Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received letters from the honourable member for Lyne, the honourable member for North Sydney and the honourable member for Throsby proposing that definite matters of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion today. As required by standing order 46, I have selected the matter which in my opinion is the most urgent and important—that is, that proposed by the honourable member for Lyne, namely:

That Natural Disaster Relief payments for flood damage in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland are made urgently by state and federal governments.

I therefore call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your wisdom in choosing a very important and serious motion that reflects a disaster that is still unfolding in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. I know from private conversations with members on both sides that not every member with an electorate that is affected will be able to speak. There is a lot of concern from local members about their local constituencies and there is concern generally for impacts in constituencies outside their own. I think that is appreciated by many.

On an administrative matter, we are nearly 30 minutes behind where we probably should be. It is disappointing that events on Australia Day have seen that time go. Again I pick up on the point that this is an important topic that the parliament should be debating at length this week. For anyone who is wondering, my view on Australia Day—and there are plenty of views out there—is that no-one comes away with clean hands with regard to events on Australia Day. Many Australians whom I have spoken with were both saddened and frustrated by the events and the coverage as it unfolded, and I am pleased now that proper processes of the House are being used to get issues of importance up. If that is a debate that others want to see happen in this chamber, there are proper processes to use, and I encourage them to do so in a sensible way.

This is a disaster that is still unfolding. There are thousands of Australians who are outside their homes and evacuations are in place in many locations in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. We have hundreds of thousands of dollars in question with regard to the damages bill, both public and private, that will have to be assessed and paid for somehow over the coming days and weeks.

The other point that I want to get some reflection on from the chamber is not just the impact of this flood but the cumulative impact of this flood on the back of the flood last year. In some locations in Australia—I think the member for Maranoa will be making this point if he speaks—this is a flood on the back of a flood on the back of a flood. We have been having a rolling natural disaster over the past three years in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and it is that cumulative impact that the natural disaster relief payment schemes and policies will not and do not reflect and manage as we try to struggle our way through as communities dealing with these natural disasters in the best way possible.

This is an opportunity for a local member to put on record a few thanks before getting into some policy issues. From my perspective, I would very much like to thank the volunteer network of the mid-North Coast of New South Wales, who have once again kicked in and worked extraordinary hours for no gain over the last month. The SES is the most obvious organisation, but many people who have helped neighbours and friends are not part of any organisation. Thank you to all of those who helped someone other than themselves and also to those who are paid to do the job—the police, the ambos and the many services that went over and above during the past month. Thank you once again for the work that has been done. It is a rare comment these days in this place, but thank you to many of the media outlets, in particular the ABC on the mid-North Coast, who pretty well ran a 24/7 service which was very important for many people in getting up-to-date information, including evacuation orders, at various times.

There is still assessment going on in my region, and that is adding up to quite a substantial bill. That is the lead-in to the broader point that makes this an important matter of public importance discussion. In the Manning alone, there are probably still around 20 bridges out and unusable until damage assessments are done, and that will more than likely take a long time. A bridge is the point of engagement for many people who are living up valleys and off the coast. If they cannot get in and out, then their business is affected, their family is affected and basic things are affected, like getting kids to school. Yet more than likely it is going to be not weeks but months before many people will be able to get access to things that we all take for granted in modern Australia. That is just from this flood alone—really over the last week and a half. But this comes on the back of the natural disaster of last year that still has not been dealt with.

Whilst I certainly welcome new national disaster declarations by the New South Wales Premier today, and I think there are three of them—and it is all bipartisan and very welcome when they are made—the long period of time that it takes for money to come on the back of those declarations, for assessments to be done and for communities to just get back to where they were rather than getting anything extra is way too long. Also, the actual amount of money does not now meet the actual bill that is coming in.

From June last year, one council in my area, Greater Taree City Council, put in an application for damage at 400 sites—a $19 million application—yet they only found out last week, when in another flood, that the money will not come through in full. At best, between $10 million and $15 million will come through in response to the application that was put in eight months ago. So not only is there a time lag problem, and not only are we now seeing a flood on a flood and so damage on damage, but we are also getting the message through that the application that went in last year will not be fully funded. Around 50 to 75 per cent will be met. That says the system is buggered. That says natural disaster is not reflective of what it should be. Through state, federal or whatever means possible, we should get full payments back to a community affected by natural disaster, which is through no fault of their own, no matter where that natural disaster occurs in Australia.

That is one example and I am sure there are many others, not only in New South Wales but also throughout the country, where there is frustration about time lag and frustration about the lack of money coming through. That is a public sector example of road damage, in particular, from one local council. The other example is from the private sector. Some of the classifications—such as category C funding for farmers who have stock loss or fence damage—have a cumbersome and frustrating process, even for those who are eligible. It is a process that needs some policy rethink and some renewal and reflection. Hopefully, it will be much more efficient in responding to need, much more timely in getting funding through and much more generous in the way that government communicates with farmers in the private sector when there are genuine applications for damage to property, whether they be for fences or stock loss.

Last year, in the Macleay Valley, we had a category C application rejected. Due to public outrage and pressure the government reviewed the decision and category C funding was then put in. That is not the way the process should work when we are talking about natural disasters and trying to get payments through to people. Farmers should not have to stand outside local members' offices and call for a change in the way an application is made. But that is exactly what happened last year, and I am concerned that we are about to see it again, now that we are getting pretty well the third flood in three years on the mid-North Coast.

I use those examples at a very local level to try to encourage a national debate about how we can get a better structure between the Commonwealth and the states in natural disaster payments and engagement with the community in both the public and private sectors. At the moment, the evidence points to a cumbersome, burdensome and failing system, even though it is very welcome when a natural disaster declaration is made.

I also make a broader point. It is the same one made on the back of the last floods and through the flood levy debate—one that I did not support. I hope that, on the back end of this and the expected bill to come, we do not have another debate about a one-off flood levy coming through this place again because this chamber has failed—again—to recognise that natural disasters are part of life in Australia. We should therefore plan appropriately within our existing tax base, our existing budgets, for natural disasters happening relatively frequently.

I know that around the edges of this place, in policy, there is debate about a sovereign wealth fund. There is an opportunity, and it is the call that I and others made last year. My colleague the member for New England has been making this call for a long time. We need to establish a broad pot of money that is a natural disaster fund so that whether it is fire or flood—or whatever form the natural disaster comes in—we as a country are ready. We must do the preparation work so that we are not scrambling around about how to pay for something. Sure as night follows day, as much as we do not like it, there will be natural disasters, relatively frequently, into the future.

