Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the condolence motion and I hope to draw on the strength of the heroes of Gippsland to help me express the enormity of the tragedy that has touched us all. Saturday, 7 February 2009 will always be remembered as the day that hell came to the paradise of the foothills of Gippsland. While the history books will record the bare facts, like the death toll, the homes lost, the extreme temperature and the hectares of forest burnt, they will struggle to tell the stories of so many heroes of Gippsland, and so many have emerged from this tragedy already.

So much has already been written and spoken about the emergency services crews at the frontline but, on behalf of Gippslanders, let me add my heartfelt thanks to the firefighters who have risked their lives to keep our community safe. While our CFA crews and Department of Sustainability and Environment firefighters are the most obvious heroes, they were joined by our police, ambulance personnel, medical staff and SES crews in their efforts to save lives in the face of the most horrendous fire conditions our nation has experienced. They were on the frontline, but we have had dozens of emergency services workers behind the scenes in logistics and allocating precious resources as this fire storm raged across Victoria, and the resources became more and more stretched throughout the day. Let no-one be under any illusion—this was a storm beyond the experience of firefighters from across our region. I have spoken to firefighters with decades of experience in Gippsland and they have never seen anything like it, but without their help it could have been far worse.

Yesterday I visited the tiny hamlet of Callignee or, to be more precise, I visited the site where the tiny hamlet of Callignee used to stand. The destruction there simply defies description. The community hall and school buildings are gone. Home after home is in ruins. There are cars which tragically became coffins. Enormous trees are blackened and have snapped in half, such was the ferocity of this storm. The land is scorched and was still smouldering several days after the fire front had passed. Where once we had rainforest and abundant beauty as far as you could see, there was an ugly scar across the landscape. You could only identify the place names by the charred street signs that were still standing. Every so often we came across families who had been allowed to return yesterday for the first time. They were searching through the rubble just trying to find anything, to salvage anything at all from the wreckage—some memento that they could cling to. They have lost so much but many of them would talk to us, either there or at the community meetings I attended, and they see themselves as the lucky ones because they have escaped with their lives. Almost bizarrely you would see sites like a swing set or a cubby house, completely intact, not a mark on them, yet 20 metres away a house would be in ruins. You would only be human to shed a tear as you consider the fate of that family or the children who used to play there.

Such was the nature of these fires that some homes were left standing where whole neighbourhoods were destroyed. It did not make sense and it does not make sense to the people who are returning there now. Tragically, people who still have their homes are feeling guilty because their neighbours do not have theirs. It is a horrible feeling for our community to come to grips with. We have lost more than 100 homes in Gippsland over the past 10 days, and we also believe that 21 people have perished, but we are not certain of those figures. The risk, though, is not over. As I stand here today, there are still active fire grounds, and many townships are on high alert in case the severe weather conditions return. As one of the wise heads of the CFA put it to us quite bluntly, only rain puts bushfires out in these forest type conditions. It is a great irony that in Australia today much of Queensland is under water. Our thoughts go out to the Queenslanders while much of Victoria lies blackened and in ruins. Our thoughts and our prayers are also with those who are still fighting these fires, with those who are fighting for their lives in hospital and with the people who are caring for them at the moment. It will take many months for them to return to full health. While the Gippsland fires are a tragedy of epic proportions in themselves, I am mindful that they are only one part of a more hideous disaster right across Victoria. It will take all of our strength, as a community and as members of this place, to overcome what lies ahead.

I said at the outset that there were many heroes of Gippsland emerging from this tragedy. The people of Gippsland are setting an outstanding example for us all to follow here in this place. The emergency recovery centre and Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund have been inundated with donations and offers of help. The business community’s contributions to those who have lost so much have been staggering, as has their release of staff for the volunteer effort. It is amazing the way the business sector and government departments are working hand in hand and working long hours, well beyond what is expected of these people. I know of one Red Cross volunteer who travelled for four hours from Cann River to Traralgon just to be there to help complete strangers and hand out food and toiletry packages for these people who have lost so much.

The shire council staff are working their own shifts and then volunteering their time on the weekends to assist just to ensure that the needs of their friends and fire victims are met. Friends and family members are opening their homes to provide comfort for those who have been left with just the clothes they were wearing when the firestorm hit. I have been to many community meetings where hundreds of people have filled the halls—because we still have that expectation that the fire may return—for the latest advice. People stand up and thank the CFA for trying so hard even though they have lost everything. They are there still saying thanks to those who have given so much to them. There are so many other heroes emerging from the tragedy across our region, from the ABC journalists and presenters who worked incredibly hard to keep us informed throughout what was a long, painful campaign of fighting the fires on Saturday right through to now—it is ongoing; the threat messages are coming out almost on a daily basis—to the people making sandwiches and supporting fire crews and neighbours helping out a mate by bulldozing a firebreak or putting out spot fires. The capacity of the community and the resilience of the community, which is on display in Gippsland and, I am sure, right across Victoria at the moment, is something which is quite amazing.

We should also spare a thought for those other heroes who are left with the hideous task of sifting through the wreckage for the remains. Theirs must be the most difficult job of all and I am sure they will need our support in the months which lie ahead. And out of that wreckage have come some more heroes. It seems that every second person I have spoken to in Gippsland over the last three days has a remarkable survival story of their own.

Yesterday I spoke with a beautiful old lady who, I would estimate, is in her early 70s. She is only about four foot three, I would imagine. She simply trotted away from her home in Callignee and jumped into a dam. She was there for several hours all by herself and the fire, remarkably, spared her home. She was telling me what a hard time she was having getting the mud out of her clothes. I also met a teenage boy with a far more chilling story. He was part of a family of four. They were very well prepared. They had their fire pumps attached to their swimming pool. They had the vegetation slashed and hoses at the ready. They did not even get ember attack or any warning whatsoever. The wind changed, the fire rushed their way and they were met with a wall of flame. They sought refuge in their home as they had been taught to do. As it turns out, their home probably did save them but they were forced to race from room to room as each roof collapsed. Finally, at the end of the house was their rumpus room—luckily they had a pretty big house by the sound of it. The roof fell around them and they dashed out and jumped into their pool—where they had started the whole battle. When that became too hot, they also dashed to a dam and survived to tell the story.

