollondilly council areas will have access to that emergency funding that other council areas had received. So, as you know, we announced joint funding and now that joint funding is in excess of $63 million across the state and extends to about a dozen councils and now Wingecarribee and Wollondilly are now part of that. That means people can access emergency funding but also farmers, small businesses and others can access grants of up to $15,000, just to start preparing their properties and start fixing things around their properties like fencing that otherwise they wouldn't have access to. I also want to stress - I have mentioned this to the mayor who is here today - that $63 million is on top of the $25 million the New South Wales Government's already set aside to get rid of hazardous materials and just to start the clean up. For some families, some families will be given notification they can go back to their properties, perhaps today, tomorrow. Other families have to wait. We want to make sure - no matter what people's circumstances - just the hope of being able to move forward is so important. If we pick up the tab - sometimes it costs thousands of dollars - to get the hazardous materials off the property, to start the clean-up process, whether you're insured or not insured, the state government is picking up that cost to make sure you can get on with rebuilding as soon as you're physically and emotionally ready to start the rebuilding process. As I've said, to communities all along, we're not just here today and tomorrow but we will be with you for the weeks and months and for some communities years during the rebuilding process. The devastation is shocking. I have also been just literally bowled by the way the community's come together, the resilience and people's generosity. People with not much are giving away everything they have to support others. And it's times like these when you really appreciate what New South Wales and what Australia's about. PM?
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you Premier, Gladys. It is great to be here with you of course, your colleagues, and Angus Taylor, the local member here federally, and Commissioner Fitzsimmons. Thank you, again, for the tremendous job you're doing with all of your team - all around New South Wales. As the Premier said, it is quite humbling as you come and speak to families and you speak to individuals, you speak to volunteers, and you see the best of Australia on every single occasion. That's what we're seeing here again today. Friendships, neighbours looking after each other, simple kindnesses that are being extended. I met one wonderful, wonderful lady today from Malta. She was there with another lady, a single lady, who was finding it a bit tough. She was looking after her. She was making sure that she gets back to her property today. She's holding her hand. That's what she's doing. And this is the grace, this is the kindness, that events like this need and that's what's being displayed here on the ground. That will continue. Not just through the ordinary every day things that are done by members of the community off their own bat, but also by the many volunteers. We rightfully praise those in the RFS, but equally today we met with members of St John's Ambulance, the State Emergency Service, those who are looking after the care and welfare of animals and others, there are so many people who stick up their hands in these times. We thank them very, very much for everything they are doing. As the Premier has just said, the category C assistance is being extended to the Wollondilly and the Wingecarribee Shires. That, as the Premier said, includes payments for small businesses and producers and businesses of up to $15,000 and also includes things like mental health support and small grants to communities in both shires to help them rebuild particularly with community resilience programs and things of that nature coming out of that fund. That support is going to around 40 local government areas around New South Wales at the moment. It's the same sort of support that's been provided in many other parts, say, of Queensland where they have had the fires as well in recent times. These programmes are designed to help people with their immediate needs. The Premier and I have agreed also this morning that those $1,000 disaster assistance recovery payments that are paid to each individual and the $400 that are paid for each child, in a family, that will be extended to the Wingecarribee shire as well. It is already in place for Wollondilly. Those arrangements will be put in place today. These things are done as a partnership. This is the best coordinated, the best resourced, the biggest-hearted response that I think we've seen once again here from our response to these terrible disasters. It is something, I think, Australians, as I said earlier today, can be enormously proud of, seeing their country at their best. That is what we have to keep focused on, allowing Australians to continue to be at their best, supporting them as they get tired and ensure that we can continue to roll out what has been an extraordinary performance from all of those who have been involved.
PREMIER BEREJIKLIAN: Commissioner, did you want to say anything?
SHANE FITZSIMMONS, COMMISSIONER OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES RURAL FIRE SERVICE: No, I'm happy to be questioned.
PREMIER BEREJIKLIAN: Ok, any questions?
JOURNALIST: There's been concern in Balmoral specifically about when people will be able to get back in to that village and see whether or not their home is still standing?
