TRANSCRIPT: SOUNDS OF THE MOUNTAINS RADIO INTERVIEW WITH DAVID EISENHAUER, 28 January 2020
E&OE
Subjects: Bushfire recovery effort
DAVID EISENHAUER:
… speaking with the Deputy Prime Minister and of course Michael McCormack joining us on the line, once again and becoming a guest on the station and it's very much appreciated. Mr McCormack, thank you very much for your time on the local station today.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Yes, no, great to be with you, David and to all your many listeners. They owe your station and you in particular a debt of gratitude too for the great service that you provided, the continual updates and I'm not just trying to, you know, say the right things because I have to because you didn't know I was going to say this. But, you know, your station has really helped, really helped in the process as have the- you know, all the media outlets, but in particular your radio station and yourself. I was told that you’ve worked a couple of 20 hour days there, back to back. And that's a huge effort and I think that was appreciated by people who, you know, when there- when everything else was failing, at least they had their radio station making sure that they knew what was happening, where the evacuation centres were, where to seek help, those necessary numbers and mate, it’s very much appreciated.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Thank you, Mr McCormack. Look, we talk of the big wheel that was the service and that continues to be the service of the district, whether that's the people packing those ration packs, or whether it's the boys and girls in the back of fire trucks, or whatever the case, everyone had their bit the play. And the station’s very fortunate that it's got the emergency services- you know, the credibility that we've had over the 20 years we've been broadcasting. But the fact we've also got those systems in place to keep going when everything failed there. At one stage, we were the only voice across the whole southwest and northeast districts because we had a generator that just kept going. All the battery systems had failed and that was a day the fire was threatening Adelong. And we’re it. We had Peter Jones from the Rural Fire Service in the studios and that was a bit of a scary time, Mr McCormack, when you think about it, but we're very fortunate. But thank you, no, very kind words. And of course, along with our friends at the ABC and our commercial stations as well. I mean, it was a big team effort, wasn't it, for the media?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Look, it was and even the Tumut and Adelong Times, I’ll have to throw a plug in for them too.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Absolutely.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
You know, everybody has pulled together. But you talk about the relief and the recovery efforts, you talk about people packing bags and getting all those goods and necessary life essentials items together. That’s, you know, essentially still ongoing and there's still distribution points and there's still people who are – even in our own local district – not knowing where their futures lie. There's still people who haven't got homes and, you know, got very few clothes and it is an ongoing effort. It will be, not just for many months, but for some people, it's going to take years to recover from it. They will recover, but they're going to need a lot of assistance, they’re going to need a lot of help.
And when you talked about generators, I think that's one of the big learnings from this is we're going to need to look out to where we can get those backup supplies, backup energy reserves and backup power sources when we have these sorts of disasters. Because they will continue in the future and when, unfortunately, when you lose your mobile phone service, that spelled disaster for some people who then can't either call for help, don't know where to get updates and you know can't get the necessary emergency alerts.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Isn't that the truth? And that was one thing we did notice here was the communication systems. I mean, they're still, I mean, we still have Tumbarumba, Mount Ikes, we still have some but we still have Jingellic running on diesel generators to keep those Telstra communications and other carriers running. Plus of course, the local radio stations transmitters are still running on generators as well. But there's also that element of preparedness too and we're looking at a trig site actually at the moment here at the Tumut carrier to make sure that it is safe. It wasn't affected in the fires, but we- the lessons learned, isn't it? That's a good question for the Deputy Prime Minister with the recovery plans. You visited the region with the Prime Minister Scott Morrison there last week. What did you find as you travelled around, Mr McCormack, with this- with the recovery effort that's getting under way?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Well we visited Greg Mouat’s farm again and took the Prime Minister there at Batlow, and he was most interested to learn about how long it was going to take the recovery efforts for those orchardists. But it's not just orchardists, of course. We had a number of local leading identities, talking about the pine plantations, talking about the general regional economy there at Batlow and of course how it affects Tumut, how it affects Tumbarumba. The Prime Minister then went and visited with Gladys Berejiklian – the Premier of New South Wales – and others, Shane Fitzsimmons, of course, the RFS commissioner, Tumbarumba and said thanks to the hardworking SES and police and various other RFS people and just the community who had gone above and beyond to save their town, to save others at the sides.
