Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Mark Mitchell: Emergency Management Minister on bodies recovered from the Mount landslide

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Mark Mitchell: Emergency Management Minister on bodies recovered from the Mount landslide · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: After eleven long days, police have officially ended all recovery
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: operations at the mount. All six victims have formerly been identified.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Cordon's remain in place around the Adams Avenue and the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: mall and the Marine parade. Mark Mitchell, as Emergency Management Minister,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: joins us Now, Mark, good morning, Good morning, Ryan. So
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: it's all over then, well at.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: The moment, yes, in terms of the scene. Thankfully the
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: bodies have been returned to their families, which means now
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: they can start making arrangements for funerals and services. The
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: USR teams have left our DVI police DVI teams have
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: so the scene now is still being corded and protected
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: by police. Police will be taking the families onto the
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: site today, those that want to go. There's been invitations
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: sent out as a way to have a service with
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: them and then it'll be handed over to back to
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the kill.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Gosh, today will be hard for them, won't it.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just been so difficult for the families because
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: as you can imagine, right right from the morning of
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: the tragedy happening, it's just been torturous for them because
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: the uncertainty. I mean, you know that we went initially
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: into a rescue phase, just the uncertainty. We know how
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: we would all feel if it was one of our
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: loved ones that was trapped under that that landslide, and
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: then obviously into the recovery phase and just the challenging
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: and difficult scene that it was. It took time, so
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: it's been very tough on the family. I mean, the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: thing that I've been that's been lovely to see is
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: that the communities got behind in them. Our police liaison
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: officers who quite something, you're just outstanding and have been
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: right alongside them the whole time, and the families that
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I've spent time with all commented on that and said
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: that they feel as police the aison officers are actually
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: part of their family now right through the count you know,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the country got behind them. And the funny thing is
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I went for Sarah and I went for a walk
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: on the beach, a river beach and man Literate yesterday
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: and I spoke to a lot of people on the
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: beach and they have a connection to Mount Longer Aly,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: whether it be for a holiday or down the sif
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: life saving or just passing through. So I think it's
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: had a big impact on the country. Without a doubt.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: What's your feeling mark about whether the mount will ever
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: open again.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: That's a really good question, and there's going to have
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: to be obviously a process that's going to have to
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: go through. In terms of that. The first concern is
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: just going to quite quite simply safety. You know that
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the reality it is through this weather event, we had
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: over eight hundred slips, So that's something that obviously is
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a priority for regardless of what council or you know
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: you are, you going to be kind of do as
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: much diffidence as you can in terms of anticipating with
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: it's going to be any other fear of the slips.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: With weather events that we have, we're going to continue
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to have them.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Would you walk on it again or would it feel wrong.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: If it was? If it was if it was opened again,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I would walk around it and and I think a
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: lot of people are like keeps would like to have
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: access to it again. I don't think that, and I
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: think that it would be a tie. It would be
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: somewhere that you reflect and you think about I'd like
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: to see the memorial, I think long I think in
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: the medium to long term, it definitely has to be
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: a memorial down there for us to be able to
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: remember the people that we lost. So yeah, but that
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: question is obviously one for the future.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Mark, I've been thinking about your health because in
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: October you were hospitalized, you had chess issues and there's
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of dust been around where the traps where
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you've been lately holding up all right, Well.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you, mate, I mean, I appreciate that it's not
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: about me. Yeah. I had when I was a young
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: fellow at police Dollcaner over in Gisbone, we had an
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: active arsness that that I was tracking and he lit
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a residential house on fire. I had to go into
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: that to get the mum and her son out and
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: then haled some toxic fumes that damaged my lungs. But
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: needs to get older. These so sometimes come back and
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: cause your problems. But but look, it wasn't about me, mate.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I'm so proud of the you know, our firefighters, our
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: police officers, the first responders, our contractors, you know the
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: saber guys that are normally just out there moving dirt
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: away around and on houses that have been built and
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: slips and that they are in there in a very
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: very difficult environment trying to recover people and so you know,
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I just want to acknowledge them and just thank everyone
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: involved in that response. And of course the community got
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: hit very hard, and I went to a couple of
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the visuals down there, which for me personally was really
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: you know, it helped me a lot because just to
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: be there with the community, it's cathartic and you can
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: sort of talk things through and take a moment to
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: breathe the families. You know, everyone's heart's break with the families,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: and everyone wishes that somehow we could carry that weight
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: with them, because you know, it's just been so difficult
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: on them and and will continue to be. And I
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: think the big thing with that, Ryan is that is
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: that they formed the family group, formed a very very
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: strong group together, are all very supportive of one another,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: and they had all agreed that no one was leaving
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: until we had the last person out. And they've had
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: all that support around them, and now they have to
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: go to a phase where they're actually having to leave
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: that support, go back to their own their own homes
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: and think about funerals. And that's why at that stage
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  Speaker 2: it's even more critical to make sure that we continue
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: to have support around them.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Hey, appreciate your time this morning, Minister Mark Mitchill, the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Emergency Management Minister.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: For more from Earlily Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 5:50
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• 5:53
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