Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It has been an extremely challenging summer. These last few months, which are usually a time of celebration and rest, have instead brought a sequence of catastrophic weather events, the most recent of which, Cyclone Yasi, has wrought a colossal amount of damage, though thankfully less than what had been anticipated, especially in terms of the lives and health of Queenslanders in its path. That is a cause for thanks, considering that the cyclone was of a scale and intensity comparable to Hurricane Katrina, which was responsible for 1,800 deaths when it struck the coast of New Orleans in 2005. The fact that Cyclone Yasi was much less harmful in terms of its toll on human life was partly a matter of fortune, which is always involved in such events, but it was also a matter of good planning and preparations, of good communication, cooperation and leadership. In referring to leadership I would like particularly to pay tribute to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Prime Minister Julia Gillard for their competent and compassionate handling of the many disasters over the summer.

I am thankful that, as of yet, there has been no loss of life in the fires that have been burning around Perth this week. On Sunday afternoon my uncle and aunt, David and Jenine Burge, and their children travelled to Fremantle to stay at my place because their house in Kelmscott is one of more than 70 homes that have burnt to the ground. My uncle was heartbroken that he was not able to save his father’s—my grandfather’s—violin, but he was overwhelmingly relieved that family members, including pets, had gotten out safely. Of course, my uncle was very much aware that his family was only one of many in Perth and around Australia to have suffered loss in recent disasters.

But even with the arrival and consequences of Cyclone Yasi, the fires in WA and the flooding in Victoria, WA, New South Wales and Tasmania, none of these serious events have in any way lessened our sense of the magnitude of devastation and loss that occurred through the floods in southern and Central Queensland. The loss of life, the injuries and the suffering as a result of those floods have been immense. The cost to the community in lives, in trauma and in grief has been acute; and of course there has been and will continue to be a huge cost in terms of the material wreckage of homes and roads and schools and power services, and the less material but no less distressing destruction of stability, of community and of peace of mind.

It has been moving, uplifting and sometimes confronting to hear the contributions made by members of this place. As was the case with the debate on the Victorian bushfires, the worst events not only bring out the best in the Australian character; they also bring out a sense of shared purpose, common cause and camaraderie in this place which is appropriate and welcome. I want to particularly thank the Queensland members for their contributions in recording the detail of what has occurred in their communities and to their constituents. With floods and cyclones there are so many ways to be overwhelmed by the scope and impact of these events. In these times we try to take stock of 200-plus kilometres per hour wind speeds and 200-plus millimetres of rainfall. We take stock of thousands of homes without power, roads closed and towns under water or inaccessible. Of course, these numbers and details are staggering, but in the end it is often the smaller stories, the personal stories of individuals and families confronting these events, that really go to the heart of what has occurred. So I thank the members in this place for sharing some of those important stories with us.

Above all, I join with my fellow parliamentarians in paying tribute to the people who endured the fear and hardship and pain of the recent events. I thank and honour all those who have been part of the emergency response and I thank all those across Australia who are sharing the effort to assist the recovery of people in towns devastated by the storms, floods and fires.

In Western Australia the summer has brought floods in the Gascoyne, fires in the south-west and around Perth and damaging storms to Geraldton and York. While much of the east coast of Australia has gone directly from drought to floods, in much of southern Western Australia the storms and floods, though on a much smaller scale, have occurred against the background of an ongoing and severe drought. In the wheat belt the soil remains parched; in Perth the dams are at historic lows.

In some ways it seems like a long time ago now, but in December a monsoon trough developed off the north-west coast of Western Australia and, over the days of 16 to 20 December, dumped an unprecedented amount of rain into the Gascoyne River catchment. A number of reading stations recorded between 250 and 315 millimetres of rain across those five days, in a region where the December mean rainfall is five millimetres and the annual rainfall struggles to break the 200-millimetre mark. The rain records for Carnarvon, which date back to 1883, previously recorded the highest 24-hour rainfall at 119 millimetres. In the 24 hours to 9 am on 17 December, Carnarvon Airport recorded 208 millimetres. This part of Western Australia literally went from drought to flood in 24 hours.

The floods in the Gascoyne have destroyed vast areas of agricultural cultivation and taken a massive toll on the properties and livelihood of the people of that region. The early damage estimates are in the order of $100 million. At least 2,000 cattle were reported drowned. With my other Western Australian colleagues, I fully support the government’s decisions to put in place Commonwealth-state government assistance packages, with grants and extra government assistance to those affected by the Gascoyne floods and, I also understand, the Western Australian bushfires. This will assist in the clean-up effort and will enable people to put their lives back together more quickly and with more dignity.

Life on the land can be subject to a meteorological cycle that swings savagely from one extreme to the next, with barely a season to catch one’s breath in between. We have seen that this summer. We are continuing to see it. So it is that, on the east coast, farmers who struggled to raise crops or maintain livestock in a series of dry years now confront crops that are washed out and animals that are drowned. In the Gascoyne, farmers whose crops were demolished by floods and whose animals have been drowned may well in the next 12 months face crops that will fail for lack of rain and animals who will suffer and die of thirst. I grew up in the country and I have never had anything but the greatest respect for the particular challenges that come with life on the land. This summer those challenges have been made clear again for all to see.

I would also like to recognise that, along with the terrible human cost of the Queensland floods and other natural disasters that have occurred around Australia, there has been an enormous amount of suffering visited upon animals. The floods in Queensland, Victoria and the Gascoyne have resulted in the deaths of a large number of livestock, pets and native animals. In addition to those losses, the Australian Veterinary Association has noted that the destruction of habitat and food sources will continue to have an impact on native species for some time to come. I take this opportunity to applaud the work being done by organisations like the AVA and the RSPCA and by local vets, wildlife associations, farmers and ordinary animal lovers across the affected areas.

