PROOF ISSN 1322-0330

RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Hansard Home Page: http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/hansard/ E-mail: [email protected] Phone: (07) 3406 7314 Fax: (07) 3210 0182

Subject FIRST SESSION OF THE FIFTY-THIRD PARLIAMENT Page Tuesday, 15 February 2011

MOTION ...... 1 Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders ...... 1 MOTION ...... 1 Natural Disasters ...... 1 Tabled paper: Proposed Reconstruction Authority Bill 2011...... 6 Tabled paper: Proposed Queensland Reconstruction Authority Bill 2011, explanatory notes...... 6 Tabled paper: Bundle of photos of water coming down range...... 15 ADJOURNMENT ...... 87 ATTENDANCE ...... 87

J MICKEL N J LAURIE L J OSMOND SPEAKER CLERK OF THE PARLIAMENT CHIEF HANSARD REPORTER 15 Feb 2011 Legislative Assembly 1 TUESDAY, 15 FEBRUARY 2011

Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly met at 9.30 am. Mr Speaker (Hon. John Mickel, Logan) read prayers and took the chair. For the sitting week, Mr Speaker acknowledged the traditional owners of the land upon which this parliament meets and paid respect to the elders past and present.

MOTION

Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders Hon. JC SPENCE (Sunnybank—ALP) (Leader of the House) (9.31 am), by leave, without notice: I move— That, notwithstanding anything contained in the Standing and Sessional Orders— (1) All business be suspended in order to permit the Premier to move a motion without notice this morning relating to the Queensland floods and . (2) The Premier’s motion shall take precedence over all other business for this day’s sitting, and over all other business from after private members’ statements. (3) Standing Order 231 be suspended whilst the motion is before the House. The last few months will be burned into our memories as a time when we wondered what more we could bear, what more could happen and how much worse it could get. But it will also be remembered as a time when we saw Queenslanders like we have never seen them before—a people with courage, strength, determination, tenacity and compassion. My electorate was relatively unaffected by the floods, although there were some houses that were flooded. But, in comparison to other members who saw it and lived through it firsthand, we were very fortunate. But we have all been touched by these circumstances. I have two sisters who live in Yeronga who were flooded and I also have some very good relations in Grantham. Queensland, as we know, is a small place and we all have friends up and down the coast who have been affected in one way or another. I am sure that all members of parliament will want to use the next two days to talk about their experiences and to share some of their heroic stories and wonderful stories of compassion that we have all experienced in the last couple of months. Motion agreed to.

MOTION

Natural Disasters Hon. AM BLIGH (South —ALP) (Premier and Minister for the Arts) (9.32 am): I move— That this House— 1. acknowledges with great sadness the devastation caused in Queensland by the natural disasters that this State has endured since December 2010; 2. extends its condolences and deepest sympathy to the families and loved ones of those killed in the natural disasters; 3. grieves for those who have suffered injury and who have lost their homes, property and personal possessions and extends our support for their recovery; 4. places on record its sincerest gratitude for the leadership and the valued contribution of the police, emergency service and medical teams, defence personnel, federal, state and local government and private sector employees, and community and voluntary service providers, together with the thousands of workers and volunteers from Queensland, other parts of and overseas, who have selflessly contributed so much in difficult and often dangerous circumstances to help affected communities; 5. sincerely acknowledges the many fundraising activities which have been organised and thanks the people and governments in Australia and overseas who have sent messages of support and sympathy and who have generously donated resources and funding to assist our fellow Queenslanders; and 6. pledges to work with affected communities and all levels of government, as Queensland recovers from these natural disasters and is rebuilt. I believe it is appropriate that as a mark of respect we begin our proceedings this morning with a minute’s silence. Whereupon honourable members stood in silence. 2 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Ms BLIGH: The summer of 2010-11 will be remembered as our summer of sorrow. This summer will be remembered as a story of devastation and of horror, a story of fragility and vulnerability but also a story of hope and inspiration. The story of this summer is one unprecedented in our history—a summer of dual disasters which covered 70 per cent of our state in floodwater. And then, while we were still pulling ourselves together, still gathering in our collective shock, an uninvited interloper called Cyclone Yasi ploughed into us, adding misery upon misery. The story of this summer is a story that must be recorded in history so that future generations will know the phenomenon that we experienced, so that future generations may not only understand the atrocities that nature unleashed but also learn and understand the aftermath of those atrocities, the stories of loss and despair, of fragility and hope, and the stories that characterise our indomitable Queensland spirit. Stories that resonate with sorrow and stories that soar with inspiration. Stories that change and challenge us and stories of dignity in the face of adversity. Stories that knit together to bring a very human dimension to an extraordinary and unprecedented natural phenomena. Throughout summer a series of disasters unfolded across our state. After heavy rains caused flooding in late November and December, Cyclone Tasha crossed the coast on Christmas Day, bringing rain that brought calamity to every river system south of the Tropic of Capricorn and as far west as Longreach and Charleville. They engulfed Alpha and Jericho, Chinchilla and Dalby, Theodore and Warwick. They went on to swallow , Gayndah and Mundubbera, Emerald and Rockhampton, Condamine and St George. The Condamine River, the Balonne River, the , the Comet River, the Dawson River and the Nogoa River each reached flood peaks never before recorded in our history. Then, on 10 January, a terrifying, destructive wall of water swept through Toowoomba, then west, flooding Oakey, Dalby, Chinchilla and Condamine for a second time. The same heavy rain then brought misery, death and destruction through the , to small towns like Murphys Creek, Postmans Ridge, Helidon, Grantham, Laidley, Lowood, Fernvale and Forest Hill. The floodwaters travelled on, with the Bremer, Lockyer and Brisbane River systems reaching heights that engulfed Ipswich, Goodna, Gailes, Karalee and then on to the suburbs of our capital in scenes not witnessed in almost 40 years, since the floods of 1974. These flooding events have left 35 Queenslanders dead. Each of these people was a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, a husband, wife or partner, a grandparent or an aunt or uncle. Each of them was a friend, a neighbour, a community member. Together we weep for those lives—some of them unspeakably short. The awesome floods have overwhelmed the towns and cities of South-East Queensland, the towns and cities of South-West Queensland and the towns and cities of . In their wake they have left 5,488 houses inundated above the floorboards, rendering many of them unlivable. A further 3,572 businesses have been inundated, and many of them will not reopen. More than 5,900 people were evacuated from 3,600 homes—for a short time the largest evacuation in our history. The floods wiped out crops, devastating our cotton industry and many of our fruit and vegetable growers. They flooded our coalmines, leaving them inoperable for many weeks. We have suffered about $4 billion in commercial losses across our mining, agriculture and tourism sectors. History will also record many firsts from this event. We evacuated two entire towns—something never before undertaken. Theodore became the first town ever to be fully evacuated in an exercise that saw the town’s total population airlifted to safety in Moura. The people of Condamine were forced to go through that process twice as its residents were taken to safety. Just as the floodwaters receded the first time and the residents returned and cleaned up their town, the waters cruelly rose again—forcing them once again to flee and be away from their town for about nine days. As we speak, significant areas of our public infrastructure lays in ruins in the wake of the floods. About 19,000 kilometres of our roads were damaged. Three major ports were significantly affected. More than 28 per cent of our state rail network has been left twisted and displaced. Schools, kindergartens and other community infrastructure has been devastated. The much loved and iconic Brisbane River walkway is no more. The sheer scope of this state-wide disaster is made shockingly apparent by the fact that more than 38,000 Queenslanders have made claims for insurance in the hope that they will be able to rebuild and repair and move on with their lives. But, of course, the story of this sad summer is a story told in two parts. Just as we were clearing away the mud and taking stock of the damage and grieving for those lost, severe Yasi bore down on the Queensland coast, threatening the massive area from Townsville to . We knew that this cyclone, a category 5 cyclone, would bring widespread destruction. It chilled us when the described Yasi in these terms— Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi is a large and very powerful tropical cyclone and poses an extremely serious threat to life and property within the warning area, especially between Cairns and Townsville. This impact is likely to be more life-threatening than any experienced during recent generations. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 3

It ultimately wrecked communities throughout the Cassowary Coast and Hinchinbrook region, including the towns of Tully and Tully Heads, Innisfail, Ingham, Cardwell, Mission Beach, El Arish, Silkwood, Silky Oak and others. It took houses from their stumps. It peeled roofs away from homes. It blew boats and cars like toys into backyards. It stripped forests of every leaf. It delivered torrents of rain. Above all, it delivered sorrow and misery. In Cyclone Yasi’s wake, one young man lost his life. Some 35 per cent of properties from Silkwood to Cardwell sustained some level of damage. Twenty-five per cent of them sustained severe damage. One hundred and eight buildings were destroyed beyond repair. Thousands of others were left damaged in some way. Cyclone Yasi has left our north’s primary producers—the families who provide for the state and the entire country—in ruins. It has left them with in excess of $1 billion in damage, affecting 75 per cent of the nation’s banana crop and devastating many sugarcane farmers. Of course, many of these people experienced and are reliving those events. Cyclone Yasi also has an important part in our history for reasons other than its aftermath. As it roared toward our coast, 10,000 North Queenslanders evacuated into more than 100 official evacuation centres—something again not experienced in our history. Significant numbers of others were accommodated in unofficial centres established by communities and church groups. Thousands of others sought refuge with family and friends. An entire hospital population was evacuated to Brisbane from Cairns—again, a feat of a scope and magnitude never before undertaken. The history books will paint our last two months as Queensland’s summer of sorrow. They will speak of a period of unrelenting catastrophe, a time when unprecedented weather events followed one another in unthinkable sequence—an event that took 22 lives in the Toowoomba- and a further 14 lives across Queensland in disaster related incidents. Still people are missing and still their loved ones wait anxiously for news. Our summer of sorrow has a very human face, characterised by powerful and haunting images— images that are both tragic and endearing, appalling and inspiring, heartbreaking and haunting. They are images now etched into our collective psyche. They are images that will forever stay with us. Some, through the media, have been very public and very confronting, like the rapid, fatal and terrifying storm that swept through Toowoomba in January, televised to a frightened nation—indeed a confronted world—as it carried vehicles and debris through a city where flood is not only an oddity; it is all but unheard of. Like the image of a family of three—mum, dad and a terrified, almost defeated little boy— trapped on the roof of their car as a boiling river of mud and debris threatened to take them. Like the forlorn sight of prayer books lying sopping wet between the miraculously surviving pews of the remains of the Cardwell church after Yasi had done its work and blown the structure away. Others images have for me and many other members of this House been intimate and extremely affecting. These are the moments that, while not captured on film, are indelibly etched into my mind and the minds of those who experienced them. Images like one of Queensland’s most selfless charity workers, Meals on Wheels State President Gwen Braga—after a lifetime of giving to others—leaning against the wreckage of her outer Brisbane home, surveying her life’s possessions in a pile of mud at the roadside as she waited for a garbage truck to take it away. Moments recalled like the experience of the Grantham couple who told me their story as I stood in their ruined front yard two weeks ago—their haunting recollection of being in Sydney with their son at a national sports championship and taking a frightening telephone call from their 14-year-old daughter, who was home in Grantham and was screaming about a wave and a car landing on their top step. Thankfully she survived, although she did lose her precious horses. If you can imagine being those parents in Sydney, you can understand that it will scar them for a very long time. Images like my first trip into those towns at the foot of the Toowoomba range where nature had revealed her true fury; where people had lost their lives and those who were left behind were numbed and shocked as their lives were turned to rubble downstream; where people described to me scenes which might have been from a horror movie; where they ran for their lives holding their children as houses rushed past on a ferocious torrent of water, mud and debris. The image described to me by a mother at the Ingham evacuation centre—as Yasi peeled the roof from her flat, she huddled terrified with her nine-year-old son as rain and howling winds whipped around them for interminable hours. The image of an 85-year-old woman who has called Tully Heads home for the past 40 years as she stared in disbelief at the stumps that were all that are left of that home. These are stories of normal, ordinary Queenslanders who faced and endured an extraordinary ordeal. These events were so momentous that we all shared in them in some way. For many of us there were direct personal effects; for others it affected someone we know and love. For a moment, together, we all felt fragile, fearful of what might come next to us or a loved one. It was an experience that reminded us all of what is really important in life. It was a very emotional time as many of us imagined what others were going through. 4 Motion 15 Feb 2011

As we reflect on these events today I ask us to imagine again, for a moment, what it was like to be at home in the tranquil, typically Queensland towns of the Lockyer Valley on the afternoon of 10 January. Imagine those seconds when—without warning but with appalling ferocity—nature unleashed her very worst and a wall of water rushed over the town, as parents grabbed small children and elderly grandparents and desperately scrambled onto rooftops. I ask us to imagine the unadulterated terror, the moments of panic, the choices that had to be made, the superhuman strengths that had to be found. Equally, I ask us to imagine waiting, with gut-wrenching anticipation, as night closed in on northern Queensland and Yasi barrelled toward the coast with truly frightening force—with force not to be reckoned with, with force not seen in Australia for a generation. I ask us to imagine the creeping panic, the fear of the unknown and of what lay ahead as this brutal locomotive of a tropical storm bore down closer, threatening to bring untold devastation, and then the petrifying howl as roofs were ripped from houses and trees were thrown like matchsticks down streets and boats that weighed tonnes became missiles and were hurled into backyards. We should take a moment to imagine all of this, because imagine is all that those of us who were not in the line of fire can do. But for thousands of our fellow Queenslanders, these are the real memories that they are living with. These are not their imaginations; this is their reality. I ask us to imagine this because I want each and every person who knew and loved each and every victim of our disasters to know that we understand that they are in pain, that they themselves have lived through something deeply traumatic and we understand that they suffer and they grieve, and today we grieve with them, just as we grieve along with those who have suffered injuries and suffered the loss of their homes, their businesses, their farms, their workplaces, their much loved pets, their possessions and those things that hold their most treasured memories. From the eye of the storm, from the wall of mud and devastation, from the hell of the lost lives and lost possessions have emerged tales of great heroism, tales of selflessness, tales of the Queensland heart and spirit—stories that have reverberated across our nation, around the world and stories that will reverberate in our history. We will never forget our emergency chopper pilots who battled impossible dangerous conditions to rescue from their rooftops people who would otherwise surely have perished— chopper pilots like Mark Kempton, who plucked desperate people from their rooftops even as his own family home was being flooded in Brisbane. Our emergency helicopter crews on that night rescued 43 people in winch rescues in heavy rain and dark conditions. It is a rescue exercise unprecedented in Australian history. The crews from Toowoomba saved 48 lives in swift-water rescues in a matter of hours on that terrible afternoon in Toowoomba—again, an exercise without precedent in our nation’s history. Just like those rescue workers and army crews who spent long, awful and heartbreaking days searching an area of some 663 kilometres for those who were missing—people like Donna Rice and her 13-year-old son Jordan and his 10-year-old brother Blake, who were trapped on the roof of their car as the torrent surged through Toowoomba. When rescuers arrived, Jordan told them to save Blake first. They did and, as we know, Jordan and his mother were then stolen tragically by the flood. And then there were the heroes like the tug boat skippers Doug Hislop and Peter Fenton whose 40-year-old vessel, Mavis, became the little tug that could. It is a very good name! At the height of the Brisbane flood on 13 January when a 300-metre, 1,000-tonne section of the River Walkway had broken loose and threatened to hurtle towards the Gateway Bridge, this pair manoeuvred Mavis so that it missed this vital arterial bridge and then shepherded it downstream out of harm’s way. Doug and Peter were not ordered to take that action. They saw the need, they saw the danger and they responded. Or stories of heroism like those of our Red Cross volunteer Noelene Byrne in Tully. Noelene doubted that the town’s senior citizens centre would safely house evacuees, despite assurances that it would be safe. This old timber building was temporarily housing eight frightened people when Noelene dropped in. She took one look at the structure and ordered them out, even as Yasi was closing in. She took them across town to the Red Cross base. There they safely waited out the night as the senior citizens centre was blown away. And the thousands of volunteers who rose across Queensland to clean up and repair in every town and city as floods and cyclones receded. They came in their hundreds to little towns like Condamine and Theodore to work alongside locals. They came in their thousands to the streets of suburban Brisbane and Ipswich to help people they did not even know. They came in their thousands to the streets of cyclone-ravaged North Queensland where they worked shoulder to shoulder to help restore their fellow Queenslanders’ lives. And just as we had all shared in a moment of fear and fragility, we then shared in a moment of uplifting inspiration. We watched in awe as a powerful force of humanity marched through filthy streets and mopped and shovelled and hauled garbage away for days on end. We marvelled at the kindness of strangers and we gave thanks to those who were unable to shovel or mop but who brought cold drinks and homemade cakes to those who could. And we learnt in the best way possible that it really is better to give than to receive. Just as these disasters wrecked our communities, they also strengthened us as they brought us together and forged new bonds of friendship. Queensland Week this year will be dedicated to these heroes. We will work to identify them in every community. We will cast a commemorative medal to honour Queensland heroes who played a role during the crisis and the recovery. We will support events across the state so local communities can come together and honour their own and recognise the contribution that has been made, and we will dedicate memorials to those who have lost their lives. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 5

I said throughout these events that in meeting my responsibilities as Premier I was standing on the shoulders of giants, and today I want to acknowledge and give thanks to those giants of our emergency front line—those who worked tirelessly to prepare us, to protect us and to help us recover. I give our sincerest thanks to those organisations and individuals whose bravery and self-sacrifice averted much greater losses—our police, our emergency service personnel, our ambulance, our SES personnel, our defence forces and our community organisations like the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the Salvation Army, Lifeline, Volunteering Queensland, the Red Cross and the many others at a local level. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Ms BLIGH: I also acknowledge that many of these people, because of the time of year that it was, were on their Christmas leave with their families. They gave up that leave, they returned from leave, they did not go on the leave so that they could be part of this response, and for that we will forever be grateful. Our emergency response was working under the provisions of our new legislation for the first time. When we debated that legislation here in this parliament last year we could never have imagined it would be so tested so soon after being passed in November last year. I recognise today the extraordinary leadership of Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Ms BLIGH: He was appointed on Christmas eve as the first State Disaster Coordinator under this new legislation. Ian has worked around the clock, keeping Queensland safe and informed and coordinating an emergency response across an almost impossible span of control. I am sure all would agree that he has fulfilled this role as it was intended and beyond. Similarly, Bruce Grady, appointed as the first State Disaster Recovery Coordinator, was at Emergency Management Queensland headquarters around the clock, rising to all the challenges of these events. I pay tribute to the tireless work of Major General Mick Slater, who is leading our recovery effort. The Major General’s strong yet calm presence has been a huge asset as we face these events together. The calm and steady hand of the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Neil Roberts, was indispensable throughout the long days and nights of these disasters. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Ms BLIGH: His experience and wisdom underpinned some of the most difficult decisions, and I thank him for his personal support and his professionalism. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Ms BLIGH: I also pay tribute to the great work done by local councils and mayors in every area affected by these disasters. As we all know, our disaster arrangements in this state rely heavily on local responses in local communities by local councils, and some of the worst impact has been felt in areas represented by our smallest councils. They rose magnificently to the challenges that Mother Nature threw at them and I thank each and every one of the mayors and their council representatives for the collaborative work that we have done together to recover from this event. Our continued recovery from these disasters will require the best efforts of all levels of government working together, and the partnerships that have been forged with local councils in the past weeks throughout these events are a very strong foundation for the challenges that lie ahead of us all. In this context, I want to thank the Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas, for the ongoing role that he has played each and every day of these events as the link between local councils and the state government. The Deputy Premier has maintained a constant contact on a daily basis with mayors across Queensland to ensure that every assistance needed was being provided, and I thank him for his efforts. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Ms BLIGH: I also want to recognise the tireless work being done by so many members on both sides of this chamber. The work they are doing to represent, to help and to support their constituents whose lives have been torn apart by these terrible events is nothing short of exemplary. Without exception, every local member who is dealing with often difficult and traumatic circumstances has put politics aside in the interests of the people they represent. In recognising the work of all affected members, I am sure I speak for every member of the House in recognising that the member for Lockyer faces an almost unbearable anguish in the communities that he is working to help rebuild. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Ms BLIGH: Equally, I recognise that these disasters directly impacted the electorate offices of a number of members, making their job of representing their constituents more difficult at an already difficult time—no more so than the member for Bundamba, whose office was completely lost in the flood at a time when her community needs her services more than ever. I thank her for the extraordinary work that she is doing out of a tent at the moment. 6 Motion 15 Feb 2011

As we faced these terrible events together, we took comfort from those around the world and around Australia who supported us. I thank the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, and her government for their constant care and assistance. The Prime Minister was a regular visitor to towns and cities across Queensland, bringing reassurance to Queenslanders hurt by these events, and she was always just a phone call away when we needed federal approval for assistance of any kind. Similarly, we were buoyed by the support and compassion brought to devastated communities by our Governor, Her Excellency Penelope Wensley, and our Governor-General, Her Excellency Quentin Bryce. Throughout this traumatic time we have been overwhelmed by support from around the country and around the world. As a state that is home to people from every other state of Australia and people from 200 cultures across the globe, we are very connected and for a moment we felt each and every one of those connections as people wrapped their arms around us. Replacement front-line staff came from every state of Australia and from New Zealand. Our friends in New Zealand have been extraordinary in this time of need and I thank them. Messages of support have flooded in from around the world and donations have come from every corner. I thank those governments who have given to Queensland so generously, and again I make particular mention of the New Zealand government, which donated $2.28 million to our flood relief appeal—an extraordinary effort. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Ms BLIGH: Corporate Australia has dug deep for our relief fund, and we thank them for their efforts. But my most heartfelt thanks go to those ordinary Australians—those mums and dads, those children, those families—who have opened their hearts, opened their wallets and opened their piggy banks to donate to our appeal. In times when I know many Australian families are doing it tough, this has meant so much to each and every one of us and so much to those Queenslanders who have been hurt. I also want to put on record my thanks to those who have agreed to serve on the distribution committee for the Premier’s relief appeal. It will not be an easy task as they seek to ensure that the funds go to those who need it most. I particularly thank the Minister for Public Works, the member for Rockhampton, Robert Schwarten, and the member for Gregory, Vaughan Johnson, who have thankfully agreed to serve in this capacity. All of Australia is rallying to help us rebuild. Infrastructure of all kinds has suffered enormous damage and it will take years to replace and restore it all. As we reflect on our dual tragedies we will focus on the two great tasks we have before us: firstly, to understand what has happened and to search for ways to prevent future tragedies—we are already ploughing ahead with an official inquiry; and, secondly, to rebuild and reconstruct Queensland. Where possible, those buildings and assets that mean so much to our communities and that have been destroyed will be replaced and they will be replaced to more flood-resistant standards. We will rebuild Queensland, we will rebuild as quickly as possible and we will emerge stronger as a result of it. Later this week we will consider a bill to establish a Queensland Reconstruction Authority. I seek leave to table a copy of that bill for the information of the House. Leave granted. Tabled paper: Proposed Queensland Reconstruction Authority Bill 2011 [3822]. Tabled paper: Proposed Queensland Reconstruction Authority Bill 2011, explanatory notes [3823]. Ms BLIGH: These were events that threatened to overwhelm us. They were of a magnitude unprecedented in our history and we simply could not have survived them without the support and the goodwill of the many from around the country and around the world whom I have thanked here today. But above all, I want to thank the people of our state—the everyday Queenslanders who confronted these terrible events. I am thankful for their courage and their strength and I am very proud to be one of them. As each day of these disasters unfolded, I knew that we would have to dig deep and we would have to find the very best of ourselves to overcome this ordeal, and that is just what we did. We remembered who we are. As we surveyed all that we had lost, we remembered what it is to be a Queenslander—the ones who today, in every town and city, in every street and suburb, in every farm and business, in every nook and cranny, are proving that when we get knocked down we get right back up again. Today, as we all reflect on these events, I join with all in the House when I say that it is my hope that the thousands of Queenslanders who have been affected by these tragedies find the strength to travel the difficult road ahead, to heal and emerge stronger. And may those who have lost their lives in this terrible tragedy rest in peace. Mr LANGBROEK (Surfers Paradise—LNP) (Leader of the Opposition) (10.04 am): I want to thank the Premier for her heartfelt contribution. It is the images of the traumatic, dreadful and horrific events of this summer that will remain with all Queenslanders. It began with vast square miles of floodwaters covering towns, cities, homes, pastures and playgrounds, severing roads and railways and closing airports, splitting our state with a liquid blanket that covered vast swathes of land from the Central Highlands and Central Queensland down to the , Condamine, St George and the 15 Feb 2011 Motion 7

Granite Belt. It affected over 20 communities, towns and cities—some completely evacuated, like Condamine and Theodore; some inundated up to four and five times, like Dalby, and many to a level never before seen—and lives were lost: a terrible toll, a tragedy that unfolded for weeks across the landscape. Many families and friends were left mourning the loss of loved ones. The human toll, the damage to homes, crops and stock, the flooded mines and the damaged infrastructure were all so great that we thought we had borne the brunt of an extreme wet season. When the Premier and I were answering telephones at the telethon on Sunday, 9 January, the discussion was about getting on with the recovery, rebuilding our state’s infrastructure and assisting the families and businesses that had suffered so much. In short, we mistakenly thought that we had seen the worst of it. Australians rang in from every state and pledged their assistance—children giving up their pocket money, people with very little giving for those who had even less. All the celebrities and politicians were there raising money to assist people affected by a crisis that had peaked and passed. How wrong we were. The next day, 10 January, a tide from hell gushed through the Toowoomba CBD. I remember seeing the vision on the television in my office with my staff. The images I recall, which we have all seen so many times, are images of a watery turmoil, where people and cars were tossed about and swept away by a torrent that had appeared as if by magic in the middle of the city on an otherwise normal day. I recall seeing the bravery of the firefighters and the bystanders who, at great personal risk, did what they could to save those souls whose cars had been suddenly swamped or who were suddenly trapped by a force of nature so severe that it seems even now to be unnatural and completely improbable. We all recall the cars, vans and utes careering and careening along a street that became a gushing river in an instant and we thought, ‘My God, what on earth has happened?’ It was almost beyond comprehension. Of course, we did not know then what had occurred at the base of the range at , at Murphys Creek, at Postmans Ridge, at Helidon and, most tragically of all, where the run-off from the hills and the range comes together at the little village of Grantham. There is, of course, no video footage of the wall of water that hit Grantham and Murphys Creek. I have walked through Grantham. I have seen firsthand the devastation, the utter destruction, the debris, the stumps where houses once stood, cars washed up onto verandahs and houses in fields. Cars had been flung about like matchbox toys. I have met some of the stoic and proud people of the village that was smashed by an unholy torrent of mud, water, trees, cars and even pieces of homes. I went to Grantham only three days after all of this happened and yet I freely admit that I could not comprehend, and never will fully comprehend, the hell that was visited upon that town and those people. I suspect none of us can know. The water continued onto Gatton and through the Lockyer Valley on a path of destruction as it headed for Ipswich and Brisbane. The images on our television were shocking. In fact, they are still shocking: families stranded on rooftops, being swept away in cars, being swept away on top of cars. As I watched these images on television there was of course commentary, but none was needed; none could match the visual impact. Nobody will remember a word uttered by any journalist or commentator, though the images will be forever etched in our minds. The enormous loss of life in Grantham and Murphys Creek was a tragedy not before experienced in our state. The tales of extreme sacrifice, heartbreak, good fortune and misfortune are many. The terror may be gone but the grief is real and ongoing for many families and friends. All the reconstruction, rebuilding, funds and grants will not fill the chasm in the hearts of those who have lost loved ones. Their loss is incalculable; their pain is acute and ongoing. It is for us as leaders in our communities to provide whatever support we can to these families. One member of this House deserves special mention. The honourable member for Lockyer, together with his wife Ann, worked night and day assisting his constituents, their friends and neighbours in the Lockyer Valley. The Police Commissioner referred to him as a statesman of his community, and so he is. He and Ann rose to the challenge when their community needed them most. They were staunch, they were resourceful and above all they were caring. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Mr LANGBROEK: All of us in this House can be proud of the deeds and words of the member for Lockyer and his wonderful wife Ann over those dark days. I commend him. I honour him. I have tremendous respect for him and Ann as genuine community leaders. Of course, we all know that the water eventually hit Ipswich. I know the local members there also worked tirelessly to assist those whose homes were inundated. In particular I know that the honourable member for Bundamba struggled against enormous odds given that her electorate office was also destroyed by the floods. Mayor Paul Pisasale did a great job of keeping people’s spirits up in Ipswich. He is a great leader of a terrific community and although Ipswich is doing it pretty tough at the moment I am sure that under Mayor Pisasale’s leadership the city will be back on top in no time. My colleague the honourable member for Moggill had large sections of his electorate either flooded or cut off by flooding. His electorate office was out of action yet he soldiered on serving his electorate with little more than a mobile phone. He also went beyond the call of duty by funding the purchase of food for evacuees and organising evacuation centres; he washed clothes; he took strangers into his home and put them up for many days. The honourable member for Moggill comforted, cajoled and counselled. 8 Motion 15 Feb 2011

