Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the awful devastation wrought by Tropical Cyclone Winston on the people of Fiji and to offer my support to all the families who are suffering and have lost loved ones. Tropical Cyclone Winston is the most devastating storm, the fiercest cyclone, ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere. The category 5 cyclone struck Fiji last Saturday, generating winds of up to 350 kilometres per hour that pulverised virtually everything in its path. It has killed 29 people, and that number continues to rise. It has destroyed homes. It has destroyed livelihoods.

Early estimates put the damage bill in the hundreds of millions of dollars. With power and communications still down across vast areas of Fiji, it will be some time before the full devastation is revealed. The Fijian government and aid organisations are now racing to protect families and communities from disease outbreaks, while grappling with the critical need for clean water, emergency accommodation and medical supplies. The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O'Brien, says whole villages have been destroyed. He estimates that more than 8,000 people are sheltering in about 70 evacuation centres, with concerns about sanitation and clean water.

For its part, the Australian government has offered an initial $5 million humanitarian assistance package, including Defence transport helicopters carrying personnel and equipment and two Orion surveillance aircraft. Australia's medical evacuation team will provide urgent support and supplies, including water and hygiene kits, medicines and access to shelter. Humanitarian agencies such as UNICEF Australia and CARE Australia are also at the front line of Australia's support. I would like to acknowledge the Australian aid organisations and NGOs who are working on the ground in Fiji. These organisations are on the front line of Australia's humanitarian response and assisting with the delivery of Australia's $5 million package.

Tropical Cyclone Winston serves as a reminder of why our aid program matters. Australia delivers $35 million a year in bilateral aid to Fiji. It is good and it is right that aid be delivered by Australian government officials and Australian aid organisations, and my support goes to those organisations. Labor welcomes the support the Australian government's initial contribution has provided but calls on it to urgently do more. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Bishop, has promised to 'stand ready to provide further assistance to support Fiji's relief and recovery efforts'. I welcome that commitment and strongly encourage the Australian government to keep monitoring the recovery effort and consider additional assistance to start repairing the likely hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.

I hope the devastating events wrought by Cyclone Winston in Fiji will go some way to highlighting the vital importance of a strong foreign aid budget. I also urge Australians to again show their generosity and make donations to support the people of Fiji. The Australian Council for International Development provides links on its website to Australian organisations running such appeals. The website of the Fijian High Commission in Australia also has information on how to donate. In fact, in relation to immediate assistance, the Fijian High Commission has asked for donations of money towards relief efforts as it is the most effective form of emergency assistance. It will empower cyclone victims to purchase what they need the most—as they know what they need—and will also ensure that much needed foreign exchange is injected into the local economy. The High Commission goes on to highlight that the Fijian government itself has established bank accounts to receive financial donations in the wake of this crisis and that those funds will be used to directly benefit those Fijians who have been left homeless and without adequate food, water and essential services, especially those living in the most rural and maritime communities in Fiji. In Australia, Westpac and ANZ banks have waived international telegraphic transaction or TT fees for remittances and donations to Fiji, and the High Commission's website has listed those.

I have this morning spoken to the Fijian High Commissioner to Australia, Mr Yogesh Punja, to offer my condolences and support. Mr Punja is deeply concerned about events in Fiji and is working tirelessly to help co-ordinate support efforts and provide information to the Fijian diaspora here in Australia. The High Commissioner is also adamant that climate change contributed strongly to the severity and destructiveness of tropical Cyclone Winston. This continues to be an issue in the Pacific. I share Mr Punja's concerns. Scientists have continually warned that climate change is increasing the risk and severity of storms, cyclones and wildfires. The devastating events in Fiji serve as another warning for governments like the Turnbull government to finally get serious about tackling dangerous climate change.

