Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Health Services and Indigenous Health) Share this | Hansard source

Obviously, this has been one of the most trying times for the state of Queensland. I rise in my capacity as a local member from the Brisbane area who saw some of my constituents do extraordinary things in the effort to bring relief to the communities of Grantham, Toowoomba and North and Central Queensland. Suzie Masters lives in Victoria Point in my electorate. As the central person in my region for the provision of relief and emergency services to the community of Grantham, she maintained a blog that I think is something that is important enough to be read into Hansard to be available for future generations. Suzie begins with her first trip to Grantham:

Words cannot describe what we saw on our first trip there almost two weeks after the water had been through. Although we had sent a convoy on the previous Saturday and I have been told often by several of the locals out there, that we were the first of anyone to get items out there to the people. We used the Emergency Vehicle Access Roads off the Main Highway

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I cannot even start to fathom how on earth anyone could have survived such a disaster. Would be good if someone was able to show such places like the little green building on the corner opposite where the police are set up, etc. To see that building sitting at the angle it is. Or the pub! No doubt, maybe it has been on TV. But I have been too busy with doing the flood relief work.

While up at the Fire Station on Thursday, the little boy who lost his Mummy, Sister and Brother turned up after his day at school. Behind him was his Dad. Again, I just felt so inadequate as a human being, knowing who these people were and not to be able to do anything to be able to change their lives just now. The emotions they would be going through would be impossible to comprehend.

Thursday was a flat out full on day of driving and visiting many places that have been affected by the terrible floods. Having to be a Mum at the start of the day and taking my Katie into the city for an interview. So I had made a conscious decision to go and visit the RNA and find a gentleman called Craig who I had heard was running a place for flood victims to go to so they could get food, clothing, linen, toys and many other items that have been donated to his cause. Very similar to what we had set up in the Redlands …

I got Craig’s details so that I can pass his information onto people as I hear of people wanting to donate items that I know are not being received at so many other distribution centres these days. In addition, I got a list of what he is in desperate need of so that I can get the word out about donations required for his depot. So that families and individuals who need items after loosing so much in the floods can access for free. Even if most is second hand at his centre. Again, this set up is only for the rest of this week as the RNA is having an event there this weekend, so the doors will be closed.            …            …            …

Next stop on the trip was Gatton. I had to call into Gatton as I had been given shovels and gum boots. On my previous trip out to Grantham, I inquired if they needed such things anymore. However, as they said they had enough, we kept the items in my car and I said I would take them to a place where they may be of use … I will not say too much about Gatton Showground and their centre. Let us just say, it will not be a place that I would go back to in a hurry. As the staff there (be it volunteers or paid staff, did not want to assist, so I would suspect they are paid workers). Their laid back I don’t care attitude was appalling. Perhaps it was due to the fact I was an outsider. However, one would think that anyone should be greeted in a pleasant manner and everyone would be grateful for offers of donations.

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One of the other reasons I stopped in Gatton was to purchase cases of soft drink to take to Grantham. There is talk that the local businesses need our support and to put the money back into the communities which were so badly affected … We went into the main street of Gatton and had a cool drink. We went into Crazy Clarks on the hunt for lip balm and then ducked next door into The Reject Shop for the same items. Lip balm is one of the constantly requested items from Julie at Grantham as she puts them in little packs with sunscreen and insect repellent for the workers including the volunteers who are constantly at the sites of the devastation helping to do what ever they can to clean up and sort through things.

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Then I went to Grantham. This time via the main road as I had been told by the locals on my previous trip to use the main road. As previously, I have been using the Emergency Services Access Road via the main highway.

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I could not find what looked like a normal way in to the town; all the streets had signs for local traffic only. I did not want to disrespect this nor have to see any more of the devastation. Especially as I had always been in via the Emergency Access Road. I needed to get to the school, which was on the other side of the railway tracks. Easy to do under normal circumstances. However, not when there is so much destruction, devastation and the feeling of death surrounding you. My stomach was churning. I just wanted to turn the car around and get out of there as fast as I could and go home to the comforts of my walls and roof over my head, my kids, the cat and dog etc.

I had to go back to get directions by the police. They have a portable office set up with a police bus, like the ones you see on TV where they take people for breath tests on those shows. Then they have a few marquises with folding tables and chairs set up. So many flies to bug you and a generator for lighting and to run the cooler, which obviously would be full of water for the police and the workers in that area of the township.

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There were houses with police tape around them. Houses with painted words on them saying UNSAFE. Some buildings were sitting at 45-degree angles some of the buildings looked like they would have originally been beautiful heritage listed buildings from the 1800’s. Every building in the main road was wiped out.

To see garage doors twisted and bent but still hanging, which showed the ferocity and pressure of the water when it hit the buildings is something no one can ever imagine. To see the pub with massive chunks of the building totally missing and other parts of it looking like nothing had happened to it.

