TRANSCRIPT OF THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR,

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN SCOTT,

RADIO 4BC, BRISBANE

Subjects: Visit to the Lockyer Valley; flood recovery; heavy vehicle licence.

E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………

JOHN SCOTT:

The Opposition Leader joins us on the line. Welcome, Mr Abbott.

TONY ABBOTT:

G’day John. Nice to be with you and happy new year.

JOHN SCOTT:

Yes, same to ... you and your family, too. Look, I understand you’ve been in Grantham today having a look at some of the rebuilding. How’s it progressing there?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, a lot’s been done and that’s great. The service station is open, the little general store is open, but a lot of people are still hurting and a lot of people will go on hurting for a long time because the mental scars take a lot longer to heal than the physical scars and there is still so much physical work still to be done. I visited one of the larger local farms and they’ve still got to get some of their fields back into production. They’re still digging out bores. There are still a lot of houses that are semi-derelict. There are still a lot of people who haven’t worked out where they are going to be living long-term. So, there’s a lot of work still to be done and I think it’s important that the people of Grantham, the Lockyer Valley and all the areas of Queensland devastated by flood and cyclone a year ago are remembered because it’s very easy for our attention to wander on to what is today’s issue and in so doing we forget about people who are still hurting from yesterday’s issue.

JOHN SCOTT:

Yes that’s a really good point and not only still hurting from the point of view of not having your home to live in as you say or having their business operational, but it’s the mental scarring in many instances, isn’t it Mr Abbott?

TONY ABBOTT:

Oh yes, John. For most of the people who were impacted by those floods, it would be the most traumatic event of their life. It’s one thing to be acquainted with death, it’s another thing for death to come at you from a creek which you’ve known for years to be just a gentle stream and to suddenly have this inland tsunami coming down your valley is hard to imagine for everyone who hasn’t experienced it. Even watching it on television footage, it’s hard to imagine the sheer horror of it all and I think that preys on a lot of people’s minds still.

JOHN SCOTT:

You are right. Every time I see it and I wasn’t there, it’s just hard to believe and it’s just so treacherous and you can understand how it must have just affected people that they’d just want to pack up and move out. Many haven’t, but I think it would affect many that way.

TONY ABBOTT:

And some of the people who I was speaking to this morning, they do want to rule a line under their lives and move on and out, but then a lot of people want to stay put because this is where their home has always been and so we’ve got to allow everyone to do whatever they reasonably need to do to get on with things. If that means going, fine, help them to go. If it means staying, well please, let’s make sure that they aren’t being oppressed by dilatory insurance companies; by state and local and federal governments which have got other things on their mind and I guess people who have forgotten the trauma which is still all too real to them.

JOHN SCOTT:

Yeah well the insurance company issue is another argument, but yesterday we spoke to a cotton farmer up in the Darling Downs who was part of a large group of people working to help support those that were suffering some depression as a result of what had gone on up there with the devastation. I was wondering whether you have spoken to anybody in the area you were in today, whether they’ve in fact supported support groups in the Lockyer, so as to support the folk that must be suffering with some form of depression in many instances as a result of what’s happened?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, I understand, John, that there are support groups that are operating. I can’t give you the details because I don’t have them at my fingertips but I believe there are support groups still operating up there. I guess the issue for all of the support groups though is being able to get connected with the people who really need help and partly that requires the support groups to go out looking and partly, of course, it requires people putting up their hands and saying I would need a bit of assistance at the moment. But Julie, the lady who was the coordinator of so much of the relief work up in Grantham, she has got her finger on the pulse and she certainly knows who the people are who are hurting and I think that’s why I was able to get a chance to talk to some of them myself this morning.

JOHN SCOTT:

How would you gauge the mood as a result of your meeting?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think that some people are optimistic and grittily getting on with things. Others are still a bit immersed in the shock of it all and some people I guess are a bit overwhelmed by the fact that they’ve got a complex life to lead and at the same time manage the additional task of flood recovery. So, it’s a pretty mixed bag. I mean, some people I think were only too grateful for the help they’d received. Others thought well, yes, it’s been terrific but we still need more and so all of this is very, very understandable, John, and that’s why I think it’s important that local, state and national leaders not forget.

JOHN SCOTT:

Yeah, look there’s something else I wanted to canvass with you too. I noticed you’ve come out today with a press release urging the Government to do all it can to prevent this incredible issue in our northern parts in relation to rabies on the Indonesian island of Bali. What would you hope that the Government will do there in relation to that issue?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, I think it’s important that we be aware of it to start off with and I think it’s important that we be as vigilant as possible because Australia has always been rabies-free. But once rabies becomes endemic in the islands to our north, particularly in islands such as Bali which is much visited by Australians, there is a heightened risk of it getting into this country and that would be a very significant biosecurity disaster for our country if rabies were ever to become well established here.

JOHN SCOTT:

So almost in the same category as foot and mouth, isn’t it?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well that’s right and obviously there’s a big issue of border security at the moment against people smuggling but biosecurity is an important part of border security. We need to have our borders secure against diseases as well as against illegal entrants.

JOHN SCOTT:

Now, I understand you were Nolan’s transport and you helped unpack a truck and you’re driving a truck back to Brisbane or you’ve driven a truck back to Brisbane. How was that?

TONY ABBOTT:

Well, John, you’ll be pleased to know that my drive back to Brisbane was incident free.

JOHN SCOTT:

Good!

TONY ABBOTT:

I’m a very new heavy transport licence holder. So, I was pleased to get down without any hiccups but the chief instructor from Nolan’s was with me to make sure that I was a worthy road user.

JOHN SCOTT:

I’m sure you were. Did anyone recognise you passing you?

TONY ABBOTT:

Look, when you’re as high up as you are in a big rig you tend not to get as recognised as you might be down at ground level and in a normal passenger vehicle.

JOHN SCOTT:

Well, probably people slipped passed you or saw you rip pass and didn’t know the Opposition Leader was driving that Nolan’s truck.

TONY ABBOTT:

They might have thought to themselves, my God that bloke looked familiar.

JOHN SCOTT:

Gee he looks like…!

TONY ABBOTT:

Surely we wouldn’t have seen the Opposition Leader behind the wheel of a 42 tonne truck! But, you know, for a few years now, John, I’ve had my medium truck licence as part of the local rural fire brigade and I was in so many transport yards over the last twelve months or so – particularly as part of the carbon tax campaign – that I thought it was about time I got a heavy vehicle licence.

JOHN SCOTT:

Look, time is almost beating us because I’ve got news coming up. So, all the best for the new year. Great to see you up there in Grantham and I’m sure many people would have been happy to have a yarn with you and good luck driving the truck, Mr Abbott.

TONY ABBOTt:

Good on you, John.

JOHN SCOTT:

Thank you, nice to chat with you. That’s the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott successfully driving that truck back from Gatton.