Good morning everybody. My name is Andrew Cohen, I’m the CEO of ForHealth and I am standing with an all-star cast. So starting from the left we’ve got Dr. Schafer who’s the Chair of PHN North, we’ve got Dr. Bhalla who is the Clinical Lead for our Urgent Care Sites, we’ve got Libby, the CEO of PHN north, we’ve got the Health Minister, the Prime Minister, the Premier, and I believe that we’ve got Senator Chisholm and Minister Watt as well. So everyone is here. Before I begin, I want to just acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land, the Yuggera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. ForHealth is the second largest primary care provider in the country. We serve more than 7 million patients every year. Our mission is accessible health care, and we focus on some of the lowest socio-economic and health vulnerable communities across Australia. Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of Medicare. A system that makes me incredibly proud to be Australian, and a brand that I think really represents a fair go for all Australians. It’s hard to underestimate the impact of that system on our mission and on the health of generations of Australians. The Labor Government’s record investment in Medicare for their 40th year really resets that platform for a healthier, stronger Australia. And, you know, that includes the tripling of the bulk billing incentive, but it also includes the establishment of fifty eight Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, one of which we are at today, here in Murrumba Downs. On the front line, I think we see the real impact that these clinics are having at a local community level. You know, our clinics typically see 30 and often 50 patients a day in urgent need. Nine out of 10 of those patients highly recommend the service and on average, the patient will go from three hours to actually commencing care in under 35 minutes. Importantly, 60% of the patients that come in state that they would have otherwise have gone to an ED. But beyond the numbers. I think they are really the patient stories that talk about the impact this has had. The Prime Minister was you know, talking to a mother of a 17 year old school girl Jacinda just before, about her experience. She came in with suspected meningococcal after waiting in the ED for more than four hours. And her mother was watching the rash grow and becoming really worried. And so they came in here. When they arrived, they were immediately seen by a physician with no wait time. Luckily, it was not meningococcal. But what happened was the ED line got one person shorter, the rash was treated, a detailed summary was given to her regular GP for follow up, and her treatment was uploaded onto MyHealth record. It’s for stories like this one, and the 150,000 other stories like Jacinda’s that really talk to the impact of these clinics. And for that, I want to thank the Albanese Government for their vision and for their investment, and PHN north for their support and their partnership in establishing this service here at Murrumba Downs. I’ll now hand to the Honourable Anthony Albanese, the Prime Minister.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks so much, Andrew, and it’s fantastic to be here at Murrumba Downs at this Urgent Care Clinic. And particularly to be with the local state member as well as the Premier here, Steven Miles and members of my team including Mark Butler, Anthony Chisholm, and Murray Watt. But a special thank you to the doctors and the people who are providing the service here as well. Before I speak about Urgent Care Clinics and health, I do want to say that yesterday afternoon the Premier and I visited the State Disaster Coordination Centre in Kedron, we received a full briefing about the impact of flash flooding, the fact that 39 people as of yesterday afternoon had been rescued as a result of the extreme weather event that hit this community and just further north, as well as the impact in western and north-western Queensland, as well. And we thank again, all those extraordinary emergency service workers, SES members, who this morning again, just up the road here at Murrumba Downs we had the opportunity to thank personally, the people who have been out there some of whom had been up to Townsville over the weekend, helping their fellow Queenslanders and were back here helping their neighbours. And that is the sort of spirit that we consistently see, that the worst of times we see the best of the Australian character. And here in Queensland we see the strength of the fortitude and resilience that Queenslanders have, but their determination to help each other. And that is a fantastic thing. One of the people we met there told us about one of the SES volunteers who yesterday cut their hand whilst providing assistance. They came to the Urgent Care Clinic, they got fixed within an hour – in, out, problem fixed. All they needed was a Medicare card. And tomorrow we celebrate the 40th birthday of Medicare. A great creation by the Hawke Labor Government. And we would call that Medibank was created by the Whitlam Government, the incoming coalition government got rid of it. One of the things I talk about is the need to have a long term Labor Government to entrench reform, to entrench fairness. Because Coalition governments when they come to office, inevitably rip money out of the health system, rip money out of the education system and change Australia for the worse. That is what happened, or tried to happen, on Peter Dutton’s watch when he was appointed as Health Minister. He of course, tried to put on a GP tax on every single visit to the doctor. This is one of the great divides in Australian politics. Labor that believes in looking after people, and looking after people through Medicare being the centre of our health system. And that’s the benefit of these Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. People can come in here