I think what really was the amazing part of this town which looked like a bomb had blown it away, was the hand painted banners which were erected on at least 2 of the buildings on the main road that was Thanking the people of Australia or helping Grantham in their time of need … with the generous donations from so many people of so many walks of life, these people would all know someone who perished on that day in January. Another photo I would have loved to have taken for people to see so that they too can try to comprehend how bad this disaster has been was that of what would have once been a gorgeous looking river. How it has been carved up and looks like a quarry more than a lovely riverbank. With whole trees looking like little leggo ornaments.

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Once I got the directions by the police how to get to the school, arrived at the marquise to unload the boot load of pots and pans, cooking utensils and cutting boards that had been so generously donated by many people in the Redlands area … The husband brings home money from the people at work and the wife goes shopping from what is on the wish list I publish on our facebook site… . they give because they know that the items will get to the people who are in so much need. For that, I am truly humbled yet again with the generosity of strangers. Also Delma, they loved the eggs. Because the almost 60+ dozen I took out the previous week had all been used up. Delma is a gem for going out of her way all the time to fetch items on the wish list, and then drop it at my doorstep, so that I can take them out there on a weekly basis. Along with many other people who all read my blogs and pass them onto other people via networking means … My house is not longer a home. It is a mini receiving and despatch centre for the people of Grantham and other flood affected areas of the southeast.

After dropping off the things to the marquise at the community centre where people congregate for breakfast, their lunch, community dinner nights on Tuesday and Friday evenings, cups of teas or a cool drink. I went up to the fire station.

This is the place where all other donations are taken for the victims so that they can get supplies of non-perishable food items, toiletries, clothing, linen some times the odd request for brand new men’s boxers, or like last week, and a cut out Bundy Bear, which was washed away from someone’s unique Bundaberg Rum Collection. (I have now had five offers of a cut out Bundy Bear to replace the one that washed away…

The fire station is where I meet with Linda each week, being greeted with a hug and how you going. I take a photo of the Wish List so that I can come home with it, type it up and attach to my blog that I write each and every trip I do. It is important that I do my blog so that the people who donate items know their goods have been delivered. In addition, it helps them to try to understand just what it is like out there. Those of us, who have not been out and see the remnants of the floods that only see things via the media, do need to know what is going on. It is an instinct we all have to be a little bit curious and to know that things are being done.

While at the fire station last Thursday, the little fella who lost his Mummy, Sister and Brother, turned up from his day at school. Behind him was his Daddy. They had only buried their family 11 days before hand. Of which 3 days after the funeral I had seen the Dad on his ride on lawn mower doing his work at the local primary school, as he is the grounds man there.

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These people who have lost so much have not only lost family members or friends. They have lost their homes, their toys, their personal belongings. Nothing can replace what they had. As each event comes along through out the year they will realise that, they have no Mum to celebrate Mothers Day with, No Dads on Fathers Day. Everyone who lost their home will at Christmas time, realise that they don’t have their usual Christmas Tree and decorations to go and get down from a dusty shelf in a shed to put up as it was more than likely washed away. Therefore, every single event in their lives each and every day will only bring back more sad and frightening memories … Just as it is for the kids out there who cannot stand to have a bath anymore, it reminds them of the day the water came and washed everything away.

After leaving Grantham, I drove back towards Brisbane. I took an exit and went into Goodna. I had been there when we had our depot opened. To drop off truckloads of donations for the 500-600 homes which were damaged or destroyed in the floods … I heard stories of how the people were on the first weekend, walking the streets and had not eaten since the floods. Our people who were volunteers at our centre went out there and started handing out bottles of water and food. Their pride and culture plus the way they had lived in their own countries had probably prevented them from realising that they should be asking for help.

One lady who was unemployed some how managed to get the under ground car park of Max Employment in Queen Street. She then contacted us and we filled the car park many times over with non-perishable food items, clothing, linen, toiletries, home baked cakes from the good people of Meals on Wheels at Cleveland some of the seven pallets of bananas, which were donated, to our centre for us to give to the victims. We had car loads of items going over there each and every day for a week. If it had not been for our depot that we started up in Capalaba the day after the floods hit Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, these people in Goodna would have been forgotten completely. As the Red Cross and Salvation Army were busy running Evacuation Centres.

This week has been even more frustrating than normal in so many ways.

I personally have not been displaced nor have I lost anything in the floods.

But yet I am so distraught to hear that so many people are still with out power, with out a home to live in and with out items, which were donated to many of the centres, while we had our depot opened. However, these centres which are run by charities and they pay their staff to operate, are closing down. I have heard how people have had to go to lifeline and purchase furniture. I have constantly read and heard that NO CHARITIES will accept clothing or toy donations anymore.

Yet I have had more than one person contact me via our Queensland Community Flood Relief site desperately asking for help for people they know or have adopted. In the likes of furniture and toys for one family of 4 kids and for the mum who has cancer, who are moving into a home this week in the Ipswich area.

