Radio interview – ABC Radio NSW Drive
FIONA POOLE, HOST: The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has been in Bega this afternoon. He’s just toured the fire ground. And he joins us now. Prime Minister, good afternoon.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon, Fi. Good to be with you.
POOLE: What have you seen this arvo?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we met at the headquarters there in Bega and received an extensive briefing about what’s been happening on the ground in South East New South Wales, from the people be they police and fire chiefs and also those people looking after issues such as health and infrastructure. And it has been a difficult period. There were some 800 people fighting fires overnight, last night. And there are currently over 200 people on the ground fighting fires. We’re currently travelling from Bega to Bermagui to meet with people there. I am with the Premier, Chris Minns, and we are talking to people on the ground, both to inform ourselves as to what’s happening, to see if there are any needs which aren’t being met. But importantly, also just to say thank you to these remarkable Australians who are showing the best of Australian character in what are very difficult times.
POOLE: Prime Minister, what we heard yesterday was how happy locals were in such an anxious time to see those 737s dumping fire retardant on the fire ground, to see the police doing the roadblocks, to see the RFS trucks on the fire front. You mentioned that there are 800 personnel out there fighting those fires. Are we going to need more investment in these sorts of resources as we face the summer ahead?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, certainly, all governments, I think, will provide whatever resources which are needed. We are facing a very difficult summer ahead. As we speak, there’s rain falling as we’re driving towards Bermagui, which is a very positive thing that is occurring. But we’re in the first days of October. We’ve had conditions in New South Wales that are just about unprecedented, really. We had the hottest July on record, almost like winter didn’t happen. And we’ve had successive days of above 30 degree temperature. And we have conditions that, in recent days as well, of those extreme winds. So, that had an impact where the fire moved through 15, 16 kilometres very quickly, yesterday. And that’s had a real impact. But there’s a human impact as well. Walking around Bega, the smell, the smoke which was there. It will be very triggering for people who had such a traumatic time over the summer of 2019-2020. And we need to make sure that people are looked after during this time, which will be extremely difficult for so many.
POOLE: Earlier this year, we sent our large air tanker to Canada and to California for their wildfires. Do we have that sort of arrangement with the US and Canada for our fire season? Will they deliver us equipment? Will they deliver us people?
PRIME MINISTER: I have had discussions with Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada and President Biden as well about support for the upcoming season. And they have both expressed their preparedness to do whatever they can to provide that support. Australia made a magnificent effort, particularly with the wildfires in Canada. And that was acknowledged by Prime Minister Trudeau was very generous in his praise of Australian firefighters and their skills. It is perhaps unfortunate, really, that there’s so much experience. But with that comes capacity to learn from previous events as well. And I’m constantly in awe of the remarkable commitment that firefighters show. And we know in the past, we’ve had support. There was the tragic loss of life from American citizens during that summer of 2019-2020, from people who were here to help us in our time of need.
POOLE: I mean, the RFS do an incredible job, as do the other fire agencies. But the RFS, their capacity in the regions, I think, is hampered by the fact that they are volunteer positions, the majority of those. And what we know that is happening around the state, and in the regions particularly, is that the RFS volunteers are often sort of ageing, like the average age of a volunteer is over 50 or 60. You know, many of them in their 70s. Is there any room here for paid positions within the RFS where volunteers numbers obviously need to be bolstered this summer? And I’m sure some financial incentives would certainly help with that.
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we had, just last week, a really successful meeting in Canberra. The summit was called the National Preparedness Summit for the upcoming season. We’ll continue to engage with state and territory governments about ways that things can be improved going forward. There are not, at this stage, concrete proposals, such as the one that you raised. But there is increased investment is occurring right across all state governments, but also from the national Government with the creation of the National Emergency Management Agency, and the measures that were put in place. So, having a National Preparedness Summit was very much a part of that.
POOLE: The Government has committed this $27.4 million to a National Climate Risk Assessment and Adaption plan. Where’s that at?
PRIME MINISTER: That’s been worked through. We have provided that funding. We know that climate change is real. The science told us that there would be more extreme weather events and they would be more intense. And tragically, we are seeing that one of the things we’ve seen is locally, here on the South Coast of New South Wales, for example, there’s been assessments in the wake of the 2019-2020 bushfires, what could be done better? What are the circumstances of potential future events as well? What does that mean for planning? What does that mean for where houses are located? All of those issues. But an opportunity to bring together a national approach and to bring together the information, to have that proper consultation will be really important as well. And that’s one of the measures that we’ve adopted and funded in our Budget.
POOLE: Prime Minister, we have some text here from our listeners, just regarding climate change. This one’s a bit red hot from Amanda, but she wants to know when the Government will take seriously the major cause of extreme climate emergencies by not approving new coal and gas projects?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we are taking the issues seriously. We are transitioning. We have a plan for 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030. We have a plan for 82 per cent of renewables by 2030 as part of our energy mix. We need to make sure that when people flick a switch and turn on the light, or turn on other equipment in their home, they are able to do so. And we lost nine years to a former Government, they had 22 energy policies and didn’t land any. We have landed a policy. It’s a serious policy. It includes a range of sub-measures, if you like, with it to drive that transition through. But it needs to be a transition. You can’t just flick a switch on the energy mix overnight.
POOLE: Just on that transition, John in Wagga wants to know, why, Prime Minister, are you ruling out any consideration of nuclear when so many overseas countries, in particularly, are reintroducing it because of its obviously great efficient capacity and its ability to ensure continued power sources when solar and wind cannot function?
PRIME MINISTER: Because it doesn’t add up economically here in terms of the cheapest form of energy here is in renewables. And the market, effectively, is saying it would take a very long time. We don’t have a nuclear industry in Australia. It would take a very long time to develop one. And it’s the most expensive form of new energy.
POOLE: This one from Floyd. He wants to know why weren’t all the fire-affected power poles replaced after the 2019-2020 fires? Do you have any information on that Prime Minister?
PRIME MINISTER: No, I don’t. My apologies for that. Of course, I wasn’t Prime Minister at that time. So, I’m not aware of specifically what is being put forward.
POOLE: We’ll move to the next one. This one from Callum.
PRIME MINISTER: It will have to be the last one because I’m here in Bermagui now.
POOLE: I understand, Prime Minister. This is a good one, though, and perhaps you can take this back to Canberra with you. It’s from Callum. He says perhaps a tax deduction or an incentive for RFS and SES volunteers could be a good start. So, we’ll just take that as a point to leave with you, Anthony Albanese.
PRIME MINISTER: Thanks very much, Fi.
POOLE: Thanks for joining us.