Subjects: Visit to flood-affected areas in Victoria; Medibank Private cyber attack; Labor’s cyber security ministerial shambles; Labor’s crab walking away from legislated tax cuts.
SAM BIRRELL:
This is a really tough time for the greater Shepparton Region. My whole electorate of Nicholls is affected, and it’s been very difficult, but it gives you great support when you get a visit from your federal colleagues, and I really appreciate the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton coming to visit and view Shepparton and Shepparton’s resilience, but also to see some of the damage that’s been inflicted. Parliament’s sitting next week. I’m going, and I want to explain in Canberra exactly what we’re facing here, what people are going through and the level of support that we need. Thanks very much to Wendy Lovell, Shane Sali and Bridget McKenzie, my state and federal colleagues and local government. Everyone’s pulling together very well in this crisis, and I hope to see that continue. I’ll just hand over to Peter Dutton, the Opposition Leader to say a few words.
PETER DUTTON:
Sam, thank you very much. Look, ladies and gentlemen, I think every Australian would be proud of what we’ve seen here today, the work of the local council. Shane, I want to say to you – you lead an incredible team and it’s really been demonstrated to us on the ground. The Australian Defence Force, who answer the call on every occasion. They turn up to all sorts of natural disasters and there’s a real injection of confidence when you see those machines rolling into town and the people who are here, as you look around, some of the amazing volunteers within GV and GV Care, the ones that we saw, working with council, they are just incredible people and I really want to say on behalf of all Australians – thank you very much for what you do.
There are many people here who are suffering inundation in their own homes and Sam was talking about this before, they leave that to one side, they’re here volunteering or helping the community, otherwise, and it’s pretty amazing and we should be very proud of them.
Now, there are some houses and some businesses and some farms where the waters have receded. There are others where there are concerns about waters rising and what happens if there is more rain on the way. But I really want to pay tribute to Sam Birrell who I think has demonstrated to his local community, not only does he have that connection, but he has the respect on the ground, the connections that he’s built up. Damian Drum who was his predecessor was a great local member, and Sam has filled those shoes admirably. He’s done a great job and we’ve seen that here today.
Wendy to you as well, thank you very much for what you do on the ground, the support that you provide. Communities need their leaders to come together and the way in which we’ve seen that working today should give a great deal of confidence for locals, who in many cases are in their darkest hour, and we really remember those families and loved ones of the two people who have lost their lives in this particular event.
I was talking with some SES officers from Queensland before but others that have come from other parts of the country, and that was true in the Queensland floods, in the New South Wales floods, where Victorian emergency workers went to help their brothers and sisters in uniform in that natural disaster. So, there’s a lot that we need to be proud of as a nation. There’s a lot that divides us in this country, but we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the government, with every agency that’s here, to make sure that the support is provided on the ground so that we can help people turn the corner and get back to their lives, help in the clean-up, and help with the rebuilding. As the Mayor was saying earlier, there’s a big rebuild that’s required – the roads, the infrastructure that will need to be replaced, and in some cases hardened and fortified against a future flooding event.
So, I’m really proud to be here today and acknowledge the work of all the volunteers and all of the professionals that we’ve spoken to but have responded in a way that is quite remarkable. So, thank you very much to all of them. I’m happy to take any questions.
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, have you managed to see some of the damage and what’s your initial reaction to that?
PETER DUTTON:
We’ve seen some of the damage as we’ve driven in and seen some of the mapping, some of the images, and obviously, I think all Australians have seen those images on your television screens over the course of last week. I first spoke to Sam last Friday about what was happening and we’ve watched that unfold. There are rescues that have taken place, there is the initial response and the food supplies, the medications being delivered to isolate at home. So, all of that is the here and now, but the big shock that comes after the cameras have left: the families who are still cleaning up, the crops that have been destroyed, the fencing that needs replacing – governments can’t forget about that.
We need to make sure that we work with the Australian government, with the Victorian government, with the local council, authorities, to make sure that that support is in place in the rebuild. Because the immediate response is very important, obviously to keep people safe, to protect property, but it’s the rebuild and the aftermath where people can feel that they’re by themselves and we need to really be very conscious of and I know that Sam and Wendy and Shane and others here will make sure their local communities get that support.
QUESTION:
What understanding are you getting, from what you’re learning on the ground now about if this was a recurrent event? What are you learning for perhaps the next event?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, obviously there will be lessons. I mean standing behind me is Bridget McKenzie, who is an expert, a former minister in this area, and she has rolled her sleeves up to respond to many natural disasters. I’ve seen her operate around the National Security Committee and she is a very calm person and I think that’s the quality you need in the leaders that will respond. You need to expect more rain, if that’s what’s going to happen, particularly if you’ve got wet ground and the impact that that will have. But as I say it’s the aftermath, it’s the farmers who are trying to milk at the moment and to get that milk off their farms and to deal with that problem; it’s the fodder that’s lost, the crops that are destroyed that otherwise would have seen farmers through a season or two. We don’t know where the flood or drought comes in our country, but we know it’s inevitable that it does. We don’t know the timing of it, but that’s the history of our country, and we will see it into the future as well. I think people should, though, be really proud of the response here and knowing that whatever happens in the future, that they’ve got professionals who will respond in the way that we’ve seen here in the last week or so.
