Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rosie and Peter Johnson and their three children are your typical Aussie battling family. What sets them apart is that they have been dealt a massive blow with the downturn of our local economy and also with Cyclone Yasi hitting the Far North. Peter and Rosie own a roadhouse and convenience store in Bloomfield called the Bloomfield River Inn. The Bloomfield River causeway, their only southern access to their community, was washed away in Yasi. It has been closed for the last three months, stopping all passing traffic and causing massive losses to their business. Rosie and Peter had no insurance and, to top it off, the government has decided that businesses in the Bloomfield area are not eligible for disaster relief payments under the NDRRA.

Instead of whingeing and throwing their hands in the air, they have rolled up their sleeves to get on with their job and to try to survive. Once a week for the past three months Rosie has travelled 80-odd kilometres in a beat-up old four-wheel-drive to Cooktown and then back down to Cairns to bring fresh fruit, vegetables, milk and other grocery items to restock her store and feed her family. When I spoke to them recently they told me that the causeway had just been reinstated except that the road was very rough and available for four-wheel-drive vehicles only. But Rosie said that there is a positive side. She said, 'With the rough stones in the causeway maybe now we can get some work for our little tyre-changing business.'

I call on the government to reconsider their decision in relation to the Yasi relief and ask them to extend the relief support to businesses in Cairns, Cape York and, of course, into the Bloomfield area to support Rosie and Peter Johnson and their family. (Time expired)