Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Sunshine Coast locals that have endured the clean-up and the difficulties as a result of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which made landfall on 8 March 2025. I've recently moved to the Sunshine Coast hinterland from the coast, in the beautiful town of Mooloolah. On 8 March, Mooloolah received 462 millimetres in 24 hours. That was Mooloolah and Diamond Valley. That's the annual rainfall of Melbourne in 24 hours. I described it as like living under a fire hose for 24 hours. We were okay in our place, for anybody who's asking, but some people weren't. In the town next door to us in Eudlo, they got flooded in. Eudlo has neither town water nor sewerage. There were parts of Eudlo that were really badly affected, but people couldn't get into Eudlo because Eudlo was cut off at the worst of the flooding. When I went there the very next day, what I saw was really quite heartbreaking. There were a number of businesses that had been flooded. There were homes that were flooded and, because there is no town water or sewerage, they had septic tanks that popped out of the ground, spilling and leaking raw sewage into people's homes. It wasn't just a matter of flood waters racing through people's homes; it was sewage as well. That's tough. I door-knocked all of the homes that had been impacted. Thankfully, I was able to muster a team of volunteers that helped me help people in Eudlo to clean up, and I want to give them a shout-out. I hope I don't forget their names. There were Sam Elms, Deb Taylor, Pat Cleary, Cameron Radatz—and there was a gentleman that I hadn't met before whose name I can't remember, but he helped take stuff to the rubbish in his ute. You know who you are. I'm sorry I don't remember your name. But it was that community spirit that brought people together to help the people of Eudlo.

I want to send a big shout-out to Neal Heinrich from Chilli Bins. On Monday 8 March, I rang Neal and said: 'Mate, we've got a real problem. People have had floodwater going through their homes. We're going to need to get a lot rubbish out of those homes.' He donated skip bins. The streets of Eudlo were lined with skip bins. They've now all or just about all been taken. Anybody thinking about throwing anything in there: if you're not from Eudlo, please don't. I do want to make a shout-out because he took a nanosecond—I think before I even finished my sentence. Neal said: 'Yep. When do you want me? How can I help?' Neal from Chilli Bins: thank you so much for your generosity. It was really quite amazing.

I want to send a shout-out to the mayor, Rosanna Natoli, for her leadership during the flooding and the weather event. I was able to speak to the mayor and secure free green waste disposal and rubbish disposal for the people from Chilli Bins and all the Sunshine Coast residents to be able to take their green waste and, in particular, flood waste from Eudlo to the tip free of charge. Thank you, Mayor, for your leadership and your assistance in that regard.

It wasn't just Eudlo that was impacted, though; it was also the town of Palmwoods. Its cricket club and soccer club went under. The cricket ground was five feet underwater. It effectively destroyed their cricket nets. That happened on the Monday. I went to the cricket ground on the Sunday, and they were playing cricket. I could not believe it. The ground was five feet underwater on Monday, and on Saturday and Sunday they were playing cricket. To the grounds staff at Palmwoods Cricket Club: you guys are legends, you're amazing and I take my hat off to you. To the soccer club that was also damaged—all of the so-called floodproof fencing, which we know wasn't quite floodproof—we'll work with you to rebuild that. Hopefully, we'll be able to get some disaster management funding for that replacement.

I had the privilege of working closely with Ann Leahy, the state disaster management minister, who was terrific, but I also want to send a shout-out to the federal disaster management minister, Senator Jenny McAllister. I phoned Jenny in the lead-up to the disaster and talked to her about what we were looking at happening. I spoke to her several times afterwards and I encouraged her—in fact, I wrote a submission to her—to list Eudlo, Palmwoods and Nambour as a flood affected area to get people that emergency assistance. Jenny, you were quite remarkable. Politics was put to the side immediately, and that's as it should be. Thank you for your really good work. I do also want to send a shout-out because I, along with thousands of other Sunshine Coast locals, sandbagged for days because we thought that the coast was going to get hit. As it turns out, we got 462 millimetres in the hinterland, and the coast got about 30 millimetres. That's Mother Nature. The community of the Sunshine Coast really hooked in, and we all sandbagged together, preparing for the worst but hoping for the best, and we're thankful.

I do want to take this opportunity to highlight to the country the issue of the Bribie Island breakthrough. In January 2022, as a result of Tropical Cyclone Seth, Bribie Island was broken through from the Pacific Ocean into the Pumicestone Passage. For more than 3,000 years Bribie Island has protected areas like Golden Beach from storm inundation, but, as a result of that storm inundation from Tropical Cyclone Seth in 2022, the people of Golden Beach, Pelican Waters and southern Caloundra were staring down the barrel of oblivion. I'm not overstating it. Without the protection of Bribie Island, they were faced with a significant risk of storm surge. Thankfully, it didn't hit. We dodged a bullet. We, as a collective, need to ensure that we do whatever we can to restore Bribie Island to ensure that the people who live in Golden Beach, Pelican Waters and Caloundra South are not impacted by future storms. We know a cyclone impacts this area every four years.

I was really pleased to see that on Monday the state member for Caloundra, Kendall Morton, and the Crisafulli government announced a study to be done as to what we can do to ameliorate these risks so that people don't have the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads for years and years to come. I want to acknowledge the great work of Jen Kettleton-Butler and the Pumicestone Passage Catchment Management Body, who held a community meeting on Monday night. More than 620 Sunshine Coast locals attended this meeting to show support. All three tiers of government need to act—and we need to act now, or as soon as we get the results of this study—to see what we can do to ensure that people's homes, businesses and livelihoods are protected. I will do whatever I can whilst I am in this place to ensure that, if the federal government is called upon to provide financial assistance, we do that. I make that commitment that I'll do whatever I can to help.

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