Judith Adams (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the close links the Australian people have with their near neighbour New Zealand. As a New Zealand born senator I was deeply moved by the two minutes silence held in the Australian parliament as a mark of respect to those who died or were injured in the Christchurch earthquake. The two minutes silence held yesterday in Canberra coincided with the two minutes silence in New Zealand. I am sure all thoughts were with those involved in any way with this terrible disaster.

As deputy chair of the Australia/New Zealand Parliamentary Group, I was a signatory to a letter sent to Vangelis Vitalis, Acting High Commissioner of the New Zealand High Commission. That letter read:

Dear Mr Vitalis

On behalf of the Australia/New Zealand Parliamentary Group we extend very sincere sympathies to the people of New Zealand in the wake of the tragic events of February 22.

Australia has no closer friend and partner than New Zealand and every Australian will be sharing in your pain. We know the strong and free spirit of the New Zealand people and we know you will rebuild.

Of course, we stand ready to assist in any way that we can and trust you will contact us if you believe there is anything we can do.

We wish all our friends across the ditch the very best in the days weeks and months ahead.

Yours Sincerely

The Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, Chair

Senator Judith Adams, Deputy Chair

Senator the Hon. Ursula Stephens, Secretary

Arrangements have also been made by the New Zealand High Commission to make the condolence book for the Christchurch earthquake available at Parliament House for members and senators to sign. It is quite amazing how many New Zealanders are in Australia, either living or visiting. On 30 June 2010 the Department of Immigration and Citizenship reported that an estimated 566,815 New Zealand citizens were present in Australia. I am sure those New Zealanders present in Australia are very grateful for the up-to-date coverage of the events taking place in Christchurch.

I cannot describe the shock and horror I felt watching the early vision of the earthquake and the devastation of such a beautiful city, which I know so well, and contacting friends and hearing their stories of how lucky they were, while others were not so lucky and lost their homes, but their families were safe. I will read a description from one of my friends of her observations the day after the earthquake struck:

Judith, this quake is so much worse than the one in September. Unless you can see the damage it is hard to believe that it has happened again. The roads are awful. The liquefaction is unbelievable. Driving is hazardous as you do not know where the holes are. People are even putting wheelie bins around the dangerous parts.

It is going to take a long time for Christchurch to recover from this, and the central city will never be the same again. They will just about have to build from the bottom up, and heritage buildings may be but a thing of the past.

I am not sure how I feel—kind of numb I guess. I just feel for the folk who were hit so hard last time, and now they are far worse off.

Listening to today’s update by the Christchurch Mayor, Mr Bob Parker, who has had to shoulder a really heavy load during the last eight days, it is just amazing, with the coordination in the city of all the different organisations and emergency workers involved, how much has happened in re-establishing the services in Christchurch. It is really hard to believe but, today, 30,000 chemical toilets are being distributed throughout the suburbs. That is 30,000 toilets; it is an awful lot of toilets. It really does make you realise just how far this devastation has spread. And the power for 85 per cent of residents has now been reconnected. That has just been such a mammoth task by the electricity people. I know that we had Australian people over there helping with this.

The schools are going to be closed for at least another week, but something that the Prime Minister, John Key, came up with today was that he still wants to have the Rugby World Cup in Christchurch. He said, ‘My strong preference is to hold the cup in Christchurch if we can, because I think it sends a very strong international message that Christchurch is going through a rebuilding phase. Equally, if we do not, sadly the message is not as good as it could be.’ So they are working very hard. Their stadium has not suffered very much damage, but accommodation may be a problem, but they are already looking at cruise ships. Because rugby is so dear to the hearts of the New Zealand people they are trying to get that back and definitely have it in Christchurch, where it was to be.

It seems to be terribly unfair the way the weather has played havoc. Today the wind is very high and the dust is just about like our Western Australian farm in the middle of summer. They are trying to deal with the dust and the rain; it is certainly hampering their operations because some of the buildings are unstable. Just looking at the suburb of Sumner, they had to evac 60 houses this afternoon because the cliffs started to crumble and fall down with the winds.

But something that, I think, is very positive is that they held bus tours for 400 families from New Zealand and overseas. They took them into the area of the devastation so that they could actually see where their loved ones had been or still are or had been injured. It was very difficult, but I think that it will help those people with closure of the problems they have, especially those from overseas. They were given support so that they could see just what happened. Speaking as a mother, my son was competing in the coast-to-coast marathon a few days beforehand and was actually staying right next door to the cathedral and the square. I was very fortunate in that he left Christchurch before this happened. But for those mothers, fathers and families from overseas who were wondering what is going on and how things have happened, it must be very hard and my heart goes out to them.

Defence, fire services, the Maori wardens and all the essential services people, including the urban search and rescue teams, have worked and worked. The people out at Burnham involved with the identification have a makeshift morgue at the army base, which I know very well. I feel for them, too, because the job they have to do is not pleasant, and it is going to take them so long.

To those people in New Zealand: as I have said, there are so many New Zealanders here in Australia and I am sure that their thoughts go—as mine and I am sure those of everyone here do—to the recovery phase of this disaster. If those people in New Zealand want anything, I am sure that the Australian government will certainly help them in any possible way.

The death toll tonight, unfortunately, has gone to 160, and it is still thought that it will be around 240 as people work their way through the buildings. As I said, the weather today is not very pleasant. I have been in Christchurch when the wind blows. It is not a very good place to be. Our thoughts are with our New Zealand friends and colleagues and all those people who are still trying to locate their loved ones.