SUBJECTS: Floods on the East Coast; passing of Senator Kimberley Kitching; Labor’s Disaster Ready Fund; emergency management; climate change.
 
JUSTINE ELLIOTT, MEMBER FOR RICHMOND: I'm Justine Elliot. And I'm the Member for Richmond. And we are here today in Murwillumbah. We're at the home of Brett and Leanne Bugg, who have had their home devastated by these floods. And I thank them for letting us come here today. I'd really like to thank the Labor Leader, Anthony Albanese, who's been on the North Coast hearing firsthand from locals about how this flooding event has devastated our community. And he's been in Ballina and Lismore and Murwillumbah today to hear firsthand how lives, livelihoods and communities have just been absolutely impacted by this flood. I'd also like to thank Janelle Saffin, the State Member for Lismore, who's here and, of course, Janelle has been standing with her community here and Lismore and beyond in these really difficult times. We've also got Senator Murray Watt, who is our Shadow Minister for Disaster and Emergency Management. And I thank Murray too, for listening to locals for many days and hearing about the tragedy that keeps unfolding here. This is a humanitarian crisis that we've had on the North Coast. And we've been calling on the Government to do more to provide more support and funding. We were devastated the other day when Scott Morrison deliberately refused to extend that disaster assistance payment to those of us in the Tweed, Byron and Ballina shires. Instead, it was extended for other areas. We have had a catastrophe here. And we need to have that funding in this area. There are people that have nowhere to live, they have no food, and no money. And the Prime Minister must listen to this community and ensure they've got that extra funding. And it has been devastating for our region. Like Brett and Leanne, their entire house has been ruined, all the contents of their home, all their possessions. It's heartbreaking. And in the case here, they were both at home when the water rose up so high here. And they were rescued by two wonderful locals, Josh and Chad Curtis. Two young men who were sitting at their home and they saw on Facebook that there were people stranded all the way down here on the Tweed River. And they jumped in there tinny, a very small, tinny, and they took off to help people. And they came by and they rescued them from this house. And just amazing, amazing people from our community. And that's what we've seen every day. People stepping up here. We have people in the community rescuing each other, feeding each other, providing so much support to one another. We have an incredible community here. And it means so much to everyone here, particularly, that Anthony Albanese has come here today to see what we've been through. I know that Anthony understands and knows the North Coast. He's been here many times. And he really understands the pain that our community is feeling at the moment. So, thank you, Anthony, so much for coming up and talking to locals today. It means a lot.
 
ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Thanks very much, Justine. Before I talk about the floods, I do want to pay tribute to Kimberley Kitching, our Senate colleague, who passed so suddenly yesterday at just 52 years of age. Kimberley Kitching was a valued colleague. She was in her first term in the Senate. She had made already an enormous contribution to her advocacy for the Magnitsky Act, to ensure that action could be taken to take money away from people like the Russian oligarchs who had behaved inappropriately in order to secure that funding. And she was someone who was passionate about international affairs, passionate about democracy, and defending our way of life. She's someone who I had the privilege of traveling on a delegation I led to Taiwan a couple of years ago. And I got to know Kimberley, during that visit. She was bright. She was smart. She was always the life of any room she was in, which is why to lose someone who was so full of life so early is such a terrible tragedy. And my condolences go particularly to her husband Andrew, but also to all of the Labor family who are grieving today her loss.
 
I do thank Brett and Leanne for having us in your home. Today, earlier we were at businesses in Murwillumbah. But also, we spent the morning in Lismore, and yesterday afternoon in Ballina with Justine, talking again with families who've lost everything in these devastating floods. These floods have had such an extraordinary impact. We've lost more than 20 Australian lives in these floods. And our condolences go to all of the family and friends of those who've lost loved ones during this crisis. This crisis requires an appropriate response from the Australian Government. A response that is as strong as the response and resilience that we've seen from the local communities themselves. As Justine has said, these two young men who rescued people along this street is just one example of the stories that we've heard. Australians, at the most difficult of times, show just how great they are. Looking after each other, prepared to make sacrifices, taking risks themselves in order to help their fellow Australians. It is not too much to ask for the Australian Government to be there for people as well. The extra disaster assistance that is being given in Lismore is a good thing. There is no reason whatsoever why that shouldn't also apply here in the Tweed, and why it shouldn't also apply in Ballina and in Byron. The truth is that when you go into the southern outskirts of Murwillumbah here, what you see is every single house has been impacted, all the cars left on the road that have been ruined. This place here is just an example. This entire street. And how could you go through this street and say, 'Well, they don't deserve the same support that other communities are getting'. What we need to do is to make sure that we respond to all of the communities who've been impacted by this disaster. We need to respond in the immediate sense to help people get back on their feet and to not be seen to be leaving them behind, which is what these communities have told us they feel as a result of the failure of the Government to just say more than that they're still reviewing it. Why is it that the response and that declaration was so slow? Why is it that it wasn't comprehensive and to everyone that was needed? Why is it that it took until Wednesday to declare this a national emergency when it's been a national emergency since it occurred and when the Parliament adopted legislation unanimously about the need to declare national emergencies?
 
And secondly, also, on top of that, why is it that the Emergency Response Fund that was established to $4 billion is now $4.8 billion because it was treated like a term deposit and investments not being made to make a difference in terms of mitigation and in terms of that planning work? We need to do much better. The IPCC report tells us that climate change is here. And we can see climate change right here. It's not something that's theoretical. It's not an academic debate. It is real. And it's based upon the science. And we should listen to the science, which tells us that we will have more extreme weather events here in Australia. We will be particularly impacted. Which is why we need to be part of the global effort on climate change, but why, also, we need to respond in terms of mitigation and why our Disaster Ready Fund of $200 million was announced in January, early this year with Murray Watt, who's with us today. I do want to pay tribute to Justine and to Janelle Saffin, the local State Member who's here as well. They have been magnificent in supporting their local communities. They make me proud to be the Leader of the Australian Labor Party. It is what Labor is about. Providing a helping hand for people who need it. And then also planning to make sure that we do much better in the future. I'd ask Brett, whose home we're in, to make some comments here as well. And I very much thank him and Leanne for welcoming us into their home, not because they get anything out of it, but because they want to make a difference to their local community. So, thanks, Brett.
 
