Aussie PM Holds Bendigo Press Conference

Well, good morning. I'm really pleased to welcome everyone here to the Bendigo Incident Control Centre here in Epsom. And I'm pleased to welcome everyone here as both the local Member for Bendigo East and I'm joined by my other local member colleagues, the Member of Bendigo West, Maree Edwards, and the Federal Member for Bendigo, Lisa Chesters. And we're really proud local representatives of this great community. And we're really pleased to have the Prime Minister here today in Bendigo getting briefed at the Incident Control Centre. And then shortly we'll also be travelling to the Harcourt community. Thank you, Prime Minister, for prioritising Victoria and the Harcourt community that has been so badly affected by the fires. And I'll come to the fire activity in a moment that continues to be in the landscape across Victoria. I'd also like to acknowledge Ministerial colleagues, Vicki Ward, and Federal Minister, Kristy McBain, and thank their work on working together on the package that the Prime Minister and I will shortly be announcing of initial support. I'd also like to acknowledge, and we'll hear shortly from Tim Wiebusch, the Emergency Management Commissioner. Tim will provide the greater detail on the active fires, the 32 active fires that are continuing across the State today. Also, too, I'd like to acknowledge Mick Masters, the Incident Control Centre Controller here at the Bendigo ICC, and thank Mick and the teams that we've just met with who have worked around the clock since we've had this difficult fire in the landscape here in central Victoria emerge on Friday afternoon. And also on that front, I'd like to acknowledge Toby Heydon, the Mayor of Mount Alexander Shire, which represents that strong and beautiful community of Harcourt. And then finally too, we have Brett Hosking here, who's the President of the VFF. And I want to thank Brett and the VFF for working closely with our teams in AgVic, because we have not just seen impact on property and structures as a result of these fires across the state, there's also been impact to so many of our primary producing areas: loss of fences, livestock impacts and primary producing impacts as well. So, just firstly, in terms of the situation here this morning in Victoria, as I said, we continue to have 32 active fires across the State, but particularly of concern are the 10 major fire grounds that are continuing to have enormous resources deployed to managing those fires. These 10 major fires - to give you a sense of the ongoing danger that is presented by these fires, there are currently 15 emergency warnings that have been issued, in terms of advising people to leave their local communities. And then there's a further 17 watch and act notifications that are underway right now. And if I, at the outset can again ask Victorians, if you are told to leave by the emergency services, if you are told to leave, do so. Because we know that is not only the best way to protect and save lives. It also supports the work of our emergency services who are out there on the ground as well. And I do want to thank Victorians who we know have been following that advice and given the scale of the fires that are in the landscape today, we need Victorians to continue to follow that advice. Please stay tuned to local radio. Keep your Vic emergency app close to get the latest updates of information, because that is the best way to be able to protect yourselves and support the work of our firefighters. From across a number of the fires, there has been a focus on containment and we're seeing that around the work at Natimuk here at Harcourt. And to give you a sense of the enormous work that's been done in just a 24-hour period, the Harcourt fire ground is around 80% contained, which is just a remarkable effort, given this time yesterday, it was a very hot and active fire. So it gives you a sense of the huge resources that are being deployed on the fires right across the State. But we do have ongoing concerns around the fires in the Northeast. The Longwood fire and the Walwa Mt Lawson fire continue to be very large and difficult fires. Those parts of the State are experiencing warmer, windy conditions again today. So, again, please stay tuned to your local conditions because those fires continue to present some great challenges in the northeast and then also too in East Gippsland. There are major fires underway there as well. But also too, of concern, overnight has been the significance of the fires in the Otways. Two fires in the Otways, Cape Otway and at Mt Carlisle that have come as a result of changed weather and dry lightning that has created these new fires in the southwest of the state. And huge resources are being deployed. On that matter of resources, we again have thousands of firefighters on the ground. 70 plus aircraft working on these fires, working around the clock to get these fires under control. We've already seen 350,000 hectares of the state burnt out. That number will increase as we continue to see these fires continue. So, we will see fires continue for some time across the state. And again, that is why we are not through the worst of this by a long way. There are fires that are continuing right now that are threatening homes and property and I ask Victorians to please stay mindful of local conditions. Also too, if roads are closed, if you are being advised not to go into certain areas, it's because it is not safe to do so. And so I also ask people to not - if you don't need to travel into these areas, if you do not - if you are not a local resident, please obey the rules and do not go into areas, because it's simply not safe to do so. The teams are working incredibly hard to get road access re-opened where it's safe to do so and are working with those local communities. For everyone else, please let these communities work through their local challenges and please do not enter into these areas and we have the State Of Disaster powers to enforce these requirements and the movement of people around these dangerous fire areas.