Others told me of their confidence that they could handle a bushfire, that they were well prepared. They knew what the task was ahead of them but, when the wind changed on Saturday night and the fire descended on them in all its fury, they made last-minute dashes for survival—against all the advice that we have given them in the past. They had to get out of there, and they did, and they survived. As we know, of course, many people did not survive that last-minute dash. I have never been so proud of my community to see the survivors now volunteering their time and chipping in to help others who they regard as being less fortunate. It is an amazing relief effort on the ground at the moment. And it is the same story, I understand, being repeated across Victoria. There is unimaginable grief and destruction but it is coupled with those stories of incredible survival. There are so many heroes out there for us to celebrate.

I believe that this is our chance to all become heroes in our own small way. This is not about us; it is about the fire victims. This is no time for our political games. We must commit ourselves to helping those people to rebuild their lives. Towns like Callignee, Koornalla, Devon North and Boolarra in Gippsland are just like Kinglake, Whittlesea, Marysville and Flowerdale on the northern outskirts of Melbourne. These communities cannot be burnt off the face of the earth, no matter how fierce the firestorm. These communities live on in the hearts, memories, dreams and hopes for the future of the families who lived there, and it is our job to help them return, if that is their choice. We must stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Australians at this time as we all come to terms with the grief, the absolute anger and the disbelief that many of us are feeling at the moment. For those of us who are not directly impacted by this firestorm, we must be there to help pick them up and assist them in the hard times which will undoubtedly lie ahead for them all.

I would like to put on the record my sincere thanks to those members of parliament who have contacted me—including the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of The Nationals—to express their support for the people of Gippsland. There has been so much goodwill in the speeches I have heard as I have travelled throughout the fire hit areas of my electorate in recent days. We need to turn those kind words of support into action on the ground to help the heroes of Gippsland in the weeks ahead. I commend the state and federal governments for their prompt action—dare I say, Prime Minister, decisive action—to date, but our communities are already tired and this recovery will require months and years of effort and resources on the ground. My community, I know, stands united in its determination to rebuild, and we must not let them down.

Finally, I believe it is up to us to make sure that we learn from whatever mistakes have been made. Now is not the time for apportioning blame, but when hundreds of lives have been lost across Victoria, tough questions must be asked, and our community expects us to find the answers. I fear that we may have made the mistake of underestimating the force of these fires, and perhaps overestimating our own capacity to deal with them. The message of ‘leave early, or stay and defend a well-prepared property’ has been a mantra for more than 20 years—and I know that I have repeated it myself in media releases and in comments to my constituents—but it may be the wrong message on days like 7 February, when the fire risk, according to all the experts, was off the scale. I fear that there are some places which are simply impossible for us to defend on days of such extreme fire danger. I am not advocating forced evacuations—many people want that right to stay and defend their property, and I respect that right. They know it is their choice and they know that there will not be a CFA tanker at their doorstep to help them out in a crisis. But what I am suggesting is that we may need to have an escalated level of threat or warning. We need to let these people know that there is every likelihood that they may well perish if they stay in certain parts of our state on days when the fire risk is so extreme and fires erupt from whatever cause. Regardless of how well prepared they are, I believe that there are certain properties in parts of our state which are completely beyond defending. It is not a question of being wise after the event. I think it is an issue for the royal commission to examine closely, and I am sure it will.

I have spoken to many Gippslanders who thought they were ready, but when the firestorm hit they had absolutely no warning—and, again, I am not apportioning blame, they simply had no time to receive a warning—and no defences against the ferocity of the blaze which descended upon them. As I said, there will be a royal commission and I trust that the practical experience of these people on the ground will be listened to. We cannot allow so many people to have lost their lives in vain. I would also hate to see this tragedy used as a reason to depopulate regional Australia. We have an enduring love affair with the bush. It can be tranquil. It can be magnificent. It is a beautiful place for us to visit and in which to live, but on Saturday it erupted into a storm of unimaginable fury. For those of us who do choose to live in regional Australia, we must learn to live with the threat of bushfires and minimise the opportunities in the future for such a disaster to be repeated. But I must repeat that we must not use this as an opportunity to scare people away from living in regional Australia. We must let people return to rebuild as soon as is humanly possible and go on with their lives as best they can after such a tragedy. We need these people to remain in our communities—to continue making their outstanding contribution to the rich fabric of life in rural and regional Australia.

I have purposefully focused on the heroes in Gippsland rather than on the villain of this tragedy. Just last week, I spoke in this place about the community of Boolarra, which had lost 30 homes at the hands of an arsonist. We do not know who lit this inferno which killed so many of our loved ones, but it is regarded as suspicious and the police believe it was deliberately lit. It is an unspeakable crime that stands condemned by all right-thinking men and women. There is a seething anger in my community that we have a traitor in our midst. As much as we pray for those who have perished, we hope their killer is brought to justice. Too many good people have lost their lives already. The heroes of Gippsland did not deserve this.

Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Women and Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a nation we grieve at the horror that continues to unfold in my home state of Victoria and I rise to support the motion and to pay my respects and express my deepest sympathies to those who have lost family members, loved ones and workmates. The sheer scale of loss of human life, as incomprehensible as it is, has horrified us all. I think it is true to say that universal grief has gripped our nation like never before during a natural disaster. We need to remember that every individual who did not escape the fires had dreams, had hopes, had plans. The fire did not discriminate between young and old. All these lives cut tragically short, leaving loved ones behind. The people who have left us are in our thoughts and prayers. All we can hope is that that knowledge provides some small comfort to those who are left behind.

In my electorate, we mourn the deaths of John and Sue Wilson. Like so many residents of the north-east of Victoria in the past, and many in the present, John and Sue stayed, defending their home in Mudgegonga, just north of Myrtleford in the Ovens Valley. To their children, Grace and Samantha: we mourn with you. It is hard enough for anyone to lose a parent; to lose both in such tragic circumstances can only compound the hurt and pain. The extraordinary conditions of this fire have shocked and tested even the most seasoned firefighters, both volunteers and professionals. This is the third fire in six years that has ravaged my part of the world—north-east Victoria. The scar tissue from the 2003 fires particularly has left an indelible mark on the landscape and the psyche of those living in north-east Victoria. In the days and months ahead we will struggle to quantify how these catastrophic fires of 2009 will impact on not just those areas affected in Victoria but the nation as a whole.