One of the key frames through which we consider the world in the 21st century is climate change. It is a matter of commonsense that we should consider how to respond to that change and its consequences. In Australia that imperative is made stronger by the fact that we are in many ways particularly susceptible to the negative effects of climate change. The evidence and the expert analysis do suggest that climate change will produce extreme weather events of greater intensity. While no-one can say that the clearing and burning of a particular forest in South America in the year 1987 has directly contributed to Cyclone Yasi or the floods in Queensland or the fires last year in Victoria, it is absolutely correct to say that all of the human contributions to climate change are, taken together, a factor in bringing about an altered climate system that will result in higher temperatures, higher sea levels and more intense extreme weather events.

Perhaps what would otherwise have been a one-in-100-year flood event may now occur two, three or more times in that period. Perhaps the average intensity of the cyclones that occur in our region will increase. These are the kinds of things that fit a realistic prognosis. For that reason, the rebuilding and construction in Queensland needs to happen in a way that anticipates the next flood of the kind we have just seen—and possibly one that is worse. At the same time, right around Australia we need to re-examine our approach to urban planning, development approvals and the task of disaster planning and preparation. Storms and sea rises place our predominantly coastal society at great risk, and we will have no-one but ourselves to blame if we do not require planning to occur that takes account of the risks that are ahead.

I know that the new maps produced late last year by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency made sobering reading for the people in my electorate. At the outer end of projections, there would be significant areas of the coast that would be subject to extensive inundation, including the area of the Cockburn coast that is currently being intensively developed—in some cases with apartment and marina developments that sit right on the ocean’s edge—and also including the west end of the city of Fremantle, which is regarded as one of the world’s best-preserved 19th century cityscapes. There needs to be a comprehensive review of our planning and preparation for the effects of flooding, storm surges and sea rises in order to ensure we do not create circumstances for unnecessary loss in the future and that we act to prevent damage, wherever possible, to development that already exists.

The last thing I would like to say is on another topic that, sadly, tends to arise whenever we face a crisis in Australia. When this country responds to natural disasters, and specifically to the cost of repair and reconstruction, there are always calls from a very small number of people to immediately cease our foreign aid contributions in order to allocate those same funds to our own backyard. On numerous occasions last year the coalition supported this government’s commitment to raise our level of foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015-16. This is a level of aid that will make a significant difference to alleviating poverty, disease and malnutrition and to reducing the instability and violence that flow from these deprivations. I note reports of the present debate taking place within the coalition about whether to abandon bipartisan support for foreign aid. I find this very disturbing and I hope it does not continue.

If we were to do as the Leader of the Opposition suggests and renege on our commitment to help build schools in Indonesia, what would it achieve? It would mean that tens of thousands of underprivileged children would miss an education that stands to hugely improve their economic and health prospects. As a result, more would die and more would endure lives of poverty and deprivation. Apart from being a terrible loss for those kids and their families, it would do nothing for regional stability or economic development. And, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs said today in question time, it would do nothing to address the root causes of terrorism. It would not be well received by the government of Indonesia. It would be a promise that we have broken and, in that sense, it would be a mark against our own character and honour.

The phrase ‘charity begins at home’ was coined by English writer Thomas Browne in the 17th century, and its meaning is that in some cases the urge to help others can lead us to neglect ourselves. This is not the issue here. In any case, being a good international citizen and a good neighbour is absolutely in our national interest, contributing to global and regional peace and security and fostering economic development and self-sufficiency, which in turn expands our own export and economic opportunities.

Even as we lift our level of aid, it must be recognised that it is still at a level below that provided by a number of other developed countries. In fact, Australia ranks 16th out of 23 OECD nations in terms of the level of aid we provide and our contribution is well below the level of 0.7 per cent that the United Nations believes is necessary if we are to meet all the Millennium Development Goals.

There are always debates about how to allocate government funds, but the debates are not always as brave or as forensic as they should be. It is unfortunate that the focus is often on taking funds away from those who already have very little. Sometimes, domestically, the focus can be on cutting welfare or cutting funds to Indigenous programs. You would think it makes little sense, when trying to help people in trouble, to remove assistance to those already at the bottom. It is even easier but no less unreasonable to suggest that the response to our own troubles should include slashing foreign aid. As UNICEF has noted:

The recent natural disasters in Australia have given us a front-row seat to the devastation and suffering that too often we see on our television screens beamed from across the world. As a rich nation, and one that avoided the worst of the global financial meltdown, Australia has the capacity and the resources to help those in need both at home and beyond our borders.

As Queensland was being ravaged by floods, so too was Brazil, with more than 600 people dying there. These events and others, like the devastating earthquake in Haiti last year, show that disaster can strike anywhere; but of course it affects the poor disproportionately. As former Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley famously said:

We have a great objective—the light on the hill—which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand.

I like to think of this as not just a Labor tradition but an Australian one.

We are dealing with tough times here in Australia, and we are going to confront that challenge together. But we are not going to confront those difficulties by playing politics with our aid commitments, because we know that those commitments go to men, women and children whose lives are on the line, and whose health and futures we help to change from being extremely bleak to being relatively safe and secure through the assistance we provide. We will rebuild Queensland and the other affected parts of Australia, and we will achieve that together, at the same time as we continue to do our part in reducing global and regional poverty and disadvantage and in promoting peace, security and economic development.

As I stated at the outset, it has been an extremely challenging summer in terms of the extent and ferocity of the natural disasters that have occurred. We have been lashed east and west by cyclones, floods and fires; yet, through all these months of danger and devastation, we have seen not just loss but also courage, not just destruction but also generosity, not just fear but also irrepressible Australian humour. In that sense, in the unstinting and big-hearted response of Australians to adversity, it has also been an uplifting summer.

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