I visited the honourable member for Indooroopilly’s electorate with him as the river rose. We spoke to locals who calmly prepared to watch their houses go under, swallowed by ever rising water released from the Wivenhoe Dam. I did not get a chance to catch up with the member for Yeerongpilly. However, I did spend time helping clean Dorothy Fritz’s house with her nephew Max Fritz at Fairfield. I am pretty sure she would not mind me saying that at 87 years of age she needed a little bit of help with the layers of mud that had been swept in from the river to her two-storey weatherboard home, a home that was flooded in 1974. When I asked Max who helped her then he said, ‘Well, all those people who helped her have now died and she has no-one to help her.’ Even with her nephew Max and me the job was still too big so I got on the phone to 4BC and asked for volunteers. Quite a few showed up. There were uni students, a couple from Maryborough who were here for the tennis who had been prevented from returning home by road closures and complete strangers appearing from nowhere and disappearing again when the work was done. The flooding events have been tragic and heartbreaking but the community response has been spirited and incredibly supportive. Strangers helping strangers without question or qualm. The best came out in the worst of times. Many people of different faiths and nationalities, of different backgrounds, working together side by side to help their fellow man, to help their fellow Queenslanders, to help their fellow Australians. Lord Mayor Campbell Newman showed that he had lost nothing of his old military style, organising Brisbane pre flood and post flood efficiently and with precision. I saw Mayor Campbell Newman at an SES compound in Newmarket where I and about 50 other people were cheerfully filling sandbags in the dark and the rain. We filled sandbags so quickly that we kept running out of sand. There was a queue of cars down the street and around the corner waiting for sandbags to protect their homes and businesses. We kept filling bags into the night until the queue was gone. In my team there was a doctor, an optometrist, a couple of students, some tradies and some young people who were best described as being alternative—even a 4ZZZ DJ. But for one rainy January night we were sandbaggers together. There was a great community spirit, chatting in between shovel loads, sharing our stories, talking about the incredible events of the past days and weeks. We all got stuck in, cheerfully doing our bit the night before the Brisbane flood. Let me pay tribute to the younger people who filled sandbags, who helped people move furniture to higher ground and who turned out in their hundreds, if not thousands. Gen Y are often maligned as lazy, good-for-nothing, self-indulgent layabouts, but when the chips were down in Brisbane, Ipswich and the Lockyer Valley they turned up in their designer gumboots with shovels and brooms and worked like navvies. Our gen Ys are magnificent. These natural disasters did not discriminate based on age, credo or faith. It did not matter if you were young or old, it did not matter if you were Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Sikh or Baha’i. There is no doubt that faith is what many people called upon in their darkest hours in the cyclones or floods. For young children who know that they are safe with their parents, there was faith that they would be okay. For many Queenslanders there was faith in the emergency workers who rescued them and led them to safety. They had faith in the police and firies who guided them. They had faith that they would be okay. I want to move now to the second calamitous event to strike our state, Cyclone Yasi. Cyclone Yasi was by any measure immense. It packed a punch like no other storm to cross the Queensland coast in living memory. We can all be thankful that Cyclone Yasi crossed the coast where it did, in the least populated areas. If it had hit Cairns or Townsville square on we would surely be mourning many more lost lives. But this fact is, of course, no comfort for the residents of the electorate of Hinchinbrook who did feel the full force of Yasi, a category 5 hell storm. Over the past few days I have visited many of the communities affected by Yasi with the honourable member for Hinchinbrook. In places the devastation is absolute. Tully Heads, Mission Beach and Cardwell were pretty much ground zero. Of course, it is not the effect on buildings or structures that will endure but the effect on the people. Losing everything in your 20s, 30s or 40s is a pretty tough thing to face. Losing everything in your 60s or 70s is, for many, a mountain too big to climb. However, who could fail to be impressed with the North Queensland spirit? Even after being smashed by a category 5 cyclone, they still have a sense of humour. Makeshift signs started appearing, spray-painted on debris and placed so passers-by could see, and every so often they lightened the mood. ‘Kiss my Yasi’ read one. ‘Yassou, Yasi’ read another with a Greek theme. Another said simply ‘Larry, tick. Yasi, tick. No more cyclones needed, thanks’. Outside the remnants of somebody’s home another sign stated ‘Battered but not beaten’. And in Tully, on a roof in the middle of the road was spray- painted the words ‘For sale’. However, the one that I will always remember for its humour and its clear statement of defiance was at Tully Heads. It was in the front yard of a home that was little more than a ruin, the entire contents having been washed out to the backyard by a seven-foot tidal surge. The house had had nearly every door, window and wall removed by a terrible force of nature that came in the night and destroyed all 15 Feb 2011 Motion 9 before it, not only in that house but also in nearly every house in the street. And chillingly, nearly every house in the street had painted on what remained two short words: ‘No go’. In the front yard of the utter wreckage that was a home, flanked by rubble and debris, were these words sprayed on a broken fibro sheet: ‘Is that all you’ve got, you bitch?’ Whilst having a distinct and defiant humour about it, it occurred to me that whoever wrote those words has almost certainly had their heart broken. The author has probably lost everything, including, for quite some time at least, the idyllic piece of Queensland that was their home in Tully Heads. That was my first ever visit to Tully Heads. I imagine that on a good day it is one of the prettiest little places on the map. It is not now. It is not pretty or inviting. It is not cute or quaint. However, I have confidence that it will be again. I have confidence that we can rebuild these towns and homes. I have confidence that we can restore order to our Queensland landscape, so scarred by chaos. I have confidence that North Queensland, like the Lockyer Valley, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Gympie, Maryborough and the suburbs of Brisbane, can and will recover. As the sign said, we may be battered but we are not beaten. In a couple of years I want to return to Tully Heads, Tully, Halifax, Lucinda, Cardwell, Mission Beach and all of those towns that suffered so badly from the winds and the tides of Yasi. I want to go with the proud member for Hinchinbrook. In this crisis he has proved himself to be a great man, a great human, a great humanitarian, a community leader and a community healer. I commend him for his endeavour, his heart and his love of his great community. His community has had to endure this twice in five years—first with Cyclone Larry and now with Cyclone Yasi. I want to thank emergency services workers from around the state. I thank the police, fire, ambulance, SES, electricity and telephone company employees, council workers, public servants, members of the defence forces and all the other people who contributed to getting this state back on its feet. I want to thank the many councils, mayors and councillors who, through their local disaster management groups, coordinated with the state authorities and worked so hard with their constituents. We should all remember this point: many of them left their families to take care of our families and they did it for days on end that stretched into weeks on end. We owe them our gratitude for their selfless contribution to Queensland. Today I honour them all. This summer has seen days and nights of destruction, horror, fear and grief—too much grief and despair. We have seen communities unite and strangers do deeds of goodwill and great honour towards people whose names or details will never be known to them. They did it because of a higher duty: a duty that drives our great state, a sense of a higher duty that typifies our people, a higher duty that means we will not let the forces of nature defeat us. We have seen goodwill transcend the political divide. The honourable member for Gaven assisted the member for Bundamba while helping the people of Alpha and Jericho and the member for Gregory. The honourable members for Redlands and Capalaba led a convoy west to donate goods to assist the flooded families of Ipswich and beyond. The member for Capalaba and the members for the neighbouring seats of Cleveland and Redlands organised those donations. Sure, they are from different parties, but they had one goal: to help Queenslanders in need. It was terrific to see. The Premier has liaised with LNP members and, in turn, I have rung Labor members and the member for Maryborough when their electorates were impacted by flood. The constituents of many members of parliament in this place were affected by these catastrophic events. I know that members have all worked tirelessly for their constituents. Even the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast are suffering from the effects of the impression that Queensland is closed for tourists. Members of parliament are doing their best to send the message that tourists are welcome and needed. There are major questions that will need to be raised about the many things that have happened this summer. However, there is a time and place for that proper scrutiny. It is not today and it was not during the critical response phase. We in the LNP have been supportive of government members and ministers and allowed them to concentrate on the immediate task at hand. In doing so, we have acted in the best interests of the state and its people. When we do legitimately begin to question the government in this place about these matters, we will also be acting in the best interests of this state and its people. We must learn from the mistakes made and make better preparations for the next time nature vents its fury. We in this parliament have an absolute obligation. We have a higher duty to those lost, to those mourning and to those Queenslanders counting the cost to work together wherever possible so that our great state—our great Sunshine State, the greatest state in the Federation—rises from this worst of all summers. Mr SHINE (Toowoomba North—ALP) (10.28 am): ‘Take my brother first.’ Those were the last known words of 13-year-old Jordan Rice before he and his mother, Donna, were tragically taken on the early afternoon of 10 January 2011. Those words were soon to be recounted literally throughout this country and in many others. For my community they epitomise courage, strength, loyalty and love—in fact, no greater love. In the nation’s House of Representatives our Prime Minister said—

But the legend of Jordan’s amazing courage will go on. He was a hero in the purest sense of the word. 10 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Thankfully, those two dreadful fatalities were the only ones sustained in the City of Toowoomba and within my electorate on that fateful afternoon. However, at about the same time, within a short distance, at the foot of the Great Dividing Range, at a place called Spring Bluff, Steven and Sandra Matthews were also taken. And that tragedy was quickly repeated in nearby Murphys Creek, Withcott, Postmans Ridge, Grantham and other places in the Lockyer. Others here—and most notably the valiant member for Lockyer—have and will speak of the many who died there. However, it would be wrong for me not to mention the little six-year-old girl Katie Schefe who, with her dad, Selwyn, also perished. She had completed grade 1 at Highfields State School and her mother teaches at Rockville State School, both schools within my electorate. One can only imagine or attempt to imagine the utter anguish being suffered. At a school liturgy last week, Father Ray Crowley described what had happened in our city and nearby Lockyer Valley as ‘having touched us to the core of our being’, and many others felt the same. In fact, I have read that there is a Facebook tribute page ‘RIP Jordan Rice’ which has so far attracted more than 240,000 followers. The Toowoomba Chronicle, supported by the Premier, has called for a memorial to those who lost their lives and to those others who exhibited heroic acts of bravery. The reaction of most citizens was one of shock, disbelief. The place from which Donna and Jordan Rice were swept away was not alongside a river or a significant waterway; it was at the intersection of James and Kitchener streets. James Street is the major transport arterial road through Toowoomba. Members here speak of it often relative to the need for a second range crossing. It was a place to be, safe from any likelihood of injury from a natural disaster. Thousands of vehicles pass that way every day. That the Rices could die undertaking an ordinary, everyday activity on our busiest road in the middle of our city in broad daylight by drowning in floodwater in a city with no river and that is perched on the top of a mountain truly did numb us—then and still. What happened was the result of 230 millimetres of rain falling in less than an hour in our city, which is situated at the base of an extinct volcano whose surrounding hills create a saucer effect. On that afternoon, metre-high volumes of water cascaded down the streets descending into East and West creeks, then becoming Gowrie Creek and ultimately flowing into the Condamine and into the Darling. The same one-in-500-year rain event dumped its mighty deluge also on the eastern side of the range, causing the catastrophic results in the Lockyer and beyond. On this occasion I will not set out the detail of the loss of property, infrastructure and income. We will have that opportunity later in the week. But it does encompass a significant loss of state property, particularly rail and road, assets of the Toowoomba Regional Council as well as considerable damage to private homes and businesses. I want to convey my sympathies to those who lost loved ones as well as all those who suffered loss of any kind, particularly psychological and emotional suffering, which I suppose is to be expected but will be no doubt long lasting. These losses have been extraordinarily widespread. In the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi almost all of the state was adversely affected in one way or another over December- January just gone. This included serious loss, damage and hardship to Warwick, Oakey, Dalby, Condamine, St George and most places between on the Downs. Out of all of this prolonged tragedy what we saw emerge were magnificent displays of goodness and even greatness. What has been mentioned to me most consistently and persistently was the genuine and bipartisan admiration for the leadership qualities shown by our Premier. It will be a long time before her ‘we are Queenslanders’ rallying call will slip from memory—hopefully never. Clearly, in the combination of these events we did face our toughest time since 1859. I could not help but imagine what the danger was like in 1941-42. Our country was fortunate at that time to be led by John Curtin. On this occasion, another Labor leader blessed with the same qualities led this state—those qualities of courage, strength, intelligence and compassion. What we then saw emerge in countless numbers was an overwhelming spirit of mateship, care and concern expressing itself in selfless acts of generosity by one Queenslander to another and, indeed, by many from interstate. I take this opportunity to thank the many organisations and groups from Toowoomba who helped their near neighbours, particularly in places like Murphys Creek. Various church groups were prominent but so, too, were the outstanding efforts of those who worked for the state and federal government agencies like the Department of Communities, Community Safety, ADF, Centrelink and so on. I had asked for names from fire and rescue and SES sources in Toowoomba to be given to me to be mentioned here. But the response typically was modest. It was that it would be unfair to mention one above the other. All played vital roles, whether it be in the communication room, in a swollen creek, in a helicopter or in some support role. The Prime Minister has mentioned and indicated that special acknowledgement will be given in an appropriate way to those deserving of special mention and they will be honoured at a later time. I thank the Premier for her immediate and lasting attention and concern for Toowoomba residents. I first spoke with her when the picture was very unclear on that afternoon of 10 January. I was away myself in town. Through her deputy chief of staff, Stephen Beckett, she was in constant touch. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 11

Nothing was too much trouble. I have never seen substantial requests acted on with such attention and effect in my 10 years as a member. Some of these requests on behalf of those most affected were sensitive and still are, but they were always handled with respect and generosity. We were very grateful for the Premier’s visit to Toowoomba to see the situation firsthand; likewise, the visits of the Deputy Premier, the Treasurer and ministers Nolan, Wilson, Mulherin and Wallace were important to our community. Also appreciated was the interest shown and visits made by both the federal and state leaders of the opposition as well as by Major-General Slater and senators Ludwig and Moore. Her Excellency the Governor gave her time to be with us and Her Excellency the Governor- General of course spent Australia Day in the Lockyer. All these visits and those of others were appreciated. Our community was immensely privileged to receive two visits from the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. The first was low key—receiving briefings and seeing firsthand the results of the flooding in our CBD. The second was on Australia Day. It was a great honour for us to be chosen by her on what is a most important day of the year for all of us, let alone for the Prime Minister of Australia. The thousands of people who greeted her at Picnic Point were testament to our community’s appreciation of her visit. I received a letter from the Prime Minister wishing Toowoomba a short and swift recovery. I seek leave to incorporate it in Hansard. Leave granted. 2 February 2011 Kerry Shine MP State Member for Toowoomba North PO Box 1822 Toowoomba QLD 4350 Dear Mr Shine Thank you for your letter of 28 January 2011 and very kind words, they are much appreciated. It was a pleasure to visit Toowoomba and meet some of the locals. Communities such as yours are always a great example of Australian mateship at work, all pulling together to overcome the most horrendous odds. The acts of kindness, concern and caring we show each other in times of great need is inspirational, not only in Australia but right around the world. I sincerely hope I get the opportunity to visit Toowoomba again in the future. I hope the flood recovery is sure and swift and Toowoomba soon restored to the beautiful garden city it is. Kind Regards (sgd) The Hon. Julia Gillard MP Mr SHINE: I repeat a quote I gave earlier to the effect that these events have touched us to the core of our being. It is unlikely that those living today will ever forget the awesome feat of nature that occurred in Toowoomba on 10 January 2011 nor its awful effect. Such things do remain in the memory and are indeed passed on. I remember well my late grandfather, Jim Shine, recounting to me vivid accounts of the 1893 flood. As I had occasion to mention to the students of Fairview Heights State School last Friday, what I hope they will remember and pass on to their children and their grandchildren is the aftermath of these events—the goodness, the charity, the unselfish giving of our citizens one to another. Yes, it was mateship but perhaps even in a finer form than our history has shown us in the past. Yes, we know of mateship qualities shown by the miners at the gold-diggings, shearers and our soldiers—shown to people who they knew or people with whom they had a common purpose. But here in Queensland we saw the qualities of mateship extended without reserve, without question, to complete strangers. Queenslanders can indeed be proud. I am very proud to support the motion. Hon. RE SCHWARTEN (Rockhampton—ALP) (Minister for Public Works and Information and Communication Technology) (10.41 am): At the outset allow me to convey my condolences to every member of this parliament who has had the misfortune and challenge of having the sorts of events that have just been described by the member for Toowoomba North. I know that every member of this parliament has done his or her best to assist each and every person that they could. As the Leader of the House pointed out, we are a state where everybody knows just about everybody else in the state, and there would not be a person in this chamber who could not point to some family who has suffered as a result of the last few weeks of certainly the most challenging weather circumstances in my lifetime. Also at the outset let me say that on the Cassowary Coast at the moment there is a large issue, which the local member and I have discussed, about asbestos removal. The mayor of the Cassowary Coast has indicated that it is beyond the capacity of the council to address the issue. The Army wisely has indicated that it does not have the expertise to do it. And, despite the mayor and the Premier’s staff discussing this earlier, it appears that the matter has now further escalated. I have instructed the director-general of the Department of Public Works to place at the disposal of the council all the expertise that we have in the Department of Public Works, and that includes every day labour person that we have who has a ticket—which is every single crane tradesperson that we have who has a category B licence—plus all the contractors whom we have in that area who have the necessary qualifications to address this issue. We are conveying that message as we speak. I have spoken to the 12 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Premier about this matter. It is something that we take very seriously. I personally, as I have told this House many times, understand what asbestos is all about, and we will ensure that we will throw everything that we can throw at this and provide every bit of expertise that we have. Two days before the peak of the flood in Central Queensland hit Rockhampton I was driving out of the recovery centre at the showgrounds in Rocky and here were an elderly couple filling very large sandbags with a couple of post hole shovels and putting the bags into the back of a ute. They would have been in their 70s. I stopped to assist them and inquired why it was that they were not using the large stack of sandbags that we had filled two days before at the showgrounds. They said, ‘They’re for people who need them.’ I asked, ‘What are your circumstances?’ They said, ‘We’re down in the swamp but the water has only come up to the fence.’ Bear in mind that there are two days of peak to go and these people are in their 70s. I said, ‘That is what they are there for.’ They said, ‘No. They’re for people in need.’ I conveyed them around to the showgrounds and we got the SES and various other people to load up the ute. I said, ‘We’ll come down and unload them.’ They said, ‘No. Our son is coming over this afternoon. There are other people who have a greater need than us.’ I guess that epitomises every story that everybody else in this place could tell about people who see themselves as having a lesser need than others when the rest of us can very well see that they are amongst the neediest. It was refreshing to be part of a team that was called together by the local radio station, which did a great job up there—Sea FM, with Chooky, Brad and Michael Bailey. They put out a call on the Sunday and within 20 minutes there were about 200 people at the showgrounds shovelling sand into sandbags. Included in that was somebody whom I had never met before but I found out that he was born two days apart from me and his mother was in the hospital talking to my mother and they were friends—Steve Freestone, who is a railway worker. The other part of the trio we had filling sandbags was Ross Lo Monaco, who is a well-known barrister in Rockhampton. And right beside us was Neil Fisher, who is a former National Party candidate for the seat of Keppel. There were people in all stages of life—young, old, some with tatts and some without, some people who have a great passion to be in the public arena and most who have none whatsoever. There was an absence of media. There was an absence of anybody with any other desire than to help other people. It made me think of all the times I read and hear on talkback radio of how the standards in this country have slipped and how no-one cares about anybody else and all the rest of it. Here were people who had no common bond of any structure whatsoever who were prepared, at a minute’s notice, to go and help people they had never heard of or seen before. They were people who just wanted to do the right thing. As I say, it takes a disaster to bring out the best in the majority. It does not take much to bring out the worst in the minority though, and I will talk a little bit about that later. The great focus at the time was on Central Queensland, because we had had rain and flooding basically since before Christmas. It was the wettest Christmas Day on record. News Year’s Eve was not much of a festival, as we waited for what could have been the worst flood since 1918. At that time the whole CBD of Rockhampton was flooded and they were slaughtering cattle at the end of the street to feed the populace. This time the road went out, the rail went out and the airport went out. But, thankfully, since 1991 the road north has been protected. I might say that Main Roads engineer Terry Hill won a bet against the police that it would not go out. It did not go out. Mr Lucas: Great bloke. Mr SCHWARTEN: Terry is a great bloke. The police were saying that it was going to go out, but it did not go out. That shows the level of competence that exists within departments to assist in that regard. It also shows that with engineering we can overcome a lot of these issues in the future. Anybody who suggests of course that you could flood proof a flood plain really does not know a lot about hydrology or real life. Every day we had a meeting and the mayor chaired it. I have to say that the legislation that was put forward in this parliament made the right call putting the police in charge, with the mayor at the centre of the local planning group. Anybody and everybody from right across the agencies was at every morning meeting. All were willing to help. All were willing to do the right thing. I have never seen three levels of government cooperate better in the interests of the citizens concerned. I want to thank the Premier, who came on four occasions, interrupting her holidays to do so. It was very well received. She was not just there when the floodwaters came up but she was there when the floodwaters came down as well. We have a great photo, which I will present to her later on, of the people in the temporary facility in Park Avenue. It meant a lot to our constituents that they were not forgotten. It is often said by those who live in regional Queensland that the state begins and ends in Brisbane. I doubt that anybody with any reasonable view could make that statement again, especially as the Premier and the Deputy Premier have been to Rockhampton a number of times. They have sat down and listened to personnel who saw the situation firsthand. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 13

It was interesting that when the flood was at its peak people were at their best. All the swampers gathered down at the Fitzroy Hotel and that is what you saw on TV. That is what the media projected around Australia and around the world. It was unsurprising to receive emails from people in other countries thinking that we were infested with crocodiles and snakes and all the rest of it. That was the image that was portrayed. We had three weeks of that. When the water went down that is when the trouble started. There was the stench of mud through people’s houses and the inconvenience of food shelves not being stacked to everybody’s liking. Having said all that, we did it a lot easier than those electorates where people lost their lives and their homes. In Rocky we have a brave group of people called swampers. They live in Depot Hill. I am a descendant of a swamper. My great-grandparents’ house is still there. It was built in 1908. It had water through it this time and it is still standing. At the time when people were proclaiming that we should go down there and tell the people of the swamp that they could not live there, I said, ‘You would want to be able to fight if you are going to go to the Fitzroy Hotel and say that.’ I went there the Friday before the flood reached its peak and shouted at the bar in the pub. One of the funniest statements I have heard in my life was made, but it does not bear repeating in this parliament. I will tell some people privately. It involves the laconic notion of people deciding to leave their homes when water got to a certain level. The single issue for me—and the inquiry has talked about this—is when people had to vacate their homes. Ergon did a fantastic job. They had to make a call based on the information they had and based on the hydrology they knew about. They went about their business of trying to cut off power to people’s homes. People who did not live in the swamp during the last effort, which was back in 1991— there have been two since then—did not believe that the water would go as high as it did. Ergon was very patient with those people. They were allowed to be kidded into the view that these people would move out the next day. I was there on the Friday, as I said, and I saw Ergon workers up to their chests turning off the power. Water and electricity do not mix. Ergon made the right call and said that they were not going to do any more of this. Unfortunately, they then had to turn off the substations which meant that some people who normally do not have water—and they regrettably were the old swampers who knew where the water came to—were faced with having no power, too. That was the only issue as far as I was concerned. I have referred people to the inquiry as a result of that. Again, I suggest that the inquiry is the right thing to do in that regard. I want to thank the Premier for her assistance in making sure that the rest of Australia got a pineapple crop. We spent about three hours on the phone over the weekend and made a visit down to the pineapple growers. This allowed $36 million worth of pineapples to get out of Central Queensland and this helped our primary producers. I have no doubt that, without that intervention, those pineapples would have rotted on the ground. That would have been disastrous. As I say, we can all do something in these circumstances. I would have to say now that we have recovered very well. We are a very resilient group of people. Everybody who could do something did. I want to particularly thank people like Geoff Murphy who made available their manpower and their machines to help people in need. I want to thank my own department—QBuild. It made sure that power was restored to people’s places as quickly as it could. I also want to thank those people who dug deep into their pockets to help by contributing to the Premier’s relief fund. I along with my good mate the member for Gregory, Vaughan Johnson, are the ones, when this started, whose areas were the areas in need. We now have a greater area in need and a greater amount of money. I point out that if we were to give everybody out of that first round $2,000 and $1,000 and it was not means tested it would come to over $60 million. At last look, $210 million has come in. We desperately need more money in that fund. We do not need to be bickering about whether or not it can be handed out quicker or whatever. We must make sure that public confidence is maintained. I thank my good mate for the wisdom that he brings to that committee in trying to deal with public expectation, which will be high, and the capacity to deliver it. We will deal with it honestly and thoroughly. I believe the chair, David Hamill, is doing a marvellous job as are the others on that committee. We are doing the best we can to honestly disburse that money around where it is needed most. I will also talk about the other responses that have been made throughout the state. We have been involved in Operation Bounce Back with the Department of Public Works. We have been picking out a number of projects that we can assist with in terms of community renewal. In the member for Bundamba’s electorate the first thing we thought about—and I have been in regular contact with her— was the need for us to try to restore as quickly as we could the facilities that communities want to have. The member for Ipswich West has been in touch with me. I have been talking to the mayor of Condamine about a project there. One great thing that we have through the Department of Public Works is a list of tier 1 and tier 2 building contractors who have excellent management qualities and who can 14 Motion 15 Feb 2011 also put the arm on suppliers. I will be tabling a list of all those things. This is something that the volunteers can do. This is something that they should do. I say to the member for Lockyer or to any other member: please let us know if you have any projects and we will be there to assist. It was interesting last week, to say the very least, to tour through the shadow minister’s electorate—I congratulate you on your appointment as shadow minister for public works, Mr Cripps. I thank him for keeping me briefed on what the issues were. We drove into Cardwell. QBuild was at the Cardwell school before anybody else cleaning it up. It was amazing to go into one of the classrooms and see all the kids’ school books still sitting on the desks. It remained untouched, as had the large building that had been built in the 1930s that bore the brunt of the storm. It tells me that the standards to which we build in this state are very, very good. We were able to coordinate so that every school in that area that was hit had the capacity to reopen yesterday. I thank the member for his vigilance. I know that his neighbour, Mr Pitt, has been down there. I ran into him in Tully the other day. As good neighbours do, he was assisting. It is a time when people need to pull together. Mr Katter should learn that. He displayed appalling behaviour up there the other day. He was the loudest voice in the grandstand. That does not epitomise what an elected member of parliament should do in these circumstances. It is simply irresponsible to attack people. The mayor had to apologise to our agencies because of the conduct of this person who is best described as a show pony—just jumping into town, creating the most noise he can and believing he is assisting. That contrasts with the behaviour of everybody else I have dealt with in here. I think it is time that people woke up to Mr Katter. He is not interested in the constituents there. He is merely interested in self-promotion. When you go to a place like Tully Heads where you are reminded of a time when you built sand castles on a beach and watched the tide come in and wash them away or to have friends in Lockyer who you thought might have been affected and to hear him say that no-one is caring about people, no-one is doing anything for people, is unfortunate to say the very least and inaccurate to say the very least. Again I want to thank the Premier for her leadership in this regard. The fact is that you do not judge an army by how well it polishes its boots; you judge an army by how well it fights under combat, and it is hard to think of a more difficult set of circumstances than we have seen recently. At these times you need a strong leader who wants to take the community with her rather than to bicker about the minutiae, and I thank the Premier for being dogged and single-minded in taking this state forward in a strong sense of leadership. It is nothing more than we deserve. Earlier I said that disasters bring out the best in most. They also bring out the worst in the minority. I have seen the best of the journalists in this state performing in the best way, but I have seen the worst of them performing in the worst way. The irresponsible actions of people standing in the middle of a cyclone were very bad examples to the community. While the Premier and other people were saying, ‘Do not go out into cyclones,’ we saw people in the media—and I think it is very bad— standing in water, even in my own electorate. I thought that was bad. Then there were the frivolous and puerile statements that were written during the time by journalists who have nothing better to do than talk about small, flippant remarks made in this parliament by another member and me. People who write about someone who sells a raffle ticket for $50, who define people as puerile and who make suggestions about people who are overcome by emotion really have no place in the journalistic world of responsible reporting. As I say, the majority of Queenslanders do not share that view. Every single person I have met who wants to help, regardless of who they happen to be, is proud to call themselves a Queenslander. We should be proud to represent them. We should also never forget the fact that they expect us to do our best on their behalf. I think we can rightly say that every person who was called upon, be it in the bureaucracy or in the parliament, has done the best they can by them. Mr SPEAKER: I call the honourable member for Lockyer. Mr RICKUSS (Lockyer—LNP) (11.01 am): Thank you, Mr Speaker. You will have to forgive me if I get a bit emotional. On behalf of Ann and myself and the community of Lockyer, I extend heartfelt condolences to the families and friends who have lost loved ones. I also understand the turmoil and angst of people who have had their houses flooded, destroyed, inundated and, in some cases, threatened by mudslides and landslips in other areas such as Indooroopilly. This motion acknowledges the leadership of the police; the emergency services; defence personnel; all government employees; Energex and Telstra workers—even Optus was at Murphys Creek giving everyone a hand; people who just got in and helped, and there were a lot of those; and those who supplied gear and machinery and often even paid some of their men to give a hand. We would like to acknowledge those people. The fundraising and donations that have been given are wonderful but, please, as the member for Rockhampton just said, if you can still spare a few dollars send money. Let us work to rebuild, but let us make it a better Queensland. Let us improve when we do the rebuild. In terms of things like railways, let us improve them. Let us make them better. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 15

