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

I rise to support the remarks of the Prime Minister and other speakers yesterday regarding the floods which devastated Brisbane, Ipswich and much of Central and South-East Queensland in January. I had the opportunity to go to St George in your electorate, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, and see some of the preparations and the highest waters that I had ever seen in my lifetime out there. Unfortunately, it is almost two years to the day that I rose in this place to express my condolences for North Queensland after the floods that came on the tail of ex-tropical cyclone Ellie back in January 2009. I had no idea then that I would be making another condolence speech so soon about our devastating Queensland floods. Especially having just emerged from a prolonged drought, I certainly did not think there would be floods in South-East Queensland.

Even after spending weeks over Christmas and New Year’s indoors trying to keep the young children amused while the rain stayed and stayed with monotonous intensity, most Queenslanders had no idea what was about to unfold. However, in the days before the Brisbane floods many people like my constituent, Chelmer 96-year-old George McLachlan, did have a sense of what was to come. Why? Because he had seen it all before back in 1974 and knew that Brisbane was in the firing line again. On 10 January an already sodden Toowoomba received more than 150 millimetres of rain, causing flash flooding which turned gutters into raging torrents, washing away anything and everything in its path. As we all know, the other half of this flash flood surged down the range, turning the up-lane into a river and, like an inland tsunami, engulfing Murphys Creek, Grantham and Helidon without warning. I think of the friends and families who lost loved ones on that horrible day. We will not forget your heartache and your loss.

It was then that all of us in South-East Queensland began to realise that this Lockyer Valley water had to go somewhere and was headed for the catchments of the Brisbane and Bremer rivers. In Brisbane we have a unique relationship with our river. It twists and turns its way through the suburbs and the city. It is a source of life, a means of transport, a recreation hub and my northern electoral boundary. Rather than enforcing a divide between the north and the south, the Brisbane River is spanned by many bridges that link our communities, our suburbs and our neighbourhoods. So when the river broke its banks on Tuesday, 11 January it seemed that our beautiful, trusted, languid river had turned on us. The floods destroyed homes. They inundated businesses, smashed public infrastructure and washed away memories. They broke hearts, destroyed lives and almost—almost—broke our spirit. I will return to that notion at the end of my speech. Affected families sheltered with friends and family or in evacuation centres. I am proud to say that all of my flood evacuation centres were in Building the Education Revolution funded halls at Yeronga State School and St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School in Corinda—even a lot of the community meetings such as at the Oxley State School were in their new BER halls. Some of these halls have not even been opened.

When the floodwaters finally began to recede, residents were left with the heartbreak of returning to their homes and businesses and steeling themselves to begin the clean-up. What they found is almost impossible to describe unless you have been there. There was one foot of sludge throughout their homes—sludge that was an olfactory assault. It is as high as a dingo’s howl. The walls are in tatters. Mud is everywhere and has to be cleaned out of the crevices. Appliances and furniture are destroyed and floated down the river. Photographs and memories washed away. In my electorate of Moreton at least 5,200 properties were impacted: 4,200 homes and about 1,000 businesses. Some of those, unfortunately, were very big employers. In Rocklea the Brisbane Markets alone employs about 3,000 people and has connections to growers and producers all around Australia. My suburbs of Chelmer, Graceville, Sherwood, Corinda, Tennyson, Oxley, Yeronga, Rocklea, Fairfield, Moorooka, Coopers Plains, Yeerongpilly, Acacia Ridge and Archerfield were all hit hard. Some were hit incredibly hard with up to four metres of water through some houses.

I saw some of my constituents salvage what they could, but many lost everything. And I mean everything. They are people like Maureen Machin of Rocklea. Maureen spent a week at the QEII stadium evacuation centre in Nathan in my electorate after floodwaters engulfed her home. She fled the rapidly-rising waters with only the shirt on her back as her home was completely submerged. Thankfully, Maureen received the disaster relief payment from the government to help her begin to get back on her feet. She used that emergency payment to buy medication for her sick dog, to buy some food and some clothes, to top up her mobile phone and to put some fuel in the car. As Maureen says, ‘Your needs become very basic when you’ve lost everything.’ Some of my constituents are uninsured. Others are at the mercy of the insurers, waiting on assessments and praying for a favourable return on their policy. That is a cruel tension that you would not wish on your worst enemy. Most people are anxious to rebuild, to recover and to return to some sense of normality.

When a Queenslander is down there is always another Queenslander who will bend down to pick them up. Other Australians and even people from all around the world did the same thing. They put their hands in their pockets to help us, and I thank them for it. Australians did it previously after Cyclone Larry and the Victorian fires, and we are sticking together now to help our neighbours back on their feet following this disaster.

In another life when I was a history teacher, there was a grade 8 textbook that I used that had the following quote attributed to Socrates by Plato:

Our youths love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority—they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food, and tyrannize teachers.

When I first started utilising that quote I was a 20-year-old teacher. I thought I was young and hip and would always laugh about that quote and say, ‘Isn’t it amazing how old people always complain about young people?’ Now I am slipping into grumpy old man status and I well hear some of those comments at my RSLs—‘Oh, the young people of today’—and at the Lions and Rotary clubs. They are saying young people are not joining the service clubs and are not good members of the community. They say they are sitting at home playing Xbox and doing all those things that generations X and Y do. But come the floods, didn’t they prove us wrong. They were magnificent. They turned out in incredible numbers. Thank goodness for those social networks like Facebook and Twitter, because they got the message out quicker than any politician ever could have. I reckon generations X and Y turned out in numbers two-to-one in my electorate to clean up the houses of strangers. It is unfortunate that it took something like a flood to prove to me that with our next generation we are in a good pair of hands, because they were fantastic.

There were also other volunteers who turned out and were not so young. I want to acknowledge the hard work of all of the volunteers, particularly the emergency service personnel and SES volunteers. I would especially like to thank the Queensland Police Service, which also did great work in my electorate. I particularly thank Commissioner Bob Atkinson for his inspirational leadership and calmness throughout a very stressful time.

There are many special, courageous people who put their own lives at risk to rescue people caught in floodwaters and helped evacuate stranded communities. I particularly commend the Queensland government’s response, led by the Premier, Anna Bligh—her electorate is in mine—and the Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services, Neil Roberts. The Queensland government ensured that we knew what was coming and how to prepare. They coordinated evacuation centres and ensured essential services were returned as quickly as possible. Premier Bligh showed why she was elected Queensland’s first female Premier and ensured that everything possible was being done to keep Queenslanders safe. I also thank the Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman, and my local councillors and state MPs, especially the ‘King of Oxley’, Councillor Milton Dick.

Now we face the incredible task of rebuilding. It will be a long and bumpy road ahead—and a little bit of a smelly road because there is still a lot of mud around in parts of my electorate. The federal government will make available $5.6 billion to help fund this incredible task. It will take years, but we will rebuild.

I know that Mr Speaker Jenkins paraphrased a Chumbawamba song at the start of this parliament with the line, ‘We get knocked down but we’ll get up again.’ And Premier Bligh used the same line. I think that song is from the nineties and, as I stopped listening to new music in the eighties, I am going to quote from a different song. I am particularly going to quote the song on behalf of someone called Ethel Henders, who lives near the end of my street. The water did not affect my house, but at the end of my street is John Bright Street in Moorooka. I went to inspect Ethel Henders’s house. She is 74 years old and the Oxley Creek went through her place in 1974. The difference was that in 1974 the water came down the creek into her home through her backdoor; this time it came through her front door because it was the Brisbane River basically flowing uphill into her house. Ethel’s home was stripped bare; everything was gone. Ethel, at 74, is not as young as she once was. She does not have young kids, an insurance policy and the enthusiasm to rebuild, which takes that incredible Queensland spirit that we have talked about. This song is for people like Ethel and many others that may be finding it a bit tough to get up each day. For all the Ethel Henders out there I chose this song, which is from 1986, by Peter Gabriel and I think Kate Bush did the haunting backup vocals. The song is called Don’t Give Up and my particular quote for Ethel is:

Don’t give up

‘cos you have friends

Don’t give up

You’re not beaten yet

Don’t give up

I know you can make it good

… … …

Rest your head

You worry too much

It’s going to be alright

When times get rough

You can fall back on us

Don’t give up

Please don’t give up—

For Ethel and all the people who have had the flood damage to their homes, stay strong.

Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support the remarks made by the member for Moreton and many others who have spoken on this condolence motion for the victims of natural disasters. Today is a time to reflect on the great destruction and loss caused to families, businesses and community groups within my electorate of Brisbane by the recent floods. I highlight the resilience and the goodwill displayed by the community during the crisis which brought that strength and that hope to so many people who were affected. A deep sense of sadness overcomes me and many Australians for the tragic loss of 23 lives. For their families, the loss cannot be measured in any words and that pain will be felt for many years to come.

On Tuesday, 11 January that water knew no boundaries and it inundated homes, schools, retail shops, restaurants, printing businesses and car repair shops alike. The hardest hit areas in my electorate included Albion, Bowen Hills, the CBD, Fortitude Valley, Milton, New Farm, Newstead, Rosalie and Tenerife, all of them wonderful areas through which the magnificent Brisbane River meanders. The river, which is enjoyed by many, decided to be an angry river on that particular day.

I have visited many businesses and homes in the affected areas to assist and talk to people whose lives were absolutely shattered and devastated by these floods. Many families—and the member for Moreton spoke of a case in his electorate—will probably never rebuild and some businesses will not reopen. My heart goes out to all of those members of our community during their time of need. In many cases, though, no help can be offered for a building which now needs to be demolished. But I found just showing up and talking to people was somehow a much appreciated gift and a very small gift that I could provide. The deeds that I witnessed and the stories that I heard as I walked around the electorate have embodied the true meaning of that wonderful community spirit, and I am really honoured to have had the privilege to work alongside my constituents as we re-establish a normal life.

Before the flood peaked, strangers helped strangers to move precious belongings to higher ground and to sandbag buildings. Within my electorate, Riverside Industrial Sands at Newstead opened up their doors and donated all of their sand, allowing residents to fill up their bags and to protect their property. I was there with my husband assisting many of the residents in that particular area and I was overcome by the number of elderly people trying to fill sandbags. I think an area that we need to look at in future when we plan for these events is flood assistance before the event. I commend them for their wonderful generosity. Strangers volunteered to do the backbreaking work of filling those sandbags for many of the residents. An Italian mother living in Albion noticed local businesses that were sandbagging and decided to deliver trays and trays of lasagne and salad to help complete strangers who could do with a break and some food. I have to tell you there were no strings attached to these acts. The woman announced, as she entered this magnificent wine wholesaler with the wonderful fragrant offering as I was visiting, that she did not even drink wine. There were incredible acts like that.

During the crisis, I volunteered at the evacuation centre at the RNA Showgrounds, serving food to those who were seeking refuge and assisting in the coordination of storeroom deliveries. I have to say that the generous nature of Brisbane businesses involved in the food business just overwhelmed me. We were running out of room in coldrooms to put milk, meat and dairy products, and it just kept coming. The flood did not discriminate within the centre, and it was filled with young families, couples—including older couples—and many students, particularly Chinese students who were studying in Brisbane; it was good to see the consul general of China, Mr Ren Gongping, at the centre offering assistance to many of the Chinese students who found themselves stranded in our great city. There were a number of visitors, and they were evacuated at the centre as well as Australians seeking shelter from the oncoming water. I want to pay tribute to the Salvation Army; to the RNA for generously providing those wonderful air-conditioned facilities; to the Red Cross; to Micah; to Lifeline; and to all of the agencies that helped in the evacuation centres.