get seen to for free. And today, we’ve met a couple of people – Luke, who cut his feet rescuing a cow from the floodwaters, and he’s already been seen and is about to leave the clinic here, which is a fantastic thing that he’s been able to get that support. We met young Jacinda, 17 year old here with her mum Karen. A very high percentage of people who’ve been seen at these 58 urgent click care clinics around Australia have been young people. Young people with a cut, or a sprain, or a broken bone, are being seen to immediately, taking pressure off emergency departments that are so important. This is a part of our commitment, along with the tripling of the bulk billing incentive for people for GPs, to fix the health system and to strengthen Medicare. It’s one of the key commitments that we made prior to the election. But it’s also one of the cost of living supports that we’re providing. People being able to see a GP or to get the health care that they need, and all they need is their Medicare card, not their health care card – not their credit card. So tomorrow, the 40th anniversary, is a cause for celebration. Medicare is admired throughout the world, for the system that it presides over, being the central component of our health care system here in Australia. And what we’re doing as well is working with state and territory governments to strengthen primary care so as to take pressure off emergency departments and off the hospital networks here in Queensland, but right around the country as well. And in the ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Cabinet meeting in December, we came up with not just one five year agreement, but an agreement right up to 2035, right up to the middle of the next decade, going forward on health and hospital funding. At the same time as we committed more than a billion dollars of additional funding for primary health care including additional Urgent Care Clinics that we’ll look at rolling out because this model has been so successful. In addition to being able to see a doctor for free here, of course, we have our cheaper medicines plan. Now Queenslanders have saved over $43 million on prescriptions in 2023 as a result of the measures that were put in place. We contrast our position on healthcare with a position of Peter Dutton, with his GP tax that was introduced, or tried to be introduced was only blocked in the Senate, without any notice prior to any election. An example of unfairness that characterizes the coalition – out of touch, and they continue to be out of touch with their opposition to our plan to have a tax decrease, a tax cut, for every Australian. This cost of living bonus that we want to introduce on July 1 will mean that every taxpayer receives a tax cut. And overwhelmingly, the benefit goes to middle Australia, but no one left out as a result of the changes that we put forward. So Premier, to make some comments, then the Health Minister, and then we’re happy to take questions.
STEVEN MILES, PREMIER OF QUEENSLAND: Well, thanks Prime Minister, welcome to Murrumba, it’s great to have you here. And thank you for our new Urgent Care Clinic. It, this community really does appreciate it. Can I make some comments first about the flooding and weather that we saw yesterday. Yesterday was another tough day for Queenslanders affected by natural disasters. It was also a busy day for our emergency services and our SES volunteers, and we were able to thank some of them this morning at the Murrumba Downs SES Depot. I ran into SES volunteers there who I had seen in Cairns, the Gold Coast, Townsville, and now here in .That is a testament to the dedication of our volunteers, but also a symbol of just how hard they’ve worked. This disaster season. It really has been very, very busy. They’re out today doing disaster assessments on 399 properties in Bray Park thought to be affected by the flooding. Today the Prime Minister and I are announcing that we’ve activated the hardship payments for those in Bray Park affected by the flooding, but we expect further suburbs to be added throughout the day as we get in and do those disaster assessments. There is still some flooding around our Beachmere and a few other places. The SES received 300 calls for assistance across mostly across Moreton Bay and the Sunshine Coast. I can confirm that Caboolture Hospital and Caboolture Satellite Hospital that were affected by the flooding of the Caboolture River and staffing issues, they’re now back open and operating as normal. In North Queensland we have just 300 people who remain without power, so energy workers have done a fantastic job there. We have seen some localized flooding near Dalby and still significant flooding in the state’s northwest as that low that was Tropical Cyclone Kirrily makes its way over to the Western Cape and the Gulf. Well, it’s 40 years since Labor introduced Medicare, and there is no public policy that Labor people are more proud of than Medicare. For many of us, for all of us, it is core to our beliefs, core to why we are in politics dedicated to serving our communities. Free universal health care. It’s all about being a country where when it comes to health care, your Medicare card is more important than your credit card. And I gotta say, having grown up in the early years of Medicare, I’ve often lamented how families these days just don’t have the same primary health care options as my parents did when I was a kid. My parents would take me to a medical centre in Strathpine that looked and felt and was a lot like this Medicare urgent clinic. Where you could call up in the morning and get an appointment. Or if you hurt yourself, you could just show up and be seen. And on the same location, you would have access to not just doctors and nurses, but allied health professionals, pathology and diagnostic services, X ray, and pharmacy, everything that you would need to be taken care of that day. And after years of