I once again put that on the record for consideration and hopefully for some debate. It is something that happens in isolation in the Commonwealth. All of this needs to be very much in partnership with the states—not so much a legislative process, not so much a House of Representatives and Senate process, but more of a COAG type process, where the Commonwealth and the states put together a partnership agreement or equivalent. Then it starts to really deal in a substantial way with what will happen in the future: another natural disaster.

I plead with the minister at the table, the Minister for Emergency Management, as well as the government generally. Please assist in applying as much pressure as possible to make sure that, firstly, this flood gets dealt with as efficiently as possible and that the needs of the community, both public and private sectors, local councils and the road network—when the assessments are complete—get dealt with as quickly as possible and that as much financing comes through as is required on the ground.

Secondly, there is the cumulative issue. We need to look at the policy question of why natural disaster payments from the last flood are not being fully funded and start to provide pressure on the states, provide assistance to the states and provide whatever is needed for councils such as the Greater Taree City Council. They might be slightly outside some guidelines but the need is real. Four hundred sites were damaged eight months ago and this is a council still in need. It is not the only one in Australia in this situation. I am sure there are many members who have similar stories. I hope this is something that the government will take as seriously as possible.

Thank you for allowing this MPI and debate on this flood emergency that is still underway. I welcome a response from the minister at the table and all assistance in the coming weeks as we go from clean-up mode to assessment mode through to recovery mode in the coming months.

Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Vice President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lyne does indeed raise an important matter of public importance. I commend him for it. Natural disasters are part of our natural history. They are just that: they are natural. But they have significant impact on our economy—for instance, last year in Queensland the cost to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth was about $5.7 billion. But that cost obviously pales into insignificance when we consider that there have been 35 lives lost in floods in Queensland since November 2011.

These are very significant issues indeed. The member for Lyne is essentially talking about two events: one in late January affecting South-East Queensland and north-east New South Wales—I was able to visit there on 27 January and I headed down to the member's electorate in the days following that—and the other as a consequence of the monsoonal rains that we are seeing in south-west Queensland and north-west New South Wales. Again, with the members for Maranoa and Parkes, I visited their electorates with the Minister for Human Services on Tuesday. I should also indicate that I had support from the member for Moncrieff and the member for Richmond on the previous visits.

In terms of the relief, I will explain to members—I know the member for Lyne and other members participating in this debate will be aware of this; this is for the public record—that there are two streams of benefits that are available in the event of a natural disaster. Firstly, there are the joint Commonwealth and state arrangements—the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements. In respect of those arrangements 20 local government areas in Queensland have been declared and 21 in New South Wales. An additional four were added today. Those entitlements are essentially community based and individual entitlements—for instance, for the immediate response in assisting the community in the refuge centres and for the longer recovery and repair operations. That was the substantial focus of the honourable member's presentation. There are also individual payments with respect to hardship by way of assistance for business and property owners and even for non-government organisations. Depending on the status declared by the state government, the Commonwealth essentially, after a threshold, shares the cost of those.

Secondly, there is a stream of payments in respect of Australian government disaster recovery payments. They are exclusively Commonwealth. They entitle individuals who have been badly affected to a payment of $1,000 and for children, $400. Essentially, the activation of those payments is based on the consideration and expert advice provided to me regarding numbers of people affected, the uniqueness of the event and the extent of the impact on the local community, including the percentage of the local community affected—for instance, in the town of St George effectively the whole town was evacuated; obviously, that town was significantly impacted—and also whether a state has declared 'category C' under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements. Essentially, the philosophy behind these grants that were initiated by the former government was that the event was a very severe event and so impacted on the local community that it really required an injection of resources, not only to ease the suffering of individuals but to inject resources into that local community to sustain it.

I should say that there is some degree of overlap between the two systems, as you would anticipate, but the point I am making in listing these benefits is a subsequent point that I will make with respect to what I believe we need to constantly refocus on—that is, preventative measures.

I can accept the honourable member's points with respect to administration although I should place on the record that the working relationship I have had with the state ministers in this respect has been absolutely outstanding. Mike Gallacher in New South Wales and Neil Roberts in Queensland are both fine ministers and decent men. We have had ongoing and constant communication regarding these events.

I appreciate the input—I will take it on—that the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements are complicated. There is no doubt about that. You could study them for three years and obtain a degree and still not know how they applied in specific circumstances. I think that is a fair estimate that has been put to me. In particular there are complications with respect to such things as eligibility criteria. These events do not always fall precisely over one line, so judging where that line exists is often a difficulty. With respect to low-interest loans that are available to businesses and primary producers, we recognise that there are complications, particularly in circumstance where those affected will not have the resources to engage an accountant or a lawyer to prepare the necessary records.

All these points are valid points and we will take them on board. I do not have the figures for New South Wales; however, in terms of getting the country back in order, in the broad—there will obviously be issues of substance, as has been raised by the member for Lyne—in Queensland there were 9,170 kilometres of roads that were damaged and 8,482 kilometres have now been repaired. There is obviously still a substantial amount to repair but nonetheless that is quite a solid piece of work that has been done. In Queensland 4,748 kilometres of rail line were damaged. That is now fully functional. Eleven of Queensland's 20 ports were damaged. They are now fully operational. In terms of schools, 411 were affected; they are now fully open. And 89 bridges and culverts which were damaged have been restored.

I commend the Queensland government for that effort. Obviously, in terms of the Commonwealth government's assistance and oversight, we have been able to work with them on that. That is not to say that there will not be individual circumstances that require attention. In respect of that, part of the problem, I suppose, is that there are often several agencies involved. Again, for members of the public who are interested or concerned, perhaps the best starting point for information regarding the relevant agency that they should apply to, for either an individual payment or a business grant that they may be entitled to, is the Commonwealth government's website, which is www.disasterassist.gov.au.

The other aspect of the culture we have in Australia which is tremendously significant is that culture of volunteers. The member for Lyne, as I am sure will other members, commended the counter-disaster effort by the professionals and also the volunteers. Volunteers certainly are not amateur these days; they are highly professional in terms of their level of skill. Representatives of the state emergency services of New South Wales and Queensland came out of the woodwork from all locations around the states to help those areas that had been affected. It was the same with the rural fire services in their assistance. The non-government organisations are absolutely outstanding in the way they get in and assist the community, not only to staff the evacuation centres but also to doorknock and provide food to those people who are cleaning up, as are the local governments. I have been so impressed with the community leadership that is shown by the local governments and, indeed, the contribution of federal members. Our military has also been outstanding once again. A special mention has been made of the communication and assistance in keeping civil society on the road through the ABC.

