Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gave me great pleasure to second the motion. As you and other members would be aware, I served in the Australian Defence Force. I served as an infantry soldier in the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and doing so was my absolute pleasure. While deployed in East Timor and Afghanistan, I witnessed firsthand the commitment and dedication of the men and women of our armed forces—commitment and dedication on the battlefield, which is difficult for those who are left behind to see and fully understand. But, on the night of 3 February this year, that commitment and dedication was witnessed a lot closer to home. On that night in Townsville, the rain was pelting down and the Ross River was rising. Thousands of residents were on edge, not knowing if the water would reach their doorstep. Homes began to be inundated. Many of those homes were owned by members of the Defence Force. But if you were to go and visit those homes, you wouldn't have anyone there. They weren't sandbagging their doors, they weren't lifting their furniture up onto kitchen benches and they weren't packing their car and fleeing to higher ground. No, these people were doing that for others: sandbagging homes, saving belongings and risking their own lives to rescue the elderly, the infirm and others who had no other way of finding a safe place to weather the storm.

While they could have been serving themselves, they were instead serving their community. At the height of the disaster, it was reported that up to 1,200 Defence Force personnel were assisting civil emergency services with evacuations. And, being a proud garrison city, most of these personnel lived in the Townsville community.

It is important to recognise the support of the families and friends this morning. Let's not forget the husbands, wives, partners and children, themselves victims of this horrific event, who had to face the challenge head on without the help of their serving family member. Their sacrifice for the community cannot go unnoticed as they took on the stresses and worries of such an unprecedented disaster without their usual support mechanisms in place—not to mention those with family members deployed on active duty overseas already dealing with the difficulties which that entails—and had to face their own battles at home.

But the support of the Australian Defence Force personnel didn't end there on the night of the disaster. In the days and weeks following, Townsville streets were swarming with Army vehicles. Throughout the suburbs, our serving men and women spent their days cleaning up debris, washing out houses and trucking away potential hazardous furniture and household items to where they could be safely disposed of. Around 2,800 people spent much of February and March assisting Townsville City Council and emergency services.

Let's not forget Team Rubicon Australia who gathered the skills and expertise of the Defence Force veterans and set up shop at the Reid Park Pit Complex to assist with the recovery process. Team Rubicon, spearheaded by Geoff Evans, saw veterans and Defence Force personnel come from all around the country and all around the world to Townsville to help with our disaster and the clean-up.

This is just one example, but the immediate and ongoing response to the Townsville flood paints a vivid picture of the extent to which the men and women of the Australian Defence Force will serve not only their own country but their own community in times of need.

I'd like to acknowledge the unique nature of military service and thank the men and women of the Australian Defence Force for their dedication to duty to our country and, of course, protecting our way of life on operations abroad. Townsville was hit with a one-in-500-years flood. The Australian Defence Force were out every night and every day helping our community. I'd like to thank them and pay tribute to them in the House today.

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