George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion of condolence in relation to the natural disasters that our nation has faced this summer. I particularly want to offer my condolences to those impacted by the floods that swept across Queensland. Also, I want to place on record the impact that the extreme weather events in Queensland has had on the people of Dawson. Firstly I want to assure the victims of these floods that they are in the thoughts and prayers of the people of Dawson. I particularly want to extend my sincere and heartfelt sorrow and sympathy to those who have lost family and friends in that inland tsunami, as it has been called, that swept through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. As the member for Wright said earlier this week, the fact that those people had no warning of what was to come that day made it such a terrible tragedy. I also want to acknowledge the good work that the member for Wright has done in this difficult time and acknowledge the passion and commitment that he has displayed for his people. The electors of Wright could not have picked a better representative.

I happened to be in Brisbane when the flood waters reached Ipswich and Brisbane City. While I was in Brisbane I was able to participate in the clean-up efforts that happened directly after that. What I witnessed when that huge army of volunteers turned up to help clean-up the city is something that will stay with me for a very long time. It was heartening to see, especially after witnessing over the previous couple of days people having their possessions washed away in flood waters down the Brisbane River. I want to pay tribute to Lord Mayor Campbell Newman and his team at the Brisbane City Council who so competently coordinated the flood clean-up effort. It was really an amazing effort. Heaven forbid that a flood event of that nature should happen in the Mackay region or in the Dawson electorate, but I would say that the exemplary mobilisation effort that Brisbane City Council achieved could be used in the regions of other councils.

While much of the destruction in the south-east corner of Queensland was very well publicised through the media, I put on record some of the impacts that the extraordinary La Nina weather events this summer have had on the people in my electorate of Dawson. Some might say that the electorate of Dawson dodged a bullet because we are one of the few regions in Queensland that were spared from the extraordinary floods that happened, but towns and cities in the electorate of Dawson did receive record rainfall, which has impacted, and there was the impact of the two cyclones in the last fortnight. While we have not had the floods, this has been no normal wet season in the north. In fact, we have already had rainfall in some places that is more than double the annual rainfall.

I have spoken before in this House about the impact the record spring rainfall has had on the sugar industry. It is important to realise the impact the rain that fell before Christmas is having on the sugar industry in Dawson. The Mackay region has had over double its annual rainfall since January 2010. As a result of the spring rainfall, there are over 645,000 tonnes of cane left standing in the paddock that was unable to be harvested in 2010. That is cane that farmers, millers and local businesses in the Mackay region will not receive any payment for.

One of the cruellest effects on the sugar industry is that the rain has not only made it too wet to harvest this year’s crop but also has ruined much of the 2011 plant cane. To replace this plant cane will cost local farmers about $1,800 a hectare. So the economic impact of this unusual wet season is going to be felt for a very long time to come. Some cane growers in the Mackay region reported that they did not suffer any damage from either of the two cyclones, just more rainfall, as if they had not had enough. Other areas, such as Proserpine, have received 4,000 millimetres since January 2010, when the average rainfall is 1,500 millimetres a year. That has left them with $18 million worth of cane in the paddock. That is one of the regions that was also hit by Cyclone Anthony and received strong gales from Cyclone Yasi.

Farmers of the Burdekin region have probably been the hardest hit economically by these weather events, with over three million tonnes of cane left in the paddock. That is very damaging to that small town. The Burdekin region was also impacted by Cyclone Yasi, with most of the cane being lodged or blown over by strong gales. I drove through that area and it was an unbelievable sight. It is heartbreaking for some of those farmers. I will continue to call on the government to assist these people where possible.

I also want to make some special mention of the local governments and the professional way in which they prepared their communities when Cyclone Anthony and Cyclone Yasi were bearing down on the coast during the past weeks. As a former councillor from the Mackay Regional Council I know that local government is called upon to prepare the community for every cyclone season. I know the special effort that is put in by local mayors, staff and councillors to prepare for these cyclones. I want to make special mention, today, of Mayor Lyn McLaughlin and her councillors and staff at Burdekin Shire Council. It was very good to be with Councillor McLaughlin at the disaster management meeting when Cyclone Anthony was bearing down on the coast. It was actually heading right for their town at that point in time.

On the night that Cyclone Anthony was to cross the coast at that town, thinking I was doing the sensible thing, I tried to escape down to Bowen only to find that the cyclone had changed its trajectory and was now travelling south so that the eye of the storm would cross directly over Bowen. But Cyclone Anthony was a very mild cyclone. The damage was limited and the next day I made my way around the town. There were trees that were blown over and some damage to property. I spoke with locals but they weathered it fairly well.

I have to say that it was nothing compared to the storm that was Cyclone Yasi, which bore down on that town and others in the electorate of Dawson. Again, I stayed in Bowen on the night that that cyclone crossed the coast. It was horrendous. The wind was nothing like I have ever experienced. There were things flying through the air that should not have been flying through the air. The next morning, when I inspected the damage I was surprised that it was not worse, given the extent of that wind. Relatively, we were spared from any major destruction. Certainly the thoughts of people in Dawson were with those who were in the thick of it—in Cardwell, Mission Beach and other communities in that area—when Yasi crossed the coast.