neglect, our Labor governments are working together to bring health care back to what it was, what we envisaged, when Labor created Medicare. These Urgent Care Clinics are working alongside our satellite hospitals to deliver better health care closer to home, with free parking, and to take pressure off our emergency departments. So if you think this community that I represent, not that long ago, went from very low bulk billing rates, had very low bulk billing rates, as well as a long drive to our busy emergency departments at Caboolture Hospital, Redcliffe Hospital or Prince Charles Hospital. And now they have both options, an Urgent Care Clinic and a satellite hospitals hospital both nearby, both in close driving distance, both with free public transport, both close to public transport, both delivering services that people need while easing the pressure on our hard working emergency department staff. So in addition to the 150,000 odd Australians who’ve been to the Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, 37,000 Queenslanders southeast Queenslanders have now access to health care at our satellite hospitals, including more than 1200 nearby here in Kallangur. And we’re certainly very, very proud to be standing alongside the Albanese Government to be improving health care for Queenslanders.
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE: Well, thank you, Premier. And thank you for the cooperation that your Government has given to us, rolling out what is a new model of care for Australia. This idea of urgent care that sits somewhere between standard general practice on the one hand, and a fully equipped hospital on the other, is a well-established model of care in almost every country to which Australia would usually compare itself. But it is new here in Australia, and the cooperation of the Queensland State government and all of the other state governments Liberal and Labor alike over the last 18 months, to get this model of care up and running so quickly so that all of the 58 Urgent Care Clinics, we promised were operating and open before the end of calendar 2023 has been really extraordinary. Partly, as the Premier said, because of those governments’ commitment to good universal health care, but also because they know this is going to take pressure of their hospital emergency departments. As Andrew Cohen said, about 60% of people coming through these doors say they otherwise would be going to a hospital emergency department, which we know particularly after four years of a pandemic, are really heaving under unprecedented pressure right across the country, indeed, right across the world. So this is a model of care whose time had come. And we’re delighted companies like ForHealth have taken up the opportunity to build this model of care and give people the opportunity when their kid falls off the skateboard, when they have an urgent need for care that’s non-life threatening, they can come after hours, they can come over the weekend. About 151,000 Australians have accessed this model in just the several months that they’ve been operating. Every single one of those services has been completely free of charge. As the Prime Minister said, all you need to bring is your Medicare card. About one in three of those visits have been children under the age of 15, where something happens – they fall off, they get a rash that people are obviously very worried about – instead of taking your kid to the hospital emergency department, and as Jacinda, did waiting hours and hours to be seen, you can come to one of these clinics seven days a week, and be seen completely free of charge. This is part of our central part of our strengthening Medicare agenda. As the Prime Minister said, the Premier said, there is nothing more core to modern Labor than establishing universal health insurance. This was a hard fought battle, opposed vociferously in those early years by doctors groups, but also by the Liberal Party. For decades, the Liberal Party had a formal policy of abolishing Medibank, which they did, and then to abolish Medicare as well. There is no more defining fault line in modern Australian politics than our commitment to Medicare. And we are proud that tomorrow, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of what is probably, alongside the age pension, the most important social program in Australia. And it’s had a real impact. Before Medicare, the number one cause of personal bankruptcies in Australia was unpaid health bills. After the introduction of Medicare, we didn’t even measure unpaid health bills or include that on the list because it just ceased to be an issue. Now in the most recent study of worldwide health care systems, Australia ranks as the number one health care system in the developed world on the issue of equity. It ranks as the number one healthcare system in the world on the issue of health care outcomes. And that is all down to Medicare. And we’re not going to take 40 years for granted though, we know that we need to strengthen it, we need to modernise it, we need to undo the damage that Peter Dutton started a decade ago when he tried to abolish bulk billing altogether, and then when we stopped him doing that, essentially froze the Medicare rebate for six long years placing enormous pressure on practices like this one, and ripping billions and billions of dollars out of primary care. So I want to thank the doctors and the nurses and the staff here for hosting us at Murrumba Downs and for the work that you’re doing each and every day, and restate Labor’s commitment to continue strengthening Medicare.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks, Mark. We’re happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Australians last year went to a referendum on the Voice to Parliament which was an election promise that you made. What’s the difference between that election promise and the promise to keep the stage three tax cuts?