What a sad, frightening and horrific summer we have just had in Australia, in Queensland and in my electorate of Lockyer. From November 2010 until February 2011 there was the flooding in Central Queensland and southern Queensland and the monster Cyclone Yasi. Has there ever been a time when, for several months, so many people have looked at the Bureau of Meteorology website and said, ‘Is this really happening?’ The Lockyer Valley sits at the bottom of the Great Dividing Range, about 600 metres below Toowoomba. We saw the devastation of the six to eight to 10 inches of rain in Toowoomba, where the water probably fell about 50 metres from the escarpment to the lowest point of Toowoomba. Now imagine multiplying that by 10. Instead of falling 50 metres with grades of, say, 20 per cent or 25 per cent, the water rushed down the Toowoomba escarpment, falling 500 metres with grades of between 40 per cent and 75 per cent. The water was going so fast that it virtually went straight ahead, jumped creek banks and gullies, flattened fences, washed cars away, picked up pieces of bitumen like they were corn chips and left them in paddocks, shifted bridges, cracked a large concrete rail bridge, shifted millions of tonnes of soil and destroyed homes. I will table a few pictures of water just pouring down the Toowoomba range like it is a river. Tabled paper: Bundle of photos of water coming down Toowoomba range [3824]. The sad part is that the flow of water was so great that, in its rush to get off the mountain near Toowoomba and further south, it did not know where to go, so the water flow made its own course and it went straight ahead—straight through people’s homes, destroying all in its path. Sadly, it took the lives of over 20 people in the Lockyer and there are still some members of our community missing. The water hit houses at Postmans Ridge and Murphys Creek. Unfortunately, the people in some of those houses did not have a chance. Brick houses were left with not a brick left on the slab. There was not a brick left on the slab of some of those houses. Another house was all gone. The only thing left standing, which amazed me and amazed the Premier as well, was the pool fence. Wooden houses at Murphys Creek were smashed to pieces. At Helidon Dip Road, houses were just pulverised. At James Norman Hedges Park, Helidon, the proverbial brick outhouse was totally gone. The pump shed, built with reinforced besser blocks to withstand raging water, was smashed. The water seemed to be picking up volume and speed as it rushed along its path of destruction. The next village in its way was Grantham. Grantham had several water rises the previous week and only on Sunday, 9 January did water end up in the village from a moderate stream rise. So when the inland tsunami of water did hit the area, it had no streams or creeks to rest in and the raging water just kept tearing across the land. Unfortunately, on its way to looking for a creek or a stream to flow in, it took the lives of the Schefes—poor Katie, six years old; the Matthews from Murphys Creek; Merv Knight from Helidon who was missing; the Jibson family from Grantham; and the Keep family, who lost beautiful two- year-old Jessica and, sadly, Matthew and Stacy also lost their mothers, so their children now have no grandmothers. There were many others in this area, but this gives you an idea of the death and destruction that has been inflicted on the Lockyer. We have friends who are hurt, shocked and suffering right now. However, out of every tragedy comes heroes, the people who are able to look at a situation and help others—people like the Wilkin brothers, Rob and Jim, who picked up 16 people in their tinnies, including the large Spierling family. Lisa and Stephen Spierling, local florists and flower farmers, lost their home and their flower-growing hothouse business. But they consider themselves lucky as their family survived this horrible ordeal, even if they are somewhat shaken. Marty and Janelle Warburton, who run the local service fuel depot, warned people of what was coming. People climbed onto the railway lines at Grantham. Railway gangs working at Murphys Creek were forced to take refuge in a tunnel. Family members and neighbours helped each other into ceilings and then hoisted their way out through the roof when the emergency crews came. Emergency Management Queensland and rescue helicopter pilot Mark Kempton and his team— Darren Parson, Mark Turner and Glen Ryan—and many others acted so selflessly and courageously helping others. The very high number of people missing in the floods has reduced from scores to dozens to three. It remains, however, extremely sad that 35 people have lost their lives, with over 20 coming from the Lockyer area. On Monday, 10 January, when the tragedy started to unfold, people like the SES, police and emergency services personnel worked extremely hard under enormous pressure, and this has kept up for weeks. People such as Jane Wilce and her husband, local police sergeant Bernie Wilce, have virtually been on flood duty since Boxing Day. Jane had experience in the evacuation centres of North Queensland cyclone areas, so she swung into action at the Gatton Shire Hall with the assistance of Ann, my wife, who first helped at the Gatton SES before going to the evacuation centre on Monday night. Megan Flint, the wife of the CEO of the Lockyer Valley Regional Council, also assisted, as did Judy Lipp and Judy Walters, the local Heritage Building Society manager. Simon Scott and helpers from UQ’s Gatton campus delivered bedding, and many others helped set up evacuation centres in Grantham and Helidon. There were Derrick and Christine Pingel, Kay and Mick McGovern, John Boyd and many other volunteers at the flood relief centres in the valley. The Murphys Creek evacuation centre 16 Motion 15 Feb 2011 was set up at the tavern—this is quite interesting—which was only a few months old. Lynn and Jimmy Barnes, the publican, and Sue Haughey, the manager, were great and put the business aside to help the community. That was a great sacrifice for them because the hotel had just opened. People like Murray Imms; Captain Ben Lawler, who is based at Oakey; Peter Souter, who is an ex-major in the service who set up the Murphys Creek Escape and who did a great job in organising people at Murphys Creek; Cam MacDonald; Simon Warner; Peter Schreck, who is a Toowoomba boy— I am sure the members for Toowoomba South and Toowoomba North would be interested to know that he has a large building company in Toowoomba and he brought a gang down and just helped out— swung into action to see what they could do for the recovery underway at Murphys Creek and Postmans Ridge. There were many other helpers. Neal Ames, an officer from the Department of Communities, and his staff did a marvellous job. The police at both Murphys Creek and Grantham had a hard and laborious job in the heat and rain for several days and nights and then the grind of searching in the humidity. To make matters worse, on Tuesday, 11 January, after the previous day’s storm that was so devastating and there were so many lives claimed in the Grantham and Murphys Creek areas, the Gatton, Laidley, Lowood and Marburg areas received an enormous storm. Those areas received somewhere between 200 and 400 millimetres of rain that lasted from 5 am until 3 pm in the afternoon. Those areas experienced thunder and lightning and torrential rain for 10 hours. That was actually the water that inundated Brisbane and Ipswich two days later. The creeks were already full from the previous night and then there was this enormous storm. The area of Marburg, which is represented by the member for Ipswich West, just got flogged. That did not make anything easier, as the towns and villages were all cut off. The was closed, the Cunningham Highway was closed, the Toowoomba range road was closed and the local roads were closed. Some of the local roads just about disappeared. The Army arrived on Thursday, 13 January and swung into action, and what a hard and great job they have done. They have really worked hard. Local people such as Rod Marsh, Allan Kowaltzke, Ray Hawley and their team helped evacuate Forest Hill on that day and then cleaned up the town after the flood, with the help of people including Linton Brimblecome, Ray Villis and others. Alan and Tina Fry were of great assistance to me personally by assisting me with some difficult issues that arose and they also acted as my driver when required. Chris and Andrea Saffy of Laidley Landscaping Supplies, Mike Nowlan of the Laidley RSL and helpers Russell and Helen Kirk from the Laidley Newsagency did a great job of cleaning up the town. Warren Kimlin and Julie Johnson were towers of strength in Grantham and people like Mal and Tracy Dionysius—and I am sure the Premier remembers Mal’s T-shirt; he had a rather obscene T-shirt on when she saw him that day— Ms Bligh: I won’t wear it in here. Mr RICKUSS: Scott Buchholz, the member for Wright, also worked extremely hard in helping where possible. The Lockyer Valley Regional Council workers were stretched to the limit and others also generously gave much needed assistance to the community. Helidon was well served by people such as Adrian Wedrat, Gary Topp and many others of the Helidon community. Friends of mine, Bill and Niree McNeil, had never had their house flooded in 53 years. Bill, whose family in the Lockyer, Gatton and Grantham areas dates back to the 1800s, had his house flooded twice: on Boxing Day and then again on 11 January. Bill visited Grantham on 10 January at about 2 pm to get a paper and spoke to Sandy Halliday at the local shop. Bill had previously been talking to a friend of his, Paul Wilkes, up at Esk, who had told him that Esk had received six to eight inches of rain, that water was starting to run uphill and that people were being rescued, so downstream had better watch out. Bill and his son David started to get phone calls that there was a big flood coming and to be quick and watch out. Bill had the wherewithal to contact Sandy and tell her to get out of the shop and just forget about it—just get out and do not worry about it—which she did and she is thankful that she did. Marcus Casalegno, another local, shifted his car to higher ground. These are the locals who understand what happens in Grantham in a normal flood. As he was walking back to his house, Marcus was washed away by a torrent of water that engulfed Grantham. If it were not for the Wilkin boys, Marcus would have been gone. Marcus’s wife was trapped at the house for hours. She rang her son in Brisbane and he came and rescued her and then took her back to Brisbane. Marcus and Bernice did not know where the other was, because by this time we had no phone and no power. So there were a lot of sufferers. Ken Otto, a prominent businessman, received a phone call and looked out to see water coming into his house. He saved his aged parents, Fred and Leila, who are in their 80s, and he lost an expensive boat. But the next day his business, the Big Orange, which most people would have seen while on the highway, was also flooded when the creeks rose. That business is located 20 kilometres east of Grantham. There are many other stories of miraculous saves and acts of heroism. There have been many acts of kindness, heroism and generosity that I have not mentioned. I would like to thank anyone who has assisted over the past seven weeks. Please do not forget us in the Lockyer, as we have a lot of bridges, farms, businesses and machinery, and major employers like Nolans and Lindsay Brothers have unfortunately a lot less work available. So let us help the employees 15 Feb 2011 Motion 17 and let us help the employers with a hand up, not a handout, because that is really what they need. My sympathy goes to all those who have lost family members and who have been suffering during these several months of turmoil. Let us stop the insurance companies from bickering and put an end to all the verbal negativity that insurance companies are confident about giving to customers over the phone but will not put in writing. I call on the local brokers to keep their customers informed. Contact them by email. Let them know what is happening. Do not hide behind the hydrological reports. There is no question that what was experienced in the Lockyer on Monday, 10 January and Tuesday, 11 January was storm events. It thundered and there was lightning for hour, upon hour, upon hour. There is no question about that. Let us face it: it is great to be an Australian and I am very proud to be a Queenslander. I remain humble and in awe of the people of the Lockyer and surrounding areas. Their resilience, their courage, their composure, their generosity and their compassion are to be admired. As I have said, Australians have always faced their darkest times and their hardest times with courage. But they also have a good sense of humour and a never-give-in attitude. With that, Mr Speaker, I am sure you will allow me a little bit of latitude here. I have two T-shirts—one for you and your wife, Catherine—that the people of Lockyer have made. The T-shirts say, ‘(something) it was a really tough week, January floods, in Laidley’. Mr Speaker, with that I will present those two T-shirts to you and your wife. This is a fundraiser being held by the Laidley community for the people of the Lockyer Valley. If members want a T-shirt, they can always get on to the Laidley Newsagency. Mr Speaker, thank you for ringing me and inquiring about my staff—and your staff, of course—and Ann and me during the floods. I would also like to thank my colleagues—Premier Anna Bligh; the member for Surfers Paradise, John-Paul Langbroek; the Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas, and many other colleagues who have come up to my electorate. My Toowoomba colleague Mike Horan deserves a special mention. He contacted me constantly and I even used one of his staff, Kavena, to assist some people at Murphys Creek at different times. So I thank Mike very much. I thank all of my other parliamentary colleagues who contacted me with offers of help and support. Thank you very much. I get a bit frustrated at times when people say to me, ‘Bloody parliamentarians do nothing but sit on their bums,’ and all of that sort of stuff. People worked really hard and put in a lot of effort. I am sure, as the Premier knows, as the member for Rockhampton knows, as the member for Toowoomba South knows, as the member for Toowoomba North knows, as the member for Hinchinbrook knows and as the member for Surfers Paradise knows, it is very hard having those stories recounted to you over and over again. You are almost reliving them again every time you start to talk about them. It is a hard job but the people expect us to be leaders and that is what I hope we all do. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Mr SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Hinchinbrook, I want to thank the member for Lockyer for that. I want to assure the member for Lockyer that the parish of St Bernadine’s will be hosting a fundraiser under the auspices of Rotary this Saturday night, all of the funds from which will go to the people in the Lockyer. It would be delightful if the member could make it. It is Saturday night at the Wineglass. That was just a small ad. Mr CRIPPS (Hinchinbrook—LNP) (11.19 am): From the outset I would like to thank the Speaker and the Clerk of the Parliament for their urgent contact with me to inquire after my circumstances and the circumstances of my family and the welfare of the staff of the Hinchinbrook electorate office and their families. It was much appreciated. North Queensland flooded first in late December 2010, but by North Queensland standards those floods were relatively moderate. Families across North Queensland, including my family and my extended family, spent Christmas Day separated by floodwaters in the Herbert, Tully, Johnstone and Mulgrave rivers between Cairns and Townsville. Over the following weeks North Queenslanders watched in horror and with concern as our cousins in communities across vast areas of central and southern Queensland were beset by terrible, ferocious and record flood events. North Queenslanders can sympathise more than most with communities affected by major floods. I express my sincere condolences to the members for Gregory, Mirani, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Burnett, Callide, Nanango, Maryborough, Gympie, Warrego, Condamine, Toowoomba South, Toowoomba North, Southern Downs and the members representing the cities of Ipswich and Brisbane whose electorates were badly affected by that terrible flood event. In particular I want to extend to the member for Lockyer, whose communities were absolutely devastated by the floods, my heartfelt and sincere condolences because I know what it is like to have your electorate literally torn apart. My thoughts and prayers and those of my constituents are with you and yours. Like many Queenslanders I was shocked and saddened by the many images broadcast from across central and southern Queensland during and after that flood event. For me personally the most haunting image was of the spray-painted messages ‘not safe’ and ‘do not enter’, marking condemned homes. It brought back upsetting memories of communities in my electorate following Cyclone Larry, although typically for North Queensland the message had been shortened to a simple ‘Y’ for structurally 18 Motion 15 Feb 2011 sound and a simple ‘N’ for a home that was to be demolished. Now regrettably those simple, haunting spray-painted messages have reappeared in my electorate. They are most unwelcome and amongst them there are far too many stark, lonely, heartbreaking ‘N’s marking homes to be bulldozed. On the evening of 2 February 2011, after having watched the massive system change trajectory several times, category 5 Tropical Cyclone Yasi set its sights on the heart of my electorate of Hinchinbrook, with the eye eventually crossing the coast just after midnight on Thursday, 3 February at Mission Beach, subsequently making its way over the town of Tully. Early statistics from the Bureau of Meteorology indicate that wind gusts of up to 285 kilometres per hour punished the communities of Mission Beach and Tully. The largest rainfall totals were near and to the south of the eye of Cyclone Yasi including 471 millimetres at South Mission Beach, 464 millimetres at Hawkins Creek north of Ingham and 373 millimetres at Bulgun Creek north of Tully in the 24 hours to 9 am on Thursday, 3 February. The Department of Environment and Resource Management storm tide gauge at Cardwell measured a five- metre storm surge above the highest astronomical tide. Speaking relatively, the storm surge could have been far worse if Cyclone Yasi had not crossed the coast on a falling tide. This is a small mercy indeed given the extent of the devastation in Cardwell. The clockwise rotation of these systems means that areas south of the eye are always much more seriously affected than areas north of the eye and as such it was actually households in the town of Ayr in the electorate of my friend the member for Burdekin that lost power first on 2 February. The , in particular the northern beaches suburbs within my electorate of Hinchinbrook, were battered by cyclonic winds and driving rains. The foreshore at Bushland Beach and Saunders Beach have been very seriously eroded. In the district many of our majestic rain trees have succumbed to the ravages of Cyclone Yasi, weakened by a root system unable to hold onto a soil profile already saturated by a water table at ground level after a very wet year. Our beachside communities of Forest Beach, Taylors Beach and Lucinda were badly affected by a storm surge, while at the top of the Herbert Valley the small rural community of Abergowrie was particularly badly damaged being, as the crow flies, only a relatively short distance from Cardwell. I live in Ingham in the Herbert River district. I spent the evening of 2 February and the morning of 3 February in my home hoping for the best but fearing the worst. My experience that night is something that I now have in common with all of my constituents in the Hinchinbrook electorate who remained in their homes, often with family, friends and neighbours, to endure the wrath of Cyclone Yasi. Moving through the communities in my electorate since the cyclone, the way that people have told their stories has been remarkably similar, almost always emphasising the relentless howling of those terrifying, intimidating gusts of wind that growled and wailed at us throughout the night. I was scared. Many others who I have spoken to have volunteered to me—amongst them many grown men—that they too were scared and they have defied anyone who actually went through it to say otherwise. Cardwell is an historic town in the history of our state, a proud but relatively poor community with the residents mostly being aged pensioners, self-funded retirees and a large contingent of Indigenous Australians. It was a truly upsetting experience to inspect this small peaceful community on the afternoon of 3 February, the day of the cyclone. The scale of the damage to the town of Cardwell was something that before actually seeing it with my own eyes I was unable to conceive. My home town of Tully was savaged by Cyclone Yasi. It has been a terribly difficult period of time to move around this community encountering friends of my family and people I have known all my life whose homes have been destroyed, roofs lost or homes structurally compromised and condemned. It has been a harrowing personal experience to witness the violence that has been done to the place where I grew up, the sporting grounds that I played on, the waterways that I swam in and, perhaps the most difficult of all, the schools that I attended. I have stood in the ruins of a home at Tully Heads owned by a mate of mine who I went to school with. Indeed, that home was the one described by the Leader of the Opposition with that rather colourful but accurately quoted message. I think that illustrates somewhat the attitude, the stoicism and the defiance of the people in my electorate. Tully Heads and nearby Hull Heads were truly scenes of utter devastation where some of the worst cyclonic winds and the destructive storm surge wreaked havoc. The villages that make up the communities in Mission Beach, South Mission Beach, Wongaling Beach, North Mission Beach and Bingal Bay are usually lush tropical paradises attracting hundreds, if not thousands, of tourist visitors. Those rainforests have now been stripped bare for the second time in five years and, although we all know that rainforests will recover, the leafless trees in many ways reflect how many residents feel at this point in time—exposed and vulnerable. The smaller communities in between and surrounding the towns that I have already mentioned such as Halifax, Victoria Estate, Macknade, Trebonne, Toobanna, Stone River, the Kenney Valley, Murray Upper, Jumbun, Euramo, Silky Oak, Lower Tully, Feluga, El Arish, Silkwood, Kurrimine Beach, Mena Creek, South Johnstone, Wangan, Moresby and Mourilyan are equally struggling to recover from the shock of this terrible event. I praise the emergency services that have responded to this event: the police, ambulance and fire and rescue service officers, the SES volunteers and the rural fire service volunteers. The Minister for Police and Emergency Services and the commissioners of those three services should be proud of the 15 Feb 2011 Motion 19 people whom they employ. I am certainly proud of my local officers in all three services. Our communities often expect a lot from people in uniform. Somehow they think that the uniform should enable those people to do superhuman things, but underneath those uniforms are human beings. In the days since Cyclone Yasi ravaged my electorate those people in uniform have been out in the driving rain, the hot sun and the mud. I pay tribute to their efforts and I express my gratitude to them for their selflessness. Local council staff in my electorate, many working on skeleton crews because others could not make it into council offices to support their colleagues, have done a tremendous job and I pay tribute to them. Often during these scenarios they are not mentioned, but the local council staff of my electorate have been simply marvellous. Ergon Energy crews have gone to extraordinary efforts, and extraordinary efforts will be needed in the coming weeks to restore the power distribution system in my electorate, areas of which have been catastrophically affected. I thank the charities that have flocked to my electorate, the Red Cross, Lifeline and the Salvation Army amongst them. I thank the Premier and a number of her ministers and government members for their contact and their messages of support for me personally and for my constituents. I sincerely thank the Leader of the Opposition for his personal attention to my circumstances and the circumstances of the communities in my electorate. I thank him for devoting three days to visiting many of the cyclone affected communities ravaged by Cyclone Yasi. I was touched by and grateful for the messages of concern for me and my family and for my electorate which have come from all of my colleagues in the opposition. I have been relatively lucky to lose only the fence around my property. My family in Tully were very lucky indeed to lose only guttering and fascia boards from around their home. The cost has been enormous and I doubt it will ever be fully known. Industries that underpin the economy in my electorate such as the banana industry, the sugar industry and other horticultural industries as well as the tourism industry have all been decimated. One-third of Queensland’s sugar crop is grown between Ayr and Cairns, and that industry has suffered damage in the order of $500 billion. Seventy-five per cent of Australia’s banana crop is now lying on the ground and the banana industry is suffering badly. The many farm workers who are normally engaged in employment in this labour-intensive industry are concerned about their future and the industry as a whole has lost about $400 million in damaged crops and farm assets. Other tropical horticultural crops have been affected to the tune of about $100 million. The tourism industry in my electorate is reeling, not just in terms of damage to businesses but also in terms of how the reputation of our tourism industry will be repaired when such graphic images of the wake of Cyclone Yasi have been distributed nationally and internationally. The extensive and unprecedented damage to the communities in my electorate brings me to the concerns that I have for the welfare of my constituents, in terms of the need for affordable temporary housing to keep people in the communities so that our capacity to recover, restore and rebuild is not compromised. In particular, I am anxious about the pensioners of my electorate, my farm workers and those on low and fixed incomes and their capacity to survive. If I cannot deliver alternative affordable housing to those constituents, they may not be able to remain in the communities. That will have a flow- on effect for the small businesses in cyclone affected areas. Since Cyclone Yasi battered my electorate, there has been only one occasion when I have become angry. During a media interview, a journalist whom I will not name asked whether, in view of the fact that many of the communities in my electorate had been also devastated only five years ago by Cyclone Larry, it was going to be worth it, whether those communities in my electorate were actually viable and whether we should rebuild. It took every bit of my reduced strength, tolerance and constitution to not give a full and frank assessment of that journalist’s question. I was absolutely furious, I was absolutely and I was absolutely shocked at such a suggestion. Queensland communities, no matter where they are across this great state, deserve to be fully supported at times like this when they have been so terribly affected by a monstrous natural disaster. I believe I can speak for every member in this place when I say that such a suggestion would never be entertained by the leadership of the great state of Queensland. Every Queensland community and every Queenslander is a valuable part of this state. No matter where you live, no matter who you are, you are important to this parliament and you are important to the people who represent you in this parliament. You deserve support, assistance, respect and encouragement during this very difficult time. I pay tribute to my constituents. I know that I am not the Prime Minister of Australia or the . I am just a humble local member and I devote myself to the welfare of the people I represent in the wake of Cyclone Yasi. There are several stages of grief and at the moment many of my constituents are experiencing anger. Many of their efforts have been untold, extraordinary, stoic and determined. They reflect the stories described by other members who have already contributed to this condolence motion. Every effort is being pursued, to the best of our ability, to support the communities affected by the cyclone. Not for a single moment are we pretending that everything has been perfect. Not for a single moment are we pretending that everything has gone to plan. However, we can stand up and look everybody in the eye and say that we are doing our best. I believe that to be the case and I believe that all levels of government—local, state and federal—will commit themselves to this recovery and rebuilding process. 20 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Last week in the Commonwealth parliament, during the course of a similar condolence motion, a number of members and senators turned to the famous poem by Dorothea Mackellar to articulate the vagaries of Australia’s natural environment. I would like to borrow the words of a local in my electorate, Mrs Mary Barnes of Ingham, who comes from a very long-serving family in that district. Her original poem was written in the days following Cyclone Yasi and it appeared in the Tully Times on Thursday 10, February. It is simply entitled Cyclone Yasi. It states— Yasi, you’re a monster, You had an eye, but not a heart, You ripped the North to pieces, Our towns, you tore apart. We watched and waited daily, As you powered up your strength, Hoping in your mercy, You’d not go to this extent. You bellowed into Tully, With a vengeance never known, The devastation that you left, At break of day was shown. Turning, twisting every way, In your sights now Tully Heads, As you vented out your anger, You shook children from their beds. Ignoring all the beauty, Of lovely Mission Beach, You came with all your fury, Wrecking all within your reach. The marina there in Cardwell, Where yachts stately stood in pride, All mangled now together, Lying sadly on their side. Then your anger turned to Ingham, You roared and wanted more, You battered homes and raised our roofs, And lashed our beach foreshore. The howling wind was not enough, You caused another flood, It blocked our roads and covered crops, And the streets were lined with mud. Then off you trailed going further south, Taking all within your path, Oh, how we cursed you Yasi, In the clean up aftermath. History’s page will tell a tale, To every lad and lassie, They’ll hear of Queensland’s record floods, And a cyclone known as ‘Yasi’. Mr WENDT (Ipswich West—ALP) (11.39 am): I begin by thanking the Premier for moving the condolence motion. As many here would know, my electorate of Ipswich West has been severely impacted by the recent flooding events. In fact, I would consider that nearly every part of the 555 square kilometres was adversely impacted in some way. That is in the south-west from Grandchester through to Rosewood. A moment ago the member for Lockyer mentioned Marburg. There is also the Walloon- Thagoona corridor, where lots of young families live. In fact, the Amberley Air Base was affected and had water about a third of the way along the runway. They were actually out measuring it during the flood to make sure that aircraft could still leave safely. That is how close it came to closing the air base. It also affected the Leichhardt-One Mile areas; the Brassall, North Ipswich and Tivoli areas, which are in the inner city; Karalee, which is a rural area in my electorate; right up to the Fernvale and Lowood areas, which are back towards the bottom of the Wivenhoe Dam; and through to Tarampa and Minden. My entire electorate is bounded by rivers—the Bremer on one side, the Brisbane on another and the Lockyer Creek on another. As we know, all of those were severely impacted by excessive water during this event. I extend my deepest sympathy to all other Queenslanders affected by adversity in recent weeks, be it floods or cyclones, and pass on my sorrow to those in other states across Australia who suffered similarly and to Western Australia, where they recently suffered severe damage due to bushfires. Although Ipswich West was impacted particularly badly, I do not think anyone in my electorate would know what it was like to be subjected to the amount and severity of water as was depicted in Toowoomba, Murphys Creek or, indeed, Grantham. However, I am aware that, with the help of the three levels of government and the community in general, all of these areas are fighting back and, I think, are determined to come out stronger and better prepared in the future. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 21

