Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

As we stand here today, my electorate is in flood. My electorate is half of New South Wales and a third of the Murray-Darling Basin, and every single square inch of it at some stage or other has been flooded. At the moment, the focus is on the Lachlan River as the flood peak moves down beyond Condobolin to Euabalong, Lake Cargelligo and the small community of Murrin Bridge. That's about the third flood that's been down there. It's different this time. In previous floods, there's generally a rainfall event, we have a flood, and it moves on, but this has been going on for months and months and months.

I was with the Premier of New South Wales and the local state member in Condobolin on Friday. The SES, who are largely volunteers, have been away from their homes and away from their jobs for weeks now, and that strain is starting to show. But there was relief that had come from Indigenous firefighters from the city and fly-in squads that had come through. The focus now is on the Darling. Bourke is completely surrounded, and Brewarrina has been isolated for some months. It's all heading down through Wilcannia and Menindee into the lower Darling. I would think that South Australia will need to be bracing after Christmas for what will have to be a record flood.

See this speech in context