Once the water receded, thousands of people rolled onto the streets to sweep away mud, to clean up rubbish and to dump rubbish in trucks. They were affectionately called in Brisbane the ‘mud army’. They worked in mateship, side by side. They were complete strangers; they were celebrities; they were young—the member for Moreton mentioned the young particularly, and I also want to commend how many young people I saw out there—and also they were old. They cleaned houses in Brunswick Street; they cleaned houses in Welsby Street. They helped businesses in Rosalie; they helped businesses in Milton. Whole groups of businesses decided to deploy their staff to many suburbs, and I really want to thank the business community of Brisbane for lending a hand in those particular areas. People came from as far away as New South Wales. They loaded up their utes with tools, they drove into unknown affected streets and they simply asked if they could help.

The day after the water receded I found the ruin that lay before me in Rosalie absolutely gut wrenching and heart wrenching. As I felt the tears come down my cheek, I thought to myself, ‘I’m here to comfort others, and it looks like they’re going to have to comfort me.’ But as I came to the first house and put on a stoic act, there was a man who was assessing the damage to his house and was sweeping the front area of his driveway. I think he saw me wiping my tears at my point, and he said: ‘Look, love. You’re here; that’s all that counts.’ I must say it heartened and strengthened me. At Rosalie, where street after street was inundated, I came across members of the Brisbane Broncos and other sporting teams helping residents clean up and using that almighty muscle power to help the community and also support that community that supports them throughout the year. So I wish to thank them enormously.

My family was not immune to the tragedy, with the street where my family home is located flooding. Although we were lucky that the water flooded only the property and did not reach the house, we have neighbours who were not so lucky. There was devastation in the CBD. There were whole sections of buildings damaged—Riverside Centre; Riparian Plaza. At the Stamford Plaza Brisbane Hotel in Edward Street, staff could not get into the hotel for 10 days because of the floodwaters, and I think they probably will have to rethink where they place their administration and central services in the future. In places like Eagle Street Pier, it was absolutely devastating to see a well-known seafood restaurant, Jellyfish, that had refitted at a cost of $2½ million now having to look at another refit of the same amount. I also talked to many restaurateurs, such as at Il Centro, who were affected by the floods.

I visited the Rocklea markets on the invitation of many of my constituents who are wholesalers there and who have wholesale sections. The losses there are estimated at $250 million, and it was heartbreaking. Many of those wholesalers are families, and the losses there cannot be measured. They will have significant work to rebuild the Rocklea markets. There is reduced capacity at the moment, utilising generators. They have limited coldroom capability, but they are back in business and their produce is starting to fill our shelves. I hope that we will continue to use local produce and not rely on imported goods. I am encouraging all residents and all Australians to buy local produce and to support local farmers and also to support some of those local businesses that have been devastated by the floods. We all need to buy local to build on that recovery process.

I am also saddened to see that Australia Post has announced that the Milton outlet, which was damaged by the flood, will not be reopened and that services will be moved. Following the closure of the Ashgrove outlet, this is a very disappointing cut to the community’s essential services. I have written to Minister Conroy. I think the decision is short-sighted, and I will continue to work with Australia Post and the minister to find a solution. But, sadly, as yet we have had no response from the minister’s office. I will continue to fight for those local residents in Milton who have already been devastated by the flood. This is a double whammy, and it will cause severe financial and time imposts on many constituents and many businesses.

I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the calls of support that I received from members opposite over the past few weeks. I want to thank Minister Tanya Plibersek for her calls. I want to also thank Minister Bill Shorten. During our discussions I suggested to Minister Plibersek that she locate, particularly, the community outreach in shopping centres, strip shopping centres and evacuation centres; I said that that would greatly assist my community of Brisbane. I am pleased to see that she did that; she took my advice and provided that great service to residents and small business to access support.

During this time also Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, the state emergency services, the police and the volunteer services must be commended for the information, the rescues, the evacuations, the support and the care that they provided for all residents in South-East Queensland. I also want to place on the record today my special thanks to Mike Swanston from ENERGEX. Mike, your constant phone calls and my constant phone calls to you helped me enormously, particularly the power updates, so that I could service my community and the needs of my constituents.

Special mention must also be given to the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Campbell Newman, for the strong leadership of the city that he displayed during the crisis. The SMS alert system implemented by Campbell Newman, along with the coordination of relief workers and volunteers, helped get our great city back in business really quickly. I want to also acknowledge the wonderful help that was given to me by Councillor David McLachlan, Councillor Peter Matic and Councillor Geraldine Knapp.

I wish to thank the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, for his visits during this terrible time. He visited me on two occasions, he met with business owners at Rosalie and other areas and he also came to the evacuation centre. I thank him for his leadership and I thank him for his compassion. His visit comforted so many people in the Brisbane electorate.

The events of recent weeks have stressed that we do live in a country of very volatile conditions which span drought, bushfire, flood and cyclone. The federal government really needs to look at permanent vision and solutions. While there was a great effort after the flood, I think that we can do more in future to prepare. I think that much of the energy of volunteers can be used in the preparation before a flood. These are some ideas that I will put to my party in the days ahead.

Furthermore, there is absolutely no excuse for insurance companies, who now have access to updated flood maps which will have accurate flood lines, not to provide the correct information and the proper cover to their customers buying insurance. Reports recently that insurance companies have not made payments to policyholders while they investigate how the water flooded the property are absolutely criminal when you hear of the suffering that people are going through. I met with Suncorp Insurance representatives this week, following the floods, and they confirmed to me that they had already made claim payments and that all policy fees were calculated on risk. We discussed many of those risk factors. There is absolutely no excuse for other companies not to have flood cover and not to provide surety for their customers.

Our community was devastated by a flood only a few short weeks ago. Yet, by the sheer determination of friends, neighbours, family and strangers, we started the long journey to rebuild our homes, our businesses and our community. I was humbled and strengthened by their many acts of kindness and, at this time more than any other, I am absolutely proud to represent the people of Brisbane in this House.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise in this debate to support the condolence motion that is before us, and to offer my sincere condolences to those families who are grieving the loss of loved ones in the floods and natural disasters which have beset this country.

Over the summer, Australia experienced the biggest natural disaster in our history. It has claimed the lives of 35 people since 30 November and nine people are still missing in Queensland. I associate myself with the heartfelt, emotional and passionate response from the Prime Minister yesterday in this House in relation to that loss of lives and the circumstances that she related.

The loss, of course, does not just stop with the loss of lives. There has been huge loss of property, and in the loss of property is the loss of a big part of people’s lives. There has also been loss of stock, of crops and of businesses. In my role as minister for regional Australia, I have seen up close the enormity of the damage that this disaster has wreaked upon the nation. I have also been struck by the remarkable resilience that is out there in these communities. I have seen the strength of the Australian character and the great qualities of mateship and of pulling together. I have seen the great work of the Army, the police and the coordination—particularly in Queensland—by them. I have seen the work of the emergency services. What has also struck me is that whilst we mourn the loss of lives we also have to pay great tribute to the many lives saved by the efficiency, the professionalism, the dedication and the bravery under very adverse circumstances of those who are our emergency service workers, our defence forces and our police.

I also pay tribute to the people from the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Lifeline, St John’s Ambulance and all of the church groups who were responsible for running the evacuation centres and for identifying, registering and servicing the people who used them. I had the opportunity to visit them both in Brisbane and in Ipswich at the height of their occupancy and saw the fantastic work that was being done, the accolades from the people who were in them and the great professionalism and stoicism that those who worked in there showed. They are a wonderful group of people, and another dimension of the great coming together of the nation.

I also want to congratulate the thousands of volunteers that turned up for the clean-ups. I was in Brisbane on the day in which the first call for volunteers occurred. To see them lined up at the bus stops heading out with their buckets, shovels and brooms was, again, another demonstration. All of it has shown Australia at its best—working together and determining not to let adversity get the better of us.

I think that the motion that is before the House recognises the loss and it recognises that courage. But the other dimension that it recognises is the determination that we must commit to help rebuild—to rebuild the shattered communities, to rebuild shattered towns and ultimately to rebuild shattered lives. I think we all accept that this is going to take time, but I think we have to commit to reinforcing that same sense of cohesion, of working together and of pulling together. We need to see the same sense of cohesion that was there in the emergency, in the evacuation and in the clean-up reflected in the commitment to rebuild.

The effects of the floods have been felt in every state in Australia over the past three months. Obviously, Queensland has borne the brunt of it. Until last weekend it was said that 75 per cent of Queensland had been affected by the floods, but after Cyclone Yasi I think another 25 per cent of the state was hit. This is a massive impact on Queensland. But there has also been significant flooding in northern New South Wales and Victoria—it was the second time around for Victoria—particularly off the tail of Cyclone Yasi. There has been an impact in Tasmania and South Australia. And the great irony is that Western Australia, which still has not recovered from the drought and is experiencing bushfires at the moment, was not spared from the floods. I happened to be in the Gascoyne midwest region a day before the cyclone hit Carnarvon.

I have visited regions in most of the states that have been affected. I have gone to the towns of Gatton, Emerald, Bundaberg, Grafton, Maryborough, Cairns, Kerang and Wycheproof. I have inspected the damage. I have convened meetings of the mayors of those towns and I have also invited the surrounding towns because much of the impacted infrastructure connects the regions. In the context of trying to bring a sense of a strategic approach to it I have convened a meeting of the mayors and I have invited the regional development bodies from the regions to be there with us to understand the issues, to establish the connections and to identify the framework for building the input to the massive task of rebuilding.

I have also in all of those visits involved the local member where appropriate. I see that the member for Hinkler is in the House, and he was at one such meeting. I reiterate the words that I think the Leader of the Opposition said yesterday about the great work that local members have put into their communities and being with them. You yourself Mr Deputy Speaker were mentioned by the Leader of the Opposition yesterday. This is where we have to demonstrate our commitment to cohesion, putting politics aside and saying that together we are going to be there as part of the rebuild. I thank the members for that and I look forward to working with them and with the mayors. I have kept in touch not only with the mayors I have visited but also by phone with the mayors I have not yet been able to visit. I thanked them for their information about where things are at and I invited them to let me know if they need assistance in cutting through any of the red tape. More importantly, I said that we need honest assessments about the level of damage and we need their input to the process of the strategic rebuild.

Interestingly enough I visited the Lockyer Valley on 5 January and had a meeting with the mayors there. The member for Wright was with us, as was Shayne Neumann from our side of politics. The important thing that struck me then was the damage that had been done up until 5 January. Here was a community that was starting to get back on its feet and talking about what needed to be done, and then in the following week the deluge hit. It impacted on Toowoomba and it caused the most devastating damage of the lot in one single incident at Grantham, a valley that was hit again.

Last Friday I met with the mayors of Kerang, Swan Hill and Wycheproof and seven other mayors from the surrounding shires. The interesting thing about all of these Victorian towns is that they are now experiencing massive flooding after enduring 10 years of drought that had a huge impact upon them. The interesting thing in the discussion there was that even the farmers who have lost so much could see a positive in the flooding that had occurred. They spoke about how they are proposing to rebuild and they are looking to cooperate with us and they are, of course, seeking government assistance. They spoke of how the aquifers have been recharged and how they plan to build better and develop more productive farms.