PREMIER BEREJIKLIAN: Look it’s devastating not knowing whether your property is standing or not. Unfortunately, we have received bad news. There's not much left in Balmoral. I might ask the commissioner to add to my comments, but I understand expert teams are going in on the ground in those communities today to make full assessments and to let people know when it's safe to go back. And even if people have lost their properties, they still want to go back to see what's left and if there is anything I can salvage we know that's part of the recovery. And we want people to have access to their land to their property as soon as they can but it has to be safe as well and the expert teams will make sure that happens as soon as possible.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said that you were going to discuss the bushfire response at COAG in March. What do you say to people who might have reservations about that, maybe being too long to wait to have those discussions?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the immediate needs as I said this morning, simply require the request to come forward as they do through the regular meetings that are held of the fire chiefs and commissioners. The ministers responsible, David, they only met a few weeks ago. And what we need to do in March is to ensure that we deal with the recommendations that come out from many of the lessons that have come through these fires, not just here in New South Wales, but in other states and territories as well that have been affected. And we look forward to receiving those proposals then. Right now they're fighting fires and we don't want them sitting around writing submissions. We want them obviously to be focussed on the operational tasks they had in front of them. COAG has been very busy over back end of this year, particularly dealing with a lot of the environmental management issues that we've been working on, waste management, which I thank the premier for her support on. And we'll be considering those proposals. A lot of the ministers have been meeting through their various councils in recent weeks and months. And that means there will be a really good body of work that comes forward to COAG in March, which will be in New South Wales, and it'll be in Rooty Hill. And I'm looking forward to being out there at that wonderful new facility out there in Rooty Hill.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've discussed fatigue a lot today it’s obviously something you're particularly concerned about. Given you know we are still early, still in the traditional bushfire season. Can we expect further announcements around these? How are we going to deal with that exhaustion that is clearly going to be a problem?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I might defer to the Commissioner on this. He and I had a chat about this this morning. It's obviously one of the many significant issues that the commissioner manages with this incredible volunteer fighting force that is out there. But I've got to tell you, one of the things the Commissioner told me this morning, which just impressed me so much, is when a call went out yesterday, wasn’t it Commissioner, for extra hands, an extra thousand firefighters showed up in response to that call, a thousand. That is just that is just incredible. People know what's at stake and they're all making their contribution personally.
COMMISSIONER FITZSIMMONS: Thank you, Prime Minister. Look. Fatigue management and the drain, and the relentless nature of this season is certainly taking a toll. And so, too, is the geographic spread of the activity, you might recall, for several months between July and into September, most of our effort was really concentrated in north east New South Wales we’ve now got the fire spreading from north east New South Wales, Queensland border down to the south coast of New South Wales. Those logistical challenges, those transport and accommodation challenges, fretting and moving people right across such a broad geographic area all add to the challenges of fatigue and crew rotation. Underpinning all of this is a combination of members that are in a very strong position, a very ready position to sustain ongoing efforts and support for three days, five days at a time, coming back for a rest and doing another three to five days, coming back for a rest. Not everybody can do that. There are also teams that need to maintain a local presence at a local level of fire covering in case we get new fires. And then on days like yesterday where we saw such a broad area affected by a catastrophic forecast and unfolding in the day. Devastating fires. We saw a whole a whole bunch of people in the order of a thousand people stand up and make themselves available to bolster that effort. We've got another 30 people that the Prime Minister met this morning in at the state headquarters that have just arrived from Canada and the United States. We've got commitments to see beyond that from our interstate colleagues and overseas colleagues to help us with the fatigue management and the crew rotations and where appropriate, the bolstering of numbers on those difficult days. It is a tough challenge. It is a difficult challenge and something that we work very closely on and we will continue to work very closely on as we see through the through the balance of this season. We've got to keep in mind that we're not expecting any rainfall to make any meaningful difference to these fires until January, January-February. That's still a way to go. We're still talking four to six weeks at best before we start to see a meaningful reprieve in the weather. Based on the forecasts that are available and then as the Prime Minister indicated, we will want to do some very critical post incident reviews, postseason reviews, gather the information, gather the support from firefighters and communities right across New South Wales. That will take some time. The last thing we want is, is ad hoc-ery, or unnecessary reactiveness so close to the end of this season, and particularly when other states and territories are still going to have challenges heading well and truly into March. So there will need to be a very concerted effort to consolidate the learnings to ensure that we're hearing far and wide and formulate that into lessons and proposals in due course. But it is certainly something we'll be very much focussed on.
JOURNALIST: Commissioner do you have any specific numbers concerning the number of homes that were lost in Balmoral?
COMMISSIONER FITZSIMMONS: Unfortunately, I don't have the specific numbers. There are teams in the field today, but as the Premier indicated, the team inside there said it was devastating and I think they coined a phrase. There's not a lot left or there's not much left. And that's just really confronting to contemplate. And whether it's Balmoral or Buxton that are the two hardest hit areas in this in this locality. We aren't we are talking dozens of properties, dozens of buildings. As a matter of fact, right across all the fire grounds of the last 24 hours, we could be talking about another hundred buildings being added to the state tally so far this season. That doesn't mean there's 100 homes and we need to make sure we differentiate between buildings, property and homes. The detailed analysis that is going on in the field now, will seek to differentiate between what is what is a home, what is a house, what is a shed. And you know, and that takes some time. We need to be able to access these areas. But the toll is significant. And as we know earlier this morning, we are still working with police to try and locate an unaccounted for person up near Lithgow with the community for Dargan. And so there's a long way to go before we really have an understanding of the magnitude and scale of the loss and damage here as the result of these fires.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, with the RFS volunteers, it's amazing what they're doing. But say if you work for yourself, you've been doing it for a couple of weeks now, we’re three days from Christmas. You've done yourself out of a fair bit of dough, it's a hard pill to swallow.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is. It is tough and it always has been. The volunteer effort is, it is a standing volunteer force of over 200,000 people around the country. In fact, as I said this morning, there are more members registered here in New South Wales than we have in our ADF, both on reserve and in the standing ADF. So it is an enormous number of people who turn up. And it's not just also because as we know, when they're fighting fires, but the training that goes into the work that is done out of season. Let's not forget that as well. This is a year round job for anyone who's involved and turns up and over here on any other given day and the support that goes in behind it and say, look, we're certainly open to talking about those issues, about how we can best sustain that volunteer effort. But I think we always must be mindful that at its heart, it always has been, and for it to exist on that scale, it will always exist as a volunteer effort. As I said this morning there, they're all professionals. Some are paid, some are unpaid, but they're very professional about how they do their job and how they apply themselves to that task.
