Interview with Julian Morrow, Radio National Breakfast

Subjects: Queensland Floods, Foreign Assistance for floods

Kevin Rudd MP, Foreign Minister and Federal Member for Griffith

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

13 January 2011

KEVIN RUDD: I'm standing at the Kangaroo Point cliffs which is in my electorate and I think the — looking at the Brisbane River swirl by. But the good news as you would have heard from other reports is that flood levels are down and I think what everyone's breathing a sigh of relief about is the fact that in the last 36 hours we haven't had rain and that is an extraordinarily important factor in the Brisbane River catchment.

Had we had rain in the last 36 hours frankly I think we'd be in all sorts of strife.

JULIAN MORROW: Do you have a sense of how much of your electorate of Griffith has been affected so far?

KEVIN RUDD: I think it's fair to say hundreds, if not thousands of homes are significantly, substantially, or partially inundated. The suburbs in my community affected are particularly around West End which is also in the State Premier's electorate as well.

I spent most of yesterday in that area and the flood levels were rising rapidly. In other parts we've had low level inundation coming off the back of the creeks which feed into this river and that's particularly Norman Creek and there's been significant inundation there as well.

But we'll go around and make some calculations this morning but a good barometer this morning about an hour ago was at Oxford Street Bulimba where we have markers from the '74 flood and we are genuinely about a metre below that and there sandbagging that we did late last night to stop waters coming up into the businesses in Oxford Street Bulimba are holding.

So that's been good news this morning.

JULIAN MORROW: I'm speaking with the Foreign Affairs Minister and member for Griffith Kevin Rudd and I should note also that we go out on an hour delay in Brisbane so obviously to some extent for Brisbane people, this interview will be pre-recorded.

Kevin Rudd can I ask you what was the mood like amongst people in Brisbane yesterday and is there any change today?

KEVIN RUDD: It's — a couple of days ago the mood was best I think summarised best as being one of grim determination.

Yesterday it was well, we've prepared about as best we can for this thing and — and today, this morning, it's talking to local people, particularly in Bulimba, one of relief that we haven't had flooding of catastrophic levels that we were projecting only 24 hours ago.

There's a core element of the maths of all this and that is that it stopped raining in the catchment and this is just a remarkable development given the sustained inundation we've had in the catchment of the Brisbane River system now for a long, long time. But the mood therefore is palpably, palpably change.

JULIAN MORROW: Which is a great relief. Now obviously comparisons are bound with the 1974 floods. I think in 1974 you were about to finish your studies at Nambour State High School which is about 100 kilometres north of Brisbane.

Do you have any memories of the '74 flood yourself? And what about your constituents, people you've been speaking to; how do they compare this situation with '74?

KEVIN RUDD: Well yeah, back in the early '70s I was finishing high school and in Nambour — it's about 100 kilometres north there was significant flooding at that time as there was across south east Queensland at the time.

But the old timers here in Brisbane are full of stories about what happened back then but the really interesting thing is the great thing about the old timers is they've all got their local markers and where I was in Gillan Street in Norman Park yesterday, trying to get people's effects out of houses as the water was just completely coming up, you know, feet at a time up the street that that could point to where on the fence it came to in '74 and were all making calculations about a metre above and a meter below.
And that actually helps at a very practical level in terms planning for where — how rapidly to evacuate which properties. So the oldies have actually come in really handy I've got to say.

JULIAN MORROW: No doubt, no doubt. Yesterday there were concerns about some people perhaps failing to leave or deciding not to leave. Is that less of a concern today now that the flood levels do seem to be lower than expected?

KEVIN RUDD: Look, I'll let the police [indistinct] the answer to those questions.

JULIAN MORROW: Sure.

KEVIN RUDD: Certainly in my own experience most people are making very intelligent and early decisions to go but I certainly ran into some people who I could have quite happily throttled trying to get them out of their properties.

[Laughter]

And then they'll turn around to me and say this morning that they — that they told me so. But it's always a problem getting some folk out.

So I've got to say in my own community which has had — we've got at least a dozen or so suburbs fronting the Brisbane River and the catchment creeks which go it , people have responded very well to the police and the SES.

I think the other things for me to mention and I'm sure others have in broadcast as well is there is a genuine, genuine community spirit at work here whereby volunteers in the community have literally taken many things into their own hands to deal with local problems; getting people's furniture and effects out when waters have hit a person's property with little preparation and certainly they've got 20 or 30 neighbours they never knew of there getting their furniture and effects out.

