Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

It is a privilege to rise to make a statement on indulgence, given what we have heard about the sterling and magnificent efforts of all our first responders and emergency organisations and the great work they have done in the context of the challenges—the extensive flooding—that have been thrown at our communities in two successive years. I would particularly like to add my thanks to and respect and admiration for the members of the SES, the RFS, the police and the ambos, who have all been extremely busy over this disastrous period of time in the last few weeks. I went to visit the SES headquarters in Queanbeyan. There are a lot of very fine men and women there, volunteers all, who have done some sterling work, including a large number of flood rescues. I think we saw something like 164 flood rescues performed by the SES in New South Wales during the last few weeks. One performed in Queanbeyan was a perfect example of the courage and dedication of our first responders. A gentleman who was caught in the Queanbeyan River flooding was spotted by the Queanbeyan police, who dived in to try and rescue him. They got into a bit of trouble trying to do that but were quite happy to put their lives on the line to perform that effective rescue. In the end, the SES were able ensure the safety of all of those people involved. We salute the service of those first responders doing a great job.

My region suffered terribly from the floods last year. I live on the Queanbeyan River and I watched nervously as it rose and threatened the homes around me and my own home. Fortunately, we avoided flood damage, but many others suffered the effects of that. This year Queanbeyan avoided the worst of that, but of the other councils in my region—I have seven councils in my electorate—five have been declared disaster areas: Palerang, Bombala, Cooma-Monaro, Snowy River Shire and Bega Valley Shire.

I was distressed also to see the damage and threats that were posed to the populations of the areas of Tumut and Tumbarumba, which were part of my electorate before the last redistribution. I would like to give special comment and praise to the member for Riverina, Michael McCormack, who is now representing those two areas and doing a very fine job of making sure he was out there assisting in relation to the flood damage in Riverina. We all salute the service that Michael is rendering to Riverina and those former parts of my electorate in Tumut and Tumbarumba. Well done to Michael.

The damage in my region has highlighted the sorts of challenges that are posed by these floods to local councils. It has also been a terrible disruption right across our region, because this is the show season. For the first time in its history the Bemboka Show has been cancelled. We have seen Dalgety, Delegate and Cooma shows all affected. This is a terrible blow to these rural and regional communities, who often focus on these events as a key way of promoting their produce, getting together and celebrating their success and results of their work and enjoying themselves. It has been a very sad time having those shows cancelled, and they also bring in a lot of income to these local communities, so we have forgone that.

A particularly bad blow in the region has been the loss of the Brown Mountain road, which is the main link to the far South Coast and the Canberra and capital region. Many people use that road to come up to the ACT for vital health services, work and education. It is an absolutely critical artery, and we have seen the total subsidence of a section of road on Brown Mountain. The estimate from the RTA is that they may not have that road open until Easter. That is going to be a very significant impediment and blow to all of the people living in that far south region to not only their amenity of life but the towns of Nimmitabel and Bemboka particularly depend on passing traffic—the bakeries and the famous Bemboka Pie Shop, whose wares I have savoured many times; I particularly love their pepper steak pie and recommend it to everyone—and are suffering very badly from that loss of traffic through the area. We are seeing significant impact around my region, and the disaster relief assistance is going to be very much appreciated for the repairs, principally to the roads and bridges.

There has been a lot of farm damage. In the last year I toured around areas of New South Wales and visited a lot of farmers and councils as part of my portfolio responsibilities formerly in agriculture, fisheries and forestry. It was a terrible tragedy then because last year's crop was going to get people back on track after having suffered through so many years of drought. We saw a real knock-on consequence of not being able to get the headers moving south from Queensland to Victoria and getting bogged down; the roads preventing those whose crops were not flood damaged from getting to market; and the many kilometres of fencing that were destroyed, which poses a huge problem for farmers. Over in the Wagga area I remember visiting one farm where the flooding came down from the Tumbarumba region and had washed a huge quantity of gravel over the topsoil so that there was about a metre of gravel over the top of that topsoil, denying the farmer even access to his productive soils. Interestingly, too, we have seen a lot of infrastructure that was obviously many decades old being exposed for the faults of the civil engineering technologies of the time. One particular bridge I saw there had the approaches completely washed away, though the bridge itself was intact. What we also have to focus on in response to these disasters is what people refer to as betterment. As we rebuild these bridges and roads, we should look to the best possible civil engineering technology and the latest advances to prepare ourselves for these major disasters, which appear to be a pattern that we will be having to deal with in a wash-out, if you will pardon the expression, from the climate change effects that we seem to be experiencing—the situation where our weather events are increased in intensity and significance.

This poses a planning challenge to all our councils, and the federal government is very keen to work closely and directly with local councils. It is one of the reasons why we really enjoyed working with them directly through the Australian Council of Local Governments. We are hoping now to see a referendum go forward which will give local councils status under the Constitution and through that mechanism enable the federal government to get even more closely involved with supporting them. They all face big challenges in their operational budgets, and I work closely with Mayor Walter Reynolds and his general manager, Peter Bascomb, in Palerang; Mayor Bob Stewart and general manager Don Cottee in Bombala; Dean Lynch in Cooma-Monaro and his general manager John Vucic; Mayor John Cahill and his general manager Joe Vescio in Snowy River; and of course Tony Allen, the mayor of Bega, and his general manager Peter Tegart. We have got fine men all doing great work for their communities, but the challenge of their operational budgets and sustaining infrastructure is getting beyond a lot of councils and we need to find a better way of supporting them in the years ahead.

I commend all those who are out there working hard in the councils and our first responders, but also, given my current responsibilities in the Defence portfolio, I would like to pass my thanks to our wonderful men and women of the Australian Defence Force who have been out there rendering great assistance in support of our superb member for Riverina, Michael McCormack, who has been at the forefront of his community's efforts. I know he has appreciated the presence of the ADF and in particular Colonel David Hay, who is out there. They are doing great work in sandbagging—which obviously we have a fair bit of experience with in the Defence Force—evacuations and transport operations and supporting the efforts of the SES and the emergency personnel around those affected areas. I like to make sure that the Australian community is aware that the Australian Defence Force provides this sort of disaster assistance and relief and support to the community on a regular basis. There is rarely a time when some element of the Defence Force is not involved in some way in supporting the community year-round and deploying the assets and the heavy-lift capabilities that the Defence Force is capable of in support of our own communities. We do welcome their involvement and I salute and praise their services as well.

I am heartbroken to see some of the damage that has been caused all around our region and, as I said earlier, my former areas of Tumut and Tumbarumba, which are now being well looked after by the current member. But the silver lining to the cloud is seeing the way this Australian community and our volunteer services respond to emergencies of this nature. It is extremely heart warming and I think it is a rare thing in this world. As you travel around and see the problems international communities face, I think they would give their right arm to have the sort of voluntary support that we experience in this country. I salute their service.

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