Interview with Patricia Karvelas, ABC RN Breakfast

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RN BREAKFAST
THURSDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2022

SUBJECTS: updates on flood conditions in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania; methane pledge

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: For many of you the third La Niña in a row is ruining plans and possibly making your home a bit mouldy. But for many the latest round of extreme weather has been devastating and in some areas halted any efforts to recover from flooding earlier on in the I see. It’s a never-ending nightmare.
 
Murray Watt is the Minister for Emergency Management and also the Agriculture Minister. He’s been visiting affected areas across New South Wales. He joins us now from Darwin. Minister, welcome.
 
MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Good morning, Patricia.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Let’s start with the current threat. There are flood warnings in both New South Wales and Victoria. Sandbags are being given out to residents in some parts of northern Victoria. How bad could it get today?
 
MURRAY WATT: We’re certainly very concerned about the weather that seems to be now coming through Victoria and Tasmania as well, Patricia. And already in the last 24 hours there’s been some pretty heavy rainfall in parts of south west New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. So, we’re obviously taking this very seriously. And I guess that’s one of the reasons for talking with people like you and your listeners – is to make sure that people have all the information they can.
 
I’ve been briefed this morning and we’ve certainly got federal emergency management officials in most of the state operation centres to make sure that we’re well-plugged in to how things are going. But even based on what I saw yesterday in Dubbo and Gunnedah in western New South Wales, there’s just so much water around. Some of these communities have been having floods now for a couple of months, time after time. So, there’s just not a lot of capacity left in the system for extra rainfall that we expect to see in coming days.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: And you’ve just announced disaster recovery relief for 27 council areas in New South Wales. What does that relief include?
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so over the last few days we’ve announced a variety of relief, particularly for western New South Wales. Last week the New South Wales Government declared a disaster area for 27 western New South Wales council areas, and that triggered the first round of support - so state and federal support in the form of grants to people who are in extreme hardship, low-interest loans for farmers, small businesses and other forms of support as well.
 
And what I announced yesterday in Dubbo was that the Federal Government is also activating our Disaster Recovery Allowance. That’s basically a form of income support for people who have lost income due to the floods, so for instance, people who are unable to get to work because of flood conditions or their business or the business they work in may have been damaged. That was one of the things that was really revealing yesterday when I was in western New South Wales, was that there are some people who’ve been actually cut off from their properties for about eight weeks. It’s one of those things that, you know, city people don’t necessarily realise, those isolations that occur in rural areas. So, this support that we announced yesterday will assist people like that.
Basically, what it works out to is 13 weeks’ payment at the JobSeeker level. So anywhere up to $600-$700 a week. And really the intent is to support people so that they can, you know, pay their bills, pay their rent, pay their mortgage to get through until they can get back to work once the flood waters recede.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: So that’s the sort of short-term response, and of course that’s important. But what’s the long-term solution here, Minister? How do we make communities more resilient, or do we have to start having a conversation about moving people from vulnerable areas? Obviously New South Wales has been engaged in that, but in a broader sense.
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I think it probably depends on the location that we’re talking about. I mean, I don’t think it’s realistic to think that we’re going to be able to relocate every farm property in western New South Wales, for instance. But equally, there are probably some areas, particularly in urban areas, where you’ve got built-up populations on extremely flood-prone land. The Prime Minister himself a few days ago was making the point that we do need to have a conversation about where future development goes because we have seen too much development over the years occur in flood-prone regions. So, I think that’s an important part of it. But we’re obviously now in discussion with the New South Wales Government about their request for funding to help buy back properties, particularly in the Northern Rivers region. We’re in the process of delivering support to the Queensland Government to help them to do that. They’ve already signed agreements with I think it’s about 40 or 50 homeowners in flood-prone areas in south east Queensland to buy back properties. So, I think it’s a bit of a mixture.
 
But in addition to that, of course, we’ve got legislation in Parliament now to create our Disaster Ready Fund, which is about creating an ongoing fund of up to $200 a million a year at the federal level to invest in disaster mitigation, because we know these things aren’t going away.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: No, unfortunately they’re not. Let’s turn to your agriculture portfolio. It’s reported that Australia will sign up to the US President Joe Biden’s global pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 per cent over a decade. Can you confirm that’s under consideration?
 
MURRAY WATT: We’re certainly considering that, Patricia. And for some time now I and other ministers have been consulting with farm groups and individual farmers about how they feel about this and what the impacts would be. To be honest with you, I was surprised when I became the minister – and I think my colleagues felt the same way – after all the consternation we saw about the methane pledge in the lead-up to the last COP, we were told by Barnaby Joyce and other people that if Australia signed up to this pledge it would mean we’d have to go around and shoot every cow in the country and all the usual hyperbole you get from Barnaby. This methane pledge, in fact, what it actually is, is an aspirational goal from the world to bring down our methane emissions, which is something not only that I support but that most farm groups support.
 
