00:00Firstly, obviously the weather system that we've been dealing with, that's brought all of these storms, has moved out of the region.
00:08However, there are still towns that are isolated, particularly on the big north coast.
00:13Fifteen at last count, although in the last few hours we expect a few of those towns to no longer be isolated and connected against the roads, which is good.
00:21However, we're fully aware that there are substantial communities that don't have road access.
00:25They're being serviced by the SES, the Rural Fire Service, POLAIR, the VRA and many other government agencies that are determined to help those communities for a difficult period.
00:38There are 24 emergency warnings still in place and we continue to remind people to look at their app, the Hazards Near Me app, listen to the media, listen to emergency broadcasts.
00:51I know that there's new skies at the moment, which is good news, but we're asking you to look at your app rather than the sky before making a decision.
00:58The concern we have at the moment is road slippage, landslides.
01:02The SES police have got the best and latest information and obviously, now that we're through the worst of the weather, we want people to be safe during the clean-up phase.
01:12It just shows that there's a clear understanding of emergency responses during these natural disasters.
01:19Unfortunately, we've got more and more of them.
01:21The first priority, of course, is to save people in imminent risk of death.
01:26The next priority is to supply food and shelter.
01:29And the last priority is the clean-up effort.
01:31And I know that there's, of course, going to be frustrations when someone's worldly goods have been swept away or their business has been smashed.
01:39But everyone, of course, would appreciate as well that we've got to make sure that the third priority doesn't jump in front of the first one.
01:46And when you've got crews that are affecting over 600 flood rescues in the last three days, that must be the priority.
01:54As flood waters recedes, we can move into the clean-up phase and we're seeing resilient communities do just that.
02:00Before I hand over to my colleagues, I did want to speak about Taree.
02:05We were in Taree not long ago.
02:07It's a community that's been hit incredibly hard, but they're resilient and tough.
02:13Obviously sad about what they've had to go through both in 2021 and these latest floods.
02:18But I think it's best typified by their local MP, Daniel Thompson, who's incredibly tough, very resilient local member of parliament.
02:27Very forthright in what her community needs, but has been in there cleaning up, shop after shop, helping the local community since the storms hit.
02:36We want to make sure that community can get back on its feet as soon as possible.
02:40And we want to go with them on that journey.
02:43I know local MPs in the area, Jenny and Kate, along with our colleague, Janelle Safin, the minister responsible for the clean-up effort.
02:52Also the member for Liz Law has gone through, if not as bad, certainly very difficult emergency situations in the last few years.
03:01We'll be up on site soon, hopefully tomorrow, I think tomorrow, to help with the clean-up effort.
03:07We know this is a mammoth task ahead of us. We thank people for their patience.
03:11We want to particularly acknowledge the enormous courage that the local community has had to exhibit in the last few days.
03:18I said this yesterday, but I think it's worth repeating.
03:21We would have had hundreds of deaths if it wasn't for the bravery, the carriage of emergency service workers in the last 72 hours.
03:29They've been incredible in the circumstances, but we need them.
03:33We would be in huge trouble without them. They saved a lot of lives.
03:37We would be in huge trouble without them.
03:41I put our sentence back in the last.
03:42We would have changed the process.
03:44We have changed our memory with our rescue plan.
