PM outlines bushfire recovery operation

The Victorian bushfires will become etched in the national memory as a time of
disaster and death, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.
Natural disasters remind Australians of their tenuous hold on such a vast and
forbidding land, he told federal parliament on Tuesday.
"Fire holds a great terror for us all - its power, its speed, its roar, its
relentless destruction, its capricious shifts in course, its wont of mercy," Mr Rudd
said.
The prime minister gave parliament an update of the number of people killed, which
currently stands at 181, and homes destroyed.
"And the numbers just mount and mount," he said.
"Our first response as Australians must be ... to extend the open hand of
friendship, of empathy, and of giving."
Mr Rudd said bushfire victims were not alone.
"The people of Victoria are not alone in this disaster because the entire nation is
with them," he said.
"And not just the nation, but good people across the world - an expression of our
common humanity."
Mr Rudd said disaster relief payments of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child for
those affected by the fires started flowing on Monday.
"At close of business 9 February we had received 2,027 claims with 427 paid and
1,600 pending," the prime minister said.
Cash payments were made at Yea, Warrigal and Alexandra on Monday.
Mr Rudd said banks were working to ensure all those affected were able to access
cash as soon as possible.
"Indeed, a number of banks have agreed to establish facilities at local recovery
centres to make cash payments there and then," Mr Rudd said.
Close to 500 adults and children had been provided with assistance worth $493,400.
"Authorities are working to provide further assistance as quickly as is humanly
possible."
The national disaster relief program applies in 25 local government areas, he said.
Mr Rudd thanked all those who had donated to the Victorian bushfires appeal fund,
and said it held more than $15 million.
"I urge all Australians to make a contribution to this appeal," he said.
"And I thank from the bottom of my heart all of those Australians who have dug deep,
it's a great testament to what Australians do at times like this."
Mr Rudd outlined Australian Defence Force assistance to the relief operation.
It includes a joint taskforce headed by the army's 4 Brigade commander, Brigadier
Michael Arnold, with more than 450 personnel.
Soldiers are helping police with searching and recovery of remains while others have
established a tent town for those who have lost their homes.
As well, Defence personnel are operating heavy machinery to carve firebreaks and
reopen roads and trails.
Four armoured personnel carriers were being used for communications while Defence
had been asked to provide aerial imagery of affected areas.
"This will enable identification of all residences affected by fire," he said.
A team of 90 Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers were helping Victorian police
in the investigation of the fires. Among them are 16 specialists in disaster victim
identification.
Mr Rudd said he and Families and Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin had
conveyed to the Victorian police that if any further Defence or AFP personnel were
required, they would be made immediately available.
Mr Rudd said the federal government would provide an extra $5 million for emergency
relief from the bushfires in Victoria and floods in Queensland.
Mr Rudd said Australians were left speechless at the thought and possibility that
some of the fires might have been deliberately lit.
"Every member of this house cannot comprehend how anyone could ever do that," he said.
"Something which the nation must now attend to as a matter of grave urgency is the
problem of arson, where it happens, why it happens, what more can be done about it."
Mr Rudd said there was no excuse for this.
"This as I said yesterday is simply murder on a grand scale," he said. "Let us
attend to this unfinished business of the nation and come to grips with this evil
thing."
Mr Rudd praised emergency services workers.
"We salute each one of them."
He said many people had been traumatised by the bushfires, and promised the
government would try to make sure there were enough counsellors to help all those
who faced shattered lives.
"This is an unspeakable horror for those families, unspeakable."
"The trauma of scarred and blackened vehicles along the road, that I saw yesterday,
to Marysville."
"The physicality and the emotional scar of trauma reaches deep into people."
Mr Rudd said all levels of government should work together, along with communities
and community organisations, to cope with the challenges.
"We do not know what lies ahead," he said.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull commended the federal and Victorian governments
on their speedy response to the disaster.
He welcomed the Victorian government's decision to launch a Royal Commission to
investigate the fires.
Mr Turnbull said the opposition remained committed to doing whatever it took to put
the devastated communities back on their feet.
"We encourage the government to address the relief of these communities in specific
legislation separate from other measures," he said.
Mr Rudd said razed towns like Marysville, northeast of Melbourne, would be rebuilt.
"I say this to the country at large; whatever community you are from, if it has been
rendered to ashes, if it has been destroyed, hear this from the government and the
parliament of the nation.
"Together we will rebuild each of these communities," Mr Rudd said.
"Brick by brick, school by school, community hall by community hall."
Federal MP Russell Broadbent told parliament of his own experience during a savage
bushfire that swept towards his house on Saturday.
"I changed into my boots on Saturday afternoon, my woollen socks, my cotton jeans,
my pure cotton top, put the overalls ready, and went outside and picked up the hose
that was going to protect us," the Liberal MP told the House of Representatives.
"And turned it on - it went straight back over my head, and I knew then that what I
was facing was nothing that we could normally do in our household."
Mr Broadbent, whose electorate of McMillan centres on Warragul, went inside and told
his wife to get ready to flee in the car.
"The moment we see anything go up to our north we move," he recalled saying to his
wife.
Mr Broadbent did not say what happened to his house.
The fate of bushfire victims was close to his heart, he said.
"To those that pray, I say pray now, don't leave it til next Sunday.
"All we can rely on is each other, and sadly, as the prime minister has described
today, there are so many that cannot even do that."
MPs applauded Mr Broadbent after his speech.