Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Natural disasters are a cruel part of life on this unforgiving continent. Tragically, the floodwaters in Victoria and New South Wales have claimed the lives of six of our fellow Australians. Our first thoughts today are with their loved ones. All Australians offer you our deepest sympathy in this time of grief and sorrow. Today, while some communities have begun the clean-up, there are many people in regional Victoria and New South Wales for whom the danger has not yet passed. As we speak, people in Echuca, Moama, Moree—where the Premier has been this morning—Shepparton and Kerang are still preparing for the worst. To all Australians in those areas still at risk: we are thinking of you. Please listen to the warnings, please follow the advice of the authorities, please do everything you can to keep yourself and your family safe.

Mr Speaker, so often the worst of nature brings out the best of the Australian character. In recent days I've had the privilege of seeing this firsthand. In Deloraine, in Tasmania, I met with council workers and emergency services personnel calmly coordinating the flood response and recovery. I thank the member for Lyons, who joined me there that day, along with the mayor, Wayne Johnston; the captain of the Deloraine Kangaroos, Lochie Dornauf, and the club president, John Jordan; and other members and volunteers who had come to help out.

In Latrobe, Michael Perkins, a dairy farmer, spoke to me about the long-term challenge of climate change and its consequences that he had seen firsthand.

In Victoria at the emergency response centre in Bendigo, assistant chief officer Mark Cattell talked me through the huge amount of work they were doing. I thank the member for Bendigo, who has been so diligent in looking after the interests of her community. There, they were doing everything from flood mapping to distribution of sandbags to coordinating food supplies and emergency accommodation. So many people working there were from other agencies across the state who had mobilised to join the relief effort. I joined with the Premier of Victoria to look at towns like Rochester, which had been inundated. As we were flying over in a chopper, tragically, we could see two cars going through extensive floodwater. Again, a reminder for us here to remind people: 'Don't risk it. You don't know what's below the floodwater.'

In Forbes in New South Wales at the rural fire service station, which has been converted to the SES base, we were briefed on the response before Deputy Mayor Chris Roylance drove us around to point out the areas affected and at risk. I thank the member for Riverina and the Premier of New South Wales for being with us there. We also flew into Parkes, which has had less impact but some from the floods, particularly around farms across the whole of the Riverina district. I had the chance to speak with local farmers and residents outside the council chambers about how everyone can ensure everyone can access the support that is on offer. The member for Riverina will, like me, I think, never quite forget the sight of a friend of his, Grahame Ruge, in gumboots and a Hawaiian shirt who nearly had to wade across the street, down the street and across a bridge that was flooded to talk to us about what his local town and community are going through. Like everyone we met there, Graham wasn't thinking about himself. Even though his place was right next to the river, he was thinking about other people.

Across at-risk areas in Victoria and New South Wales, emergency services personnel and local volunteers are receiving vital assistance from members of the ADF. Approximately 350 ADF personnel have been working in Victoria. They have been building levees, filling sandbags and using two CH-47 Chinook helicopters to transport SES water rescue, army medics and stores to Shepparton and Echuca. Another 200 members of the ADF are available to assist in New South Wales, with 100 already on the ground in Moree, Dubbo, Condobolin, Deniliquin and Hillston. I also thank the member for Parkes, whom we talked with over the weekend, about any further support that can be given on the ground. I know that he is very concerned. He was unable to get to Moree on Saturday to see his local community. Another 100 ADF personnel are standing by to help in the Northern Rivers and Lismore.

I know all members of the House will join me in recognising and thanking everyone on the front line of this disaster. I thank the Minister for Emergency Management, Senator Watt, for the extraordinary work he has been doing day in, day out in coordinating, along with Brendan Moon and the people in the department, the response to this. It can't be said enough: in hard times Australians are simply magnificent. They're brave in the face of adversity, they're calm amidst uncertainty and they're driven by an instinctive decency to look after each other. I think you see something particularly special in some of these smaller regional towns—that sense of belonging to each other. Everyone knows everyone and everyone is helping out. When disaster strikes, Australians mobilise quickly and decisively. They work together.

In the same spirit, we are working quickly with state premiers and with local members from across the parliament and with local councils to make sure people are getting the support and resources they urgently need. Australian government disaster payments are available to people across the areas affected. As of Sunday more than $20.6 million in assistance has already been provided to around 25,000 people in those three states. Services Australia is also working on practical things like making sure families who miss days of child care don't have to pay for those absences.

I want to thank the states, particularly the three premiers of Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales, for their ongoing engagement and for the way that there is seamless cooperation between the Commonwealth, state and local governments jointly funded under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, so that we can respond quickly to needs on the ground for clean-up and repairs.

It is an inescapable fact that natural disasters have become more frequent and more intense. It's what the science told us would happen. That's why it's so important that disaster recovery funding also supports efforts for better planning, for building back in such a way that it makes communities safer and more resilient so that the next time disaster strikes we are better prepared.

I hope that the rains stop soon and the waters recede. But the briefings that I've had—and I know the opposition have received briefings as well—indicate that we're not at the end of this. We're more towards the beginning, probably, than we are towards the end. So there are difficult weeks and, perhaps, even months ahead. The long-term consequences are severe for our economy; for agriculture that was anticipating a bumper season there in the Riverina, the Goulburn Valley and other parts of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and, indeed, Tasmania. It has been particularly heartbreaking for the farmers who were looking forward to something so positive.

Some people, of course, have lost their homes and others, of course, have lost their lives. The most important thing for people is to stay safe, to make sure that they follow the advice when it's given. If you're asked to evacuate please do so. The authorities are acting upon the advice of the experts. We will, as a government, continue to offer every support possible. I'm sure that that will be offered in a bipartisan way, and I thank the opposition for that. All we can do is to do what we can as a parliament to today say that we stand in solidarity with those people going through this difficult time.

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