Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

acknowledges with great sadness the devastation occasioned by this summer’s natural disasters, including unprecedented floods, Cyclone Yasi and bushfires;

(2)

extends its deepest sympathies to the families of those who have lost loved ones;

(3)

records its profound regret at the impact of this summer’s natural disasters on the economic and social wellbeing of affected communities;

(4)

records its admiration for the courage shown by so many in the face of these disasters;

(5)

acknowledges the enormous efforts of defence personnel, emergency workers, and so many volunteers in responding to these disasters; and

(6)

pledges the full support of the Australian parliament and community to assist affected areas to recover and rebuild.

Yesterday we commemorated the two-year anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires which took 173 lives. Around Victoria, communities have been coming together to remember the dead and share the stories of that day of hell and the journey of rebuilding since. I shared such a moment of coming together on Sunday and had the opportunity to talk to a number of survivors, who are still missing those who are lost and who are still healing. For me Sunday was a powerful reminder of how hard it is and how long it takes for individuals and communities to recover from devastating natural disasters.

Here today it is with very great sorrow that I offer words of condolence to Australians who are now facing this hard journey and I assure them that they will not travel that hard journey alone. We will not let go, Mr Speaker, we will not let go.

This summer will always be remembered for the force and scale of the natural disasters the nation has endured. This summer will always be remembered for the many times we turned to each other and said, ‘It’s bad, but the worst is behind us now,’ only to find that there was a new horror ahead. This summer will always be remembered for the way Queensland suffered floods of unprecedented proportions, an inland tsunami so powerful that it swept away lives and shattered communities and the most powerful cyclone the nation has ever seen. Australia has watched in horror as day after day a new chapter in natural disaster history has been written.

This summer will always be remembered for the way that suffering of already unimaginable and unprecedented proportions in Queensland was joined by suffering in other parts of the nation. Flooding continues in New South Wales and Victoria. Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia have not been spared either and, while so much water has done so much damage and caused so much despair, the nation has also been called on to fight fire in our west.

We can talk about what we have lost this summer in terms of cold, hard, economic facts and the reality is that we must. But, after the roads are rebuilt, businesses are back to full strength and people are back in a place they can again call home, those whom we have lost in this tragedy will still be lost and that is a cost that cannot be measured. The unprecedented and unexpected severity of the Queensland floods paid no heed to the sanctity of human life. There are hundreds of Australians who are mourning the loss of the 35 people who have died in the Queensland floods since 30 November or who are waiting anxiously on news of the people who remain missing. Across our nation there are others who mourn. Those are not just names on a list—they are somebody’s brother or sister, somebody’s parent or grandparent, somebody’s child, somebody’s friend. Those deaths have left people behind who now live with an empty gaping chasm. No insurance payout is going to fill that, no financial assistance payment is going to fill that and no rebuilt house will fill that. We offer those loved ones our deepest sympathy.

We come together as a parliament to mourn those who have died, to share our stories of the horror and grief, to describe the devastation, ultimately to rise in our places in silence, and so we should. Healing great pain requires both coming together as human beings and lonely moments of quiet reflection. I urge that this summer, when we write its history, we should make sure that the history written into the books and into our hearts is more than the history of a time of loss and grief. We should also remember this summer as a summer of courage.

I have brought with me today a mud splattered, tattered Australian flag and I want to show it to the House. It was recovered from the area of Murphys Creek by the crew of a Defence Force helicopter and I want to thank Major Scott Summers, Captain Lachlan Thornley, Sergeant Dean O’Cass and Corporal Steven Abbot who gave it to me. These four men, joined by others, showed persistence and bravery. They worked alongside people from the Queensland emergency services; they flew helicopters through the dark and dangerous night when waters crashed through the Lockyer Valley to save literally dozens and dozens of lives. Many who flew helicopters that night, some of them who had been flying for more than 20 years, said to me that it was the worst weather they had ever taken a helicopter up into. Yet, despite that, they continued and they saved lives. These helicopter crews continued with their search and rescue in the days to come and they found this flag.

I was honoured when they gave it to me. It was muddy and it was soaking wet. They did so because it was a powerful symbol for them of what it means to face the elements, of what it means to be hurt, of what it means to endure, of what it means to be Australian. It spoke to them of courage—the courage it takes to keep filling sand bags even when your back is breaking; the courage it takes to hold your nerve in the dark as a cyclone races around you; the courage it takes to tell your children to run across the railway line knowing it is dangerous, knowing they could fall, but knowing it is their only hope of getting to safety; the courage it takes for a young boy, 13-year-old Jordan Rice, to say to his rescuers, ‘Take my brother first.’ Before that brave rescuer could return, Jordan and mum, Donna, were taken by the flood, but the legend of Jordan’s amazing courage will go on—a hero in the purest sense of the word.

There are other heroes, like Mark Kempton and his helicopter crew from Emergency Management Queensland, a crew that winched 28 people to safety over a period of 2½ hours. They should be patting themselves on the back and saying, ‘Job well done,’ to each other. Instead, Mark is haunted. He is haunted by every human face of this disaster: a woman he rescued who wept uncontrollably as she was pulled into the helicopter. In a media report, Mark said:

I looked over my shoulder and saw her sitting on the floor of the aircraft, and she was just devastated. It was heartbreaking.

