BRISBANE PRESS CONFERENCE - SERVICES AUST STAFF
March 01, 2022
SENATOR MURRAY WATT
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
LABOR SENATOR FOR QUEENSLAND
MADONNA JARRETT
LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BRISBANE
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP INTERVIEW
BRISBANE
TUESDAY, 1 MARCH 2022
SUBJECTS: Flood emergency; Labor calls on Government to deploy Services Australia staff to flooded communities to speed up disaster payments.
MADONNA JARRETT, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BRISBANE: Hi, I'm Madonna Jarrett, Labor's candidate for the seat of Brisbane. I'm here down at the river with Murray Watt. There’s sunshine today, there's no rain, but there's plenty of water lying around. The waters might be receding, but we're not out of the woods yet. The people of Brisbane have, you know, really suffered over the last couple of years. We've had the impact of COVID, which has closed a lot of businesses, kept a lot of people out of work. And now we have the floods. What's really important is that any flood relief that's being provided by the federal government be made available as quickly as possible to these people. They're really just getting back on their feet, a lot of them, in terms of their businesses and their families and this assistance really has to come in very, very quickly. Over to you Murray.
MURRAY WATT, SHADOW MINISTER FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Thanks, Madonna. It's great to join you here in the electorate of Brisbane. We're standing just outside the Regatta Hotel, which is well known to many people around Queensland as a great watering hole. Pretty much everywhere you look though at the moment there is a different kind of water, with floodwaters still encroaching on this pub. Coronation Drive, which is normally one of Brisbane’s busiest roads is completely without traffic. So there's a bit of an eerie silence around here as we wait for these floodwaters to recede. It's a reminder that this is not over yet. In Queensland, the floodwaters have yet to recede. And in fact, there are areas like Maryborough, which today are still going to be seeing floodwaters rise. And of course, we still think very deeply about our friends on the other side of the border in places like Lismore, Murwillumbah, Kyogle, Casino, Ballina, which are experiencing dreadful flooding right now with people being evacuated. And we really hope that we don't see any increase to the number of fatalities that we've seen so far.
As these floodwaters in Queensland do start to recede, attention is going to turn towards recovery. And an important part of that is the disaster assistance that is available from the federal government. I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has extended the regions that qualify for disaster assistance. That's something we raised with the federal government over the weekend to make those decisions quickly. So I thank them and Minister Bridget McKenzie for that.
The next thing that we really need to do is make sure that that money gets to people as quickly as possible. Yesterday during a briefing we had with the Federal Emergency Management Authority, we raised the need to get Services Australia staff deployed, out into flood affected communities, as quickly as possible. And today I'm calling on the federal government, particularly Minister Linda Reynolds, the Minister for Government Services, to make sure that we get Services Australia staff out into flood affected communities as quickly as possible. Currently, if people want to apply for disaster assistance, they can only do that online using a myGov account. Now, that's fine if you've got technology available, but the reality is there's a lot of people who are in disaster affected areas who don't have that technology, or may have lost it or lost power because of the floods. Many of the areas that are affected have elderly populations, many have multicultural populations, which may have literacy issues. And we need to make sure that the systems work as simply as possible for people. And that includes the ability to deal with Services Australia staff face to face.
Unfortunately, sometimes what we've seen from this government, particularly after the Black Summer bushfires, is that it just took too long to get disaster assistance out the door for people and we can't afford to see a repeat of that here in the Queensland and New South Wales floods.
All around Queensland and New South Wales we've seen devastating flood waters. We cannot afford now to see the federal government put up the floodgates when it comes to qualifying for disaster assistance. We need to make this system as smooth and efficient as possible and involving people from Services Australia on the ground will make a difference. It's time for all hands on deck and that's got to include some of the hard working public servants for the federal government, out on the ground, helping people face to face.
ENDS