Having discussed the benefits that are available, I should say that we need to ensure that that is not our primary focus. Obviously the media focus and the focus of this House is, understandably, on these events after the natural disasters occur, but we really need to refocus our emphasis on prevention. To return to the example I referred to, Queensland has suffered $5.7 billion in damage, but $840 million was paid out by way of those individual payments. They were in addition to the natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements, the personal hardship payments and the joint federal and state benefits that I have referred to. There was certainly a substantial effort put in and substantial resources involved in these past-event personal payments. Obviously they are justified—these are people who had been through a tremendous amount of hardship—but we historically have not spent anywhere near enough or focused our attention anywhere near enough on prevention, and that is where I think we should shift the culture. There is no doubt that mitigation does work. I went to Charleville, for instance, and stood on one side of the levee with my feet dry, looking over at little more than head level at literally miles of swiftly moving water. The levee had saved the town. Lismore is another example and there are numerous examples elsewhere. They think that in Cunnamulla the levee will save the town—we all hope and pray—from the floodwaters which will move there.

These mitigation measures do work. When flying over the town of Murwillumbah, I saw that the old construction technique of building properties on stilts works. The township was inundated, but certainly the contents and the building structures of the properties that had been elevated remained sound—old lessons that we can apply. There is much we can do. By way of further commendation, I commend the Financial Review for the editorial stance that they took today. They again acknowledged the loss that had been sustained but pointed out that we do need to focus on prevention. Again, planning decisions are vitally important and reference was made in the article to the fact that very expensive properties were built in Brisbane along the lovely riverfront, but if you look at the photos from the 1970s you see that the area was completely flooded out. A graphic photo was shown of a power station that had been flooded. Clearly, properties should not have been bought there.

I am not sure of the view of the member for Maranoa on this matter, but, looking at Roma, the people on these properties have gone through so much for three years in a row. It was not their fault, but clearly careful attention needs to be given as to where properties are constructed if they are going to go through that sort of trauma on an annual basis, or at least for three years in a row. We need to look at that sort of thing. We are looking at states such as Victoria buying back properties vulnerable to the fires. We are looking at Queensland. Again, I commend them in the area of Grantham, where they are buying back properties and allocating others. These are the sorts of things that we need to factor into our mitigation strategies. In the area of zoning, we need to identify risk factors, and we are in fact working with the states and territories to identify, mark and note areas according to their particular risk factors so that, in turn, we can have areas zoned according to their risk and building codes applied appropriate to that risk as designated. Some areas, of course, will be designated as quite inappropriate to build on. But, by going through this systematically and methodically, we will be able to make our country far more resilient.

There will, of course, be legacy issues with these properties that have repeatedly been flooded and, again, we need to systematically work through those with the state and local government areas so that we can take preventative measures. Whether it is a levee system or other preventative steps, we need to work through these issues and we need to plan for the future. So while it is entirely appropriate that we show empathy, as we do again today, for those who have suffered in natural disasters and we are all keen to provide that assistance post-event which is so necessary, I think we need to have a debate in this House and it is a debate I intend to have. A discussion I need to have with members, particularly those who have the local experiences to feed in, is what more we should be doing and how we refocus all that we can reasonably do to protect and prevent further damage and loss of life into the future.

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

I thank the House and I thank the member for Lyne for putting forward this MPI for debate today. I also thank the House for the bipartisan support that this motion has received, noting that all those in the chamber rose when called on to support this motion.

What we are dealing with in the constituency that I represent—and Roma is my hometown—is unprecedented, in that we have had three floods in three years, devastating the town of Roma and of course downstream with further impacts in St George and Dirranbandi. It has been felt across the electorate, but I think probably the most impacted town of all—and that is not just because I live there—has been my hometown of Roma. There have been three floods there in a row.

We talk about flood mitigation, levee banks and all the known records that we have. The floods in Mitchell, for instance, went well above anything that has ever been recorded in European settlement times, and it was the same in Roma. I will give you an example in Mitchell, where some 280 homes were damaged and where 80 to 90 per cent of the people were not evacuated out of the town. There was not time and there were not the resources. Everything was cut off. It happened so quickly. They were moved to higher ground, to the sports centre.

The flood depth gauge there goes to nine metres. That is well above anything in recorded history—seven, eight and 8.5 metres. Within four to five hours of the alert going out the floodwaters were a metre over that depth gauge. It goes to nine metres, and that disappeared. It gives you some idea of the ferocity and the nature and the way that this happened. It happened so rapidly. All the warnings that we might have had and the alerts that went out just did not give us time to do much more. Luckily in Mitchell there was no loss of life, but there was certainly a lot of damage to property—and I want to deal with some of the issues to do with that.

Notwithstanding the best intentions of government, state and federal, there will still be people who fall through the cracks. We have to make sure that those people are not left behind. There are people who cannot get insurance because last year or the year before their home was flooded. What insurance company is going to take them on—there are perhaps some—knowing that this was flooded last year or the year before? I spoke to a number of people in my hometown of Roma, where 360 homes were flood damaged. Just before Christmas a lady I spoke to had just had the kitchen cupboards put back in—she had done it twice and was looking forward to having Christmas at home with this new furniture. It is a very humble house but it is her piece of Australia. Last Friday, by midday, all of that was ruined again and was under water.

So I say to the House in the context of what we are debating here that these are not known circumstances in terms of the floods that we are dealing with and, notwithstanding the best intentions of government, we have to make sure that there are not people left behind. I know that there has been a fund established in Queensland by the Premier. We need to make sure that there are funds that are available, and I hope it is cash that is available, because that is the most important commodity at these times—to be able to use cash to purchase what is needed locally. Those who do not have flood insurance, notwithstanding all of the NDRRA packages, will not get anything more than $1,000 per person. They cannot get the small business assistance or the farmer assistance of $5,000 plus, up to $25,000. They are going to rely on charities and the goodwill of the people, as we have seen happen in the last two years. We have to move quickly. We really need a fund locally in some of these communities to help the charitable organisations, the Ministers Fraternal and others, and ensure that the people who fall into that category are helped.

