E&OE TRANSCRIPT
SUBJECTS: Queensland floods; government assistance.
NITA GREEN, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR THE GREAT BARRIER REEF AND SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND: My name’s Nita Green, I’m a Labor Senator for Queensland and I'm really pleased to be here in Townsville today. It’s really good to be here with Minister Katy Gallagher and our candidate for Herbert, Edwina Andrew, at the Services Australia centre here in Townsville. Really, what we have been keen to do as a government over the last couple of days is say thank you to the people of Townsville and the people who've supported the region. I was with the Deputy Prime Minister yesterday, thanking ADF troops who built the bridge at Ollera Creek, and today we're here at Services Australia to say thank you to the public servants who've responded to this disaster. Sometimes these are the people you don't see, but it's incredibly important that we acknowledge the work that they have done. This has been a difficult and challenging weather event for North Queensland. We have seen multiple communities impacted. We have seen lots of logistical issues that we've had to face, and we've seen rain just go on forever. Now we are seeing the weather move on. Thankfully, it's time to move from response to recovery and rebuilding. That's why we have been here over the last couple of days and weeks to listen to the community about what they want to see in terms of recovery and rebuilding, but primarily, really, to say thank you for such an enormous effort. Katy will go through the stats, but my goodness, these people have worked around the clock to support the community, and Edwina and I are incredibly grateful for their efforts. I will hand over to Katy in a moment. But the last thing I'd like to say is that we know that we will continue to have natural disasters in Queensland. Unfortunately, we're really good at responding to disasters, because we're having them all the time and more frequently. And what we need in regional Queensland is continued support from the public servants like the ones here at Services Australia. We know that we will face these challenges in the next summer or summer after that, and what we want to do is support our public service and make sure that they are here to support the people of Townsville and North Queensland into the future, and that's why we're so adamant about supporting them today, but into the future as well.
SENATOR THE HON KATY GALLAGHER, MINISTER FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE: Thanks very much, Nita, and it's lovely to be here with both of you, Edwina and Nita, as representatives for the Labor Party in Queensland. And it's fantastic to be here as Government Services Minister. Really proud to come and listen and talk with staff about all the work that they did during the major weather event, but also that they do every day. We know they're an important workforce in Townsville. There's around 2000 public servants that call Townsville home, and Services Australia is a big employer within that 2000 and we've really been investing in Services Australia, because it's really the department that connects with every Australian. You might not realise it if you go on MyGov, but they're the ones that are there in times of crisis, in times of emergency, or as you go about your day-to-day life. And it's really an important part of the way the government reaches out to people and helps them through really difficult times. So, my job is really to come and listen, hearing a bit about what the pressure points have been. There were very low levels of service interruption during the major weather event. There might have been a couple of service centres closed for a day, but they were really up and running and making sure that they were out, deployed into those communities that had seen the most major impact. So yeah, it's a really important part of I think the job that we all do, that Nita and I do as elected representatives, is to come and listen and learn and see where we can improve things and listen to the staff directly on the front line. They're a really important part of Townsville economy, and we're really keen to keep investing in them. Often public servants are demonised as, you know, something that you could just disregard or sack. But we really believe that the way to provide the best services to people in regional communities is to have staff in those regional communities providing care for them. So yeah, part of my job is just listening and learning today but also talking with people. Obviously, yesterday was an important day. We saw that interest rate cut that's going to give some reprieve to families, particularly in this area here, that have seen those interest rate increases. So, we think it's the interest rate cut that Australians deserve, taking a bit of pressure off those household budgets at a time when we're providing cost-of-living help for those families as well through energy bill rebates and investments in Medicare. So, there's more to do to help families through this time. But some good news is today, on that front. Happy to take questions. Nita will take all the hard ones.
JOURNALIST: What's kind of the feedback been from people here in the community and how they are handling the cost-of-living pressures at the moment?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think cost-of-living pressures are the number one issue wherever you go in Australia. So, I think people here are the same, although they've gone through you know that major weather event as well, which has put additional pressure. Which is why some of those payments from the Australian Government and the Queensland Government have been so important, to get not only the assistance with the ADF happening so infrastructure can be returned or put back in place, but also in terms of payments flowing. So, we've been working with the Queensland Government on that. About $4 million has been paid already through those payments. So, it shows that that money is getting out the door and places like this, staff in Services Australia, are really key to making sure those payments are processed. So, we're pretty pleased with the arrangements with the Queensland Government. Obviously, we'll continue to talk to them if there's areas that they want to see changed or amended, we stand ready to assist. We haven't had those to date, but we would definitely be keen to work with them on any further improvements.
