Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

As a Queenslander I have always regarded North Queensland and tropical North Queensland as paradise. It has been my pleasure to visit and travel around it on many occasions. But, of course, with paradise sometimes there is a downside. In tropical and subtropical Queensland, cyclones are a fact of life. People grow used to the risk of these big storms, but nothing prepares anyone—not even stoic North Queenslanders, who have been through some of the biggest storms that this country has seen—for a cyclone the size of Larry, which crossed the Queensland coast at 7.30 am last Monday, 20 March.

I welcome the contributions to the discussion today from all of the North Queensland members, who have worked very hard with all of the authorities to put in place all of the schemes and responses that are required to assist those Far North Queenslanders who have been affected. If you survey the damage to our great agricultural industries and if you take into account the damage to the lives of families—pensioners, young families and all of those people who make up this community—you can see that we have a very substantial problem on our hands. It is a problem that stretches from Mareeba in the north, to the south of Tully and west of Mount Garnet.

The people of Far North Queensland have been simply battered by the worst tropical cyclone in living memory. It packed a massive punch, with winds of up to 290 kilometres an hour that brutalised 12,500 square kilometres of forest, fertile agricultural land, state and national parks, and commercial and residential estates. Of course, we do not know the final numbers yet, but, when it comes to homes, 226 homes in Innisfail have been made uninhabitable, 3,000 applications for ex gratia payments due to houses being uninhabitable for longer than two weeks have been received and 126 homes have sustained structural damage in the Mareeba area—and it goes on. We have heard so much about it today from those who have been on the ground over the past week.

Perhaps the most insightful number expressing the extent of the damage that the people of North Queensland have experienced is that, since last Monday, the wonderful men and women assisting in the reconstruction effort in the affected areas have covered with tarpaulins the leaking roofs of 1,600 houses. I would like to pay tribute to all the work of the Queensland emergency service, the counter-disaster and rescue services, the Queensland Police Service, the Queensland Ambulance Service, the Queensland health service and all of those volunteers we have heard about today, who have used their own personal and private resources in these communities to help their fellow citizens.

There are also the Australian Defence Force personnel and all of the volunteers who have come from outside the area. I know that there are many from my electorate of Lilley in Brisbane who have simply made their way to North Queensland to help their fellow citizens. They have done it because these communities are in their hour of need. Their service to the people of Innisfail, Mareeba and other affected towns and cities is, indeed, a ray of light in what are going to be dark days in Far North Queensland. Their work, in cooperation with state and Commonwealth government agencies, has certainly done a lot to help all those affected people.

But just as a tarpaulin on the roof is only the beginning of the process of rebuilding a house, so the challenge of rebuilding the communities of Far North Queensland has only begun. One point that I would like to make today is that, while in a sense it is easy at a time like this, so close to an event like this, for everybody to consider what should be done and outline the response, it is a far tougher ‘ask’ to be engaged in the planning and delivery to make sure that in the longer term the resources are getting to those people and industries that require them. The scale of the devastation is such that these problems will not go away in two or three months or a year. It will simply take many years of work to assist all of those who have been affected in this process. So what we have on our hands is a long-term project to rebuild the social and economic fabric of one of the most remarkable regions of the world—a region that I have always regarded as being paradise, and a region that makes a marvellous economic contribution as well as a great social contribution to this country. It is going to take more money than has already been committed, more men and women than have already put up their hands to help and—hardest of all—more patience and courage from the resilient people of Far North Queensland.

But as large a task as we face together, I have every faith that we will achieve that task and return Far North Queensland to the vital role that it plays in our national story. I have that faith because I know that no level of government is underestimating the enormity of the task. We have heard from the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in this parliament, from the Premier of Queensland, from local government leaders and indeed from representatives in this House that they understand that what we say today will only be words if it is not followed up with concrete actions over the next few years, not just the next few months. So local, state and federal governments are in this job for the long term. We will be there until the job is done, because it is our job to fix it all when the TV cameras have gone and all the roofs have been patched up. There will be many other challenges before us. All of the families whose employment and schooling have been dislocated and all of the pensioners who have lost their homes and may experience difficulty in rebuilding have difficult economic and social problems that are going to require a lot of creativity and flexibility the delivery of not only government but also private sector services and programs.

I would like to finish by quoting the words of my good friend and local member for much of the affected area, Warren Pitt. Warren, who is facing a very serious health challenge bravely and with great optimism, had a few words about this to say in the Queensland parliament today. In many ways I think this does sum up much of what has been said here today, particularly by the member for Kennedy, who has been tireless on the ground in the affected areas. That is not to diminish the work that has been done by other members who are here today, but the member for Kennedy is perhaps the one who is most closely affected and will continue to be a vocal member of the parliament for these people. I know he understands the people in the community and their attitudes. I think Warren Pitt does too, and I think he would agree with me that this is the sentiment—as summed up by him today—that exists in Far North Queensland:

... the one thing which doesn’t need rebuilding is the spirit of the affected communities, because that spirit stood resolute and undamaged against Cyclone Larry ...

The people of Far North Queensland certainly have the spirit. We need to provide them with the vehicles and resources to rebuild their communities, not just economically but socially. All in this House should commit today to doing that not just in the short term but in the long term and in the interests not just of the people of Far North Queensland but of the country as a whole.

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