Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence: as the member for Forde was saying, those of us who come from Queensland know all about floods. He mentioned Cyclone Wanda. In 1974, my community of Ipswich was devastated by flood. My parents’ home was about eight feet under water, and we lived elsewhere for six weeks thereafter. We had to move a couple of times. I will always think fondly of the Australian military, which came and rescued furniture at the last minute. My parents would have lost everything but for the wonderful men and women of the Australian Defence Force who came and did so much great work. Those of us in South-East Queensland, like the member for Forde, and me in the seat of Blair, feel tremendous empathy for the people of Far North Queensland. North Queensland is in chaos. It has been raining heavily almost every day for weeks, if not months. Emergency services in North Queensland have logged more than a thousand phone calls from people in distress, and we are only in the middle of the wet season.

Fortunately, the weather forecasts are that the rain may abate, but the floodwaters have inundated towns in Far North Queensland for many days and some are still cut off. Between Cairns and Townsville, a beautiful part of Queensland, people have been hit very hard. The people of Ingham have been hit extremely hard. Food drops have been commonplace for many, and water has also been needed. Sanitation has been an issue, and disease has also been a challenge for those experiencing a way of life which for Queenslanders is quite common but to those from other states is quite foreign. Many of these people live in what we call queenslanders—high, raised houses. It is very sad to see what they have had to endure. They have floodwaters underneath them and, as the member for Forde said, have been sitting up in their houses on stilts with floodwaters raging through their streets like rivers. They are also faced with the perils of crocodiles. Disease, pestilence and those other sorts of problems caused by fauna are also very serious.

They have had tremendous challenges—highways cut off, railway lines destroyed, bridges made impassable and thousands of homes affected by flood. Hundreds of people have had to stay in emergency accommodation, and more than 60 per cent of Queensland is flood affected. As the member for Forde said, an area roughly the size of South Australia has been flooded. Like many Queenslanders, I have travelled to Far North Queensland on many occasions. We feel affinity for the people of the north. We love North Queensland; it is where we holiday. We have stayed there. Many of us have worked there. We love the Great Barrier Reef, the sugarcane farms, the banana plantations, the Daintree Rainforest, Port Douglas, the Kuranda markets, the Atherton Tableland and the mines of Mount Isa. We love the beauty of North Queensland. Queenslanders really feel this very hard and deeply.

We Queenslanders are different. We love our provincial towns. We love our places like Toowoomba, the Gold Coast and Ipswich. Our patterns of settlement are very different. We have the Sunshine Coast, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns—major provincial centres. Brisbane does not dominate Queensland like Sydney dominates New South Wales or Melbourne dominates Victoria. These country towns are the lifeblood of Queensland, and we must support them and their people in all that we do.

I am very pleased that the Prime Minister sent up Dr Craig Emerson, the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy, and the member for Rankin—a Queenslander who understands Queensland—to assist his fellow Queenslanders. They need help, not hindrance. We must give everything we can. I am pleased he took with him Mr James Bidgood, the member for Dawson and Mr Peter Lindsay, the member for Herbert. Those members represent Townsville and those rural areas that have been so affected. These North Queensland members share Townsville and the surrounds, so travelling to Townsville and Far North Queensland to view the tragedy that is unfolding was a very appropriate thing for the Prime Minister to do as regards those members.

Sadly, there has been loss of life, and our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones and friends and who have suffered so much property damage. Livelihoods have been lost. The cost is incalculable to industry, particularly rural industries like the banana industry and the sugarcane industry. Members of the emergency services from South-East Queensland have gone north to help their fellow Queenslanders. Queensland Emergency Services and the Queensland Department of Communities had a flood line. That has been available to many people, who have made use of those services, as well as the Commonwealth government services. Centrelink has had recovery centres up north and has received many applications for emergency assistance, particularly from places like Ingham.

We have provided substantial assistance through the federal government. The Australian government disaster recovery payment has been made available to those people who have been adversely affected—$1,000 per eligible adult and $400 per child. The statistics that I have, again, indicate that the Far North Queensland floods have resulted in applications for that assistance being made for 14,804 adults and for 8,981 dependants—a total of 23,785 people. That is a fair sized town. That is a lot of people. In addition to that, the North Queensland floods Income Recovery Subsidy payment has been given to 953 people. That is, of course, in the month of February.

We are talking about a huge cost to people, and the federal government has come to the party along with the wonderful contribution made by the Queensland government and local councils. But it has been local people who have shown courage and commitment. They have shown bravery beyond their call. They have made a huge contribution in terms of caring for their fellow Queenslanders. As the Deputy Prime Minister was speaking so eloquently about the flood victims and particularly the bushfire victims, I thought of the passage in the Bible where St Paul refers to the church in Corinth. They were quite a dysfunctional church and they were fighting amongst themselves and he told them they were the body of Christ. It reminded me of the unity of Australia—we are one body whether we are from Tasmania or from the Torres Strait. From Fremantle or Byron Bay, we are one but we are many. We are one people, and we need to care for those in the body of Australia. We need to care for our fellow Australians. That shows our humanity; that shows our affection; that shows our community spirit. That is what it means for us to be truly Australian, to care for those in need.

I have to say that I thought that the Treasurer, the member for Lilley, spoke brilliantly on this topic on 9 February 2009. He said that the events in North-Western Queensland are a catastrophe. I think that aptly describes it. He said these words, and I think they are worth repeating:

We in the Australian government stand ready to do everything we possibly can to assist the people in the north, as we will in Victoria. Whether it is fire in the south or flood in the north, we have to summon all our national strength and all our compassion to assist people to deal with these terrible challenges.

My community has shown tremendous heart in helping those down south as well as those up north. I pay tribute to the efforts of the Ipswich City Council and the businesses in my community, all of whom rallied together with the emergency services at a church service conducted at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Ipswich under the auspices of Reverend Matthew Jones. He spoke about the heart of the community and what we needed to do to care for our fellow Queenslanders. Pastor Mark Edwards, who is the senior pastor of the biggest Pentecostal church in my electorate, spoke brilliantly and compassionately about the challenges and what we need to do. I want to pay tribute to the Mayor of Ipswich, Paul Pisasale, for the fine words he spoke and, for her very moving speech, to the state Labor member, my very good friend Rachel Nolan, who spoke with real heart and real sincerity about the challenges. Like me, she is someone from Ipswich who has endured flood and tempest.

I want to say to our fellow Queenslanders: we are with you, we are praying for you, we are helping you and we will not forget you. Thank you to governments at all levels for the help you have given the people of North Queensland. I want to say to them: our thoughts are with you; we remember you every day.

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