Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to recognise members of the southside Muslim communities for their amazing effort in organising a drought appeal for the people of Stanthorpe. While this happened a few weeks ago, it was an act of great kindness and practicality that requires recognition here in the Australian parliament.

As we heard in question time today, the town of Stanthorpe in Queensland is in dire straits. It's actually in the electorate of the minister for water resources, the member for Maranoa. The dams are dry, there's been very little rain and, to top it off, the town was surrounded by raging fires last month. Troubled by the effect the drought is having on many Queenslanders, a number of local Muslim organisations, including Muslim Aid Australia, the Muslim Charitable Foundation, the Islamic Council of Queensland and the Islamic College of Brisbane, decided to do something practical about it—not just prayer but practical. They fundraised throughout the community until they raised over $100,000—they're mainly from my electorate or around it. With that, they bought drinkable water for the people of Stanthorpe.

Stanthorpe is three hours from my electorate office in Sunnybank, so the Deen family, a well-known family in Brisbane—well-known Liberal supporters, actually, but great people—came on board with 10 semitrailers and helped dispatch around 200,000 litres of water to Stanthorpe. The water was targeted to those affected by severe water shortages and distributed by Granite Belt Drought Assist.

But this isn't a one-off. In the past these charity groups have donated three truckloads of hay to farmers as well as food hampers. I'm very proud that they're a part of my electorate, and well done to the Deen brothers.