Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

This is very sad and shallow politicking from those opposite, who seem to have decided to turn a blind eye to the facts of the circumstances around a one-in-500-year flood event of a magnitude of natural disaster the likes of which communities have not seen before, in relation to what has occurred in those parts of the Northern Rivers districts of New South Wales. Whilst all of these disasters are terrible tragedies for the communities involved, we had never seen before the intensity and severity of that flood disaster in New South Wales, as acknowledged, for example, by former Governor-General Peter Cosgrove and others. For those opposite to seemingly begrudge the additional assistance provided to those in the Northern Rivers district is really quite unbecoming, quite unfair and nothing but cheap politics.