Like so many others in this House who have visited, spoken and connected I believe we need to ensure that there is a commitment from this parliament to rebuild. Under the natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements, which are a partnership between the Commonwealth and the states, there is a requirement for the states to identify the extent of the disaster and notify accordingly, and then the formulas that have been negotiated in the past kick in. Under those arrangements we have seen immediate relief given. Hardship grants are available to individuals and families for their most basic needs. There are payments for homes that have been damaged or destroyed. There are grants to help small businesses and farmers to clean up. There are concessional interest loans to small businesses and farmers to help them get through the difficult times ahead.

It was interesting for me to reflect on this historically. It was my late father who as the then Treasurer in the 1970s negotiated one of the first cost-sharing arrangements with the states for dealing with disasters—and that underpinned the dollar for dollar for dollar formula—and when I was Minister For Primary Industries I negotiated, as part of the national drought policy at the time, a national policy for natural disasters. Indeed, it was that agreement that established the formulas and the conditions that underpin the current arrangements that were carried on by subsequent governments.

I also reflected on the fact that in the Hawke-Keating government we also had a flood mitigation policy program. Again, it was a shared arrangement, something that the Commonwealth had tended to stay away from, because it had taken the view, rightly, that planning was an issue for states and local governments. That it is, but it was also the case that if the argument had been that we should require them alone to pay not much would have happened. Many levees were built as a result of that program—levees in New South Wales, in particular. I particularly remember campaigning for the one in Lismore, a campaign we kept persisting with when we lost office in 1996. But when I was in Grafton, where there had been repair and improvement to the levee system after its last flood, I saw that this effectively saved the town. It copped massive flooding, but it saved the town.

It is important for us to understand, in the rebuilding exercise, the importance of looking again at these policy solutions and the way in which we commit the resources, because there is not much point—and this was reinforced in many of the discussions that I had—in simply replacing essential infrastructure if it is going to be vulnerable again. Before we get to the concept of betterment, I say we do need a strategic approach out of these calamities. I think that each state must prepare a flood recovery work plan that identifies the specific projects and their priority projects. It is important for that to happen. It must involve value for money. They must be projects that stack up. There is also a fundamental realisation that this rebuild is going to take time. It cannot be done overnight. There are going to be capacity constraints, quite apart from the fact that it is going to take some time to assess the damage. Even if you wanted to get into some of these places, the ground is so sodden that you cannot get works in there.

I remember, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, when you came to me before all of these floods with a delegation of members. You talked about the rains that had restricted the capacity of roads within your constituencies to get through. That problem has been worsened, but you know the problem better than most. Even if you had the will and the resources, physically it is simply not possible to do it overnight. So it does have to involve value for money. The commitment to recognise the time is also an issue that is accepted by the mayors with whom I have been speaking. It is also the case that to solve this issue and to get the strategy right it has to involve local input. The local input needs to be strategic across local government borders. The argument that it is their patch alone has gone out the door, from the discussions I have had. The fact that there have been groupings of mayors come together to talk about the things that are common to them—those things that have crossed the borders—is a great thing in itself, but it is a real opportunity to start breaking down some of these barriers, because they are only artificial; they are not the reality on the ground.

In that context, as I said earlier at these meetings to the RDAs, the regional development bodies, for the relevant areas—whose task it is to develop something of the strategic vision—the opportunity is there to do it. I want the local governments through the RDAs to give greater thought to how we adapt and prioritise commitments—not just to make the claim under the NDRRA payments but to see how it can be enhanced, to look at it creatively and differently, by focusing on the reprioritisation of other programs. It is a partnership that needs to involve all levels of government, but it also has to involve the private and the not-for-profit sectors.

The insurance sector is also important, and I too pay tribute to the work of the Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, in his constant discussions with the insurers. The insurance industry needs to understand, assess and factor in the enormous contribution that is being made by the Army and the volunteers in the clean-up effort. This has been a significant support for work that insurers might otherwise have had to expend upon and they do need to factor that in when they contribute to the clean-up. The role of the insurers goes even further. They need to work with us in identifying appropriate flood mitigation works to influence future planning and building codes.

The issue that I mentioned before has struck me most in my discussions—the importance of flood mitigation and flood-proofing. Again, I pose the question: what is the point of replacing vital infrastructure if it remains vulnerable? This is where the principle of betterment under the NDRRA needs to be carefully considered. A great example of a creative response to a previous flood is the opening of a new bridge at Einasleigh in the savannah country of Far North Queensland, a bridge that I opened on 20 January in the wet season. I think they said I am the only minister that has ever visited the gulf and savannah country in the wet season. I was there with the mayor, Warren Devlin, and many of the mayors from surrounding areas because it connected six shires. I was there with the member for Kennedy. It was an example of a flood-proofing response to a flood that occurred in 2009. They went beyond the NDRRA payments and looked to the Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program, RLCIP. We found a creative way to build a flood-proof bridge. Interestingly, when we were there to open it, the floodwaters were over the previous bridge. In other words, in another circumstance, the crossing would have been cut.

We have found a creative way towards betterment through existing programs, and that is the challenge that I have been putting out to local government and the RDAs: ‘Be creative in the ways in which you address this problem. Don’t just mail the claim under the NDRRA and look to Commonwealth programs; look to state programs, look to forward programs in local government. Let’s see if we can’t get a better approach.’ That lesson of the Einasleigh bridge, in my view, needs to be applied to the rebuild. There are other Commonwealth programs, there are other state programs and there are local government opportunities in terms of their forward commitments. That is an issue that creative thinking needs to be going into. In relation to betterment, we should be looking at this concept from the point of view of not only replacing government infrastructure but also how to encourage the private sector, small business and primary producers to embrace better flood mitigation practices. That is how we build more resilient, self-reliant communities in the future. That is the legacy we should be aiming for out of this tragedy.

I think there is another lesson out of this, and that is the need for better warning systems, the need to keep improving the warning systems. It has been shown that, where adequate warnings were given, the loss of life was either nonexistent or negligible. The big tragedy in Grantham and in Toowoomba was very costly in terms of lives, and essentially they had very little warning. In fact, when we were up in, I think, Bundaberg—the member for Hinkler nods—the advice that was given was not timely enough. They have accepted the flooding of the river in the past and been able to deal with it in a number of hours. Not getting that warning quickly enough was a significant factor in the loss. With the technology these days, it must be possible to localise the information better, to get on websites information that better identifies the pace of the rise of rivers and other information. As a nation we need to look at more effective ways to identify and disseminate that information. It is also the case that some of the areas were very effective in their evacuation and their contact of people in potential danger. We need to draw on those lessons and develop best-practice methods. We have to develop a national approach that educates on warning and evacuation techniques.

Today our purpose is very clear. We as a parliament reflect very sadly on the huge loss of life. We extend our sympathy to the victims, obviously, and their families. We must, as a legacy to them if nothing else, rise to the task of the rebuild. We owe them. And we owe it to all the people who have contributed in such a cohesive way to demonstrate that same cohesion as a national parliament, to rebuild the smashed communities and shattered lives. This House will have the opportunity in legislation coming before it later this week to have that tested very early. I hope it rises to the occasion. I look forward to working with many of the honourable members in this chamber whose communities who have been affected and playing a part in their rebuild and their futures.

Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to associate myself with the motion of the Prime Minister yesterday. I think, as it affected her, this issue affected all who have been in this parliament, especially those of us who have been on the ground in the flood, cyclone or fire areas. The people of Bundaberg have lived through something which has not been seen there for 69 years. Back in 1942 the Burnett River broke its banks. This time it did the same and it reached 7.95 metres, flooding homes, farms and businesses around Bundaberg.

The signs were there all along that Bundaberg and its outlying communities would be hit by the rising floodwaters, but in the lead-up to Christmas and the festive season it seemed that most people were unaware of the crisis that was about to hit them. Heavy rainfall in the catchment area in the weeks leading up to Christmas pushed the Paradise Dam to full capacity. The rain kept coming, and, after the cyclone event crossed the Queensland coast on Christmas morning, it became clear as the rain depression developed that there was going to be heavy rainfall in the catchment of the Burnett River.

By December 27, communities west and south of Bundaberg were bracing for flooding, and the next day floodwaters infiltrated Bundaberg’s near CBD areas. People were rescued from vehicles in the CBD area and we were warned to expect fast-rising waters and major flooding in the town area. When the Burnett peaked at 7.95 metres on December 29, around 200 homes and 120 businesses had been inundated and around 400 people had been evacuated—some of whom did not have a chance to rescue valuables or sentimental items.

Marine businesses on the banks of the river were swallowed up whole by the waters, houses were flooded so that only their roofs were visible and businesses and low-lying areas of the city were awash. Around the nation people watched as the ‘rum city’ succumbed to the river. Like local residents they were stunned that such insidious events could befall the city in such a short time. Bundaberg Regional Council and our local emergency services excelled themselves in warning residents, organising evacuations and preparing flood prone areas for the deluge. The respite centres that they set up and the marking of roadways to be closed was done very efficiently and expertly. But even the best laid plans can never outmanoeuvre a mass of water determined to reach the sea.

I would like to pay tribute to the district disaster management group led by Superintendent Rowan Bond and the local disaster management group led by David Batt. Our mayor was on holidays in London and was having trouble getting home, and David, who is a councillor and a policeman, deputised for her and did a marvellous job. I also acknowledge the district management officer, Mal Churchill, an ex police inspector; the council’s executive officer on the committee, John Clerke; the Red Cross; the CWA; and church welfare agencies. They certainly did a remarkable job.

On that point, the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts, who just finished his speech, made an interesting point about flood mitigation. Four or five years ago the then Bundaberg City Council, the precursor to the current regional council, sent out a flood report to every citizen in a low-lying area of the city. Let me say it was not popular. It was not popular with a lot of people. It was seen by some to be alarmist and others saw it as perhaps devaluing their properties. But let me tell you that the people who got those letters knew the truth of it when this flood descended, and a number of people in flood areas said to me how better prepared they were as a result of what the council did four or five years ago.

As the floodwaters slowly dropped over the following days, the astounding cost to the community was revealed. Commercial fishing businesses, seafood processors, Bundaberg slipways and marina facilities were destroyed by the rushing waters and masses of debris that were washed downstream. The city’s premier netball and cricket grounds were devastated, a state-of-the-art disability playground was inundated and businesses and low-lying parts of the CBD had metres of water through their premises. Only days later—this was another irony—the river peaked again. The catchment of the Burnett River goes north and south, and the southern branch of that, called Barambah Creek, which comes from the peanut-growing area of South Burnett, also had a mass of water which came down the Burnett. So we had a second peak, not quite as bad as the first, but still enough to inundate a number of those homes and businesses again.

There could be few things more dispiriting than helplessly watching your pride and joy go under water and knowing that it could happen again and again. It is a test of endurance and faith. It takes a special sort of resilience to come back and recover treasured memories and other hard-earned assets. Other parts of my electorate were also hit hard—roads cut and crops ruined. I went out with the minister and the state roads minister and looked at some of the roads. Some of the washouts would absolutely terrify you. Some of them were the width of the road, 10 or 12 feet across, and burrowed out down to perhaps another 10 feet deep. There were washouts of about three by four metres, which would be in the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair.

The financial aspects of the flood were simply devastating to our local economy with cane, horticulture, fishing and tourism industries all affected. Having spoken about those dreadful things, let me say something about the spirit of resilience that we saw in my electorate, similar to that in Brisbane where people just turned up and helped. Steve Cooper, who owns the home hardware store in Bundaberg, tells this great story. He went under. He lost $1.6 million worth of stock, as I understand it, and the flood went right through his place to at least two metres. He told me that 75 people came to help. Some were friends; some were passers-by. I said, ‘How did you know there were 75?’ He said, ‘Well, I got the Lions Club to come down and do a barbeque for them and they served 75 meals.’ So that gives you an idea of the generosity of some people.