I would also say that it was not just the towns that were affected; the outlying areas were also affected—the properties, the loss of crops and the loss of stock. In fact, I have a report from people on the Maranoa River. They said all they could see at one stage were dogs and cattle being washed downstream, helplessly trying to survive in the water. At that stage, those people were actually on the roof of the house. The water had never been anywhere near their house before—such was the nature of this natural disaster.

Shires have been declared—Balonne, Barcaldine, Barcoo, Blackall-Tambo, Longreach, Maranoa regional, Murweh, Paroo, Quilpie and Winton. All those shires in the electorate of Maranoa were affected to various degrees—from the extreme example I have just outlined to parts of the towns and parts of those shires. There are also a number of towns and communities that are not in the national media spotlight—for example, Surat, Augathella, Eulo, Tambo and Blackall. They rate a very small mention sometimes, and the focus is on where perhaps the larger populations are. I have not forgotten about them, and I know the package that has been just announced will pick up those people. But there will still be people who will fall through the cracks, and we have to make sure that we do not leave people behind.

My hometown of Roma has been hit three years in a row. There are small businesses and people who have been there all their lives wondering whether it is time to go. They are on an emotional tight wire at the moment in many of these communities. I thank you, Minister McClelland and also Minister O'Connor for visiting us—and I thank you for the lift back to Canberra. You saw the work of the Salvation Army and how they spoke with passion about what they are doing—the 1,000 meals they had served that day—and how they feel about it. You saw that very openly displayed at the recovery centre where they were cooking those meals.

I will quickly relate my experience. I was at home that night. We live on a hill, so we were fine. If it got to our hill, we would need the Ark. It was about 3.30 in the morning and I had been up half the night reading and I said, 'This is going to be bad.' I went into town at about half past six in the morning and looked around. By that stage the alert had gone out. That underpins the importance of communications, the ability of towns to alert people and the importance of connections—either fixed-wire or mobile connections—for all of these towns in these situations. At that stage the volunteers, the SES and the emergency management people were out in force and so too were the resource companies—Halliburton, Santos and Origin. Even two days ago, as you found when we were there, Minister, Origin were sending out 40 people, 'the mud army', to Mitchell to help with the clean-up and Santos were sending out 60-odd people. They have been absolutely brilliant, along with all the volunteers—state emergency services and others.

Most of the people in my home town of Roma who had started the process of protecting their premises and their homes had to get out because the flood rose faster and higher, as you saw. Tragically, we lost a life. Jane Sheahan was out helping others. She was up early in the morning when the alert went out for people to go to the SES to get sandbags. Jane put them in the back of the Toyota Land Cruiser and was bringing them back along the shortest route, straight back down to where houses needed protecting, but the water had risen and she went straight into it. The people who rescued her son said it was tragic, and they will have to live with that. We will all live with it in the community. She said: 'Please save my boy. Please save my boy.'

There is a lot I could talk about. The Warrego Highway is a problem at the Mitchell Bridge. We are going to have to bring forward very rapidly construction of the new bridge, which has already been approved. We need to make sure we have funding, I believe in this budget, for flood mitigation, including levies. I think the town of Roma have $7 million to do theirs. They have nearly completed the study on it and Mitchell is similar. And funding for the Mitchell Bridge needs to be brought forward.

Last year the trucking industry had 68 days on which they could not operate because of floods. The previous year they had 70 days on which they could not operate. They do not know how long it will be this year, because of load limits on those roads. The banks have to play their part. They are charging 15 per cent penalty rate for nonpayment of payments which are due. I thank you for your indulgence. I thank the minister and I thank the House. (Time expired)

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyne for bringing this matter of public importance to the attention of the House. I support everything said here today on the scope of work that needs to be done to assist people in natural disasters. I also want to thank the Prime Minister for her many visits to my electorate in particular and also to Queensland, where she has made a number of visits to flooded regions. I also thank the Treasurer for his visits, most recently when we dedicated the Pillar of Courage at Goodna, a symbol of strength in the local region and in the middle of my electorate, which was heavily hit, as were so many other places. I will not go into the detail of that—I have spoken about it many times. That symbol at Goodna, the pillar, is a flood marker. What really shocked me about the pillar was that it is at the lower end of the scale of floods compared to previous floods. Hopefully we will not see such floods again. There is no question that natural disasters are a very familiar aspect of life in all parts of Australia. It seems natural disasters occur every year in some part of the country, whether they are flood, fire, drought or some extreme condition.

In recent years Queensland and New South Wales have been hit particularly hard, very much so in the summer—my electorate of Oxley, through the western corridor, the electorates of Blair, Morton, Brisbane, Wright and Maranoa. We have just heard the member for Maranoa speak about the devastating impact of three floods through his home town. We have also seen bushfires in Western Australia and in 2009 the most devastating Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria.

The current situation in Queensland is that St George has 46 properties flood affected and approximately 25 per cent of the entire town is without sewage services. The majority of evacuees from St George are staying in Dalby or at the RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. It is a massive disruption to their lives—for many it will be for the rest of their lives. In Charleville the Warrego River is beginning to fall, thankfully, and Charleville Hospital reopened at 5 pm yesterday. So there is some good news among the disaster.

In Dirranbandi the Balonne River is still rising. The town is expected to be isolated for at least two weeks. When you consider the impact of that, being isolated from your home, your town and all your possessions—what is left of them—it is a long time. In Mitchell 23 properties have been assessed as being severely damaged, 88 are moderately damaged and 177 have other damage. There are 90 homes which remain without power.

In Roma 26 properties have been assessed as being severely damaged, 277 are moderately damaged and another 200 are suffering as well. The scale of the damage is enormous. For some it is not just their property; as we heard just a moment ago from the member for Maranoa, for some it is also their life. As we would all expect here, nobody will leave people in these regions on their own—it is just not the Australian way. We heard that often when talking to people around the community when we were assisting through the floods. There were a lot of people from different backgrounds and different countries who have settled in Australia who were out helping their fellow Australians and saying that the strange thing for them was that in their country that would not have happened but here it did. That extends right through from ordinary people to elected representatives and local government.

Government assistance is significant and should never be undervalued or underplayed. It will never be enough. You can never quite replace everything someone has lost nor can you rebuild everything. The Queensland state government in particular has worked exceptionally hard, as has the federal government, to ensure people are best restored to a decent position. Not everyone is lucky enough to say they are no longer affected in some way. We know that is just not the case. Those who are very unfortunate are affected a second or third time. It is quite a disaster.

