Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I want to express condolences on behalf of the parliament to the people of Ravenshoe following the accident at the bakery and cafe—to the loved ones of those involved and the people from the surrounding areas. Nicole Dempsey and Margaret Clark have both died, out of the 21 people injured. Many are still in a very serious condition. Ravenshoe is a very small and tightly-knit community. The Dempseys are one of the oldest families from that area, and many of the people in the region are connected by family. The member for Leichhardt will be saying a few words, and he will agree with me on that.

This was the simplest of accidents. A driver had a stroke or something of that nature and lost control of his car. In a most extraordinary piece of bad luck—that is an understatement—the car careered forward, as he still had his foot on the accelerator, and it missed numerous trees, missed a big toilet block, missed numerous other obstacles and managed to drive straight into two very large gas cylinders, driving one of them, instead of the cylinder going over the back or to the side or underneath, forwards straight into the bakery, where it leaked and then exploded, with 21 people in the bakery and surrounding cafe area. I am not going to single people out, but many Ravenshoe people dashed into what was arguably a blazing inferno, one of them with a hose, trying to douse the fire. The second cylinder was sitting there and it could have exploded at any moment and seriously injured any of those inside dragging the very seriously injured people out. Numerous people had third-degree burns over most of their body.

There are only a few thousand people in the town. There were over 1,000 people at the funeral of Nicole Dempsey, a young mother with two kids—a very handsome looking lady. They said one of Nicole's sayings was, 'You make the best of this minute—you never know what will happen in the next one.' At the funeral all of the pictures were of her dancing and having fun and paddling with her kids. She was very active in the community. She was on the executive of the Cairns Netball Association, and a lot of people told me that she was one of the driving forces that carried netball—a very big sport in the north—throughout the greater Cairns region. All her team were there, dressed up in their uniforms. Undoubtedly she was a fun person. They remarked on how she changed her hair colour on numerous occasions, and I am pretty certain it was her mother who was there with a bright red wig on. The family, of course, had done their grieving over previous days, and they were celebrating the happy life of Nicole.

Last week we heard of the death of Margaret Clark, from Innisfail. In sharp contrast to Nicole, she was well on in years and had seen many traumas—Cyclone Larry and Cyclone Yasi being amongst them. I would appreciate the parliament acknowledging what has occurred, because it means an awful lot to people in these situations. Having been a member of parliament during Larry and Yasi—particularly Larry, with the horrific damage it did—I understand the shocking psychological impact those events had on people, seeing their main street completely destroyed with heaps of bricks lying around and all of that, but we did not suffer loss of life like Ravenshoe did. And there are still many people very seriously ill who are not out of the woods yet. The Mayor of Newcastle rang me during Larry and said, 'It is two years later, Bob, that you will run into problems.' And that was profoundly true. At the time people showed great heroism and a great ability to deal with a horrific situation, but it affects them later on. As I say, it would mean a lot to them if members of the parliament of Australia acknowledged what has happened and expressed their care. That is all I ask that we do today.

See this speech in context