PRIME MINISTER: What I did on the voice to Parliament was listened to Indigenous Australians who made that request in 2017, after a process that was presided over largely under the Coalition government, including the system that was established when Tony Abbott was the Prime Minister. So I listened to First Nations people about the form of recognition that they wanted. What I have done now is to listen to Australians who are under cost of living pressure, particularly low and middle income earners. If you look at any newspaper in the country, or any of the 24 hour media channels, what you’ll have, or just walk around shopping centres, walk around streets as I do. One of the things I do is I get out and about, I don’t just talk in controlled environments. I talk with people as I was today, talking to the SES there Murrumba Downs, I talk with people as I did last night here in Brisbane, yesterday in Townsville and Rocky. And one of the things that I know is that people are under financial pressure. I’ve listened to them, and I wasn’t going to sit back and say I can’t do anything about a system that would have taken place on the 1st of July, where so many Australians just missed out on getting a single dollar. So they had scheduled a $106 billion system scheduled to come in on July 1 where everyone who was earning under $45,000 would not get a single dollar of that. And where average workers under pressure would get far less, than people like myself and other politicians who are not under the same financial pressure as the people that we’re proud to represent. So what we have done here is very consciously target middle Australia. Middle Australia who are under financial pressure, making sure that no one’s left behind, everyone gets a tax cut, but also making sure that people who have a mortgage, people who are struggling to make ends meet will get, average taxpayers of $73,000 will get double the tax cut. The family on $130,000 with mum and dad working, the average combined income, will get more, more than double the tax cut. This is not an easy decision, but it’s the right decision done for the right reasons. And that is why I note the Coalition, first they said that they didn’t know what it was but they were against it, they’d fight it. Then Sussan Ley when asked, would it be repealed said absolutely. A term that’s very familiar to me from the federal election campaign. And now they’re just all over the shop, they don’t know what they’re doing. But if they repeal it, what it will mean is that they are saying, Peter Dutton and David Littleproud, is saying that they want higher taxes for 12 million Australians. This is a good package, it’s thought through, it’s the same amount of support, slightly more over the forwards, $1.3 billion more. But it is a package that will address cost of living pressures, whilst not putting pressure on inflation, because I they are the two things that you needed to do.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there’s a lot of talk before the last election from Annastasia Palaszczuk about the importance of fifty-fifty health funding, and you are going to look at that. Never happened. Now that Steven Miles is in is there a better chance for Queensland of actually getting that funding?
PRIME MINISTER: We have settled an arrangement with the support of every state and territory for the Commonwealth spending to go up to forty-five per cent over the next two agreements. Some states and territories were getting just over 30 per cent of funding – just over 30 per cent. That recognises a considerable investment. But on top of that, we’ve worked with the state and territory governments on programs like this. This is federally funded, it’s taking pressure off the state hospital systems, and it will make an enormous difference. So one of the things that we’ve done as a government is now we’ve settled health and hospital expenditure up until the mid-30s. We had the first ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Skills Agreement, so that we’ll have apprenticeships and support including the fee free TAFE what we’re doing there. But we had the first 10 year agreement between the Commonwealth and state governments, with I think from memory, our contribution is something like $12 billion under that agreement. In addition to that, I’m very pleased that Jason Clare, today along with Premier Cook in Western Australia has announced the first agreement between the Western Australian government and the Federal Government. But we’ll be working this through with every state and territory government, including here in Queensland. This is a landmark agreement that will provide considerable increased expenditure for public schools in Western Australia. The difference represents a $777.4 million increased investment by the Commonwealth between 2025 to 2029. So what we’re doing as addressing immediate pressures, where they are there, but we’re also looking to the future.
JOURNALIST: So fifty-fifty is dead, buried, cremated? It’s off the table?
PRIME MINISTER: There’s, an arrangement has been agreed to with every state and territory government for health and hospital funding, but the key between the Commonwealth and states and territories is how do we improve primary health care? That’s what will help take pressure off the hospital system. Young Jacinda here who was in the emergency department for hours, but of course in an emergency department when there’s a motor vehicle accident or something that is acute and life threatening, that of course gets seen to first. By doing what we are doing here with Urgent Care Clinics we are delivering better care for people through the primary care system, but at the same time, we’re providing an enormous benefit for public health systems and for hospitals and emergency departments right around the country.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister out of pocket costs for procedures in the private health sector have surged three hundred per cent. Does the system need reforming?