JOURNALIST: Do you know roughly how many people have applied and how much? About 4 million? I guess that would make up of the total cost of that $4 million?
GALLAGHER: Well, we would definitely have had hundreds of applications for those payments. It's a bit different depending on what payment that you're going for and whether you're an adult or a child or a business, but we know that those applications are coming in and they're being processed as quickly as possible. I mean, the idea behind them is that we get the money out the door and support those businesses and families as quickly as we can.
JOURNALIST: We talked to residents who feel a bit left out here in Townsville. So, they've been flooded, people would have storage in their homes, but they're not on that list of suburbs covered. Why not just expand it for the whole [INDISTINCT] today?
GALLAGHER: Well, I think that that's a matter for the Queensland government. I mean, they're the government that's primarily responsible for designating those areas and talking with the Commonwealth. And as I said, we're very happy to work with the Queensland Government on any request that they will make to the Federal Government. That has been our approach from day one, and that continues to be. So, if there are requests from the Queensland Government around eligibility or areas covered, we would work with them very closely to deal with that as quickly as possible.
JOURNALIST: So, it’s not in your current power?
GALLAGHER: The response is really led by the Queensland Government. The Commonwealth has a particular role to play, that's to assist and to work in partnership on those payments. Now, if there is a request from the Queensland Government, we would be happy to consider that. And experience has shown in my area, that where there has been a request from a state government, we've worked quickly to respond to that. Do you want to add anything, Nita?
GREEN: Maybe just that there are a range of payments available across the region. I just want to make that clear, because I know that there's been some focus on the personal hardship grant. That's an initial payment of $180 that has been allocated to certain parts of Townsville, but also other LGA areas. We also have the Disaster Recovery Allowance that is available to everyone in Townsville across the LGA and other LGAs in the region. We expanded that payment last week to five additional LGAs. That's a payment that covers people who would be unable to work. We also have a payment for small businesses and primary producers in the form of loans, but also grants that we announced last week. And there's an exceptional payment through the Commonwealth for disaster recovery for people who've been impacted in a really severe and adverse way. And when I say that, I mean that someone has been really injured, or there's been a complete destruction of their home that is also available to the four of the LGAs that I've been listing. So, my job, I think, and Edwina and the Government, what we've been seeking to do is make it clear that there is a range of payments available to people all across these regions and particularly throughout Townsville. The personal hardship grant that has been receiving some attention is administered through the Queensland Government, as Katy said, we'll continue to work through that, but there's a range of assistance available. And if you have questions about eligibility, our fantastic staff here at Services Australia will let you know whether you are eligible before you apply, because that way, you don't have to go through the process. So, it's important that people have this information. We hope that everyone's getting the right information, there's a lot of misleading information out there about this, and we want people to access these payments as soon as possible, because we know that this has been a really difficult time.
JOURNALIST: What if people aren't eligible for that? I guess they're eligible if they can’t work. But if people can work and they don't have an extraordinary amount of damage, but there is still a big bill for them to pay, you mentioned the cost-of-living is hurting a lot of people who are still on that list – what about people still falling through the cracks?
GREEN: Well, I think in that circumstance, and as the Minister said, that is a conversation that we would seek to have with the Queensland Government. These eligibility criteria are the same that were in place under the previous government. We haven't changed the eligibility criteria. We base it on the claims that the Queensland Government asks us to deliver, and we provide that funding. So that's an ongoing conversation that we will have. I guess the other question is whether insurers are responding quickly to claims, and we have directed the insurers to do that as quickly as possible, to be here on the ground, to be responding to claims. And so far, we haven't had any issues. But as a local senator in North Queensland, I would really like to know if people are having issues with their insurers, because we will raise it with the Insurance Council of Australia, who have said that they will respond quickly. We don't want people to be ripped off in North Queensland when it comes to insurance, or pushed around. We want insurers to respond quickly to claims that have been put through. We're really, really happy to help people with that process as well. Thank you.