Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: it is hard to know what to make of the range of tragedies that have struck our nation in recent weeks. While we have witnessed the horror of Victoria’s bushfires in the south, with several hundred people and thousands of homes taken in the blink of an eye, in the north 62 per cent of Queensland is under water and the parts that are not under water are in drought.

I live in the seat of Fadden. It is the fastest growing electorate in the nation, as one would expect with it covering the Gold Coast. I live in the middle of the two great tempests of fire and flood that scourge our land. In my military days, I lived in the north and experienced the monsoon and all its volumes of water. We truly are a land of rugged mountain ranges, drought and flooding rains. Residents of the north prepare for the monsoon. It is part of their way of life. In military days gone by, I trained at Tully. Having parachuted into a swamp because of the metres and metres of rain—the deluge—that the place gets, I understand well how the north understands and prepares for this. But, every now and then, the heavens open up and there is a tempest and squalls greater than anyone would expect. The rivers rise, the creeks burst and the towns are flooded. And while the north prepares for the monsoon and the rains—part of the great charm of the area is that it is wet and that it has a significant wet period; that is part of what makes it a great tourism area—when the heavens explode in such a mighty way and the rivers run deep and wide and 60 per cent of Queensland floods, what becomes part of a way of life can quickly turn into horror.

My thoughts go to those communities in North Queensland and parts of north Australia, including the electorate of Kennedy, who are struggling in dreadfully wet conditions and who have been cut off for weeks and weeks on end. Only now are some roads beginning to open. Families have had no fresh food for many weeks, and there has been difficulty in providing them with services and amenities due the overwhelming volume of water. While the dam wall of the Burdekin is an impressive sight at flood, that impression fades when such a degree of water spills over and impacts our communities.

Like in the horrific bushfires of Victoria, there are some great heroes amongst the tragedy of this story. Those who have gone from house to house seeking to provide support need truck drivers, who are moving forward despite the deluge to provide food, clothing and essentials. There are emergency service personnel who are doing enormous hours to ensure that people are fine and well taken care of. It is fitting that we acknowledge the volume of water, the hardship and the fact that 62 per cent of the great state of Queensland is literally under water.

I will finish by looking at what Ecclesiastes says in the Bible, in chapter 3. When King Solomon was reflecting on his life and all that he went through, he said: ‘There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun. There is a time to be born, there is a time to plant, there is a time to weep and’—if I can paraphrase—’there will be a time to laugh. There is a time to mourn. There will be again a time to dance. It is now a time of scattering stones; there will be a time to gather them. It is a time to embrace. There will be a time to mend. There is a time to love. There is a time for peace. There is a time to heal.’ I think I can speak for all parliamentarians, as we look at what is happening with the floods in the north of Queensland, when I say: there will be a time to build and rebuild.

Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: I rise today to speak on the North Queensland floods. But I need to start, on indulgence, by talking about the bushfire victims briefly because they have impacted the whole of this country in a way I do not think we have seen in the past, because it is the worst natural disaster we have experienced in this country. I want to associate myself with the comments of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and other members and put on the record the deep sympathy that my community feels for the victims of the bushfires. I was talking to a man on the way down here on Sunday evening, and he said: ‘Give me cyclones and flooding rains any day compared to the bushfires and the scenes that we saw on television.’ The community in Cairns and the tropical Far North have opened their hearts and are donating money, and I congratulate those members of the local community who are doing that. I encourage others who have not yet done so to also open their hearts and make contributions to the bushfire appeals and also to the flood appeals.

My main focus here today, though, is to talk about the floods in Far North Queensland, in the gulf, because that is the area that I represent. Honourable members might not realise, but there have been two cyclones across the north this year. We had Cyclone Charlotte on 12 January, which came across the gulf between Kowanyama and Normanton with winds of between 120 and 130 kilometres an hour, and we had Cyclone Ellie, which crossed the coast around Mission Beach on 2 February. Neither of those brought great destructive winds to local communities, but they brought flooding rains—flooding rains that have endured since early January. Effectively, as the member for Kennedy eloquently outlined in the House the other day, communities in his electorate have been cut off for long, long periods of time—most of this year. Not only communities in the gulf but, since the second cyclone, also the communities that I represent in Cairns have been cut off for extended periods of time—more than a week. Luckily, just the other day we had the roads open and trucks are again able to roll through.