And it was great for the Prime Minister to catch up with such people as John Webb. I know he's a bit of a character from the Glen Mannus brigade. And of course John and others certainly told the Prime Minister exactly how close a call they had, but how they’ve worked hour upon hour, day after day to ensure that not only they save their town, but then you know certainly made sure that the mop up efforts were such that the fires didn't re-spark and create another danger for Tumbarumba and beyond.
So this has been a great community effort, and of course it's going to take a great community recovery effort and we're going to be there with them all the way, the Federal Government, I know the state government too. John Barilaro and I had a long, long meeting last week about what we need to do. I know he's been appointed as a special recovery minister with the responsibility for that. He and I are colleagues. He, of course, represents the Monaro area, which you know has suffered greatly too. A lot of areas have, and of course today, there's still 75 fires burning Australia-wide, particularly dangerous fires southwest of Canberra and there's one burning in Perth. So we're not out of the woods yet. It's only January 28, we’ve still got a long summer ahead of us.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Something that is being talked about in the local region too is that specific looking at different communities and their specific needs in the region in the recovery of the two. For example Batlow – and that's something I noticed a lot of the local landholders have been talking is when we look at the recovery I think every town's going to be different, isn't it?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Yes. There's going to, as the Prime Minister and I discussed this morning, there'd be a sort of a bespoke tailored approach to how we rebuild these communities according to their local needs and wants and expectation. The fact is what might be right for Batlow might not necessarily be right for say Bega or Mallacoota or somewhere else. We're going to have to tailor the needs for those communities with community led recovery efforts. So we want to, obviously, talk to James Hayes and John Larter and other local government people. But as well local business people, local senior citizens, local youth to see what they expect in their own recovery efforts for their own communities. This can't be a- and won't be a Canberra-led recovery, it needs to be a locally led recovery.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Yes that's true, and it's happening very soon. One of those questions that came out of it is now that we're starting the rebuilding process in a lot of ways – I mean it started yesterday with a very well attended Australia Day right across the region and that recovery effort begins now, Mr McCormack.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
And wasn't there a great celebration and recognition and acknowledgement of our RFS and our other volunteer people who have just put in what mighty, such a mighty effort. So that was, that was duly acknowledged.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
And of course there, a great attendance too from our Australian Defence Force. Something that's very, been very unique to the region – they haven't seen it before – is the amount of military contribution. We spoke actually with the Brigadier Mick Garraway last week on the line and we were talking-
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
[Indistinct] of course, and a former Kapooka Commandant and nearly 6400 Australian Defence Force personnel have built supporting bushfire relief and recovery operations and of those 2500 are reservists. So again.
That's necessary. They need to get back to work and their jobs. But of course if the fires start up again or if the need arises they'll be, they'll be back out on the fire front, out in the field as soon as we can mobilise them. So that's an important step too.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Indeed it is. Look we could talk more but you’re on a fairly busy schedule as the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr McCormack. Anything you'd like to add while we’re chatting live on the station this morning?
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
Just thanks again to all those people who've helped out. Of course we think of those who have lost a lot. What we need to do, what we need to make sure is they've got the necessary help and 180 22 66 is the number if they do need assistance and make sure they contact Mike Kelly's office, they contact my office, they contact John Barilaro’s office or Joe McGirr’s office. Our politicians are there to help, our officers are there to serve and if people need assistance we’ll then certainly provide it.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Indeed. And of course the local numbers too with our councils across the region for the Towong Shire and also Snowy Valley. Some wonderful resources and, Mr McCormack, we will see you in the region, as we have done, more and more as we head through into the year of 2020. Thank you very much for your time on the station this morning.
MICHAEL MCCORMACK:
That’s a pleasure. Any time and thanks for your efforts too, David.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
Indeed, much appreciated. Thanks. Thanks very much, Mr McCormack.
DAVID EISENHAUER:
There you go. Of course the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack joining us on the line there live from the Wagga Wagga offices this morning. And big thank you to Mr McCormack who, we've spoke to him a couple of times here in the studios during the bushfires and of course this morning live in the station. The recovery effort, one of the big focuses there and that's the sort of questions that we're getting from people at the moment is when it starts and what is happening in various communities. And it's certainly the privilege to catch up and chat. No doubt we'll be talking to more.