Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will take the opportunity in the five minutes we have left to complete a speech that I started last Monday night in the chamber. I was advising the Senate about how North Queensland is faring following tropical Cyclone Larry. There are a couple of issues that I would like to inform senators about. The first goes to the question of how the media responded to the events that we saw in Far North Queensland. I thank members of the media for the way they came into action to ensure that information was being shared in the most timely way with victims of the cyclone. All commercial radio stations did what they could. I commend the ABC for the actions they took. They worked many hours on top of the regular broadcasting that had been scheduled. I commend each and every one of those people for doing what they did.

I also alert the Senate to something that occurred which undermined the efforts of those ABC personnel. Unfortunately, the transmitter at Mount Bellenden Ker was affected by the cyclone, which meant that transmission on the FM band, I understand, was curtailed. It meant that people who could not access the AM band—and there are quite a few of them—had to rely on other forms of media to get their information. I ask the government to have a good look at why that happened and find out whether there are any ways to stop the type of damage that occurred. We realise this was a major, category 5 cyclone. It may be impossible to stop interruption to transmission because of the damage to the transmitter at Mount Bellenden Ker. But please have a good look at it. We were offline for quite some time and that did affect people’s ability to have information in a timely way.

The other issue I want to talk about very briefly is the importance of tourism in tropical North Queensland to the economy of our region. Of course, the area that has been decimated will be, let us say, closed for business for at least some months. There has been quite a bit of evidence to say that people who were intending to travel to North Queensland have cancelled their holidays. That is terribly unfortunate, because, in areas in the north such as Cairns itself, Port Douglas, Cape York, the northern part of the tablelands and the Townsville area, we are ready and willing and we would like you to reconsider and come back. We needed you to come and visit our part of the world. We need the income that you bring to us.

If any people listening or any senators in this place have heard of people who have cancelled holidays and travel to Northern Queensland because of the cyclone, I urge them to reconsider. We are ready, willing and happy to have your business. The Great Barrier Reef has been damaged only a very small amount. The wet tropics rainforest has been damaged considerably in the area that was hit by the cyclone. But there are plenty more beautiful places for you to see and enjoy, so please come north and enjoy what we have to offer you.