INTERVIEW WITH KIERAN GILBERT, SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA - AM AGENDA - 8.52am
9 February 2009
Topic: Federal Government's response to the Victorian bushfire emergency relief effort
KIERAN GILBERT: Welcome to the program the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland.
Mr McClelland, thanks for your time.
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: A pleasure.
KIERAN GILBERT: You're overseeing the national response in terms of the emergency relief effort.
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Yes.
KIERAN GILBERT: Obviously we're seeing this death toll, over 100 now, but the word is that it could get worse.
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Regrettably, that's the information. It could go higher and, regrettably, it could go significantly higher.
KIERAN GILBERT: It's just hard to get your head around, isn't it...
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Yes.
KIERAN GILBERT: ...the enormity of this firestorm? Where do you start in terms of providing relief?
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Well, the role of Emergency Management Australia is to coordinate with, obviously, the immediate state agencies but also to look at other assistance that can be brought in, and in this case from New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and even the ACT.
We also have a National Aerial Firefighting Service to get those helicopters, to concentrate those where the greatest need is, to the point of looking for burn specialists, to have them on standby should their assistance be necessary, as well as, of course, coordinating with Defence assets, as well as, of course, making sure that the whole-of-government response is coordinated, whether we're social security, whether we're social workers, psychologists, medical staff and so forth, trying to make sure that that's all available and coordinated to apply to where it's needed on the ground.
KIERAN GILBERT: I heard the Melbourne Lord Mayor describe it as the responses of war effort. He equated it to that sort of magnitude. Is that the sort of level of coordination...
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: It's that level of planning. I visited the operations room yesterday of Emergency Management Australia, and they draw together that expertise, representatives from the Defence, from the Emergency Services. So it's that level of planning. Now, that was simply of organising the resources. Clearly, there's other operations rooms for fighting the fire.
KIERAN GILBERT: It's obviously something that will be looked at in coming days, investigations and so on. But are there any indications at this stage that arson was involved in some of these fires?
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Certainly the indications are that, regrettably, they have been - arson has been implicated in some of these fires.
And that, I must say, is obviously a very, very serious thing.
The extent of arson was pointed out recently in a report from the Australian Institute of Criminology. All I can say is, anyone who lights a fire with reckless indifference to the safety of fellow Australians, satisfies the intention, the criminal intention to satisfy a murder charge.
So the authorities are going to regard this very, very seriously. If anyone is aware of or has information regarding possible arson, I would strongly suggest they come forward, because, of course, when the criminal law is applied, the whole regime of accomplice and so forth comes into play.
So if anyone has information, I would suggest to them to come forward. This is very, very serious.
KIERAN GILBERT: It's just hard to get your head around, isn't it...
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Yeah.
KIERAN GILBERT: ...to the sane mind how anyone could do that?
But the next steps, what - talk us through the next steps as to the emergency coordination and what your focus is going to be on.
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: Fighting the fire is obviously the Victorian first responders. At a commonwealth level, overlaid above that, is drawing together the assistance that I said. We of course will be working downstream with the Victorian Government while this $10 million fund is there immediately over and above what's normally provided straight
away. We have an ongoing responsibility to meet 50 per cent of the recovery payments. So that's going to obviously going to be an ongoing responsibility for both governments to work together.
And of course, there will be an inquest into these deaths, each and every death. While it's a mass tragedy, each and every death will be investigated, a proper inquiry into each and every death, and the lessons learnt is obviously going to occupy the time of emergency responders. We’ll be endeavouring to get the lessons learnt discussed at a national level.
KIERAN GILBERT: Attorney-General, on a very busy day for you, we appreciate your time. Thank you.
ROBERT MCCLELLAND: My pleasure.
ENDS