The devastation inflicted by tropical Cyclone Winston on the people of Fiji is also deeply personal for me. My father is a Fijian-Indian and was born in Fiji, and my family still live there. Cyclone Winston came very close to family members on both Vanua Levu and Viti Levu. Roads and other infrastructure near my late-grandparents' property in Bua have been washed away. In particular, the cyclone travelled through the Bligh Water—the stretch of sea that separates the islands of Vanua Levu and Viti Levu. Lieutenant William Bligh famously saved himself and a group of loyal crewmen by navigating his seven-metre launch through this stretch of water and to eventual safety in the Dutch port of Timor. The strait therefore bears his name. As I discussed in my first speech in this place, Bligh Water is a deeply significant place for my family because my father survived a shipwreck there as a young child, with my grandparents and his two brothers. Dad's remarkable experience has shaped both his and my character and perspective of the world. His journey as a nine-year-old boy surviving a treacherous shipwreck in shark-infested Fijian waters to seeing his own daughter become the first person of south-Asian origin to sit in the Australian Parliament is a source of great pride and meaning for him. Fiji and the Bligh Water is therefore deeply special, and the impact of Cyclone Winston in that area is very significant. Our family has so much identity and belonging attached to the Fijian people and to those places affected so heavily by Cyclone Winston. Dad has been extremely busy contacting relatives and hearing the harrowing stories of terrifying winds, homes uprooted and carried away, as well as many near misses. I can understand his desire to be close to and actively support family in Fiji at the moment. The devastation and trauma of Cyclone Winston feels very close to home.

Of course, we have our own history of such events here in Australia. No-one will forget that Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin in 1974. Such tragedies show that Australia is not immune to extreme events and the sort of crisis witnessed in Fiji last Saturday. More recently, we have seen Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy savage coastal communities in the United States. As climate change intensifies, so does the risk and intensity of these natural disasters. The people of Fiji are experiencing that right now. So, in the immediate term, we must come together to support the people of Fiji—our neighbours—in rebuilding their homes and their lives, which will take some time yet to come. Just as importantly, we must, as a society, rise to the challenge of tackling dangerous climate change and making the world a safer and more sustainable place for our shared humanity.

My heart goes out to the people of Fiji, to those who have lost loved ones from the severity that Cyclone Winston left in its wake. I hope it is a stark reminder to all of us that we must do more to support our Pacific neighbours in any way that we can.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before we go to Senator Rice, there was a request from Senator Heffernan to table a document.

Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition will grant leave as long as the document tabled is just the transcript of the radio interview to which Senator Heffernan referred in his speech.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted, Senator Heffernan.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I experienced one of my most moving days here in Parliament House on Monday. Parliamentary friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer Australians hosted an amazing group of young trans people and their families. They were here to share with us their stories of the challenges they face to be accepted for who they are.

They told us they just wanted to be able to live normal lives, be accepted for who they are, and not have to continue to justify and fight to be accepted for who they are. They told us how having to seek Family Court approval for cross hormone treatment in their teenage years was a massive financial and emotional barrier, and it moved at a glacial pace, when they just wanted to be going through puberty with their peers, rather than having their life on hold, waiting for court hearings and court decisions. The kicker is that not once has the Family Court knocked back a young person's request for hormones where they, their family and their medical practitioners all agree that it is right for them. As one parent stated to us on Monday, the whole Family Court process is just an expensive, emotionally-draining and time-consuming rubber stamp. We need to change the law, to remove this rubber stamp.

Let me share with you what Isabelle, aged 12, shared with us. She said:

I am a girl, I was born a girl, not a boy who wants to be a girl. Unfortunately for me, I was cursed with some physical characteristics that don't match my identity as a girl. This has been very hard and very stressful. I have tried to hurt myself and have questioned whether I even want to be here in my darkest times.

She said:

I don't just want to access stage two treatment, I need to [have it] … so I can live my life and be happy.

Georgie, aged 15, who has been through the court system three times, said:

I'm a normal, cheerful, confident girl and I know who I am. But my exterior doesn't match my interior. It shouldn't be the court's decision. Only I have the right to decide what goes into my body.

Georgie's mother Rebekah Robertson agreed and expressed her frustration:

The court process is slow but biology is fast …

She described the pressure on young transgender people and their families as 'enormous and relentless', saying the court process is 'unnecessary and cruel'. These children just want to have a normal life, but they are having an extraordinary impact while they are at it. Dr Michelle Telfer, who does amazing work treating these young people at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, said that:

… because of social change, and also because we have medical treatments that we know are safe and effective, [there are] more and more young people who want treatment and need treatment.

She said:

The court process is currently standing in the way of a number of those young people actually accessing that treatment, and without access to treatment we know that the self-harm and suicide risks are much higher.

