Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sadly, the people of Queensland are too used to floods, cyclones and all manner of natural occurrences tragically impacting their country towns, rural communities and cities. Today the people of Queensland face a great challenge. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in Mackay and North Queensland, and also people in South-East Queensland.

My electorate has in it Wivenhoe Dam, Somerset Dam and Lockyer Creek, as well as the Bremer River and the Brisbane River. There is an obelisk in Goodna in the electorate of Oxley, just outside of my electorate, which has the flood levels from year after year, ranging from the 1893 flood, which devastated Ipswich and Brisbane, to the 1974 flood, in which my parents' house was eight feet underneath the water. We saw the devastation, the loss of life, the damage to property, the mental health issues, the loss of business profits, the loss of businesses, and the tragic impact on people's lives—on their livelihoods, businesses and communities—in the 2011 and 2013 floods.

My thoughts and prayers are with Mayor Graeme Lehmann and the Somerset Regional Council and Mayor Paul Pisasale and the Ipswich City Council. I will be with the councils as much as I possibly can; I am leaving today to go home to Queensland. I have been in regular contact with Councillor Cheryl Bromage, who is in charge of Ipswich City Council's disaster management. I want the people of Ipswich and the Somerset region to know that we are with them.

I thank the Prime Minister and the government for their commitment with respect to the application of Centrelink and Human Services resources. People on the ground can make a big difference in terms of mental health assistance and social work help and counsel. There has also been the application of military resources and the ADF. When I was there in 2011 in Karalee State School, they called it 'Karalee Island' because they were cut off for such a long time. When the military finally came to relieve the flood evacuation centre at Karalee State School, the relief on the faces of people at the time was extraordinary. I know how beneficial the application of ADF personnel has been in my region.

I want to give a big shout out to the SES, the rural fire brigades, the police, the council workers and all those people who will be working so hard over the next few days. As Cyclone Debbie comes down as a depression and hits south-east Queensland and as we face other challenges in that region, those workers will be put to great use and under great strain and stress. I want to let them know today that I and the member for Oxley will do all we can in our region, the western corridor, west of Brisbane, to make sure we support them. My thoughts and prayers are with all those workers who are working so hard.