The main fire currently burning in Indi is described as the Beechworth fire and, to date, it has burnt approximately 30,000 hectares. This is in addition to over 900,000 hectares burnt during the 2003 and 2006 fires. The most recent information I have is that milder weather conditions have helped keep this and the Koetong Dry Forest Creek fire within containment lines at the moment. It is a great relief that the towns and residents in my local valleys and in my regions are not under immediate threat. We hope that—as the fires are contained, with improved weather conditions and successful back-burning operations—those communities will remain safe. But they do need to remain vigilant—as do many other communities in Victoria—because it is not over. At last count, there were 300 firefighters on the ground. But for every firefighter there are several volunteers behind the scenes: the communications personnel, the CFA members keeping the sheds and equipment in working order, the SES, others preparing the food—whether, yet again, it is the women’s auxiliary of the Myrtleford CFA or the local Red Cross or just mums and dads down the road who want to do something to help—those who are working at relief centres or others donating their time to feed cattle.

The tasks being undertaken by thousands of people across the north-east and across Victoria are limitless. The list of names runs into many pages. It is quite heartening that it is not only the long-standing residents of our area who are helping but many who have moved there recently. Only the other night, I was at the Chiltern relief centre and there were three young army wives who had recently moved with their husbands to our local facility in Bandiana. They were distraught; they did not know what they could do to help. They each looked around their home and collected everything they thought could be of help and delivered it to Chiltern. That is just a very small example of the emotion, of the desire and the need to help, right across our region and right across our state.

To all of the firefighters, to their families who support them, to the crews who keep them going, to the local communities, to the businesses who have given so much I give a very deep thank you. The lifeblood of our communities in rural and regional Victoria is our volunteers. They are our safety net. We could not survive, let alone thrive, without them. Scores of people, often whole families, stop whatever they are doing to play their part whenever a natural disaster hits—by helping their neighbours, by helping their town, by doing whatever is asked, and often even what is not asked, and by doing whatever it takes. It is humbling to not only be part of that community but also represent people who give so much of themselves in such an unassuming way. It is often those who do not have much themselves who give the most. They may not say much but their actions speak volumes. They are an example to us all in this House.

So much of the human spirit of Australia is displayed in those hours and days before official assistance, grants and programs kick in. Just one local example is the coordination of feed for local stock. Local farmers, who themselves have suffered years of drought—who have battled drought, bureaucracies and challenging world market conditions—have not thought twice about donating what, in dollar terms, is quite a sizeable amount of feed to their fellow farmers. A very special thankyou to Stephen Street, who is coordinating that effort locally in Mudgegonga. It also gives me great pride to represent a part of Victoria where there are these self-starters, these people who do not wait to be told but do what needs to be done.

Still in shock, exhaustion has set in. I have been speaking to quite a few of our local volunteers on the ground. They have given me a few messages and they have asked me to pass them on, which I will do here today. They are all touched by the generosity of not only fellow residents of north-east Victoria but also people right across the nation and throughout the world. There is a very real and immediate need for counselling across the board, from the tough weather-beaten farmer to the impressionable young child.

I remember the emotional damage left by the 2003 and 2006 fires. Long after the cameras have gone and the media attention fades away, the scars are still there. The coordination of counselling is an urgent priority right across the state. In the weeks to come, many who have experienced the horror—including the volunteers, the police and Army personnel—will need help, whether it be an understanding ear from friends or professional help. Our communities must be equipped to make such help available. It is these intangibles that will determine, as much as the bricks and mortar will determine, how well and how rapidly our communities do recover.

Farmers have asked for help to get their farms operational again. In many cases it will take years for them to recover. They have asked for assistance in the form of long-term, low-interest loans; an extension of exceptional circumstances; incentives for pasture improvement; help with the repair and replacement of fencing; cleaning and enlarging dams; and of course improvement in local telecommunications.

It is not the first time telecommunications has become an issue with bushfires across Australia, but we need to learn the lessons and learn them quickly. To take one local example, Trish Carroll is the communications officer for the Mudgegonga CFA Brigade. Mobile coverage in the area is very poor. Trish Carroll’s home telephone has not been operational for over a month and is still not operational. Recently, the Carrolls were told that their complaint issue had been lost in the system. Local people are angry and justifiably so. A usable home phone is beyond a basic need. We are in the age of talking about all sorts of advanced technological means of communication and equipment, yet we need to remember that, in many parts of Australia and many parts of Victoria—often rural areas—that are not as accessible as others, a basic home phone is the starting point.

Knowing that your neighbour, your elderly relatives and your children are safe and sound during these fires is an absolute priority. Needing this assurance, needing to know that, is an essential part of the human condition. The mobile phone bills for this period are expected to be horrendous. In the great Australian spirit of giving that we have seen right across our nation—again, often the poorest of communities giving the most—perhaps it is time for telecommunications operators to donate, for the fire season, the cost of the telephone bills of those living in fire-affected areas. Again, this is a specific idea and request that has come from my constituents. The same request has been made of large corporations providing petrol to local outlets to assist with the transportation of hay and other materials. Volunteers are using their own trucks, their own funds to pay for the petrol and diesel. Perhaps some assistance could also be forthcoming in that direction.

The coverage, information and dedication of the ABC right across Victoria has been commented upon in this House. I have to repeat that our local ABC personnel have been outstanding. They have formed part of the fabric of north-east communities, giving assurance and information, which were particularly important last weekend, amidst much anxiety and much fear. They give of their time and they are truly part of our local community. Police, local council staff, VicRoads, the ambulance service and the staff at the incident control centres have all been part of the local effort. A particular personal thanks to Tony Long and Rob Charwell, who have taken time out from their very important work at the incident control centre in Ovens to keep me updated about what is going on.

Many issues have been raised. The time for questions and investigations will come. Now is not the time for me to go into these details. But I will just flag that we should be guided by many discussions on these matters that have occurred in the past and by much of the discussion that will no doubt take place once we are over the horrific circumstances of the present time.

Our thoughts at the moment are with those still recovering. I pay special tribute to Fran Bailey. She is an extraordinary member for McEwen. So many of us have been touched by these tragic events over the last few days, and if ever there was a person who is a fearless and unafraid champion of the local people it is Fran Bailey. My thoughts are with her at the moment. A special thankyou to the leaders of our nation. To the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, and to the Prime Minister: thank you both for caring enough to keep personally updated by contacting me and other members in bushfire affected areas.

