Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's commonly said that the Brisbane River is a river with a city problem. If you actually have a look at where the cities and towns in South-East Queensland are established, they're on the main rivers. We don't call the places in and around Brisbane the Lockyer Valley and the Brisbane Valley for nothing. There are rivers and creeks that lead into Brisbane River that cause enormous damage. They've become part of emergency management folklore—things like the Lockyer Creek, Bundamba Creek, Bremer River et cetera.

South-East Queensland has had massive floods over the years. The photos from places like Ipswich and Brisbane show that the impact in 1893was enormous. The water levels from 1893 would mean that, in my office in Riverlink Shopping Centre, in the old Tarpaulin Building, we'd be sort of swimming on level 1. As a kid, in 1974 Cyclone Wanda came in from the north and crossed near Maryborough. On 25 January 1974 floods came up from the south and smashed South-East Queensland.

I mention Cyclone Wanda because Cyclone Alfred came in about 50 years later. In South-East Queensland places like Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Ipswich were a lot smaller in those days. Nearly one in six people in the country are living in South-East Queensland, so it's a lot more densely populated. We don't normally get cyclones in South-East Queensland, but the impact and the aftermath of that one were very untimely, when you consider the fact that we are still dealing with the aftermath of the 2022 floods. We're now dealing with the aftermath and the flood impact and the cyclonic impact of Cyclone Alfred in South-East Queensland.

In my electorate, Blair, when I was a kid in 1974, in my parents' house the water was eight feet over the roof. I've had to deal with, as a federal MP, floods—in descending order of devastation—in 2011, 2022, 2013 and now 2025. We've got nearly 1,300 homes and businesses and cars where there are insurance claims, according the Insurance Council of Australia, in my electorate.

There's the damage to roads, bridges, parks, footpaths and community infrastructure. The federal government and the state government are going to have to work very hard with local councils, like Ipswich, Somerset and Brisbane, to repair that.

But it's also the damage to and the impact on people's lives—the devastation. I know of and have met people who've been flooded in flood after flood after flood—the ones I've referred to before. They're people in my home city of Ipswich, where I was born and raised and have lived all my life and raised a family and worked. They're in places like Bergins Hill Road and Videroni Street and Lindsay Street. They were flooded again, and I met people as I doorknocked those areas.

I want to pay tribute to the many people who've helped them. I want to pay tribute to the Salvation Army at Bundamba; to the Malayali friends, as they call themselves; and to the various associations around Ipswich. They provided great support—for example, to one particular family, who were seeking refugee status in Australia, on Bergins Hill Road. These are people who have been living in these communities.

I mentioned Bundamba. That's where I went to high school, at Bundamba State Secondary College, so I know the area well. There are other people who are still looking for assistance to have their homes resumed, voluntarily, by the local council, so that they can be in a situation where there are no floods in the future.

I want to pay tribute to the Ipswich SES. I was pleased to put on a barbecue and provide food for them, as they were working during the floods and in the aftermath of the floods. The SES—the State Emergency Service—is a magnificent organisation. It's a volunteer organisation. They give help and assistance, in terms of staging, logistics, coordination, planning, warning people and evacuating people. We also had intrastate people, from the Townsville SES, come down, and interstate people from South Australia and elsewhere, and from local areas, like Marburg, Rosewood, Esk and Goodna and others—SES volunteers—come down and help around Ipswich as well. They just did a mighty job, as did the rural fire brigades, the police, the emergency management, the local hospitals—particularly Ipswich Hospital—as well.

The damage is going to be about $1.1 billion, or more. I think it will be more, as time goes by. We saw businesses inundated around West Ipswich and Bundamba and places like that.

There's the Ipswich Men's Shed. I was pleased to provide them a morning tea after they'd cleaned up. I want to thank Terry Carter and the whole crew down there. The Ipswich Men's Shed is the biggest Men's Shed in the whole region. I thank them for what they do. They really provide friendship and fellowship and great assistance in terms of mental health as well.

The Ipswich Knights Football Club's football fields and fencing et cetera were badly damaged. It was great to deal with people like Troy Beahan from the club and to provide volunteer assistance to help them clean up on a Saturday.

For the Blackstone United Dragons Football Club, I want to thank Rod's Towing in particular, for the relocation of the equipment container. It's just simply a massive equipment container. It was put back in its proper place. It had damaged the football fields, the goal posts, the fencing and a whole range of things.

It goes to show: you just can't go in floodwaters. As they say: if it's flooded, forget it. It's too dangerous. The force of the floodwaters makes a huge impact.

The floodwaters nearly got into Ipswich basketball's stadium again. Poor Toni Calwell, the president, was stuck on her farm and couldn't get back; fortunately, she and her family were safe.

I also want to thank the councils in Ipswich, in Brisbane and particularly in Somerset for the work they did and the emergency management—the leadership shown by mayors, councillors and CEOs, as well as the work of council staff. The council staff do a fantastic job. They're multi-talented. We don't pay them enough. We really don't. The way they get in, help and volunteer in the work they do with the places of refuge and evacuation. I was pleased with the $6 million we're providing for Ipswich Showgrounds—that's the main evacuation centre and place of refuge. That was again open, and people went to it. The school in Lowood was used by the Somerset Regional Council.

The coordination and help between all levels of government was phenomenal. I also want to thank the Minister for Emergency Management, Jenny McAllister. Her office and the way she communicated in a bipartisan way to everyone were fantastic. I can't talk enough about how important NEMA is in terms of evacuation, coordination and recovery. I know that there's people still doing it tough in my community, and we have provided assistance. I would urge anyone in Ipswich, Somerset and the Karana Downs region to reach out. We have the Australian government disaster recovery payments available if you've been flooded and suffered major damage to your home or your assets. It's $1,000 for adults and $400 for children. Of course we have the DRFA, the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, and that funding is available as well. I'd urge anyone who's been flooded and affected by that to reach out to my office on 0732015300. I urge anyone to look at help. There are a lot of people in our local community who are doing a lot of good work.

Just because they weren't inundated and the water didn't come into their home or their unit—and I've met many people who've had that happen—there are people who've had food spoilage, power outage and wind damage and rain damage from the cyclone, with water ingress particularly entering through roofs, doors and windows. That's impacted them, and that's why there are claims. I'd urge the insurance companies to listen to those recommendations of the House of Representatives inquiry chaired by the member for Fraser's report, Flood failure to future fairness. Act on that. I want there to be no absence of future fairness in the way the insurance companies deal with our local area. I want to thank everyone, and we've pulled hard together. My office is there. I'm here to help anyone that's been affected.

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