On this note, I think the level of support and commitment from near and far has been greatly received and valued by all of those who suffered losses. I know that many across my area are currently living in either temporary or patched-up housing which includes things like neighbours’ and relatives’ houses, caravans, cabins, relocatable homes and, yes, even in some cases tents. When you drive around some of the worst hit areas in my electorate you cannot help feeling depressed and helpless. Thankfully, the majority are saying, ‘This is a setback but we will recover.’ Neighbours and relatives, friends and strangers are all pulling together to clean up, mop up, tidy up and recover all across Queensland. It is true that it all began on 10 January, particularly in Toowoomba, with the waters coming down through the Lockyer, Murphys Creek, Helidon and Grantham areas. We have already heard that 35 people have been pronounced dead while others are missing, and certainly some of these came from my electorate as well. As I mentioned, I have a large electorate. Something like 3,000 homes across the Ipswich area were affected or inundated by water, as were 500 in the Somerset Regional Council area, which is also mostly in my electorate. We have heard that crops and coalmines have been damaged and there has been billions of dollars of commercial loss. Ports, roads and rail have been affected, and insurance claims are going through the roof. Of course, we heard about the good side—things such as the chopper rescues of 43 people and the 48 swift-water rescues in Toowoomba alone on 10 January. I suppose what helped us get through it, particularly in my electorate, were things like having the Premier on TV most nights so that we could actually identify what was going on. She was leading from the front and it was greatly appreciated. All of her ministers and other members of the parliament from both sides contacted Ian and me about issues such as school uniforms, books and resources. Whatever we needed, plenty was made available. I had lots of support from the Muslim community and from other members, from the Gold Coast and elsewhere, who provided opportunities for people to come up with buckets and spades to help clean up the mess. Out of this there will be lots of issues to discuss in time. In fact, yesterday morning I attended an Insurance Council meeting at Brothers Leagues Club in Ipswich. It is true to say that there were some angry people there. I think insurance is one of the things we need to work on rather quickly. Federal Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten was there, as were Shayne Neumann, the federal member, and our mayor, Paul Pisasale, who does not miss an event like that. I think it is fair to say that we need to ask all of the insurance companies to be respectful and to be responsible but, most importantly, to be sympathetic. Unfortunately, I am hearing that those three traits are not being displayed by the insurance companies. I am hearing how they are treating people in an offhanded manner, how they are not returning calls, how they are not attending when they are supposed to and how they are leaving people in the lurch. I do not think that is fair. Saturday week ago at Fernvale I attended a public meeting which I organised. I expected 20 people but 250 turned up. Issues we were looking at there included drainage, rebuilding guidelines and standards, and early-warning systems and devices. These are issues which cannot be resolved in the short term, but certainly in the long term they will be. In fact, from that meeting I have actually organised to have the Building Services Authority visit Fernvale and provide advice on rebuilding the town. As I mentioned earlier, even though it is a rural area of my electorate, Karalee was probably one of the most severely impacted areas. I thank the Premier and the Deputy Premier for visiting that particular suburb on different days. In fact, Karalee was so badly damaged that, even after four or five days of the Army cleaning up, in one particular street it still looked like a bomb had gone off. It is impossible to comprehend the difficulties that those people went through and are still going through. To compound those problems, insurance companies being recalcitrant does not wash. I will speak about some of the positives. I just spoke about some of the ministers and others who are providing support to people like me. One of those is Phil Reeves, the Minister for Sport. Between him, the Premier and Channel 7’s Sunrise program there is Operation Bounce Back. We heard earlier how the Goodna rugby league club will win out of that particular operation. It is not only Goodna that will win. Norths rugby league club, which is probably the second largest leagues club in Ipswich—behind Brothers, of course—was decimated. Their clubhouse at Pelican Street, North Ipswich, is a two-storey clubhouse with fields out the front. The water was over the fields, over the first floor and within a couple of inches of the roof of the second floor. The water would have been something like six or seven metres above the rugby league fields. Through Operation Bounce Back we are going to provide support, particularly in relation to rebuilding some of the changing rooms, cleaning, electrical work and some building specifications for engineering purposes for the canteen and the downstairs junior area. Not only does this clubhouse service rugby league; it also services cricket and softball for the local area. Something like 600 juniors use those facilities, so we could not afford to have that facility offline. In that respect I thank the minister and certainly the Premier, who were involved in Operation Bounce Back. Mr Schwarten: Brookfield Multiplex. Mr WENDT: Multiplex certainly has been fantastic. It was not long after we referred these issues to the minister himself that we had Brookfield Multiplex onsite asking what more they could do. 22 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Mr Schwarten: And Hutchinson did the same in the electorate of Bundamba. Mr WENDT: That is right. Hutchinson is actually doing the one at Goodna. I did not let Multiplex off with that. I actually took them out then to the Karalee area. As I mentioned a moment ago, Karalee was extremely badly hit, being at the junction of the Brisbane and Bremer rivers. The waters there were quite ravaging. The Karalee Tornadoes Junior Rugby League Club has been in existence for 15 or 17 years. After all that time, all they have is an old container that they use for canteen duties on game days. They use public toilets for changing rooms and the like. All they have ever had is this container which, I might say, looks like Fort Knox to prevent people from trying to enter it. Brookfield Multiplex will provide them with a second-hand facility which they can use for canteen duties. I am not sure if the container can even be restored for changing facilities or storage, but that club will come out of this with a new facility. They are absolutely ecstatic. About 300 juniors will play in that area as well. On behalf of Minister Reeves and Minister Schwarten, I thank that company for the support it has provided to my community. Unfortunately, other organisations such as the dog obedience club, which does not fall under the category of recreation, are also suffering but we are trying to work out other ways of providing them with support in this particular instance. I think we will have some good news for them in the very short term. The next thing I would like to talk about is our heroes. We have heard a lot about our heroes this morning. Again, like everywhere else, I have heroes in my area who I believe deserve recognition, and I will take this opportunity to make sure that they get their names in glory. We had a number of evacuation centres open up across Ipswich and probably the largest was at the Ipswich showgrounds. I am sure that the Minister for Transport, the member for Ipswich, will talk about that shortly. Certainly the Ipswich showgrounds was one of the largest evacuation centres we had across the Ipswich region. It saw hundreds and hundreds of people provided with meals, provided with medical care and also provided with a safe place for them to sleep. Two of my staff, Denise Hanly and Catie Davis, spent days there— Ms Nolan: Hear, hear! Mr WENDT: Thank you, Minister—trying to provide assistance to those people in need. It was probably one of the best ways of using resources at that time, because people were in turmoil and utterly confused about what had to be done. Other evacuation centres in my area included St Joseph’s Primary School. There we had Kevin Bianchi, the principal, who organised that in a very short space of time. He was ably assisted by Gerard Gimpel, the deputy principal, and also other people like Leo and Sharon Conway, friends of mine who, having not been asked, cooked meals and attended the evacuation centre on the first evening saying, ‘I thought you might need these.’ In fact, they ended up staying there for long periods of time, cooking and bringing back food on a regular basis over the next three days. The Karalee State School provided unbelievable support to the community there. For those who do not know, the Karalee community was cut off. They referred to themselves as ‘Karalee Island’. The reality was that they had three or four police officers, who I will mention shortly, who made sure that there was law and order and the ability to get medical support, food and the like. They did extremely well. The Lowood State High School again acted as an evacuation centre and it ended up going for two or three weeks. Also, there was Fernvale State School—and in particular I should mention David Raine. People in the Fernvale area were trapped because of rising waters. Some made it to the Fernvale State School while others made it to the official evacuation centre. Because the school was not open, they had to force some doors. Luckily David Raine, the principal, was able to assist them in that respect. One other I should mention is the Leichhardt Community Centre, which was again cut off by rising floodwaters. I should also mention Merv Neumann, who was the community leader at that particular location who provided support and ongoing communications with the rest of us. Communications were extremely difficult in this period. I mentioned a moment ago the Karalee area. The reason I mention it is that there were three or four police officers out there who were cut off from work. They immediately put on their uniforms and decided to continue their operations while they were on ‘Karalee Island’. They did an absolutely outstanding job, and I would like to mention them. They were led by Senior Sergeant Terry Cantwell and Senior Sergeant Bruce Werda. They provided an outstanding service to the community and without them I think things would have been much worse. Also, there were the firies, the QAS and particularly the rural firies in my area. I have many, many rural firies across my electorate, as does the member for Lockyer. They were out there giving no heed to their own homes or to their own safety in lots of cases, performing duties far above anything that I think I would ever attempt. At the Lowood end of town, which again was cut off by floodwaters, we had Sergeant Jackie Munn and she had a number of young constables with her. They were actually without shoes at one stage wading through water, because they had lost their shoes in the water. That was obviously an 15 Feb 2011 Motion 23 extremely dangerous place to be. In fact, one police car was submerged. They had turned around on a road due to rising waters, got stuck and the car was overcome with floodwaters. That is how close they were to being swept away themselves. I should also mention that, under the leadership of the Queensland Police Service, the local superintendent, Garth Pitman, performed admirably. He has a large staff out there, and he did a great job making sure that all of those staff were coordinated and that they provided the most effective service they possibly could. The Department of Communities of course ran the DOC centres, the recovery centres. They were ably led by Terry Flanagan in my area and Annabelle Johnstone. For those who do not know, Annabelle Johnstone came back from holidays when she was told about this on the 11th. Her kids and husband were still on holiday on the Gold Coast while this was going on. Anybody who knows Ipswich would know that you could not get across the bridge over the Bremer River, so she was unable to get back to her house, which was on the other side. She said that she was borrowing clothes, underwear and the like to try to stay composed and do her job. So well done to her. Shayne Neumann is the federal member for our area, and we had a great combination during the floods. In fact, as soon as the floodwaters allowed us, we were able to travel out into our country areas. We did that together. We travelled as far as Toogoolawah, which is outside my electorate but I travelled with Shayne to talk to people. We visited Esk and we attended the regional disaster management meetings there on a daily basis to ensure that we were able to provide what support we could. That leads me to our councillors. Paul Pisasale, the local mayor, did a great job, as did his councillors. I pay special mention to Graeme Lehmann, the mayor of the Somerset Regional Council. I think Graeme was unduly and unfairly criticised by some in his electorate because he was not seen as much as some others. The Somerset Regional Council is a large, long council region. A lot of it was cut off by floodwaters from different areas. The floodwaters restricted him from getting to lots of places. He had to stay in Esk at council headquarters to run the disaster management meetings. I think that was a much more important task for him to be doing. He and I, with the Deputy Premier, travelled in our cars and viewed a lot of the floodwater situations but because we did not get out of our cars while people were cleaning their houses and say, ‘Here is the Deputy Premier and here is the mayor and here I am,’ people said, ‘We did not see you in that street.’ The reality is that we were in that street, but I felt that it was quite unwise to be going and patting people on the back while they were trying to clean their houses and clean other people’s houses. I think it is very difficult from that perspective, and I have heard that mentioned here this morning. Mr Lucas: He had major telecommunication problems in Somerset, unprecedented really. Mr WENDT: That is right. I take the Deputy Premier’s interjection. The communication problems in Somerset were very, very difficult to get over. Two of the three telephone communication towers were out. As such, this created enormous problems. Certainly, Graeme was ably supported by all of his council staff, as was Paul Pisasale. All the councils did a fantastic job right throughout both council regions. Bob Bain is the CEO of Somerset Regional Council and Tony Jacobs is their chief engineer. We spent many hours together in regional meetings or disaster meetings with those guys. Can I say that, without their knowledge, their compassion and their ability to understand what was going on around the region, things would have been a lot different and that means things would have been a lot worse. The SES did an admirable job right across the region. The coordinator in our area is Arie van den Ende. Arie is a tremendous Queenslander and Australian and has received many awards. Surely he deserves another award after this excellent effort. For those who do not know, I have been told that a number of our schools were probably impacted as severely, if not more severely, than most other schools in the state, before Yasi. Peter Doyle is the principal of the Brassall State School. The majority of the school was inundated and totally underwater. They lost all of their computers and all of their resource materials. The Premier came and visited the school when we were about to open. Can I say that that was greatly appreciated. To see the Premier there on that day was fantastic. Mr Wilson: He is a superb leader at that school. Mr WENDT: I take the interjection from the Minister for Education. Peter Doyle is certainly a great advocate for state school education, Queensland education, as is David Raine. I put him in the same boat at this time. David Raine, as I mentioned before, is the principal of Fernvale State School. He worked nonstop over this entire period trying to ensure that people had school uniforms, resources, food, clothing, bedding. Whatever it was he made sure people got it. Bruce and Margaret Dobbie are two names that might not be well known here, but certainly throughout the Ipswich region they are. They are the head of the Salvation Army across the region. They did an outstanding job. The Minister for Communities was up there only last week talking to Bruce and Margaret, getting a debriefing on how we can do things better. I know that they really appreciated having the Minister for Communities there as well. 24 Motion 15 Feb 2011

For those who do not know, members of the ADF were everywhere in our electorate. There is some talk that they could have been there sooner, and I think that is something that we will probably work on. But they were all over my electorate and they did a fantastic job—the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. Can I say that when the Navy turned up at Karalee, and I mentioned ‘Karalee Island’ earlier, I was quite surprised. They did not bring any rubber duckies or anything like that, but they brought bobcats, excavators and backhoes and they did an outstanding job. Our media partners—in particular, Ipswich River 94.9—did an outstanding job in keeping people informed around the region. Our churches, particularly pastors Mark Edwards and Fred Muys, did a great job not only providing support during evacuation centre processes but also providing spiritual support. St John Ambulance did a great job, as did the Red Cross, Energex, Urban Utilities, Main Roads, Telstra and, last but not least, the volunteers, whether they be contractors or people who came from every one of your electorates to help my electorate and others. We really appreciate it. It was one of those things that we hope we never see again, but the reality is that we know that we are stronger for it. Hon. D BOYLE (Cairns—ALP) (Minister for Local Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships) (11.59 am): I express my condolences to the families and the friends and the communities who lost those 35 people in the tragic events early this year. That expression of condolence comes not just from me personally but from all of us in Cairns who were acutely aware of the extent and tragedy of the flooding rains in Central Queensland and in South-East Queensland. We were watching with open mouths and shock the scenes of devastation reaped by the waters in South-East Queensland, conscious indeed of our regional city of Rockhampton and the town of Emerald and the dreadful circumstances with the prolonged period of high water that families and communities had to suffer. Yet, as we watched, we knew in the Far North that our turn may come—this being cyclone season and a large number of cyclones having been predicted for the northern areas of the state over this monsoon period. We recognise the calamity for people in their very experience of these flooding disasters. We recognise the calamity for them in terms of their loss of homes, of possessions, of livelihoods and of impacts on their businesses. Some from Cairns were able to come south to assist as volunteers in various communities, but many of us were not able to do so. We had a large number of fundraising efforts and did our best to send messages of support to southern Queenslanders and Central Queenslanders. We recognise too that the physical recovery is already occurring as quickly as it can and will proceed apace for most people over the next year and hopefully not for too many into the second year after the flooding disaster. What we do recognise too is that the mental impact will take just as long, if not longer, to recover from for many of those involved. The member for Hinchinbrook, who has provided tremendous support to his electorate in recent weeks, was quite wise in recognising a little earlier in this motion the stages of grief that will be faced and are being faced by many of those involved in these disasters. He mentioned in particular the anger. We need to be aware too that often following anger can be a prolonged period of depression. That depression can be quieter but more dangerous. We have a long way to go to support not only all of those families and friends of those who lost their lives but also all of those many hundreds of thousands of people impacted by these events through the mental recovery. We had an advantage in Cairns in facing Yasi—we had warning. The Bureau of Meteorology and the authorities were able to chart its progress towards the coast and give us much warning and detailed information to allow us to prepare. As Yasi came closer to the coast, most Cairns people took the event very seriously. There are lots of us who have experienced good numbers of cyclones over the years of our residency in , but we knew that this one was very much more serious, very much more threatening. The great majority of people did take note of the warnings and take the actions that they could to prepare for the cyclone. Quite wisely, lots of vulnerable people, particularly young mothers and young children, left town and went up to the Tablelands or even further south. Very many others concerned about the storm surge took refuge with family and friends on higher ground. As the cyclone approached we had the news at one period that it would hit Cairns straight on. At that point, all of us, as strong as we were trying to be and preparing as we were, became terrified. The fear in Cairns was palpable. It was with some relief, of course, that we heard the further reports that it was turning slightly south and was headed for many communities south of Innisfail, in the Hinchinbrook electorate. In Cairns we say these last few weeks as we bump into each other, ‘We dodged a bullet.’ That is indeed so for Cairns. It is with a tinge of guilt that we feel our relief that Yasi did not hit Cairns because it did hit our neighbouring communities. We have many friends and families amongst those communities—families for whom we express our concern. Our condolences for their loss of their properties and their possessions, but particularly for the terror that they have faced and for the long recovery ahead. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 25

It is important that we put on the record just how well our emergency services responded to Cyclone Yasi. The emergency services and the police were spectacular in their effort and in their expertise. No doubt, too, credit should go to the council. In fact, I spent the day leading up to Cyclone Yasi and the night of Yasi at the Cairns Regional Council’s disaster coordination centre and assisting at some of the evacuation centres. I put on the record my admiration for Mayor Val Schier, for the CEO of Cairns Regional Council, Lyn Russell, for the other councillors and for all the officers—particularly the front-line workers—who prepared the city and have since worked tirelessly to clean it up and restore services as quickly and as well as possible. That recovery is not complete yet. As local government minister I have been privileged to see up close the work done by mayors and councils in South-East Queensland, in Western Queensland, in Central Queensland, in Northern Queensland and in Far Northern Queensland. I have said before as local government minister that I am proud of the councils of Queensland. Multiply that by the 50. The mayors and their councils are to be commended for their excellent work during the events as well as since. I recognise too the many heroes in our communities—the volunteers, the SES in particular and others—who, as the Premier said, picked up their brooms, put on their wellingtons and went to clean up and assist all those who needed some help with the recovery. The heroes that I recognise in my closing to this short presentation are those who have been through these calamitous events, who have endured and who are still standing—some of them shaking inside if not outside, very much poorer for these events, but stoic and determined to rebuild their lives and their communities. I pay my respects to them all. Mr HORAN (Toowoomba South—LNP) (12.07 pm): At the outset, I would like to join with my friends and colleagues in this parliament to express my heartfelt sympathies on behalf of the people of Toowoomba South to all those families in Queensland who have lost loved ones and those who have suffered damage and loss throughout this terrible summer of 2010-11. The events of this disaster unfolded gradually. Throughout December we had rain. We were all watching and feeling so sorry for the people of Theodore, Rockhampton and Central Queensland as the flood slowly moved its way down. Then just after Christmas we had massive rainfall across the southern half of Queensland. This led to the biggest flood ever in the Condamine River. I flew with a mate in a little Jabiru from Millmerran down to Chinchilla. I have never seen so much water and devastation in all my life. There was water up to rooftops of houses, tractors taken to high ground and still surrounded by water, sheds inundated and cattle struggling in the corner of barbed wire paddocks. It was quite tragic to see. But who would have thought it would continue to evolve from what happened in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley to Ipswich and Brisbane and then to Cyclone Yasi in North Queensland? Some 35 years previous to the day and the hour of 10 January, a massive hail storm hit Toowoomba that devastated the city. It was absolute coincidence that 35 years to the day and the hour there was this deluge of rain. In Toowoomba it rained all day Sunday. It probably rained the Friday and Saturday before, too, but it rained all day Sunday, it rained all Sunday night and it rained all day Monday. Then suddenly, at about half past one or quarter to two, for three-quarters of an hour about nine inches fell out of the sky on top of a city that was sodden. As many members know, Toowoomba is shaped like a funnel, being on top of a plateau. East Creek and West Creek are separated by a ridge in the middle, and East Creek and West Creek join up at the northern end of the CBD. No catchment could take rain of that volume and that intensity and, as a result, we saw the massive inland tsunami that went down both East Creek and West Creek. I left my office at about half past one to do a couple of chores around town. As I drove out the back I thought, ‘This is weird. There’s a lot of water here.’ I picked up the mail from the post office and no matter what you had—umbrellas, whatever—you got wet because the rain was that heavy. I headed up Neil Street, which is in the ridge between the two creeks, and the only way you could get up Neil Street was by sticking to the white line because the gutters and the footpaths were overflowing. I eventually went up Hume Street and took refuge in a car park outside the rugby club and watched the torrent come down the streets and the rugby oval get covered with about two feet of water that was cascading over the sides of the oval like you could not believe. I have never seen water like it in my life. Once the rain slowed down, driving past houses I saw water coming out of the front fences of house after house, one to two feet deep—just pouring through yards as it cascaded down from one yard to another. This massive amount of water had to go somewhere, and of course it went to both East and West creeks. Even though we had the tragedy with the loss of Donna Rice and her son Jordan, I kept thinking how much worse it may have been had school been back and mothers were worried about their kids. That torrent poured down both those creeks and caused incredible damage. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of cars—I have heard a figure of something like 1,200 cars—washed away from car parks, washed away from streets and flooded in the Myer car park. Many of these cars smashed up against bridges on their way down and caused an artificial dam, which made the water dam up even further. The water came down Campbell Street in a westerly direction in a two- or three-foot torrent and 26 Motion 15 Feb 2011 then turned left down Ann Street and flooded businesses before it went into East Creek. Many people have seen the vision of West Creek and the wave that was about seven or eight metres high with a little blue car being flicked about on the top of the wave as the water hit the Herries Street bridge in front of the Repco sign. The height of that water would give you an indication of the power, speed and intensity of the water as it came through there. It went through many of the businesses flanking West Creek in the CBD and eventually caused a lot of damage in particular in Russell Street and along the way just about wiped out every business on either side. We have heard the most amazing stories of heroism and courage. You do not like to pick out particular people—it was a terrible time—but I will relate a couple of examples. One person with a little shop saw the water. She shut the door and got in behind the big counter. The torrent of water smashed the glass in the front of the shop, drove the counter up against her and pinned her against the wall so she could not move. The water came up to her chin. They are the sorts of things that happened. A young woman venturing out into business on her own had just bought Big Dad’s Pies at the northern end of Ruthven Street, just near East Creek. The water crashed into her place. She had a two-year-old with her and there was a stranger on the footpath. She threw her two-year-old out and he caught her and she was saved. Then the young woman was able to get out. Furniture from Rowes furniture store floated out into Russell Street and was eddying around. A sofa went through the front door of the National Hotel and out the back door into the laneway behind. The heroism of some people was unbelievable. The main fire station at Kitchener Street was on the banks of East Creek. A young firefighter was on his first day of duty in the swift-water rescue team and there was this torrent of tsunami right at the doorstep of the fire station. Those firefighters were able to go to both the western bank of East Creek and the eastern bank of West Creek and the firefighters from the Anzac Avenue station attended to the western side of West Creek. Two businessmen tried to rescue two women from the roof of a car in Dent Street. They were unsuccessful. They got swept away but managed to get back on land. The firefighters then tried to rescue those two. They got swept away as well and then the two women got swept away, but fortunately they got swept into the car park at the Myer centre and were saved. There were an amazing number of rescues by the firefighters, by the police and by ordinary, average people helping each other throughout that time. The tragedy of the event was the loss of Donna Rice and her son Jordan—young Jordan, one of the bravest young men in Australia, who told the rescuers to take his younger brother, Blake, first. I have spoken to one of the rescuers; there were six of them. He was quite visibly upset. He was an older man, but these blokes, mostly tradies, got their ropes together and got their ropes out to the car. They were able to rescue little Blake. As I said, there were six rescuers in the end plus little Blake on the top rung of the three barriers that go around one of the big floodlights of that major intersection. They were standing up there clinging onto that pole, trying to hang on for dear life as the torrent flooded around them. His words to me were that that water was absolutely suicidal and that it came up so fast that no-one could venture into it. It broke their hearts—absolutely broke their hearts—and they are having difficulty coming to grips with the fact that they saw the car, Donna and Jordan float away. Donna and her partner, John, and their four boys were salt-of-the-earth people, much loved by many people in Toowoomba, and it is an absolute tragedy. With regard to many of the businesses in Toowoomba, I walked around the next day and it was like a ghost town. The CBD was locked down. Everybody had locked their kids up at home. There were no cars in town. It was foggy. It was still raining, and people were working in all of the shops with volunteers helping them. The Toowoomba Regional Council did an absolutely amazing job. By the end of the Tuesday it had the streets cleaned up and most of the wreckage picked up, and in that first 24 hours tow truck operators removed literally hundreds of cars. People were in an absolute state of shock, as was I. You did not feel like calling in on some people because you did not want to interfere with what they were doing, but they were all concerned about their insurance. That afternoon I wrote to the Insurance Council and pleaded with it to recognise this as a storm, as it was, because we had thunder. I am pleased to say that I think most of the companies at this stage—led by Suncorp, which was brilliant in its moral attitude toward it all—have agreed that those affected, from Toowoomba down to Grantham at least, will see insurance relief in terms of regarding this as a storm and not as a flood. Toowoomba is a close-knit community which has a lot of friends who live out on the Darling Downs and in Western Queensland and the Lockyer. It was devastating to all of the Toowoomba community to see the people of the Darling Downs flooded again and again—people in Oakey, Cecil Plains, Dalby, Condamine, St George, Surat, Killarney and Warwick. Clifton had its own tsunami but did not get into the news because of everything else that happened. It really has been a tragedy to see the devastation that has occurred to property, to people’s way of life, to crops and to businesses. We are very closely linked with the people of the Lockyer, and many of the people who live in Murphys Creek, Withcott, Postmans Ridge, Helidon and Grantham work in Toowoomba, have children at school in Toowoomba and are friends of ours. The tragedy and sadness of the Lockyer broke all of our hearts, but at the same time it brought a magnificent response. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 27

