Interview with Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland, ABC News 24 Breakfast

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

Subjects: Christchurch Earthquake, Libya

7:40am 23 February 2011

MICHAEL ROWLAND: The Foreign Affairs Department in Canberra says there are more than 750 Australians in Christchurch. The Department hold grave fears for at least one long-term Australian resident, a male who's been living in the New Zealand city for some time.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Now it's warning Australia has to prepare for the possibility of fatalities. The Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd joins us now from Canberra.

Minister Rudd good morning, good to talk to you again.

KEVIN RUDD: Good morning Virginia.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: So what can you update us about that one Australian in particular that the Department has made a mention of this morning?

KEVIN RUDD: Nothing further at this stage. We're working our way through each of these cases methodically to make sure we get everything right. I've just got off the phone now from our Deputy High Commissioner in New Zealand who's been in Christchurch from the beginning. What they are doing is making contact with each of the hospitals in Christchurch, visiting hospitals, and also working their way methodically through the list of registered Australians.

This all takes time. And we're also trying to connect up people who have literally lost one another in the middle of Christchurch itself.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: And are you receiving lots of phone calls from Australians who are trying to make contact and failing to make contact with family and relatives in New Zealand?

KEVIN RUDD: Well if that is the case the next step they should undertake is to ring the Consular Emergency Centre, the DFAT hotline which operates 24-hours a day.

What we then do is bring that information straight to the authorities in Christchurch, it's disseminated and then we check against all of our contact points within Christchurch itself.

That's the best thing to do. I assume you can screen up that telephone number on your screen later on.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Yes we've been showing those numbers right through the morning and we'll bring them up in just a moment as well.

Returning to those numbers and they are difficult numbers that you've got to go through, you know, because more than 1500 Australians registered as being in Christchurch, I know that about 400 Australians according to what the departments have had to say - the departments had to say this morning, they've been confirmed as safe, why is it just this one resident that you hold particular grave concerns for?

KEVIN RUDD: Well the reality on the ground Virginia as you would have seen from all the television footage coming out of Christchurch is that it's still a fluid situation.

Many people are still, I'm advised, trapped in buildings and we have to go through this one by one checking a person's personal details against their last known location, against where we know people are trapped in buildings or we know people have been taken to hospitals.

It's very time consuming methodical work but it's being done.

The other thing I could tell your viewers this morning is that having just spoken with our Deputy High Commissioner, there is an Australian crisis centre which is now being established temporarily in the middle of Christchurch.

It is at the Copthorne Commodore Hotel which I'm advised is between the centre of the city just as you leave that on your way to the airport, the Copthorne Commodore Hotel.

There are three staff there now. If friends and loved ones want anyone that they are concerned in Christchurch then they could in their contacts with them, tell them that's where the Australian crisis centre is.

Further more if there are Australians in Wellington who are trying to make contact with folk back home, that their phone battery has run out or whatever, that's the place to go to. And we'll supplement that today with a considerable number of additional staff who were flown in from Wellington.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Minister Rudd is that also an emergency shelter as well as at a place where Australians could take some shelter if they don't have any?

KEVIN RUDD: They should first of all present there and then our staff will do everything within their power to find temporary accommodation if people don't have it.

During the course of the night I was dealing with the very large band of Australians doctors who were on the ground in Christchurch attending a urology conference, there was more than 400 of them I'm advised.

I spoke with them last night. I was advised that they're okay, I was advised that they had been moved to a temporary tent on some park land in the middle of Christchurch, they've now been moved to some school accommodation. We hope we can get them out today.

There's a large number of them.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Okay. Are you aware of any Australians who had to seek emergency accommodation overnight?

KEVIN RUDD: I don't have those details to hand. All I know is that our staff have worked through the night responding to various requests, both in Canberra and of course our staff are active on the ground in Christchurch itself. I think the reality Virginia is that this will be a very messy day because of the simple collapse of so much, the normal infrastructure of the city at a time like this.

That's why people physically knowing where this Australian crisis centre is in Christchurch is important so that people can make their way there in order to get the other support that they need to get them through the day ahead and to make contact with friends and loved ones.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Do you have a sense of just how long it may take for the Department to confirm the status of those 1000 Australians?

KEVIN RUDD: Look our experience of these things in the past is that it is frustratingly slow to start with then as there is some modest return to normality, then the confirmations tend to come very quickly.

We've just been through this for example, recently in Cairo where we've had phenomenally complex challenges on the ground.

Remember the overall numbers here are significant. The Departmental estimate is 8000 Australians who live in Christchurch and the Canterbury region. To begin with we only had a very small number of Australians who had actually registered with Smartraveller. What's happening now through the crisis is that those numbers are now being added to the registration list, enabling us to do the cross referencing about identity, location or where we can't find people. That's the process been gone through and now that registration list as you said now has risen considerably higher than that.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: I just want to turn quite quickly in just a moment to Libya which is another important issue this morning, but just finally on the earthquake we saw emergency crews that were being sent from Australia to New Zealand seen on footage this morning of them leaving in the early hours of this morning. At this stage is there any sense from the Government that more people or more crews might be sent?

KEVIN RUDD: Well my conversation yesterday with the New Zealand Foreign Minister among several conversations was basically mate, whatever you need, we'll send. So one crew in two components is either there or on their way there.

Another crew, I believe from Queensland will be leaving early this morning. This is search and rescue.

We have a further crew which can be sent. There is - we are dealing with a complicated logistics of making sure everyone arrives with full kit and equipment so that we don't have people there who want to do the job but don't have the equipment with them. The logistics of this have been handled by Emergency Management Australia and I know all those folk have been working through the night, as have our defence department partners in making sure the logistics and the airlift is taken care of.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Just very quickly on Libya. What plans have been made to evacuate those 105 Australians that the Government believes are in there?

KEVIN RUDD: We have made arrangements with a number of international airlines through both the British and I'm advised the Canadian governments. The physical challenge on the ground for our consul-general in Tripoli is to work through his list of registrations, I think there are about 105 and methodically assemble people for exit.

Of course a number of Australians registered also work for international mining companies and some Australian mining companies and some of those companies have already made separate arrangements.

Nonetheless again our Consul-General is doing a fantastic job reducing this down to the known list of people who need to exit and as I said the arrangements with both the Brits and the Canadians are well in hand.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Good to talk to you Kevin Rudd, thanks so much.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks Virginia.

END

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