The Australian government and the Queensland government immediately stepped in and helped Queenslanders in a range of ways, particularly the Australian government with the very quick and timely $1,000 for adults and $400 for children just to get people immediately back on their feet, whether it is to help restock the fridge with food, buy some clothes or get petrol for the car, if they saved the car, and so forth. The clean-up and recovery work is enormous and without the volunteer efforts of so many people it would just be impossible—we cannot contemplate how we could ever pay for all the work done. We can attach some value to the money that is put through from government—$150 million was given to more than 13,700 small businesses and primary producers through special grants. They were acted on as quickly as possible. I do take note of some of the concerns of the member for Lyne, and I am sure others, that it is never quite fast enough and we need to work faster. No-one is going to argue against that. I think we just have to find better ways of dealing with these methods of payment so we can acknowledge people's pain and suffering and try to restore their circumstances as quickly as possible.

The government also recognised that rebuilding would take some time, and we are committed to that rebuilding. The government advanced some $2.2 billion as part of a $5.6 billion reconstruction commitment to see work get underway on essential infrastructure like roads and bridges. We heard earlier from the Minister for Emergency Management that there are something like 9,700 kilometres of severely damaged roads in Queensland, let alone through New South Wales. You can imagine the problem where farming communities rely on one road only and they can no longer get in or out. It is not only a social impost but an impost on their businesses and livelihoods as well. That is quite significant.

The Queensland Natural Disaster Jobs and Skills Package is also there to help a whole range of workers who are affected as well. A lot of businesses have been lost. The owner of the business loses the business but all the workers lose their jobs as well. We have seen a lot of that through Queensland and New South Wales. Queenslanders have received some form of personal assistance in those circumstances. A range of other assistance packages have been put in place. The government continues to provide immediate assistance to people affected by these most recent floods and continues to work with the states and local government authorities to manage assistance through the NDRRA. We have heard about local government areas such as the Balonne, Barcaldine, Barcoo, Blackall-Tambo, Bourke, Carpentaria, Central Highlands, Cloncurry, Doomadgee, Flinders, Isaac, Longreach, McKinlay, Maranoa, Mount Isa, Murweh, Paroo, Quilpie, Richmond and Winton. Unfortunately most of those places are in the electorate of Maranoa—it is a real tragedy that one member has to try to deal with all those. A range of grants have gone out in those areas, and the New South Wales government is doing similar things.

Currently more funding is going out in direct assistance, and we should take note of the enormous amount of goodwill that exists between local government and the state and federal governments to work these processes through. It is never easy. It is a lot of money and we want to make sure it does get to the right people at the right time and does not just get lost in the system with bureaucracy taking over. You might be putting a lot of money into the system but people are not getting the immediate benefit. A lot of work is being done to make sure it is done right, and sometimes that does cause delays. We always regret that. I know we all work hard individually and collectively to make sure the assistance gets through as soon as possible.

For some good reasons I remain a supporter of the one-off levy, and particularly of what we did last time. I accept what the member for Lyne said, that there should be some sort of a fund, but I think having a specific levy where there is specific hardship is a good way to go. It is a good way to deal with a particular issue. Otherwise the funding comes from consolidated revenue—where it comes from anyway. All the money that goes out to flood affected communities or fire affected communities comes from consolidated revenue—that is the fund, in a sense. There is the moral hazard, the potential danger, that if a specific fund is set up that will have some consequences as well in terms of private insurance, business insurance and how individuals in our very generous communities respond. I am more than willing to have the debate. I think it is a worthwhile method to look at but we also need to be cautious on the other side of that so that we get it right. I congratulate the government, the minister and the Prime Minister and thank the member for Lyne for bringing these issues forward.

Tony Windsor (New England, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join with other members in thanking the member for Lyne for bringing the matter of disaster relief before the House. As the member for Maranoa said, it is good to see a bipartisan approach being taken to a particular issue. The member for Oxley discussed the concept of a sovereign fund or a natural disaster fund. I have been an advocate of that for probably 15 years—a long time before I came to this place. The member for Oxley made the point that government revenue is always there to fund this sort of assistance as the need comes along. I beg to differ with that because there have been, historically, different responses to similar circumstances depending on the economic or financial cycle of the government of the day and the politics of the electorate at the time. A whole range of variations affect responses to very similar incidents.

Over the years, through exceptional circumstances arrangements and various other arrangements that the Minister for Emergency Management spoke about earlier, we have attempted to get to some degree a level playing field. Nonetheless, there have been different responses at different times depending on economic and other circumstances, not the least of which are political circumstances. That creates an expectation that if you got it I should get it when I have a natural disaster. Like the member for Lyne, I did not support the Queensland flood levy. It is not that I do not support Queensland people getting some assistance—obviously I do. The question was why we needed a levy in that particular circumstance when it could have been taken out of consolidated revenue. Obviously, there were issues of a government heading towards a surplus and all sorts of other things that would have been exacerbated, such as the deficit et cetera. I think the member for Oxley actually proves the case that there are variations in responses that we get.

I believe that we should look seriously, and I am encouraged that some people would like to have this debate, at the concept of a national natural disaster fund of some sort that would have guidelines that would remove the complications that occur from time to time. On a number of occasions prior to the Queensland floods last year—quite an incredible event; there is no doubt about that and, obviously, parts of New South Wales and Victoria suffered under similar circumstances—I did some research into the cost to communities of natural disasters, although I am not saying the cost of the total road network and all of the infrastructure. These are communities that have been covered by insurance. I think it was the case that prior to Cyclone Larry in Queensland there had been one event that had a cost of over a billion dollars a year. That had been one such event in the previous 20 years. I can be corrected on this but some time back I had reason to engage with the Insurance Council of Australia to try to help get some numbers around that. If you look at it, you see that in most years disasters in Australia probably cost Australia somewhere between $200 million and $400 million a year. Obviously, other events since the floods last year or even taking last year's floods make that look like small cheese.

The point that I have made on a number of occasions when this debate has come up is that a dollar a week from all Australians raises a billion dollars in a year. I would have thought that in some sense or other, if a billion dollars is the number, even if that were the average disaster cost there would be a case—particularly given what has gone on in Queensland with the flood insurance arrangements as to whether the water was coming up or was coming down, which has ramifications for whether you are covered by insurance even though you thought you were—to have a serious look at some sort of national insurance scheme—and socialism comes out of the woodwork here!—that looks after these particular circumstances. If a dollar a week from every Australian raises a billion dollars in a year and if the average cost of disasters in the last 20 years has been $300 million or $400 million—30c or 40c a week—even if you double or treble that, it is fairly cheap insurance for those who are impacted by disasters. Within those numbers that I have just quoted was the Sydney hailstorm—absolute devastation—or the Wollongong mudslide. I was nowhere near Wollongong but I remember going in to bat for those people some years ago in the New South Wales parliament because a disaster had occurred, a mudslide that took away their homes, and the normal arrangements had not worked or had not applied. Take the Coffs Harbour catastrophe that occurred some years ago. All of those are brought into those numbers.