MINISTER BUTLER: Thanks for that question. I’ve read those reports over the course of this morning. And they’re obviously very concerning. These are out of pocket costs for private procedures, usually in private hospitals that private specialists are free to charge, given that they are private businesses. But obviously, we are concerned to keep pressure down on cost of living, particularly for all healthcare costs, including private costs. I’m concerned about the lack of transparency around some of these additional costs that are being imposed by private businesses for these procedures. I’m concerned about the number of specialists and other players in the private medical system who are using the Medical Cost Finder System, which was introduced by the former government supposed to improve transparency and allow people to shop around if you like about who is going to undertake their procedures. And I’ve asked already before this report was released, I’ve already asked the department to provide me with some advice about how we improve those systems of transparency. I’ll have more to say about that in due course.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, we’ve had a new Premier for about six weeks. How do you think he’s going?
PRIME MINISTER: I think he’s had a cracking start to his Premiership. I’ve known Steven for a long time, I launched the first campaign when he was a candidate here so I regard him as a friend, so declare that as an interest. But I think that the leadership that he has shown during tough times, which Queenslanders have gone through. Whether it be up in the Tropical North, or whether it be in South East Queensland, including down on the Gold Coast, he is someone who will get things done. He’s someone who cares about people, he’s compassionate, but he’s determined to make a difference to Queenslanders and improve lives. So whether it’s infrastructure yesterday, we were there at the Rocky Ring Road, whether it be health and hospital issues, the experience that Steven has as a former Health Minister, along with other portfolios that he has held, I think he was ready to be Premier. And I think that I’m very proud to stand by Steven. He’s someone who will work cooperatively with the federal government to get things done. And there’s nowhere where that’s more important than in the cooperation when it comes to health.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the IMF says the global economy will have a soft landing with resilient growth and inflation dropping. Is that good news for our economy?
PRIME MINISTER: It is good news but there has been, we’ve been dealing with global circumstances and the global economy has changed. There have been a range of factors in that. One is the lag that occurred due to supply chain issues coming out of COVID, had an impact globally on lowering growth, increasing inflation, increasing costs for people. In addition to that, then you had the Russian war against Ukraine, the illegal invasion that had a massive spike in energy costs throughout the world. In the UK, inflation hit double digits, here in Australia that led to an increased inflationary environment. It peaked at 2.1 per cent in the March 2022 quarter before the election, before I came to office, and we saw the first interest rate increase before the election campaign. But no one at that time, was saying that there would be the number of interest rate increases. You will recall the former Reserve Bank Governor giving an assurance that up until this year, interest rates would stay at 0.1 per cent. That didn’t occur. That has led to cost of living pressures, that’s what we are responding to. And the responsibility of governments is when economic circumstances change, you change your economic policy. Just like we responded to the pressures on energy prices by coming to an agreement with the Queensland Labor government, but with the New South Wales Liberal Coalition Government as well to put a cap on coal and gas prices and to have an energy price relief plan that has provided significant support here for Queenslanders. So we have done a range of cost of living measures – cheaper medicines, the energy price relief plan, fee free TAFE. At the same time as we’ve been determined to increase wages. So we have had real wages increase for the last two quarters. That is a positive thing for workers. It’s something we committed to. But we understand and have listened to Australians who have said, ‘we’re under financial pressure, we need the government to do more’, which is why our plan for cost of living relief through tax cuts for every taxpayer is the right plan.
JOURNALIST: Premier, just quickly on the disaster first of all, the residents of Bray Park are calling for an investigation into why they flooded. Some are blaming blocked drains. Will you be speaking to councils about this and do you back their calls for an investigation?
PREMIER MILES: Well, after every disaster we do a review of the event and our response and that will be the same for this for this event. And certainly if there is more that we could have done alongside council we’ll feed that into our preparations for future events.
JOURNALIST: Do you know exactly what caused this?
PREMIER MILES: I don’t know. But we have SES and QFES on the ground right now in Bray Park, looking at the damage assessments. And they will look into whether there were other factors that could have been addressed that would have reduced the amount of flooding.