I think Meat and Livestock Australia, the Red Meat Advisory Council, other groups have already got commitments in place to reach carbon neutral meat production by 2030. And we’re working closely with the industry to help them reduce their methane emissions. So, I would encourage everyone to ignore the scare campaign that we know is going to come.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: OK. So you’re saying it’s a positive pledge. So it means that you’re ultimately going to sign up to it then, if you think it’s such a good idea, right?
 
MURRAY WATT: Well we’re certainly considering it. We want to – as is with everything our government is doing, we do like to consult people and make sure that people know what’s involved in commitments that we make. Obviously –
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Sure, but you’re making the case for it. You’re saying it’s a good idea for Australia to be signed up to this.
 
MURRAY WATT: I’m certainly comfortable if we sign up to it. We haven’t made that announcement at this point, we are still consulting with groups. I had some more discussions with the NFF and other groups about this in the last week or so just to keep talking it through with people. Because I think it’s important - given that backdrop and the scare campaign we saw last time - that people do understand what’s actually involved here.
And one of the things that industry has been saying to me is that they’re actually quite comfortable with these things, especially if government is prepared to provide support such as support for the expanded use of aspargopsis, the seaweed that can help bring down methane. Last week I was actually in Tasmania and met with one of the companies that’s producing this, and it’s a really exciting opportunity to create a new industry for Australia while bringing down our emissions in our livestock industry too.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Agriculture is a major methane emitter. In New Zealand they’re putting a levy on farmers who emit methane. It’s been dubbed ‘the burp tax’, although we spoke to an expert that said– a stakeholder actually who said it wasn’t a tax, but it was a price. What about here? What you consider something like that?
 
MURRAY WATT: No, we have no plans to introduce that sort of a system in Australia-
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: So how do you meet the pledge that you would like to sign up to if you won’t put a price on it?
 
MURRAY WATT: Well for starters the pledge doesn’t actually set a binding target about reducing emissions by a particular amount. As I say, it’s more of an aspirational goal for all countries to reduce their emissions. And I should make the point that it’s already been signed up to by about 120 other countries, including some of the biggest beef-producing countries in the world, like the US and Argentina and the sky hasn’t fallen in in those countries by signing up to it.
 
But in terms of New Zealand, they have a very different system where methane emissions are the bulk of their overall emissions in the country. So perhaps they have decided to take more drastic measures than what we need to be looking at here.
 
But, as I say, regardless of the pledge, we do have now in legislated climate emissions reductions targets, and methane emissions are part of that. And as I as I say, we want to be able to reduce those emissions through partnerships with industry, whether it be about asparagopsis or other ways of managing land in a more efficient manner. And I’ve found industry really up for that conversation.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: And how soon are we going to see an announcement? You’ve made it really clear to me that you think this is a good idea and you’ve tried to make the point about scare campaigns. So what are we looking at here? Is this on the cards in the next couple of days?
 
MURRAY WATT: Oh well, I mean, it’s obviously up to my colleagues and the Prime Minister, you know, in partnership with me to think about when we would make any announcements. But, you know, as I say, I would be comfortable if we were to sign up to this as the representative of the agriculture industry in the Government. And that position is pretty much backed in by all the industry groups as well.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Would it make the price of food more expensive? That’s what some people are concerned about.
 
MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, that’s the same people who, you know, said that we’d be paying $100 for a roast, a lamb roast. And they’ve been making all sorts of claims for years that weren’t true. I remember when Barnaby and others were making claims about this methane pledge last time. He said that it was part of his net zero deal and Scott Morrison shot that down. So, he couldn’t even tell the truth about whether he’d done a deal on this or not.
 
I just think, you know, there’s just so much– our country has been held back for 10 years by the hyperbole and scare campaigns of the people who are now starting to do it again. I would say that the industry wouldn’t be looking at moving towards carbon-neutral meat production if they weren’t comfortable that the industry would be sustainable and viable. So, you know, there’s a lot of issues that impact on meat prices. Some of them include the natural disasters we were talking about in this interview. But we’re not planning to do anything that is going to have a direct impact on people’s prices.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Minister, many thanks for joining us this morning.
 
MURRAY WATT: Good to talk to you, PK.
 
PATRICIA KARVELAS: Minister for Agriculture and Emergency Management, Murray Watt. You’re listening to ABC RN Breakfast.