Doorstop interview at Lismore

NSW MEMBER FOR LISMORE, JANELLE SAFFIN:  I'd like to welcome our visitor, but someone who's also very familiar with our region, who was born here and has family here, and that's Senator Jenny McAllister, who's the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy. So, I always welcome Senator McAllister here, but I particularly welcome her today, with her announcement on improved communications, particularly for disaster situations, and you'll hear from Senator McAllister on that. But one thing that I encourage is as many visitors as we can, because we don't want to be forgotten here, and we're not forgotten; we're not forgotten by the government, and that's important because we still have a long way to go with our recovery and rebuilding and reimagining our community. So, I know that for every visitor we have, and particularly with Senator McAllister, who has roots in our community, and is in a key position in the Australian Federal Albanese Government, that what she sees, what she hears, what she experiences, that goes back to Canberra, and our voices get heard again. And I welcome you both here, the media, for taking an interest in what happens in our community. But this announcement is a good one: it covers Kyogle, Woodburn, Coraki and Casino. Thank you. Over to you. 

ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY, SENATOR JENNY McALLISTER: Thanks Janelle. Look, it's terrific to be here with my very good friend, Janelle Saffin. This area could not have a more energetic, vigorous, and frankly ethical advocate than Janelle. Janelle went through an awful experience in that awful night in the floods, and she got up the next morning and started advocating for her community, and she hasn't stopped since. It's really my great pride to call Janelle a friend, and I'm really pleased to have you welcome me here today, Janelle. Our community, on the Northern Rivers, has gone through some incredible experiences in recent years, because the truth is that the floods came after the pandemic, and the pandemic came after the fires, and the fires came after the drought. It has been a very, very difficult time. Janelle talked about the importance of having public representatives and Parliamentarians stay the course. A lot of attention comes on to a community in particular when a disaster strikes. But the difficult truth is that recovery takes a long time, and communities need people to stand with them for that long journey. My visit here today, and the discussion we're having today around communications infrastructure, is part of that commitment. It's about making sure that the investments that we plan for are actually implemented, and we start to do the work that is necessary to ready this community for any future disasters. The sad truth is that climate change will mean that natural disasters are more frequent and more intense than in the past. And here, and in communities right across Australia, we are going to need to ready ourselves for that change. The STAND program, Strengthening Telecommunications Against Natural Disasters, has been a really important investment by the Australian government. It seeks to harden and build resilience into our telecommunications networks. We know how significant communications is in a disaster. In fact, it's critical. It can be the difference between life and death. Today we can confirm that these projects are being stored up in some really important sites; Janelle's mentioned them. Out at Kyogle, Coraki, Woodburn and out at Casino, we now have satellite facilities. What this means is that for first responders in those RFS and SES facilities, they will know that even if the main telecommunication system goes down, the air is another option, and that option is to connect to the Sky Muster satellite. It's an important investment, and our government recognises that we will need to do more. In our budget in October, we prepared a significant package to strengthen rural and regional communications, and as part of that $100m has been allocated to further extend these investments in communications resilience, so that regional communities are ready, because sadly, we know that the disasters that we've seen over the course of this year won't be the last, and we need to strengthen and prepare our communities. 

SAFFIN: Thank you, Jenny. Any questions? 

JOURNALIST: How did the STAND program come about? 

McALLISTER: The Bushfire Royal Commission made a number of observations about the importance of telecommunications, and actually the previous government made a commitment to invest. We invited Mr Hogan here today actually, and we understand he has another commitment. This has been a project that's been worked on by the Commonwealth Government with the New South Wales Government, and Janelle and I are really pleased to stand here and see some of the fruits of it. We are going to need to retain focus on these kinds of investments, and again, I emphasise that our most recent Federal budget contains additional and new money to build out from some of the successes of these programs.

JOURNALIST: And how will these satellites sort of work, and I guess, cut through when all telecommunications are down for first responders? 

McALLISTER: It is incredibly important that first responders have access to communications. Coordinating activity, coordinating rescue, providing accurate information to community is critical in a time of disaster. These facilities mean that where the main communications networks are down, satellite access will be available to first responders in these sites. 

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] so there was as you said, you've moved the program along, initially introduced by the Liberal Government. Do you think though in the coming future which you alluded to, we will have more natural disasters, is that going to be a point of emphasis moving forward, especially as Assistant Minister for Climate Change, to focus on these natural disaster areas, for obviously more flood preparations and preparing for what could potentially happen in the future? 

