 Thank you. Well this morning we have had the last meeting of the State Disaster Management Group that was established as a result of the monsoonal rains that have affected and flooded our state really since Christmas Eve. The State Disaster Management Group was activated on Christmas Eve with the appointment of Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart as the State Disaster Coordinator. This group will be activated again if we see any further need in any major disaster that might come to us before the end of our wet season. But this group has now had its final meeting, it's just tying up a number of loose ends if you like and we now move importantly into recovery phase and the beginnings of the establishment of the Reconstruction Authority. Nevertheless we are continuing to be ready for anything that might come our way. The briefing from the Weather Bureau indicated that we have seen the monsoonal trough retreat north where it's likely to stay for some time. However the monsoonal trough does have a number of cloud clusters around the Gulf and the Coral Sea that could develop into a tropical cyclone and the Weather Bureau is monitoring that very carefully. They believe there is only a small possibility of a tropical cyclone developing before Australia Day but that possibility lifts to a moderate possibility after Australia Day. So whether or not that develops we know that we are by no means out of our wet season and we'll be continuing to get regular briefings from the Weather Bureau and monitoring carefully. If we need to reactivate the State Disaster Management Group that's what we will do. We have a number of towns that are still seeing a lot of water around them. St George is facing a second peak sometime in the next couple of days over the weekend. That peak is likely to be around 12.5 metres. The last one that they had last week was 13.2. So not as bad as their last one and you saw that many of their levees held but nevertheless a second peak in St George of 12.5 metres. Unlike other peaks that St George has seen in the last 12 months this one's likely to last for around and if the water is likely to sit there for three or four days so that might pose some issues that we might need to assist them with. As a result of the flooding that we saw in Gundawindi the town of Talwood which is west about an hour west of Gundawindi that has some 90 people in it are facing a flood peak of just over four metres and we're working with their local people there to determine whether that is likely to impact any homes. We're seeing a number of evacuation centres closing as people are found alternative accommodation and we continue to be we continue to assess the damage in each one of those places. The number of deaths out of this event still remains at 20. However this is out of the events since the 10th of January. However police can now confirm that since the 30th of November Queensland has seen a total of 33 of deaths associated with flooding incidents somewhere across the state so 20 deaths since the 10th of January but 13 prior to that so since the 30th of November more than 30 Queenslanders have lost their lives in flooding related events. There's been an extraordinary missing persons exercise undertaken by the major incident room with the Queensland Police Service. Since the 10th of January they have had 489 persons formally reported as missing and they have located sorry they have located 489 persons who were formally reported as missing as a result of flood related incidents. Of course there will remain nine people now who are continue to be missing and who we hold very grave fears for. The Deputy Commissioner will make some comments about that. As we go into the recovery phase we really need to count the the damage and to count the cost of this incident and we're a long way we're not there yet but just to give you a sense of the size of the incident that we have dealt with here in in Queensland over the three weeks or so since Christmas Eve. The current estimate of the total number of houses across Queensland that saw flooding over their floorboards is 5,400 homes. The number of houses that were affected in some way but not necessarily into over the floorboards is 21,000. A further 15,000 had flooding into their yards and that's caused some damage to that property. We've evacuated 3,600 homes and the number of people evacuated numbers 5,900. That required the establishment over the last three weeks of 74 evacuation centres. There are currently in Queensland 1900 armed forces personnel who are part of the cleanup and the recovery and the armed forces in just a little under three weeks have supplied by Army aircraft 680 tons of food and other supplies such as medical supplies or fuel. We currently have 37 recovery centres which are out there making sure there are one stop shop for people to know their entitlements to find out local issues about their own local government areas as well as state government and federal government assistance and financial help. In total out of this one event since Christmas Eve well I suppose it was a multiple series of events but a rolling event since Christmas Eve 97 Queensland towns have been impacted in some way either flooded in fact serious flooding or completely isolated for a period of time by roads being cut. The latest estimates from the insurance industry they said the insurance claims now number 31,000 totaling about $1.1 billion worth of claims. Just under a quarter of those 24% relate to vehicles and the remaining 76% of those 31,000 claims relate to property damage or business interruption insurance. Of our 73 local government areas 51 have had a disaster declaration since these events started and 14 of those local government areas have been severely impacted with very serious flooding. We are still counting the tally of roads that are affected across Queensland but local government estimate at the moment that just local government roads damage totals some 90,000 kilometres of local government roads have seen some form of damage so that's without federal highways, state roads or railways. So we will continue to update those that data so you get a sense of the enormity of the task in front of us. Can I conclude my remarks by paying tribute firstly to all of those who helped us get through this at the front line our local councils all of our emergency and rescue workers the ADF the police our army of volunteers in the tiniest towns and in the capital cities that have aided the cleanup. Can I offer on behalf of all Queenslanders our sympathies and condolences to those families who have lost a loved one and who are now going through the very sad business of funerals and coping with that loss. Can I particularly thank everybody who has dug deep and contributed in one way or another to the $127 million Premier's Relief Fund that number continues to climb we're continuing to see donations from around the world and around the country and that tells me that people do care about what happens in our state and that's been a great lift in our morale so we thank you for it. I might invite I'll invite the Deputy Commissioner to add to my comments in that regard. Premier thank you and whilst I have been able today to recommend to the Premier and the State Disaster Management Group that my position as State Disaster Coordinator be terminated that does not mean that the effort in response does not go on certainly there are a number of hot spots where local command will now take full responsibility for the response efforts in most of those areas that the Premier has touched on including places like Condomine, Thallum and Durham Bandy. Also there is a huge task ahead of authorities particularly the police in respect of the search that continues in the Lockheed Valley area that search may take weeks if not months to conclude and in addition the Queensland Police Service has a significant commitment of extra staff into all of those areas but again I would like to thank not only all of the people that the Premier has mentioned but I would as the first State Disaster Coordinator