Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd also like to thank the member for Berowra for tabling this motion. I think it's important that we do take note of what's happening to many people across Australia. It hasn't been a great summer; it's been a devastating one for the people in Townsville with those horrendous floods through northern Queensland, and the bushfires in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

Of course, we had the anniversary of those destructive life-taking bushfires in Victoria 10 years ago. If it wasn't enough seeing Victoria, Tasmania and parts of northern New South Wales ablaze, people are doing it tough and, as a nation, we're seeing once again the brutality that Mother Nature can throw at us from time to time. So, it's important that we do everything we possibly can—everything in policy terms—to make sure that our nation is more resilient, including this motion to recognise the outstanding work of the emergency services, the Australian Defence Force, the volunteers.

I would like to acknowledge, from my own electorate, NT senior fire management officer Lee Gleeson, who has been deployed to Victoria to help fight the devastating wildfires in Victoria. As I mentioned, 10 years ago wildfires led to a lot of loss of life in that state. It affected a lot of my family and friends. But it is a part of being Australian that we do everything we can to help our fellow Australians in their time of need. Territorians were in their time of need during Cyclone Marcus, which didn't get a lot of coverage in the national media. In fact, it took Prime Minister Turnbull about five days to give us a buzz to see how we were going. The northern capital of Australia was hit by a cyclone and there was a lot of damage and a lot of people without power. The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten, when he visited us within days of when the cyclone hit, said it was a miracle that no-one was killed—and he was absolutely correct. It was great to be with him thanking the members of the 1st Brigade and the US Marines who assisted us in Darwin when we were hit by mother nature in the form of Cyclone Marcus. We would have been under the pump for a lot longer had it not been for neighbours looking after neighbours—emergency services, the Defence Force and the community pulling together to support each other to make Darwin and Palmerston safe again.

Last week I received a briefing at the Joint Operations Centre out at Bungendore. As we speak, ADF members are out in support of communities that are doing it tough. We had the ADF and emergency services, but we also had community groups like Darwin's Sikh community and the CDU Bangladeshi Students Association making meals for Territorians who were without power after Cyclone Marcus. It was amazing to see the community come together. Losing power is one thing but losing your home in a fire or losing livestock, which is essentially your living, is very difficult indeed. I want to thank everyone who is helping our fellow Australians who are under the pump right now.

Cyclone Marcus was probably the worst disaster to hit Darwin since Cyclone Tracy. I think we saw how complacent you can become about the awesome brutality of mother nature. We are still in the cyclone season right now, so I would encourage everyone to be prepared. I again thank everyone who is helping.

See this speech in context