In dollar terms, it looks like Bundaberg’s cane industry has lost around 2,000 hectares, worth about $30 million. In the Isis—that is the Childers area—it will be about $11 million. That is $41 million worth of cane from the district. At least $10 million has been stripped from the region’s horticulture sector—tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini, rockmelon, watermelon, pumpkin and sweet potatoes all damaged or destroyed.

One of the worst things about the flood is that, although cane on the undulating ground sometimes gets away with it, when you are on a river flat and the water is over your crop for a number of days, the crop rots. I know one case where two-thirds of a tomato crop went and I know that a lot of the cane that has survived will not have the same sugar content when we finally get it to the crush later in the year. The prolonged wet also means that replanting on some of these crops cannot be undertaken until you can get into the field.

On another note, the port of Bundaberg is very important for the export of sugar and molasses. So much silt was carried down the river that it closed the port. It is going to take six or seven weeks, when the dredges eventually get there, to get that port back to order. That means that all that sugar in those huge sugar sheds cannot be exported. That becomes another anxiety for farmers who are tied up with forward payments.

Four seafood processors were badly damaged. People in the river cannot get flood insurance. They can get through when there is a fresh in the river or a minor flood but when there is one of these one-in-75-year floods or one-in-100-year floods they are just devastated. I would like to talk about that shortly. The local marina was totally washed away, including the fuel facility for most of the trawlers on the east coast of Australia. That means that there will be quite a problem restoring the fishing industry in the area.

In all of these things, of course, the human dimension is the most important. We all have in our minds that image of Jordan Rice telling rescuers to take his little brother first. We have other images in our minds, especially of people being swept away in Grantham. Some of the devastation in Toowoomba, Grantham and, more recently as a result of the cyclones, in Cardwell and Tully would make your stomach churn. Whole streets were devastated. Houses were washed off their blocks. In some instances even modern houses were washed off their concrete foundations. I have never seen the like of it.

Those things are certainly important and we should focus on them but now I am going to become critical. I am not going to be critical in any partisan sense, although I suppose some things, in the end, sheet back to the state and federal governments. There are river industries like the fish processing works that service the trawlers that come in. In particular, ASP Holdings lost its big catwalk that goes down onto the river—$200,000 or $300,000 worth. Its fuel facility went under 1½ or two metres of water. That cannot be restored by a grant of $25,000 or even a loan of $250,000. If you have trawlers and pleasure craft you need a slipway. The slipway went under three times in that flooding incident. As I just said, the marina owned by Ray Foley was totally obliterated and the fuel facility—one of the busiest on the east coast of Australia for servicing trawlers—was washed downstream. When you take those types of industries together you see that the whole marine and fishing industries become vulnerable. That involves 120 full-time jobs and during the scallop season up to 275 women come in and work three, four or five hours a day shucking scallops. That is a supplement to their incomes.

I am saying to the government that what we have on offer is not enough. Those industries should be given a grant of about $100,000 and ready access to the $250,000 grants. In fact, those grants are not as good as the ones available after Cyclone Larry. In Cyclone Larry the limit was half a million dollars and you could get a grant equivalent to 25 per cent of your loan, to a maximum of $50,000. So when we say that we will do everything possible within our means to help and we do not do quite as much as we did after Cyclone Larry, only five years ago, then people become cynical.

As I said, the crops are sodden, waterlogged. I believe—and the minister alluded to this in his speech—that we should have replanting grants, with perhaps one-third coming from the state, one-third from the federal government and one-third from the grower, to get crops back in, be they cane crops, small crops or tree crops. The trouble with tree crops is that once their feet have been wet for a while—especially citrus, avocados, lychees and those sorts of things—you can lose part of your orchard very readily. In the case of citrus trees, if mud gets on the leaves the trees cannot breathe. The leaves die and drop off and the trees die. So I think cropping grants are necessary.

In places like Innisfail in special circumstances and with the agreement of the growers and the unions, I think the equivalent of the dole payment should be paid to the farmers to keep their existing workforce in place, with the farmer topping up the dole to a full salary level. I understand this has been tried before. In that way you keep the skilled labour on the farms, you give the worker a full salary rather than just a dole payment and you keep the expertise in the area. If there are no jobs and there is nothing to hold people then they drift off. For some of these agricultural industries having skilled people is almost the most important thing.

Let me talk about roads. Again I want to be critical. I know the government has to find somewhere the $5.6 billion for its program of restoration. Our position on the levy is well known. I would like to talk about the $1 billion worth of infrastructure. In Queensland, $325 million of that $1 billion worth of infrastructure is coming from roadworks and flood mitigation works—most of it along the Bruce Highway. For the life of me I cannot follow that, because the one systemic failure along the east coast flood area and cyclone area was the failure of the Bruce Highway. Yet we are taking $325 million plus a bit of flood mitigation away from that area. I would have thought that it was almost critical—absolutely essential—that that stay there.

In the member for Flynn’s electorate, close to my area, $65 million worth of that would have gone to works just north of Gin Gin. I hear that the member of Herbert has similar difficulties. As I have said, I am not saying these things to be partisan; I am saying that I do not feel that they correspond with logic. If the Bruce Highway goes under again later in this cyclone season or next year, we are going to have this game over and over again.

I want to talk about QR—Queensland Rail. Fruit and vegetable wholesalers came to see me and said: ‘Can you do something with QR? They will not give us trains to bring supplies up to Bundaberg and backload fruit and vegetables out.’ As well as being one of the biggest salad bowls in Australia and growing all of those crops I described before, Bundaberg also brings other small crops in and distributes them to places like Biggenden, Gayndah, Mundubbera, Eidsvold, Monto, Biloela, right up to Rockhampton, through that North Burnett-Central Queensland area. It is a great distribution point for fruit and vegetables, and you have to get the stuff into town.

I usually do not interfere in state matters, but I did in this instance. I rang up QR. The attitude was, ‘We prefer to service Bundaberg by truck.’ It is fair enough for short-haul stuff that the railways use trucks rather than trains in normal operational circumstances. But I said: ‘You say use trucks, but Gympie and Maryborough, south of Bundaberg, are both underwater. What trucks? No trucks are coming up and down the Bruce Highway.’ ‘Oh well, we might be able to do it,’ they told the fruit and vegetable wholesalers, ‘if you would guarantee us 40 wagons.’ In an emergency, why would you put a limit of 40 wagons on it? Anyway, neither of those things occurred. They could have occurred but then the rail went under for a short time. It reopened later and they did send a dry goods train to Bundaberg, but believe it or not they could not find any refrigerated wagons to take fruit and vegetables, which was part of the need of the exercise.

That is simply not good enough. It is a state facility. It seems they could not break out of their normal mindset to do it. I said to one guy: ‘How much worse has it got to get? There are people dying, there are roads closed, the Bruce Highway is not functioning. You’ve got the only train line into Bundaberg and you’re not going to shift anything.’ In fact, it got to the point where we had to have two RAAF Hercules bringing supplies into Bundaberg. The RAAF had to be used for a city of 55,000 people. I found that totally and utterly bewildering and I ask the state government and QR to have another look at this. Everyone else around Australia was responding to this great tragedy, and our local railway was still reading from the rule book. We have to be more flexible when these sorts of things happen.

Finally, I want to talk about flood mitigation. The Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, Simon Crean, has just spoken about this so I will not go over it all again, except to add one feature. In addition to those sorts of things like levies and adjustments to drainage, which are very important and proved to be so in Bundaberg in this recent flood, we have not really come to terms with removing housing from flood prone areas. The same houses go under over and over again. Some of them have been going under for 130 years. I just throw this possibility on the table: with bipartisan support make available for 25 years $25 million a year, or perhaps even $50 million a year—say it is $25 million a year for 25 years, that is $625 million and if it is $50 million a year over 25 years, it is about $1.25 billion; not big money on a year-to-year basis—to give councils the ability to do things like go to a street and say: ‘Look, if you’re prepared to put your houses up on stilts, higher blocks, you can get a grant of $50,000 or $100,000 toward that process. Or we will buy you out and turn that area into parkland. We’ll buy it at a commercial rate so you can shift to another area.’ If we did that in all of those flood prone areas in places like Ipswich and Bundaberg and Maryborough and Rockhampton, sure we will not get to all of them, but at least over 25 years you would be making an impact. We will get other storms like this and other cyclones and floods and people will be put at risk again and we will go through the clean-up of houses again. Let us make a start and when we get to a good year where there is a surplus then we could always add a few more million to the cake.

I would like to end on a positive note and thank all of those people who have worked so generously. I thank the ministers and the shadow ministers who came to Bundaberg, the Prime Minister, the Premier, the Hon. Simon Crean, both the state and federal leaders of the opposition and the shadow minister for agriculture. All of these people came and offered valuable assistance. What we must ensure is that, having moved on from the hand-on-the-heart ‘we are going to help you’ stuff, we start to act in a timely fashion.

In my closing comments let me be a little bit critical again. Twelve months ago we had a flood circumstance in Queensland and a number of shires and councils were declared. Bundaberg Regional Council, for example, was in for $13 million, with North Burnett $600,000 or $700,000. When this flood event hit 10½ months later none of those grants had been paid. We are still waiting for the flood payments from what is now close to 12 months ago—it was 10½ months ago when this flood circumstance hit. So it is important that we act in a timely fashion. If these councils are going to have to wait for another 12 months to get the net tranche of work, just imagine what the Bruce Highway and all of those other areas that have been flooded are going to be like. Already in parts of the Bruce Highway there are patches on top of patches. I am not exaggerating; that is not just some flippant comment. There is physically one lot of bitumen that has been laid to fix up a hole, breaking up with another lot of bitumen on top of that and sometimes a third lot on top of that. We have to rebuild these roads and rebuild them properly. I thank the House for its indulgence.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Hinkler and those other members who have contributed to this condolence motion to date and also those who are to do so after me. I think this debate certainly serves to demonstrate that politicians do not only exist in this place. We live in Bundaberg, we live in Ipswich, we live in Toowoomba and we live in Ballarat. These are our communities and they are directly affected by these terrible natural disasters that have occurred. These are our people who have been affected and these are our home towns. We feel very strongly about what has happened to them.

As the 2010 sitting year came to an end, I do not think any of us could have imagined the devastation that this country would face over the summer. In fact, people in the communities around Ballarat, which had been affected by floods in September, were actually looking forward to something of a better break through the holiday season to help them recover further. Many of them had just moved back into their homes, new carpet was laid, new kitchens were put in, the plaster was back up on the walls, and the gardens were restored, ready to celebrate Christmas after four months out of their homes.

Little did those people from places like Creswick and Clunes expect that by today—the day after the resumption of parliament for 2011—they would have experienced flooding not once more but in many cases twice more. Other areas like Skipton and Beaufort, just outside my electorate, were also seriously impacted by the summer floods. Areas including the city of Ballarat were also severely affected, as were suburbs such as Miners Rest, houses in Delacombe—again, the third time flooded in the course of four months—and the suburb of Alfredton.

Heartbreakingly, as I said, many of these families were flooded again over the weekend. Numerous houses and businesses were inundated, along with community facilities including two football and netball clubs, a senior citizens centre, a community swimming pool, bowling clubs, caravan parks, community halls and playgrounds.

Roads and other infrastructure have suffered severely. The shoulders of some sealed roads are frankly too dangerous now and the fast-flowing, high volume of water swept gravel from many of the unsealed surfaces. There is a great deal of scouring damage on sealed main roads and in and around culverts and bridges, including a number that will need to be entirely rebuilt. In many locations it is a serious mess and a serious danger to be driving on these roads.

