Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The Department of Human Services was able to respond very quickly because we have a series of regular emergency responses in place. We actually had 25 of our own service centres in the affected areas closed by the effects of the weather, which had quite an extraordinary impact on business. Most of those centres endeavoured to reopen on the Friday, albeit with very large generators in place to assist them. They were opened by 27 April. We have also been working in the recovery centres at Dungog, Cessnock and Raymond Terrace.

Gillieston Heights was completely isolated and the SES very helpfully took six of our staff in a boat to a hill which was effectively surrounded by a moat to enable us to support the community there. I have enormous respect for the work that my departmental staff did and the work that those SES volunteers do to ensure that we can support the communities. (Time expired)