Bruce Baird (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade I present the committee’s report entitled Australia’s response to the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

The Boxing Day 2004 tsunami is on record as one of the worst natural disasters to occur in modern times. Equally unprecedented in scale has been the response of the international donor community to help the tsunami victims recover.

Australia has been the largest per capita country contributor to tsunami aid and has played a major role in the relief and reconstruction effort, particularly in Indonesia, where the tsunami struck hardest.

Australia’s collective response has involved federal government departments and agencies, state agencies and non-government organisations. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the Australian government committed $68 million. Australian NGO partners received $12 million to provide services, supplies and support to tsunami affected countries, while $23.5 million was donated to the UN to support its activities in coordinating the relief effort. Additional funds, including the $1 billion Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development, are progressively being committed against longer term reconstruction priorities. Within months of the tsunami, Australian non-government organisations had raised a further $313 million from the wider Australian community.

It was against the backdrop of this initial generosity, and the fact that some 18 months had elapsed since the disaster, that the committee considered it timely to convene a forum where members could meet with Australian NGOs and discuss—together with government departments and agencies—where Australians’ money is being spent and how aid agencies are continuing to deliver assistance to tsunami affected communities.

Subsequently, the committee hosted a public roundtable hearing at Parliament House on 12 May 2006, to which it invited a range of participants, including the five main non-government organisations in Australia—the Red Cross, Oxfam, Caritas, CARE and World Vision—and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, AusAID, Defence and the Australian Federal Police. At the roundtable, the committee gained an overview of the progress to date, learnt about current operational priorities and focused on emerging lessons that could inform ongoing responses to recovery requirements in the tsunami affected countries.

The committee, in hearing the attendees at the roundtable tell their stories, was affected by the shared experiences of agencies, in particular the perspectives of Australian Defence Force and Australian Federal Police personnel who were involved in the initial clean-up and the disaster victim identification missions. Officers clearly carried out their jobs well, with compassion and dignity under extraordinary circumstances—and this is something that those individuals and indeed all Australians can be proud of.

Witnesses outlined some of the many reasons why the rebuilding process is progressing slowly. Ultimately, the sheer scale and complexity of the disaster must be borne in mind and the reconstruction and development phase be viewed in terms of taking years rather than months to complete. It is also important that sufficient time be taken to consult with local communities and deliver high-quality outcomes to beneficiaries. There are enormous challenges for those involved with the reconstruction—challenges with the supply of materials and labour and, in some instances, the management of corruption issues. However, significant work has still been done. At the hearing, agencies described a wide range of projects which they are working on to achieve this end, from rebuilding houses, reinstalling basic services and restoring infrastructure, to health and counselling services, and training villagers to help with the planning of village reconstruction and direct access assistance.

The committee would like to see greater media coverage—including more positive stories—of the reconstruction effort as it progresses. While the tsunami is clearly no longer front-page news it remains the largest international relief and reconstruction effort staged in recent times, and one to which Australia continues to contribute significant resources. AusAID provided significant evidence about engagement with local media from Australia and Indonesia about their endeavours to obtain positive coverage about what is being achieved.

In an era when natural disasters appear to be increasing and the aid community finds itself being stretched to capacity, the committee acknowledges that government and non-government organisations alike are finding new ways to work together and complement each other’s strengths.

The committee hopes that this roundtable process contributes to and encourages public debate on this still important topic, and showcases some of the excellent work being done by Australian agencies and non-government organisations. In closing, I would like to thank all the roundtable participants. I also thank my colleagues on the Human Rights Subcommittee who undertook the inquiry and the secretariat for their assistance. I commend the report to the House.

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