Without wanting to name too many people, the builders in Toowoomba who offered to go down and help, the women of Toowoomba who made sandwiches and who rushed down straightaway the next day and took meals down, the pastors and counsellors—the people from Lifeline and the Salvation Army who went down to help—were just unbelievable, because it was like a place that had been devastated by a bomb. It was shocking to see and we certainly felt for all of those people down there. I want to speak of Matthew Keep. My friend and colleague Ian Rickuss has spoken of Matthew. Matthew came to see me two days after the tragedy of Grantham. He was in inconsolable grief. He had lost his little daughter, his mother and his mother-in-law when the house was smashed. He was so upset for his wife, who was 26 weeks pregnant. As she clambered up to the railway line with the water rising, she got her leg hooked under a sleeper. She was drowning. She tried to hang on to her little child and she lost her. Matthew was so worried that she would blame herself, but I think in everybody’s eyes she is an absolute hero. What a mother. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Mr HORAN: My friend Kerry Shine mentioned the Schefe family. I am told that that father and his little daughter were absolutely inseparable and how sad it is that they were lost. The mother now has lost her husband, she has lost her daughter and she has lost her house and everything that was in her house. As a parliament and as a community we have to look after people like her for the rest of their time. My wife has two good work friends who live in the Lockyer. I just wanted to mention them briefly. I do not think we will ever forget the photo of Annaka Sippel’s little boy Henry in the Blackhawk standing in his nappy and his sandals giving the thumbs up—a real sign of hope. The family lost their house, which Annaka had worked so hard to make into a home. Helen’s other friend, Helen Wagner, was 33 weeks pregnant and on a farm near Spinach Creek. Over the years she has worked hard with her husband to make their little farmhouse a lovely home, with nice quilts and things hanging around. The water came up so fast. Her husband went to get the tractor and bring it in, but the water came up so quickly that Helen had to get her little two-year-old—and Helen is 33 weeks pregnant herself—up on to a concrete tank. She got him to stick his leg out the side so that she could grab his ankle and get on a chair and scramble up herself and then got the both of them up on to the roof. She had to sit astride the septic pipe coming out of the roof and hang on until they got rescued. They lost everything. My wife is giving her some little plants for her garden. We are going to give them some chooks because they lost their chooks. The little boy is upset that he lost his toys and some people have given them some vouchers, which is lovely. Those people are typical of many people in the area. My heart goes out to Ian Rickuss. He and his wife, Ann, just gave it their all. I rang him one night and he said to me amid tears, ‘I can’t get over the little ones who have been taken away.’ I think we must always support the people of that community after what they have gone through. They have a long, hard road ahead. People have lost their lifestyle. The beautiful little houses on the banks of some of those creeks—Rocky Creek, Gatton Creek and Murphys Creek—are devastated forever. What do older people do? Where do they resettle? As Andrew Cripps said so eloquently, they deserve to be able to stay in their own place. Toowoomba was isolated for a number of days. There is an absolutely desperate need for this second range crossing. We still have problems with the range, with the outside lane going down. It is moving every day. It is being measured constantly by surveyors. They are trying to dig into the mountain to get a second lane. Cunninghams Gap was cut off, the range was cut off, all the little access roads were cut off and the New England Highway to New South Wales was cut off. We were cut off to the west and we were cut off at the north. Food, milk, bread, petrol—everything—was in short supply. This second range crossing has to be built. It is desperately needed for Toowoomba, for the west and for Australia. I mention it briefly and I will talk about it at another time. I want to thank in particular the Queensland police—Assistant Commissioner Steve Gollschewski and Superintendent Andy Morrow. I spoke to Andy regularly. I know he had only about two hours sleep most nights and so did all of his colleagues. The police were there first. Before the ADF came in, it was the police who had to handle everything that was happening in Toowoomba. The police had to handle everything that was happening down in the Lockyer Valley. The police were in command and control. The work was so difficult—searching creeks and dealing with the grief of people—and I really think that they just did a marvellous job. I want to thank the firefighters, the ambulance officers, the emergency management staff, the SES people, the Department of Communities, in particular the regional director, Brooke Winters, and all of the people from the different groups within that—sport, housing and so on—that make up the Department of Communities. The communication to all of us was marvellous, but Brooke Winters had the task of going in to assist people with regard to funeral arrangements. On that note, I want to thank sincerely the Premier. I rang the Premier regarding the multiple funerals and she and her assistant, Nicole Scurrah, were wonderful in providing us with financial assistance so that people who had to face these tragedies in such circumstances were able to have multiple funerals with dignity. 28 Motion 15 Feb 2011

I also want to thank the various counsellors, pastors, priests, Lifeline and the Salvation Army. Organisations like BlazeAid have done so much fencing and provided help all over the Downs. The Queensland Murray Darling Association had about 35 volunteers doing the same type of work. The volunteers—young and old—have helped. I could talk for hours about what people have done. A young fellow at Middle Ridge had water go through his house and he lost his possessions. The water came off the golf course. Within days he had set up a web page and a Facebook site. He has had thousands of people donating to the people of the Lockyer. People in the service clubs got fundraising going. Little groups of people have gone down to the Lockyer every weekend with bobcats and dingo diggers to help. Schools like St Joseph’s have helped some of their students from the Lockyer whose families have lost their homes and are unable to pay fees and other schools have helped with their boarding students who were not able to come straight back from the west. I would like to thank the media in Toowoomba, in particular the Toowoomba Chronicle, the ABC, WIN TV and all the radio stations that provided such important information throughout the whole period. I had a meeting with some senior people from one of the banks who came to Toowoomba to ask various people about what was needed and also with some of the insurance people. I said that throughout all of this we who have not suffered grief, loss and sadness and who have not lost property and businesses or have had their farming incomes wiped out have to take some pain and some hurt to help our state get back on its feet. All levels of government have to take some hurt and pain. The banks have to take some hurt and pain. The insurance companies have to. All businesses and people who have survived and who can contribute and donate to various funds should do so. We all have to take some pain so that our fellow Queenslanders can get back on their feet and recover. I do not think when Billy Moore walked out of the tunnel for the State of Origin game and yelled out ‘Queenslander’ he knew what he was starting. We are a pretty special breed here. We have inherited the Anzac spirit and the mateship of Australia and it just came to the fore. At the time I thought, ‘Woe betide anyone if they ever think about invading Queensland.’ We are a pretty tough breed here. We have had two decades of prosperity. In that time material values became important. During this time of disaster the young people of Queensland have stood up to be counted. Our volunteers—everybody in our community—have done a magnificent job. It is a great time to reflect on how fortunate we are to have family, to have friends and to have a home and to grieve for those who have lost any of those. Honourable members: Hear, hear! Mr SPRINGBORG (Southern Downs—LNP) (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12.28 pm): In rising to speak to this motion moved by the Premier, I wish to pass on my personal condolences and thoughts to those many people around Queensland who have lost people who are very dear to them, their family and their friends. I would also like to salute and thank all of those people who have worked so very hard to provide succour, support, encouragement and resources to people who have been very much in need over the last difficult six to eight weeks. Whilst it is probably true that the majority of Queenslanders have not been themselves personally physically affected by the floods—fortunately the devastating reality is that it affected a minority of Queenslanders—I do not think that there is a Queenslander who has not been touched to their very core by what we have witnessed. Indirectly we have been affected greatly and I think that as Queenslanders we will come out of it much stronger. It was only around New Year this year that myself and my wife bundled our family into our car and took our children to see some floodwaters that were backing over the road going to a small grazing block that we have near Inglewood. We crossed the Macintyre Brook at the Macintyre Brook Bridge at Whetstone and the children were most excited because it was lapping the bottom of the bridge and they had never seen that before. We turned to the small grazing block and the water had backed across the road. Again the excitement was there. They had never seen it like that. They asked me questions like, ‘Dad, have you ever seen this before?’ I said, ‘Yes, I’ve seen it much higher than this and no doubt some time in your life you’ll see it much higher.’ I remember saying to my children, ‘You may not see this again for 30 years, you may not see it for 40 years, you may see it next week.’ Only a week later we got in the car to come to Brisbane because I had a few days work to do down here. My youngest son Thomas, who is 11 years of age going on 12, does the weather reading at home. We read our rain gauge at seven o’clock, not nine o’clock as the weather bureau does. He goes out in the morning at seven o’clock and does it before he goes off to school. He writes it into our own weather recording book at home. He does the automatic calculation to wherever I want it, whether it be points to millimetres or millimetres to points. He is an expert at that. I suppose a lot of kids on farms can still calculate that backwards and forwards. When the floods were a major issue still but outside of South-East Queensland and were very much in the news media, Thomas asked, ‘Dad, does it ever flood on top of a hill?’ I said, ‘Mate, the worst floods are on the tops of hills because a lot of water falls very quickly, it has got nowhere to go, it becomes condensed, it becomes compressed and it finds its own way and often you end up with dreadfully tragic circumstances.’ I could not believe that only two days later we were actually witnessing the tragic scene in Toowoomba and then what was broadcast to us out of Postmans Ridge, Murphys Creek, Grantham and those other small communities. That is the stark reality of the sort of tragic extraordinary natural disaster and climatic circumstances that we fortunately do not witness very much. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 29

I am very fortunate that much of my electorate does not have the sorts of geographic formations that will cause those circumstances—I hope. Fortunately most of my constituents escaped flooding. However, quite a significant number of them did face the reality of flooding that we have every generation or maybe every two generations. We were also fortunate, unlike those poor people in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley, to have ample warning that things were about to happen. I think other areas around Queensland also had that ample warning. For those people who were individually affected that probably does not completely mitigate the personal tragedy and circumstances that they felt as they were vacating their homes and losing possessions, hopefully having had time to take their most important personal possessions with them, and it probably does not do too much to mitigate or dampen the reality of having to rebuild their home, to clean out the stench, the filth and the mud and all of the flotsam and the jetsam that actually got into their home, sometimes insects and other uninvited guests, and all of those sorts of things that are the reality of floods. Most of my constituents who were affected by flood did have ample warning. It was extremely difficult for the people in my electorate who reside along the Condamine River, in the upper areas around Stanthorpe, along the Macintyre Brook and Macintyre River and the Dumaresq River. There were people who had their homes flooded in Stanthorpe and Warwick. There were people affected at Killarney, Allora, down towards Millmerran around Cecil Plains, up and downstream of Texas and around Goondiwindi. Indeed, some of those people downstream of Goondiwindi have been cut off for all bar a few days since the end of September last year. Again this is the extraordinary reality of Queensland. Some people had the raging flood events that we saw around Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley where the water came up without very much warning and went away almost as quickly, but as it went further and flattened out the circumstances of the flooding changed and that water took a lot longer to get away. I would like to praise the great leadership of the mayor of the Southern Downs Regional Council and his extraordinary level head, local knowledge, experience and guidance to all of the people requiring assistance in his council area over that period of time. They had an emergency disaster plan and they implemented it and it worked to a T and they deserve absolute commendation for that and the work that they did with Emergency Management Queensland. As Ron Bellingham said to me, ‘If you go to Mount Superbus’—which is not all that far away from Warwick, probably about 30 kilometres to the east of Warwick—‘it is over 5,000 feet. By the time it gets to Warwick it is 1,500 feet and then out towards Dalby and beyond around about 500 feet.’ That paints the picture as to why the profiles of floods and the way we deal with them can be so different in so many different areas. There are plunging floodwaters which then flatten out and take the next six to eight months to get to Adelaide where it runs out of the mouth of the river Murray. We need to recognise that many Queenslanders are still suffering the effects of those floods and will continue to do so. Those people I mentioned west of Goondiwindi are extremely resilient. They are often out of sight and out of mind. They accommodate their needs. They know full well that they need their freezers and pantries full. If they cannot get a loaf of bread then they make their own. Sometimes they make their own for not only weeks but months. As one goes further into Western Queensland, into the electorates of the honourable members for Warrego, Gregory and Mount Isa, that in many ways is accentuated. Also I would like to pay tribute to the mayor of the Goondiwindi Regional Council, Graeme Scheu, who has a great style about him. Members probably saw his style in the media when the focus shifted towards what was going to happen in Goondiwindi. There are things that will need to be accommodated and better dealt with in the future in relation to flood modelling and also the data which was used to provide information to people in particular areas. Graeme Scheu provided an almost laconic approach to dealing with what was an extremely difficult issue. When there was a lot of pressure on his community he was providing reassurance and the guidance that was so essential and so very important in that community. I will give members an indication of that. Council established its own Facebook site and within a few minutes of it getting up they had about 500 Facebook friends. When people were running around not knowing what was happening, the council was able to give them the information that was necessary to prepare and the reassurance, that fortunately came to pass, that the town’s levy would hold, and it did hold very well. I know there will be much discussion about what we need to do in Queensland over the next few weeks and months, but I think it is also fair to say that it is not a one-size-fits-all environment. A levy works very well at Goondiwindi because it is basically on a flood plain. A levy will not work in the hills because it is just impossible for it to do so. We have to make sure that we have realistic solutions for our communities. When that levy in Goondiwindi was built in 1958 there were extraordinary conniptions. There was unbelievable community sentiment against it. There were all sorts of threats against the mayor, the mayor’s car, council workers and equipment, but they got in and they did it. The important point is that no-one in Goondiwindi would now be without it. Sometimes these difficult decisions need to be made to stand a community in good stead for the future. I have mentioned some of the communities in my electorate that have been badly affected, many of which are rural communities. By and large, farming people are out of sight and out of mind, and there will be a very long sting in the tail for those people. We know people have had their homes flooded. That 30 Motion 15 Feb 2011 is a terrible circumstance for them. Fortunately, I believe that in my electorate most of those people are insured and a lot of assistance will be given to help them through this very difficult time. However, it is going to be a traumatic time and no doubt the scars will take a long time to heal. The business community has been very badly affected also. For example, for a long period Cunninghams Gap was closed because of landslides. The state had to try to find a solution from the Commonwealth, because it is a nationally funded road. That has had a profound impact upon my electorate and on the people’s ability to commute across the range for medical appointments, for work, for commerce, for industry and for all of those sorts of things. When a railway line is washed out, coal has to be transported by road through the gap to reach power stations and other areas in South-East Queensland. Those are serious issues. I acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition, John-Paul Langbroek, who came to my electorate just after the first flooding event. He spent a whole day with me. Indeed, since 29 January he has spent some 18 days travelling around Queensland visiting more than 20 flooded communities, some on multiple occasions. The Leader of the Opposition visited my electorate just after the first flood and before the next one, which was slightly bigger in some areas. No two floods are the same. In my electorate, for some people it was lower than in 1996; for some people it was higher than 1893; for other communities it was lower than 1976; for others it was higher than 1956. That is the nature of flooding events. As the Leader of the Opposition will recollect, we travelled to Cecil Plains, a community that is built on an extraordinary flood plain. It is an amazing flood plain that has some of the most fertile land not only in Australia but also in the world. It is very high-value farming land that has produced to a level that is incalculable in the context of some other places around Australia and the world. That land has been devastated by the worst flooding event the people can remember. In January, some of those areas received 17 inches of rain. That does not sound a lot in the context of what our colleagues in North Queensland receive, but when rain falls on flat country it has to go somewhere. It ripped the topsoil off. It will take four to five years for the topsoil to recover to proper productive levels. That means that they will have to break up the ground and reincorporate organic matter. In addition, those people have lost inputs of up to $1 million. That is what we are talking about. They have to pay for that. Some of them had contracts and they have to honour those contracts. They have to fill those contracts, which means they have to try to buy cotton from somewhere else. Of course, it is not only cotton but also grain. Therefore, they have to pay twice. The reality of receiving a fully reinstated income, if they survive—and we have to do everything we can to make sure that they do survive—could be three, four or five years away. For them, the stark reality will hit when they receive the bills, and the bills will be extraordinary, but the pay cheque will not be there. That is going to be very difficult. Some of those people have faced this disaster twice in two weeks. The Leader of the Opposition and I visited the Judd family. Some members will know Wesley and Leanne Judd. Wesley was the president of the Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation, the national president and the international president at some stage. They have the most wonderful approach to dealing with this issue. They moved the new dairy farming operation from just out of Millmerran to Lemontree. They built a bund wall around the dairy. They built a wonderful new elevated dairy above flood height, so they were able to put the cows there. However, the water came over the levy. The workers had to hop in a tractor on top of the levy because of the floodwaters. The Leader of the Opposition and I visited as they were cleaning out and draining the vehicles. The place was an absolute and unbelievable mess, but their attitude was fantastic. Guess what? They had to do it again within a couple of weeks, which shows their resilience. They showed the same never-say-die attitude, which is why I am so proud of the people of my electorate. I am so proud of the extraordinary attitude and perseverance that people bring to these situations. Mr Langbroek: The cattle had floated down the river. Mr SPRINGBORG: The cattle had floated down the river. Before we visited the Judds, we visited another property. The people there were able to identify the dairy cows that were standing on a little knoll. It is amazing how cattle survive. They puff themselves up, put their heads out of the water and can travel up to 50 kilometres. We were able to tell them that we saw herds of their dairy cattle. It was a bit like liquorice all-sorts for cattle herds. There were droughtmasters, friesians, brahmans and so on. They were dotted all over the place. We could provide that reassurance. Everyone worked together to help each other and to identify what was needed, and they got most of their cattle back. I thank the Premier for keeping me up to date with the best knowledge available at the time. I really appreciated that. Also, I thank the ministers who have visited my electorate over the past few weeks. The Deputy Premier has visited, although I was not able to be there at the same time. The Minister for Primary Industries has provided very good assistance and was in my electorate yesterday, visiting upstream and downstream of Texas and the Dumaresq, which have been badly affected from a rural point of view. I thank also the Minister for Emergency Services. The other day I had the chance to visit the farming communities affected upstream and downstream of Texas, around the Dumaresq. The fences have gone, affecting one farming community after another. I suspect yesterday the minister may have visited the Thies family. That family lost 500 15 Feb 2011 Motion 31 tonnes of hay. Huge one-tonne bales were washed away and then become an issue as they run up against things. They are wondering about their recovery. Further upstream, towards Riverton, we have another situation that the Premier is very much aware of, and no doubt the minister is too. One farming enterprise has lost almost 300 tonnes of trickle tape, which had been stockpiled. A lot of that tape was washed away in the flood, creating environmental issues that need to be dealt with. That gives some indication of what has to be cleaned up as a result of this disaster. We can always learn new lessons. Australia does emergency response better than any place in the world. There is no doubt about that. We do volunteering better than any place in the world. People ask: what are the values of being an Australian? That is a very difficult thing to define. I think we have seen a flocking to Anzac Day ceremonies in recent years because it embodies the whole spirit of mateship. I have always said that the answer is mateship, which is a very hard thing to define. It is there on Anzac Day, it was there at Anzac Cove in 1915 and it was there the other day. That is what we do better than anyone else. We have to make sure that we learn the lessons from this, because we know that time does heal and we tend to forget some of these things. The town of Texas was largely unaffected, although some houses on low-lying land were flooded. However, the rural communities were very badly affected, as were some communities along the Macintyre. After the 1893 flood, the town was shifted, although it was not shifted very far. It was only shifted a hundred metres, so by and large the town itself is out of flood risk. Just after 1893 the town of Inglewood was shifted. By and large it was only shifted a few hundred metres. It still suffers from flood inundation in large floods like those of 1976 and 1956, but not as badly as before. We will be faced with some interesting challenges and we will have to make some difficult decisions, but we are going to make sure that the great spirit that has been created and that we know is a part of the psyche embodied in Queenslanders and Australians will not be in vain. In the future we will be better prepared. We know we can prevail when we suffer these disasters, but we will make sure that we learn the lessons and rebuild appropriately and properly in the future. Mrs MILLER (Bundamba—ALP) (12.48 pm): The people of the electorate of Bundamba join with all members of parliament today in expressing their condolences. It was indeed a summer of sorrow for our state. When the floods hit Emerald for a second time, I rang my friend Vaughan Johnson to see if I could help. I was worried for the people and for the mines. So I sent him up some money and asked that he make sure it went to the pensioners and anyone else he saw fit. As friends do, we kept in touch throughout this time and, just like friends, we looked after our respective communities. Little was I to know that just a few weeks later our community was to see the same devastation. My husband and I had just landed in New York on a private trip to look at monuments and memorials in relation to the miners memorial to be built at Redbank next year when I heard via numerous messages on my phone that flooding was imminent. We turned around and came home. Both of us were in shock. We knew instinctively what to expect because we went through the floods in Ipswich in 1974. I phoned my electorate officers, Steve Axe and Tracey Bradley, and I asked them to do whatever it took to look after our people. I knew that their suburbs were going to be cut off. I rang my daughter Stephanie and I asked her to look after Pastor Alan Morris at the Shiloh Christian Church and I asked Brianna to help Tracey. The Bundamba area was flooded similar to 1974. The flood was eight feet inside the Salvation Army Church at Bundamba, and many businesses and houses were flooded. Like others, Steve Axe helped move people and their possessions to higher ground in Bundamba. The water came up to the footpath of Steve’s house. The people across the road from where Steve lived were all flooded out. The Ipswich Knights Soccer Club was flooded, the Ipswich Turf Club was flooded and Bundamba State School was also flooded. Tracey Bradley, my electorate officer, directed Rocco, the groundsman at Redbank State School, to give her the keys to the school to open an evacuation centre. It was set up in the new BER centre and Tracey ran it like a boot camp. There were washing lines set up throughout the trees, everyone was well fed by Nikko, the chef, and people were working to clean up through the day and they were sleeping overnight at the centre. Thirty-six of 42 units and six houses went under at Redbank, and the Redbank State School was the highest point in the suburb. The Origin Alliance—the ‘Origin City’ as we like to call it—was also under water. Whilst Tracey was running this unofficial evacuation centre at the school, her grandmother’s house had been flooded, her father’s house had been flooded and her daughter had also been flooded. I still do not know to this day how Tracey is keeping on going. Collingwood Park was also flooded, the Westfalen Community Garden was a write-off and Goodna was a scene of absolute and utter devastation. The Goodna CBD was wiped out. We lost all the St Ives Shopping Centre including Woolworths, the doctors, the chemist, all the banks, the newsagency, Australia Post, the TAB, my office, the hairdressers, the fruit shop, the opportunity shops, many food outlets, Red Rooster, Wayne’s Tyre World, three real estate agents, the video shop, McDonald’s, Hungry Jack’s, Caltex, BP, Centrelink, the department of child safety and other agencies, the Weeroona Hotel, the RSL club, the Frank McGreevy RSL Function Centre, the Goodna rugby league club, the 32 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Goodna pool, the Goodna Bowls Club, the Goodna Rugby Union Club, the Goodna Cultural and Arts Centre, Lubo Jonic’s businesses, and hundreds and hundreds of houses and units. The water came up over the top of the Ipswich Motorway. When I drove my little Subaru Brumby ute through the police lines down Queen Street as far as I could go, I simply could not believe it. I walked down and I sat down and I cried. Then I heard the hissing of the gas bottles and the police telling me, ‘Get back up the road, Jo-Ann. The shopping centre could blow up.’ It was indeed a sobering moment. The only way I can describe a flood for anyone who does not know is that it is like putting your whole house or your office in a washing machine, watching it swirl around and having everything tossed and turned and then having the water slowly drain out. There is no spin cycle—just muddy, filthy, dirty water. Everything is destroyed with water and sewage mixed together in an unbelievable stench. The sheer horror of looking at your life and your memories in ruins is absolutely devastating. I went back up the hill to my church, the Shiloh Christian Church, and I got to work with Pastor Alan Morris and his team. The police asked Pastor Morris to set the centre up as they knew it would be needed in the Goodna area. Parts of Riverview were also flooded. The Riverview Neighbourhood House was an evacuation centre by the will of the people. They turned up there at the house because they knew it was a place of refuge and a place of help. Pastor Paulo and Christine and the volunteers did a magnificent job in Riverview helping out their community. Whilst the flood was in place in our suburbs, I am really glad that our people had the tenacity, the will and the capability to look after themselves. The evacuation centres were not recognised at all as being official but as a response by local groups and churches to our local needs. The community ran them well and when the waters receded the next phase—the clean-up—began. As you all know, I lost my office in the flood. We set up the Bundamba tent embassy across the road in the Diggers Rest in Goodna. We had absolutely nothing. We had no computers, no phones, no paper, just ourselves—my speech today is written in a school exercise book—but we were there to look after our people. We were there day in, day out and we did it with the help of many people in a humanitarian and bipartisan way. Vaughan Johnson was on the phone. Dr Alexander Douglas and his wife were of great assistance in the relief work in our community. Thank you, Alexander. Dr Alexander also came up to help with the medical needs. Aidan McLindon from Beaudesert brought up pens, paper and stamps for us and lots of food and drinks. My good friends Dean Wells and Carryn Sullivan were there on many days. Messages came in from Liz Cunningham and Peta-Kaye Croft. Christine Smith sent up donations for our families in need. I will never, ever forget their personal support as they knew that we as a community were grieving and they grieved with us. They showed great humanity in their commitment to our people and my heartfelt thanks goes to each and every one of them. The member for Greenslopes, Cameron Dick, and Barbara Stone also assisted us in relation to our schools and our community. Our area is not an area where millionaires live. There are many people who live on and near our river. There are many pensioners. They are honest workers. They do not earn much money, but they are proud of who they are and they are proud of the little that they have in life. I knew that the flood may very well destroy some families as they would not have the money to get back on their feet, but we all hoped they had the will to keep their families together and we had the capacity to just keep on going day by day. I had seen it all in 1974. However, we were in the hearts and minds of our trade unions. I remember seeing the trade union army turning up in my electorate at the tent embassy. I saw Ron Monaghan, the head of the trade union movement, come down Queen Street in his Your Rights at Work singlet. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. Then I saw the LHMU, the Misso’s in their maroon T-shirts coming down Queen Street, then the ETU and their black T-shirts and the RBTU was there as well. The big black ETU van was cheered every time it came into Goodna. I knew well and truly then and there that the people united will never, ever be defeated and that the trade unions also support their members and our working-class people. I knew that they would be there for us, helping us for weeks on end. They are still there today supplying bread, water, food and any trades assistance we need. When the trade union movement turned up en masse in my electorate, it was like seeing another part of our family coming in to help us. We ran the tent embassy under the trees in Goodna and we were like the government triage centre. We had the Department of Communities on one side and the nurses on the other. Everyone was working together, everybody looking after each other. We also had to dodge storms and driving hailstones at some points. Help came from everywhere—volunteers with mops, brooms and gernis. At times there were more volunteers than needed as you could register as a volunteer, but there was no system in place at that stage to register as a family in need of help. Somehow with little coordination we got through it. I would like to particularly acknowledge Brad Strong and the Salvation Army at Bundamba and Riverview for their care of the 20 evacuees they had at the same time as they were looking after the church. The Salvos lost three pianos and their opportunity shop. I would particularly like to thank 15 Feb 2011 Motion 33