can I particularly thank the community of Queensland in the way that they have conducted themselves and responded to what has been one of the greatest challenges that our State has ever faced. Thanks Premier. Well my understanding is the only parts of the guidelines that haven't been released are the design diagrams and that's for security reasons we don't want basically to ensure that vandals or terrorists don't get the design diagrams of our dams. Absolutely not and they will be made fully available to the Commission of Inquiry. My understanding is that the manual continue has operated in that way for a number for quite a while and that's the operations that they've been relying upon. These are all matters for the Commission of Inquiry and I don't intend to speculate on technical engineering questions that the inquiry has all the expertise required to answer. This dam is not the only dam in the world that has both water supply and flood mitigation effects in fact many dams have those dual roles clearly that'll be an issue that the Commission of Inquiry will also look into. Are you concerned by those emails? No they are normal part of doing business. The South East Queensland Water Authority has an obligation to constantly update a range of authorities including for example the Brisbane City Council's Flood Information Centre that's what that information was doing and that's a normal part of managing a disaster constantly giving the information as it changes. And have you got anything? No I'm sorry I can't give you anything further on that there's certainly no reports at this stage of any localised flooding but we'll be watching very carefully. Have you got any more details regarding home assistance in the dam and how many temporary houses you'll need? Well as I say we know that we current estimates indicate 5,400 people who have had some flood inundation over their floorboards that would include a number of people who will either be out of their home and it's uninhabitable now for many months or they might be able to go back into it for a little while and then move out while the work is done. So we're seeing a number of evacuation centres closed the RNA evacuation centre is closed Ipswich is closing a number although QE2 stadium will continue Rockhampton closed theirs today and that means that people every one of the people in the evacuation centre have found some form of temporary accommodation for now it may only be a friend or family while we work with them to get something more permanent and for some people it means they are going to be moving a couple of times and that's not going to be easy. Yesterday we were able to formally identify one of the missing. Sure. We're seeing donations more than 30 million of those donations come from mums and dads going into banks and some of the other collection points like supermarkets and that's just overwhelming I think it's terrific. We have seen a couple of major American corporations donate in the last couple of days the Disney Corporation and the American Tobacco Federation these I think may well be as a result of the Oprah Winfrey call to arms and we'll be analysing those donations that come in for the next couple of days to see what the international response is to that to that request. I'm sorry I can get them for you. Who's eligible for that funding? A small business who's eligible to invest in that disaster relief fund? The Disaster Relief Appeal Distribution Committee will be making a range of decisions about how this money goes out but they have already resolved that this will be a fund for families and individuals whose homes have been affected. I know that there are also businesses that have been affected but I think most people who gave out of their pockets did so because they wanted to see families and individuals get back on their feet as quickly as they could. We do have a number of a range of business assistants through government funds and I certainly encourage small business and agricultural producers to access that assistance up to $25,000 but this relief appeal will go to families and individuals who've been personally affected in their own homes by water going over their floorboards and considerably disrupting their lives. That's a matter for the distribution committee and I understand they're very close to making some announcements in relation to that. Look we'll be working with every one of the people who've been affected and you know for some people it's going to be a reasonably straightforward process of getting a builder, getting a cabinet maker, replacing the kitchen and the bathroom and then getting back on with their lives. For other people their homes are not going to be habitable ever. They're going to have to demolish their homes and that means a total rebuild and before they rebuild we would want to be talking with them about if your home has gone completely underwater what we'll be wanting to talk with every one of them about what they build and where they build and what we won't be doing you know we won't be we'll be doing everything in our power not to slow down the process and unfortunately for some people regardless of anything it is going to take some months. Look we're not about to relocate Brisbane that's just not possible and we're not in a position to relocate you know suburb after suburb but we want to make some good common sense decisions and we have people who are saying they don't want to rebuild in place where they may face a submerge effect a flooding event like that again. So every one of these people will have and these families will have to go through their own decision-making process well informed by their local councils and by the work of the authority remembering that it's not only happening here in Brisbane we've got many small towns where there are opportunities for people to with their councils and councils have already been talking to us perhaps build somewhere differently and you know on council land and council takes their land and makes it into a park you know there are some common sense solutions here that if we work through them carefully we'll actually end up with not only safer houses but better communities and a stronger a stronger state. Certainly I understand that the media had an access point yesterday and that will gradually open up totally to media. We are bound and guided by the wishes of that community. So at this stage still next week Deputy Commissioner or fully open is that the plan or? Certainly we're working towards next week yes certainly the the initial focus of the search and rescue was around the habitable areas of Grantham because of the devastation within that community and at Murphy's Creek. What we will now move towards is a wider search pattern that will include every property along the watercourse from Murphy's Creek right down to where the Lockheist system meets the Brisbane River in terms of searching all debris piles, all buildings, all outhouses, out stations in that area. Probably yesterday too about him saying the state government didn't join up the property by that scheme. What are your thoughts about that? Well my recollection of his comments were that there were many people who didn't take up the offer and you know that is an indication that some people feel so attached to their houses even if their houses are in places that might expose them to some risk just indicates just how difficult some of this is going to be and we appreciate that and we'll work with everybody carefully and sensitively. Look I'm not aware of his comments so I'm not going to not going to speculate I'm not going to comment on something I didn't get to see. What I can say is that we are working in partnership with every local government including Brisbane City Council I think there is a really good understanding across all levels of government that no one can do this on our own. Local government can't do it on their own, state can't, federal can't but between all three of us I think we can make some good things happen and that's what we're determined to do. That's a matter for the federal government.