Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Senator Murray Watt AG announcements and disaster centres

Transcript

Senator Murray Watt AG announcements and disaster centres · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New Northern Australian Coordination Network is going to be established
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: by the federal government to help manage the threash of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: lumpy skin disease and foot and mouth disease. Now, the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and Emergency Management Murray what
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: he's going to be announcing this four point three million
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: dollar network and joins me in the studio right now.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Good a Katie. Good to be back with you in
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: the studio.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good to see you now, Minister, what exactly is
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: this network?
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, this is a really important step we're taking
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: in partnership with both the state territory governments and also
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: industry to really strengthen our lines of defense against those
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: diseases lumpy skin and foot and mouth disease. There's obviously
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: been a lot of attention on foot and mouth disease
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: over the last few months, and rightly so, but there's
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: actually a bigger risk of a different disease known as
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: lumpy skin disease getting into our country, especially in the north.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: That's a very dangerous disease for cattle.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: It doesn't affect all livestock in the way foot and
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: mouth disease do does. But if lumpy skin disease got
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: in here, it lis is what it sounds like, cattle
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: developed lumps on their skin and it affects milk production.
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: It would very much affect our ability to export beef
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: and cattle overseas.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: So that's why we're working so hard with industry.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: And the other sort of exposed quirky thing about this
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: disease is that it can be brought blown in literally
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: by mosquitos from other countries that have it. So you know,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: foot and mouth disease would normally be spread by bringing
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: in infected meat products or someone might have it on
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: their clothing, and you can do a few things to
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: try and control that, and we are, but there's a
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: little bit less you can do about making sure that
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: mosquitos don't blow in in a cyclone.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: So that's why we're taking this so seriously.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: So how exactly do we mitigate so that we know
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: we can try our best to make sure that we
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: don't end up with this here in the Northern Territory.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Well, the best thing we can do is to help
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Indonesia get their outbreak under control, and so far Australia
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: has provided over four hundred thousand vaccines to Indonesia for
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: lumpy skin disease and around a million vaccines for foot
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: and mouth disease as well, and we've committed to provide more.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: The other thing we need to keep in mind is
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: that it's not just about Indonesia. If these diseases got
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: into Team or Less or Papua New Guinea, that would
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: obviously be an extra threat because they're even closer still
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: to much of the country. And that's why this coordination
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: network we're talking about is really important for Northern Australia
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: because we get that, you know, even though the government
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: might be in Canberra, it's Northern Australia who are on
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: the front line with these diseases and we need to
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: strengthen our lines of defense in the North. And it's
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: really fabulous that we've been able to work so closely
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: with the Northern Territory Government, along with the Cattleman's Association
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: and a bunch of other industry groups to put this
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: plan together.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Now, tell me with foot and mouth disease, is that
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: three to minimizing to some degree or have the different
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: procedures and protocols that have been put in place at
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the airport and various other locations. Are they working at
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: this point?
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I would say they are working because Australia does
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: remain free of either foot and mouth disease or lumpy
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: skin disease, So I guess that's the best test of
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: how the defenses are working. But we've always acknowledged that
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: we can keep adding to things, and a couple of
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: weeks ago we added a new measure which was to
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: ban people bringing in any meat products for personal consumption
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: from any country around the world that has foot and
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: mouth disease. But in terms of what's happening in Indonesia,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: we're keeping a very close eye on that and I
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: guess i'd say that things have plateaued there. It's certainly
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: not eradicated and won't be for some time to come.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: But currently the figures that we have are that they've
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: vaccinated close to four million livestock, whereas they say they've
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: got about five hundred thousand infected animals.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: So I guess that's a pretty good proportion.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: But we've got to keep taking this seriously and that's
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: why we're keeping out working up new plans with industry
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: as well.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, now, Murray, you are also the Minister for Emergency Management.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: We know that the threat of cyclone is always quite
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the concern for us here in the Northern Territory. I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: understand that you are going to be visiting some of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: those disaster management centers a head of cyclone season today.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: No, that's right, Katie.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be joined by some of the ministers
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory government, along with our local representatives,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Luke Gosling and Marian Scrimjaw, for some of the emergency
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: management measures that we're taking. The latest information the Bureau
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: of Meteorology came out with last week said that across
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: October to April this year, we've got about a seventy
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: percent chance as a country of having at least eleven cyclones,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: and of course many of them would potentially come in
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: through the North here. So over the last couple of
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: months we've had federal emergency management personnel out working with
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: the states and territories to ensure that everyone's fully prepared.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: But I think it's important as the Minister that I
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: also come out here and see it for myself. So
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: all the information I'm getting is that people are very
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: well prepared here in the Northern Territory government. They've obviously
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: got a lot of experience dealing with these things. But
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: if there's anything that we can be doing at a
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: federal level to help, we're obviously happy to do that.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: And have they sort of asked for anything yet at
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: that federal level, Is there any assistance that they need
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: or any announcements we can expect today?
