Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Main Committee for this opportunity to make some brief comments in relation to natural disasters. I want to associate myself with the statements made by the Prime Minister and other ministers in the government in this regard. Natural disasters strike indiscriminately and all over the globe. They strike at home, they strike our nearest neighbours, and sometimes they strike in the most unfortunate of places. While natural disasters are very indiscriminate in the way that they occur they often, unfortunately, very much hit those least able to cope with the natural disaster in the first place. While we have heard a range of comments—and I appreciate the emotion and passion of members of parliament in terms of natural disasters around the country and also those within our own country—I note that Australia has played a significant role both at home and overseas in trying to mitigate those disasters as best as possible in the humanitarian sense and also in an economic sense.

First can I just make a few brief comments about some natural disasters at home. We have seen many of those over the years. It is something that most Australians put in the back of their minds. We see ourselves as a very lucky country, a country that is lucky in a whole range of ways, but particularly in terms of having a very small number of natural disasters. But we can easily think back to the earthquake in Newcastle, flooding and fire in different parts of the country and most recently, of course, the devastating fires in Victoria and the massive loss of life there, which was a real shock to all Australians—just how large scale that disaster was for us.

In my own home state of Queensland a number of floods have cost not only lives but have also done irreparable damage to some communities in terms of their land, their crops and, as we heard from the previous speaker, their livestock as well. I acknowledge that Australia, while it is a lucky country, has suffered probably not as severely in most cases as some of our nearest neighbours but certainly we have suffered as well. I note that governments of all persuasions have made efforts—and I believe appropriate efforts, as we have seen in the aftermath of the fires in Victoria—to assist people on the ground and also to provide services and facilities in the aftermath, because we know that natural disasters often occur quickly and they are over quickly, but the impact of those disasters on individuals and the community last for many, many years into the future.

I also wanted to make particular reference to a number of natural disasters affecting some of our nearest neighbours, including Samoa, Tonga—all the Pacific islands that have been hit recently—the Philippines and Vietnam. I wanted to make particular mention of all of those groups because not only do I have a compassionate view about the circumstances but also many from those countries live in my electorate. I know first hand from speaking to representatives of those communities just how much impact it has on them here in Australia. I had the privilege of attending a cross-community church service recently for the Pacific Islander community, in particular the Samoan community, in my electorate, and the outpouring of grief, of sadness, made me understand that the disasters that happen in those places directly affect all of us here in Australia. There is actually a direct impact. There is almost nobody in the Australian-Samoan community who has not got a friend or a direct relative—perhaps a cousin, an uncle or an aunt—in Samoa who has been affected in some way, or lost their lives.

It is very much something that we feel very directly right here in Australia. I am very appreciative of the way that the Australian government has been able to, in a very compassionate and humanitarian manner, deal with some of those issues, particularly in the immediate aid we provided by sending doctors and medical professionals, supply ships, helicopters and a range of other services directly to those hardest hit communities. We do that because we feel a kinship with our nearest neighbours. I have always been of the view, whether it is in relation to natural disasters, humanitarian aid or just those who are less fortunate than us—and I do not want to talk about immigration issues in relation to this—that often there is a link between natural disasters that take place and the immigration issues that come afterwards.

There is a role for Australia to play, a place for us, as the good neighbour and a humanitarian neighbour in many of those cases. I will always applaud governments that look at it from a wide perspective and do the best that they can. We are a small country; we are only 20-odd million people. We have a large geography and there has always been a capacity for a wealthy nation like Australia to step up to the plate and do a little bit more. That is what we have seen with natural disasters in our region and a range of other areas. We should always continue to do that.

I want to thank my local community for the way they have behaved and been able to come together as a community to demonstrate their courage, to demonstrate their ability to fundraise and to grieve within their community but to do it in a constructive way that means they can be of assistance. Many of the Samoan and Pacific Islander representatives in my community have actually flown back to their countries to lend assistance personally. That has come at a personal cost to them—a financial cost—and I am very appreciative of the Australian government’s approach in assisting those individuals. We have done that through Centrelink for a range of programs. That is an appropriate way to deal with understanding how these people—who, generally speaking, are not wealthy people—have taken a very high personal financial burden to try to assist others. Sometimes it is their own family, of course, but sometimes it is not. Sometimes it is just their broader community. This is on top of AusAID providing $3 million in the way of sanitation, food, clothes and a number of other products that we might provide.

In closing, I also want to briefly thank the minister as well as the Prime Minister. I understand and appreciate the way they and their offices have dealt with these issues. The action that we have taken is always the appropriate action in dealing with natural disasters in our region and in dealing with our neighbours. We ought to continue that when those situations arise both at home and overseas.

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