Claire Moore (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is an honour to be a part of the debate on this motion in the Senate, which is designed and intended to bring all senators together to acknowledge the impact and range of natural disasters that have struck across our nation. There is not a state that has escaped the impact. The key aspects of these disasters are happening in my home state of Queensland, in northern New South Wales, in Victoria and in Western Australia. They are the ones that are happening now, and we see that. But the citizens and the senators who represent other states in our nation have also been impacted by these natural disasters. They have watched, as all of us have done, the media coverage of the pain, the destruction and the hope of so many families across our nation.

As a Queensland senator, I want to concentrate on what has happened in my state and to begin by acknowledging the 36 families in Queensland for whom the destruction has been not just about the loss of material things but about the loss of a family member. All of us in parliament want to say to those families: we acknowledge your loss and we give you our greatest sympathy. As we rebuild—we know we are rebuilding; so many senators have talked about the processes that are in place to rebuild—the towns and infrastructure and as we rebuild communities, your loss will stay in our minds. I think it is something that Australians share. For every family member we have hope that their future and that of the rest of their family will be great and that they will be able to remember that the community was with them and that their governments, their parliaments, were with them as well.

In this afternoon’s debate we have heard many senators talking about the amazing stories—and they are amazing in the true sense of the word—of what has occurred. I do not think anyone can forget the images they have seen in the media. They certainly cannot forget the stories that people have shared with them about what has happened and they cannot forget their own responses and the stories from their own families.

I stood on the cliffs at New Farm in Brisbane and watched my Brisbane River rushing forward. I have never seen the Brisbane River in that mode and I hope never to see it like that again. We stood on the hill on the night as we had been told that the peak was coming and that we should be very careful. We made our own preparations and checked that our families were safe. I think Telstra did a marvellous job because they were overworked, as people were using the internet and mobile phones across the nation and internationally trying to ensure that their families were safe. There were over a hundred people in our group standing on the hills at New Farm and that was reflected in other high spots across Brisbane. There was a silence. People were not speaking. They were in awe of what was going on below them. A couple of people were quietly crying because they could see personal possessions going down the Brisbane River. For each piece of furniture, for each pylon, for each tank, for each boat that we saw rush down in front of us, all of us knew that the piece of detritus belonged to someone—a family, a community.

It reminded us of what had gone on before, because on that very same day we had seen and heard and been confronted by the news of what had happened in my own hometown, Toowoomba, and following down the range to the people of the Lockyer Valley. We saw images of what had happened at Murphy’s Creek and Grantham and related communities going through to Lowood, down the river to where it hit Ipswich and beyond. We had seen to our horror something for which no-one could prepare or plan. Every local government in our state has a disaster preparation plan. We have seen them tested, we have seen them tried, but no-one could possibly prepare for what happened in Toowoomba and at the lower parts of the range on that day.

As we stood at New Farm those memories were with us because we were learning bit by bit what had gone on before across Queensland. We had watched what had happened over the whole month in communities such as Rockhampton and Dalby further out in the Darling Downs. We had heard about forced evacuations in our state for the first time since World War II where small western communities had no option for their safety but to leave their homes, often not willingly but knowing they had to do so to put the safety of their own families first. There were the wrenching scenes of young people and old people being taken away from their homes in places like Theodore and the Condamine and the heartbreak of leaving behind their animals. One of the stories we hear often is about the effect on family pets. Many of us know how important our pets are to us. Talking with people in the evacuation centres in Brisbane and hearing about the stories from the people who had been evacuated across south-western Queensland, one of the ongoing comments and fears was what had happened to their pets that they had left behind—just one part of the loss.

The stories that we heard were about what had been lost and consistently, when people were talking to me, there was still an element of shock. I think that continues in many ways today, particularly when we consider the loss of life that occurred. The people and the local council in Toowoomba are rebuilding the town, they are rebuilding the businesses and they are making sure that the flood preparations are in place for when something happens again. But the overwhelming concern is that lives were lost on that day in Toowoomba. I do not think many people have fully come to accept that it happened, but the communities have come together. I have been watching the local media through the last couple of weeks and, every time there is a funeral coming up with a celebration of the life of someone who has been lost, the local media talk again about how their community is sharing with the local family, understanding what they have suffered and hoping to work together into the future.

We have heard many stories and we will continue to hear them. I want to share one from talking with a principal from a very small local primary school, asking how they were going to cope in that school with the class who were going into grade 1 because one of the little girls in that class was not going to be turning up for school this year. She and other members of her family were lost in the floods below the range.

People do talk about how they are going to move into the future. We have already heard senators commend the amazing action of our community groups and the marvellous emergency services. When you see those orange vests coming towards you, you know that help is at hand, and not just help but trained and professional help. There is a sense of security and hope that they are going to be with you. The other day I talked to soldiers at the Enoggera Barracks, many of whom had been sent out to the Lockyer Valley. Some of them were talking to their mates who were going out post Yasi in the north. They were welcomed into the communities who were facing a lack of facilities, a lack of buildings and homes having been destroyed. The welcome given to the military personnel—as they came to share with the local community how they could rebuild and to sense the solidarity there on the ground and experience the relationships built under emergency situations—will continue. The communication will continue. We have all seen photographs of the township of Grantham. I do not think Grantham has ever received the notoriety that it has received during this emergency. But that township will be remembered.