So there has been extensive flooding all across the north, and the statistics show that 62 per cent of the state has been declared a disaster zone. We have 36 council areas that have now been declared disasters. The damage bill will run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. And the risk of flooding is not over. As people in the north know and understand, February is our wettest month of the year, and we are yet to get halfway through it, so we face in the future the potential for greater flooding and more downpours.

In my own community, last Saturday night we had almost 200 millimetres of rainfall in less than an hour. I was driving home that evening from the Taipans basketball game, and it was quite amazing to have the windscreen wipers on full bore and to be flat out seeing the road in front of me. We drove very slowly, but driving in a dark night in heavy torrential rain while being able to see floodwaters poses great risks to people in my part of the world. These are some of the things that people up there put up with. They know that they need to respond to the weather appropriately.

Tragically, we have lost lives in this flood. We have lost at least four lives. I think that is from people being washed off floodways. There is still a man who is yet to be found who was washed away around Tully last weekend, a young child was taken up around the Daintree and others, sadly, have been washed down stormwater drains. So we need to be prepared to make sure that we can respond to the weather conditions that we face during these difficult times. The loss of life is nothing compared to the loss of life in Victoria but, for those families and those individuals who have been impacted, the loss of life is still tragic.

As I said, the Far North is being inundated with water. I was looking at the synoptic chart before coming in here. We now have a low sitting up around Bowen, and the monsoon trough is still positioned across Northern Australia. There is a real risk and threat that the floods will be back later this week, with the potential for the region again to be cut off.

Some of the things that obviously impact on people are houses being flooded and lives lost when people are washed away in floodwaters and the like. But one of the things that are often not seen is the impact on small businesses, whether they are farming businesses or small retailers. What happens when we have floods in the Far North is that the Bruce Highway gets cut. At Ingham it was cut for more than a week. In Cairns, the shelves on the supermarkets became empty. Coles and Woollies looked to bring goods in on barges and to fly goods in, but the shelves still became empty with the population base that we have up there. It is a major regional city. There were also farmers who could not get produce out. Pawpaws, mangoes, longans and other tropical fruits—they could not get them down south. Those farmers have a potential loss of income if that road stays closed for an extended period of time.

Luckily, the road has now opened up. We have had a convoy of trucks rolling in. But we need to continue to work to upgrade the Bruce Highway. It is something that I campaigned strongly for in the lead-up to my election, and I am pleased to say that we are getting on with building a new bridge over the Mulgrave River. The works at Tully have finished early, but we need to do more around Ingham and Burdekin. The government has a $2.2 billion commitment to upgrade the Bruce Highway and a $1.1 billion commitment to upgrade the Bruce Highway between Sarina and Cairns. We need to make sure that those works continue to flow. We need to invest in and upgrade areas like the Gairloch floodway. We need to make sure we continue to work on the areas around Ingham and Innisfail in the future because the economic impacts of road closure are huge and so are the social impacts. People need to come to Townsville at times for medical purposes. What happens when the road is cut is that people cannot get through for medical purposes either. So there is not only an economic impact; there are social and community impacts from having a road closed. But I am pleased to be part of a government that is committed to infrastructure investment and is working hard to upgrade the Bruce Highway.

The other thing we are in desperate need of in the Far North in Cairns is a new council disaster coordination centre. The centre as it is currently established on Anderson Street is in an area that can be flooded and that can be impacted by a tsunami, if one were to strike. We do need a new disaster centre in Cairns, in the Far North. The council has put in a submission to the new community fund established by the government last year and, as part of our stimulus package, we are hoping to add another $500 million to that. It would be a welcome commitment if delivered in my region. The centre would be an education or multipurpose centre, but in times of cyclones or other natural disasters it would act as the disaster coordination centre and the centre of relief coordination in Cairns, in the Far North.