BRETT BUGG, RESIDENT OF SOUTH MURWILLUMBAH: Firstly, I would have all offered you a cup of tea, but we don't really have a tea pot anymore. It floated down the river, unfortunately, with nearly everything else in the house. So, I guess if I had to say one thing, this is the second time in five years that our region has been devastated by floods. It took probably two years for this town to get back up and running again. This one is worse. And it's also come at a worse time. So, we need all the help we can to try and get this place, not just our town, but all these towns in this region, back up and running again. Because there are businesses, there are homes, there are people who have lost lives, there is just so much devastation here. It's hard for people outside to understand. So, I guess if I had one thing to say, it is that we're not second-class flood victims. We are the same as the other flood victims in other regions. So, I can't understand why we're being treated differently. Everyone needs the support here as much as they needed anywhere else. We're all one, we're all Australian. I don't understand why people have been, you know, treated differently. And hopefully, we won't be treated differently down the track. So, look, if there's anyone out there that can help in any way, this community needs it. Because at the moment, we're all banding together to do everything we can. It was actually, like the flood itself, you know, this river looks beautiful and tranquil behind us, but, you know, when it's raging, it's out of control. And if there's one other thing that I think that we could do when it's over, we look back about how we respond to these things in the actual emergency itself. There were hundreds of people stuck, just like us, in houses that had no way of getting out. The waters are rising, it's getting dark, there's nowhere to go. And there's no one to come and rescue. Surely, as a country like us, we can plan for that stuff where we can rescue people that are stranded in these situations. Why don't we have a plan? We just didn't seem to have a plan. So, maybe next time, let's just get a plan.
 
JOURNALIST: Brett, if the Prime Minister was here today, what would you say to him?
 
BUGG: Just help. Everyone needs help. They talk about helping but they don't seem to be helping enough. If there's a disaster relief fund available, five it to these people. There are people here. There's a thousand people in this region, not people, there's a thousand families in this region that don't have anywhere to sleep tonight. That's not right. That's our Hurricane Katrina moment. This is the Super Bowl for us. Don't let it be like that. Just help.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you want to see him come here?
 
BUGG: I will have anyone come. I don't care who it is. I got to thank Anthony for coming here today. It puts us on the map. It helps. It helps give us coverage and helps give us the things that we need. If he can come here, if Scott Morrison can come to Murwillumbah, and we can show him how desperately we need the money, then please come by all means. Thanks.
 
ALBANESE: Happy to take any questions, if there are some.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, Bill Shorten says that with Kimberley, the stress over her pre-selection was causing her grave angst. Your thoughts on that?
 
ALBANESE: I think it's a tragic loss of Kimberley Kitching. And my thoughts are with her friends and her family. And politics can be a difficult business. It's one where there's stress each and every day. And it can be really difficult. But no one foresaw this tragedy occurring. And that's why it's such a shock for the entire Labor family.
 
JOURNALIST: Does Labor support the Greens move to get the cyclone scheme expanded to include flooding?
 
MURRAY WATT, SHADOW MINISTER FOR DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: I've seen the Greens put forward this proposal today. I think there are many questions, as a community and as a country, that we're going to have to ask after these floods, such as why we didn't have the emergency rescue resources here and across the region that were needed, what we do about rebuilding a lot of these communities when they have experienced so many floods, and what we do about insurance. I don't think that now is really the time to be coming forward with precise solutions. I think we still got to do a lot of listening to the community. But the people that we've all met over the last few days here, there's a lot of people who didn't have insurance because they couldn't afford it to begin with. The Parliament has yet to consider that North Queensland Cyclone Reinsurance Pool. We have already raised some questions with the Government about how much people will actually save on that. And I think we'd want to see a bit more information from the Government about that before we start thinking about expanding it. But clearly, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, also, your reaction to the bill poster currently showing the Chinese President voting Labor?
 
ALBANESE: I'm not going to treat that with anything other than the contempt that it deserves.
 
JOURNALIST: Mr Albanese, Bill Shorten has said the Senator Kitching was under great stress from the Senate pre-selection battle. Given the takeover of the Victorian Labor branch, were you supporting her on your Senate ticket?
 
ALBANESE: It wasn't a matter for me. We have our internal organisational processes of pre-selection. That is what we have in the normal way.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you agree with Bill Shorten that the Labor Party needs more MPs who aren't 'yes' people and hacks and should encourage those who are strong on what they believe in?
 
ALBANESE: I think we have a fantastic team who fight for things they believe in, each and every day. Bill Shorten is one of them. Kimberley Kitching was another. Murray Watt is another. Justine Elliot is another. We have a fantastic team. And I'm very proud to lead that team. And that's why we are a team that's ready for government. If you look at my Shadow Cabinet team, made up of a diverse group of people, representative of the Australian population with 50 per cent women, 50 per cent men, people from regions, people from cities, people of different backgrounds, I'm very proud of the team that we have.
 
JOURNALIST: Senator Kitching was outspoken on things that mattered to her and asked the hard questions. She had come under pressure from senior Labor figures over some of her positions. Do you believe Labor MPs can speak their mind or will they expected to follow the 'rules'?
 
ALBANESE: That's a rather strange question. In your question yourself, you got the answer. Thanks.
 
ENDS