Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity to thank my community for the superb manner in which they dealt with ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. We were pretty fortunate; we dodged a bullet. We didn't get it as bad as some of our southern neighbours, but the eye of the cyclone actually went over my electorate, through Bribie Island. My thanks go out to all the emergency service workers: police, fire and ambulance. They all stood up again when they were needed. Thank you also to those volunteer organisations like the SES, the rural fire brigade and, of course, the legendary volunteer marine rescue, or VMR, over on Bribie Island. Again, they did a great job. I give a special shout-out to the Moreton Bay Council, as well—they did a really, really good job of informing local, state and federal members of what was going on, and I knew they'd stand up; they always do.

But the cream for me was the locals, the everyday people there.

I went to a sandbag station over at Beachmere where a lot of people had taken it upon themselves to shovel sandbags. People turned up and, instead of having to find a bag and do their own shovelling, it was already pre-done and they were just loading them into the car. This reduced lines. These were people who weren't getting paid. They didn't have a uniform on; they just took it upon themselves to help out their neighbours and their mates. So well done to everyone. It's a great electorate, and I love representing it.