‘Mango’ Murphy, Mick, Paul and the magnificent staff at the Origin Alliance. These unsung heroes were like a council depot as they had the machines, the people and the skills to help out the Redbank and Goodna communities. At the same time they were also flooded out. I can tell honourable members that it will be a sad time in our community when the Ipswich Motorway is built and they move on. I only wish that they could stay and build the Rocklea-Darra extension. I would like to thank Councillor Trevor Nardi, as chairperson of the works committee, and his team of council workers for their efforts in our community. I would like to thank the Premier, the Deputy Premier and all of the ministers for their help and support. I would also like to thank the Speaker for his strong support. I would like to thank Don Wilson and Stephen Beckett for helping me on a personal level. I would also like to thank Major General Mick Slater, the Army and RAAF Base Amberley personnel for helping us in our community. But, most importantly, our community helped ourselves. The Shiloh Church, under the leadership of Pastor Alan Morris and his magnificent team, supported by Pastor Peter Richards of the Baptist Church and Pastor Phil Cutcliffe, cared not only for their flock but for hundreds and hundreds of people in need. Our caravan park residents were particularly distressed, and their leadership and practical help was much sought after. I would like to thank in particular a nurse from Forest Lake who gave up her holidays to help the community. She worked tirelessly, helping our people in need, and will become a friend forever. Paul McCrindle of the Miners Diner deserves special mention for feeding not only the Bundamba, Ebbw Vale and Dinmore communities but also the large numbers of police, ambulancemen and nurses—all for free. He cooked day in, day out. I would like to thank Channel 7’s Sunrise and the Queensland Department of Public Works for rebuilding the Goodna rugby league club. The Goodna rugby league club is the backbone of our community and will become the recovery centre for as long as it is needed. I would like to thank Hutchinson Builders for their help in this regard. As for insurance companies, well, like many others in my area, I am told that they are waiting for hydrologist reports and that it is unlikely that our claims will be approved. So, I was insured and I wait, like everybody else. But it has not stopped them sending out renewal notices for insurance. How insensitive of these companies! There is nothing left to insure. I have here my renewal notice. They sent it on 18 February. Unbelievable! They just do not get it. Like others in my community, I watched as my office disappeared. There are no walls, no ceilings and very, very few items retrieved. My husband, Neil, took charge of the clean-up, and he got stuck in, like he did at his own parents’ place in Bundamba 37 years ago. I will never forget the sight of our young Samoan women who brought along their own boom box, powered by batteries, and danced and sang as they cleaned the office out. Others from Goodna and Redbank Plains and Joseba—what a star! Our new principal of Springfield Central State High School was there and he had only just moved into our electorate. As the community cried, I cried, and I still do. So, whilst I give my heartfelt thanks to the members of the mud army that helped us, may I also thank our magnificent Queensland public servants—the Queensland police, Queensland Health, the Department of Communities, the ambulance officers, our teachers and our EQ officials, our works officers, our Parliamentary Services staff and our trade unions. We would like to thank all of our community organisations and the churches. As we continue to grieve, there are many questions that remain unanswered that our community wants the flood inquiry to examine. Our community has said to me that these are the questions they are going to ask in their submissions to the flood inquiry. Why was there no warning? When were the authorities first alerted to the disaster and why weren’t people told? Why were the flood maps not on the website? Is there really a local disaster management plan, as required under section 80 of the act? Why wasn’t that on the website? And how do we as a community know when to be on flood alert and who is responsible for this? The community needs these answers so that they can move on. They want honesty. They want to learn from the floods so that when it happens again they will be better prepared. In 1974 Neil and I were teenagers in grade 11 at Bremer State High School in Ipswich. That flood left us with lifelong memories of devastation, of family breakdowns, of emotional breakdowns as people found life difficult. A friend of mine lost her father. Neil’s father, Murray, became an inaugural member of the Ipswich SES, and he would have been proud of the great job that the Ipswich SES did in 2011. But unfortunately, over the years, the Wivenhoe Dam came to be known as the saviour of Ipswich. Somehow it became folklore, and too many homes and units were allowed to be built on the flood plains and many people forgot the lessons of that year. This time, in 2011, let us never forget 1974, nor these recent floods. Let us as a community examine what happened and learn from it and never, ever become complacent again. The heavens cried me a river, and there will be many, many more tears shed over the next few weeks, months and years ahead as we rebuild and relearn from the floods. In my concluding comments I would like to thank my husband, Neil, and my girls, who did a fantastic job, and also my electorate officers. I could not have done it without them. 34 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Mr Speaker, in spite of Goodna being wiped out, I want you to know that I will never, ever leave my people. As MP, no flood will frighten me away and nor will I use it as an excuse to move from the suburb of battlers. I am rebuilding in the same place and I am rebuilding in the same shopping centre. I will be there, God willing, for however long it takes to be able to help each and every one of our people get back on their feet again. I will be there with my family, with Steve and Tracey, with our churches, with our party and with our union comrades, for every hour of every day to help out in any way that I can. I said on the night that I was first elected as an MP that no-one would ever walk alone whilst I was their member. I meant it then and I mean it now. We need all the strength we can muster from each other and to love and support each other. I love the people that I have the honour and privilege to represent in this parliament, and that is why this flood hurts me so much. When you touch one of us in our community, you touch all of us. Many have nothing left. There are no houses, there are no contents and there is no money. There is just nothing. But what we do have is an undying sense of community, we have our sense of values and we have our sense of what we are and who we are. We have our integrity and we will fight back. We will take on those insurance companies, and we will have, hopefully, some sense of justice through the flood inquiry. Mr Speaker, I ask for all of your help and for every MP in this House to help those of us in my electorate get through this. May God bless our people through these times. May God bless the people of Queensland and Australia. Sitting suspended from 1.08 pm to 2.30 pm. Hon. PT LUCAS (Lytton—ALP) (Deputy Premier and Minister for Health) (2.30 pm): Since man began to walk on earth, life has been a journey. It is a journey in which you are raised by your parents, you live in a community with family and friends and you grow into old age. As humankind has developed we have learned to live better and longer. Throughout the generations that journey has had a single goal that is timeless and universal: to lead a happy life and produce a happy family. We have developed the expectation and the hope that children will outlive their parents and that each of us will be afforded the privilege to lead a long and healthy life with our families in a safe and nurturing community. But sometimes events beyond our control and our understanding conspire to deny that expectation. The ordinary sequence of life—shopping, working, meeting with friends; activities and routines that have kept us busy for countless thousands of days in our lives—can sometimes and quite suddenly change forever and without warning. For reasons none of us fully understands, in the last few months the forces of nature brought deluges and cyclonic winds to Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley and other parts of Queensland in volumes that were unprecedented. For anyone who was there to witness nature in all its terror or who saw those terrible scenes, or for those like me who personally saw the aftermath, it seemed that there was never any chance for some of these communities. What hope does the mere flesh and bone of human have when faced with nature’s strongest fury? How can the slenderness and beauty of the human form withstand the forces that up-end cars and destroy buildings? Anyone who has visited the people of Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley and viewed the countryside and the damage wreaked there acquires an experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. The hamlet of Grantham—the streets where families were raised and children played, where small farmers tended their crops—fell silent in the onslaught of the deluge. Some 22 people lost their lives in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. They were parents, grandparents and young children; they were people’s friends and colleagues. Some 36 lives in total were lost across the state. The loss of young life is always a tragedy, but the experience for those who survived nature’s cruel onslaught only to find they had lost a loved one is unimaginable. It is to those brave souls that we pay tribute by honouring those lost. What words can one choose to comfort someone in these circumstances, to soothe the pain of someone who has lost a partner or a child? It is left to those of us who remain to provide hope to those people whose lives have been devastated by a personal loss so profound that words cannot describe it. At the same time, we marvel at your resilience, your desire to rebuild, your desire to forge on with building your communities yet never, ever forgetting what you have experienced or lost. Dorothea Mackellar, that great Australian poet, in her wonderful description of Australia My Country, described our country’s beauty and terror. That is a term as apt in modern Australia as it was when written in the early 1900s by her as a young girl in England longing for her Australian home. This is indeed a land of beauty and of terror but we are a people full of resilience, of mateship. We are a people who band together to stare down whatever threat our terrible and beautiful land can throw our way. We owe it to all of the communities in Queensland that have lost loved ones and to those whose lives have been devastated by the weather events in recent weeks to rebuild. That is not to say that in every case things should return exactly to the way they were. Some people may wish not to return to 15 Feb 2011 Motion 35 houses that have been destroyed. Some buildings may be built stronger or higher or smarter. After all, it took in 1971 to cause us to examine and implement the strict building codes that we have today and that, in many cases, have saved lives and saved communities from even greater devastation. Likewise, I have visited communities such as Gympie where it regularly floods and where steps have been taken by many local businesses in the main street to fit out their properties in ways that minimise damage from floodwaters. But we cannot mitigate against all of nature’s fury. No building can withstand every category 5 cyclone because there is no category higher than it. We can calculate a one- in-100-year flood, but humans have been on this earth for over 200,000 years. So what about the one- in-1,000-year or the one-in-5,000-year event? Not every disaster is avoidable and not every event is foreseeable. Nothing can take away the heartache and loss of these natural events and nothing ever will, especially when someone loses their life. I would like to particularly express my gratitude to the people who have worked or volunteered to help others or to protect their communities during these difficult times. One night during the Brisbane floods I went to Morningside Brisbane City Council depot to help with sandbagging. I was joined by my teenage sons and a few car loads of their mates. There were countless more car loads of volunteering young men and women of all ethnic backgrounds, from our wonderful first Australian people to our most recent arrivals. They were working, shovelling and filling. Sure, there may have been some interruptions for texting, twittering and even courting, but they were there and they worked. This is worth pondering for those who criticise the current generation. These are the people who 60 years ago would have been in uniform defending our liberty. The times and the reason might change, but the determination, sacrifice and compassion are innate to Queenslanders and Australians. I would like to thank those who turned up in their droves to help clean out, those who fed people by barbecue out the front of their homes on higher ground, the kids who donated the coins from their piggy bank, the companies and the tradies who gave their labour. People like Father Xavier Pinto from India raised $1,000 from fisher workers in his desperately poor community in the south of India yet sent it here for relief. We know that Energex and Ergon workers have worked tirelessly, often in bad weather, to restore power so that devastated communities can begin to rebuild. One can never understatement the comfort that members of the community gain when they see a person in uniform there to help them in their hour of need—the Maltese Cross of the police, ambulance and SES, the helmet and crossed axes of the firefighters, the rising sun of our defence forces. The bravery that the ADF has shown overseas over the decades has been matched with the compassion and resourcefulness shown during these flood and cyclone disasters. There is no greater advertisement to a young man or woman than how those in uniform have acquitted themselves here. I reserve special mention for Major General Mick Slater, Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson and State Disaster Commander Ian Stewart. I acknowledge the support of the Prime Minister and the federal government. But as health minister I want to pay particular respect to the very many Queensland Health staff who worked in difficult circumstances. In many cases, they worked while their own homes or loved ones were under threat to care for their sick or injured neighbours. As I have travelled this state over the past six weeks to about 40-plus communities I have heard and seen for myself countless examples of everyday heroes among those who choose to work for Queensland Health. I have had the great honour of meeting those doctors and nurses and other health workers who cared for the 300 patients who were evacuated from Cairns before Cyclone Yasi hit. It was the largest hospital evacuation in our history. It was arranged at short notice. The staff who organised it and those who participated in it were amazing. I have been humbled by the health workers in communities like Emerald and Theodore whose own lives have been devastated along with their communities but who have soldiered on because they knew their friends and neighbours needed them. In Emerald they came to work through floodwaters on the back of a council truck. They tended to wounds and ministered to the broken-hearted and prevented a tragedy from getting worse by vaccinating the vulnerable or counselling the forlorn. I would also like to thank mayors too numerous to mention for their outstanding leadership, councils and particularly the two Gregs at the LGAQ for their diligence, hard work and mutual support of each other as well as the state. Greg Goebel at the Red Cross has been a pleasure to work with. But I particularly want to single out the role of the Premier and the outstanding inspirational leadership by her. I want to make a few points about insurance. Whether it be insurance or construction or general trade and commerce, the best and most lasting relationships are built on mutual trust, not the black and white of contracts. I urge insurance companies to act in good faith. My electorate is unlikely to ever experience major flooding—we are on Moreton Bay—but I say to my constituents: if a particular insurance company treats flood claimants badly, that same company will probably treat you the same way in your own claims. Do not support those companies who do not support your fellow Queenslanders. 36 Motion 15 Feb 2011

This area of insurance law is federally regulated. If anyone will achieve reform it is federal Minister Shorten. There is the potential for common definitions, potential for community rating and potential for standard clauses that clearly indicate an opt-in or opt-out for flood cover. This could be clearly stated in each annual return so that people can be reminded whether or not they have coverage. Perhaps it should be mandatory for all insurers to offer flood cover as an option and to make clear the cost of that cover so that people can make that decision. Health insurers often pay money towards members’ gym costs so as to improve their overall health and, therefore, lower claims. Perhaps there is a role for enlightened insurers to reduce further claim costs for their long-term insured by contributing to raising stumps so that low-set houses in places like Depot Hill in Rockhampton are out of the water. Finally, one of the greatest honours and privileges I had during this event was to accompany Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson to the funeral of Graham ‘Snow’ Purcell in the small western town of Tara. He was a man who died in the line of duty. He died while carting water to keep the town of Condamine in supplies of drinking water. There could be no greater gift than for someone who selflessly assisted others in their greatest hour of need. To be there to witness the love for a decent, hardworking Aussie bloke by his wife, Evette, his kids and almost the entire communities of Tara and Condamine was truly touching and a unique privilege. On top of his coffin they had a can of XXXX, his smokes and his hat. It was just wonderful. Cyclones are amongst the strongest forces of nature and Yasi was one of the strongest ever to hit the Queensland coast, certainly in modern times. The damage it did in many Far North Queensland communities was massive and it was sometimes indiscriminate. It affected some properties and not others. Perhaps what I found the most terrifying of all was in places like Tully Heads and Cardwell where I witnessed the storm surge damage. Some older properties were totally obliterated and furniture and belongings were washed hundreds of metres away into scrubland, while there were others where all that was left standing was their roof. Compare the devastation at Cardwell to Port Hinchinbrook—not far away but where the storm surge seemed to do far less damage to newer properties. Again, modern building codes seem to have made such a difference, but we must redouble our commitment and look again at where we build and how we live and what we can do better. Those who have lost loved ones and those who have lost properties would want us to do this. We will not let them down. I have always admired our farmers for their unique love of the country they nurture and till, and for their perseverance in the face of natural disaster and the satisfaction they must get at the end of a successful harvest. Farming is a vocation, not a nine-to-five job you just fall into. It is in your blood. I express my support for them in their sadness and heartache to see their crops destroyed and livestock vanished. The fact that cyclones and floods are part of the natural cycle of life makes their pain no less. I also want to acknowledge the commitment shown by you, my parliamentary colleagues on both sides of the House. In the adversarial world of politics it is refreshing and energising to work together to help Queenslanders in a way that is enhanced immeasurably by bipartisanship. Political squabbles seem so petty and ephemeral lined up against the task ahead of us. We remember our political forebears for what they did together in times of trial such as the Second World War, not what they argued about. I have noted before in this chamber how aware I am each day, when I walk in past the lists on the wall, of those members of parliament who went before me. They also served the people in times of trial and worked together to bring good out of disasters and make this state the wonderful place it is. We stand here in the sureness that in the future we will face more natural disasters—that has happened over the epochs—but our test will be how we can recover, rebuild and reconstruct. We look forward to the rigorous investigation and reports of the Holmes commission of inquiry. As a lawyer I cannot think of a stronger commission of inquiry than this one. These events must—and indeed ought—be looked at in hindsight, and lawyers and journalists specialise in hindsight. That is an important part of improvement. But I say to all of us here as we appropriately examine what we can do better and, importantly, what we cannot feasibly change that those in the field, on the night, in the disaster meetings, in the helicopters and in the emergency wards did not have the luxury of making a decision or a judgement on it over breakfast while reading all sides of it in the morning newspapers. It was their foresight, not hindsight, that saw one death from Cyclone Yasi compared to 1,860 from Hurricane Katrina. But surely more than anything else in our joint presence here today is our wish to express our heartfelt sorrow and sympathy to those who lost loved ones that no words of a resolution nor words of a speech nor actions of reconstruction can ever approach in restoration. For those of us who believe in a God, we ask him for his succour and mercy for those who lost loved ones and for his guidance, wisdom and counsel for those of us tasked with the responsibility of rebuilding. Mr MESSENGER (Burnett—Ind) (2.44 pm): In rising to speak to and support the Premier’s motion, on behalf of the people of Burnett I offer my heartfelt and sincere condolences to those families who have lost loved ones. I am very sorry for the searing heartache and the overwhelming sadness that many have been forced to endure. It is proper to acknowledge that it was only by the grace of God, good 15 Feb 2011 Motion 37 luck and the courage of our emergency services volunteers, police, ambulance officers, fire brigade, VMR workers, surf-lifesavers and ordinary citizens—people like fisherman Steve Campbell, who risked his life patrolling a raging flooded Burnett River in his fishing boat dodging debris and rescuing stranded yachties—that prevented loss of life when the waters of the Burnett River rose at Christmas time and threatened those whom we love. According to the briefing notes of the Bundaberg regional economic recovery group— After receiving significant rainfall in the Burnett Catchment for a period of 6 to 8 weeks and heavy rain in the catchment upstream of Bundaberg on Wednesday 29 December 2010 the Burnett River peaked at 7.95 metres inundating an estimated 200 homes and 130 businesses. The flood event was a combination of the catchment rainfall, rainfall in the Bundaberg area and a king tide, registering as the highest flood level experienced in the district since 1942. We did not realise that our battle with the flood in the Burnett was to be one of the first chapters in a long summer horror story which befell our state. We were very grateful when the waters ebbed and the danger passed just before New Year. My community then got stuck into the hard, dirty work of cleaning up the river mud, shovelling rotting food, repairing bridges and roads, and dealing with insurance companies. Like a lot of members in this chamber who have already spoken, for example the member for Toowoomba South, I want to praise the leadership of some of those insurance companies—Suncorp, for example. I would also plead with other insurance companies that have refused to pay out to victims to match Suncorp’s compassionate decision making. The majority of the physical flood damage was in the Bundaberg electorate. Most Burnett electorate residents and businesses escaped inundation, except for the Baffle Creek area to the north and areas near Sandy Hook further back up the river upstream on the Burnett River, but the financial and psychological damage has been shared by Burnett residents with Bundaberg residents as well. On New Year’s Day I visited the seafood processors on the east side of Bundaberg on the banks of the Burnett River and saw that they were wiped out by the floodwaters of the Burnett. They were uninsured. The insurance companies would not provide insurance to them. I spoke with Syd McQuan and Seth Parker, business owners who were responsible for employing up to 300 people in a very vibrant scallop- processing and fishing industry, and saw the heart of that industry ripped out. I would urge the government to support them in every way. But in the ensuing days every heart in the Burnett broke when we saw the horrific, surreal images of people trapped by rising waters, heard of the sad, tragic stories of the families and survivors whom we saw weeping in Toowoomba, Grantham, Murphys Creek and saw the mothers whose babies had been taken by floodwaters. It was a miracle that our state was spared catastrophic loss of life from catastrophic Cyclone Yasi. Once again, it was only by the grace of God, good luck and the courage of our emergency service volunteers that major loss of life was averted. And to be truthful, our ability as a state to avoid major loss of life when faced with a storm the size and ferocity of Yasi can also be attributed to the courage, tenacity and humanity of our Premier, who led us wisely with her senior public servants through some of the most dangerous days since 1942, when we faced invasion from a deadly hostile force. A profound change in attitude to all things in life has occurred for the majority of Queensland people touched by the natural disasters. The Premier was right comparing the battle we have in front of us to the job in front of post World War II Queensland. Similar to the generations who lived through the war, the people of our state will forever view their personal history as the events that happened before the flood and cyclone and events that happened after the natural disasters. There are many people who deserve to be commended for their courageous actions and selfless Australian and Queensland spirit during our dark times. The efforts of Mal Churchill, a former police inspector and now a disaster management coordinator who for the last 18 months has written our disaster management plan, deserve to be noted in this chamber as do the efforts of the SES volunteers, the Rural Fire Service volunteers, the VMR members, the ambulance officers and the surf-lifesavers, headed by Craig Holden. As well, you cannot name people without acknowledging the staff of the Department of Communities, who deserve a special mention. I met up with Manny Hegarty and his team who gave comfort to the many flood victims after they had set up base camp at the PCYC in Bundaberg. I would also like to commend community volunteers, such as Margaret Stibbard, the president of the Burnett Heads CLAG—they call themselves the Crafty Ladies Activity Group—and the ladies involved in this group for their efforts in raising funds for the Bundaberg flood relief appeal. These special ladies banded together to raise just under $1,000 for our community through fundraising activities. Their cent sale raised $800 alone and, together with the Burnett heads community association, through its Australia Day breakfast, they managed to raise another $135 to go towards Bundaberg flood relief. I also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge and congratulate other quiet achievers throughout my district for their efforts in raising much needed funds for local flood victims, in particular the Moore Park beach community groups, including the Lions Club, the boating and fishing club and the bowls club. They should be commended for their achievements in raising a combined total of over $1,500 towards this very worthy cause. All the money was raised from their recent Australia Day celebrations, which I had the privilege of attending. This small community should be proud of their 38 Motion 15 Feb 2011 efforts and I say well done to all the community groups of the Burnett Heads for the Australia Day event and the Moore Park beach event. I give a big pat on the back to those communities, including businesses, non-profit organisations and residents who dug deep to provide financial assistance where they could. The St Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army volunteers worked through the floods to feed emergency services personnel and to provide shelter and resources to community members who were affected by the floods and who were forced to evacuate from their homes. A Branyan resident, Ken Nielsen, was reported in the Bundaberg News-Mail as demonstrating the community spirit when he set up an impromptu ferry service to assist his isolated neighbours so that they could access amenities in town. The article stated— One man had blood in his (colostomy) bag and another woman’s baby was running a temperature so they had to get across and to the hospital. I would also like to thank all the medical staff at the Bundaberg Base Hospital for the magnificent job they did while the community was under fire. Even local artists rallied to the cause. A local musician, Peter O’Brien, helped lift the spirit of the community by writing a heartfelt song which he posted on YouTube. He said— It’s my little way of doing something for the community. Bundaberg Rotary Sunrise president Tom Head and his team of volunteers set up a shed to store donated goods on behalf of the Salvation Army to assist locals who had lost their own possessions in the flood. Bill Facey, who leads the disaster management group in the 1770-Agnes Water townships, used his experience in the Navy and in the clean-up in Darwin after to prepare the Discovery Coast community for the possible arrival of Cyclone Yasi. There are many tough issues that will need to be raised in this chamber at a different time. I have been contacted by Dr Graham Kingston, who is the publicity officer of Bundaberg Volunteer Marine Rescue, to raise a difficult but, I believe, timely issue during this motion. Graham wrote— Dear Rob Thank you for your support of VMR Bundaberg during the recent flood crisis in the Burnett River. The absence of indemnity cover for volunteer organisations was a major issue constraining our capacity to assist the containment of the large number of unmanned vessels that came down the river as major hazards to navigation and life on other vessels in the river. I only became aware on tonight’s news bulletins of the 17 hour non-party parliamentary session programmed for 15th February to air issues associated with the flood crisis. I urge you to raise the issue of volunteer indemnity cover on behalf of both Marine Rescue organisations and all volunteers in general (Surf Life Saving, SES, Red Cross, Meal on Wheels etc.). While there are many issues of improved coordination between relevant capacity organisations that can be improved for future disasters, the indemnity cover is one of very high priority. We were very lucky (so far) that none of the many volunteers involved in post-flood and post-cyclone assistances have not been cited for negligence. I look forward to being able to provide you with any additional details which may assist you in highlighting and effecting change for the issue of responsible volunteer indemnity. I would also like to mention specially Gary Dick, the president of VMR Bundaberg; Graeme Morley, the secretary of VMR Bundaberg; John Routledge, the treasurer of VMR Bundaberg; and team member, Lesley Grimminck. They all worked amazingly hard during those dark days when the Burnett River was raging and 30 yachts broke away and were lost. They were swept out and sunk in the river. Many members have mentioned farmers. The Deputy Premier certainly did. I would also like to mention farmers and urge members to spare a thought for the farmers who tried to supply us with food, bread, vegetables, meat and milk during the natural disasters. I visited a local dairy run by the Perrys— Mrs Rose Perry, who is 70 years old, and Pat, her husband. The collapse of a farm dam wall and the subsequent wash-out of the only access road to their dairy on New Year’s Day forced Pat and Rose to dump over 9,000 litres of fresh milk over that week. When I asked Rose and her husband, Pat, about the cost of that milk they replied that they were not thinking so much about the money lost but their principal concern was for the waste of good milk. Rose said to me— So much waste. There’s so many people who could use that milk. There’s so much waste in Australia, every produce, so much waste. To put her comments into context, both Rose and her husband grew up in a starving post-World War II England where the waste of anything, especially food, was abhorred. During the time I spent with them I started to understand the depth and the reasons for their sorrow. I I believe that we now have a chance to get rid of that waste going forward into the future. I have been contacted by many people right across the community asking that I help them gain better access to their superannuation savings—from people in New South Wales writing on behalf of their sons and daughters to businesses in 1770-Agnes Water who are affected by the downturn in tourism. The lesson that I have learned is that there are many flood victims who prefer to access their superannuation over government handouts. There is no doubt of a number of facts. First of all, the 15 Feb 2011 Motion 39 recent unprecedented natural disasters have caused catastrophic financial hardship for many Queensland families and small businesses. Even though they are very welcome, the assistance packages, the loans, the grants and hardship payments have and will fail to properly provide the funds that are needed to prevent many small businesses and families from going broke or declaring bankruptcy. I have spoken personally to real estate agents who are now selling the homes of small business owners in order to pay for their essential running costs and to pay the wages of their staff because they know that they have to keep them on. Many natural disaster victims prefer to access their own superannuation funds over government handouts, but no provision exists under current legislation to guarantee that. In backing that up, I draw members’ attention to page 2 of the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority early release form which states— If your fund trustee/RSA provider says they will not allow early release under any circumstances, then there is nothing APRA or any other agency can do to force them to pay out some or all of your benefits. For me it is in black and white. If a superannuation company does not want to pay you out or help you out with compassionate payments, then they cannot be forced into it. So today on behalf of my constituents I ask that the Premier request that the Prime Minister support retrospective changes to laws governing superannuation so that victims of natural disasters suffering severe financial hardship are given the right to access their own super funds. I know that it would help Suzy Baines from Kempsey in New South Wales who wrote to me trying to get help for her son, Greg, her two daughters and seven grandchildren who live in the Burnett- . She wrote— Being unable to access his superannuation through Suncorp as well, has left him and his wife emotionally devastated. He can get it if he is unemployed for more than 26 weeks or is behind in mortgage payments (too bad he owned his onsite home) or if I die and he has to bury me. The issue was also raised by Don Growcott, dive operator at Agnes Water, who expressed frustration at what he saw were the two big bureaucratic stumbling blocks—not being able to access your superannuation until after you have been on more than 26 weeks of unemployment benefits or unless you are behind on your home loan mortgage repayments. That discriminates against people who own their own homes. It also puts a black mark on your credit rating with your bank or other financial institutions if you do happen to get behind on your payments. As mentioned by the member for Hinchinbrook and others, the tourism industry has been decimated. In the Burnett electorate the floods cut off the townships of 1770 and Agnes Water. I have written to the Premier about this issue. I have had a prompt and fair hearing and I believe that the issue is now being addressed. I wrote to the Premier— On Friday the 21st of January I had a meeting with the executive of the Discovery Coast Tourism and Commerce Committee where we discussed the tourism and financial crisis facing the Townships of Agnes Water and 1770. As you no doubt will be aware, tourism is the commercial lifeblood of 1770 and Agnes Waters. And because the Xmas/New Year floods cut off all access roads, commercial activity, tourist visitor numbers and accommodation bookings were up to 95% lower than previous year’s figures. This unprecedented and dramatic reduction in bookings, at what is the peak tourism time of the year, will have long lasting and detrimental effects on all businesses and employment unless a plan to rebuild and reform tourism is not formulated and acted on in the near future. Xmas and January school holiday trade traditionally allowed Discovery Coast businesses to make a surplus, which then allowed them to survive and pay their workers and running costs for the rest of the year. Already businesses are being forced into survival mode and are now even laying off essential staff in an effort to reduce their wages and running costs. While these businesses acknowledge that this action is not sustainable, it is all that they are able to do at the present time to pay the bills while tourist numbers stay dangerously low. The clear message that I’ve received from the 1770 and Agnes Water tourist operators is they need significant government, Tourism QLD and Tourism Australia assistance to bring back visitors to the region, to build accommodation booking numbers once again and restore business confidence. There are a number of specific actions and programs that my constituents would like you to help them implement. For the moment it can be summarised in the following: And there is a six-point tourism rescue and action plan that we put forward. I believe that the Premier and her government have started addressing those. I would like to invite members to come and spend their holiday at either Agnes Water or the 1770 township this Easter. They have a clear message: it is better at the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef. I would like to thank the military for its magnificent service and sacrifice. It makes one’s heart swell with pride to see the C130s landing with food drops and diggers helping clean up. I have only one criticism: there are not enough of them. This is a problem that the federal government will have to ultimately deal with, but I think in every public forum we should be talking about the fact that if you placed every member of the Navy, Army and Air Force in the MCG we would just barely half fill it, with about 50,000 people. I think after our natural disasters and witnessing the vital role our military played in responding and rebuilding, there is a strong argument for dramatically increased numbers in our military. 40 Motion 15 Feb 2011

