Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I commend previous speakers for their contributions and for their regaling of local stories which very much give an outline of the Australian character. These events have been a national tragedy. They are very much part and parcel of our natural environment, but we lost 22 lives in the recent floods in Queensland and there are still, as has been noted, nine people unaccounted for. In fact, since 30 November last year, we have lost 35 Australians in floods. Each of those is a personal tragedy for families, friends and communities. Many will never fully recover from that hurt and our thoughts are with each and every one of them.

The Leader of the Opposition indicated that these events crept up on us. In part that is the case, but as a result of advice that was provided by the Bureau of Meteorology on 25 November—indeed the last time I was on my feet in this House—I noted that we were coming into a festive season which was going to be an intense cyclone season and intense period for bushfires along eastern Australia extending over to south-western Australia. We have seen as a result the Queensland floods, which originally came from a cyclone belt. We have seen Cyclone Yasi, we have seen the floods in central and northern New South Wales and also extensive flooding in Victoria and even in Tasmania, and we have seen fire in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

In a radio broadcast today the Western Australian fire brigade did a rollcall for people evacuated from their homes that indicated those properties that had been destroyed or damaged, according to address, and the emotion of that was intense—68 properties were destroyed in and around Perth and another 32 were seriously damaged. These disasters have had widespread repercussions all around Australia. They are very much, as has been noted, part of our natural environmental history but, nonetheless, devastating and distressing.

As I have indicated, when I was on my feet in this House in November I noted that we were approaching a very torrid time such as we have suffered in this last summer season. As a result of those warnings and of recommendations arising from the Victorian bushfires royal commission, Emergency Management Australia coordinated briefings by Commonwealth agencies including Emergency Management, Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology, ADF and Human Services for state emergency responders. Arising from those briefings we arranged for liaison officers from Emergency Management Australia to be with state emergency responders to coordinate emergency responses. Those relationships have been extremely effective during the period that we have just gone through.

What we could not account for—at least fully—was the extent of the courage of Australian people, the local leadership and the spirit and resilience of local communities. There is no doubt that, as a result of those factors that are inherent in the Australian people, we have suffered fewer losses of lives, we have suffered less destruction and communities, as we have heard, are bouncing back.

Members mentioned acts of heroism, most notably, of course, by Jordan Rice, who saved his young brother ahead of himself, and that has been noted. We have heard of a mum who unfortunately had her young child ripped from her arms by the floodwaters. We have heard of emergency responders who were able to save most people, fortunately, whom they attempted to save, but regrettably some witnessed a loss as a result of the elements. We have heard of communities banding together. I want to mention a few from my experience.

On the night before Cyclone Yasi hit I was listening to local ABC radio in Queensland. Regrettably, I cannot remember the name of the radio host but he did an outstanding job. Communities were literally huddled in evacuation centres or in their own homes. He kept communication going despite the fact that power had been cut off. People were listening on their transistor radios or phoning in on their mobile phones that were still working. There were people on their own in their homes, there were single mums in bathrooms with their kids and there were families in evacuation centres. He communicated expert advice including that from the military, he communicated well wishes, and he advised people how to keep their spirits up and what resources would be available to them when the cyclone had passed. That radio host was a true Australian and did an outstanding job.

I acknowledge the work of commercial radio. When I was in Townsville at a local radio station the young receptionist was active in communicating broadcasts to ensure that local pets, who had been lost during the previous evening, were able to be reunited with their owners—a great story, a young lady on her own initiative using the resources of the radio.

I acknowledge the Red Cross, St Vincent de Paul and other voluntary organisations that operated evacuation centres to keep people safe and to keep their morale up. One person I recall being interviewed made the call to remove people from the senior citizens hall to take them to another evacuation centre. That was the right call—the following morning the senior citizens hall was not standing. I acknowledge local shopping centres that allowed people into those centres for safety, and churches. I acknowledge the work of local councillors and the leadership that they showed in bringing together local expertise and communities and being part of the rebuilding efforts.

The work of local police was truly outstanding. I have no doubt that lives were saved because of the professionalism, the local knowledge, the courage and the forthrightness of local police who were prepared to insist on evacuations when they were necessary. No other country in the world quite literally has so much of its emergency response capability based on volunteerism. Whether we are talking about bushfire fighters, state emergency services or marine rescue they are all based on volunteerism. That is very much something that we are entitled to be proud of, to nurture and to support.

The Minister for Defence will speak shortly, but 1,900 members of the Australian Defence Force are assisting in the Queensland floods and 4,000 are available to help in the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi and elsewhere around Australia. Their work has been truly outstanding. Mention has been made of utility workers; of health workers; of local government employees; of community service workers, including Centrelink staff and counsellors; indeed, of banks, who are perhaps not traditionally complimented in this chamber but have arranged for funds to be available through features such as bank-in-the-box initiatives to ensure local people have available resources. I also mention the support of the rugby league, particularly in New South Wales and Queensland, which I suppose is the heartland of rugby league. When we were in Ipswich, there were Parramatta, Penrith and, I think, some other teams, who had been visiting the evacuation centres. We met them with the local member, Shayne Neumann.

Finally, I turn to a matter mentioned by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—that is, that it is now appropriate to reflect in a professional way on the events. This Friday, there will be a meeting of emergency management ministers to conduct a debriefing on these events, and next week the Council of Australian Governments will discuss planning for a national resilience strategy involving all arms of government and the private sector. I note that relief is important. We have, as members are aware, the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, which are essentially a partnership between Commonwealth and state governments providing personal hardship payments, business support and ultimately, of course, assisting in the rebuilding of infrastructure. At a federal level, we have the Australian government disaster recovery payments. Just in respect of those, we have paid out some $450 million to 430,000 Australians as a result of these recent events.

While focusing on relief is important, we must continue to focus on prevention and mitigation. As part of that rebuilding effort, we must have constantly in mind the need for the betterment and improving of that infrastructure so it is less susceptible to these natural events in the future. There is no doubt that resilience works, that building in mitigation and prevention techniques works, and I think the aftermath or consequences of Cyclone Yasi is testament to that. Lessons were learned from Cyclone Larry and it is a remarkable achievement that, although there were losses of life in the aftermath, there was no loss of life as a result of the impact of the cyclone. That is a remarkable achievement by all the local responders I have referred to, and I give note to a very mild mannered fellow, the leader of Emergency Management Queensland, Minister Neil Roberts. His leadership, in a low-key, unsung, but very effective way, I have no doubt was very much part of that successful response.

Measures such as the National Emergency Warning System, which came online last February and has now issued literally hundreds of thousands of messages on SMS and telephone, have been responsible for keeping people safe. Also, what is clearly evident when you look at the buildings that have survived in these areas is that local planning decisions are so tremendously important in ensuring that areas are developed where they should be developed, not where they should not, and of course the enforcement of building codes is tremendously important as to whether those buildings survive and ultimately the people are safe. Community awareness, the fact that people in the path of the cyclone actually cleaned up their own properties to prevent missiles affecting their neighbours’ properties, was itself a source of minimising damages. Things such as levees, firebreaks, evacuation plans and, indeed, even public advice about local, private and family emergency kits are all part and parcel of developing resilience as part of our community.

We have an extremely professional and committed emergency response team that works well together at a local, state and federal level. We have strong and resilient communities, but it is important, as others have mentioned, that we do maintain that focus on mitigation on prevention. It is through properly resourcing, thinking through, planning and working together at all levels of government and with the private sector that we further enhance the ability of local communities to cope with and bounce back from these natural environmental events that are very much part of our environmental history but are, as we have seen, so tremendously destructive and distressing.

See this speech in context