Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion of Senator Conroy and those who have spoken before me relating to natural disasters in Australia. It is somewhat ironic that this is in fact the second anniversary of those dreadful, horrific Black Saturday fires in Victoria in 2009. When one does reflect on recent events during this summer in Australia, the time line started with the Carnarvon floods. Then there were the Queensland floods and those in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, and the recent effects across to the Northern Territory. Then, as a parting gesture from Cyclone Yasi, there were the dreadful bushfires experienced in the hinterland of Perth, which in fact had their origins in a weather pattern that started with Cyclone Yasi. We reflect in this chamber on the resilience of Australians and on the cost that these disasters will be to our community but also, as others have said, on the fact that this is a pattern we see over the years and one from which we will definitely recover.

Then there were the Carnarvon floods. Twice during this summer the Gascoyne region—not just Carnarvon; the whole Gascoyne region—was affected by flood. The town of Gascoyne Junction was flooded. The hotel that had been flooded in the past to its ceiling was on this occasion flooded past the top of its roof and probably will not be rebuilt. That is a small community, but a very necessary community. The effect on pastoralists in the east Gascoyne region has been dramatic in terms of livestock lost, in fencing lost and in pasture lost. For those participating in horticultural enterprises, there have been severe effects.

We have heard mentioned by my colleagues the impact in Carnarvon. Of the 160 commercial plantations there, 140 were severely affected. For those who are not aware, Carnarvon is the food bowl of Western Australia. Its productivity per hectare is enviable even in contrast to that of the Ord. No doubt one day the Ord will meet that objective, but at the moment Carnarvon is a critically important place. The loss of 140 of those 160 plantations is dramatic. More than one-quarter of a million tonnes of topsoil has been lost. No sooner did the horticulturalists get on their feet than they were the subject of a second severe flood.

I want to now reflect on the Queensland floods. I visited Toowoomba a few times when I was a student at the University of Queensland. I could not comprehend how the city of Toowoomba could have been the subject of such flooding. We saw horrendous photos of vehicles and vans and trees being driven down by the force of the floods. Two or three days after those events we saw things returning to normal. We have heard from others closer than I am to the tragedy of what befell in Grantham and the Lockyer Valley, probably one of the richest horticultural and agricultural areas in the country. All of us have memories. The one that resides with me is of the young boy telling the rescuers to look after his young brother on his way to passing away. That was horrific. Then there is the pregnant mother who buried a child and her own parents. How she has survived is absolutely beyond me.

By coincidence, last Wednesday evening I was back in Brisbane for a hearing on Thursday. I was there on the periphery listening and watching as Cyclone Yasi was developing and heading towards the coast. I saw the excellence of the Queensland Premier in her efforts to stay on top of that particular emergency. Her calmness in speaking to the people of her state and to the people of the nation was commendable. She was definitely the person for the moment; there is no doubt about that.

At the same time, out of all this we have seen the excellence and the resourcefulness of people. I heard a lady being interviewed. When driving to her pharmacy she tried to work out what she could do to help. This was in the days leading up to school starting in Queensland. She realised that the kids were not going to have anything when they turned up for school. In the space of 48 hours, she and a group of others were able to get together packages that were given to the schools so that when the children arrived they would have the necessities to help them on day one. Then she thought that if the kids had this problem then so would the teachers. So they turned their attention to the teachers and prepared packages for them so that when they started school they would have something. That demonstrates the resourcefulness and goodwill of Australians.

On Thursday, I listened to the radio and watched the television. Nobody could sleep on Wednesday night. You tried to sleep, you woke up and you turned the TV on just to see where the jolly cyclone was and to see who was being affected. The media coverage was absolutely brilliant. Through them, I heard that the rugby league and rugby union groups in the Brisbane area had come together. It was sign-up weekend last weekend, and there were families saying, ‘We can’t bring our kids in; we can’t sign them up because we do not have the funds, clothing, equipment et cetera.’ I believe that even the St George club in Sydney took the Queensland town of St George and those towns around it and looked after them. That caused me in fact to make contact immediately with the South Fremantle Football Club, of which Senator Sterle and I are both very keen supporters, only to learn that South Fremantle had already raised funds for Carnarvon. That led to some further discussions with the WAFL and the AFL in Queensland. They assured me that they were doing exactly the same for Australian Rules Football. They were wondering why a Western Australian senator was so interested in ensuring that the young kids would be able to sign up. They said: ‘We have already made sure of things. There are no fees. No child should be turned away for lack of any facilities or equipment or money.’

There are two things that I would like to say in concluding. The first is that, as was the case with the Victorian fires and as is the case in all disasters, people must not stay away. As soon as the local community is ready and able to accept visitors and commerce, it is essential that people return. I was in Tasmania not long after the Port Arthur massacre. The businesses in Port Arthur were severely affected for the next three or four years because everybody who went to Tasmania felt the need to stay away from Port Arthur at a time when it was critically important for them to visit. I know that those small communities of Mission Beach, Cardwell and others rely heavily on tourism. I urge Australians to turn within Australia and spend our recreation and tourism dollars in those places as soon as those communities are able to receive us. I hope tomorrow to speak some more in this chamber about the disastrous fires in Perth.

I want to conclude with a comment that I have made before in this chamber when speaking about disasters in this country. It concerns a four-letter acronym, DEAD. The four letters stand for disaster, expenditure and enquiry, apathy and disaster. All too often in this country, over its history, we have seen disasters followed by enquiries and massive expenditure and, over time, apathy, whether it has been from individuals rebuilding with the same materials in fire-prone areas or people rebuilding in flood-prone areas. We have also seen apathy from local governments who fail to learn the lessons of the past. We have seen the same apathy on the part of state governments, with their failure to legislate, and, dare I say it, we have also seen apathy in federal government. If, after expenditure and enquiry there is apathy, it is absolutely critical that we do not end up with yet another disaster. So let us make sure that, after the summer of 2010-11, it is the resolve of this place that, after the expenditure and the enquiries, we do not have national apathy and we do not see a repeat of the effects that we have seen.