Personally, I am relieved and grateful that the federal government’s assistance to rebuild our Victorian communities is uncapped and unconditional. That is the right thing to do. It is a mark of respect and humanity that we all, on both sides of the House, remain united and determined to do whatever is required to rebuild, to help, to support and, above all, not to forget. In commending the motion to the House, I note that this tragedy will go down in history as the worst natural disaster our nation has faced, and the appropriate response in due course needs to be of that scale as well. I commend the motion to the House.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our troubles pale into insignificance compared with what has happened in Victoria, but it is my duty to advise the House that north-eastern Australia—not just North Queensland—has had the most widespread flooding in its entire history since settlement 150 years ago. Normanton and Karumba have had their second worst floods ever. Normanton and Karumba are up against the Northern Territory border—the midwest, as we call it. The Burdekin basin covers a lot of that area and about a tenth of the state. The Upper Burdekin has had its second worst flood in 150 years. Ingham has had one of its two worst floods. So whether it is on the coast, whether it is in between or whether it is up against the Queensland-Territory border, we have had record flooding.

We have only had three dead—maybe four—and we thank the Lord that it is not higher. But it is very important that I bring to the attention of the House the fact that we are only halfway through our wet season—we still have half of it to go if it is a normal season. All the rivers are full and all the ground is saturated, so every drop that falls now is runoff water. I was in Ingham yesterday afternoon and I can advise the House that the floodwaters there have receded.

How we look after the little people is a measure of our nation. The little town of Karumba is our only port in the gulf other than Weipa, which is right up at the tip of Cape York. So 2,500 kilometres of coastline has only one port, and that is in tiny Karumba. Karumba produces about $300 million worth of prawns a year and is a very significant tourist spot as well. Some 800 souls there are now into their fourth week surrounded by 15 kilometres of raging, crocodile infested floodwaters. Just on dusk the other night the Mayor of Georgetown crossed the river in a dinghy and counted some 23 crocodiles in the water—two of them most certainly were very large. Some properties have had crocodiles in their sheds. A very famous local grazier in the north, John Nelson, has told us that he has lost 1,000 of his 8,000 head of cattle. Those losses can be multiplied right across the board. We do not know the total extent of the losses. The last time we had flooding like this, two meatworks were closed and 1,500 people lost their jobs permanently.

There have been some especially unfortunate aspects to the flooding. I want to thank the Prime Minister and the Treasurer for buying into the situation on the weekend; we are very appreciative of them doing that. Up till then we had a situation where four Caribou aircraft were sitting at the airport whilst $10 million worth of produce was rotting in the sheds and cold rooms. There is just no excuse or explanation for that. By the time the orders came down—and we thank very much the Prime Minister and the Treasurer for this—and by the time they had got on top of the public servants, we had lost half a million dollars worth of that produce. Of course, the day that they agreed to use the Caribou was the day that the road opened. So you can read for yourself what was going on behind the scenes there. I do not say that by way of criticism. I am well aware of the situation that existed. I have been responsible for assisting with flooding in Queensland since 1976, and my family has been up there for four generations, so we understand the difficulties on the ground.

We do not know what the losses are to the sugar industry as yet. It may be 30 per cent throughout Ingham, which is the third biggest cane producing area in Australia, but we do not know at this stage. Sugar is still our 15th biggest export item overall; it is still a very significant item.

Having said all of that, it gives me no joy to say to the House that after four weeks there was no way of evacuating the people of Karumba at night. There was no casualty evacuation helicopter. They went for four weeks before a helicopter was placed there, and there were no helicopters with stretcher facilities even during the day. So if you broke a limb or had a heart attack then you were in very desperate trouble because there were no stretcher facilities on the helicopters that were there, and none of them could do night duty. One family had been waiting for two or three days for help. Nothing happened. A dinghy was going back and forth so they put their little two-month-old baby in the dinghy and for three hours went through raging, crocodile infested floodwaters 15 kilometres wide. That is not right. I do not hesitate to say that that is a criticism of the state authorities. For the little people who are out in the middle of nowhere, it is just not good enough.

Like the previous speaker, I thank the thousands of people in North Queensland who have stopped work and given their time to help others. When I flew into Ingham, there were probably 100 dinghies going up and down rescuing people, helping people out or taking supplies in voluntarily. We do not have quite so many crocodiles there but we are talking about raging floodwaters and we have already lost three or maybe four people.

I would like to leave the House with this message: we are only halfway through our wet season. February is by far our wettest month. It rains almost as much as any other two or three months put together. All our rainfall, which is very high in North Queensland as you are all well aware, only comes within four months, and we still have most of our wettest month to go, so we are very worried. The weather bureau has said that the low will move back in at the end of this week right across the north. So, far from being out of the woods, we are girding our loins for what could be a very difficult situation towards the end of this week.

We thank all the people who have made a very great effort. I certainly single out the Prime Minister and the Treasurer on this because we badly needed their intervention. They had their hands full down south yet they made the little bit of time needed to help us out and we thank them for that. There will be a lot of help needed.

I make this point to the House: there are many primary producers in North Queensland. For every one of these things that have happened to date, we have had a primary industry or agbank to give us loans with negligible interest rates that did not require us to make repayments for two or three years. This is the first time that we have gone into this situation without any of that available to us at all. Many of these people will be gone. They will sell up to ‘lifestylers’—which seems to be what is happening. Of the people who were putting trees in, I am told that three of the plantations have gone completely. All those people who were using those devices to dodge tax—but they were closing our sugar mills—will obviously be paying a price for that. That bears mentioning because those sugar mills have got to stay open. Unless they stay open, thousands and thousands of Australians will lose their jobs. They are in very serious jeopardy, and this wet season will place those mills in even greater jeopardy. I deeply regret to have to say that some sort of financial package will be needed.

We thank very much the thousands of people who are risking their lives, particularly those in the Normanton-Karumba area, which is still under serious threat as we speak, and also the people of Ingham and all other affected places throughout North Queensland. This is not our most intense flood but it is the most widespread flood in our history and one of the two worst floods in the entire history of north-eastern Australia.

James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I concur with all members of the House, particularly the members for Gippsland, Kennedy and Indi, in the condolences which we have expressed here today. All of us on both sides of the House stood in prayer on Monday with tears in our eyes. They were tears for the calamities that have befallen our nation in the north and in Victoria. It is at times like this that we stand as one people—one united Australia. I commend the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for uniting as one great Australia to deal with these situations.