I urge the minister, if he has a spare staffer or two, to actually do a bit of research into this. While I can be corrected in terms of the numbers, I think the principle holds given that as a nation we do have natural disasters from time to time, whether they be fires in Victoria, Canberra or wherever, whereby people are impacted. Even though those people might have done the right thing in trying to protect their premises with levy banks and insurance taken out, all those sorts of things, and even though the goodwill of everybody would have been to try to address those particular issues, the magnitude of major disasters—not normal droughts or normal floods; we farm on a floodplain and we bought land on a floodplain because it floods; the floodplain is there because it floods—means that in those certain disastrous circumstances people do get severe abnormal exceptional impacts occurring to them. So I would encourage people to have a close look at that concept so that in the future we do not have to go through what we went through last year in terms of a special 'one-off maybe' levy for the people of Queensland, and the politics. The funds would always be there, triggered by certain criteria that could be developed as to fires, floods and exceptional climatic events.

Is climate change happening? I think we probably are moving into an area of extreme climatic events. We can get into arguments about whether it is getting hotter or colder, but I think one of the dangers that we really do need to look at is the extremity of these events: long dry spells and extraordinary rainfall events that we have not seen before. We cannot say that is all because of climate change, but I think the assessment of risk comes into this, and history may well prove that we may well have been able to do something about these extraordinary cyclonic and other activities, such as the drying out of the understorey and the major bushfires and other catastrophes, that are occurring.

My electorate has been impacted but I have taken most of my time talking about the member for Oxley's, given that diversionary tactic that he uses with great effect! My electorate has been impacted by floods in recent times as well. In particular, Gunnedah, a great community, has been, and the mayor sent me a photo of the racecourse only about half an hour ago. As many members have said, the emergency services' responses are always exceptional. I am not one of those members who wander around when they are working—I know some do but I do not agree with that—but I do pay great regard to the work that those people put in. I pay regard to the work that ABC Radio and the emergency response people do. Once again, in terms of budgets we should remember that in these cases we need community access to local information, and there is no doubt in my mind that ABC Radio has done that extraordinarily well in all our areas in the last few months. (Time expired)

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too would like to thank the honourable member for Lyne for raising this matter of public importance and so giving us the opportunity to speak on it, particularly about floods, flood damage and associated issues and to talk in a bipartisan way about some of the ways we can approach these issues. I heard the Minister for Emergency Management talk about some of the issues that he and I have discussed at various times and particularly when he has visited my electorate when it has had floods. I thank you for that, Minister. We have talked before and I have invited you to come up again.

I have five local government areas in the seat of Page and four of them have been identified by a state declaration as requiring assistance, then the NDRAA can kick in. Those areas are Kyogle, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Clarence Valley. It is always hard when we talk about floods to say some are worse than others but they clearly are. That is what happens with floods. The Clarence Valley really copped its fair share—a bit of a hiding—and very sadly one of the local residents from Coots Crossing, where Mayor Richie Williamson lives, died on 31 January. He was Robert, or Bob, Fox.

I am quite experienced in responding to floods. On Australia Day, unusually I did not attend any event because I was flooded in and could not go out. I spent Australia Day at home, which was most unusual. I am used to preparing for floods and doing all those things but I spent a few hours hurriedly trying to move things because the waters came up quite quickly. But people can get caught. Even with the best care and the best knowledge, it can happen. We always say, 'Be safe, do this, do that,' but people can get caught. I have been in the situation where I take extreme care, but at different times I have found myself in a situation in floods when it has not been as safe as it should be. When we had the catastrophic floods across Australia the year before, particularly in Queensland, there were seven floods in my area in a few weeks. I cannot quite remember but I think there were four major, two moderate and one minor flood within a period of a couple of weeks. They were going up and down, up and down.

That brings me to the issue that has been raised here today—that is, the impact. We have a flood on a flood on a flood going through my area. What that has done to the roads, the infrastructure, the cane farmers, the prawns and fishing is just a bit hard to bear. The other issue I would like to bring up is what the honourable member for New England was talking about—a dedicated, hypothecated fund for natural disasters. We have seen increasing extreme weather events. We also know that is increasing because of climate change. I favour having that sort of fund. It makes sense. I have been sitting here talking to the honourable member for Fremantle—I do not think she will mind my saying this—so I can enjoin her into it for saying, 'Yes, that made sense,' as we were listening to the honourable member speak. I have heard him talk before on that subject. When you live in areas where it does flood all the time you are very focused on these issues when you have to respond and deal with them.

The other issue that I have raised over a number of years is the eligibility of farmers to get low-interest loans. A lot of this is a state and federal responsibility and, as the Minister for Emergency Management said, trying to understand all the intricacies of it means you could almost get a degree in it and still not understand. When you derive over 50 per cent of your income from the farm, which most of the farmers in my area do, then you are not eligible. The minister knows this because we have had this conversation. The minister has been with me and various farmers at Greenridge Hall when we talked about that issue. It is administered by the Rural Assistance Authority and I have raised it with them, but it is one of those issues that should be on a ministerial council's agenda, or whatever it is when you call all the ministers together. In my area the eligibility requirement excludes a lot of people who really do need it. A lot of them are not rich farmers; they need to have income off-farm. This is one of the issues that I would ask to be taken up at both levels.

There is also the issue of flood insurance. I do not know if this is still with Minister Shorten, now the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, but he did a lot of good work in that area to get some commonalities into the definition of what is a flood and all of those issues. I told the local media that I feared that premiums would be so high that they would end up being out of reach for the people who needed it. Because I live in a flood area I know premiums are going up by a few thousand dollars in some areas and this is going to be difficult for people to grapple with. There is also a parliamentary committee that is looking at that issue as well, so I hope we can get some sense out of that. I cannot talk about the floods without talking about the volunteers, as all honourable members have—all of our local people who muck in and help when we have floods. I put on record my appreciation of all of those people who do the things that need to be done and also of the SES, the RFS, the charitable organisations such as the Red Cross and also the military. The Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service goes over my place. I always hear it and I can tell which helicopter it is. I can identify it by sound. I heard the Black Hawks arrive this time. They have a particular sound. They were based in Lismore so they could go out across the region. I think the minister would have seen when he went to Tweed Heads as well that they were flying around the region and helping. It was really good to have the military there.