As we have heard from previous senators, it is important that all of us involved in this discussion acknowledge that the relationship that we are now forming with the people who have had losses must continue. It is all too easy to share compassion and interest and be completely focused on an area in emergency circumstances and then, as the next day comes and the next crisis comes and the next need for action comes, forget the people that we have been dealing with. A message from this parliament must be that that will not happen. The ongoing relationship with these places and these people must be exactly that, ongoing. We have seen the devastation and we must now work together to ensure rebuilding for the future. I know that emails, text messages and Facebook exchanges are going between the people who are in these places and those who have come to help them and I hope that will continue. With communities all across the country there has been the process of twinning or bonding with the communities that have suffered. We must make sure the affected communities know that work will continue. That is also one of the things that we need to look at in rebuilding the future.

In the north of Brisbane there has been a wonderful coming together of people to ensure that schools had the facilities needed for young people. Right at the end of this we had the first day of school. Probably all of us in this chamber can just remember our first day of school. It is a bit hard for some of us to dredge up the memories, but we know it is an exciting, wonderful day for most children and their parents. We saw images in the media of children at St George getting into small boats and being ferried across the river so they could get to their school. We know that in Brisbane a number of schools have not been able to return to their own school and have had to share facilities. So one of the real concerns was the impact on young people of not being able to go to a place where they do feel safe and secure and going somewhere that is different; and not having the things that they need to start school, like uniforms, bags and books. I want to talk about a particular group—and I know that in a number of places this happened—around the Caboolture area who got together and decided that they would adopt some schools in Western Queensland who had been affected and make sure that backpacks, school books and the things that you need to start school were made available. They wanted to ensure that at least the kids and the teachers in the schools would have something so they could have a place where they could restart, a place where they could put the suffering and loss in their past and look at moving into the school year. That was a practical way to respond.

That kind of spontaneous community activity was bursting out all over our country and we acknowledge that in this motion. The Senate acknowledges the amazing work of the military, the emergency services and the local government areas and in a special way the work of local community members who thought they could do something to assist, often working with NGOs and often starting something up in their own kitchens. A wonderful story that came out was of a woman who began baking originally because she needed to do something because the confronting images were affecting her so badly. She felt she had to take some action. So she began baking and then she got her friends together and they provided food to a whole lot of the volunteer workers across the region. These people were working together to support, to help. I know that when the volunteers received that food it was a real boost to their energy as well as their enthusiasm so that they could keep going, given the scenes that they were confronting were so extraordinarily devastating.

On the original big volunteer day in Brisbane there were the images of the people who came together from all over south Queensland. Later in the week they came from all over Australia. We have amazing stories of people who came up from Sydney to help in Toowoomba. We have all those people who gathered together and gave their time. The image of the volunteers walking across a walk-bridge to the buses that were going to take them out to the various suburbs that needed help was graphic evidence of the way that the community got together to volunteer their time and effort and their financial resources to start the rebuilding and to ensure that the people who had lost possessions would feel that there were people who wanted to help and support them.

The volunteering organisations must be commended. They are an intrinsic part of Australia’s community and this has been the time that they have been most publicly on show. I know from talking to the people who were trying to clean out their homes and recoup their losses that seeing the immediacy of the response gave them some hope in a very dark hour. One of my clearest memories is of seeing a family walking down to the lower parts of New Farm that were affected quite badly by mud and the destruction. Here was a little girl of about 11, in full gumboots with her own personal shovel, who had decided that she was going to go down and help. That image reflects so much the spirit that was there in the volunteer services and it gave such a moment of joy to the people that she was there to help. And she did use that shovel! When I spoke to her later in the day, she was a very tired but happy little girl. So she was able to make a difference.

Every small bit helps—I think that is the message for the wider community. Anything that you can do and anything that you can contribute will be most gratefully received and will be used. Certainly that is the message from the various funds that have been set up. The state disaster fund in Queensland has received an amazingly generous range of donations, and other senators have talked about the innovative ways of raising money and awareness. But it must continue because the need is great. I think each day the need continues to be recalculated as we find more of what is actually going on and we see that there is more of a need for so much help and so much assistance into the future.

In this place over the next few months there will be a chance to talk about more specific incidents of support, activity and also need and I think it will be important that that discussion continues. However, it has been important that we commend today the work that has been done particularly by the volunteers and by those people who have seen where they can best assist but not intrude. Certainly in the past, at times when we have seen cases where there has been sadness or disaster, some people have felt as though there has been an intrusion into their privacy by the work that has been done. Over the last couple of weeks we have seen that in this process people have been most sensitive to that and they have negotiated with the local people, the local communities and the local councils to see where they can best be used. So the message is that that must continue.

There will be further debate. We will have our differences in this place about the best way the government should act for work into the future. That is a very sure thing. There will be disagreement in the future. But I think the focus of today’s motion is, as I said, to bring us together so that we as a Senate can be seen to say to the people of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia in particular, ‘We have heard your need. We have seen the sorrow and devastation that you are suffering, and we as your parliament want to listen and we will respond.’ I think that is a really important role for us to take. The stories will make us stronger in the future because they are so positive. I think they should be celebrated. The loss of people who have lost family members must be grieved, and we share in that grief.

In the future I am sure that there will be lessons to be learned. That is one thing that has happened consistently in Australian history. Where there has been damage and disaster, through the sorrow we have learned how better to plan responsive moves, how better to have government respond and how better to work effectively to redevelop infrastructure, which must happen. Today should be a way for the community to learn that our Senate can be unified and we can share effectively with our community.