Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in continuation on this condolence motion. I have already spoken in this House about those lost and those left behind grieving. We also need to acknowledge those people who have lost their homes and personal belongings, and the damage that is doing to them and their lives. Such disasters can result in not just physical damage but psychological damage.

I finished yesterday saying that the best way those in this House could try to understand what it was like to be one of the people who lost their belongings was to read the writing of someone whose home and family was in the Lockyer Valley about that fateful day in January in which they convey their experience in their own words. This gentleman, a father and husband, wrote these words for me and I would like to put them on the record:

On the evening of 11th January our home was inundated by the Lockyer Creek flood. All belongings were either washed away or destroyed, the flood leaving little but the shell of our house. After a 2 day wait to access the home we were left with the soul destroying job of emptying the remaining belongings for collection and disposal. We were alone, with no resources and exhausted by stress and a lack of hope. I saw little future for my 2 children, my wife and myself.

At the point where it appeared that it could not be worse a second flood arrived. This time it wore the orange uniforms of the Gold Coast SES. Kristy Heitmann led 3 units from Southport, Carrara and Runaway Bay. Seeing the distress in the eyes of my family they insisted that we stepped back and allowed them to do all the work. Their compassion and understanding went well beyond the call of duty at a time when we were on the edge of breakdown.

Enormous effort went into searching through the wreckage for any items salvageable, items we would never have found in our state. A donation from the Gold Coast residents and Council was made of a simple clothes basket, containing towels, soap, toothbrushes, coffee and many other simple luxuries that are taken for granted in normal times. There are moments in life when even simple actions can change lives. Their timely arrival, sympathy and understanding as well as their plain hard work allowed us to stand back, reassess our situation and begin the path to recovery.

Leaving our home Kristy and her orange army went on to help many others in our area and I know they are now working in Cairns at Tully and Mission Beach helping more families, tirelessly and selflessly. I cannot imagine how many more people have been helped by them and all the volunteers involved in this disaster recovery, to the Army, State and Federal Authorities, individual volunteers and especially the SES thank you from my family.

Those words come from a man called Brett. Brett is my brother. They lost everything. But they picked themselves up and they are moving on. I cannot imagine what they went through. I have seen some of the footage. When they tried to get back to the house the first time, we saw a massive river flowing extremely fast and a roof sticking out of the middle of the river—and that was their home.

The second lot of footage showed the days after and the destruction in the home. The fridge had been lifted off the floor and was sitting sidewards on the kitchen bench, half hanging in mid-air. Belongings were taken from one side of the home to the other. There were toys in my niece’s bedroom, but they were not her toys; they were toys from some other home that had been pushed into her bedroom. They were amazing scenes. There were many sentimental items lost that day—items sentimental to our whole family. These included my mother’s ashes. But those losses mean nothing, because my brother Brett, his wife Jenny, my niece Shawnee and my brother Robbie are safe.

We have seen a lot of good come out of this. My brother told me the story of when they turned up at the evacuation centre. They walked in looking absolutely devastated and a very large gentleman standing at the door put his hand out to my brother and said, ‘What happened to you guys?’ and my brother told him. This large gentlemen shook my brother’s hand and said, ‘You are coming home with us.’ I want to acknowledge Mick—‘Mick the truck driver’—and Shelly who have taken in my brother and his family. They offered them a place to stay for as long as they need. They bought the children new school uniforms. They did not know my family, but they put out a helping hand.

That is just one story, but there are so many stories out there. We have heard so many people, in speaking to this motion today, talk about the complete strangers who just came out to help. It was absolutely incredible. It is a sight that we have never seen in this country before. We know that in times of disaster Australians stand up and help each other. We have seen that time and time again. But I have never seen it to the extent that we saw it in January. I know that those in Central Queensland and Rockhampton, who went through those floods in December and early January, also saw that incredible spirit. We heard from the member from Capricornia that they all got together and they filled those sandbags and they protected their town and each other. It was just incredible to see.

My electorate of Petrie is one of the very fortunate electorates in Queensland that has remained relatively untouched as far as floodwaters. There was minor flash flooding here and there and a bit of damage—not to in any way take away from the damage that was received in some community sporting organisations and so forth that are still trying to recover—but we did not lose lives or homes. But I do not know of too many people who do not know someone who has been affected. My community have come out with absolute strength and have fundraised, baked, sewn, knitted and collected. They have not stopped from day 1. They have jumped on buses to help. Businesses have put backhoes on trucks and have gone into industrial areas and have helped dig mud out to help other businesses and homes. It has been incredible. As I said, I think my diary is full of fundraising events coming up. I do not know when it is going to stop.