What Mark was witnessing was a young, pregnant mother who, just seconds before the chopper had arrived, had had her young child wrenched from her weary arms by the floodwaters. She finally succumbed to the terrifying power of nature that night. How do you tell Mark to rejoice in thinking of the people he saved, when that young mother can think of nothing except the child she lost?

I say to these heroes—and they are heroes—for every one person you saved, there are hundreds, even thousands, of people who are not grieving today. They are people who do not know you, but without your skills, your bravery, your willingness to put your life on the line, their loved one would not be here today. Your devotion to your task is humbling. I pay tribute to every police officer, every emergency services worker, every health worker, every Defence Force member, every local council worker, every community services worker—everyone who made such a difference to their fellow Australians this summer.

In speaking on and remembering the courage of this summer, I also want to record the nation’s admiration for the courage shown by Premier Bligh, who, hour after hour, informed, reassured and provided the leadership that the people of Queensland needed; for the courage of the local mayors, who did the same for their own communities; for the courage of those who spent long, weary days in evacuation centres, without complaint and often with a smile on their face and a quick joke on their lips; for those who have returned to devastation and found the courage to clean up. It has been a great privilege over this summer to meet with so many Australians of courage: the young girl, sitting laughing in an evacuation centre, wearing her Hello Kitty pyjamas—the only clothes she had left; the small child who told me about her terrifying night on the roof, waiting to be rescued; the pastor whose church became an evacuation centre for frail, aged Australians; the people with tears prickling in their eyes, who cleaned up their homes and businesses.

Across the ages, millions of words have been written trying to define courage, and we will never reach a satisfactory definition. But this summer, tens of thousands of Australians found deep within themselves the ability to do something they thought they would never be able to do. That is courage. This summer will always be remembered for it. And it will be remembered for the extraordinary display of Australian mateship. We pay tribute to the mateship shown by every trained volunteer who flocked to help: SES, Red Cross, Lifeline, and the list goes on. We pay tribute to every Australian who came to help their fellow Australians—with a mop and a bucket, a barbecue and bottle of sauce, a smile and endless goodwill. We pay tribute to the businesses and the unions who saw a need and got in and met it. We pay tribute to every Australian who has donated to help their fellow Australians in a time of need.

I have travelled around Queensland, in New South Wales and in Victoria, and I have been so touched by the stories of bravery, of courage and of mateship that I feel an obligation to honour these wonderful Australian traits. I have sought approval from the Queen to introduce honours for Australians who have gone out of their way to extend the hand of mateship during times of crisis. Next Australia Day, I am confident we will present our first awards to those who have performed heroic and selfless acts and volunteered their services across Australia in times of crisis. We will backdate those awards to include those who reached out to each other during Black Saturday.

We mourn for the loss. We ache for those whose lives have been turned upside down and we will not let go. We will rebuild. We will not succumb to the misguided notion that once floodwaters recede, once the debris strewn by the cyclone is removed, once the camera crews pack up and the focus of the nation turns to something else, life somehow magically returns to normal for those who have suffered at the hands of natural disasters. It does not. The Queensland community in particular have a long and arduous road of recovery ahead, and they will need the rest of Australia’s support. We will work with the Queensland government, as we are working with the governments of Victoria and New South Wales, to provide a range of assistance measures to individuals, businesses and primary producers who have been hit by these floods. These include personal distress and hardship assistance to individuals in the worst affected areas, concessional interest rate loans and freight subsidies to businesses, and recovery grants for primary producers and small businesses. We are providing extra Centrelink support. We have also increased access to mental health services because we know that the victims of this trauma will need ongoing support for weeks and months to come. We as a nation are facing a long-term task. We will rebuild.

In our many hours of need this summer Australia has been deeply touched by the support from around the world. We have received messages of sympathy, offers of assistance and donations from more than 100 countries and international organisations—from our friends in the United States, in China, in Japan, in the United Arab Emirates, to our close neighbours and regional partners of New Zealand, East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Samoa. What people should notice about that list is that countries who have so much less than us have still been willing to help.

The outpouring of international support has sent a clear signal, a message to us that we were not alone. We thank the international community from the bottom of our hearts. As our days of crisis have been reported around the world so has our nation’s response. The world has marvelled at the way we have pulled together. We should be so proud that there is something uniquely Australian about the way we go about helping our neighbours. It is understated, it is done with humour and humility and it signifies a strength of character that is etched deeply within our nation’s DNA. It is a character that ensures that our darkest hours are always followed by our finest as we work together to help each other to not let go, to begin the healing.

To the victims of the catastrophes of this summer we offer our sincere condolences. We cannot replace the precious things that people have lost and we cannot replace the lives. We cannot replace the doorjambs full of pencil marks that recorded a child’s height as they grew from toddler to teen. We cannot replace an elderly lady’s letters written to her by a wartime beau. We cannot replace the baby photos that have been lost. We cannot take away the grief from those who mourn anymore than we can bring back the loved ones who are gone, but we can face this together as a nation and we can support those who have lost so much. We can listen to them and ensure that they feel the warm embrace of the Australian community. We can and we will. We will hold onto each other as we grieve, recover and rebuild. We will always remember the days of despair and the days of courage we have lived through this summer. I commend the motion to the House.

See this speech in context