Transcript of doorstop

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Subjects: Christchurch earthquake

Parliament House, Canberra

23 February 2011

REPORTER: Mr Rudd, the Department's hotline has been working overtime, how successful have they been in the last few hours in confirming the safety of Australians?

KEVIN RUDD: Well every hour the numbers just go through the roof in terms of the calls in, but also the numbers we're registering and those that we're then confirming as being okay.

So far, as of late this afternoon, we have had more than 7000 calls into the Crisis Centre, two and a half thousand registrations approximately and about 1300 now confirmed as being okay.

People should not be alarmed about the gap in those two latter numbers because what we're doing is mechanically bringing this down closer and closer. That's the way we normally do things.

REPORTER: Now there seems to be concern for a very small number of people who are there to have been in downtown Christchurch. Where does that number now stand?

KEVIN RUDD: We're now concerned for about four Australians who we can't locate who were in the downtown area of Christchurch when the earthquake hit.

Of course, that number may rise as we go through the other clarification exercise about friends and loved ones who can't be contacted. But at present there are four that we can't contact, about whom we have real concerns.

REPORTER: Now for those who have been taken to evacuation centres, are confirmed to be safe and well, getting out of Christchurch becomes an issue - on commercial airlines at least. Is there anything the Government's been able to do in the use of the military planes that have gone over there.

KEVIN RUDD: Well today we'll have return flights to Australia by a C-17 RAAF aircraft which will bring Australian citizens who are unable to find commercial transport back to Australia, but also a C-130 later in the evening as well.

So we've got two RAAF aircraft gone in carrying kit and equipment for the search and rescue and those two will be coming back with passengers and we're prioritising the elderly, kids, families et cetera.

REPORTER: Are there any estimates on their capacity or how many they could take out by the end of today?

KEVIN RUDD: The RAAF are working on the seat configuration question as we speak. So that'll be sorted out by the time we, obviously, turn the aircraft around. But they'll take anybody and everybody that they can and we're prioritising those based on children, the elderly, people with disabilities et cetera, as you would normally do in consular circumstances.

REPORTER: And that's simply because they have the most needs in fairly poor conditions on the ground.

KEVIN RUDD: That's true. Remember also we have many Australian consular staff at Christchurch Airport working on these prioritisation tasks. They're seeking to do it as sensitively as possible. But also to make sure that we're helping people identify commercial aircraft back to Australia, also to other domestic destinations in New Zealand.

REPORTER: And the military flights that are running tonight, is there any understanding of where they will fly to? They left I think from Richmond and Amberley?

KEVIN RUDD: My understanding is they'll return to the airports from which they departed. So we expect in the wee hours of the morning flights back into Richmond and Amberley.

Of course, we will be there as Australian consular teams in Christchurch until we get everybody out by one means or another. And we are there also to make sure that we account for every missing Australian, however long it takes.

REPORTER: So these flights tonight may not necessarily be the last military runs?

KEVIN RUDD: We take these judgements one day at a time and we'll see what tomorrow's circumstances bring. But we now have a large number of consular staff working through each set of cases, the Australian temporary office in downtown Christchurch or near the centre of the city as well as what we're doing at Christchurch Airport. Both our High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner are running those operations, as well as liaising with the search and rescue teams.

END

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