Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I woke on the morning of Tuesday, 21 April at about seven o'clock. I was having a coffee just before getting ready to get the kids to school—Oscar to kindergarten and Molly-Joy to preschool—when suddenly I heard a sound I do not think I will ever forget. It sounded like a thunderstorm. It sounded like an almighty clap of thunder. And I heard my husband shout in a way that I do not think I will ever forget either. We saw a massive 60 metre blackbutt tree crash through our lounge room onto our car. If it had been an hour later, there would have been two kids and one adult who may not have survived that accident.

Cyclonic winds devastated our entire community. There were winds of up to 125 kilometres an hour, with average speeds of around 90 to 100 kilometres an hour. There were winds that saw trees come down in places that you would never have imagined possible. We saw great big trees with great big trunks come down, almost as if they had been uprooted from the very bottom with a shovel. I am incredibly grateful that we saw no lives lost on the Central Coast directly as a result of the trees and the storm damage. That morning, as so many cars on the roads had been overturned due to the winds, we were encouraged not to drive and to stay home that day. Children stayed home from schools such as Empire Bay Public School and Copacabana Public School. My daughter's own preschool, Little Miracles, closed because a massive tree had fallen in the playground.

I think we saw the extent of the damage that this particular storm caused. Driving around the electorate, once the winds and the storm had subsided, I saw roofs that had blown off. I saw trees that were still strewn across roads. I saw boats that had smashed into sea walls across the Brisbane Water. I saw wharves that had been smashed as though somebody had taken a hammer to them. But, miraculously, nobody was killed by the falling trees or the powerlines. Our thoughts do go to the family of a local resident from East Gosford who was tragically killed while crossing a road at the height of the storm. It was amazing, during all of this, to see the poppy memorial that we had at Gosford Memorial Park in the lead-up to Anzac week. Forty thousand poppies planted by members of our community remained intact.

As the days unfolded, the extent of the damage became very, very clear. Fifty to 60 local SES volunteers worked tirelessly around the clock, matched by just as many from interstate. I got to visit them at their Erina headquarters, and I was so impressed to see how our community came together—volunteers every single one of them. While I was there, a fellow called Mark, from North Gosford, just popped in and said, 'You guys don't know me, but I need to make you dinner.' He said, 'How many orders? What can I do? What can I make? What can I contribute?' It was just extraordinary to hear.

At the peak of the storm's damage, around 80,000 homes across the Central Coast lost power for up to 10 days. I know that Ausgrid worked around the clock in difficult and dangerous conditions. I know also that they worked incredibly hard, together with our emergency services personnel, to make sure that our water and our sewerage connections were not lost. That was critical at one point. I know that Telstra and telecommunications workers also worked around the clock to make sure our communities were not isolated. We did have some instances of isolation, including in Lower Mangrove. It took some days to restore those services, such was the extent of the damage.

I know it is very hard to quantify the damage. It has been estimated it is going to cost around $300 million, and I know there are thousands of insurance claims that will need to be processed. But the thing I am most proud of is how we all pulled together—one of the hallmarks, I think, of our great community's response to the storm. Gosford City Council workers worked tirelessly around the clock clearing roads and offering free showers at the stadium. They are still offering people the opportunity to dump their rubbish at the rubbish tip for free, and there is a whole lot of mulch going for people to regenerate their gardens at the moment.

There was incredible leadership by the Brisbane Water Local Area Command, led by the indefatigable Superintendent Daniel Sullivan, who led the emergency operations committee for the Gosford council area. I have to tell one particular story. On the Sunday following the storm, I received a tweet from somebody whose grandparents were in Mooney Mooney. They said, 'Please help us. Our grandparents have got their sewage overflowing because they still don't have their power restored.' I rang Superintendent Sullivan. Within the hour, not only had they escalated the issue to Ausgrid; police sent cars out to personally check on the welfare of residents, and council workers actually went out there and drove from home to home to check whether they needed generators to make sure that we did not see a worsening crisis. It was just an extraordinary response by an extraordinary community.

We saw neighbours helping neighbours. I have heard stories in this place already of neighbours helping neighbours. Clubs opened up their facilities, including Everglades, Diggers, Woy Woy Bowling Club, Umina bowling club, Ettalong, Central Coast Leagues, Magenta Shores and many others. I worked with Christine Burge from Mary Mac's, who does an extraordinary job. We grabbed a whole pile of food from ALDI at Point Clare and took it down to Mary Mac's, to make sure people in need had the food when it was available. People donated their time and their food to Coast Shelter.

Our local media outlets did a wonderful job keeping everybody informed. The response on social media, on Twitter—telling us which schools were open, which schools were closed, how to access some of the funding and some of the assistance available—was just extraordinary. I want to call out and say a big thankyou particularly to Sea FM, who really kept listeners informed all along the way, particularly during their morning show with Byron and Kristie. Also, the Scott Levi program on ABC local radio was amazing. I spoke on it once, and I was talking about the damage that a particular family had sustained. They were not well-off individuals. They had really sustained a terrific amount of damage. They told a story about their little fellow whose mattress had been completely sodden—well at least down the bottom half. They said, 'It's okay. We'll get by. He'll sleep on the top half of this mattress.' Within seconds of telling that story, the ABC was flooded with calls of offers of assistance from our community. I think it really brings out the best of who we are.

I think we can also be really proud of our state and federal government. Gosford was one of 11 local government areas to be declared a natural disaster area, and that gave our community access to the disaster relief assistance administered by the New South Wales government to provide immediate relief with food hampers, emergency accommodation, replacement of essential items and the like. The federal government of course backed this up with the disaster recovery payment of $1,000 for individuals and $400 for children whose homes had been badly damaged, who had suffered serious injury or, unfortunately, lost a love one during the storm.

I know of several families in my electorate of Robertson who were able to access that payment. They spoke with great relief to me about what it did for them. In total, 3,340 claims were paid to the people in Robertson, which was a total of $4.117 million. We also made available the disaster recovery allowance for those who lost income as a result of the disaster which provided income assistance of up to 13 weeks at the Newstart or youth allowance rate.

I really want to thank our Prime Minister, our Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, the Minister for Justice Michael Keenan, all of whom kept in regular contact with me to make sure our community had all of the services, assistance and support that we needed. It was just extraordinary to see how much care was taken at the local level.

I really want to pay huge thanks to senator Marise Payne. Not only did I receive offers of assistance from her but she also made sure that the local Centrelink office was open on Anzac Day weekend which I visited. She personally worked with me to make sure that, in areas where people were struggling the most with lack of food, challenges in relation to power outages and other things, we could actually send somebody there to directly work with them and coordinate getting them to where they needed to be in terms of access to services. Marise, I thank you very, very much.

I have to say that the biggest thanks of all goes to our incredible community who pulled together and showed the true heartbeat of the Central Coast. To the 60 SES workers every day—that is a huge ask from any community—a big thank you to all of you, particularly to Rolf and Sue Garda; Stephen Tobin; Gosford City Council; Stan Ancztak; Garry Hemsworth; Glen Pestell; Phil Rudd; Adam Nesbit; and CEO Paul Anderson.

To Brisbane Water Local Area Command, you are led by an outstanding commander and every single one of you reflects the outstanding work that you do in our community. I cannot thank you enough for your care and compassion for people who are doing it tough in a time of need. To Ausgrid, Telstra and emergency service workers, thank you. At a time when we looked our worst, certainly on the ground, I am proud to say that we really showcased the best of who we are as a community.

See this speech in context