Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aviation and Transport Security) Share this | Hansard source

Cyclone Larry has been responsible for one of the most devastating and destructive natural events in Australian history. It will certainly rank if not as the greatest then certainly as one of the greatest natural disasters that this nation has had to deal with since Federation.

Cyclones are not uncommon to those of us who live in Queensland. For those in North Queensland, it is an all too common event. But cyclones of the destructive power of Cyclone Larry are well beyond the normal range of what any society could hope to plan to deal with. Many of us can recall the devastating 1974 floods. In fact, just before those floods in Brisbane in 1974 I had spent the previous month in North Queensland, which had also been going through the cyclone season and floods. It is one thing to deal with cyclones that produce floods that tend to have a localised effect in the areas surrounding waterways and some drains, but it is a very different thing to contend with a cyclone that has destructive winds in excess of 250 kilometres an hour that are sustained for hours on end.

The images that we saw on our televisions and in our newspapers of the destructive force were truly frightening, with buildings that had been cut in half, roofs that had gone and sugarcane paddocks that had been levelled—and sugar cane is a pretty thick crop, densely grown. Those of us from Queensland who grew up playing around banana plants know how easy it is to tear off their leaves or even to knock them down, but to see acres upon acres of banana plantations destroyed and cane fields flattened would have been an awesome thing to witness. It must have been, and still no doubt is, an enormously worrying event for those in North Queensland.

As well as acknowledging the severity of the devastation that occurred, I want to take this opportunity to particularly acknowledge and thank those who have been involved in providing the support and the response. As you would expect, in the hours that followed the devastation people from the normal emergency service teams were providing support. Local police, fire brigade officers, ambulance officers, nurses, health workers and SES volunteers all played a part in the immediate aftermath in trying to establish some order and safety.

I want to pay particular credit to those from that group who themselves were affected. It has not been something that has been particularly widely recognised, but the truth is that police officers who lost their houses like everybody else nonetheless turned up for duty to help out in the community. They did not do that just on the first day and they did not do it on an eight-hour shift; they did it around the clock. Some of them, after a few days of working long hours, needed to take a break, and that break came because support for those in North Queensland was provided from other services in Queensland and from elsewhere in the country, which has been greatly appreciated.

Volunteers have made themselves available from other parts of Queensland, including from other parts of North Queensland and I know also from south-east Queensland, and have gone up there to provide support. They have included nurses, health workers and tradespeople. There is a desperate need for tradespeople who are able to assist in the reconstruction work. All of those who have made themselves available deserve credit. As well, I want to especially acknowledge the contribution and sacrifice of those who themselves were affected but nonetheless upheld their duty to ensure that the community was able to get back on its feet.

In times of terrible adversity and disaster we very often do see the true underlying character of people. I was taken by the response of people in places like Innisfail, Babinda and other towns where we saw shop owners without power, and in some cases without a roof over their heads, deciding: ‘The food is obviously not going to last. We’ll put a barbie on in the street and anyone can come along and have a feed.’ Many people did not have a fridge or a table to eat off; they did not have anything to cook on. You saw people in North Queensland making food available to their friends, neighbours and strangers so that some degree of normal life could continue and the basics could be provided for.

When watching that it did strike me what a wonderful sense of character those people in North Queensland have. It is in contrast to the scenes we saw of the terrible devastation in Miami after Hurricane Katrina hit, where, to my horror and amazement, rather than seeing the best of human nature, we tended to see the worst of human nature. It stands all Australians in good stead to know that deep down there is that sense of decency that was exhibited by those people in North Queensland. For that, if nothing else, we should thank our fellow Australians in North Queensland for the way they conducted themselves. At a time when the normal structures of civilised society had been struck down, overwhelmingly their instinct, by and large, was to do the right thing and to help their mates. Good on them for that.

I want to also acknowledge the very forthright and direct support that the Queensland government provided. Premier Peter Beattie was on the scene very soon after the storm had passed through, as were other ministers. I recall seeing on TV my good friend the Minister for Emergency Services, Pat Purcell, amongst the crowd, with his booming voice and tall stature, lending his support. I know the Minister for Police and Corrective Services, Judy Spence, and the Minister for Public Works, Housing and Racing, Rob Schwarten, have been playing a part, as well.

I also want to acknowledge the willingness of the Prime Minister to visit the area a couple of days after the cyclone hit, accompanied by the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. They visited the area affected and provided both moral and financial support to the people. These are times when partisan politics really has no place. It was thoroughly appropriate that the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition should visit that area together and provide support to their North Queensland fellow Australians. That was a good thing to see.

It would be remiss of us in this place in a debate like this not to also acknowledge the contribution that General Peter Cosgrove is making and will continue to make. He is a fine Australian. Many of us in this parliament have had the great pleasure of meeting him and being involved with him at gatherings, committees and various other things. His willingness to get back into harness, as it were, for the good of the community is a welcome thing. He is a person of great ability and impeccable integrity. I have no doubt that his expertise and leadership will assist in the recovery.

We should not underestimate the magnitude of this recovery. It was not localised in the sense of a suburb or even a town; a group of towns were effectively decimated. All the normal processes of civilisation were destroyed. There was no water supply, there was no power, there was no sewerage and, in many parts of the area, there was no landline communication. To re-establish necessary power was a major undertaking in itself. The state government and Energex’s capacity to get large generators relocated from elsewhere in the state to that area so that a clean water supply could be available within a short period of time was a good demonstration of how an emergency response team should operate. I think those involved with emergency service coordination in Queensland have done a fine job and no doubt could teach some in other parts of the world how to deal with these sorts of situations.

The Australian defence forces, as always, played their part. Soon after Cyclone Larry had been through that area, we saw Australian Defence Force personnel on location with their sleeves rolled up, shovels in hand and engineering equipment at the ready. Their participation was essential in providing recovery. Importantly, the flights of Hercules aircraft into the area providing food and water supplies in the immediate days after were essential. North Queensland is home to a very large part of the Australian Defence Force. Many people recruited into the Australian Defence Force come from Queensland—a disproportionate number, in fact, of Defence personnel come from Queensland. So for many in uniform this was not an abstract event. This was an area well known to them and in some cases, no doubt, it was their home as well.

Any of us who have had the great pleasure of travelling through North Queensland know how beautiful it is. My first ventures there were in the early 1970s. You are struck by its magnificent natural beauty. Whether it is the subtropical rainforests, the green cane fields or the immaculate South Pacific panorama that you look out across from just about anywhere you go up in North Queensland, it is truly filled with natural beauty—a wonderful place.

This cyclone has been a major problem in the short term, but I have absolutely no doubt that the effort being put in by the locals and the contribution being made by the Queensland state government, the Commonwealth government and the people of Australia will see that area rebuilt. As Peter Cosgrove said the other day, it will be bigger and better than it was. That is a big call, because North Queensland is a pretty darn good place to be at any time, but I think he is right. It will be bigger and better—and I do not just mean in its physical reconstruction. I am sure that those who have lived through this and who have been through that process of helping one another have a sense of unity and purpose that will make them even more unbeatable.

The trouble with people from North Queensland—I can say this as a South Queenslander; it is a bit like the Australians and the Kiwis—is this. The state of origin match between Queensland and New South Wales is a tough game but a game of football between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys is even tougher, I suspect. As a Brisbane boy, the one problem I foresee is that those Cowboys will have an extra set of arms and an extra set of legs as they carry the pride of North Queensland after this disaster! However, we wish them well because they have been through a lot. They have stood up to it incredibly well. I know that the thoughts of all the people in this parliament are with them.

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