I do think it is important that, while I am reflecting on what happened in my own electorate and while we understand just how devastating floods are anywhere, most importantly in this condolence motion our thoughts do turn to Queensland. I know that the people in my electorate would absolutely want their heartfelt wishes to go to the Queensland communities, particularly those where lives have been lost. We cannot even imagine the circumstances that those families in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley are facing today and will face for many, many years to come. We certainly recognise that and I think it is very important in this condolence motion that all members do so. I think Queensland has suffered a very severe blow and in raising the issues in Victoria I do not want to distract from that at all. The tragic loss of life is deeply harrowing and our thoughts go out to their families.

We have all been challenged to ponder how cruel the extremes of this great nation can sometimes be. But, thankfully, we have also had the privilege to witness the formidable resilience of our communities and the great generosity of people who have assisted on the ground and given freely to appeals for funding.

I want to again thank those organisations, including the SES, the CFA, the Red Cross, St John Ambulance, Victoria Police, service clubs, council staff and ADF personnel, and the many other kind-hearted locals who just got stuck in and helped whether it was before the floods in filling sandbags or after the floods in helping people to clean their homes and their businesses. That community support, I know, will continue. I experienced that generosity during a collection on Australia Day for our local flood relief. It is a heart-warming and reassuring experience to hear and see people wanting to share their experiences whether they be the people in Queensland or our own local community.

As a government and a nation we need to stand together to help flood affected communities rebuild their roads, their bridges, their rail lines and their public facilities. But most of all we need to help them rebuild their hearts. Many of the communities I represent are anxious each time it rains. They are angry and they want answers as to why the floods have occurred and what can be done to minimise the damage that has been done in those communities. There is a lot of work we need to do in those communities to achieve that. Whilst today is not the day to debate issues around how that gets paid for, I do think it is up to every one of us in this place to stand with our communities in the days, months and years ahead and to understand the great responsibility we bear both here in this place and as community leaders to make sure that the heart of these communities is rebuilt and that we do not damage them by the debate that ensues. Thank you.

Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today with other members in this place to pay my condolences and respects to those who have been so adversely impacted by these recent natural disasters right across Australia. Nature plays a very cruel hand indeed and there is nothing we mere mortals can do about it except be prepared. The loss of life in Queensland is a tragedy that we cannot overlook and all Australians are sympathetic and care for those who have lost loved ones.

The natural disasters that we have encountered and the fires that have been attributed to human hand are an aspect of life in Australia that is always shocking. The more severe the event and the further back in history that a similar event has occurred, the more shocking and disturbing it is. But we know full well that these tragedies have occurred in the past, and those that keep records and make a conversation as to the nature of those records will always be fascinated by the periods between events of a major nature and with disastrous outcomes. What we can do is be well prepared.

As I reflect on the response to these tragedies, I see that in Western Australia, for instance, we have the Fire and Emergency Services Authority, FESA, a government agency responsible for the training of volunteers, in the main, to cope with natural disasters of any nature. All I can say of their efforts and the efforts of equal bodies around Australia is that their performance has been extraordinary. The contribution made by ordinary Australians not part of those formalised voluntary groups has been exceptional. There is no doubt that when natural disaster strikes us in this wide brown land Australians come to the fore: they rally, they contribute and they make a difference. The difference they make is often dependent upon the nature and the veracity of the training and the skills learned in coping with natural disasters.

However, we must never forget that these are natural disasters. My recollection—not personal, I might add—is that 1851 was a very, very bad year in Queensland. This reminds us that we ought to reflect on history to guide us in our future actions. When we decide to create a settlement and select a location for our homestead, our farmhouse or our community, human nature is to go to water, in the most honourable sense of the phrase. We like to be, and historically we needed to be, near water. We had the house cow to keep on green feed for most of the year. We had our draught horses necessarily kept in good nick. We built our communities at the mouths of rivers to provide ports for sailing ships. We did all those very natural human things in the creation of communities, and we often looked to the immediate past only when deciding where to make our abode, where to create our industries and where to make our investments.

We now know through experience over hundreds of years that many of these locations were absolutely unsatisfactory, due to the danger of flood in particular. Lifestyle today dictates to so many people that they move to the wooded hills of our various cities and they, much to their regret, find that those areas are very prone to wildfires. In the worst of our summers, with the worst of our wind conditions, those locations can become death traps. History shows that there have been too many such tragedies in our short history. Of course, I think at this moment of the tragedy of loss of homes in Kelmscott in Western Australia, where 72 homes now are recorded as being lost to fire. It is so sad to reflect that that fire was in fact created by human error, a human accident. I feel for that individual who now has on his conscience the fact that his actions caused so much devastation.

When it comes to flood, our own actions and our being part of a community drive us to build in those very dangerous locations, and governments might try all manner of things to mitigate the impact on human lives by directing where future reconstruction is carried out. The member for Hinkler has brought to the attention of the House his views on that matter. It would be a glorious endeavour to relocate all dwellings away from areas that were severely flood damaged on a regular basis, but if one reflects on the circumstances in Toowoomba, no-one there could have reasonably expected to have their livelihoods, their homes or their lives lost to flood. What an incredible event that was. Located as they were in high country, albeit a caldera, the last thing they would have expected to happen was to be inundated with rushing floodwaters.

We have a lesson to learn from all of this, I believe, and that is that nature is a very powerful force, and she deals a very savage hand on a regular basis. If it is not happening in Australia, it is happening somewhere around the globe that natural disaster takes livelihood, if not lives. We, as those responsible for decision making federally today, need to look to the future and envisage circumstances where we are better prepared and we have policies in place that assist those who most need it, as opposed to having policies that support those who in certain circumstances do not need it.

Government has an onerous responsibility to make sure that genuine, effective financial support is in place for those who need it. Administrators of the departments of government need to look very carefully to circumstances of the past in view of bettering the circumstances in the future so taxpayer dollars are best and most effectively spent and we do not have circumstances where members of the population in a generally affected area are getting financial support where they knowingly do not deserve it but the parameters of the scheme provided by government allows them to do so. Taxpayer dollars should be highly valued by this government and only dispensed to those in need. They should not go to those who are not in need. We need to have policies that are rigorous and we need to effectively support those who are genuinely in need. This takes skill on the part of our administrators.

I will concentrate for a moment on my own electorate of Durack. Carnarvon, at the mouth of the Gascoyne River, is a local food bowl for the metropolitan Perth population. They were devastated before and during the Christmas-New Year’s break. I have said to them—tongue in cheek, of course—that they picked a hell of a time to have such a natural disaster. Effectively, they were quite overshadowed by the destruction and death on the eastern seaboard. Their circumstances—some 2,000 people, at most, affected and some 200 drastically affected—were personally just as severe as any suffered on the eastern seaboard. But we have a fascination with the latest and the most tragic natural event, and yesterday’s news becomes tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapper. The people of Carnarvon have a dire situation of rebuilding their homes and their plantations in order to get back into business to meet the winter planting deadlines. That involves replacing the very soil that these products are grown in. Those floods washed away thousands and thousands of tonnes of valuable growing topsoil. To its credit, the Western Australian government has put $3 million up for the replacement and laser levelling of those plantations. We only hope that that quantum of dollars is going to be sufficient to attend to the task.

Of course, every business that has been affected by this deluge is entitled to a payment of $25,000. When I reflected on the necessity for accuracy and rigour in the payment of taxpayer-dollar support for those affected, I had in mind the fact that it is necessary to create some parameters when it comes to the payment of this support. There are circumstances in Carnarvon under the Western Australian emergency relief program where this money was paid to an ABN where one owner with one ABN had four plantations and, therefore, was entitled to one payment of $25,000. In the same area we have share farmers, each with an ABN, working one plantation. There are cases of up to four farmers. That property will receive $100,000. It is those circumstances, which are administrative errors by way of design of the program, that have the most impact on the local population. They question the equity of the program. It is devised with the best intent in mind, but the outcome is impractical and, from one particular perspective, quite ridiculous and inadequate. So it is important that, when we set about devising the parameters of recovery programs and payments to those affected to cover the future, we do so with hindsight in mind and all of the mistakes of the past well in front of mind.

I should not harp too much on the negative, but it needs to be said. Specific to Carnarvon again is the circumstance of flood mitigation. For over a decade now there has been serious discussion of the design and construction of relatively simply engineered bunding to protect the majority of the plantations. That has not been put in place. The quotations for capital investment range from $50 million to $130 million. The best calculation for this single event is that it will cost taxpayers some $8 million. If you contemplate that this year alone the wet season is not yet over and inundation could occur again and if you think of the number of $8 millions in, for instance, $50 million, you realise that protection put in place that would reasonably last 100 years would be a damn fine investment and ought to be done. But human nature, once again, tends to look to the future and not reflect on the immediate past, so these mitigation programs are understandably lost when looking to the future. It is the immediacy of getting back into business and getting the infrastructure in place that takes front of mind, and the programs that would prevent such circumstances occurring again are overlooked until the next time. That is something that all of us, from us in this House down to the local grower, need to keep in mind. We need to take the action today to guarantee better protection in the future, and I, for one, will be very focused on that outcome.

It is a case of dollars always and unfortunately the bean counters of this world tend to rationalise investment. Carnarvon, with a total population of some 6,000, would probably have only 160 plantations that would be protected. But I remind people in this House and those listening that it really does not matter if the one who is adversely affected by a natural disaster is one of one or one of 100,000—the impact on that individual is just as debilitating, it is just a soul destroying, regardless of the total that they are a part of.

Bidgemia Station, in the Gasgoyne, is struggling through some of the worst continued drought in history. It is struggling to save the remnants of a breeding cattle herd. It had salvaged some 200 head to handfeed close to the homestead that had never been impacted by flood events in the past. It salvaged a mere 20 head of those cattle having spent months and capital investments in handfeeding. Bidgemia Station homestead has been inundated and infrastructure destroyed. Its very location at the bend of the Gascoyne River has been severely impacted. This has never happened before; Bidgemia has been there for well over 100 years.

We need to be reminded that nature plays a cruel hand and that, if we are associated with a natural water course, we must at some stage expect those torrents. They will have a devastating impact. We need to look carefully at where we rebuild in the future. I urge all that had any part in building and rebuilding this great nation of ours to have some consideration for the future, to develop good policies that will allow and prepare us for all manner of eventualities. When it comes to water, it is a very powerful force. We need to be a powerful force in dealing with the future when we are impacted again.

Once again, I give my thanks to every volunteer regardless of their degree of effort and to those that cared for others with true human compassion. I express my condolences, once again, for those that have suffered such great loss.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service and Integrity) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a solemn thing to speak on this condolence motion knowing as we do that over 100 people have died due to severe weather events during the course of this summer. The weather events that have severely affected Australia this summer have taken lives and damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure. In the past 2½ months, as I said, more than 100 people have died as a result of these severe weather conditions.

I feel for those families that have been affected by the severity of the floods and fires this summer and express my deepest sympathies and those of my constituents to those families mourning the death of loved ones. The extreme weather conditions have affected communities in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and my home state of Western Australia, where we had floods at Christmas and horrific fires this week. As the member for Durack reminded us, the fire in Perth’s south-east destroyed more than 70 homes on Monday and Tuesday this week. Queensland communities—Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley—are by magnitude the worst affected Australian communities.