I just want to speak very briefly about some of the other things that the government has done already to respond to the flood victims. We have made available Defence Force aircraft such as Black Hawks. The Treasurer was up there on the weekend assessing the situation and determining the support that we could provide. We have airlifted in aviation fuel and the military has provided fuel drops.

I spoke to the Prime Minister earlier in the week about the opportunity to use military aircraft to assist some of the farmers. I am pleased to report that he cut through the red tape. I had a commitment from him that if Emergency Management Queensland made a request to the federal government, he would look to make military aircraft available to do that. The roads are open, which is good news, but the use of these aircraft is something that we could possibly look to in the future.

Payments have been made available to individuals and families who have been affected by the floods. I understand that those payments are flowing but if there are individuals out there who are struggling or who are having problems with Centrelink, I encourage them to contact my office or the offices of the member for Herbert or the member for Kennedy. Part of our role is to ensure that support that should be getting through on the ground is getting through. If there is a hold-up in the cases of particular individuals with government departments or with Centrelink, who do a fantastic job generally, then by all means you should contact your local federal member. We have a bipartisan approach to responding to natural disasters. We have seen that in relation to the bushfires. We see it again in relation to the flood. I encourage anyone out there who is having trouble to contact their local federal member. We will work with them to help them out.

I want to put on the record again my deep admiration for the volunteers who work so hard, whether in the floods or in the bushfire ravaged areas. We need to thank them for the work they do. That includes the elected representatives, local councillors and others who work tirelessly to support their local communities. I also want to thank the government workers who may be getting paid but during these important times spend many hours of overtime that they can never recoup supporting these communities. I thank everyone from Emergency Management Queensland to the Department of Community Services to the Centrelink workers. I want to put on record again my strong belief that we will recover from these floods, as we have done in the past in North Queensland. It does take time.

I also want to express my deepest sympathies and sorrows for those in Victoria. From our experience, the recovery effort does take time. You can never forget disasters that you go through but, in the end, you can learn to live with them. Let us hope and pray for that outcome for those victims of the bushfires and the floods. These have been terrible tragedies for those individuals.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: prior to making a statement in relation to the floods in Queensland, I wish to express my condolences and those of my constituents and my family to all of the victims of the horrific fires that have occurred in Victoria. It is hard even to comprehend the tragedy and how this will affect communities for years to come. I have to say that I have admired the bipartisan support of this parliament and the way the Australian people have united to help their fellow Australians. I have admired the way this parliament has worked. It demonstrates that, when times are tough and we get these horrific events in Australia, we can work together for the betterment of our Australian communities.

I also want to thank the volunteers, the charitable organisations like the Red Cross, the churches, the military personnel, the doctors and nurses, the police and the emergency services. They must be witnessing things that are absolutely horrific. I admire the professional way that they go about their work and the expertise that they have. To all of those people, on behalf of the constituents of Maranoa, I extend our condolences and our deepest admiration for the work that they are doing.

I commend the bipartisan approach that we have taken as a parliament to say, ‘Whatever we have to do to help these communities and these families recover, we will do.’

Dorothea MacKellar’s My Country poem has been spoken of with respect to the firestorms in Victoria, the droughts in many parts of Australia still ravaging communities and the floods in Queensland. The floods affect the western part of my electorate of Maranoa, and that is what I want to talk about today. These floods have cut off communities for three to four weeks already and will for many weeks to come, because as we speak there is even more rain falling into the headwaters of the Diamantina, the Georgina and the Thomson rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin. The member for Mayo just said to me, ‘Can you send some water down to the Lower Lakes of the Murray?’ Unfortunately these rivers feed into the Lake Eyre Basin, and I am sure we are going to see Lake Eyre itself filled as a result of these floods. The Diamantina and the Georgina rivers have cut off the two communities of Birdsville and Bedourie for the last three weeks, and the water is still cutting off those communities from the outside world. I was talking to someone in the shire of the Diamantina only yesterday. She is new out there, having taken up a position in the Diamantina Shire. She said, ‘Well, we’ve been cut off for three weeks now and I don’t know whether I’ll ever get out of this place!’