In closing, I would like to say that I was moved by the way our community came together in this crisis. We have become united in adversity. In doing so we have rediscovered and renewed the Australian spirit. It makes me extremely proud to call Queensland and the Burnett home. I am told that God listens to short prayers and speeches, and on behalf of the people of the Burnett I pray that our state, families and innocents are never put to the test again and that we remain ever vigilant and mindful of the hard lessons that we have learned. Mr JOHNSON (Gregory—LNP) (3.04 pm): It is with much sorrow that I stand to speak in this chamber in relation to the sad events that struck Queensland down in December 2010 and January 2011. Down through the passage of time, Australians—and I heard the words of the Deputy Premier here this afternoon—seem to have walked on safe land and to have had a safe environment. I think these disasters are the closest many Australians and many Queenslanders have ever been to witnessing a war zone. We saw what happened with those horrific bushfires in Victoria a couple of years ago, we saw what happened in the electorate of Hinchinbrook five years ago with Cyclone Larry and we saw what happened at Christmas 1974 in Darwin. Now here in Queensland, in December 2010 and January 2011 we witnessed this horrific flood event and cyclones Anthony and Yasi. As many speakers have canvassed in the House this morning and this afternoon, we should thank the good Lord that we have not had more loss of life than we have already had. On behalf of the constituents of Gregory, I extend condolences to residents of other electorates who have been struck down worse than my electorate—especially our colleague the member for Lockyer as well as the members for Toowoomba North, Toowoomba South, Ipswich, Ipswich West and Bundamba—who suffered horrific events and loss of life. On Sunday night I watched the 60 Minutes interview with that mother. Anyone who did not have a tear in their eye ought to give it away. As many people have said today, this is truly the closest we will get to seeing the Anzac spirit revisited. I congratulate everybody in this House on the fact that across-the-chamber politics has been forgotten. And so it should be. From the outset I want to congratulate the Premier of this state, the Hon. Anna Bligh. This lady has led from the front from day one, without question. It is undeniable. Anybody who wants to take a rise out of her for anything she has done is not fair dinkum. In times of crisis you need leadership. The Premier has shown that leadership. It has been decisive leadership, it has been fair leadership and it has been open and committed leadership. I congratulate her for it. She has kept me in the picture in the time of crisis in my electorate, and I think every other member of this parliament has been fittingly attributed the same courtesy by the Premier as she attributed to me. In early December we faced the after-effects of Cyclone Anthony, which struck down many of the farmers in the , trashed cotton and other crops, ruined road infrastructure and what have you. The Minister for Primary Industries and the federal Minister for Agriculture came out. We had shed meetings. We talked to farmers about how we could help them along the way. I have to say that that was a sunshower. On Christmas night my wife and I were down at Jundah with our two daughters. In the afternoon I was having a camp at the hotel and Monique came over and said, ‘Dad, I think you better get back to Longreach. I had a look at the screen on the computer and there is an horrific cloud east of Longreach and it looks to me like it means business.’ It meant business, all right. We went back to Longreach. We got back at 10 o’clock that night. I think we had 60 points of rain. The next morning I heard the half past five news—14 inches at Mantuan Downs and right across that catchment area, the Nogoa River and the Claude River. Bear in mind that at that time the Fairbairn Dam at Emerald was flowing over the spillway at a rate of 1.6 metres. At quarter to six in the morning I rang Peter Maguire, the mayor of the Central Highlands Regional Council, and said, ‘Oh mate, you’re in for another one.’ He said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘There’s been 14 inches at Mantuan Downs on top of what you’ve already got.’ Sure enough we did. We had another one, all right. But with the good planning and leadership by people like Peter Maguire and his council we saw no loss of life. We saw many people able to redeem a lot of their property. It came up that quick that nobody had any warning. However, we have seen the devastation that resulted. The Premier, the Deputy Premier and other ministers have travelled to the area. At the end of the day, it was about caring for each other. That is exactly and precisely why I believe we have had the outcomes that we have had. I pay tribute to Councillor Rod Chandler, the mayor of the Barcaldine Regional Council, and his team of Des Howard, the CEO of the shire, and Robbie, the manager of the Alpha office. They worked in conjunction with Sergeant Jim Kelly of the Alpha police and many other people in the Alpha and Jericho districts, which were severely flooded. I pay tribute to one young lady who showed exemplary leadership, the bush nurse at the BNA clinic in Jericho, Sister Jane Williams. Jane showed real leadership. She worked tirelessly, day in and day out, ensuring the welfare and safety of the people in the little community of Jericho. I cannot pay high enough tribute to Jane and her husband, Brett, as well as people such as Colin Loudon. Unfortunately, our police lady was away, but backup police were present. I think Col Loudon might have ruined a motorcar trying to ferry people through floodwaters. That shows the calibre of the people in our communities, and I pay tribute to them all. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 41

I also pay tribute to the Emerald SES and its leader, Judy MacDonald, and the three blokes who have been awarded in the Australia Day awards: Michael Vale, Gary Plate and Gary Pearson. I pay tribute to the Gemfields SES and the Rolleston SES, especially for the support they provided and the use of their boat. I pay tribute to the Mackay council and the Mackay SES, which assisted their colleagues in the Central Highlands. In the district, numerous private helicopter pilots such as Max Mayne of Rolleston, Donna and Mark Reid of Emerald and Eric Webb of Comet kept people connected through aerial surveillance. They are truly remarkable people. They put everybody else before themselves. At the end of the day, we were blessed to have people of such quality in the community. I put on record the great work of the Emerald Neighbourhood Centre and mention especially Lorna Hicks and her wonderful team. I also put on record that I received from the member for Bundamba, Jo-Ann Miller, a generous donation. Jo sent me a cheque and said, ‘Vaughan, do what you have to do with it.’ I said, ‘I think it would be best if we give it to Lorna Hicks at the Emerald Neighbourhood Centre.’ Jo-Ann, that is where your cheque for 250 notes went. Lorna was overwhelmed by that cheque. People such as she make a difference in those smaller communities, especially for the pensioners and others who are less fortunate than we are. Such people have been the recipient of your help. As a member of the Premier’s flood relief committee, for which I am truly humbled and overwhelmed, I say to the other 88 members, if there are people afflicted by these floods in your electorates tell them not to be too proud to make an application because that money has been donated to the Premier’s appeal to help them some way on the road to recovery. It is their money to take advantage of. I say to every member to urge your people to avail themselves of it. I pay tribute to the men and women from the mines, including the subcontractors such as Goldings and the larger companies such as BMA. They all played a significant role. I thank Tony Harrold, Lorraine Grierson and the Emerald Christian College, which provided free child care during the clean-up. The Emerald Co-operative Society helped organise the supply effort for the post-flood clean- up. Two other men I want to pay tribute to are hydrologists Jeff Kavanagh and Ian Rankin. Jeff Kavanagh is something of a freak in Emerald. If anyone can read a flood situation or understand water, Jeff Kavanagh can in his quiet and unassuming way. The old adage that silent water runs deep is certainly true of Jeff Kavanagh. Today I pay tribute to the police. Our police have done an exemplary job. I have mentioned Sergeant Jim Kelly of the Alpha police. I also want to mention Inspector Mick Keys of the Longreach police district. Inspector Keys has been in Longreach only for a short time, but he has proved to be a good general. He certainly leads from the front. He is a no-nonsense operator and his troops follow him, which is the sign of a good leader. I say to Mick Keys, ‘Thank you very much, Mick, for a job well done.’ I could ring him at four o’clock in the morning and most times he would be at his post. While Longreach never had flooding like Emerald did, he showed true leadership as did other police and I thank them for it. I also pay tribute to Acting Inspector Graeme Reeves, the officer in charge at Emerald, Acting Inspector Darrin Shadlow, Acting Inspector Paul Elliott, Acting Superintendent Joe Joyce and Inspector Glenn Kachel. All those people played a very significant role in keeping the people of the Central Highlands region safe, which is a tribute to them. When talking about police, I know that Commissioner Bob Atkinson led from the front down here but one bloke I really want to take my hat off to is Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart. What a remarkable job Ian Stewart did. Wherever the Premier was, he was too. I do not know whether they sold their beds, but I do not think they used them. Both of them probably deserve a holiday. Ian Stewart certainly led from the front. I trust that the people of Queensland will salute him for the work he did. Across all areas of the disaster, there are many people to thank. As the Deputy Premier has said today, I pay tribute to the people of the Emerald Hospital, especially Dr Mark Foreman and his staff, who continued to provide care even when they had to evacuate some of their operations. I thank the pharmacists, the general practitioners and other allied health professionals who provided care even when their own homes were at risk. It is the same unselfish story that we have heard from many speakers in the House today. I could not forget the generosity of our caring and gentle colleague, Dr Alexander Douglas, who gave so generously of his professional services to the people of Alpha and Jericho, as well as the people of Bundamba and other parts of Ipswich. People such as Alex Douglas who went out there and, wanting no attention for themselves, provided professional care to people less fortunate than themselves. People such as they make this a great state. I thank Dr Douglas, wherever he may be. I thank CentreCare, AngliCare, AgForce and all the organisations that did such wonderful and ongoing work to assist the recovery. A saving grace has been improved communications practices put in place since 2008. We receive better information from BOM and CHRC measuring stations, as well as through the web and SMS. I pay tribute to the excellence of the journalists at the emergency broadcaster, ABC Capricornia. I thank members of all the media, including Di Stanley and the team at CQ News who covered events judiciously with the wellbeing of the community at the forefront of their concerns. 42 Motion 15 Feb 2011

One organisation that I want to pay top accolades to is ABC Radio. They advised the people of Queensland, regardless of where they lived, of the situation being faced in every part of the state. The accolades for the ABC will be ongoing as far as I am concerned. They are a very important communicator in my part of the world. They provide that service wherever you live in this great nation of ours. During the crisis we witnessed recently, they have certainly been at the forefront. I would mention leaders in other communities. I have mentioned Peter Maguire and Robbie Chandler from my own area, but it would be remiss of me not to mention people such as Pino Giandomenico, from the electorate of the honourable member for Hinchinbrook. He also was a general leading from the front, as was Steve Jones, the mayor of the Lockyer Regional Council in your country, Mr Deputy Speaker, and Ray Brown at Dalby. I saw those people from afar and I thought that they showed true leadership. My heart goes out to all the people of the Lockyer, especially those who lost loved ones. That is not redeemable and their lives will be scarred forever. It is very important that we are there for those people to lean on as they go through their grieving period. Also, it is very important that we are there to help them rebuild, regroup and become a community again, regardless of whether they are in my country or elsewhere. For hours I could talk about the devastation to the farming areas in my electorate. The Premier is to introduce into the parliament a reconstruction bill and we will be talking about ways and means to enhance and grow the operation in question. I want to pay tribute also to my leader, John-Paul Langbroek. He came out to my electorate a few days after the event in Emerald. He spent six hours touring with me and seeing firsthand some of the devastation in that centre. We visited a chap there in Kidd Street. When I visited this gentleman a few days before I said, ‘I’m sorry about this, mate.’ He said, ‘I went through it in 2008 and we sort of kept it away. I lost my wife last year and now this.’ ‘Anyway,’ he said, ‘we move on.’ It makes you proud to be able to represent people like that. They are truly great people to stand up the way they do. I also want to pay tribute to one of my colleagues. I feel very sorry for him. Unfortunately, my colleague, my next-door neighbour, the member for Callide, Jeff Seeney, was away at the time. He and his wife were taking a well-deserved holiday overseas. Nobody could have predicted what happened at that time of the year. Jeff got back toward the end of it. I can imagine the trauma and heartache he went through wondering what was going on back home. I know his electorate was in good hands and I know he has travelled the miles and done the hard work since. I walked across to the chamber today with the member for Burleigh. She said, ‘I feel guilty somewhat, Vaughan, that my electorate has not been harmed.’ I looked at her and I thought to myself, ‘It’s been harmed all right. I can tell from looking in your eyes that you’re hurting.’ Everybody is hurting. That is what makes us exemplary as Queenslanders and as Australians. I know other members have touched on the issue of insurance companies and I will touch on it more as we progress. If they want to play with people’s lives, now is not the time to do it. If they have the fair dinkum, honest platform in their policy to deliver in relation to that criteria, those policies have to be honoured. I hope and pray that they will have some sanity and they will not put anyone else through any more persecution and torture than they already have. I conclude with one word from a person I studied a lot over my life. I believe he is one of the great leaders of the world and somebody who understands what the people of lower socioeconomic areas are about. A lot of the people who have been afflicted by these floods do come from those lower socioeconomic areas. That makes it even more concerning for us to ensure that those people do get back together. I refer to the late Dr Martin Luther King. He said, ‘When you reach the top of the mountain, don’t forget the valley below.’ Many of us are on the top of the mountain and many of our colleagues here in Queensland are at the bottom of the mountain at the moment and need a hand to get up on that mountain. Please God, let all 89 members of this parliament join in a bipartisan way to support the Premier, the government, the Leader of the Opposition, the opposition and the Independents to take this state forward to the great heights that we know it can reach. I have heard members in this parliament say today that the tourist industry and many other industries, small business, farming and the mining industry in my own electorate have all been set back. I say to each and every member of this House, ‘We can do this again together. We will do it together again. We will take Queensland forward.’ I say thankyou to the members of the government who supported me and my electorate during this awful ordeal and I say thankyou to the members of the government and to my colleagues who supported my other colleagues in their hour of need, and especially the people of Queensland in their hour of need. You are true champions to the cause. Thank you and God bless. Ms NELSON-CARR (Mundingburra—ALP) (3.23 pm): I would like to add my sincere condolences and sympathies to those Queenslanders who have watched their lives disintegrate before them in the wake of our worst and most tragic summer. This devastating and heartbreaking force of nature wreaked its power with unimaginable force, taking with it homes and loved ones. Listening to 15 Feb 2011 Motion 43 members today retelling these events—events which had such catastrophic outcomes—is a grim and sober reminder of just what a land of absolute contrast Australia really is. The strength and fury of Mother Nature really does know no bounds. But it is the resilience, the humour and the tenacity of Australians that always seems to rise above what would appear to be hopelessness, which makes me so proud to be Australian. Today I pay my respects to all those Queenslanders who have suffered sorrow, who have experienced loss, horror and despair during this very unprecedented summer event. The courage, strength and loyalty shown by those same people is nothing short of miraculous. I say to all of those everyday people who have unwittingly been part of this grim reality, those same people who have been transmitted across the world via media in the shocking images of destruction, may you receive the help and assistance you deserve in the long aftermath of the summer of 2010-11. In North Queensland and two hours away by road from the eye of Cyclone Yasi sits Townsville. I can tell you that, because of the excellent, up-to-date warning systems, we in Townsville were as prepared as we could possibly be. I do say though that it was very, very scary. I do not know about everybody else’s homes, but in my home while we still had power my husband was glued to the computer. We were given constant updates by Stephen Beckett and we were able to track the cyclone on the computer as it moved all over the place. That was only while we had power. We found that it was worryingly accurate. I say this because Yasi dipped and dived several times before its frightening and threatening force crossed the coast. At one stage I had to tell my husband to stop telling me about this cyclone bearing down on us because he was full of ‘Oh my god!’ and, ‘Oh no, this is really happening here,’— Mr Watt interjected. Ms NELSON-CARR:—that was Russell—until eventually I lost my patience and said, ‘Don’t tell me anymore. I don’t want to know. We’re as prepared as we can be.’ We had everything ready to go. Of course, as you know, in Townsville we were lucky and we did indeed dodge the bullet. We did lose our power and trees went down. Many of us sustained structural damage, but we did not lose our lives. A semblance of order was pretty quickly reached. Ergon Energy was absolutely magnificent, giving us daily updates on power outages and restoration. Community collaboration, assistance and response has been wonderful also. The vegetation that has been strewn everywhere is still a problem, but volunteers have come from everywhere to assist those in trouble so that the rebuild can happen as quickly as possible. While Townsville fared better than our immediate northern neighbours, I do send my heartfelt sympathies and best wishes to those communities that have to rebuild. I know the member for Hinchinbrook is part of a community just to our north that has a lot of work ahead. One thing I would like to add is that grief and loss can all be very relative at the same time. So support for so many people is critical if we are to be able to rebuild successfully. The ability to transcend one’s own pain can often be the panacea in this process. Helping those who are less fortunate puts things in perspective and that is for certain. However, grief and loss go through several stages and we as a community will need all our compassion and acceptance to deal with all the human emotions yet to unfold. As we have heard today, Queenslanders have strong, tough exteriors, but inside many people are really shattered, many hearts are broken, and we will need to extend much more patience and indeed love. To those everyday, ordinary Queenslanders who have lost everything—homes, property and personal possessions—I hope your recovery will be swift, although this scale of rebuilding will no doubt take years. But one thing is for certain: we will rebuild. I want to thank the volunteers who have shown such selfless spirit. To all those front-line services—the police, the ambos, firies, defence, the amazing SES and to all the community organisations: I thank you. You have once again shown true grit. To all levels of government that have worked together showing real collaboration: we are all very grateful. And to you, Premier: thankyou for your extraordinary leadership and the opportunity for Queenslanders to see you at your best. I support the motion. Hon. CA WALLACE (Thuringowa—ALP) (Minister for Main Roads) (3.29 pm): I endorse the motion moved by the Premier and pass on condolences from the people of Thuringowa to those who have suffered loss from the terrible events across our state this summer. If at some time in the future I am asked to reflect on my role as Minister for Main Roads and a member of this place, there is one period of time that will stand above all others, and that is when tragedy upon tragedy marked the start of 2011—when devastation and despair swept across the Lockyer Valley, Central Queensland, Brisbane and Ipswich, and North and Far North Queensland after Cyclone Yasi crossed the coast. I will never forget the anguish etched on people’s faces as they struggled to come to terms with such overwhelming loss. I will never forget the courage of ordinary people in extraordinary times. I will also remember forever the generosity and old-fashioned goodness of strangers reaching out to help one another. It is that unbreakable bond, that indomitable spirit, that brands us as Queenslanders. 44 Motion 15 Feb 2011

We will recover. We will rise to the challenge and rebuild a better Queensland. With our collective strength, we will show the rest of the world that we are made of the right stuff. As a government, we will rebuild our towns, our roads, our infrastructure, just as we will help rebuild those shattered lives. It will be a long road to recovery, and the grief that we have shared will last a lifetime. But I know that, in the true spirit of Queenslanders, we will draw on our collective strength and we will rise to the challenges ahead. I was born and bred in the north and I have grown up with the threat of tropical cyclones. Like many in my region, that awful sound of the emergency siren, the whoop whoop, sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear it. I have been through a few cyclones and I know how scared people would have been when they woke up on Wednesday morning to the news that it was going to be a big one—a category 5—and it was headed towards the North Queensland coast. We all knew what it meant. We all knew the tangible, terrible consequences of a cyclone of that size, a cyclone of that intensity—a cyclone, as the Premier said this morning, the size of which has not been seen in our state for generations. Indeed, my grandad before he passed away told me the stories of the big 1918 cyclones that devastated our state. His dad, my great-grandfather, was the first station master come post master at Home Hill and remembered the ferocity of that wet season when two category 5 cyclones crossed the Queensland coast—one at Innisfail and one at Mackay. Now my children and countless others across our state will do the same. Today I pay tribute to the Cassowary Coast and Hinchinbrook communities for their courage. They faced the full force of that fury. They looked that cyclone in the eye and they fought like hell to survive. As the member for Hinchinbrook said, grown men, including himself, have admitted that they were scared. It was terrifying enough for my family and me in Townsville. I can only imagine what it must have been like for people in the direct path of that ferocious storm. I say to them: do not ever lose your fighting spirit. As a government, as a parliament, we will work with you side by side and together we will rebuild what we have lost. It was with great trepidation that I ventured out after the cyclone. I thought that surely after all that fury was unleashed we could not have escaped without a great loss of lives. Sadly, we were to learn that a life was lost in that tempest. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that the toll would have been much higher without the help from local news sources warning people in low-lying areas to evacuate. Major deaths from cyclones come not from the wind but from storm surge. I commend the staff, reporters and editors at the Townsville Bulletin and our local radio stations, especially 4TO. They warned us constantly of the dangers and then broadcast right through the cyclone so that we knew what was going on. They were our only link to the outside world. In the lead-up to the cyclone, the Bully and 4TO made a courageous decision to keep broadcasting and publishing. That is no mean feat—4TO is on Woolcock Street, right next to the lake, and it was going to go under if we had that big storm surge that the bureau was predicting. When the evacuation order was given, they still did not give up and moved to a makeshift home studio just up the road from where I live at Kirwan, drawing on the resources of panel operators from Southern Cross media’s hub on the Gold Coast. Once that connection was established via a tie line to Daniel the manager’s house, they were in business, and I thank Smithy for that. There they bunkered down and prepared for the worst—Daniel, Pricey, Wayde, Blair and Minty from his home, with two cats and a cattle dog, family and friends. They broadcast right through that dark night and shared phone calls and SMS messages from locals who were bunkered down in their homes, in bathrooms, hallways and cupboards, north from Hinchinbrook to Bowen. Lines of communication were also open with emergency services, the police, the SES, the weather bureau, Ergon Energy, Telstra and Townsville Water. When the sheer force of the cyclone knocked out the power connection at around one in the morning, they worked with technical staff in Townsville and on the Gold Coast to patch it through to that oldie but goodie 774 AM, which broadcast from the north. I spoke to the people of North Queensland through 4TO and its affiliates that long night, as did the Premier. Most of us had no power, no TV. It was the battery powered radio that kept us informed. With those announcers, we passed on information, told people what we knew of what was coming and reassured the north, especially when reports surfaced of a massive 18-metre wave off Cape Cleveland. Our radio jocks stayed there in that makeshift studio until it was safe to return to Woolcock Street at around 11 o’clock the next day. They swung into action again—this time keeping the community informed about the rebuild. That is what we are like in the north—we never give up. That goes for our local paper, too. The Bully has been around for over 130 years, and they were not going to let a category 5 cyclone stop them this time. Indeed, a new $50 million press was officially opened the day before the cyclone. Peter Gleeson and his team of reporters worked through the night to publish papers. The Bully press room was surrounded by water and debris, and Gleeso had to rely on a generator at home to get the paper out. These were the extraordinary actions of extraordinary people in extraordinary times. Our community, our nation, was hungry for news and locals supplied it. I thank the many thousands of people in our community who reached out and responded above and beyond what was expected of them. From the neighbours who helped neighbours to emergency services and defence personnel, Ergon and SES volunteers—they all deserve a medal. Two people in 15 Feb 2011 Motion 45 particular stand out for me. The first is Glen Cummings, known as ‘Reptile’ to his mates. Glen is a RoadTek worker who stayed in Cardwell for the cyclone. He bunkered down and was able to immediately give us an accurate and clear picture of the damage to that community. Along with hundreds of other RoadTek workers, he worked around the clock to get our roads open, to get the Cardwell Range open and to get the open through Cardwell itself. The other person—and she has been mentioned before in this place, and I want to thank her personally—is our Premier. I want to thank her personally not only for her leadership but for the concern she showed for the safety of my family and me. I will never forget the Premier asking me at 4.30 on Thursday morning if I was still alive and if Jen and the kids were okay. That shows you that the Premier really was on duty through that night. Thank you, Premier, for taking the time to think of us, to think of your community and my city, especially when you rolled up later that afternoon after the winds had subsided somewhat. The night of the tempest was Chinese New Year’s Eve. We had a full house, with two evacuated families with strong Chinese ties staying with us. As we sat down for a very different reunion dinner, the power went out. Over candles and a hurricane lamp, we ate and wished each other the best for the year ahead. Let us hope that the Year of the Rabbit gives our state some relief from the worst wet season in generations. Now it is time to pull together as a state, and it is time for this place, as its leaders, to pull together to rebuild Queensland and rebuild people’s lives. Mr EMERSON (Indooroopilly—LNP) (3.39 pm): Walk through some of the shattered streets of Chelmer and Graceville and you will come to Strong Avenue. In the days that followed the devastating floods that tore through my electorate there stood a sign in that street; it read ‘Strong by name, strong by nature.’ If six simple words can define a community it was these. Because over those handful of days in January and the weeks that followed my community revealed its true strength of character. Across Graceville and Chelmer, St Lucia and Taringa, Indooroopilly and Fig Tree Pocket, Sherwood, Corinda and Tennyson more than 3,500 homes were affected in the 2011 floods. Mine is a riverside electorate. Its suburbs embrace Brisbane’s magnificent river. In fact, Indooroopilly is the only electorate that straddles the Brisbane River. But during those fateful days in January we came to realise the price we pay for our desire to be close to that river. We were fortunate and grateful that we did not lose lives like other communities. Our sympathies go out to those families whose sadness and heartbreak we can only imagine. But we did suffer devastation—devastation that will remain with us not just for weeks and months but for years. Many families have lost their homes. Some may never return. Others are determined to rebuild both their houses and their lives. But whatever the destruction and the toll, we remain, as that sign said, a strong community. That strength was very evident as my community worked together to battle the rising floodwaters and then to reach out to help each other in the days that followed. Hour after hour, day after day I witnessed acts of generosity, of courage, of sacrifice, of friendship, of companionship, of mateship, of friend helping friend, neighbour helping neighbour, stranger helping stranger. As I moved around my electorate there were moments and memories that I will hold forever from those fateful days. Some are immensely sad, such as standing with families as the waters of the swollen river began to reach up streets almost as fast as you could walk and seeing the realisation on their faces as they knew their homes and possessions had already been lost or were about to be lost; knowing how powerless they felt to stop the waters and, to be honest, how powerless I felt to be able to ease their fear and heartbreak. After the waters receded, I witnessed street after street of devastation, homes destroyed, ruined possessions collected in monstrous piles on the kerbs and the blank stares of those who knew that what they had was gone and the future that lay ahead was something uncertain. If you return to those streets today, the roads may have been scrapped clean of mud, the kerb cleared of rubbish and families may have returned to those homes, but the personal and emotional landscape remains in ruins and will for a very long time. Amid these moments of sadness there were also many examples of inspiration. As the floodwaters began to rise, there was the Western Group SES leader, Peter Healey, and his band of volunteers, once again desperately planning for the disaster that was to come. They had worked during The Gap storms not so long ago and knew what was required and what was to be faced. As I joined other volunteers filling sandbags at the SES Toowong depot, many spoke to me of their determination to battle the floodwaters. Most of those working there that night had no memory of the 1974 floods. Many had not been born then, but they were determined to fight against the floodwaters in any way they could. Even as the sandbags were being filled, the waters were rising out of the nearby Perrin Park and lapping at the edge of the SES depot, eventually forcing that site to be abandoned. Damien Lacey lost his own home on Mandalay Street at Fig Tree Pocket, but the local plumber spent the days of the flood ferrying his neighbours to their homes on his fishing boat. I was with Damien as we boated across the lake, which was once Biambi Yumba Park, which had engulfed the surrounding 46 Motion 15 Feb 2011 street to take supplies into that part of Fig Tree Pocket that had been cut off. So high were the waters that the tip of the play equipment in the park could be just seen poking through the top of that swollen, muddy lake. Damien’s own house could not be seen. Damien had lost his own home to those muddy waters but still he was working for his community. That shows incredible courage. Damien Lacey worked day and night to help people salvage what they could long before the police were able to get there with boats. ‘He’s a bloody hero,’ said one of Damien’s neighbours. Karen Simons at Graceville opened her home—converting it into a soup kitchen for those in need of food, drink, a dry place to rest. Walk up the back steps to Karen’s deck and you get all that as well as sometimes a chat or a hug. People Karen had never met before had come into her home to help and to be helped. ‘People we do not know are walking through the front door offering donations. People down the street need food, water, drinks. We are just helping them through the day. That is what we have been doing,’ she told ABC Radio. At the Holy Family parish church at Indooroopilly, an 87-year-old woman’s stew and 305 meals from Brisbane’s Muslim community were feeding flood refugees. The parish church and hall had been turned into a long-term flood recovery centre providing meals, clothes and access to government services for the stricken surrounding community. Parishioners worked out a roster to cover the centre’s 24-hour seven day operation. At the centre of all this activity was Parish priest Father Bill MacCarthy. Father Bill, who has struggled with his own health in recent times, was tireless in giving comfort. He said that 750 individual meals had been made by parishioners each day and every morning 65 loaves worth of sandwiches were being made. Clothes and shoes were being distributed in the church hall. Next door in the parish hall, government agencies including Centrelink and the state government departments concerned with housing, health and community had set up. Father Bill said the dedication of volunteers had amazed him. ‘One of our parishioners, an 87-year-old woman, walked in with stew she had made. She was so exhausted I had to drive her home,’ he said. ‘Then we received 305 hot meals in a carton marked ‘From your local neighbourhood Muslim family’. A Chinese family cooked 75 meals one day and delivered many more the next,’ he said. ‘We also had a group of teenagers volunteering. They cancelled plans to go on a hiking holiday to help out here,’ he said. At St Lucia, the Student Union organised a clean-up of streets in surrounding suburbs. Students, especially those from overseas, struggled in the absence of the network of family and friends that we often rely on. For those who often dismiss the community spirit of gen Y, I urge you to reflect on the energy and efforts of many of the young in our community during this crisis. It is terribly sad to see the damage done to our beautiful UQ campus. It is possibly the most beautiful campus in Australia. It has suffered, including banks being washed away, but it will recover. Up the road from the campus at St Lucia’s Christ Church, Reverend Cathy Thomson and her congregation offered cooked meals and mobile phone charging to flood victims. The look of gratefulness and thanks on the faces of those sitting around the tables showed how desperate they were, how appreciative they were of what was being given to them. At Graceville State School the school had been converted into a one-stop shop for those in need. It was an incredible effort, driven by the school’s P&C, led by Wayne Penning, and many others working tirelessly. From the first public meeting at the school as soon as the waters began receding, the school P&C showed how an already strong community can become even stronger during a crisis. There are so many stories that could be told, so many heroes, so many doing so much still. They are fundraising and fighting to restore their local suburbs and communities and sporting clubs. To the volunteers who came from across Brisbane, from across Queensland and from across Australia to my electorate to help, I say thank you. To the mud army that arrived on buses to our local streets, I say thank you. To the Army men and women who turned up to clean up the roads and debris, I say thank you. To the Surf Rescue from the Gold Coast boating up flooded Oxley Road—one of the busiest streets in my electorate but inundated—rescuing people from their homes, I say thank you. To the police and emergency services workers who were tireless in their efforts—to all of them—I say thank you. I want to thank my leader, John-Paul Langbroek, who came to my electorate as the floodwaters rose and spoke with locals as they waited for their homes to be inundated. I know about his tireless efforts to travel across this state during this tragic time and his many phone calls to me and many others to check on the situations in our electorates. I would also like to thank the Premier’s office, which was always willing to take my calls as I fought to get needed help for my electorate. It was greatly appreciated. I also want to mention Ron Watson and his team at Energex. Many people were very frustrated by the loss of power during the crisis, but Ron was always willing to take my calls at all hours as we identified homes and residents in urgent need, even as Energex’s teams worked across my electorate to restore power. A special mention needs to be made of the efforts of ABC Radio during this crisis. In the absence of power, the ABC became the major source of information via battery operated radios. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 47