People living in Carnarvon, the Gascoygne region and the south-eastern suburbs of Perth have been severely affected by flooding and fires too. Over the Christmas period, Carnarvon experienced some of the worst flooding in 50 years. In the second week of January, the Gascoygne River again reached peak—two floods in three weeks. Carnarvon is a coastal community located at the mouth of the Gascoyne River some 900 kilometres north of Perth. As the member for Durack said, it is a small community of some 6,000 residents. In addition to its mining, tourism and fishing industries, Carnarvon is a centre of horticultural production in WA. Its plantations grow and produce on average $90 million worth of produce per year—that is 60 per cent of Perth’s winter vegetables.

In the week before Christmas, the people of Carnarvon were preparing for and then experiencing the impact of a monsoonal low that delivered heavy rainfall in the Gascoyne River catchment. This was the very same low that passed over Christmas Island days earlier, contributing to the sea conditions that took the lives of up to 50 people on 15 December, when SIEV221 broke up at Flying Fish Cove. The low continued to move south and on 17 December Carnarvon Airport recorded over eight inches, or over 207 millimetres, of rain within a 24-hour period. That is more than an entire year’s rainfall in one day. The Gascoyne River rose to its highest levels on record.

The human impact of the flood was seen at Carnarvon Civic Centre, which was converted into an emergency accommodation facility providing temporary accommodation to more than 150 residents. The town’s reinforced levees prevented the combination of tidal forces and the overflowing Gascoyne River from swamping Carnarvon’s town centre. This levee was built under the guidance of one of the great contributors to WA public life, Councillor Wilson Tuckey, who served 40 years ago as president of the Shire of Carnarvon and then as the federal member for O’Connor.

Wilson’s levee held, but unprotected homes, businesses, plantations and pastoral stations surrounding the town were inundated. Homes were washed away, businesses were destroyed and millions of dollars worth of valuable crops and livestock were lost. The damage bill is yet to be finalised, but initial estimates are in the order of $100 million. During the flood, the State Emergency Service and Fire and Emergency Services Authority of Western Australia volunteers received 278 calls for assistance. I would particularly like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication that FESA and SES volunteers demonstrated as they responded to the needs of local residents.

When communities are affected by natural disasters, one of the most important things they need is information on what is happening and what they should do in response to events and threats. The priority that FESA, the SES, the Bureau of Meteorology and Main Roads placed on putting out information is to be commended. Equally, the time, dedication and effort taken by our broadcasters, particularly the local ABC, to cover the flood and relay vital information deserve to be recognised.

It will take time to rebuild, but Carnarvon will recover just as it has done before. Its relationship with the Gascoyne River and its location on a flood plain mean that the region has a long history of flooding. I recently travelled to Carnarvon and met growers who had been affected by the flood, some of whom, in addition to losing most of their crop, had lost equipment, furnishings and even homes. I was struck by their selflessness. Their main concern was not for themselves or their businesses but for what they could do to help rebuild their community. I managed to catch up with a local mango grower, Eddie Smith. Eddie’s plantation, Calypso Plantation, is located in one of the worst hit areas of Carnarvon. Not only did Eddie lose most of his mango crop, but his home was so badly affected that it is likely he will have to rebuild. When we met, Eddie was in a race against time to pick what remained of his mango crop before it went rotten. His packing shed had been running 10 hours a day. With his steadfast determination and the help of local residents and his wife, I have no doubt that he will succeed.

I would also like to praise the leadership shown by Shire President Dudley Maslen. The skilful way in which Dudley managed the shire’s response to the flood is to be commended. Dudley knew what to do, where and when, laying out a rapid response network of levees around the town. I was particularly pleased to hear Dudley and shire staff members praise the efforts of state and federal agencies who responded to the flood disaster, including Centrelink. The response to these situations is always at four levels: local government, state government, federal government and, of course, the community. So Carnarvon will not face the task of rebuilding alone. Just as in communities in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, the federal government stands with state and local governments through the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements to ensure that Carnarvon and other places get back on their feet. I commend this condolence motion to the House.

Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was in Brisbane for Christmas and the New Year. I had driven from Townsville to see the Bruce Highway firsthand. It had been four years since I had driven south of Mackay. I was able to get through. I was able to negotiate the stretch between Rockhampton and Miriam Vale, which is surely the worst stretch of road on the national highway, with only a broken windscreen. The flood hit central Queensland and the Western Downs soon after I arrived in Brisbane. When it was time for me to go home, I looked at the maps and realised that I could not get home by car. I could not drive straight up the coast. I could not go west, even as far out as Morven, and turn right to go up to Longreach and back home that way. I took a plane, so there was no real hardship for me at all. But as I was sitting in Upper Mount Gravatt, safe and sound, and as I went home to Townsville it was not lost on me that so many Queenslanders, and indeed Australians, could not go home, could not get dry, could not get anywhere and had no other options.

I grew up on the south-western downs and I went to boarding school in Toowoomba. If you were to ask me for the place I felt was least likely to suffer flooding, it would be Toowoomba. If you asked me to name the place which would be least likely to suffer the effects of flash flooding so bad that it caused an inland tsunami, it would be Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. When I was a young bloke, we used to travel from Toowoomba to Brisbane regularly. The Lockyer Valley is a truly beautiful part of the world. To see those images where I used to muck around truly beggars belief. My own town of Townsville copped a fair belting from Cyclone Yasi. But, unlike Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, we had warning and we had seen this before. I speak on behalf of my entire city when I extend our sympathies to those who have suffered any kind of loss, but the loss of a family member, friend, or neighbour can never be overstated.

Having a warning of a large-scale weather event is not enough. In Townsville our Townsville Local Disaster Management Group, headed by Mayor Les Tyrell, planned meticulously and we are in the shape we are because of that planning and the effort before the event. We were well prepared. We prepared for the worst; we hoped for the best. Our police, headed by Chief Superintendent Michael Keating, were ever vigilant and always available. Our Defence Force personnel, led by Brigadier Stuart Smith, were and still are absolutely magnificent. Our council workers, our ambulance service men and women, our hospital staff and health workers, and our SES volunteers were all so extraordinary in their selfless displays. The Ergon workers from all over Queensland who have converged on my region and north and are still there working huge hours as they try to bring power back deserve praise of the highest order. As always, the service groups such as Apex and Rotary, the volunteer organisations such as the Salvos, St Vincent de Paul and the churches, and the Red Cross are still on the ground looking to help, and they are in it up to their elbows.

I visited the RSL Care and Blue Care retirement villages, which were both evacuated. The nursing staff and administration staff left their own families to care for others. They knew they were staff-poor and the conditions in which they were operating were not ideal, but that did not stop them doing their best and providing superb care. I spoke with Dr Andrew Johnson from the Townsville General Hospital. He openly admitted that he was running on adrenalin and was about to hit the wall, but he was so proud of his staff and every health worker at the TGH. They were busy, but they were a team and they stuck together.

Townsville is justifiably proud of being a garrison city. We are proud of our men and women of the ADF. To a person, they could not do enough to assist all the way through this event. They doorknocked in the suburbs where homes had to be evacuated. They were out there straightaway clearing the roads. If someone came out and asked them to help in the yard, they did it with a smile on their face. Many of these men and women have had damage to their own homes. Many had families with no power to their homes and many had damage to their homes and yards. But they were all out there helping, and they continue to do so across the region and into the severely affected parts of North and Far North Queensland.

Townsville suffered significant damage, but we deadset dodged a bullet. Our city is strong; our resolve is strong. We are one community and we are pulling through. Our recovery will take time, but, by and large, we have a smile on our face. That is not to say that everyone is happy. We still have 25,000 homes and properties without power. But, thanks to the preparation, we suffered no loss of life in the city of Townsville. I urge every person in greater Townsville to remember that very point and think of what could have been. In our home, we lost power just after 6 pm on Wednesday night. We had power restored on Saturday evening. Can I tell you: I love electricity!

There have been many stories about people doing great deeds. I would like to share one with you. In Townsville we are well served by the local business Tropical Ice and Chunk Ice. This family-owned company did not lose power. What they did do was make ice—and lots of it. I was there late on Friday night and I asked one of the owners, Ben Menkens, when he was going home. He replied, ‘When there is no-one else wanting ice.’ The queue was sometimes nearly 500 metres long as they had to wait for more ice to be made and brought around. They had mates and family members handing out the ice all day, every day. Believe it or not, it was hot, hard work on the concrete. They did it all with a smile on their faces. Dave Johnson kept everyone happy and informed all the way through. He never lost a beat, no matter what was thrown at him—he was truly magnificent. The queues are not at the factory anymore. They are at the shops around the town as they try to get supplies to the suburbs. They will continue to work at capacity until all their North Queensland outlets and beyond are back to normal.

I would also like to make special mention of our island communities on Palm and Magnetic islands. Magnetic Island is just about ready to go and I know that the member for Wannon will be anxious to get to Arcadia for his annual holiday. ‘Maggie’ is the jewel in our tourism crown, and you should all spend some time—and lots of money—there.

Jeff Brown is the acting CEO of Palm Island Council. He is also a native of Dalby. He went home for Christmas and was not only caught in the floods a few times but helped out all over the place. He got back to Palm just in time to prepare for Cyclone Yasi. I spoke to his office in the days prior to the cyclone and he was simply chasing high-vis vests. They shifted people from low-lying areas to the PCYC for safety. The council, police, volunteers and island elders must all be commended for their actions.

I would also like to make special mention of the local Townsville media. The guys at WIN and Channel 7 did a great job doing local stories while supporting the national shows which descended on the city. To the local Townsville radio stations and their staff—Steve Price and Glenn Mintern at 4TO; Kelly Higgins-Devine, Pat Hession and Paula Tapiolas at the local ABC; and Karina, Bruce and Wildy at Zinc—thank you all for being there when the lights were out and it was very dark. They worked around the clock and kept us informed during and after the cyclone. Not only did North Queensland Newspapers print the Townsville Bulletin each and every day; they printed the local papers for the surrounding districts and they did a full catch-up of the Phantom in Saturday’s paper—it was truly appreciated and I thank you very much.

I thank the Prime Minister for the phone calls and offers of support. I also thank her for the opportunity to present the needs of Townsville to get back to full fitness. To my leadership, Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop and Warren Truss, I say a huge thankyou. Their concern was greatly appreciated by all the people with whom they spoke and sent messages to.

I support the Leader of the Opposition’s call for greater support to businesses which, while not directly hurt by the events of the summer, have been affected by loss of business. We must ensure that no-one is left behind. I also support the member for Hotham’s call not just to repair the damage but to fix the problems.

My city, Townsville, will be good to go in a month. We are a strong regional centre with a great future. We were prepared for what was coming as well as anyone could possibly imagine. As a community, our hearts and love go to those in Western Australia dealing with bushfires. We are all Australian and we are in there with you. We wish you all the very best in your undoubted recovery. Keep your chin up and know that the rest of the country is with you at this time.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Parliament is a big strong building. It is full of the cut and thrust of politics; the floors, walls and ceilings echo often with ideas and argument. It is a place of national enthusiasm. But in speaking to this most serious motion I think that one of the most obvious things that I cannot but help recognise is that clearly this place sometimes cannot have the answers—far from it.

We have been witnesses this summer to national disaster and national tragedy. We are left, I suspect, with a requiem of questions: will people be okay? Did families get to safety? How soon will these storms and floods come again? How long will it take to rebuild? Could we have avoided the worst of it? I have asked myself during this summer—the annual holiday that never was this year—when I watch the images on television, visit places affected and witness the stories of people: why does it take disaster to bring out the best in our nation? I actually think that in some odd, unexpected, unsought for and undesired way these floods and storms have helped us to rediscover and remind us of our greatest strengths.

