Read all the latest news from Brendan O'Connor MP
Read all the latest news from Brendan O'Connor MP
LEITH FORREST, HOST: Brendan O’Connor is the Federal Shadow Minister for Small Business. He’s in KI this Afternoon. Appreciate your time Brendan, Thank you.
BRENDAN O’CONNOR: Not at all Leith.
FORREST: How is Kangaroo Island faring on this Monday?
O’CONNOR: Well it’s doing it tough as you know. About 40 per cent of the Island has been scorched and there’s been the loss of a lot of livestock and fauna. Flora’s affected and of course the reason I’m here in particular is to talk to businesses, because businesses are very much affected as a result of what’s happened.
FORREST: You’re after a national response for these bushfires. What would you like in terms of small business and family business, I guess they’ve lost their livelihood, there’s some financial uncertainty?
O’CONNOR : Look Anthony Albanese called for a COAG meeting in November, two months ago and I think it was the right response, really. We need a Federal, State and local government response, working with the communities affected to ensure that we do everything we can. With respect to small business, we’d like to see of course as much support as possible. The Government’s now, we obviously did say we want to see some grants out there and the Government’s talked about grants to small businesses, and we welcome that. There are also of course opportunities for interest free loans that could be considered, there are a whole range of other things. Right now on Kangaroo Island though, when talking to the local shops, the accommodation proprietors, where possible, if people were planning to come here and if it’s safe to do so and authorities say it’s safe to do so, then it would be very good if they were to come. Because there are parts of the Island which are safe and of course, when people choose not to come it impacts even more than just as a result of these horrific fires. So one of my messages if you’d like, on behalf of the small businesses of Kangaroo Island is check with authorities but please come, and please you know, engage with the businesses and spend money and just get the economy going again.
FORREST: I’m going to speak to Tony Copings shortly from the KI Ocean’s Safari and you’re right, because the people’s whose businesses have been directly affected, they obviously are doing it tough, but the people who haven’t, as you say through Kingscote and on the Eastern side of the Island, they’re also doing it tough and I saw some on the news where, you know normally this time of year it’s peak period. They might have bookings of 20 or 30, at the moment they’ve got 1 or 2.
O’CONNOR: And not only that, the cancellations are happening. So in other words they’re getting cancellations for bookings throughout this year. So one of the things that the Government can do and others can do is to make very clear, that provided it’s safe, people should really come to the bushfire affected areas of Australia and that includes Kangaroo Island. As you know KI is one of the most pristine, magnificent parts of the world. There is still plenty of things to do here and that’s their appeal to me, to make that clear to your listeners Leith, that people if they can come and they’ve checked with authorities, should think about doing so. Not just from South Australia of course, but around the country and the internationally as well, because they’re getting international bookings cancelled because of the vision, understandably the quite disturbing vision that’s been shot right round the world and yet there are vibrant areas, there are safe areas. That would be my first appeal, just beyond that obviously; we should be looking at the response that occurred as a result of the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, the floods in Queensland and see what was done there, but also listen to the people on the ground. For example, it was put to me that the car registration costs of vehicles on Kangaroo Island used to be less than that because it was set as a remote area, now that’s gone up to full whack, the full amount, only recently. I think within the last year or so. It’d be a good idea for the government to reconsider that increase because it’s really impacting on small businesses, given what they’ve said to me today.
FORREST: I know there’s been talk of discounting sealing to get people from the main land to get across to the Island. How do you help out Brendan where here in South Australia we’re thinking, right, we’ll help out the Adelaide Hills, we can go and visit. KI’s a little bit more difficult because of the travel obviously in getting across but how do you then get that message to the rest of the country in indeed the world we see warnings now put out by America for example, warning their travellers that the air quality’s not good enough when as you say half the Island’s affected but the other half isn’t?
O’CONNOR : Well it’s quite bizarre frankly because I’m in Kingscote and looked out and it’s a blue sky. It’s completely blue sky. Now if you’re on a ferry coming from Penneshaw, it is at the moment completely clear. Now of course there are fires in the west and you need to monitor that but there are plenty of places here that are open for business and it’s part of the national response. I think that there’s got to be Government response but there’s also people if they’ve got an opportunity to make a decision as to where they’d like to have a holiday, they should be thinking about KI and of course they should be thinking about those affected areas in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and other parts. But for South Australia, this is one of the most remarkable parts of the world. It showcases South Australia and this country. For example, I know that the world is absolutely aghast at the fact that up to 25,000 of the 50,000 koalas, diseased free koalas, I might add on the Island have been killed as a result of the fires and there’s been already an emotional outpouring because of that impact and all I say to that is well, there’s plenty of places to come and see seals and fauna and the beautiful spots here and the people should think about doing that not just in South Australia but the country at large and internationally. As for a Government response, obviously we want the Government to call together State Governments and Territory Governments and Local Government to talk about a national response that’s critical for all the affected areas and also learn from these things. We have Anthony Albanese who’s travelled around the country and of course now the Prime Minister has been making statements and responses which is good and we welcome any response that’s going to help people. We just need to move quickly and as fast as possible in terms of providing support. So for small businesses, if there’s an announcement for grants, there’s got to be removal of red tape and small businesses need to access that support as quickly as possible. Otherwise they’re going to go under and not be able to withstand the problems that they’re dealing with currently.
FORREST: And we know how important they are, the back bone of the country too, small and family businesses we had Brendan just before we let you go we had some circumstances here in Adelaide Hills where the Lobethal Hotel for example I spoke to them they opened up their doors they became a refuge for the people of the community and you had the Lobethal Bakery who you know they had no power, they gave away free food to volunteers and CFS fire fighters.
O’CONNOR : Yes well there’s a woman, Michelle, she runs the general store at Vivonne Bay. Vivonne Bay is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It was evacuated recently. She gave away a lot of her stock to volunteers and fireys. That’s a classic, I think, Australian response to a national emergency. We just need to see the Government act in that way too and of course the federal opposition wants to work hand in hand with the Government and do whatever we need to help.
FORREST: I appreciate your time this afternoon. Thanks so much.
O’CONNOR: Thanks very much Leith.
FORREST: Federal Shadow Minister for Small Business, Brendan O’Connor.