​Subjects: Queensland flooding; disaster assistance for Far North and North Queensland communities.

ANGELA BISHOP, HOST: Returning to the flooding disaster in Townsville and the Federal Minister for Emergency Management, Jenny McAllister, joins us now. Minister, you've just arrived on the ground. Just how shocking are the scenes?

JENNY McALLISTER, MINISTER FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Look, this has obviously been an incredibly difficult time for people in North Queensland. There is a lot of water in this landscape. I've had the chance this morning to meet with the Premier, to meet with the mayor, the local area disaster coordinator. There has been a power of work go on in this community to keep people safe. But we are not out of the woods yet. And this really is an ongoing emergency. We will be continuing to work hand in glove with local authorities and with the Queensland Government to make sure that we can all get through this safely. It's a really critical time for people here.

BISHOP: You've announced financial and personal hardship support is available to affected residents. Can you talk us through this?

McALLISTER: Yeah, that's right. I mean, when events like this happen, they are really impactful. We see the impact on people and households. And so we've worked really closely with the Queensland Government to stand up some measure of financial support quite quickly. So, the Queensland Government have nominated a range of Local Government Areas where they think people really are going to need a little bit of help and we've made payments available to them. There's actually a range of payments. They depend on your circumstances. You can access them through the Queensland Government’s website. They administer them and we co fund them together. And so we actually really encourage people to get online, have a look and see if it might be that your family might be eligible for some kind of support. We know it can make a real difference in this early stage when we're just getting through this first period of an emergency.

BISHOP: What other assistance is available? Often it's not just financial assistance because something like this is enormously, enormous upheaval to people's lives and psychological support is often also needed.

McALLISTER: Yeah, that's right, Ange. Our focus to date has been getting through the emergency. And as officials were really clear this morning, it's not really over yet. We've still got a lot of communities that are very isolated, that are without power. And the focus now is really turning to what we can do to restore services to those communities as the waters go down. As we move into recovery, we'll work really closely with Queensland to understand what kind of support is required. But as I say, we've moved very quickly in these first days just to make sure that people who've been affected, who've been required to evacuate, who've had property damaged or bedding destroyed, that those people just have a little bit of help in these early days and the confidence that they can start rebuilding.

BISHOP: You've mentioned that the disaster isn't over. There are concerns for the entire region of North Queensland. With the Bruce Highway cut off, shelves are already bare in some supermarkets. How soon could supplies be airdropped to these communities?

McALLISTER: Look, as the Premier said, this is a real area for Queensland is making sure that we do have support and supplies going into those communities that have been isolated. The Queensland government asked us for some additional support with this and we've been able to task ADF helicopters to work in with authorities to be able to provide that assistance.

BISHOP: If the emergency does pass, there will be the enormous job of a cleanup. Will the federal and state governments be continuing this high level of cooperation to make sure that that cleanup process happens as quickly and as painlessly as possible?

McALLISTER: Yeah, it's really important. The emergency isn't over yet, but one of my purposes for being here on the ground is to talk with community and understand what it is going to, what is going to be required during the cleanup and the recovery process. I'm here for a few days, but I really do want people in Queensland to know that the government will be here for the very long haul. We'll be here for the months and years to come. We'll work really closely with the Queensland Government. One of the things that will happen in the coming days, I imagine, is that people will be able to get into communities, understand what's happened to homes, understand what's happened to some of our public assets, and we'll work with the Queensland Government in the way that we always have to make sure that people have the resources that they need and communities have the finances they need to recover.

BISHOP: Jenny McAllister, Federal Minister for Emergency Management, thank you very much for your time.

McALLISTER: It's a pleasure, Angela.

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