I was privileged to see up close in 2009 my fellow Victorians prevail through the terrible Black Saturday fires and their aftermath, Again, I have been privileged to witness so many Australians face flooding and destructive storms in recent weeks. Indeed, I believe that Australians are not simply enduring but prevailing. In this great continent that we call home we are witness to the physics and chemistry of Mother Earth working their way across the lucky country in a way that makes you question that famous tag, ‘lucky’, attached to our country. But if we are strong and resolute in the way that we come to together perhaps ‘lucky’ is still the best way to think, despite all that brutal water, wind and fire.

I believe this motion is an opportunity not just to define answers to such national introspection but to more softly ask some of the questions—to ask them, and then to ponder and honour as we remember those who we have lost and those for whom the terror and loss are so real. Prime Minister Keating once spoke of the lessons that we can learn from ordinary people, and that lesson is that they are not ordinary. His timeless observation was about Australians in a time of war, and how great that generation was in its extraordinary modesty and sheer determination to pull through. I am reminded of these wise words about ordinary Australians and what they really prove to be when the chips are down when I think about this holiday-less summer that we have had—and that is still yet to end—and the people who have seen the worst of it.

I believe that what it all comes down to is love. Love is what creates the courage we have been witness to. It is the love and courage to calm your family and protect them while the wind is howling above your roof like a train or as the water is rushing down your street like a wild river, or as you sit stranded on your car with your wife and daughter as you float down the torrent of the flood. It is the love and courage to look about your mud filled lounge room, figure out that you will get back to it later, put your boots and hat on and walk out the door to help a neighbour who has lost their ceiling, two retaining walls, the car and the family pet. It is the love and courage to walk out into the tumbled green mess of a cane sugar plantation or a banana farm before your Cyclone Larry recovery chapter has even been concluded, or indeed in the north-west of Victoria to survey your crops which have been ruined even though you have just come out of drought. Amongst all of that, to simply see farmers roll up their sleeves and get on working with their next story of recovery is very Australian, very honest, very tough and very brave. This is precisely what has been happening in recent days. This is what communities are doing right at this moment. It is so compelling.

I care about people with a disability, and I was struck during the floods by how people with a disability were coping while everything around them was being destroyed by torrents of water. In particular, during the Channel 9 flood appeal the observation was made that over 100 people with a disability were trapped in the floods. There was concern that they had not been heard from and that some were unable to escape their homes without assistance. Indeed, tragically some did not flee in time. Neighbours were asked to check on these people, and in an enduring sign of mateship many did so. And, in doing so, they helped people in difficulty who are all too often invisible. When I say a person with a disability might be trapped in a house by the floods, the storms or the fire, you might instinctively think about someone in a wheelchair. Indeed, that could well be the case, but having a disability can take many forms. I think about those people who lost vital medication and medical equipment when they were flooded out, the people who might have lost the ramps that allow them to enter and leave their house, the people who have lost a motor vehicle that has been modified to allow them to drive and have some participation in the community and the people who have lost electronic devices that they need to communicate with others.

How do you define love and courage when not only has your house been destroyed but when your everyday life was filled with struggle and difficulty well before the floods ever appeared? Coping with loss and devastation is hard for everyone. While we are speaking here to offer our condolences, I urge everyone in this place to think about those Australians with a disability who have been affected by the floods—yet another barrier to them in the lives they lead. People with a disability are vital and valued members of our community but they can sometimes be unintentionally overlooked in the midst of extraordinary tragedy. There are, of course, all manner of degrees of this disaster—from the catastrophic loss of a loved one to the temporary loss of livelihood or time at work and the vital means to support a family. I do believe people are anxious. But people have been anxious before. Australians have been afraid before. We have had to deal with hardship and then stand up again.

In my home state of Victoria I have seen people gradually beginning to get back on their feet after the disaster that struck—after seeing what seemed like the very flames of hell reach out and claim the houses, their properties and in 173 cases the very lives of their families, friends and neighbours. Monday was the second anniversary of the devastating Victorian bushfires known as Black Saturday. As we pause our usual legislative debate and speak to remember the devastation of this most recent tragedy, the devastation that sprawled across so many parts of Australia, it is worth remembering the bushfires of 24 months ago. It is worth remembering how communities, families, businesses, unions and politicians of all political stripes pulled together, stood up together, rebuilt the burnt places and continued the long process that has left such a scar on the land and, indeed, on our souls. Over 400 bushfires burned on that day two years ago and continued for days afterwards. But it is Black Saturday that we remember. We remember the 2,000-plus homes that were completely destroyed. We remember the 78 individual towns that were affected and the 7½ thousand people who had to seek alternative accommodation after theirs became untenable.

As the Parliamentary Secretary for Bushfire Recovery I travelled to Kinglake, Marysville, Flowerdale and Traralgon South two years ago. I travelled to 33 communities to speak to victims of the bushfire and offer the support of the federal government. I know that Senator Ludwig, the recently appointed Minister for Flood Recovery, will be doing the same for people battling with the outcomes of the floods. Of course, recovery from disasters is about much more than just kind words in this place, no matter how heartfelt. Recovery, in some instances, is about fighting for people who have been forgotten. It is about making hard decisions on how to proceed from nothing or next to nothing.

As we did two years ago, this government has been working with the insurance industry to help those affected by the floods and the storms. Many Australians are today asking questions about their financial security and their degree of protection from disaster by virtue of the detail of an insurance policy. The questions are plenty and varied. In many cases, but not all, I have been pleased with the early goodwill and good sense with which the insurance and banking sectors have approached their own response, and responsibilities, to these floods. This includes some very real community expectation that there needs to be real change in how these important sectors of our economy operate. My commitment is that I will keep a shoulder to the wheel in all of this and get some of the necessary outcomes that flood affected communities so definitely deserve. There is a varied list of items on the agenda of insurance reform after these floods—from policy disclosure and consumer protection issues to land planning policies and questions about where people build. Some of these things need to be considered thoroughly, carefully and methodically; others demand more immediate movement. In my view, a handful of particular ones can help ease some of the strain of the disaster affected families and improve the insurance sector for the times and unforeseen but inevitable events ahead. Whilst I speak clearly to the matter of a standard definition of floods, I recognise that these matters are not the silver bullet for the improvement of insurance in Australia. But they are an overdue and necessary first step.

One matter relates to the expert hydrologists, the water experts, and how they can help speed up insurance claim processing. Obviously, after the waters and winds have calmed, no family wants to experience unreasonable delay in being able to put their lives back together and fund the clean-up and rebuilding process. Last month the government encouraged the insurance industry to establish an expert panel of hydrologists to make neighbourhood by neighbourhood type recommendations about the nature and cause of flooding. Whilst hydrologists are in short supply at any time, let alone now, this expert panel is now up and running and should already be assisting the overall claims process through its expert recommendations on the cause of water damage in different areas. It has also been endorsed by the ACCC. Nonetheless, there is still concern about frustrations with claims taking too long. Indeed, yesterday morning I spoke to the Mayor of Ipswich, Paul Pisasale, and the members for Blair and Oxley to hear about some of the frustrations that they are hearing firsthand on the ground in the community. I will be meeting with them again soon and we are likely to go over more of these matters.

I acknowledge, with all the members of parliament, that the members for Blair and Oxley have been doing a terrific job representing the interests of their residents, along with Mayor Pisasale, and I record my congratulations. Where such street-wise observations are raised by any community leaders, this government remains prepared to listen and, where appropriate, act and act as quickly as possible. We were able to ensure yesterday, for example, with the Insurance Council of Australia and the Bureau of Meteorology, that timely data will be supplied to insurers to allow claims to be processed more quickly. It is pleasing that the insurance industry, the Insurance Council of Australia and its members have agreed that it is time we had a standard definition of ‘floods’. I acknowledge their view that more will need to be done to improve the offering of insurance products, but it is a good first step.

There is cooperation and industry leadership from the Insurance Council of Australia. We are discussing with them ways of improving insurance policies, including plain English on policy documents, to make it easier and simpler for consumers of home and contents insurance to know exactly where they are, to know exactly what they are covered for and what they are not covered for and to know their policies. I know these things resonate with all Australians at all times and we will keep to the reform task at hand. Later this week I will be meeting with the very important consumer groups to make sure that we get all views from all sides in this debate.

It was a very Australian Christmas break this year, albeit one to break the heart. We are warned in our national verse of the droughts and flooding rains, the far horizons and the beauty and the terror which make up our national story. Yet it is comforting, in an odd way, when another poet writes that a terrible beauty is born around the cups of soups in the churches and the school halls and the smashed streets, where new friends were made amongst the wreckage. There is a noble beauty in the search for the photo albums, the children’s toys and the pet animals that may have survived the juggernaut that came from the heavens and went so fast through a lifetime’s history and hopes—now strewn before people in mud and splinters that cannot simply be put back together again.

I suspect it was in a modest way war by other means. I suspect it was a war in which in a real sense, as the floods recede and storms abate, people were made refugees. It would be wrong to falsely find much comfort in it. But it is worth knowing that when the roofs were flying, when a deluge as large as some European countries was swamping heartland, town and street we did not hear a cry of ‘every person for themselves’. It was not ‘Devil take the hindmost’ or ‘I’m all right, Jack’. It was, alas, in other countries under hurricane or, indeed, conflict the attitude of, ‘Let’s look after each other.’ It was, ‘How can I help?’, ‘Do you need a hand?’ or ‘Can I carry that for you?’ across the suburbs and towns of a large part of our nation under water and parts of our nation facing cyclone and facing firestorm. I believe that Australians were there for their friends and for strangers—that they risked their lives for the property and lives of others.

We were there in that wondrous communitarian unity of help that is the Australian settlement, of a difference in shared peril and bad weather. We have witnessed people being there for each other, as we have been in war, tempest and peace. Australians do the right thing. It is habit now. This, of course, does not bring back those who have left us or the heirlooms or the beloved kitchens or the pianos and the gardens tended down through the decades by gentle souls too old to plant them again. This does not mean that it has not happened. What it does mean is that we are good neighbours in this country and Australians rally round. Led by our Prime Minister, our state leaders and many more, we rally round. We give comfort when it is cried for. We are a good people whose goodness has been tested too much this summer. We are people who have shown again that when the time comes around once more Australia will be there facing it all as one.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to speak today on this condolence motion on natural disasters and, in doing so, I am very pleased to talk about another part of our country. Might I start, as was referred to by the member for Maribyrnong, with the Dorothea Mackellar poem My Country:

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror—

The wide brown land for me!

She goes on:

For flood and fire and famine,

She pays us back threefold …

It is true: this summer season has seen all of that, in Dorothea Mackellar’s poem, come true in Australia, sadly.

I acknowledge and pay my respects to those affected in the recent disasters in Australia. Our hearts went out, as everybody’s did in this place and all around Australia, to the victims of the floods in Queensland in particular and northern New South Wales and now in Victoria. The people of Carnarvon in my state of Western Australia—it is probably a bit far away—suffered devastation with the Gascoyne River flooding. On top of that, of course, in Queensland came that devastating cyclone out of the ocean, Cyclone Yasi, and the damage that it did and the lives that it put on hold and the businesses and the infrastructure that it destroyed. Here we are today talking about some of the memorable moments during that period and the people and the lives that have been so affected by this devastation. I know many people from the affected electorates will talk about the floods and the cyclone. The enduring picture in my mind and in my wife’s mind, as we sat there not believing what we were seeing constantly on the television of the Queensland situation, is of the husband and wife sitting on top of their car with their young child floating down the floodway. The husband obviously tried to get help. They survived; he did not. What a tragic set of events—and there are so many more. There are thousands more stories that could be relayed, and they will be in this House over the next few days and weeks.