QUESTION:
Do you expect to see a higher frequency of these type of events?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, as we know, here, we’ve seen a higher level or predict a higher level of flooding in some areas. We’ve seen waters not rise to the level that they have in previous times, and I think whatever the event, with whatever frequency there is, we should rest assured that the authorities here know how to respond and families are resilient businesses are resilient. When you think about the fact that 200-250,000 sandbags were filled here – that is an incredible human effort to do that: not just to fill in, but to send them before the waters rise, to provide families with the support to protect their home – in many cases their biggest asset and to protect that, to see them through a difficult time is something I’m very proud of.
QUESTION:
Sam, obviously Echuca is in the firing line at the moment. What’s the message to people in Echuca as the water begins to rise and is expected to hit the peak in the next day or two?
SAM BIRRELL:
Yeah, I’ve been in constant contact with the Mayor and others in Echuca. They’re quietly confident and fingers crossed that the levee is high enough and it’s going to hold. The modelling suggests that that could be the case. So it’s just a wait and see at the moment. Really difficult time for them, the waters on its way, the levee’s been built – it’s just being firmed up at the moment – and they’re just they’re just hoping that that’s the case.
QUESTION:
There have been several breaches at the levee up at [inaudible], in particular, do we need more work put into the infrastructure around there and I guess [inaudible] from such breaches.
SAM BIRRELL:
Oh, we’re going to learn a lot from this. You know, ‘74 was the year before I was born and then there was ‘93 when I was running around here as a young guy, but this is probably beyond those events, slightly. So, we’re going to learn a lot and we can have those conversations, of course, about how we manage infrastructure after that.
QUESTION:
[Inaudible] Seymour’s levee as well, but the council scrapped that a few years ago because some people thought it would disrupt [inaudible]. Is that something you’ve really looked at or thought about and you know, something that could be revisited?
SAM BIRRELL:
People on the ground in Seymour have said very briefly to me, we need to revisit that. But at the moment, they’re sweeping out and switching up water. So, I think that’s what we need to focus on at the moment and we need to learn from whatever’s happened and have an open conversation about solutions, not adhering to what you believe, you know, 10 years ago or whatever but just ‘okay, we’ve seen this happen, what’s the best solution forward and have an open conversation about that.’
QUESTION:
Mr Dutton, is the government providing enough support to Medibank Private customers?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, that’s the difficulty. As we saw with Optus and now as we are seeing with Medibank, is that nobody knows which minister is in control. There seems to be some sort of internal dispute between ministers as to who’s responsible and the fact that it’s taken Clare O’Neil – if she is the responsible minister – a week to come out, as was the case with Optus, well we know that time is of the essence and for her to delay coming out on Optus and now on Medibank – there’s a concerning pattern developing here. We know that people – if they have had their privacy breached – it’s important for people to change passwords quickly before their accounts or their personal information is compromised.
So, the Prime Minister made a big deal of having a Minister for Cyber Security before the election and now we’re seeing a complete debacle after the election. I want to make sure that we protect people’s data online and part of that is having a minister knowing, whether it’s Clare O’Neil or Mark Dreyfus or somebody else – whoever it is – that person needs to stick their hand up and actually take responsibility and lead. Because at the moment, we’re going to see people in very dire situations if we have identity theft, or their details are stolen otherwise. People potentially can have their bank accounts locked, they can get new accounts or loans set up in their own names. These are real-life issues and if you don’t respond quickly, the criminals have the ability to disseminate, to sell this information to criminal syndicates, and that can be devastating for those individuals.
QUESTION:
What else can the government do to help businesses in the community better prepare for cyber attacks?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I think the Australian Cyber Security Centre is well-resourced. When we’re in government we put $9.9 billion into the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre. So, I would encourage people to visit those websites just to get the patches, the upgrades, the updates, and for the government to continue that messaging. It seems to have been, again, because there’s this internal brawl within Labor at the moment on who is responsible, nobody is actually providing this support and this messaging out to the community. It is important that people just take the basics seriously and upgrade your passwords to something that is not predictable. Do it regularly. Make sure that the software upgrades are installed as you receive them on your phone, on your devices. The government should be giving these messages out but at the moment, they’re involved in a civil war and they’re not providing the support to consumers and businesses that they should.
QUESTION:
Just lastly, the cost of stage three tax cuts has risen to $254 billion over ten years. Are they still a good idea?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, I don’t know who to believe here, whether it’s the Treasurer, or the Prime Minister. I don’t know who’s telling the truth. We’ve seen a very significant break of a promise of a $275 reduction in energy costs that was promised on 97 occasions before the election and we’re now seeing the predictions of increases in energy costs of 35 per cent over the next 12 months. Families can’t afford Labor’s increased electricity costs. Labor will provide no solution, they promised they had a plan before the election, and I don’t think there is going to be a plan delivered in the Budget.
Now, again, we’ve got a Treasurer at odds, in conflict with the Prime Minister over whether these tax cuts should be honoured. The fact is that both Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese looked the Australian public in the eye before the election and promised that these tax cuts which had been legislated, would come into effect in July of 2024. They are of benefit to 95 per cent of Australian taxpayers earning between $45,000 and $200,000. It means that people won’t pay more than 30 cents in the dollar. If you’re going to tell the Australian people that under a Labor government your petrol prices are going up, your gas prices are going up, your mortgage is going up, your electricity bill is going up, but we’re going to tax you more – then I think families in 12 months or 18 months’ time will be very angry at this government.
So, the Treasurer needs to think very carefully about what he’s going to do in the Budget, but the first principle should be that he keeps his promises that he made before the election. They knew all of the prevailing economic conditions. They knew that they had inherited a very strong economy from nine years of Coalition government, and in this Budget, we want to see the plan that they promised before the election, but hasn’t seen the light of day since.
Thank you very much everyone.
[ends]