Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, I present the report of the committee entitled Australia’s response to the Indian Ocean tsunami. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

The Boxing Day 2004 tsunami has the unfortunate record as one of the worst natural disasters to occur in modern times. Equally unprecedented in scale has been the response of the international donor community to help the tsunami victims with their recovery.

Australia has been the largest per capita country contributor to tsunami aid and played a major role in the relief and reconstruction effort, particularly in Indonesia, our close neighbour, where the tsunami struck hardest.

Australia’s collective response has involved federal government departments and agencies, state agencies and non-government organisations, and a range of other individuals and volunteers who have made an extraordinary contribution. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the Australian government committed $68 million. Australian NGO partners received $12 million to provide services, supplies and support to tsunami affected countries, while $23.5 million was donated to the UN to support its activities in coordinating the relief effort. Additional funds, including the $1 billion Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development, are progressively being committed against longer term reconstruction priorities. Indeed, within months of the tsunami, Australian non-government organisations had raised a further $313 million from the wider Australian community—an unprecedented level of support from the Australian community and quite extraordinary levels of giving.

It was against the backdrop of this initial generosity and the fact that some 18 months have now elapsed since the disaster, that the committee considered it timely to convene a forum where members could meet with Australian NGOs and discuss, together with government departments and agencies, where Australians’ money is being spent and how aid agencies are continuing to deliver assistance to tsunami affected communities.

The committee hosted a public roundtable hearing at Parliament House on 12 May this year, to which it invited a range of participants, including the five main non-government organisations in Australia active in the tsunami reconstruction process—the Red Cross, Oxfam, Caritas, CARE and World Vision—and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, AusAID, Defence and the Australian Federal Police. Other NGOs were also invited to participate in the roundtable but were simply unable to attend because of timing. We acknowledge their contribution as well.

At the roundtable, the committee gained an overview of the progress to date, learnt about current operational priorities and focused on emerging lessons that should inform ongoing responses to recovery requirements in the tsunami affected countries.

The committee, in hearing the attendees at the roundtable tell their stories, was particularly affected by the shared experiences of the agencies, in particular the perspectives of Australian Defence Force and Australian Federal Police personnel who were involved in the initial clean-up and disaster victim identification missions. The stories they told made for compelling listening and, I think, even on the Hansard make for compelling reading. Officers clearly carried out their jobs well, with compassion and dignity under quite extraordinary circumstances, and this is something that those individuals and indeed all Australians can be proud of.

Witnesses outlined some of the many reasons why the rebuilding process is necessarily progressing slowly. Ultimately, the sheer scale and complexity of the disaster must be borne in mind and the reconstruction and development phase viewed in terms of taking years, not months, to complete. It is also important that there be sufficient time for consultation with local communities and to deliver high-quality outcomes to beneficiaries. There are enormous challenges for those involved in the reconstruction—challenges with the supply of materials and labour and, in some instances, the management of corruption issues—but significant work has still been done. Much remains ahead. At the hearing, agencies described a wide range of projects on which they are working to achieve this end, from rebuilding houses, reinstalling basic services and restoring infrastructure, to health and counselling services and training villagers to help with the planning of village reconstruction and direct access assistance.

The committee would like to see greater media coverage, including more positive stories, of the reconstruction effort as it progresses. While the tsunami has moved on from being front-page news, it remains the largest international relief and reconstruction effort staged in recent times, and one to which Australia continues to contribute significant resources. AusAID gave very interesting evidence about arrangements and engagements with local media from Australia and indeed from Indonesia about their endeavours to obtain positive coverage of what is being achieved.

In an era when natural disasters appear to be increasing and the aid community finds itself being stretched to capacity—and, in some cases, perhaps beyond—the committee acknowledges that government and non-government organisations alike are finding new ways to work together and complement each other’s strengths, from engaging in joint reporting processes and civil-military cooperation to informal and formal evaluation processes. One witness at the hearing described the tsunami response as an instance where ‘Australia Inc.’ really did come through.

The committee hopes that this roundtable process contributes to and encourages public discussion of this still important topic, and showcases some of the excellent work being done by Australian agencies and non-government organisations. In closing, I want to thank all the roundtable participants and also my colleagues on the Human Rights Subcommittee, who undertook the inquiry, and the secretariat for their assistance in the process. Mr President, I commend the report to the Senate.