I spoke to a lovely lady recently. She is a pensioner in one of our local retirement villages. She rang after the government mentioned the flood levy. She wanted to know how long the Premier’s flood relief fund was going to go for because, as a pensioner, she will not be paying the levy and she wanted to know how she could donate $20 a month for the next 12 months so that she could do her share. She was very worried that the Premier’s fund might not continue for 12 months and wanted to know how she could get this money to us because she could not pay it all at once and needed to pay it monthly. I am sure that there are many, many people out there like that who are helping.

One area that has been talked about a bit—certainly by the member for Blair and some of the other members whose electorates have been significantly affected—is our schools and how many schools have been affected. I thought that this was one area where I could help in my electorate by gathering our schools together and helping them—and they were eager to help—to make sure that what they were fundraising was getting to the right schools and that we were getting the right stuff to the right schools. We have heard from some members that sometimes our hearts lead our generosity. We race out and donate clothes, fridges and everything else but we need to stop and say, ‘Is this what they need?’ They may already have five fridges, but they might need some clothes, a bed or something else. We need to make sure that our generosity is matching the needs in the community.

I started with a list of 120 schools that were impacted by the floods and we now have it down to about 50 schools that still need assistance. We are matching up schools; they are adopting each other. They are doing fundraising and the kids are becoming pen pals and building those personal connections. I will talk in much more detail at another time in this chamber about the schools and how they are progressing in that program, but I would like to acknowledge some schools now. Aspley East State School has adopted Ipswich East State School. Ipswich East State School has 580 students. One-third of those students have lost their homes. In addition, the Ipswich East State School was significantly damaged. Water went through their science room, their special education room and their music room. The whole of the outside-school-hours care, which is run by the P&C, has lost absolutely everything.

Aspley East State School, which has adopted Ipswich East State School, did a ‘free dress, gold coin’ donation the other day, where a teacher did a chalk mural on the ground that showed the Brisbane River and the mountains all the way through to the city and then out to Moreton Bay and coins were laid on the lines of the mural. They raised $1,329 that day. I know Ipswich East State School is very grateful for that. A local individual from my electorate, Terry Skinner, rang me up after hearing Ipswich East State School’s story and he is donating an electric piano, which we are dropping down there next week. The music teacher is very grateful for that wonderful donation by Terry.

St Paul’s State School, after seeing the list of schools, said they could not just adopt one. They adopted Arcadia Valley State School, two hours north of Roma. It is a little school that probably no-one has ever heard of—it has only five students. The principal only moved to the school this year. His home has been flooded out. He is living in a shed with his wife while it gets repaired. The principal is also the groundsman, as would be the case in most very small schools. His wife is the cleaner for the school. The water went through the one and only classroom. They have lost their early learning childhood books and toys for the kids—the box of Lego is gone—and those sorts of things. St Paul’s School of Bald Hills has adopted this school. They have donated $1,000. It is a permanent adoption and they will be doing a lot more for them. They have also given a financial donation to Brassall State School, which we heard about yesterday. This school was significantly damaged. They have one phone line now and the internet connection is very poor, so they are hard to get through to. They will get $2,500. St Paul’s has also adopted Milperra State School, which predominantly takes new refugee migrants. They have given them $6½ thousand to begin with and will be doing a lot more work for them.

These are just some of the stories. Bounty Boulevard State School, Deception Bay North State School, Grace Lutheran Primary School, the Lakes College and Taigum State School have all put their hands up and said ‘Yes, we want to adopt and help these other schools.’

Unfortunately, just as I was finalising the list of the schools that still need help from the floods, I got the new list of schools that have been affected by Cyclone Yasi. That is a long list, including Tully school which needs to be bulldozed and rebuilt. So there are many schools that are damaged because of the cyclone as well and we will endeavour to help them.

Our hearts go out to all the people who have been affected by these floods and the cyclone. I know the members for Blair, Oxley and Wright have worked extremely hard. It has been devastating for them to see the effect on their communities and the lives lost, but these members are working day in and day out to help rebuild them. I am sure their communities would not mind if I spoke on their behalf to say thankyou to those federal members for what they are doing for their communities. I echo the sentiments expressed by the Prime Minister in the debate on this condolence motion. It has been a difficult time for Queensland, it will continue to be a difficult time in the reconstruction, but the Australian people are strong and resilient. They are kind and compassionate. They will rebuild their lives and they will do it with our help.

See this speech in context