Alex Somlyay (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Beautiful one day but rather battered the next. The brutal forces of nature have again been felt in Queensland this summer with devastating floods now testing communities throughout our state. While these torrents of waters recede, their impacts will stay with us for days, months and, in some cases, years to come. Communities have rallied, all levels of government have rallied and, to those in need, aid is being offered in so many ways. Mud armies have been recruited, charities have opened their hearts and financial assistance, both federally and from the state, is available. Yet, despite all our best intentions, a number of flood victims are being lost in a 'grey area' which has nothing to do with the ongoing cloud cover.

In my home electorate of Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast, thousands were affected, in varying degrees, by those dreadful conditions on that fateful Australia Day weekend. Many people, particularly those in hinterland areas and those communities to the north and west bordering close to the local government area of Gympie, suffered flood damage and also endured days and days without power. Gympie, rightly so, has been declared a natural disaster area. The Sunshine Coast, at this time, has not. And so for those who live within the Sunshine Coast, just outside the Gympie boundary, the Australian government disaster recovery payment does not apply. It is akin to having residents on one side of the road having access to the one-off payment and their neighbours across the same road being denied. Same cyclone system, same flood, same situation, but different opportunities for assistance.

Gympie has been declared a disaster area given the flooding of Mary River. However, the source of this very river is deep within the Sunshine Coast hinterland and, as it runs north through the valley to Gympie, it passes local townships, including Kenilworth. I am not pleading for special treatment for residents in communities such as Kenilworth, Belli Park and Kidaman Creek; I am merely asking for fairness, a common-sense approach and compassion. Mother Nature is not constrained by local government boundaries and nor should we be in these circumstances.

So many people in these hinterland communities have contacted me alerting me to their plight. While they do appreciate that there are thousands of Queenslanders doing it much tougher, they feel confused about the disaster declaration process. They also feel overlooked. Today, I am their voice in this parliament. I have also joined with my parliamentary colleague the Hon. Warren Truss, the member for Wide Bay and Leader of the National Party, in writing to the Attorney-General and Minister for Emergency Management requesting urgent consideration of extending the areas that are eligible for the AGDRP. Our plea is that those communities in the northern Sunshine Coast Regional Council areas of Wide Bay and Fairfax, such as Kin Kin, Cooran, Cootharaba, Federal, Cooroy, Pomona, Kenilworth, Kidaman Creek, Eumundi and the Mary Valley area, are deserving of this consideration.