The Prime Minister sent the minister for small business, the member for Herbert and me north on Monday to give him an on the ground report of what is happening up there. The minister for small business went to Ingham, and the member for Herbert and I joined the minister for small business to attend meetings in Townsville with Centrelink and state government representatives. They gave us a report on how they were assisting the people on the ground in Ingham, in the electorate of Kennedy. What has happened in Ingham is far worse than anything they have seen before, as the member for Kennedy has said. I commend the services of Centrelink and the state government Department of Communities, who are doing an outstanding job there. We also commend our fantastic volunteers in the SES and the police, ambulance and fire services, who have performed way beyond the call of duty.

I have spoken to the mayors of Townsville, Bowen and Mackay and the Mayor of the Burdekin Shire Council. I have also spoken to many people on the ground in the Burdekin Shire Council. On Tuesday morning I addressed the Burdekin Shire Council and assured the mayor, Lyn McLaughlin, and her councillors that this parliament has not forgotten North Queensland. They took great heart from that.

The mayor from Burdekin took me to Giru, a small sugar town of no more than 500 people. Its main business is the Invicta sugar mill. As the member for Kennedy rightly says, sugar is a very big industry in the north of Queensland. I walked through the streets and met the people at the local neighbourhood store and the newsagency and I met the workers as they came out of the mill. They all said—every single person—‘We have not suffered like the people of Victoria. Our suffering is nothing compared to that of the people of Victoria.’ The hearts of the people in the electorate of Dawson are open and they are giving substantially in donations to the people in Victoria. It is during these times of natural disaster that we see a great bipartisan Australian family and we all stand of one accord.

As well as the police, the SES, the ambulance service, the local leaders, the volunteer groups, the Red Cross and Meals on Wheels, we must not forget communications through ABC local radio. They are just invaluable at times like this. I would also like to commend the role of community radio stations, particularly Burdekin’s Sweet FM. Mayor Lyn McLaughlin told me that they were outstanding in helping to get messages out to the local community. Radio is very important in North Queensland.

Along with the rains, we also experienced the highest king tides of the year. Having known what happened one year ago on 13 February, when the people of Dawson experienced the highest rainfall in 90 years, there was a lot of nervousness amongst the people. Thank God the rains were not as bad as last year. The king tides have caused extensive erosion along many shores from Townsville right through to Mackay. As always, when the heavy rains come the Bruce Highway takes a pounding. Yesterday, I travelled from Townsville for four hours, visiting all the towns down to Mackay, and I can report that there are certain sections of the Bruce Highway which have crumbled into potholes.

Places such as Yellow Gin Creek, Sandy Creek, Plantation Creek and Merinda are areas which traditionally always flood. I would like to report to the House the extent of the rain. As the member for Kennedy correctly said, we are only halfway through the wet season. In Townsville from 1 January to 9 February we received 1,350 millimetres of rain. The average for the year is 1,116 millimetres. In the town of Ayr, in the same period, 1 January to 9 February, 1,211 millimetres have fallen. The normal for the year is 931 millimetres. In Bowen for the same period, 960 millimetres have fallen. The normal average for the year is 788 millimetres. This shows how our weather patterns have changed and the seriousness of the calamities which are before us.

I would like to join with the member for Kennedy and the member for Herbert, and I would also like to acknowledge the member for Leichhardt because his electorate has suffered extensive flooding as well. The people of Dawson stand with the people of Victoria in a very bipartisan fashion. Our thoughts and our prayers go out to all those who have suffered such horrific calamity. You are in our hearts, you are in our minds and you are in the tears in our eyes. I commend the motion of condolence.

Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to report to the House in relation to our visit yesterday to Ingham—the epicentre of the coastal floods. I also recognise the report that the member for Kennedy has given in relation to the flooding that has occurred right across the north and the west. The people up in the Gulf Country, in the Burdekin catchment, have been flooded for so long now. They are often a bit out of sight and out of mind. But they are not out of sight and out of mind in the hearts of the local members. They are not out of sight and out of mind any more in the hearts of governments. They know that they will receive the assistance that they need when they are in such desperate circumstances.

For the people of Ingham, yes, there was a lot of rain and a lot of water. They had two floods, one after the other. They were only marooned for about a week, but the people in the north and the west have been marooned for weeks. Of course there are very great difficulties with stock and there will be huge losses in relation to that. In Ingham, the damage has been particularly to homes, businesses, the agricultural economy and the built infrastructure. The raging water washes the roads out and the bitumen literally disappears, and we are going to have to attend to that. We will not know for about four weeks how the sugarcane crop has gone. It may in fact be okay and, God willing, it will be. We will just have to wait and see what has happened to the sugar content, with the cane being submerged in so much water. Of course all of us saw the images on the television of people in their lounge rooms sitting on their lounge chairs, but they had their feet up because just below the top of the lounge chair there was water. They could not move. They could not go anywhere. They were there for a few days. It must have been terribly, terribly distressing.

I met yesterday with Pino Giandomenico, the Mayor of Hinchinbrook Shire. What a terrific fellow he is. The member for Kennedy will agree with me that he is a true community leader. Even though his own home was flooded, he worked tirelessly for his community and led the council operations to make sure that people were as well looked after as they could be. I met with Lindy Nelson-Carr, the state minister for communities and the member for Mundingburra. She was up there making sure that her department, the Department of Communities, was doing what it should. I went into the community recovery centre where there were literally hundreds of people seeking help from the state government, and they were being given that help. There was not any IT around at all. It was all being done on bits of paper. I guess it just shows us that in the middle of such adversity a bit of philosophy which says, ‘You can actually still do it on paper.’ All the claims were being made and all the cheques were being written right there on the spot. Thank you to the Commonwealth Bank for being able to cash those cheques and giving people their much needed assistance.

Of course, there are our own Centrelink people—and I pause for a moment for a commercial, because it is true. The member for Dawson will know that I made this point in our meeting with Centrelink in Townsville. Centrelink in North Queensland is the best performing Centrelink in Australia. All the surveys show this and what I saw in Ingham underscores exactly that. Our Centrelink people work above and beyond the call of duty. They do whatever needs to be done to look after their customers and to look after those in adversity. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the people of Centrelink in North Queensland for what they have done.

I want to pay tribute to the Australian Defence Force. They are always there for our country whenever we need them; we all know that. They do what needs to be done. They are out there delivering ration packs. I suppose there should be another commercial here, and that is for the 3rd Brigade of the Australian Defence Force, which the Minister for Defence will know is the best brigade in the country. They were there in their Black Hawk helicopters, flying in and out and making sure that things went to plan. The brigade members on the ground were making sure that people had food. Thank you to the Australian Defence Force, acting in cooperation with the Royal Australian Air Force in Townsville.