COMMISSIONER FITZSIMMONS: Do you mind if I add something to that?
PRIME MINISTER: Sure, please.
COMMISSIONER FITZSIMMONS: Just picking up on that point, and I've spent quite a bit of time with volunteers at various different locations over the last few weeks and months. And there's a whole range of different statuses of volunteers, whether they're self-employed or employees of somebody else. Retired, uni students, there is a whole bunch of different categories. And particularly with the self-employed, the amount of people that I speak to, they are running a real challenge, juggling what they're doing, what their priorities are. There is no doubt their absolute priority is to secure income, pay the bills and look after their family and talking to them, they always say to me, we're up here, we're doing our bit, but every now and then I've got to get home and earn a dollar because I want to be up there with my mates. I want to be up there with my colleagues and trying to make a difference. We're very conscious of that. We're really conscious of how difficult that is when you're trying to run a business. And in some of these drought stricken areas of New South Wales, even small business owners, whether where the where the business revenue has slowed down so much because of the drought, they might be the only person running their business now. So they can't even duck away for a few days because they're they've had to lay off employees or something. So we know acutely very much how tough our people are doing it. But the overriding message that they've got when these things are happening, when their colleagues are out there and they're trying to defend their communities, they want to be there with them and they want to be there partnering to try and make that difference. But it's a real challenge to juggle that up all the time. And so, too, for the employers. The generosity of employers, small, medium, large scale business, the private public sector, there's a there's a lot of people that have been away from work for a long time. And we've got arrangements in New South Wales where there's subsidies for payroll taxes and all those sorts of things. And we'll continue to work with the government on what other things can be done to support and incentivise employers and small business and volunteers. And let's not forget let's not forget it's the generosity and support of the employing community, but without the love and support at home that the partners, the families, the kids, the wives, the husbands, the mums and dads without that love and support at home, and extraordinary sacrifice, particularly over recent months and most notably as we head into what is regarded as some of our most precious family time of the year as we head into the Christmas and New Year break. There are going to be thousands of people are not home for Christmas this year because they're going to be out there either concerned because they're directly impacted by these fires as community members or they're going to be leaving a leaving a Christmas lunch or a Christmas dinner or a Christmas function because they want to do their part. They want to join with their colleagues and try and make a difference in that local community and continue to save and protect as much as they can. And we're very mindful of all of that. And it's tough.
JOURNALIST: Given all that Commissioner, from everything you’ve seen, how proud are you of your people?
COMMISSIONER FITZSIMMONS: I couldn't be any more proud. And we've seen, we've seen only tragically this week, the risk is real and the consequences can be fatal. And as a result of the events, only this week, there are families, there are loved ones, there are wives and there are children. And there are mates who will never be the same again because of the horrendous events that unfolded this week. I could not be any more proud. Not just of the extraordinary volunteers that but I have the privilege of being the Commissioner for, but the entire coordinated fire response effort here in New South Wales partnering with the Commonwealth. We've got men and women from firefighting agencies, forestry, national parks, Fire and Rescue, RFS, all the emergency services, support agencies, the police and so many functional areas of government right through to community volunteers. It's a massive, huge logistical operation, maintaining and sustaining more than 2000 people per shift day and night. The people behind the scenes, the people on the frontline, I could not be any more proud of the extraordinary efforts and commitment and dedication that we see rolling out, day in, day out. And we know that they're going to be doing it as long as their community and their people of New South Wales are going to be threatened. And all we pray for is rain. And unfortunately, we need a lot of rain to start giving us some reprieve.
PRIME MINISTER: I think all Australians, I think are very proud, I know that the Commissioner is very proud and the Premier is very proud of the services that they leave. All Australians are extremely proud of what's being done here and in so many other parts around the country whether it's down on Kangaroo Island in South Australia today, or other parts of Victoria or terribly right across New South Wales and up in Queensland, all Australians are proud and they have a great, great reason to be proud. This is this is Australia at its best. Australia at its best. And I thank them all. Thank you.