If it wasn’t for a group of ladies getting the word out in Esk the Red Cross and Salvation Army would not have turned up to take over. These people were working tirelessly in terrible conditions to help the elderly. One poor dear woman, who was stranded by the floods, was eating dry dog food crumbs when the volunteers who went out to see what they could do found her. These Volunteers were not part of any Mud Army, nor have they got paper work to say they are a registered volunteer. Due mainly to the fact that if they were registered with Volunteer groups, they would not have even known about the towns that need so much help.

I have an acquaintance. He is a soldier at Enoggera. I met this person on Christmas Day when both he and I were doing volunteer work and Christmas lunches for the homeless in King George Square … To the point, that he and I were going to help set one person up who was ex army who had spent several years in the Sunshine Coast National Park as a homeless person. Until he was taken in and went to Brisbane where he was in a shared house community. On Christmas Day, the soldier and I organised to help. The soldier was going to give the homeless man spare furniture he had in his garage. I was going to give him pillows and blankets along with sheets and towels.

I had not been in touch with the soldier until about 2 weeks ago. I sent him a text to see how he was going and to find out when we were going to get our things to the homeless person. I found out that while the soldier was out sandbagging and moving people’s furniture. His own home in Toowong which people kept telling him that where his unit was located was fine in the 1974 floods went completely under water. He lost everything. Not only that, but his insurance company has left him high and dry.

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He went out and spent money at a big department store. Buying a lounge suite, dining suite, fridge, TV, washing machine, etc. However, the $1,000 did not cover all of this. If he had been in a relationship at the time and had several kids living with him, then yes he would have been able to purchase these things and all been okay. But, no, his ex-partner lives in New Zealand.

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Another friend of mine lost everything where she lived in Brisbane Street, Riverview. I guess I would have to say, fortunately for her, she was in a commission home and the fact she has four kids. Therefore, she was much better off being in the situation she lives in. The reason being, she would have gotten $400 for each of her kids. Although a few of them are adults, so I guess they would have gotten $1,000.00 each.

She is in another home now. However, the place she is in is not home for her. They are desperate for wardrobes so that they can pick all of their things mostly donations from friends up off the floor. As it has been 5 weeks since the floods this week. She is now starting to get very depressed and emotional. The past however many weeks were full of cleaning up, finding a place to live, moving in, getting pieces of second hand furniture for them to use in the new place. Nevertheless, where is the emotional support that these charities were asking for cash donations so that they could provide counselling for all of those affected by the floods?

Tonight, Sunday 20 February 2011, I read something that one of the ladies who often donates items for me to take out to Grantham has put on her facebook page. It says that $245 million has been donated for the flood victims, but only $13 million has been handed out.

These people need that money NOW. Not down the track. Alternatively there will be more homeless people and families as they cannot afford to purchase items to re furnish their homes, pay their outstanding bills and get on with life. Especially if their insurance companies have reneged on their payouts.

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Along with this, Goodna is waiting for papers to be signed off to say that they can have apprentices come in and plaster walls. Goodna has plaster coming out of their ears with so much of it being donated. However, unfortunately. they cannot get trades people to erect it. Unless they meet the criteria of being Queensland Registered Trades people or if from NSW, they have to be registered with the BSA. People who are perhaps qualified electricians, who have done plastering in the past, cannot go and do the plastering.

Cathy Beauchamp told me from Westlife Church who is running the coordination of many of the houses in Goodna being repaired … so much red tape is what is holding up some of these houses being worked on so that the families can start to move back in. Goodna is now like a ghost town except at the train station where commuters park their cars. You have to drive in the middle of the road where it is marked for no traffic access. The potholes are so huge on the actual road where you should be driving … They are like moon craters.

Cathy Beauchamp also said that double beds and queen size beds are almost impossible to come by when refurnishing these homes. She also told me that if the people of Goodna go to the Salvation Army, that they will be given a voucher for two major stores. With these vouchers, the people will get FREE BRAND NEW fridges and washing machines. I am curious to know why this is not offered to all victims if the floods in all the areas of the Ipswich and Brisbane districts. Not to mention the families who have lost their homes in the Lockyer Valley …

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I have got a Wish List from Grantham, but at the same time, I am also putting the word out for Toys. Along with a Wish List for the RNA. Unfortunately, I do not have the room at my own home to take the donations … So please see below for the contact details of the people who are running those venues

GRANTHAM WISH LIST THIS WEEK.

Dolphin torch batteries

Hoses

Insect repellent

Power boards; ext cords etc

Air freshener

Fabric softener

Paper towel

Mouth wash

Shaving cream

Bi-carb soda

Cooking oil

Mixed herbs

Picnic salt

Plain flour

Sultanas

White vinegar

Nothing could more exemplify how everything has been lost in this tiny community. They are a proud people. Obviously, everyone in Queensland is proud and loves the lifestyle we enjoy. No-one could have predicted this nor seen it in advance. The self-reliance that we traditionally associate with Queenslanders is no better on show than at this moment. It is a shame that it had to be under such incredible circumstances. But, as you know, with the despondency, with the desperation, there is also the elation and sometimes the frustration, but in the end Queensland will persevere.

See this speech in context