An interesting thankyou is to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For years and years the local commercial radio station was the station that broadcast all the emergency information. Ever since Cyclone Althea it was known as being there for the local people. But it is not anymore. The commercials have given up that role for some reason. But the ABC stepped in on Sunday, at the height of the floods. The ABC staff were in their local Townsville studio continuously broadcasting local information to people who needed it. I think there is a message for this parliament, which is: we must support our ABC. They really came to the fore and fulfilled their role as the national broadcaster, as they have done in the case of the Victorian fires, making sure that people had information.

Thank you to the Hinchinbrook Shire Council for the work that they did in helping.

The people of Ingham, having been through such a terrible flood, are in high spirits. They are Australians. Yesterday in the main street no-one was complaining. People were getting on with their business. They knew and understood that life goes on.

I will finish by observing a point that the member for Kennedy made in relation to the mighty Burdekin River. The Burdekin dam in North Queensland contains an area of water 16 times the size of Sydney Harbour. Today that amount of water will go over the spillway. It is a huge amount of water, which indicates just how much rain we have had in North Queensland, and I think we are in for a lot more. I certainly support the motion.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—It is a remarkable thing about our land that in our parliament today we have had moving accounts of both fire and flood, as our nation battles with all the elements. I thank those members who have spoken today: the member for Gippsland, the member for Indi, the member for Kennedy and other members who have just now contributed. I note the message of many of those members, which is for us all to be there for the recovery and reconstruction of these communities for the long term, beyond the time when the events which grasp the nation’s attention now are no longer in the headlines or on the front page. That is our sober responsibility to each of these communities.

The Victorian bushfire crisis has moved into a new stage. We are now dealing with two immediate challenges. First, we must continue to fight fires in the face of a situation that has deteriorated in the past 24 hours. Second, we must continue the difficult work of recovery for those who have suffered the impact of fires already. In addition to these two immediate challenges, we must move ahead with preparations for the task of long-term reconstruction. In executing these tasks there will inevitably be gaps in what governments do, and inevitably frustrations will emerge. Our task in the days, weeks and months ahead will be to fill those gaps as quickly and effectively as possible. I would thank members for their contribution to that task in the reports they provide to government on the way through.

First, an update on the firefighting in Victoria. The fire threat in north-eastern Victoria has, I am advised, been increased overnight by strong southerly winds. This morning the Country Fire Authority issued urgent alerts for the communities of Acheron, Cathedral Lane, Rubicon, Thornton-Taggerty Road, and Bulls Lane, with an increase in fire activity in Murrindindi-Yea. The Yea-Murrindindi fires burning to the west side of the Black Range have picked up due to southerly winds, and early this morning they were estimated to cover an area of approximately 100,000 hectares. Our most recent report on the Bunyip Ridge fire indicates that, despite some improvement in the outlook for communities, the communities in that area should remain on alert.

The fire is burning in an area of approximately 25,000 hectares in the Bunyip State Park and state forest and has the potential to directly impact communities in that region. Fire activity also remains high in the Maroondah-Yarra complex, in particular south-east of Toolangi and east and north of Healesville. Fires are continuing to burn in many other areas of the state, including the Churchill-Jeeralang fire, the Kinglake complex and Walhalla. There are of course challenges elsewhere across the state. As one member said to me last night when I telephoned him to speak of fire challenges in his area, it is important to remind the nation that we continue to be in a fire crisis and we are continuing to recover from that crisis which has been meted out to communities already.

The latest information confirms also the catastrophic scale of these fires. I am advised that there are 181 confirmed deaths from the fires and I am further advised that this figure will continue to rise. There are 570 injuries. There are 78 admissions to hospitals—up to 20 patients have been admitted into the major burns system at the Alfred Hospital. At latest count, 1,033 houses had been reported lost, 450,000 hectares had been burnt and at least 5,000 people remain homeless. Of course they have nothing at all: no money, no credit cards, no car and no clothes.

On recovery efforts, the Commonwealth now has four agencies working with the Victorian recovery centre on the immediate challenges: the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Defence Force, Centrelink and of course FaHCSIA. Over 460 Defence Force personnel have now been deployed to assist with a range of tasks, some of which I outlined to the House yesterday. On behalf of all members and all Australians, I would like to thank Defence Force personnel and reserve personnel for their exceptional efforts. ADF teams are providing direct assistance to those who have lost everything in the fires. They are also on the front line of fire fighting and they are providing relief for firefighters and emergency service personnel.

In relation to the immediate search and recovery effort I inform the House that the ADF has deployed a search task group of approximately 160 reserve soldiers headquartered at Kilmore. This group comprises four search teams to assist emergency management agencies search through rough terrain on foot near Traralgon, St Andrews, Flowerdale and Yarra Glen. I am advised that the search team deployed to Flowerdale has completed its work. It is now preparing to deploy to work in the Kinglake area.

Centrelink is providing direct assistance on the ground in fire-affected areas through the Australian government disaster relief payments. Today in the Australian newspaper there was an open letter to me from Mr Gary Hughes, a victim of the fires who lost his house. Mr Hughes wrote of his dismay at being asked to produce identification to receive his relief payment after he had registered with the Red Cross at the relief centre at Diamond Creek when all of his personal documents had been destroyed in the fire. Indeed Mr Hughes wrote a very moving account in the Australian on Monday of how he and his family had narrowly escaped death. What happened to Mr Hughes should not have happened. The government accept the criticism and we are doing everything we can to remove obstacles for people in claiming emergency relief. That is why Minister Macklin is currently in Victoria—to make sure these problems are fixed as quickly as possible and to ensure that Centrelink operates as flexibly as possible given the challenges we will face.

On the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, I would also update the House on the work that the Australian government is undertaking alongside the Victorian government through the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority. As I announced yesterday, the authority will be coordinating bushfire recovery activity across the state of Victoria. The Australian federal government and the Victorian government will share equally the costs of rebuilding communities affected by the fires. I repeat what I said yesterday to the House: the Australian government’s contribution to this reconstruction effort will be uncapped. The authority will coordinate the activities of all local, state and Commonwealth agencies and community organisations. Members will be aware that the authority will be headed by the outgoing Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon. The authority will determine what action is required, such as temporary government offices so residents can continue to access vital assistance from Centrelink and the Department of Human Services to temporary doctors clinics and pharmacies to ensure prescriptions are written and able to be filled and other essential services.

