Interview with Allison Langdon – Today Show

ALLISON LANGDON:

And for the latest on the situation in Tonga, we're joined now by Minister for International Development and the Pacific Zed Seselja. Thank you so much for your time this morning Minister. What more do we know about the damage in Tonga?

MINISTER SESELJA:

Well we are getting I guess, some patchy reports coming out of Tonga. Obviously, communications still remain very very difficult. The AFP on the ground in Tonga was able to do an assessment of some of the Western beaches area, and there was some pretty significant damage to things like roads and some houses. So that's obviously pretty concerning. One of the good pieces of news is that I understand the airport has not suffered any significant damage, so that will be very important as the ash cloud clears and we are able to have flights coming into Tonga for humanitarian purposes and the like, that they hopefully wont be disrupted.

ALLISON LANGDON:

That’s the drama though there, isn't it? I mean, that is great news at the airport, that the damage isn't too bad there, but with this ash cloud, do you have any idea of when that might clear and when we'll be able to fly in?

MINISTER SESELJA:

Unfortunately, we don't know when the ash cloud would clear. What I do know is that a P-8 RAAF surveillance flight will be taking off at any moment out of Brisbane. There is also a New Zealand flight that is already in the air, and they will be doing aerial assessments of the damage. One of the really important things at the moment is some of the outlying islands where there has been basically no contact since the eruption took place. So getting an assessment of what is going on there is very important. In the meantime, what we are doing is preparing our humanitarian supplies. So both through an Air Force C-130 plane out of Brisbane, which will be ready to go as soon as it is feasible to do so. It has all sorts of supplies, such as tarpaulins, freshwater, sanitation supplies. We also have pre-positioned humanitarian supplies in country in Tonga through our NGO partners. And so obviously, they will be able to be deployed sometime today, which will be very good as an immediate response, but we obviously stand ready to do much more. But these initial assessments will be very important to understand what the extent of the damage is, what the need is and how we can deliver some of that humanitarian assistance.

ALLISON LANGDON:

And just very quickly, as you said, there could be issues with trying to fly in. Have we got any ships ready to take off that can be able to help with assisting?

MINISTER SESELJA:

So HMAS Adelaide is deploying from Sydney to Brisbane today, and Brisbane would be the staging post for deployment if needed into Tonga. HMAS Adelaide has deployed to the Pacific in the past when we've seen cyclones in Fiji, for instance, in the last year or so. And so one of the things that if it were to deploy, it would be likely to be delivering other than other humanitarian supplies would be things like fuel and water. We anticipate there will be some shortages of those. So all of that work is being done now. So whether it's a pre deployment on the ground, whether it's the C-130, whether it's the surveillance flights or whether it's HMAS Adelaide, we stand ready to help in whatever way we can and as we get more information, we'll be able to make further decisions about further assistance.

ALLISON LANGDON:

That is really good to hear, and of course our thoughts with everyone in Tonga this morning. Thank you so much Minister for your time.

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