Also, the media and the ABC were mentioned. They do a wonderful job in these times, and also commercial radio does as well. I would like to note that. The ABC comes to the fore but our commercial local radios do too. They provide a really good community service to the locals.

I had an email the other day from a friend of mine, Reverend Bob Rutherford. He has a chaplaincy with emergency services. He was going to be deployed to Queensland in about a month or so, but they asked him to deploy a lot sooner because of what is happening in Queensland. He has been talking to the locals and he says some of them are quite shell-shocked and stunned because of what happened last year and the events before it and the major events that are happening now. He said that one of the best things we can do at government level is support the locals in their needs and what they want, so community led recovery but with us being there holding out a helping hand and making sure that people do not get left behind. He was going to Roma and places in your area, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott. He will be a valuable resource in the community.

In closing, I want to say that we do a lot of good things. We as a community respond well in times of crisis and as governments we do the best we can as well. Every time we have a flood or a major event it is an opportunity to learn lessons. I know that happens with Emergency Management Australia and the states do that. I would just ask the minister to look at the issue of eligibility.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance, brought to the House by the member for Lyne. I would like to note that it is somewhat comforting as a member in this place that sometimes thrives on adversity that at times like this we all tend to pull together. I acknowledge the minister for his visit to my electorate on Monday and the prompt action that came from that visit. I also see the former parliamentary secretary for agriculture—I am not quite sure what he is these days!—and acknowledge that he came and studied the losses we had in the Dubbo area last year.

This is a big flood in northern New South Wales. The benchmark floods in Moree in my lifetime have been those of 1974 and 1976. These floods exceeded those and were comparable to the flood of 1955. A lot of the focus has been on the larger centres and the river systems—the Namoi River and the towns of Boggabri, Narrabri, Wee Waa and, on the Gwydir, principally around Moree. But some of the more tragic stories that I am getting through my office now are about battles we are having coming from unknown streams and cross-country flows mainly between Moree and Narrabri, now focusing on the Rowena community. There have been large losses of stock and grain. I understand machinery has gone underwater. They are battling that at the moment. Quite a few of the levees around the homesteads there—I am not sure of the numbers—have not been sufficient. We are seeing inundation of homesteads and the farm infrastructure around that, which is a massive financial loss.

This flood event is affecting my different constituents in different ways in Moree, Yarraman and smaller villages down the river. There has been a wonderful response from the SES, the Rural Fire Service and local volunteers, and the local community have been helping each other out. It has been quite heartwarming to see that level of support and how people are helping each other out. I was in Moree on Monday as the water was receding and everyone was just rolling up their sleeves and cleaning up the mess and getting rid of the mud as the water went down. It was surprising how quickly they did that.

The announcement of a category C from the Australian government disaster relief fund was greatly welcomed by many of those people. I am just disappointed that some people have tended to see this as an opportunity to make a bit of easy money. There have been reports of people phoning Centrelink and misrepresenting the severity they have experienced personally because of the availability of the $1,000 payment. I would discourage people from doing that. I understand that the government is trying to retrieve funds from people who received funds illegitimately in the Brisbane floods last year, and I understand that that will be the case in these floods. This assistance is designed to help people who really need it and, believe you me, there are plenty of people who really need assistance. For people who are thinking about rorting the system, I would caution against that because ultimately it will catch up with you. Also, I welcome the $15,000 grants that were announced today for small business for flood damage. That will be appreciated, but it is a drop in the ocean compared with what is going to be required. I have heard a report of one farmer who has had over $1 million in damage to his irrigation infrastructure. That is one farm alone. I have heard of a drover who has not had a job since the end of October. He cannot get out onto the route because it is impassable because of the water and stock are not moving. Someone like that is experiencing real financial hardship. This grant does not cover loss of income so there will still be a lot of hardship. I was speaking to a small business man who has an irrigation company and he said he has not worked since the beginning of November. He employs six people. He has been paying those six people so he does not lose them because qualified staff are such a valuable commodity. But his debts are adding up because this has been going on for some time. So there is going to be a need to ensure that we do not lose people through financial hardship as this goes on.

I also want to speak about the impact on public infrastructure and the cost to local government. On the black soil plains of the Gwydir, Moree and Narrabri shires, the great irony is that the most highly productive land generally has the worst roads. The most highly productive land is on the black soil, which is notoriously difficult and expensive to build roads on. There is generally a shortage of suitable gravel and road-building materials, and they are very susceptible to deterioration in wet weather.

Councils across my electorate have losses in the tens of millions of dollars. The obvious one in the Gwydir shire is the Gwydir River bridge at Gravesend, which I think will take months to repair. A lot of causeways have been washed away. A lot of gravel has been washed off roads. At Christmas-time after the first flood went through, I was in discussion with the state Minister for Roads and Ports, the Hon. Duncan Gay, and the Mayor of Moree Plains Shire Council, Katrina Humphries, and we felt that rather than flood payments to councils after disasters to repair infrastructure to pre-flood levels there is a good argument to be made to engineer the repairs so that they will cover the next flood. We are now seeing roads that have been repaired being washed away with the next flood. It would better value for the Australian taxpayer to put more money in now to repair them and not have to come back and do it again after the next flood.

The other issue is the difficulty that producers are having getting their produce off their farms. We had a fairly large harvest, though some of it was downgraded due to the November rain. At the moment, we have huge tonnages of grain on farm. Many of these farmers have contractual agreements with flour millers, feedlots and users on the coast to deliver this grain in a timely manner, and it cannot be shifted because the road is impassable. They are in a real financial bind. Some of them are having trouble with contracts. Some of them have payments to make to finance companies. They were expecting to have money come in and they cannot ship the grain. That is causing real hardship.

In closing, I will give a plug for the work that is being done by the Australian Rural Roads Group, who are identifying the importance of the first few miles for a product. Every item on supermarket shelves starts its life on a country road. If it cannot do the first 10 kilometres, it cannot do the last 100 or 1,000 kilometres. In this country, we need to seriously look at bringing these roads up to a condition that will handle a flood situation like this.

