Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

With the advent of the 2011 new year came floods, fires, cyclones and storms across the country. The ferocity of these events and the damage they wrought over several states shocked and distressed many. I think there was hardly a dry eye in this House when the member for Wright shared with us the grief of his community, which perhaps sustained the greatest loss of life. We understand their pain, as my colleague the member for Higgins said, and we pay tribute to their courage. We have been touched by other accounts in the media and in this place of the acts of heroism and the generosity of spirit of the Australia community. From beyond our shores have come messages of support and comfort.

In dozens of evacuation, recovery or disaster control centres, from Grantham and Murphys Creek to Emerald, to Rochester, to Echuca, to Grafton or the Brisbane showgrounds, thousands of people, mostly volunteers, have been striving around the clock to help Australians who have suffered terrible loss. In places such as Toowoomba, Bundaberg, Dalby, Horsham and Dadswels Bridge, people devastated by the loss of homes and businesses have been buoyed by the support they have had from good Samaritans who turned up when they were needed most. Battalions of people, including my friend and former colleague the former member for Riverina, the Hon. Kay Hull, were cleaning out homes and shops as soon as the floodwaters had sufficiently receded. Most had no special connection but they had come in their dozens with broom, mop, shovel and sometimes gurneys and even bobcats and trucks to lend a hand and to make a difference. It was a time, as someone observed, that we experienced the ‘worst from Mother Nature but the best from human nature’.

The devastating floods are a sobering reminder of our vulnerability to unforeseen events. We have become accustomed, regrettably and unfortunately, to natural disasters that occur every year, whether they be bushfires or cyclones, floods or drought. In my home state of Western Australia, following on from the disastrous fires that burned so many homes in Toodyay on the eve of the new year in 2009, we again experienced, this year—just over a week ago—a freak storm in the Avon and terrible bushfires, while recovery efforts continued following floods in Carnarvon and the Gascoyne River in the electorate of Durack.

Emergency services across Australia have been stretched, and I would like to comment, as others have done, on the extraordinary effort made by these extraordinary people who conducted the search, rescue and recovery effort across Australia. Our emergency crews performed magnificently. This fact was brought sharply into focus again when cyclonic winds devastated part of my own electorate of Pearce. The towns of York, Northam, Toodyay and Beverley were all hit on 29 January by winds that ripped the roofs off houses, felled powerlines and trees and left much of the Avon region without power for several days, and were responsible for the death of a local identity.

I am very grateful to the President of the Shire of York, Mr Pat Hooper, and the President of the Shire of Northam, Mr Steve Pollard, for the briefing on recovery efforts they gave me, and in particular to York shire chief executive officer Ray Hooper and to President Pollard for making time to assist me with a visit to many of the damaged properties and town infrastructure, including the Avondale Primary School in Northam. My thoughts are with those families and businesses and with the many elderly people who were particularly affected, and those who have sustained severe damage. For one family I visited, almost the entire roof had been ripped off their house and the beams of the roof snapped like matchsticks. The children were terrified and traumatised to the extent that they did not want to go back inside the house. So it will take time—many months indeed—to restore their homes and the business premises, and I wish them a speedy recovery. But, above all, for all of those who are victims of these catastrophic events, it is usually once the initial requirements have been attended to that much later on reaction sets in—and I know that with the Toodyay fires it was some months afterwards that the depression and sadness set in. This is the time when people need our continuing support, assistance and grief counselling.

I want to record my admiration and thanks for the tremendous work done in my electorate by FESA, especially incident controller Paul Leiper, to Julie and her team from DCP, the local police, the York Health Services and Centrelink, who once again performed speedily and magnificently. There was also the York Country Women’s Association, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and the many individuals who responded to that particular crisis. The speedy declaration of the national disaster and the support offered by Premier Barnett and the Western Australian government was very much appreciated. I was grateful also for the timely advice and assistance from the federal Attorney-General, the member for Barton, who provided information for the affected area.

Just weeks after these storms, Pearce and the neighbouring electorate of Canning were hit by severe bushfires, the horrific images of which I am sure many of you have seen. In Pearce, approximately 1,170 hectares has been burnt throughout the areas of Brigadoon, Baskerville, Millendon, Red Hill and Herne Hill, and some parts of the Shire of Chittering. But I am very pleased that on this occasion no houses were lost. Nevertheless, many people were required to evacuate their homes and to endure a very anxious wait.

The risk of bushfires is a constant concern to people living in many parts of the Pearce electorate and almost every summer there is a serious incident. The people of Pearce understand the threat and they can sympathise with the people of Roleystone and Kelmscott as they face the terrible loss of property from the recent fire. I am sure that residents of Pearce would join me in wishing the people of Canning a speedy recovery from their heartbreaking losses.

From speaking to my parliamentary colleagues in Queensland in the days following the floods, I know that they have also seen the emergency services putting in similarly extraordinary efforts to those I have witnessed in my own electorate. There is little doubt that a highly professional response to the initial emergency saved many lives and provided effective support to many thousands of victims. The challenge will be maintaining that ‘can-do’ attitude after most of the volunteers have gone home, when residences are still uninhabitable, the railway lines are still out and the legalism is beginning to trump common sense.

However, the emergency services personnel who put their lives at risk, the residents who faced disaster without panic and their loss with brave spirits, the volunteers who pitched in without being asked or told to help are representative of Australians at their best. It is important not just for us as a country but for those people in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, and particularly in the Durack, Pearce and Canning electorates, whose lives have been irrevocably changed by catastrophic events well beyond their control.

My staff and I extend our best wishes for the recovery effort and we stand ready to assist our colleagues in any way that we can.

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