Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too would like to thank the honourable member for Lyne for raising this matter of public importance and so giving us the opportunity to speak on it, particularly about floods, flood damage and associated issues and to talk in a bipartisan way about some of the ways we can approach these issues. I heard the Minister for Emergency Management talk about some of the issues that he and I have discussed at various times and particularly when he has visited my electorate when it has had floods. I thank you for that, Minister. We have talked before and I have invited you to come up again.

I have five local government areas in the seat of Page and four of them have been identified by a state declaration as requiring assistance, then the NDRAA can kick in. Those areas are Kyogle, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Clarence Valley. It is always hard when we talk about floods to say some are worse than others but they clearly are. That is what happens with floods. The Clarence Valley really copped its fair share—a bit of a hiding—and very sadly one of the local residents from Coots Crossing, where Mayor Richie Williamson lives, died on 31 January. He was Robert, or Bob, Fox.

I am quite experienced in responding to floods. On Australia Day, unusually I did not attend any event because I was flooded in and could not go out. I spent Australia Day at home, which was most unusual. I am used to preparing for floods and doing all those things but I spent a few hours hurriedly trying to move things because the waters came up quite quickly. But people can get caught. Even with the best care and the best knowledge, it can happen. We always say, 'Be safe, do this, do that,' but people can get caught. I have been in the situation where I take extreme care, but at different times I have found myself in a situation in floods when it has not been as safe as it should be. When we had the catastrophic floods across Australia the year before, particularly in Queensland, there were seven floods in my area in a few weeks. I cannot quite remember but I think there were four major, two moderate and one minor flood within a period of a couple of weeks. They were going up and down, up and down.

That brings me to the issue that has been raised here today—that is, the impact. We have a flood on a flood on a flood going through my area. What that has done to the roads, the infrastructure, the cane farmers, the prawns and fishing is just a bit hard to bear. The other issue I would like to bring up is what the honourable member for New England was talking about—a dedicated, hypothecated fund for natural disasters. We have seen increasing extreme weather events. We also know that is increasing because of climate change. I favour having that sort of fund. It makes sense. I have been sitting here talking to the honourable member for Fremantle—I do not think she will mind my saying this—so I can enjoin her into it for saying, 'Yes, that made sense,' as we were listening to the honourable member speak. I have heard him talk before on that subject. When you live in areas where it does flood all the time you are very focused on these issues when you have to respond and deal with them.

The other issue that I have raised over a number of years is the eligibility of farmers to get low-interest loans. A lot of this is a state and federal responsibility and, as the Minister for Emergency Management said, trying to understand all the intricacies of it means you could almost get a degree in it and still not understand. When you derive over 50 per cent of your income from the farm, which most of the farmers in my area do, then you are not eligible. The minister knows this because we have had this conversation. The minister has been with me and various farmers at Greenridge Hall when we talked about that issue. It is administered by the Rural Assistance Authority and I have raised it with them, but it is one of those issues that should be on a ministerial council's agenda, or whatever it is when you call all the ministers together. In my area the eligibility requirement excludes a lot of people who really do need it. A lot of them are not rich farmers; they need to have income off-farm. This is one of the issues that I would ask to be taken up at both levels.

There is also the issue of flood insurance. I do not know if this is still with Minister Shorten, now the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, but he did a lot of good work in that area to get some commonalities into the definition of what is a flood and all of those issues. I told the local media that I feared that premiums would be so high that they would end up being out of reach for the people who needed it. Because I live in a flood area I know premiums are going up by a few thousand dollars in some areas and this is going to be difficult for people to grapple with. There is also a parliamentary committee that is looking at that issue as well, so I hope we can get some sense out of that. I cannot talk about the floods without talking about the volunteers, as all honourable members have—all of our local people who muck in and help when we have floods. I put on record my appreciation of all of those people who do the things that need to be done and also of the SES, the RFS, the charitable organisations such as the Red Cross and also the military. The Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service goes over my place. I always hear it and I can tell which helicopter it is. I can identify it by sound. I heard the Black Hawks arrive this time. They have a particular sound. They were based in Lismore so they could go out across the region. I think the minister would have seen when he went to Tweed Heads as well that they were flying around the region and helping. It was really good to have the military there.

Also, the media and the ABC were mentioned. They do a wonderful job in these times, and also commercial radio does as well. I would like to note that. The ABC comes to the fore but our commercial local radios do too. They provide a really good community service to the locals.

I had an email the other day from a friend of mine, Reverend Bob Rutherford. He has a chaplaincy with emergency services. He was going to be deployed to Queensland in about a month or so, but they asked him to deploy a lot sooner because of what is happening in Queensland. He has been talking to the locals and he says some of them are quite shell-shocked and stunned because of what happened last year and the events before it and the major events that are happening now. He said that one of the best things we can do at government level is support the locals in their needs and what they want, so community led recovery but with us being there holding out a helping hand and making sure that people do not get left behind. He was going to Roma and places in your area, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott. He will be a valuable resource in the community.

In closing, I want to say that we do a lot of good things. We as a community respond well in times of crisis and as governments we do the best we can as well. Every time we have a flood or a major event it is an opportunity to learn lessons. I know that happens with Emergency Management Australia and the states do that. I would just ask the minister to look at the issue of eligibility.

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