I saw this with the distribution of sandbags in and around Hawthorne and Bulimba yesterday where we had about 120 local volunteers who organised themselves phenomenally well to get sand bags out right across those suburbs. This has been quite an extraordinary and spontaneous community movement as well.

JULIAN MORROW: Yes. On Radio National Summer Breakfast, I'm speaking with the Foreign Minister and member for Griffith Kevin Rudd.

And there has been a remarkably small number of reports of any negative behaviour. Have you heard any reports like that yourself in the last day or so?

KEVIN RUDD: I saw one report in the media yesterday but in my own community it's just one of, you know, should I say almost palpable celebration that when people have found themselves in difficulty that there's a small army of volunteers there to help them, you know, whether it's work friends, whether it's people two streets up that they've never seen in the lives before, or maybe once buying milk at the shops who suddenly arrive.
I ran into a bloke yesterday who told me that — and many of our suburbs are without electricity and have been so for the last day or so — he's hooked up his own personal generator to feed the refrigerators in their entire apartment complex.

These small things are being replicated a thousand fold across the city of Brisbane and I think one of the good things about the — the genuine sense — I keep going back to the word genuine sense of community here, is that it's happening in communities right across — right across the state.

We're going to have to harness that now Julian in terms of what now becomes the ugly and non-glamorous bit which is cleaning out the mud and sludge from houses and businesses by the thousands across Brisbane and south east Queensland.

JULIAN MORROW: My Rudd if I could ask you a question in your capacity as Foreign Affairs Minister; obviously we've heard that there have been requests made by many, many nations around the world to offer assistance, have any of those offers been accepted to date and do you have a sense of whether they will?

KEVIN RUDD: My most recent advice is that no, that is that we haven't. We've carefully and positively responded to expressions of solidarity and support and offers of military assistance for logistics. But can I just put this into a wider context.

Here in Australia we do have one of the best systems for natural disaster management that you'll find anywhere in the world and that's because we are a sunburnt country full of drought and flooding rains and we're used to it.

Therefore the infrastructure that's been laid out in Queensland for dealing with floods and fire and drought is fairly significant, fairly extensive. We are the most decentralised state in the country. So the police, the SES, and the army have a well established pattern and operational procedures for doing things effectively on the ground.

What I do know therefore is that careful note has been made of all the offers of assistance and I know our professionals well enough having dealt with them very closely with the bush fires in Victoria that soon if there is any capability need which people don't have or they feel stretched on, there's no pride involved, they'll be on the phone quick smart to whoever's got that kit in or around region or in and around the wider world. But so far that's not been needed to be called upon.

JULIAN MORROW: Kevin Rudd if I could ask you also, obviously you had a big deal — a big role dealing with the aftermath of the Black Saturday bush fires. What have you found that people want from their political leaders in a situation like this?

KEVIN RUDD: Look, Australians are very practical people and when you're faced with the onslaught of fires or whether you're faced with the onslaught of flood, I think the first requirements people have is very basic and that is for reliable information.

And here in these Queensland floods just standing at it one step removed purely as a local member of parliament I would say that all three levels of government have worked together exceptionally well in getting basic information out. That's the first expectation.

I think the Premier in particular in holding her regular press conferences which are full of content about the most recent [indistinct] information, together with impacted suburbs etcetera has been very useful.

The second thing they expect is that of course you've got coordination on the ground and here in Queensland the work that's been done through recent changes in legislation, regulation, to make sure there are no blurred likes of responsibilities between the coffers of the SES and others, inclined the ADF, that has worked by all reports I've found from across south east Queensland and elsewhere in the state to be doing well.

The third bit is this Julian, is sticking with people for the long term. We've got to rebuild the great state of Queensland. This is a huge part of the Australian family. It's 20 per cent of the national in population and in the economy.

And it's been a huge kick in the guts to the State's infrastructure. You've seen all the reports in terms of the impact on mining, on the pastoral industry, as well as think of all the tourism operators in Queensland who have just literally been devastated by people being turned off by the weather in the last several months. The accumulative effect therefore is huge.

But what's the third thing? Standing by and sticking to the reconstruction recovery effort whether it's three months, six months, nine months, 12 months, until it is done and it's shouldering that burden, national government, state government, and the local authorities without ranker which is what the Australian people expect.

JULIAN MORROW: Well Kevin Rudd thanks very much for joining us this morning. I'm sure our best wishes go out to you and everyone in Brisbane dealing with this situation today.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks Julian.

JULIAN MORROW: That was Kevin Rudd the Foreign Minister and the member for Griffith speaking to us from his electorate this morning.

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