I tell you what I heard on Monday has made me passionate about redoubling my efforts to work with my colleagues across the parliament and get the law changed.

So I spent most of Monday on a high, feeling that positive change really was going to be possible. Then, just as I was about to leave for the day, Senator Bernardi spoke in the chamber, attacking the fabulous work of the Safe Schools Coalition—a program that has been proven to reduce the daily discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, transgender and queer young people. Senator Bernardi's hateful, preposterous, inaccurate, diatribe was so completely at odds with the amazing people I had spent the day with. In the morning, Georgie's mother, Rebekah, told of the absolute love she had for her daughter. She said:

As parents, we walk ahead of our child like a landmine detector, clearing the path before them.

I am sure all the parents in this place can identify with that. But then we have Senator Bernardi insinuating that the Safe Schools Coalition is not to reduce bullying, but rather that it is really about deconstructing the moral and social fabric of our society, including the family. That morning, I listened as Isabelle told us that she is:

… scared all the time about going through male puberty and not getting the right treatment that will help me have the body that I should.

But Senator Bernardi does not care about Isabelle's wellbeing, because he believes that Safe Schools:

… promotes a radical political and social agenda and seeks to indoctrinate students to make them its advocates.

Then it got worse. Yesterday we discovered that Senator Bernardi's speech was not just corralled as the late night ravings of a homophobic dinosaur, but that Prime Minister Turnbull had caved into him and other right-wing henchmen. Rather than showing vision and courage—

Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, I raise a point of order. The rules of this Senate are clear; those reflections upon Senator Bernardi are completely out of order—referring to him as a dinosaur and the like—and the senator should withdraw them.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator O'Sullivan, I have sat through many debates in this chamber, and this is probably one of the nicer references to some senators. There is no point of order.

Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rather than showing vision and courage and rising above such claptrap, the Prime Minister acted exactly as his predecessor Tony Abbott would have. This is in the face of the amazing and necessary work that the Safe Schools Coalition has done. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Safe Schools Coalition has contributed to saving hundreds of lives. One in ten Australians are same-sex attracted. It is estimated there are 40,000 trans young people in Australia, and only a few hundred are supported at places like the incredible gender clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. One in five gender diverse young Australians have experienced physical abuse; one in three have considered suicide.

I have shared the story of my and wife Penny's relationship in this place a number of times. I would be happy to stop talking about it. But every time I do talk about it, I get the most supportive feedback thanking me: thanking me for speaking out, thanking me for giving hope to trans people—to people's sons, daughters, friends—that a happy, fulfilling life for them is possible. Someone said to me, 'Janet, you don't know how many lives you have saved.' So I will keep speaking out—keep on being a role model. Think about the work that the Safe School Coalition does. Think about the incredible impact that their program All Of Us has on the lives of young same-sex attracted and gender diverse students.

Many students want to sing the program's praises, but, because of fear of a public humiliation encouraged by the likes of Senator Bernardi and his backwards honchos, they do not want to use their real names. But they are real people, so I am going to give them names for today—not their real names. Mel says:

I had been feeling kind of lonely, hopeless and isolated for what feels like a lifetime. To have the school take this step and to be a part of the Safe Schools Coalition means the world to me.

Jess says:

I've always felt safe and comfortable and had the ability to talk to my teachers and peers knowing that Safe Schools was there to back me up if I needed support.

And Ben says:

Safe Schools Coalition helped me during this darkest period of my life. They saved my life! No doubt that the amazing work they had been and are still doing helps save lives. Go Safe Schools!

Think of the lives that Safe Schools has saved.

I look at the incredible change that has occurred since I was at high school. I did not know anyone that I knew for sure was same-sex attracted. I certainly did not know any trans people. But they were there. I had 500 fellow students at my high school. The odds are that among us there were 50 same-sex attracted people and around five trans people. Conservatives want to deny their existence, but that is exactly what causes distress and self-doubt at best and emotional trauma, depression, anxiety, suicide at worst. In contrast, teenage kids today have the opportunity to be themselves, to reach their potential and to feel loved without fear of discrimination. The Safe Schools Coalition is such an important part of this.

By caving into Cory Bernardi's hateful, homophobic and transphobic agenda the government is putting all of this valuable work at risk and also putting the wellbeing of so many young Australians at risk.