Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I begin by acknowledging the words of the member for Longman, which carry weight because he has worked in and given support to the Pacific Islands. I acknowledge that.

In looking at the tragedies which occurred on 30 September in Samoa and Tonga through the tsunami and, within 24 hours of those events, in Sumatra through the earthquake centred around Padang, I want to begin in my home state of Victoria. Earlier this year Victoria suffered a natural disaster in the form of bushfires. The number of souls lost was very similar to the number who perished in the Samoan and Tongan tragedy. From our community to their community we say, with every good sense and intention, that we truly understand that which you have lost. You have lost your mothers and fathers, you have lost brothers and sisters. Most sadly of all, you have lost your sons and your daughters.

There is no good answer. There is only support. That support takes two forms. First, it takes the immediate form of human compassion. That is appreciated and delivered with heartfelt intent, but it is no substitute for the second form of support, which is the grand Australian tradition of lending a hand to those in need. Successive governments from either side of the House, from either political philosophy, have lent their support. I know: I was in this parliament and I was very engaged as the parliamentary secretary when the Solomon Islands suffered their tsunami. I saw what happened there and the way in which we were able to deploy, at rapid speed, assistance from those within the RAMSI mission and assistance brought from Australia in the form of Hercules with people and material to assist with health, hygiene, accommodation, food and all the basic needs.

That same sort of support has been delivered by the current government and I unequivocally lend my support and give my congratulations and thanks for the work that has been done on Australia’s behalf. What has occurred in Samoa and Tonga has been a great human and physical tragedy, and it will take many years to rebuild. The lives, however, cannot be rebuilt. For those who remain we will simply have to be there to lend our support. We do so as friends, as neighbours and as fellow human beings who are always mindful of John Donne’s imprecation:

No man is an island, entire of itself

every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main

if a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,

as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were

any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind

and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls

it tolls for thee.

The message is that we are all of one common humanity.

The same applies, of course, in Indonesia—Sumatra, Padang in particular. Australians know only too well the tragedy of the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. We know of the extraordinary human devastation and that this country responded through its government and through the unbelievable generosity of its people with direct, immediate and indispensable aid. That aid, whether it was in the form of helicopters, ships, personnel, drinking water or any form of medical assistance or immediate sustenance, was vital in the early days. But it translated into a multi-year commitment which was begun by one government and which is being continued by another.

Sadly, in Pedang, where over 1,100 lives have been lost, we have now had to pursue the same course of action. The difference this time is that the numbers are far fewer, but the human tragedy for those involved is no less. So we offer again our support—firstly, as human beings and, secondly, as neighbours who are equipped through historic circumstances to provide real human and material support. We lend our best wishes, our compassion and our most profound human emotions to those who have been lost and to those who remain in Tonga, in Samoa and in particular in Indonesia, which in Sumatra and Pedang at the epicentre have seen the most tragic of consequences. I thank the government for their work. We lend them our complete bipartisan support, and we as a nation will do all that we can to assist the survivors in Indonesia as well as in Tonga and Samoa.

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