Our priority must be to make these towns become functioning centres of community life again as soon as is possible. They will need to make sure the power and water is reconnected and running properly so residents can return as quickly as is possible. Where homes have been destroyed, the authority can smooth the path for individuals and insurance companies helping to quickly process claims. Then we will move to the task of permanent rebuilding. Cutting through bureaucracy and getting the job done, the authority will direct and coordinate the teams of builders, tradespeople, engineers and other professionals who will rebuild the schools, libraries, community halls and recreational facilities—all the parts required to get these towns back on their feet for the long term; and for that to be done as soon as possible. We must also in the task of reconstruction learn from what has happened—with plans for a safer future.

I turn now to insurance. The Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, this morning spoke to senior insurance industry representatives from the Insurance Council of Australia in order to get a clear assessment of how insurance companies can expedite claims and provide assistance to the victims of the fires as soon as is possible. I understand from the Assistant Treasurer that he made it clear to the Insurance Council that the government expects insurers to act promptly and compassionately. People who have suffered a loss of property due to the bushfires should contact their insurer directly. Some insurers have put in place special arrangements to assist claims. Insurers are allowing lodging of home and motor insurance claims over the phone and providing up to $5,000 of emergency funds where required for food and clothing. I am advised that all insurers are putting claim staff and assessors on the ground as soon as is possible in order to access affected areas and to assist.

The Insurance Council of Australia and its members have also, I am advised, activated an insurance task force to coordinate assistance to those who have concerns or questions about their insurance claims. The Master Builders Association has also joined the task force and will be assisting with the supply of trades and supplies for the rebuilding effort.

I would say this to all members and through them to their constituents: if any person has problems with insurance companies, people who have been affected by this extraordinary disaster, I would like them to contact their local member of parliament and I would like their local member of parliament to contact directly the Assistant Treasurer so that we can deal with these problems.

The country at large has been extraordinary in its response to these natural disasters. The people of Australia have opened their hearts, they have opened their homes, they have opened their wallets and they have opened their lives to those who have been directly affected by these disasters. There is, of course, in some places in Australia understandable frustration about people wanting to give and not knowing how to give or where to give. The response we have been provided by the relevant authorities is that the overwhelming preference is for people if they wish to give to give in cash rather than in kind—cash to the registered national appeals, cash also to the relevant charities who are in the front line assisting with the immediate emergency task.

Dealing with the immediate challenges that I have referred to and that I referred to yesterday is of critical importance. Dealing with the longer term challenges presented by these bushfires, these natural disasters, must also be dealt with over time: challenges including long-term building codes, challenges including long-term planning laws, challenges including long-term vegetation management, challenges including the handling of power transmission systems—I noted carefully the contribution to the debate yesterday by the member for Mallee in this respect and I spoke to him again about it last night. There are long-term challenges of bushfire research, long-term challenges of the adequacy of our arson laws and many other challenges as well.

Our responsibility as members of this parliament is to learn from this extraordinary disaster and to act on what we learn. In this respect, both on these immediate challenges and on these longer term challenges, none of us in this place is the repository of all wisdom. Therefore it will be important to harness the ideas and the initiative of the entire community and all members of this place, be they government or opposition. Certainly in my discussion this morning with the Leader of the Opposition I extended to him a heartfelt invitation that if there are any ideas or proposals in dealing with these natural disasters of an immediate term nature or of a longer term nature then of course they should be made directly to the government. I have spoken to the Leader of the Opposition about mechanisms through which that can be done.

Finally, I pay personal tribute to the member for McEwen. She is quite an extraordinary woman and reinforced this again in a conversation I had with her this morning. She was feeling bad about the fact that she was not here with us all. My advice, and I am sure the Leader of the Opposition has concurred in the same advice to the member for McEwen, was that she is better placed where she is, with her people and her community. I say that because we all know in this place that it is her communities and her area which have suffered the worst in all of this. I also said to her, and I have reflected this also in conversation with the Leader of the Opposition earlier today, that when she does return to be among us, all members, government and opposition, look forward to her speaking to us and at length about the experiences that her community has just been through. I thank the House.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members—Hear, hear!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I thank the Prime Minister for his remarks and in particular thank the members for Gippsland and Indi for their very moving and compassionate speeches full of compassion and indeed full of common sense reflecting their very great insight into their communities, particularly in these very terrible times of fire. I also thank the members for Kennedy, Dawson and Herbert for their reports on the floods in North Queensland.

The Prime Minister and I were able to meet this morning, and I thank the Prime Minister for that opportunity. In these very troubled times Australians look to their leaders to work together in a common purpose. It is vital that wherever we can we aim to collaborate and work in a bipartisan way, because we do have a common purpose of putting these communities back on their feet. I say again, as I have said all week, we will support whatever it takes to put these communities back on their feet after this terrible tragedy.

In that spirit there are a number of practical measures that I have raised with the Prime Minister that I will raise now in the House because they are important issues that the House should consider, that the public should consider. We would propose that a special commissioner for disaster insurance should be appointed for a fixed term to oversee the response of insurers to the natural disasters both in Victoria and in North Queensland, to act as an advocate for those making claims and to act speedily on complaints from insured persons. The commissioner would report to the parliament and to the government quarterly. As we know, very often victims of bushfires have had to wait for a very long time to get their claims paid. We should do everything we can to ensure that the insurance industry responds quickly. I commend the Assistant Treasurer for his actions already, but nonetheless we believe a commissioner of this kind would add additional force and authority, and indeed impartiality, in this effort.

Equally, it is important to ensure that government contributions are directed to those in need and do not substitute for payments from insurers. In other words, government funds should not be directed in a manner that actually relieves the obligation of insurance companies; they should be directed to those in need.

The Prime Minister has established with the Premier of Victoria a joint Commonwealth and Victorian bushfire reconstruction authority, and we certainly commend him on doing that. That is, we understand, to supervise and coordinate reconstruction efforts. That should be a genuinely bipartisan effort, and it should include parliamentary representation. We would propose that the member for McEwen, the Hon. Fran Bailey—whose community, as the Prime Minister has just said, has been most gravely affected—should be appointed to that authority.

We also propose that a joint select committee should be established to review these tragic events in the Victorian bushfires, especially taking into account the findings of other recent inquiries into bushfires, including the report of the Nairn committee inquiry into the 2003 Canberra bushfires. We appreciate that the Victorian government has established a royal commission, and we welcome that. There will be great public interest in the identity of the commissioner or commissioners and, indeed, in the terms of reference, but we welcome the principle. But we all understand in this place that royal commissions can take several, often many, years before they reach a conclusion. There has been a great deal of work done on bushfires in the past. That should be reviewed again in the light of these events, and it should be reviewed by this parliament. This parliament should take action here. The royal commission should not be a mechanism that puts parliamentary action on hold for years and suspends public debate and parliamentary inquiry.

