Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On indulgence: I think it is very appropriate that the parliament is taking time to record its concern and empathy for those affected by the floods in North Queensland. I should note at the outset that the parliament has quite properly acknowledged the terrible devastation throughout many parts of Victoria from the bushfires. The fact that our country can experience such extremes at the same time has been a cause for poetry, but for those directly affected it can be a cause of great tragedy.

If you live in Queensland long enough, chances are you will go through a drought and you will also go through a flood. Those of us who were born and bred in Queensland tend to get a bit used to both of those things, whether it is in South-East Queensland, in Brisbane, or anywhere up the coast and a good deal of the rest of the state. It is a peculiar set of circumstances that Queensland can have somewhere in the order of 60 per cent of its landmass flooded and more than 40 per cent of its landmass officially declared drought stricken. It is a harsh land, and it has been a difficult time, especially for many on the land who rely upon the elements to make their living, whether that is with cattle, with sheep or with agricultural produce.

As I said, if you live in Queensland long enough, you will go through both droughts and floods. I have had the experience of going through a couple of floods in South-East Queensland and in travelling through the North in the seventies. As I was watching the terrible scenes in Victoria unfold with regard to the fires, I have to say that my mind switched to the only comparison I could make from my own life experience, which was during those times of flood. I have to confess that I do not think there is a comparison. I think that the horrors we have witnessed in Victoria take on a totally different dimension from the sorts of things we see in flooded areas. But floods do bring a level of devastation upon houses and upon lives, although thankfully there has not been the loss of life in this flood as there has been on other occasions. But, for the people who are isolated and have been for some weeks, and may yet be for some weeks, it is a major life-changing event. It makes it very hard for them in their daily lives, whether they are young and involved in school and education or are adults trying to get on with their business.

Throughout all of this, as we have seen in other natural disasters this year and in the past, the response of the Australian community and of local citizens is something we can be genuinely proud of. The first responders—the ambulance services, the fire brigade and the police—do an outstanding job, and the State Emergency Service do a wonderful job. You have to remember that in some of these communities many of these services may well be volunteers. Certainly the SES are volunteers and, in some cases, there are ambulance volunteers, as well as volunteer fire brigades. These are people whose own homes and families can be under threat but who readily give their time to safeguard the community.

I also want to acknowledge the wonderful work of the Australian Defence Force personnel. Towards the end of last year, a mini cyclone ripped through parts of Brisbane, including the suburb where I live. On the scale of things that have occurred since it does not really rate, but for a period of some days people were without power and without drinkable water and the like, and it was an enormous comfort to people in that situation to see the various emergency services out doing their work to restore normal service. I have to say, and I know it is the view of the people in the streets around where I live, that when we saw the Army trucks turn up and the soldiers clearing the debris and actually getting tarpaulins on roofs and doing that sort of work that we know needs to be done, at Keperra and at The Gap, in the suburbs that were hit by that storm, it really did lift our spirits. I can only imagine that the spirits of those in North Queensland, who have suffered the ravages of this storm would have been lifted by seeing the level of support coming from those emergency services organisations, the volunteers and our defence personnel.

I am reminded of the cyclone a couple of years ago that ripped through North Queensland, through Innisfail, and the reaction of the community there. At the time I commented on the Australian community spirit that was on display then and that we have seen in these recent natural disasters here in Australia compared to the response that, sadly, we had seen in Florida not that long before, after Cyclone Katrina. There was no looting in Australia. There was no violence. There was a well-organised support mechanism for the people who were most in need. I can remember seeing pictures of a shop owner in North Queensland who had decided that the goods in the shop were going to be ruined because there was no electricity, so he decided he would just put on a barbecue for everyone in town. ‘Come along and have a free sausage and a free steak; in a couple of days the meat’ll be no good so we might as well have a party!’ He effectively gave the food to the community.

I thought there was something wonderfully Australian about that response, and I do not know that you would see it in too many countries around the world. It clearly was just the natural thing for that fellow to do and, from the newsreels that I saw, there was no shortage of people in the community who thought it was a pretty good idea as well! That sort of support, that sort of community spirit, is something that I think, as Australians, we should hold dear. It is something that we should protect and cherish, because I am not sure that everybody around the world would react in the same way; indeed, when we see what goes on in some other parts of the world, we know that they do not. I think there is just a wonderful sense of having a common bond.

I say to my fellow Queenslanders in the north: you have the understanding, support and best wishes of your colleagues in South-East Queensland. Indeed, we could do with a bit of that water down our way! It would be nice if the clouds moved away from you and came down to our corner of Queensland. We have all been through it in Queensland and we know that there is resilience amongst the people of Australia—that people do get out; that they will re-establish themselves, their families, their businesses and their activities; and that they will do that within a short time of the waters receding. I say to those who are affected: you are in our thoughts. Even as we have spent time in this parliament acknowledging, appropriately, the terrible disaster in Victoria, the people in North Queensland have been in our thoughts. I know that they will bounce back. The Rugby League season is about to start, and I have no doubt that there will be plenty of those North Queenslanders out there supporting the Cowboys. And when they are at those football matches they will exchange stories about what happened in the course of these floods.

But, in all seriousness, our thoughts are with them. I want to commend again the volunteer services, the first responders as well, the Defence Force, and the state and Commonwealth governments, who have both acted properly, as all governments should, in dealing with these tragedies. I wish those in North Queensland a quick return to a normal life.

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