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not at this point.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: It's really today is mainly about just keeping it on
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: the radar for people literally that we could be facing
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: a pretty intense cyclone season, and of course there's parts
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: of the Northern Territory a bit further south that are
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: still at risk.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Of bushfires as well.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: So we've obviously got those big, heavy aircraft available to
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: help with water bombing and things like that. But I'm
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: probably to be honest, you know, where we're getting most
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: requests for support at the moment of from the Southern
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: states which are having those floods. But even these visits
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: with Luca Marion and people like that demonstrate that we're
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: ready to help if it's needed.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there is a lot happening at the moment in
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: those southern states when it comes to flooding. How are
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: things going from your perspective, obviously as the Minister for
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Emergency Management.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: No, it's pretty serious down there, and New South Wales
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: in particular has just had so much rain over the
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: last twelve months or so. Even since we were elected
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: in May, we had big floods in much of New
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: South Wales.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: In July.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: I was in Dubbo and Ganada in western New South
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Wales before I came up here, and some of those
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: communities have been having floods for two or more months
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: in you know, and it sort of rains really heavily
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: and then it goes away, it comes back a couple
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: of weeks later. You've got communities in western New South
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: Wales that have been isolated for up to eight weeks.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: So it's really taking its toll on people. And of
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: course we've now seen in the last couple of days
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: that weather's going further south into Victoria and Mania as well.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: So you know, all the predictions are with this third
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Lenina that we are facing really heavy rainfall and cyclonic
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: conditions this year, and all we can do is ask
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: people to be as prepared as possible.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Now I do want to ask I understand
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that you are potentially heading out to the National Critical
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Care and Trauma Response Center today. We'd caught up with
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: a couple of people from the National Critical Care and
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Trauma Response Center earlier in the week, particularly Professor Len
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Nataras we know that they had well all of the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: staff at Royal dal And Hospital had a huge part
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to play in the response to the Bali bombings twenty
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: years ago. But really that center was born out of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that response. It's pretty unbelievable to see what they can do,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: isn't it.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: It's fantastic and I think a lot of the time
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: people down south don't appreciate the really special things that
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: we've got in Northern Australia. And as you know as
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: a Queenslander, I was up here pretty regularly before the
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: election in the Northern Australia role, and I've always seen
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: that part of my job, along with the local representatives here,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: is to really tell the story of the Northern territory
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: and the fantastic things that happening. That center that Len
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: and his team are running is not just a national leader,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: it's an international leader right here in Darwin. And as
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: you say, it was born out of the Barley bombings,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: you'd be aware. Luke Gosling was in Bali this week
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: for the memorial service, which was really important I know
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: to a lot of people in the territory. But yeah,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: they've got some incredible capability that's really providing great support
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: overseas when they face disasters as well, and that's really
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: good for our international image as well.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: So I'm really excited to be heading out there today.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Well, Murray Wash, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry and
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Emergency Management, we appreciate your time this morning.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Thanks pleasure, Katie, really good to see you.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you. You two