McALLISTER: We are going to need to think very deeply about how to prepare ourselves for natural disasters. We've learnt some really important lessons over the last few years through the bushfire season, and the flood season that followed. One of the key areas of interest for our government is working to prepare ourselves. For a long time emphasis was on the disaster itself, and the recovery that followed. We know that we have to bring our thinking forward, and certainly the Disaster Ready Fund, the $200 million will be available to communities to help them prepare for disaster, is a very important part of that process, and providing resources to allow communities to get ready.

JOURNALIST: Do you think that these types of precedents, Janelle was with us the other day and a planner was in town, and I feel like a big point of emphasis is now communications with the Federal and State Government for quicker buy back schemes and quicker preparation, flood relief funds. Do you think now that we've had this type of natural disaster, it has set for the future that we are now prepared that, that we learnt lessons, maybe from the previous government, that it's important to keep connections with the State Government? 

McALLISTER: One of the things I would observe about the previous Liberal Government, was that they were often looking to pick fights where no fight was necessary. I think you'll have seen across a whole range of policy areas, our government looking to work collaboratively with State Governments. Now, of course, from time to time there will be differences of opinion. But there's no problem that isn't improved by dialogue, and I think you'll see all of our ministers, from the Prime Minister down, looking to work in much more collaborative ways with State Governments than was the case under the previous Liberal Government. Janelle, any thoughts from a state perspective? 

JANELLE SAFFIN: Yes, definitely. And Sam, and Josie, you would have seen the way that I’ve worked locally with the State Government, with the Premier, the leader of the opposition, have them both there backing us all the way, the way I work with the federal members here, and whenever we have visitors to town, whatever party they're from, the government opposition, we all get together and work together. That's the way we have to prepare for, respond, rescue, you know, mitigate, whatever it is we need to do for disasters. And you would have seen the Minister, Murray Watt, he was here, like Senator McAllister was in the early days, immediately after the floods, Senator McAllister was here, you know, immediately, and so was Senator Watt, and that's continued and engaging with everyone in the community; it's the only way we can do this, to do it well. But there is, what I observe, there's I'm trying to think of the word  a more muscular approach, is for want of a better word, from the Federal Government now to say, "this is the way we've got to prepare”. And we've got the O'Kane Fuller report with those recommendations in, and they're an absolute point of conversation; they're for the State Government to implement, but some of it needs a Federal Government, and that's where we have the conversation on those particular recommendations, and we are.

JOURNALIST: Can I ask you, Janelle, just as a bit of background and an insight, what it was like in the disaster on the ground for first responders, and you know, what sort of happened; it was actually life or death? 

SAFFIN: I received quite a few calls from first responders, one in particular, where I know they were trying to effect a range of rescues,16 in fact, and they had no telecommunications at their first responders' headquarters, and they managed to ring from their mobile to me, and then I was able to, you know, ring the appropriate people to go out and, yeah, help them with the rescues. 

So this is really important.They won't have to ring me; they will have their own access to telecommunications. 

JOURNALIST: Do you think, Jenny, that what happened here in Lismore is really sitting a bit of a precedent; we could see this program rolled out in places like Eugowra where we have seen similar instances, and situations like the flooding? 

McALLISTER: Unfortunately, most parts of Australia can expect more frequent and more intense natural events, and that will have significant implications for communities. We are going to need to think carefully about how to resource communities right across the country. There is no doubt that the experience in Lismore was very shocking for many Australians, and I think many Australians saw the images here and really wanted to know what we could do to help the community here. There are also lessons that we can learn from the experience here, and the report that Janelle referred to is a really important document and sets out some recommendations that we can all pay attention to in thinking about other communities as well. 

JOURNALIST: Janelle, how does it feel as you were here on the ground, you were crying out for all this help, for all this change. Now, we're nearly, what, over six months on, you're starting to see some buy backs come through, these satellites are kind of put in place. Are you happy with the amount of progress that's been made? 

SAFFIN: Sam, I'm never fully happy with the progress, but I am happy with the engagement from both the Federal and State Government with us, and they do recognise that it needs to be community led recovery and rebuild. They're trying to figure out how best to do that, and I keep saying "back us in, we know our needs”.  So, yes, and everything should have happened yesterday, you know, I'm a bit impatient, but the fact is we have things happening we haven't had before. We've got a resilient homes fund. You know, is it going to be perfect? No, but it's ours. And we've got an $800 million investment, which I call a down payment, because I know that ultimately, we will need some more, but that's a really good start from the Federal and State Government, and we've got to work with it and make it work for us.