We know that the floods in this part of Queensland are enormously beneficial. One great benefit from these floods—apart from the tragedy of the loss of life, the loss of livestock and the loss of fences—across the gulf will be the water that will replenish our rivers and, importantly, the Great Artesian Basin. A lot of the water that is fed into our Great Artesian Basin enters in the rivers and streams of Northern Australia, across the gulf. A moment ago I mentioned the loss. We talk about the loss of life and the loss of property, but there has been an enormous loss of cattle in the gulf and down through the Georgina and Diamantina rivers areas. I was talking to pastoralists there, and they said there was certainly going to be some loss of cattle. I have photographs in my office of cattle wading through water. Whether they can get out of the water is debatable. When floods occur out there, they nearly always have a chance to move them out into the sand dunes and into some of the high country. Some of this rain fell just so rapidly and with such intensity they have been unable to get out and move them in time. They have been able to get out in helicopters and see what is going on. They confront these sorts of floods from time to time.

To give you some idea of the enormity of the water that is coming down the Georgina and the Diamantina into Eyre Creek, I will say this. I was talking to David Brook from Birdsville. He had just flown up from Adelaide. An interesting contrast was that they were flying up in their light plane from Adelaide and they had to stop flying because of dust storms. They could not see and they were flying visual, so they had to land and they went on the next day. Some of this water that is going into the Diamantina and the Georgina will end up in the Goyder Lagoon, which is in South Australia. That is filling now. He said that Goyder Lagoon to Birdsville is about 150 kilometres on the old Birdsville Track and that 100 kilometres of that track is under water. If you look west from there, there is another 100-odd kilometres of water. There is a similar situation to the east and to the north, right up to Bedourie. There is almost a sea of water out there. It is filling clay pans and lakes that have been dry for years, but it is going to have a long-term beneficial effect for the community.

I want to touch on another issue, and that is services to those communities. These communities had an air service that had been subsidised by the Queensland government, and I commend the Queensland government and the Queensland minister on that. The service was provided by MacAir. They had been having financial difficulty for some time, and in the middle of all this they went into voluntary administration. That left these communities without any connection to the outside world, and the only connection was by air.

The Queensland government put in place a replacement for that service in the form of Skytrans but there was some suggestion that, until they were actually registered with CASA and their pilots had had licences approved, those communities may be totally without any service. It did cause some concern for me last week. I want to thank the office of the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. They moved absolutely heaven and earth to make sure that the bureaucracy of CASA did not stand in the way of what had to be done. The staff were absolutely outstanding and I want to thank them for that. Within two days those licences were approved for some 26 services in Queensland, including across the gulf and out of Cairns and Townsville. These are services that are providing mail, food and medical supplies into the communities and also moving passengers. These services are the only way that those communities can get any of those services in. So I just want to thank the minister for that.

I would like to conclude by saying that as these floodwaters recede, as they inevitably will, during the course of the year it is going to leave across Northern Australia an enormous body of grass that will eventually dry off. As it dries off, it too will present an enormous fire risk in the future. So from the flooding rains to drought and the potential for fire to follow, this is part of what nature gives us from time to time. I know that my time is nearly up and that the member for Moreton would like to say a few words. I will allow him a couple of moments if that is what he would like.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am fairly flexible so if there are more things you need to put on the record then please go ahead.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In conclusion then, let me just say that the outback of my electorate, the Diamantina shire, certainly wants to thank the minister for transport for his support in getting those air services back in place so quickly. I know that this will present enormous opportunities for outback tourism as the floodwaters recede this winter. It is out there that the pelican builds its nest, and we will have huge numbers of pelicans and other bird life out there. If people want to do something to help these economies as the winter comes on this year then I can recommend a visit to the outback to see the wonders of nature—the positive side, the beautiful parts of nature. Once again on behalf of my constituents I convey our deepest heartfelt condolences, our thoughts and our prayers to all those victims of the fires. I know the financial support flowing from so many Australians and this parliament as well will help them.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: I rise to support the remarks of the Treasurer regarding the devastating floods in Queensland’s north and north-west. I commend the contributions of the member for Maranoa and the member for Leichhardt. Whilst in Victoria fire has unleashed our nation’s most horrific tragedy, in North Queensland it is nature’s fury of another kind that we are seeing. I was particularly taken with a photograph from the Australian on Thursday, February 5, showing the Queensland Deputy Premier Paul Lucas surveying the damage in Ingham with a ‘road subject to flooding’ sign just about underwater and the street sign just about underwater as well.

