Jim Chalmers:
I’m here at the Logan City Council Chambers with the Logan City Mayor, Jon Raven. He’ll give us an update shortly on some local preparations here in a part of the southeast corner which will be affected by Cyclone Alfred.
We expect something like 4.5 million Australians are in harm’s way. That means about 1.8 million homes and we’re anticipating billions of dollars of damage. The most recent advice from the Bureau is that we now expect the cyclone to hit land a little bit later, more like Friday during the day than overnight Thursday–Friday.
The main message today is to make the most of the time that we have to prepare. Please be prepared, please stay informed and please stay safe.
If you haven’t already cleaned up the backyard or cleaned out the gutters or filled up the bathtub, now is the time to do that. Please also make sure that you’ve got all the logins and details you need to make insurance claims and also to make sure that your myGov logins are up to date as well so that you can access payments after the cyclone hits, if that is necessary and if you are eligible.
It’s a bit like the calm before the storm here in Logan this morning.
We do know that Australians in this part of the southeast corner and northern New South Wales are bracing for some very heavy weather. We are preparing for the worst, but we’re hoping for the best. And we really encourage people to make all of the necessary preparations that they can today.
Don’t wait, make the most of this notice that we’ve been given before the cyclone hits. We expect this to be a very serious weather event. We know that there’s a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress in our local community. We encourage people to look out for each other and look after each other. Keep an eye out for the neighbours and make sure that you’re pitching in and helping where you can.
Last night I spoke to the CEOs of some of the major insurers so that they could talk me through the preparations that they are making to ensure that claims can be processed as quickly as possible. They gave me an assurance that they’re doing everything that they can to stack up a big team of people, stand up a big team of people, in order to process those claims.
We want to make sure that people recognise that a lot of the people on the other end of the phone at the insurers are from southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales and probably also impacted. We ask people to keep that in mind as well.
The insurers are aware of their obligations and responsibilities. I was able to speak with them about that. We need to make sure that claims are processed as quickly and as efficiently as possible because it will be difficult enough as it is, the next few days and the weeks and months that follow, without seeing unnecessary delays in the processing of insurance claims.
Like a lot of people in this part of Australia, we’re bracing for the impact of this cyclone tomorrow. We want to make sure that everyone’s making the necessary preparations. I’m going to ask Mayor Jon Raven to talk through some of the local preparations here in Logan City and then I’ll come back and say a few things about yesterday’s National Accounts.
Jon Raven:
As we just heard from Jim Chalmers, the Tropical Cyclone Alfred has stalled off the coast overnight and the BoM modelling now says that it’s not likely to cross the coast until late on Friday afternoon. That’s great news for the people of Logan and for communities all over southeast Queensland because it means we have more time to prepare.
Use this time wisely. Logan City Council is looking to put out more sandbags and we’ll update people about their locations and availability as soon as we can.
Today we were expecting a lot of wind and the beginning of the rain, and that’ s not going to happen until much, much later, which is fantastic.
I just want to thank the people who are going to work today. When we talk about essential workers and frontline workers, we often think of police, we think of ambos, and we think of our fireys. But at the moment our essential workers are the people who are in our shopping centres, they’re the people who are at Coles and Woolies making sure that preparations can continue. And they are going through the exact same experience as everyone else is, but they’re going to work to make sure that you can continue to prepare your home and keep your family safe.
I want to thank them for that and make sure that everybody is kind during these times because everyone is experiencing a bit of stress. We all want to know exactly what’s going to happen, but cyclones are very unpredictable.
Please keep an eye on the BoM. Stay tuned into your news broadcasters and make sure that you’re getting the most up-to-date information. In Logan, we will continue to do everything we can to help you.
This is a whole of government response to this potential disaster, and when Tropical Cyclone Alfred comes through and impacts southeast Queensland, we will be here to support you every step of the way through the recovery.
Chalmers:
Shortly, Jon and I will be participating in a briefing to get the most recent information. I just wanted to add my thanks to what Mayor Raven said a moment ago, to everybody who’s working today, all of the essential workers, to the SES and all the first responders, everybody who’s working around the clock to prepare our community and keep our local people safe. We appreciate you so much. We’re very grateful for all of your efforts.
These are uncertain times. Whether it’s uncertainty in the global economy or uncertainty that comes from heavy weather closer to home, what we saw yesterday in the National Accounts was a really important foundation to deal with all of this uncertainty that we’re seeing from around the world and from closer to home.
The Australian economy has turned a corner. We saw in the National Accounts a solid rebound in growth. One of the most encouraging elements of that is we’re starting to see the private sector reclaim its rightful place as the primary driver of growth in our economy.
Growth in our economy is rebounding strongly, it’s rebounding broadly. We saw that in consumption, we saw that in business investment, we see that in the private sector more broadly, and this is a really important thing.
The Australian economy has turned a corner. We are very encouraged by what we saw in the National Accounts. What it means is we’ve now got inflation down, real wages and incomes are up, unemployment is very low, we’ve got the Liberal debt down, interest rates have started to come down, and now we’re seeing solid growth in our economy as well.
These are good reasons to be confident about our economy in 2025, despite everything that’s coming at us in terms of natural disasters and global economic uncertainty at the same time. We can be confident but not complacent about the future of our economy. Very encouraged by yesterday’s numbers, but not complacent because of the challenges which are coming at us from around the world and from closer to home.
Thanks very much.