MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Downer
Australia will provide emergency assistance to help the Indonesian authorities respond to the major forest fires that continue to burn in Sumatra.
These widespread fires have produced severe pollution across Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia, and resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency in Malaysia on Thursday 11 August. The Federal government is working with Indonesian authorities and with State and Territory governments to help respond to the disaster.
Australia will deploy an Emergency Assessment Team led by Emergency Management Australia and comprising up to 12 bushfire experts drawn from the States or Territories, to Sumatra. Defence and AusAID personnel will also be represented on the team.
The team will be funded from AusAID's humanitarian and emergency budget.
The team's role will be to support Indonesian authorities on the planning and management of their response, and to help determine what further assistance Australia may be able to provide.
The team will deploy as soon as practicable this week.
This follows a request for Australian assistance from the Indonesian government.
The work of this team will supplement the longer-term capacity building assistance that Australia is already offering to the Indonesian National Coordinating Agency for Natural Disasters and Refugee Relief. The assistance is part of the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development established following the devastating Tsunami on 26 December 2004.
Media inquiries:
Chris Kenny (Mr Downer's office) 0419 206 890
AusAID (Public Affairs) 0417 680 590