Those are a number of practical matters that I would encourage the Prime Minister and the government to take on board now. The Prime Minister and I discussed a number of other matters, which we will no doubt continue discussing and which will no doubt be the subject of debate or discussion here in this House on another occasion. I say in conclusion that the nation that we are privileged to represent in this parliament is totally united in its commitment to restore these communities and put them back on their feet, and we should resolve to work together in a bipartisan way, as Australians, in ensuring that justice is done to the victims of this dreadful tragedy.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The media coverage of the Victorian bushfires has been so extensive and, indeed, so graphic that I am confident every Australian has a proper and full appreciation of the level of carnage and tragedy those affected have faced over the course of the last few days. Yesterday I saw that carnage firsthand, yet what has happened in the towns just north of Melbourne remains, to me, incomprehensible.

But what is just as amazing is the strength and the resilience of those who have lost so much and the selfless sacrifices of those who are working so hard to help others. Of course, many of those lending assistance are themselves victims of those tragic bushfires. Yesterday I was able to talk with and thank many of them. Some were members of the SES, the CFA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army or the police force. Others were simply neighbours, families, friends or, as in one case I saw, directors of the local football club. Of course, what they are doing both individually and collectively is typical of Australians, and on that basis none of us should be surprised by their efforts, but one cannot help but be in awe of their strength, their courage and their selflessness, and I know the broader Australian community is with them and behind them.

The other group of dedicated Australians I was able to speak with yesterday were the men and women of the Australian Defence Force. In the immediate aftermath of last Saturday’s unbelievable bushfire events, the Prime Minister made it clear that the Australian Defence Force stands ready to do all it can for as long as is necessary to help those who have been affected by this tragedy. Consequently, the 460 defence personnel who make up the joint task force are doing excellent work in the most difficult of circumstances. As the Prime Minister noted, they are building containment lines and clearing blocked roads using heavy earth-moving equipment and chainsaws. They are pitching tents and providing beds and sleeping bags for the many homeless, and they are providing health care to both the injured and the unwell and counselling services to those who have been excessively traumatised. They are assisting the police in the search for survivors or, indeed, those who did not make it—surely the most challenging and confronting work of all. They are also providing water purification plants and other emergency equipment.

Our Air Force has been using surveillance aircraft to assist in the search and rescue effort and to assist in the assessment of damage to infrastructure. The RAAF’s C130 aircraft are ferrying experts into the region, including forensic experts from Western Australia, and 4 Combat Support Services Battalion is supporting the transport of military equipment and providing logistic support for all of our deployed elements. Four armoured personnel carriers fitted with communications and emergency evacuation capabilities are also assisting in the effort. In addition, Defence has deployed a range of advisers and coordinators to assist in the huge challenges faced by the various civil authorities.

All this activity is taking place under the command of Brigadier Michael Arnold. Brigadier Arnold is the commander of 4 Brigade, one of Army’s reserve formations. Their work stands as a reminder to all Australians that the role of the reserve forces in the Australian Defence Force is a really worthwhile, meaningful and critical one. Mainly drawn from 5/6 Battalion of the Royal Victorian Regiment, they are accountants, tradesmen, doctors, technicians and teachers who give freely of their time to be prepared by training, to assist their fellow Australians and to take care of Australia’s national interests when they are called upon to do so.

Today, on behalf of, I am sure, all members of the House, I want to thank Brigadier Arnold and all those in both the regular and reserve forces serving under him and indeed those serving above him. They are doing wonderful work in the most challenging of circumstances. I know from my visit yesterday, speaking with local people, that the local residents place a high value on the work they are doing and, of course, their very presence in the region.

I also want to thank all those employers who have willingly released their employees—not just those who employ reservists but also those who employ members of the SES, the Country Fire Authority and like organisations. As a former small business operator, I know what it is like to turn up for the beginning of the week with a full order book but to be down even one employee. It can be tough on those businesses, and I fully appreciate what they are doing. Yesterday I spoke to a number of people who have been released and on not one occasion did I detect any difficulty those employees were having with their employers—and I commend those employers.

Yesterday I saw the Australian Defence Force at its best, from the CDF, who is constantly on the phone to me giving me updates and forward planning operations, to those in our new Bungendore facility, running joint operations, and people like Lieutenant Colonel Cam Smith, who is commanding the engineers in the field, right through to the two young female medics I encountered just near Flowerdale—whom I suspect are only in their twenties—embedded with the 160 or so reservists who are undertaking that terrible search and rescue effort looking for life but more often confronting death. Again, I thank them for their service and their efforts.

Like those who have spoken before me, I again express my deepest personal sympathy to all those who have been affected by the bushfires. As Minister for Defence, I reaffirm the Prime Minister’s commitment to providing the joint task force with all the resources it needs for as long as it takes.

I am also very pleased that the ADF has also been able to lend significant assistance to the people of Queensland—those who have been so badly affected by those significant flooding events. As the member for Herbert has noted—although, unlike him, I cannot afford to be quite so parochial—RAAF’s Caribou aircraft and Army Black Hawk helicopters have delivered some 4,500 Army ration packs to those isolated and therefore unable to secure sustenance. Two Black Hawk helicopters from Army’s 5th Aviation Regiment transported 4,100 litres of fuel to assist the people of the Ingham region. Army personnel also used Unimog vehicles to evacuate people who were at risk as a result of flash-flooding around Cairns.

Defence stands ready to do all it is asked of in Queensland and, indeed, anywhere else around the country where people are facing adversity. Importantly, we take our tasking requests from the expert authorities on the ground—those who know where and when Defence can help most. Appropriately, their tasking priorities will always be related to efforts to sustain life. As with the people of Victoria, the government reaffirms its commitment to do all that is asked of it in terms of the ADF’s capabilities for the people of North Queensland, the people of Victoria and, as I said, any other Australian who finds themselves in a time of need anywhere in the country.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members—Hear, hear!

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a mark of the House’s continuing respect and support, I invite honourable members to rise in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank the House. In accordance with the resolution agreed to earlier, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate is made an order of the day for a later hour this day, and the matter stands referred to the Main Committee.