The images of the destruction caused by the cyclone will serve as a warning to anyone living in North Queensland that we are at the mercy of Mother Nature and we must always be prepared. There is a growing concern in my electorate that we may not have been prepared as well as we could have been. Late on the Monday night before Yasi crossed the coast many in Mackay, in the ‘brown zones’ as they call them, received a text message and automated phone call—the sort that many people receive the night before an election, I suppose, from political parties. But this message said that those in low-lying areas should be prepared to evacuate. I am not sure whether it was a good idea to send a message to people at 10 o’clock at night when the cyclone was 1,700 kilometres off the coast, but that is going to be a matter for debate when the emergency response is reviewed.

What is troubling the people in my community is that although they were told to seek higher ground and evacuate their homes there is no evacuation centre in Mackay. In fact, there is no evacuation centre in the electorate of Dawson, which is one of the hotspots for cyclones. There is none in Bowen, the Whitsundays or in the Burdekin. This is something that needs to be addressed. Evacuation centres must be built or identified because it is something that the state government identified in the aftermath of Cyclone Larry. In fact, the issue pre-dates that. The chief executive officer of Burdekin Shire Council told me the other day that he recalled former Premier Peter Beattie telling local government officials gathered at a conference in 1997 that the state government would begin a process of gathering funding for, and rolling out, cyclone shelters in the north. This has not happened.

Another matter that troubled the local community in Mackay and the Whitsundays was that there was no local ABC radio broadcast to keep locals informed of what the local situation was. It was syndicated somewhere else. This meant that locals were hearing reports from south or further north, closer to the cyclone, and not getting the relevant local information. The local ABC radio station in Mackay is only rated for a category 3 cyclone and because Cyclone Yasi was a category 5 it meant that our area received the broadcast from elsewhere, although it was quite obvious that the cyclone was not bearing down on the Mackay region. On top of the category 3 cyclone rating of the radio station building, it is also located in a flood zone. So there is some sense to what the ABC did but there could have been broadcasts from other places within the city. As the Mackay Regional Council Mayor Col Meng said, this really questions the ability of ABC to call itself the state emergency broadcaster. These are issues that will have to be addressed, hopefully by next year’s wet season and cyclone season.

Community radio stations such as SweetFM, run by David, Merle and the crew in the Burdekin, did stay on air in the thick of it, supported by other volunteers bringing in food and stuff for them. That was absolutely fantastic. Even our commercial radio stations—Scotty on Sea FM, Cliffo on Hot FM and Hammo on 4MK all did their bit to inform the local communities of what was going on.

I also want to place on record my appreciation for Mayor Col Meng and his team at Mackay Regional Council, Mayor Brunker and his team at Whitsunday Regional Council, Mayor McLaughlin and her team at Burdekin Shire Council and Mayor Les Tyrell and his team at the Townsville City Council. Their efforts over the last couple of months recovering from the record rainfall and preparing for and leading up to Cyclones Anthony and Yasi are to be commended.

As I mentioned, I spent the night that Yasi hit in Bowen. The next morning I toured Bowen and, as I said, I was very surprised at the low level of destruction, given the level of the winds the night before. I ventured north from there to inspect the towns of Home Hill and Ayr in my electorate and the suburbs of Townsville that are in my electorate. Unfortunately for me I could not get through as the Bruce Highway was cut just before Home Hill. I understand it was cut just above Brandon, as well. Basically, that blocked the whole town in.

What I saw were dozens and dozens of vehicles waiting, stranded. They belonged to people waiting to return home. They had evacuated the cyclone zone and they had to wait an entire day not knowing whether their homes were still there. They may have had loved ones that they needed to contact and could not. It was a tragic thing for me to see and there were people who were quite distressed about not being able to get back to their homes. To me, that shows that there is a definite need for Bruce Highway funding, particularly funding for flood-proofing areas, to be kept in place.

I eventually did get to the Burdekin, to the towns of Home Hill and Ayr, a day and a half later. There was enormous damage, with trees down everywhere, but the community have rallied to clean up the place. There is no extensive damage to homes. In some cases, you could put that down to divine intervention. I saw two big trees which, if they had fallen a particular way, would have basically flattened Home Hill State School or one of its buildings. Another tree, instead of falling on the kids’ play equipment, fell on a fence. It is unbelievable to see the near misses there. There were, as I said, a few victims who sustained damage to their homes, and that is tragic.

Up in Townsville, we have had the same situation—a lot of trees have been blown over. It does look like a bit of a war zone, but the council, the community and the ADF based up there have been making a tremendous effort to get Townsville back on track. I understand there are some Townsville residents who are still waiting for electricity to be connected. They have been a week without power, so I suppose things are getting a tad tedious in that regard.

There are calls to look at undergrounding power lines in the north, and that is something that the state government is going to have to focus on. I know that would be a very expensive exercise but, looking at the disruption to people’s lives and businesses and the cost to the state of the constant repairs when these things strike towns every year, there could be a cost benefit in undergrounding.

I will close by saying to the people in my electorate, and to those elsewhere in the state and the nation who have suffered loss because of the natural disasters this summer, that I join the House in offering them my sincere condolences.

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