I have welcomed the opportunity to talk about the severity of the floods in the Parkes electorate. I would like to close by acknowledging the great work being done by my communities and by the volunteers who have come from all over New South Wales to help. I want to let those people know that this parliament is still thinking about them and to acknowledge that their hardship will be going on for some time yet.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance today. Since the commencement of this year, we have once again seen Mother Nature challenge communities across the eastern states, with northern New South Wales and southern Queensland bearing the brunt of mountains of rain and, as a result, flooding. Whilst a lot of media attention has been focused on the devastating floods in north-west New South Wales and south-west Queensland, I draw the attention of the House to the fact that the mid-North Coast and far North Coast have also experienced significant floods in recent weeks. I understand that Taree and Port Macquarie are currently experiencing heavy rainfall as this debate is going on.

All five local government areas in the electorate of Cowper have been affected: Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Nambucca and Kempsey shires have all experienced flooding to various degrees. Since the beginning of the year, the Bureau of Meteorology has recorded the following rainfall in my electorate since 1 January: Bellbrook, 570 millimetres; Coffs Harbour, 389; Dorrigo, almost a metre, at 988 millimetres; Kempsey, 370; Nambucca Heads, 415; and Grafton, 356 millimetres.

Across the region, there has been substantial damage to roads, bridges and farms, and many families have been isolated and some houses flooded. In the Bellingen shire, we have seen the Waterfall Way between Bellingen and Dorrigo close as a result of landslips. More than 500 residents were isolated along Darkwood Road with food drops necessary to provide families with basic necessities. In Nambucca, we have seen the shire council lodge an initial claim for $500,000 just so that the clean-up can continue and transport routes can be reopened. Some of the bridges which have been damaged or closed in the Nambucca Valley include Thumb Creek bridge, Burrapine bridge and Laverty's bridge, which are all on the Taylors Arm Road. But there are many others, including Factory bridge on Greenhills Road, Grays Crossing bridge and Boat Harbour bridge. In the Coffs Harbour City Council area, residents in low-lying areas of the Orara Valley, including Karangi, Nana Glen and Glenreagh, were affected. I have been contacted by a number of people from the Orara Valley who are seeking additional government assistance, and residents at Corindi experienced flooding on their properties after what they called a 'mini tsunami'. As 68-year-old Brian Taylor told the local paper, the Coffs Coast Advocate, 'This was certainly the biggest one I've seen here and I've lived in the area all my life.'

Sadly, in the Clarence Valley Council area we saw a Coutts Crossing man, Robert Fox, tragically drown after his car broke down in a gully. It is reported that he was swept under a roadside culvert. Although the circumstances of this tragedy are still being investigated, it is believed the flooding was a contributing factor.

In Kempsey the State Emergency Service had the communities of Gladstone, Smithtown, Kinchela and Belmore on stand-by for flooding after more than 350 millimetres of rain.

Natural disaster declarations have been made by the New South Wales government in all five local government areas in the Cowper electorate. This has meant assistance is available through the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, or NDRRA. These arrangements provide a range of assistance, including grants to councils to repair infrastructure and restore services; personal hardship and distress assistance; concessional interest rate loans for small businesses and primary producers; transport freight subsidies for primary producers; restoration or replacement of essential public assets; and loans and grants to churches, voluntary non-profit organisations and sporting clubs.

Whilst this assistance is welcome, there are certainly residents in my electorate who would benefit from Australian government disaster recovery payments of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child. There are also many primary producers in the Cowper electorate who have suffered substantial damage to their properties and would benefit from the grants to primary producers of up to $15,000 which have been extended in previous floods and have been offered to those currently affected in north-west New South Wales.

As I said previously, my office has been contacted by a number of people seeking additional assistance. Many of these people are from the Orara Valley, west of Coffs Harbour, but certainly those impacted are not limited to this area. I would like to draw to the House's attention to one of the emails I have received so that members understand how these recent floods have impacted on some people in the Cowper electorate. This is how one constituent described what he had experienced:

I am contacting you on behalf of myself and other families who reside in the Karangi district who were adversely affected by the recent flood disaster. The seven families in this immediate area were isolated for 10 days and were not able to attend work, complete other activities etc and the children were unable to attend school.

The isolation began on Monday 23rd January and we were only able to safely cross the Orara River on Friday morning 3rd February 2012.

On Saturday 4th February I visited another area further up stream and I was informed that approximately 15 other families were also adversely affected by the flood event. The families that reside along Watkins Rd in Karangi were isolated for 4 days. It is also my belief that there were families that reside in the north Coramba / Bucca area that were isolated for an extended period of time.

We find it rather difficult to believe the 30 or so families adversely affected by the Coffs Harbour January 2012 flood crisis are not being provided access to the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment.

I think you will agree that the families of this area meet the criteria for the Disaster Recovery Payment and therefore should be allowed access to this service.

In recent days I have been making enquiries with Centrelink. I was astounded to discover that the Coffs Harbour flood that affected so many people was not categorised as being a level 'C' disaster event.

The families in this immediate area are affected by flooding many times a year, however it is not normal to be isolated for a 10 day period.

In 2009/10 the Coffs Harbour region was declared a level 'C' disaster area and people who were adversely affected were provided disaster payments from Federal funds. The people of this area were provided Federal Diaster payments in 2009/10 due to being isolated for approximately 4 days and suffering property damage.

The recent 2012 flood was as extreme as the flood of 2009/10 however particular families have been dramatically disadvantaged to date as they have not been provided financial assistance via the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Program.

The people of this area's affected need the State and Federal Government to provide an exception regarding our ability to access the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment.

That is how one of my constituents explained the impact of these recent floods. So, while most urban areas in my electorate escaped substantial damage, the reality is that many residents in rural areas have been affected. I should note that many primary producers have suffered extensive damage to fences and roads on their property.

Since being contacted by these constituents, I have taken the opportunity to write to the Minister for Emergency Management, communicating how these constituents have been affected. I have asked the minister to consider extending the Australian government disaster recovery payments to those affected by the floods on the mid-North Coast and the far North Coast. I have also raised the issue of the $15,000 payments which have been offered to primary producers and small businesses in the north-west of New South Wales but have yet to be extended to coastal areas.

I would like to take the opportunity, on this matter of public importance, to register my personal thanks and the gratitude of all Australians to the SES volunteers and emergency service personnel who have provided such terrific support during these flood events. As a nation, we cannot place a price on the true value of the services provided by our emergency services workers.

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

In conclusion, I believe it is incumbent on all levels of government to ensure that flood relief payments are not delayed unnecessarily and that individuals and communities are supported as they recover from these flood events.(): Order! The discussion has concluded.