SUBJECT/S: Northern Territory floods; Queensland floods; Petrol prices; Panic buying
HOST JAYNIE SEAL: Joining us live is Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain, Minister, thank you very much for joining us. We're hearing it's the worst flooding in 28 years for Katherine alone. We're seeing what has gone on there, as Matt Cunningham just explained. What can you tell us?
MINISTER FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, KRISTY MCBAIN: Well, good evening, Jaynie, great to be with you again. Absolutely, that Katherine River has peaked at 19.2 metres, which is the highest in, as you're reporting, over 20 years. There's been a big operation to evacuate members of the community, including at the Katherine Hospital, where every patient has been evacuated now. We've had Australian Border Force assisting with those evacuations out of Katherine, but as you're reporting, those Big Rivers communities are being evacuated again, and we'll continue to watch for more information. In the meantime, the Albanese and Finocchiaro governments have initiated additional Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, including personal hardship payments for people in Katherine, as well as re-establishment of white goods and those things that may be lost as part of this. And that's on top of what was announced earlier in the week, and we'll continue to work with the Finocchiaro Government about any additional requests for assistance that may be required as we watch these waters.
HOST: And what about assistance for people's mental health, Minister?
MCBAIN: We are still working with the Northern Territory Government on any other request for assistance. We know that this is going to have an impact, particularly the Daly River community, which is now being evacuated twice in a number of weeks. So we will continue to work with the NT Government on what else might be required. But we've got a number of things on our radar. Our National Emergency Management Agency officials have been embedded with the Northern Territory Government so that we can get those requests as soon as possible and action those, but it is still within the Northern Territory’s capacity at this stage.
HOST: I mean, so we're seeing a lot of that rain affecting Queensland as well. What has been done there for support?
MCBAIN: Yeah, obviously, again, North West Queensland is copping a big downpour again, and communities like Richmond, Julia Creek, Cloncurry, have all been cut off again, on top of the monsoonal rains that they received late December, early January. So, we've had a number of meetings with Queensland Government, our National Emergency Management Agency has been attending those. We've also been coordinating what's called a National Coordination Mechanism, so working with state and territory governments, as well as industry like supermarkets and transport and freight in particular, to make sure that we're getting supply into these communities as quickly as possible as well.
HOST: And changing topics now, the conflict in the Middle East is already putting food supply chains at risk in Australia, including seeing petrol prices already increasing. We just had the former ACCC Chair on the show, Allan Fels. He says there is price gouging. He says the cost to the servos haven't gone up yet. The prices at the petrol bowser, for many places have, and the ACCC cannot do anything about it. We asked them, Allan, who can do something about it? And he said, Parliament. Are you going to be looking at that in terms of the Federal Government and what can be done?
MCBAIN: Yeah, we've got Parliament sitting next week, so I'm going to take this up with the Treasurer. It's really disappointing that we've got service stations around the country now rising prices by as much as 20 cents a litre in a couple of days. I was at the service station in one of my regional communities, and the petrol price and the diesel price was ridiculous. You know, we drive really long distances to get to school, to medical appointments, to get to and from work in regional and rural Australia. So it's really disappointing to see that happen, and I'm going to take it up with the Treasurer. I know he wrote to the ACCC during the week to say can you please keep an eye out for this, because this potentially was coming. But I'll take that up. I know it's important at this point to make sure that we've got fuel reserves in the country, and it's really pleasing to see that we've got the highest number of reserves in 15 years on Australian soil or headed to Australia. Having a strategic reserve in the US, which was what the former government had, doesn't work for us here. So it's really good to see more strategic reserves in the country. But we've got to make sure that we keep an eye on that, in particular for regional and rural communities.
HOST: And we’ve got into about 20 seconds Minister, but panic buying, we're starting to see a little bit of that. Allan Fels, the former ACCC Chair also mentioned that is not helpful for prices. What would you advise people to do at this point in time?
MCBAIN: Yeah, look, get what you need. But there's no need to panic. As I said, we coordinate this National Coordination Mechanism with state and territory governments, with industry, like supermarkets, food suppliers and transport and logistic operators. So, we are trying to make sure that resupply gets into communities as quick as possible through coordinating all of that. So there's no need to panic buy. We will get supplies out to communities as soon as possible. And all levels of government are working on that together.
HOST: Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain, thank you so much as always.
MCBAIN: Thank you.