The floods first came about almost a fortnight ago in the wake of ex-tropical Cyclone Ellie. More than 60 per cent of the state of Queensland, or one million square kilometres, has been flooded—with more than 3,000 houses affected in the town of Ingham alone, where water peaked at 12 metres. Thankfully the floodwaters have begun to recede over the last few days. However more heavy rains are forecast. In fact just before coming up to the Main Committee I spoke to my sister-in-law Diane Black in Innisfail and she said that it is about to come down again there. If this does eventuate, North and Far North Queensland may be facing rising floodwaters all over again. The Queensland government has estimated flood damage to be in the order of hundreds of millions of dollars. Of course mere dollar values will never give us a real sense of the disaster, and obviously with lives having been lost these are very difficult times indeed.

The ongoing flood situation has left many temporarily displaced from their homes, the Bruce Highway closed and many cut off from food and supplies. The flood has also brought with it the risk of disease and mosquito-borne viruses. The true damage will not be known until the floodwaters recede in places like Ingham and residents can begin to take stock.

North Queensland is no stranger to disaster. My wife is a North Queensland girl and most of my in-laws live up there. North Queenslanders have a particular resolve and courage to overcome what Mother Nature throws at them. We will never forget the impact of Cyclone Larry almost three years ago. Back on the morning of 20 March 2006, my in-laws in Innisfail, Dianne and Jeffrey Black, woke to find homes and businesses destroyed, crops flattened and livelihoods left in ruins by the category 4 cyclone. But that was not the end of the story. The community picked themselves up, dusted off and embarked on the biggest relief, recovery and reconstruction effort ever mounted in Queensland’s history. The Queensland government spent at least $300 million rebuilding the community, and local councils and the federal government and the public all pitched in to help.

North Queenslanders have endured before and they will do it again. It is in that same spirit of mateship and community that they will come together, clean up, repair and get back on their feet again when the water eventually flows away. I particularly want to acknowledge the hard work of emergency services personnel and those saints, the SES volunteers. These are special, courageous workers who have braved the floodwaters to rescue people caught in floodwaters and to help evacuate stranded communities.

I also want to commend the Queensland government’s response. Led by Premier Anna Bligh, Deputy Premier Paul Lucas, Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts and Treasurer Andrew Fraser the Queensland government has been working with the Red Cross to evacuate residents and get essential foodstuffs and medical supplies into flood affected areas.

The Rudd government have also stepped up to support those affected by the floods. Through our Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, the Queensland government receives funding to provide grants for food, clothing, accommodation, emergency housing repairs and for expenditure on public infrastructure restoration. We are also making disaster recovery payments available to residents in Ingham who have been seriously injured or who have had their homes flooded. These are one-off, lump-sum payments of $1,000 for adults and $400 for each child to help support their recovery in the short term. These payments are available through Centrelink to eligible recipients and are intended to help people purchase the necessities they need to survive in the days following these horrible floods. We must remember that many have lost everything. The Australian Defence Force have also pitched in. They have helped deliver more than 4,500 ration packs directly to Ingham residents.

I know, as we reflect on the disasters before us, many Australians are shaking their heads, asking not only, ‘How could this happen?’ but also, ‘How can we help?’. One way we can help is to dig deep and make a donation to help flood victims. Anyone can do this through the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal Fund at any of the big banks, including the Commonwealth, Westpac, NAB, ANZ, Suncorp-Metway and the Bank of Queensland or by calling 1800173349. I understand that all donations are tax-deductible and distribution of the funds will be undertaken by the Red Cross.

When the floodwaters finally retreat, North Queensland residents will face a long and painful clean-up. Our thoughts and prayers are with them all. I know that families, friends and neighbours will help each other out. The government will help out where it can and North Queensland’s flood ravaged communities will get back on their feet.

Debate (on motion by Ms Grierson) adjourned.