Australian Prime Minister Press Conference - Maitland

: Thanks, everybody, for being here. It's important that you're here this afternoon. Very appreciative to have the Prime Minister alongside Commissioner Wassing, Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib, local MPs, federal MPs, to talk about the devastation over the last three days. A couple of things I'd like to say. Firstly, the weather that has brought such devastation and enormous anxiety to the local community is moving south, which is good news. However, we need to report that there are still 39 emergency warnings still in place. Many of them are evacuation orders and we're asking people to look at the app rather than the sky to make a determination about whether it's safe to go home or to use your local roads. It's still incredibly important that the community listen to emergency service workers, to local police, to the SES, to anyone who's an official who has the latest information. They may be aware of a set of circumstances that aren't immediately apparent and that's how we're going to keep people alive during this difficult period. It's also important to note that there's been, terribly, four fatalities so far and the community will rightly be devastated by that. It's also - I have to report that the SES and emergency services, including the VRA, PolAir, New South Wales Police, affected 678 flood rescues, including 177 flood rescues in the last 24 hours. An amazing, heroic logistical effort where in very difficult circumstances, many volunteers put themselves in harm's way to rescue a complete stranger. And over the coming days and weeks, we will hear scores of stories of locals being plucked out of impossible, desperate situations. So, of course we mourn the people that have passed. But I do think it's important to say without the SES, without the volunteers, we would have had hundreds of deaths. And we're in deep, deep gratitude to those people who volunteered their time or work for emergency services, Fire and Rescue, New South Wales Police, the RFS and the other emergency services. I also need to report that the conditions in Taree are very tough. And we've heard word from local MPs, local businesses, that they've had a torrid three days, incredibly difficult circumstances. We know it's going to take a long time to get that community back up on its feet. We thank them for their forbearance. We know it's been an incredibly difficult period - an incredibly difficult period - and I want them to know that the rest of New South Wales is behind them and hoping that they get through this as short a period of time as possible. The town has been cut off, we understand, as of half an hour ago, local roads are still cut off to Taree. Obviously it's being serviced by emergency service choppers, emergency service personnel. I want to announce with the Prime Minister that assistance will begin to flow soon. And today I can announce, in conjunction with the Commonwealth Government, that Personal Hardship Assistance grants of $180 per individual or $900 per family will be available as soon as possible. It's not today, but I wanted to announce that that funding is on the way for communities that are subject to an evacuation order. Again, jointly funded by the state and the Commonwealth Government. $1 million community recovery grants for local councils, $1 million for each of the local councils that are affected by emergency orders will flow soon. I thank the Commonwealth for that. I want to make clear that I know, particularly for businesses and the local economy, it's going to take more than these hardship grants to get these towns back on their feet. But I wanted to get the ball rolling and the clear message to both myself and the Prime Minister is that these projects and these grants were essential and needed to be announced as soon as possible. We'll have