JOURNALIST: How many homes have been affected?
PREMIER MILES: So council have advised us that there are 399 homes in Bray Park that they think have been affected by this flooding. Now that could be anything from relatively minor inundation of their backyard, all the way through to significant damage. And so that’s what those damage assessments are designed to find out. We’ve only completed I think about 29 of those damage assessments. We should have them finished today and have further information for you tonight or tomorrow about how many of them have serious damage. They will then move on to those areas that are currently still flooded places like Beachmere.
JOURNALIST: Premier, noting the Prime Minister’s comments about the new Health Care Agreement, will you still be pursuing fifty-fifty funding? Is it still necessary?
PREMIER MILES: We will always pursue the best possible deal for Queensland. But what we experienced under the former government was a government that was unwilling to consider how its effective cuts to primary care, were increasing pressure on our hospitals. And so we were saying to them, that if you continue to allow Medicare and bulk billing to collapse then we will need additional funding for our hospitals. And so there are, this is a complex system and there are multiple ways of addressing pressure points. And I certainly welcome that we now have an Australian government who is not just working with us to increase hospital funding, and we welcome increased hospital funding, but it’s also working with us to reinvigorate Medicare, to bring back bulk billing, to make it so that families and places like this can get free health care close to home without going to the hospital. And so we certainly welcome the breadth of funding committed right across the healthcare system.
JOURNALIST: The PCCC meets on Friday, Bruce Barbour will be there no doubt again calling those retrospective laws allowing the CCC to table reports. The government’s had legal advice since last October, as a new Premier, what’s your position on this and will you be introducing those laws as requested by the CCC?
PREMIER MILES: As I’ve indicated, this is a complex matter. We have the CCC’s view, we have what the High Court has said, we have legal advice and inter jurisdictional comparisons. And so we are working through those, working through that advice. We will change the laws to expand the CCC’s reporting powers. But we need to do so in a way that accepts and respects the High Court’s findings. And so we will consider the advice that we’re getting based on that legal advice.
JOURNALIST: In saying you’ll respect the High Court’s findings does that sound like it will not be retrospective?
PREMIER MILES: No, we have to take into account what the High Court has said, we also want to take into account what the CCC have said. We want to make sure that they have the powers to do their job, but we also want to make sure that our laws respect the human rights of individuals and respect the outcome of the High Court. So I know that people are eager to see these laws change quickly and we will do so just as quickly as we can. But it is also important that we get it right, because we won’t just be changing these laws for one or two reports as the LNP have demanded we do. We will be changing these laws for everyone going forward and so it’s really important that we get the legal principles right.
JOURNALIST: The flooding in the Lockyer Valley in Western Downs, we understand there were evacuations last night. What’s this situation there?
PREMIER MILES: I think Murray might actually have a more recent update on Lockyer Valley.
MINISTER WATT: Thanks, Premier. You’re correct, there were some evacuations from the Western Downs region last night in Brisbane. My understanding is the number is in around the twenty-five to thirty mark of people who were evacuated particularly from the small town of Warra. My understanding is that the water is receding in the Lockyer Valley, so we’re more at a recovery stage there. But certainly the fact that we were still doing well, we weren’t, the SES we’re doing rescues last night in the Western Downs shows that this is an ongoing event, and we need to keep an eye on it over coming days.
JOURNALIST: Minister, aside from the disaster relief funding, a lot of the residents in Bray Park said what they really need is people on the ground helping them with the clean-up. How will you ensure that they get that?
MINISTER WATT: Yeah, this this event while significant, is of a size that the Queensland Government certainly has the capability to deal with. There haven’t been any requests from the Queensland Government for ADF assistance for an event of this size. And you can imagine, in the Brisbane region, there are very large numbers of SES volunteers, including many that we met this morning. So I know that that work is underway. We meet SES volunteers who are heading out to places like Bray Park and Caboolture today. I might just say, in terms of Bray Park, as the Premier has mentioned, we’ve obviously activated financial assistance to assist people in Bray Park today. And that will no doubt extend to other areas in the next day or two. But in addition, our two governments, the federal and Queensland Government’s only last year agreed to co-fund a mitigation project in Bray Park to assist with drainage improvements. And that’s the kind of investment that we want to be seeing happen between federal governments and state governments right across the country to reduce these kinds of risks for people in the future.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, everyone.