I congratulate our leaders, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and all the leaders from the various states that have had to take a role in these emergencies, declaring emergencies and addressing the adversity within their jurisdictions.

My story is of the devastating fires in my electorate of Canning—the Kelmscott and Roleystone fires. I will mention the earlier fire at Lake Clifton, where houses were lost. I want to tell the story of this fire because it is nothing like Black Saturday. We know what happened in Victoria two years ago on Black Saturday. Fortunately, over the weekend no lives were lost. There were also no lives lost at Lake Clifton. That was only due to the good planning, good luck and some fortune with natural events such as where the wind was coming from et cetera.

I went to the Sri Lankan national day celebrations and entered the Pinjarra races to present a trophy. At three o’clock in the afternoon while driving home I heard on the radio the devastating stories of the fires in the Kelmscott-Roleystone area. It is very difficult for a member of parliament to know exactly what to do. Do we go down and involve ourselves? As you will hear from any of us, we are damned if we do and we are damned if we don’t. If we do, some people will say, ‘Look at him just showing up after the event,’ and those sorts of things. But, on the other side of the coin, many people will say: ‘Isn’t it good that the local representatives have come down to see what they can do to help, to just be of comfort or to just be there?’

Some of this is under inquiry, and I understand an inquiry is being sought into the Kelmscott-Roleystone fire. Without going into too much detail, I understand a fire was started in the most horrific of conditions. It was hot and the wind was blowing up to 70 miles an hour and gusting up even higher. The wind was coming from the east-south-east. The conditions were such that if there were a spark it would take off, and that is exactly what happened. A spark started a grassfire which then travelled along a water course and burnt out the Buckingham Bridge on the Brookton Highway. It then began to race across the paddocks and through the bush towards people’s houses.

It happened so fast. As you can imagine, if you have 70 miles an hour winds the fire will leap from tree to tree. In this bushfire the fire leapt from treetop to treetop and exploded with the help of the eucalypt trees, which have almost explosive qualities. Unfortunately, it headed across the rural lots towards the built-up areas. It went from smaller farms into residential areas. By the time it got there it leapt from house to house. We know now that at least 72 houses have been declared to have been lost in these bushfires. Seventy-two houses were lost in such a short time.

I want to refer to some heroic stories and some very good luck stories. I was fortunate that Premier Colin Barnett, after declaring this area a disaster zone so the funding could flow, took me and Tony Simpson, the state member for Darling Range, on a tour of the area. As we often see, one house was burnt but its neighbour was still standing, the shed next to the house burnt but the house was standing, and the house was standing but the shed at the back was gone. We saw all those things in the neighbourhood that was in the path of this fire that travelled so fast.

It has been a really difficult time. I need to congratulate a number of people for their contribution, not least the Mayor of the City of Armadale, Linton Reynolds, his councillors and staff for being on the spot straightaway. The City of Armadale has provided its rangers and all the support it can. It has provided the arena as a mustering point where agencies can disseminate information. It is also where people without houses have been sleeping over the last couple of nights.

I want to particularly pay tribute to the career firefighters from metropolitan Perth and the bush firefighters from around Armadale, Roleystone and other areas in the south-west. Of course, the Roleystone bush fire brigade were the first ones there, because it was their town. They were there in minutes. Without them, more houses would have been lost. There could have been more loss of human life if they had not intervened at such an early stage. When we toured the other day we saw the firefighters at Roleystone along with all the other firefighters. They were exhausted. They had been fighting the fire throughout the night. They were changing over. They were sitting back and having a rest, as they should have been.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority incident controllers and those who ran the headquarters that coordinated the response and the SES volunteers who made themselves available for hours and hours need to be congratulated. The action of the police is one reason why there was such minimal risk to life. The statewide alert emergency warning system did not really work. People were getting the message to leave their house three or four hours after the fire. It was the police who went door to door telling people to get out and making them get out. In some cases they arrested people who would not leave. That played out on TV. Some people were very unwilling to leave. Once you have decided to stay and fight and the time for fleeing has gone then you are there on your own. There are a huge number of stories documented in the media. The police certainly need recognition for all their fantastic work.

On the day we visited with the Premier and others it was amazing to see the huge helicopters swooping in, after engorging themselves with water, and accurately bombing the fires in coordination with the firefighters on the ground. It was a brilliant thing to see. As an aside, Western Australia is getting two helicopter tankers from Victoria in the next few weeks. Obviously, it has not stopped raining in Victoria so the chances of them needing firefighting equipment for a while is diminished. Two helicopters from Victoria are coming to Western Australia because it is tinder dry over there and the chance of there being more fires is very real.

There are so many other people to mention. I am mindful of the fact that once you start mentioning people you forget people. I want to mention the Salvation Army. There they were the other day, providing all the food for the fireys, the helpers and the coordinators. They were selfless. They were there on their own, with their trailer, making sure that all those hardworking people were being fed. The work of these dedicated people is truly outstanding.

I mentioned the response of the state government. As soon as they could, Colin Barnett, along with the Minister for Police and Minister for Emergency Services, Rob Johnson, gave their full attention to the situation and declared the area an emergency zone. I also want to congratulate the member for Darling Range, Tony Simpson, for being there. I will mention a few things about him in a moment. The new member for Armadale, Tony Buti, was on the spot, helping his constituents in the best possible way that any member of parliament can. Of course, their staff were also there.

There is another story I have to mention. Before I got up there I was getting calls from some of my constituents. What happened was that people were told to evacuate. Where do they go? Some went to the arena, but many from the Clifton Hills and Kelmscott areas went down to the Stargate Shopping Centre. Being a Sunday, the Stargate Shopping Centre car park was empty, so they all parked there. My office is just over the road from there. You could sit at the bottom and see the hills ablaze. They were sitting there, wondering whether one of those blazes was their home. They were sitting there with their dogs, some of them with a bird in a cage and that sort of thing. They were devastated, just numb, watching part of their world burn.

On the edge of the Stargate Shopping Centre, open on a Sunday night, was the IGA supermarket. Glen Wood, the owner of the IGA supermarket, was handing out free water to everyone. He ran out of water. He had to go to another store to get another pallet of water because he had given out so much. He decided later on—and this was where I finally made myself useful—that he would put on a barbecue for those who had been left stranded. I did my best to turn the onions and sausages. Tony Simpson, the state member, raced home and got his barbie and we did our best to feed people for most of the night. People came along and started giving immediately. A lady turned up straightaway with three boxes of soft toys for the kids. That was in the car park. A lady and her husband from across the road from the shopping centre brought out a table, got an extension cord and an electric kettle and made cups of tea and coffee for people who were stranded in the car park. You hear all these fantastic stories, like you heard in Queensland, about how people help. Glen Wood, we are not going to forget you. I know the community will not.

Allen Gale from FESA has already confirmed that 72 homes have been lost, 32 homes have had significant damage and 430 hectares of land have been burnt out. There are many people who did not know for days what had happened to their homes. When we went to the briefing at the arena on Monday morning it was like the list of the damned, with people waiting to hear whether their house or street had been 100 per cent destroyed. When people heard their house number, they broke down, quite understandably. It is very hard for them to come to grips with.

The newspaper has been reporting on a number of people, so they are on the public record now—people like Mary Wooldridge, in the West Australian here. She lost everything. The paper mentions Tim Semones and his family, with a young baby. Their neighbours have nothing to go back to. The story of the Tucci family is unbelievable. Their home was one of the ones you saw regularly on TV as part of the fire coverage. It was one of the first to go.

I must mention one of the tragic things about this. When people say, ‘Turn off your evaporative air-conditioner,’ turn it off. What happens—and you can see it in houses like this one in the newspaper—is that the embers get sucked into the draught in the air-conditioning. And what is in the core of the air-conditioning? A sort of cane. It burns straight down, blows all the embers into your house and that is how your house starts to blow up and burn straightaway. The air-conditioning blows all the hot embers into the family room and lounge room and off it goes. It burns from the centre out.

Eileen Parker, sadly, lost everything. So did Frank Duffy. There are some fantastic stories of help. Mr Kalajzich is on the front page of the West Australian today. He is an old gentleman who secured his house and moved his wife out of the place, then raced around and saved a lot of neighbours’ houses. Some people were at the cricket, watching the English being beaten at the WACA, and there was old Mr Kalajzich, making sure that their place was spared.

I just want to mention the 11 houses that were destroyed in the Lake Clifton fire. Unlike the Roleystone-Kelmscott fire, the Lake Clifton fire was deliberately lit. An arsonist was involved in the Lake Clifton fire. It is the same story: prevailing winds and off it went. I would like to congratulate all the carers, the firefighters and the volunteers et cetera from the Lake Clifton community, the Western Australian state government, state member Murray Cowper and the Shire of Waroona councillors and staff for their magnificent effort.

Murray Cowper and I visited some of the people whose homes were burnt out in the Lake Clifton area. I went to Joe Ferraro’s place and it was totally burnt out. As an aside, you do see some interesting things. At Joe’s place, for example, he had shifted his dinghy away from the house and put it under a tree. When he got back it was in the shape of a banana because the tree had burnt, fallen over his boat and turned it into a U shape, compounding it. That was very unlucky. I wondered what the smell was. He had had eight boxes of prawns delivered after Christmas and they had burnt underneath the house. He was not able to get to them until the insurance assessors had been there, and, of course, in the hot weather they stank to high heaven. There are so many people in that area who were affected by the fire. I will not read their names, but I have the 11 names here of the people who lost their houses.

The member for Maribyrnong is quite correct: we as a parliament need to do something about the insurance industry. We have talked about ‘flood’ and all the obscure definitions. I would like to recount an example to the member for Maribyrnong. Joe Ferraro, while I was there, was telling me that the insurance people were giving him a hard time because he had added a sleep-out onto his house. They said, ‘Your insurance is now void because we don’t think you’ve actually got a plan or approval for that from the shire.’ So they will find any way to get out of it. At least he was insured. We feel sorry for the people who were not insured and we are going to help them. But the people who were insured did the right thing and we have to make sure that the insurance companies do not use technicalities or the fine print to get out of paying up. These people have been paying insurance for years, and this is the first time they have ever had to call on it.

In conclusion, I seek leave to table a photo. It sort of demonstrates the defiance and resilience. The photo shows the property at 155 Buckingham Road. It is all gone, and the only thing that is left is a singed Australian flag that is still flying.

Leave granted.

I leave this House with another report on a natural disaster, completely different from most of the reports today. All I can say is that as Australians and representatives of Australians we are getting behind these people and we will stay behind them because, once things have moved on, people continue to need help.

For example, in the Lake Clifton area, now that the fire is over, people are trying to rebuild but they are finding that there are issues with insurance. That is when we really need to help. In Armadale, for example, at the moment they have asked people to stop delivering food and other material goods, which people are doing because of their generosity—money, yes, to the City of Perth Lord Mayor’s Distress Relief Fund. The real crunch will come later on when they try to rebuild and they need planning approval. I note the City of Armadale has taken away any demolition costs and any council planning costs, as they affect the places that need to be rebuilt. Those sorts of things need to happen right across Australia as well as in my electorate.

I add my support to this motion. All of us here extend our sympathies to those who have been affected by the fires and, in my electorate, those in the Roleystone, Kelmscott and Lake Clifton area. Thank you.

Debate interrupted.