Peter Fegan:
I want to go straight to the federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, he joins me on the line. Treasurer, nice to have your company this morning.
Jim Chalmers:
Thanks for having me back, Pete.
Fegan:
Let’s talk about your backyard first. We just spoke to Cameron Dick. I know that both of you have been out sandbagging. It’s a pretty scary prospect considering that we’ve got anywhere between 45 mls to a metre of rain on the way.
Chalmers:
I mean it is an anxious wait for all of that rain and all of that wind and it will come at us in cycles.
If you think about what makes this an unusually big potential weather event is we’re talking about something like 4 and a half million Australians potentially in harm’s way. That’s about 1.8 million homes and that means we’re expecting billions of dollars of damage.
But really the main message from all of us is now that we think that the cyclone will cross onto shore more like Friday than tonight, then people really need to make the most of this time to prepare.
It’s rare that we get this much warning. It’s rarer still that we get a cyclone this far south. But make the most of it. Clean up the yard, clean out the gutters, fill up the bath. Make sure that all the logins are sorted for your insurance claim. If you’re going to need to make one, make sure your logins are sorted for myGov. These are the sorts of things that people should be doing today. Preparing for the worst but hoping for the best.
Fegan:
Credit where credit’s due, Treasurer. You’ve urged the insurance companies to assist residents promptly during the crisis. I know from first‑hand experience that that’s not the case. But do you think they’ll listen to you?
Chalmers:
I had a good conversation with the CEOs of some of the major insurers last night.
They understand their responsibilities and their obligations and they’re in the process of putting together some really big teams to try to process these claims as quickly as they can.
One of the things that we were talking about last night, which it’s important to keep in mind is a lot of the people at the other end of the phone at the insurance companies and elsewhere, a lot of them are from south-east Queensland or northern New South Wales themselves. We want to make sure that people understand often someone at the other end of the line is also impacted. And so we want to see these claims processed very quickly. We want to see them processed efficiently. We’ve made that clear to the insurance companies. But we also need to make sure that people are kind to the person at the other end of the phone line because there’s a good chance that they’re also impacted.
Fegan:
In 2023, Treasurer, the government implemented that Disaster Ready Fund. How does that exactly work? Because a lot of people have asked me about it this morning. How do people access that and what’s the context behind it? Is it more for government to be able to help ease the stress of what insurance companies can put on people?
Chalmers:
There’s a few different elements to that. Primarily the thing that people should focus on is typically when there’s a big weather event, a big natural disaster like this, there’s a lot of direct Commonwealth and state government support, disaster allowances and disaster payments. So that’s why I encourage people to get there, make sure they’ve got their myGov details sorted and login sorted, because that’s really the first thing.
Then when it comes to the insurers, we are working closely with the insurers. There’s the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool. There’s a whole bunch of other ways that we’re working with the insurers as well to try to make this operate as efficiently as we can.
But really the best way for people to understand all of the different ways that different levels of government are helping is to make sure you’re getting information from reputable sources like the Get Ready site that the Queensland government maintains. And the overarching message there again is really be prepared, stay informed and keep an eye out for each other.
Fegan:
The Prime Minister was set to call an election this Sunday. Look, with all that, everything that’s going on in Queensland, I don’t suggest he’s going to. So, what does that mean now for Labor’s plans?
Chalmers:
I’m confident that you understand this, Pete, and I hope that your listeners understand as well that we haven’t been thinking about election timing.
There’s obviously a lot of interest for obvious reasons, understandable reasons, there’s a lot of commentary about that.
For me, the focus is on my community here in Logan City, but also more broadly south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, making sure the federal government is playing a helpful role, working closely with the 2 state governments and with all of the local governments.
I’m speaking to you from the Logan City Council Chambers. We’re about to do a briefing here. We’ve got a wonderful mayor in Jon Raven. And so all levels of government are working together. That’s why we haven’t been focused on thinking about election timing and the like. The Prime Minister will make a decision about that when he’s ready. My responsibilities are really to make sure we’re responding to this cyclone as effectively as we can. I’m also making sure that I’m doing my day job, which is the economy. We had some encouraging National Accounts out yesterday. That’s been the focus rather than elections.
Fegan:
Your day job is also politics. You can’t go past the headlines this morning. What do you make of this? Peter Dutton being briefed – this is reporting according to the AFR, Peter Dutton being briefed by the Premier on Tuesday, he hops on an aeroplane, he heads to Justin Hemmes’ place for a party in Sydney. What do you make of it?
Chalmers:
That would be disappointing if it’s true. I’m not sure if it is, but that would be very disappointing. That’s for Peter Dutton to explain. I went to that briefing on Tuesday at Kedron and he was leaving as I was arriving. I’m not sure if he was off to Sydney to do a fundraiser. That’s for him to explain.
But I assure all your listeners and I assure you that our focus has been on the disaster. I hope his has been as well, because we all need all shoulders to the wheel. Every level of government, both sides of politics, need to be doing what we can.
No doubt he will be asked during the course of today whether he skipped the briefing to go to the fundraiser in Sydney.
Fegan:
Well, given that he was very critical of the Prime Minister leaving Townsville to come to Brisbane for an event, I mean, you know, it’s politics.
Chalmers:
As you can probably tell from my reluctance to weigh into it enthusiastically is now’s not the time for politics. People are bracing – millions of Australians are bracing for very heavy weather. It’s going to be an incredibly difficult couple of days. And the weeks and months that follow will be difficult as well.
You’ll understand that my focus is not on the politics, not on the political contest. It’s about making sure as many people are safe as possible and making sure that we’re playing a helpful role in what will be a very, very anxious and stressful wait for this cyclone to hit.
Fegan:
What’s the feel like in Logan at the moment? I mean, unfortunately, Treasurer, we know that when we get a bit of rain in places like Logan and parts of Brisbane and Ipswich in particular, when we get that inundation of rain, it just causes that immediate flooding. And I could imagine it’s pretty anxious in Logan at the moment.
Chalmers:
It is. It’s stressful, it’s anxious. People are on edge. We’ve got bizarrely weather that is the calm before the storm. It’s pretty calm conditions right now in Logan, but it’s an anxious wait.
People are bracing for the worst and hoping for the best, as I said.
You’re right to say that there’s really this kind of different element, different waves of it. The flooding’s part of it. There’ll be 2 kinds of flooding, flash flooding and the riverine flooding. There’ll be the heavy winds and there’ll be the heavy rain, and we’ll get all 3 of those things here in Logan City and in the surrounding cities as well.
What we need people to prepare for is, there’ll obviously be a couple of days or a few days of very intense weather, but it’s not over when the winds die down. Often the flooding happens after that, in the aftermath of that. When we say we’re bracing for a few difficult days, it won’t be over in a few days. It’ll be weeks, if not months. It’ll be a difficult rebuild.
Australians are really good at being there for each other when times are tough. The government will be there for people as well. But we just really need people to look out for each other and look after each other. And if I think about my community, a lot of the areas that we expect to flood quite badly have been under multiple times in the last few years, and people have been through a lot. So, we need just to really make sure that we’re being kind to each other and looking out for each other, and we’ll get through it together.
Fegan:
Good on you, Treasurer. You stay safe. I hope you and your family are prepared, and I hope you’re all staying safe. I hope the people of Logan are safe as well. There’s no doubt we’ll chat over the next few days. Great to have your company and we’ll chat very soon.
Chalmers:
I really appreciate it. And all the best to you and yours as well, Pete.
Fegan:
Thanks so much. There he is, that’s the federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers.