Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On Sunday 27 March it was wet in my community. We'd had a lot of rain over the previous week, with heavy falls forecast over the next 24 hours. We're used to floods. Most homes are built above the one-in-100-year levels of 12.2 metres. Shops have their flood plans. Everyone moves their stock, their machinery, to flood-free levels. Everyone was preparing. We know how to do floods. The Bureau of Meteorology, as people were going to bed, were predicting a peak of 11.5 metres. That's under the 12.2-metre record levels. People were confident they were prepared and safe in their houses. In the early morning hours, people started to get awoken by water coming into their houses. The flood level had been revised to 14.5 metres, three metres higher than when people were going to bed. This is 2.3 metres higher than we'd ever seen before. We did not have a flood happening; we had a natural disaster happening which we had never seen or experienced before, all in the dark of night.

The immediate crisis was that thousands of people were at risk of drowning in their homes. People were scrambling into roof cavities and onto roofs. It was a desperate situation. Then they arrived, instinctively, intuitively: over 200 local heroes got into their tinnies, kayaks and jet skis and started rescuing people and saving their neighbours' lives. Make no mistake: they were putting themselves at great risk. This was a swollen, angry river. The storm was still raging, and rain was falling heavily. But out they went, saving person after person, family after family. Four fatalities happened that day, all tragic. It was a miracle there were so few.

Besides the 200 local heroes, the SES and other first responders like the police, Fire and Rescue and others all did amazing things. I made urgent calls before daybreak to get ADF support to help with evacuations. They arrived that morning and assisted, which was crucial. Evacuation centres instantaneously sprang up. Around 10,000 people were going to be homeless by the end of the day. Lismore, Coraki, Woodburn, Broadwater and Wardell all have this same story—heroes saving lives, heroes setting up evacuation centres. Some of the evacuation centres had no outside support for days as they were stranded by floodwaters. Hundreds of people I could name here right now deserve recognition for what they did, and I'm going to ensure they all do get the recognition they deserve.

Three to four days later, on the Thursday, the floodwaters started to recede, to the point where supplies started to arrive into our towns. The ADF could get in with their larger equipment to help with the clean-up—over 4,000 of them—and we thank them. Also, the floodwaters receding revealed the devastation. This wasn't going to be a clean-up; this was going to be a rebuild. People had lost everything in their homes and businesses. Places in supposedly flood-free areas were wiped out. People weren't going to open their businesses in days; it was going to be weeks and months. People who had homes flooded will not be going back into their homes for weeks, if not months.

As a government we declared category A, B and D disaster in record time. Many packages have been announced to help families, business and farmers. Financial support has started—over $1 billion already—but much, much more still needs to come.

The clean-up, after four weeks, even with 4,000 ADF helpers, is only 50 per cent complete. We are all traumatised. No-one is sleeping properly. Those who nearly drowned are having nightmares. Those who saved them are having nightmares. Mental health services are arriving, and we will need them—and more. Financial packages will encourage some to restart; some will decide not to.

Over $200 million has already been announced, to do flood modelling and work on flood mitigation. We can never flood-proof our town, but we can and must do more on flood mitigation for us to rebuild with confidence.

Sadly, overnight we have been flooded again. The levy has been overtopped and we will be going to 12 metres today. This has triggered more trauma in my community for those who nearly drowned and those who saved them just four weeks ago, reliving the flooding rains and the evacuations again.

I love my town. We will come back, but it is going to take us time. We are going to have to help our neighbours and our friends to stand again, one day at a time.

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