Many staff at ABC returned from their holidays to work long shifts to ensure people were informed. Programs such as 612’s Madonna King broadcast from my electorate, allowing many people to get an insight into the devastation that had occurred and the efforts underway to recover. The ABC once again demonstrated what an important and vital role it plays in our community. There are still many questions that need to be answered from the floods—the management of the Wivenhoe Dam, the uncertainty and availability of insurance, the level of disaster relief funding and the need and speed of rebuilding. There will be opportunity later this week to debate these important questions. But whatever the answers, my community knows one question has been answered: we are a strong community. We will survive. Mr HOBBS (Warrego—LNP) (3.51 pm): 2011 is a year that will be etched in the memories of Queenslanders forever. Like other major events that have occurred in Australia—ranging from the big drought of the early 1900s that decimated rural Queensland and the many cyclones such as cyclones Tracy and Larry that decimated Darwin and Innisfail—this major flood event and cyclones of 2011 were a double whammy that impacted Queenslanders from the tropical north to our southern border. On behalf of my electorate of Warrego, I offer our condolences to all those who have lost lives in this natural disaster and say to the grieving families left behind that we are thinking of you. Flooding is not new to the river systems throughout Queensland or indeed in my electorate of Warrego, but the extent of this one was extreme. For instance, Charleville has been flooded several times, with the big flood of 1990 when every business in town was flooded and 80 per cent of the houses inundated. That happened again in 1997, and then in March 2010 Charleville was severely flooded again. Thankfully this time it was spared, but the people of Charleville fully comprehend and have expressed their greatest sympathy to our fellow Queenslanders affected by this natural disaster. In fact, five staff from the Murweh shire based in Charleville went and worked in the Lockyer Valley to assist the council. They are experts; they have been there and done it before. They knew how to save photographs and paperwork. They knew what to do. Neil Polyglase headed the team. Neil is a very professional person and a good communicator, and he did a great job. In March 2010 floods saw every major river system in my electorate of Warrego at record levels at some stage. This more recent event in January 2011 has again seen records broken, with the Condamine-Balonne system reaching record levels. The Condamine-Balonne, which is part of the Murray-Darling Basin catchment, more recently known for parched riverbeds and empty irrigation channels, became a raging torrent that will run for months downstream into southern states. Many farms, properties and towns were flooded along that mighty river system. The town of Condamine had to be evacuated twice. While there was some controversy about the first evacuation, the second evacuation went very smoothly. I commend the Army for its assistance in the evacuation, for the helicopters, for its assistance with the desalination plants and for its assistance with the clean-up. The Western Downs Regional Council did an outstanding job. Mayor Ray Brown, whose own home was cut off and flooded, worked tirelessly. He and I were in constant contact throughout this period. He did an exemplary job. Councillor Andrew Smith, who lives in Condamine, was on the job all of the time, and he and I were in constant contact on movements of the flood and the impacts on the town. I flew up and down the Condamine-Balonne River monitoring flood peaks and talking to mayors, councillors and landholders to ensure the best plans were in place to minimise the damage. We hope we helped in some way. The evacuation of Condamine was only the second evacuation in Queensland’s history, with Theodore having been evacuated only days before. Fully understanding the trauma of this particular evacuation, I flew to Dalby to meet with some of the Condamine residents at the Dalby evacuation centre. A lot of help has been provided by a lot of voluntary groups. For instance, the Roma Rotary Club recently had a barbecue dinner and breakfast at Condamine. I want to thank Andrew Harvey and his team for a great job. It was a good initiative to try to help lift the spirits of the people in Condamine. Chinchilla was flooded twice. I visited several times. The Leader of the Opposition, John-Paul Langbroek, was able to inspect the damage. Councillor Bill McCutcheon was a tower of strength and was able to keep locals and the general public informed on the flooding in Chinchilla and the Warrego Highway at Charley’s Creek, because the Warrego Highway was cut off. Everyone listened to ABC Radio, which did a great job reporting what was happening and when the roads that were closed were likely to reopen. Ed Hoffman, the previous chief executive officer of the Chinchilla shire and who is now with the Western Downs Regional Council, worked tirelessly through both floods to monitor water levels and supervise the clean-ups in Chinchilla. The residents of Chinchilla were flooded twice and farms were also flooded, wiping out many crops. I recognise the huge damage to those farms—the equipment and the topsoil that was lost, the production that was lost. Many landholders along the river system have had severe flooding—water going where it has never been seen before, fencing knocked down and gone, pastures damaged by long water inundation. Many landholders had severe flooding in the northern areas of my electorate as part of the deluge that flooded Theodore. Roads are washed out, fences are gone, stock is lost and roads are only now becoming passable. 48 Motion 15 Feb 2011

I congratulate Mayor Donna Stewart and the Balonne Shire Council for their efforts to prepare the towns of St George, Dirranbandi, Mungindi, Thallon and Hebel. St George is of course at the bottom of the Condamine and Queensland’s border was impacted. The damage was minimised by individual levy banks around some of the towns. The council was able to use its flood mapping and put in place more levy banks across low areas around the town to be ready if the flood was higher than expected. David and Alison Blacket, who own the Riversands winery, were some of the many who were flooded. They had to harvest some of their crop using a barge to float the grapes out. John-Paul Langbroek, the Leader of the Opposition, inspected St George at this time and saw firsthand the impact of flooding on St George. It is believed by locals in St George that a levy bank that was constructed south of the town contributed to the flooding. It is important that we analyse any impact of levy banks, roads and other infrastructure and give consideration to modifying them to minimise any future impact that may occur in another major flood. There is no substitute for good planning. The Balonne shire is lucky to have one person who is an expert in this field—John Grabbe, the man who designed Cubbie Station, one of Queensland’s largest cotton farms at Dirranbandi. He went to St George twice, at the invitation of Mayor Donna Stewart, to check the levels on the new levies that had been built around St George. He said that the new banks would hold with the expected flood peak and they did. He gave great confidence to all residents of that region. John Grabbe is credited with supervising the levy bank which saved Dirranbandi in the March 2010 floods and again in January 2011. I want to also mention a good friend of mine, Vaughn Becker, who is a councillor for the Banana shire. The council there looks after the town of Theodore, which is in the electorate of my colleague Jeff Seeney. I was in constant contact with Vaughn Becker throughout this time. Theodore was the first town to be evacuated and it was a harrowing time. I take my hat off to the great work that was done by Vaughn Becker and other people. At various times I was in contact with Warren Middleton on an hourly basis at the control centre. Mayor John Hooper and Deputy Mayor Maureen Clancy also did a great job. In fact, I understand that all the councillors for that shire did a good job. I was not talking to all of them, but I make mention of fact that they certainly had a major event on their hands and I believe that they did the best job that they could. I congratulate them on that. I want to thank all the volunteers, the Red Cross, the council workers, the SES, the Army and the gas companies who assisted with the clean-up. I want to thank the Premier, the ministers and the members of parliament who visited and rang. Many members rang to see how things were going and what they could do to help. Dr Alex Douglas, the member for Gaven, and Peter Dowling, the shadow minister for flood recovery, came out as well. They brought out care packages for people and dropped them in my area and in other areas as well. I want to thank them for their assistance and the work and the thought that was put into those care packages. Many people certainly appreciated the assistance that was provided to them. We must take this opportunity to minimise the impact of flooding and cyclones on Queenslanders in future. It is a debate that has to be had. Today is not that day. Today is a day to reflect on the impact. Tomorrow we need to rebuild bigger, better and smarter than before. Mrs ATTWOOD (Mount Ommaney—ALP) (4.01 pm): I rise to report and lament on the January flood disaster and its effects on residents in the Mount Ommaney electorate. But, firstly, I give my heartfelt condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the Lockyer Valley tragedy and to all of those people who suffered pain and loss during this sad time. The past month has been a challenging and difficult time for many Queenslanders and local communities. However, the work that has been undertaken by thousands of volunteers and businesses, emergency services and all levels of government has been inspirational to many. The 1974 flood was worse in many areas in my electorate and was around two metres higher than the recent floods. However, in other areas flooding occurred for the first time and was very destructive in its passing. One of those areas was the Sumner Park Industrial Estate, where floodwaters reached over four metres into properties and as a result many businesses will remain out of action for many weeks. I would like to thank the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation for providing mobile services to this area a few days after the flooding. During the disaster period local access streets such as Horizon Drive and Westlake Drive, Dandenong, Yallambee, Burrendah, Oxley, Sinnamon, Sumners, Curragundi, Wacol Station and Oxley Station roads, Looranah Street, Wendouree Crescent, Cook and Pratten streets and Cliveden Avenue became rivers of flowing water. Everywhere you turned there were blockages and people were simply forced to turn back from their intended designation. People had to evacuate but had difficulties reaching the state’s evacuation centres at the RNA and the QEII when the flooding worsened. Local church groups—St Catherine’s, the Good News Lutheran Church, the Metro Church and the Salvation Army at Middle Park—came to the rescue and offered shelter to people who had nowhere to go or who wanted to remain in the local area. I visited a number of these centres and purchased food items where needed. I commend the role of the local church groups and the compassion and comfort that they gave to distressed residents and families. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 49

On the morning of Wednesday, 12 January, after staying up all night to raise my own household possessions to the second level of the house, I was advised that I would have four metres of water through the house before the peak on Thursday morning. There were many neighbours and friends who assisted me to relocate some of my possessions. Among them were people like neighbours Mike and Mandy Pinnell, who used their contacts to organise many trucks to remove rubbish in the suburbs to the temporary dump when floodwaters receded. My thanks go also to Priority Garden Care Landscaping’s Peter Bell and Green Bins for helping so many people in crisis situations. I was one of the lucky ones to see that the water had stopped in my garden and the driveway when the river peaked. Two of my direct neighbours were not so lucky, as muddy water contaminated the lower levels of their houses, causing a lot of muddy mess and the loss of many of their irreplaceable, prized possessions. I commend the Army Reservists for their assistance during the clean-up. Many suburbs in the electorate of Mount Ommaney, including Jindalee, Oxley, Corinda, Westlake, Jamboree Heights, Mount Ommaney, Riverhills, Sumner, Middle Park and Seventeen Mile Rocks were badly affected by flooding. The Sinnamon Road and Looranah Street shopping centres went under completely and shops were decimated. Many elderly people were grateful that the Bywater Medical Centre doctors and staff were relocated quickly to the Canossa complex so that their medical and pharmaceutical needs could continue to be met. There were many houses that were totally inundated and residents had no chance of saving any of their possessions. Some residents could not salvage even their most prized items, such as family photos or mementos because they had no warning. Suburbs in Centenary did not appear on the list of suburbs provided by the Brisbane City Council as those under threat of flooding and it was difficult to get information through their website. Telstra equipment had been damaged and many residents could not get through to their families, even using their mobile phone. After the waters had receded and as I doorknocked the streets of Jindalee, Riverhills, Westlake, Oxley and Corinda, I saw the extent of the devastation firsthand. Some houses were almost ready to be demolished. Some were left with the bare frames. Others had water creep up to the lower level, only just missing the second level. I heard stories of people wading through muddy water to save their possessions, disregarding their own safety, of financial hardship and difficulty starting over, of regret and reproach and of complete shock as people contemplated what they saw before them. On the Saturday following the flooding when the roads became passable I attended two community meetings at Corinda and Oxley to brief residents in relation to the assistance that was available to them and to answer any questions that they had in relation to recovery issues. Power had not yet been restored to those suburbs and people were concerned about houses that appeared unoccupied. In Oxley, a volunteer and support centre had been set up at the Oxley State School in the hall where members of the local community, the P&C and Councillor Milton Dick coordinated a massive clean-up army to assist flood affected residents. Wayne Williams and his wife, Julia, of the Jamboree Heights Residents Association worked hard in their suburb and helped organise a barbecue for locals who they fondly termed ‘mud crabs’ and ‘mud angels’. Right across my electorate neighbours were helping neighbours and strangers were helping strangers. I give a heartfelt thankyou to all of those community spirited people and all of those who came from all over South-East Queensland to help those in need. People rang me from far afield to offer their help. Over the weeks following the disaster my office was a hive of activity and I was grateful for the assistance of Vicky Darling MP, the member for Sandgate; PK Croft, the member for Broadwater; Claire Moore, a senator for Queensland; their staff; and Carryn Sullivan, the member for Pumicestone, rang me regularly to offer her assistance and support. There were many other MPs who telephoned to check my situation and this was much appreciated. Minister Robert Schwarten sent officers of his department to check my office and they also made an inspection of the Jindalee Bowls Club, the Oxley Bowling Club and the Ukrainian hall on Oxley Road. Over 230,000 houses in South-East Queensland lost power during the flood and Energex had an enormous task before them. Many transformers in my electorate were flooded and the one at the end of my street was identified later in Moreton Bay. A power pole was dislocated and shifted 200 metres by the rushing river. It sounded to me as if I was living next door to a roaring ocean. People just wanted some idea of the problem and the level of difficulty to fix and restore the power. I was constantly advocating residents’ concerns until power was fully restored to most areas within eight days. There were isolated pockets that had localised problems after that, but people were happy that areas were identified and fixed. Human safety was the first priority for Energex and Ergon and all affected homes had to be checked by a qualified electrical contractor before power in some areas was restored. After contacting all of the schools in my area, I asked the Minister for Education, the Hon. Geoff Wilson, to accompany me to local schools that had suffered damage to classrooms and other facilities. Principals at Jindalee, Corinda and Oxley state schools coped extremely well and all reported a successful start to the school year. I spoke to QBuild workers on site and thanked them for the great effort they made to repair the damage to facilities in record time. Other schools provided assistance to those that were flood affected and year 7s were relocated to my local high schools at Centenary and Corinda. 50 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Through the member for Sandgate I was able to obtain over 100 school bags donated by St Patrick’s College, Shorncliffe, to give to flood affected children in all of my local schools. And a hearty thanks to a school community that is no stranger to tragedy. Mount Ommaney centre manager Steven Ihm and his staff visited local child-care centres with me last week to deliver thousands of toys donated by their sister shopping centre in Canberra. The centres were delighted with the gifts to children in their care. January 2011 was a month that some people would prefer to forget in Queensland due to the extensive floods and cyclones. But we will all learn from our experiences during those difficult times. Despite all of the setbacks my local sporting clubs have received over the past few weeks, I am pleased to say that their resilience is as strong as it always has been. My office contacted all of the clubs to assess their damage levels in the days following the devastation and advised them of assistance which would become available to them. The Minister for Child Safety and Sport, the Hon. Phil Reeves, wasted no time visiting the local sporting clubs with me during the clean-up time. A week after the flooding I met the minister at the Centenary Rowing Club at the end of Sumner Road. President Simon Newcomb and a number of young rowers were busy shifting mud and washing out the shed. The clubhouse went underwater by 1½ times its height, but the structure of the besser block building was completely sound and came through it all unscathed. Club members managed to shift all of the boats off the site before the floods hit the area. However, about 7 pm on Monday night, 10 January, their pontoon was lost in the raging waters. I heard a story about a six-year-old girl who saw some of the boats and asked if she could borrow one for her grandparents who were being flooded. A few weeks later the minister joined me on a visit to the Jindalee and Oxley bowls clubs and the Jindalee Jaguars and Little Athletics site at Jindalee. Both the Jindalee Jags and Jindalee bowls clubhouses went completely underwater. The Oxley bowls clubhouse had two metres of water inside and floodwater completely inundated the green. Both bowls clubs managed to painstakingly clear the heavy mud off their green areas so that members could recommence their games. The Jindalee Jags have a restoration plan in place to ensure that local children are able to recommence play at the start of the season. The Centenary Little Athletics club has lost a lot of expensive equipment due to inundation of the clubhouse and is currently using other venues to hold its competitions. In early February I asked the Minister for Child Safety and Sport to tour the Jindalee and McLeod golf clubs with me. There had been an enormous amount of work done by volunteers and club members to restore both courses which were completely inundated for an extended period. The Carrington Boat Club lost its moorings and the clubhouse was completely decimated. They tell the story about the person who left their eyeglasses on a window sill before the flooding and retrieved them in the same spot after, but with much heavier objects, including the roof, being completely removed. Last Thursday I was asked by the Sherwood RSL club to help present donations to many of the flood affected clubs around their area, including the Oxley Bowls Club, the Carrington Boat Club and the Western Districts Football Club. Those cheques were greatly appreciated by the groups and participants concerned. There were many fundraising activities held across Brisbane to support the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal which will provide assistance to all of those individuals and families to get back in their homes once again. This government believes that it is important to get children and adults back into their routines and restore a sense of normality in these difficult times. The Premier, the Hon. Anna Bligh, visited my area on 19 January on her way from touring the devastation in the Goodna area. We called in at the Corinda State School and then visited one of the worst hit areas at Neata Street, Corinda which abuts Oxley Creek. This area suffered more severely than in 1974 due to extensive development and inundation that occurred in the Rocklea area. I would like to thank the Premier for her swift action in setting up evacuation centres in Brisbane and recovery centres at Jamboree Heights and Corinda to provide support and assistance to people traumatised by their great losses, and for her strong direction, empathy and communication during these hard times. Members of the Vietnamese community asked me to conduct a community forum to explain recovery assistance for those with poor English. This was organised and held at Cementco Bowls Club and supported by workers from the recovery centre. Garry Page from Multicultural Affairs Queensland ensured that important information was provided in 30 different languages. This provision of community information will continue in local venues with flood rebuilding forums through BSA, Insurance Council meetings for homeowners and free legal information and advice through Legal Aid. I praise the emergency services workers, health workers, Energex, Community Services and police for their well-coordinated approach in assisting the residents of my electorate and people right across Queensland. Ms FARMER (Bulimba—ALP) (4.15 pm): I would like to thank the Premier for this condolence motion and the opportunity to convey the most sincere best wishes to all those who have experienced loss as a result of natural disaster. I know I speak on behalf of all of the residents in the Bulimba electorate when I say that if anyone could tell us a magic thing we could personally do to help relieve the pain those people are experiencing because of what has happened we would be willing to do that thing 100 times over. I really wish life was that straightforward. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 51

We in the Bulimba electorate were luckier than most during the recent floods. On Wednesday, 12 January we were not expecting to be in that position. At that point thousands of locals were facing the prospect of inundation in an electorate which is bound by the river on many sides and which has the mighty Norman and Bulimba creeks running through it; and where Brisbane City Council projections were that 160 streets in Hawthorne, Norman Park and Bulimba, including our iconic Oxford Street, would be flooded or partially flooded. Most residents knew what that might mean for their homes and, if they did not, those who had been through the 1974 floods were able to tell them. Many people were evacuated. Up to 8,000 homes had their power turned off in anticipation of an onslaught of water. For many the difference in expected and actual peak of the river that long night meant the difference between having water come into their homes as opposed to their yards. Unfortunately, that was not the case for everyone. Streets like Gillan, Donaldson and Bodalla streets and Norman Avenue in Norman Park were devastated. Others like Malcolm and Lindsay streets in Hawthorne, Jamieson and Smallman streets in Bulimba, and a number of others were blocked for days. I cannot speak positively enough of the spirit of the people in these streets as they dealt with what happened to them that night. They were weary, they were overwhelmed, but they embody the Premier’s powerful words about us Queenslanders: that when we get knocked down we just get right back up again. Those words were absolutely about the people in Norman Park, Bulimba and Hawthorne. I know that over and above the inner strength that they have, what made a difference to those people was the incredible generosity of spirit which we have all come to know from our neighbours and communities and from complete strangers. I know that all of those people in affected streets were so grateful for the physical help they received from people they did not even know who arrived on their doorsteps to do whatever needed to be done and who did so for hour after hour and day after day. But the thing that ‘cracked the nut’, so to speak, was the fact that people cared about them. I will never forget speaking to a lady in Gillan Street the day after the floods hit. Norman Creek sits at the back of her yard and her home was devastated. She told me about that first morning and how after a couple of hours of throwing out her muddy possessions onto the street she realised that she would lose everything and that it was highly likely her home would be permanently damaged. She told me that she had reached a point where she just did not know if she could go on, if there was ever going to be any brightness in her life. Then all of a sudden two young men turned up whom she had never met and said, ‘We’re here to help,’ and they just got in and did it. She knew that at least for that day she could go on because someone cared about her and they wanted her to go on. I know that it is this generosity of spirit that has got many Queenslanders through the past few weeks and will no doubt help many through the many months and years of difficulty that they face. Not only has it helped the disaster victims; it has also helped us as the spectators as, in the face of what seems incredible unfairness to our fellow human beings, we find that there is a quintessential goodness in our society that can get all of us through anything. Perhaps we had forgotten that was there. There are so many examples of this from my own local community. If I spoke in this chamber for 24 hours I would not have enough time to tell all the stories, but I do want to acknowledge some outstanding examples. The Morningside police, led by Senior Sergeant Barry Bullion, worked many long and extra shifts to look after us. The Eastern Group SES crew, led by Danny Armstrong, knocked on every door, both before and after the flood, to make sure people were safe. Before the floods, the staff of the Morningside council depot, led by Gwen Tyson, worked night and day without showing any stress to make sure local residents, some of them waiting in queues for up to nine hours, could get the sandbags they needed to safeguard their houses. Greening Australia independently set up its own sandbagging operation, at its own expense, to help meet the incredible need that was still not able to be met up to the night the floods hit. For the same reason, the Morningside AFL club opened its facilities for yet another sandbagging operation. The club fed and watered the 100-odd volunteers who turned up to help and then had teams of up to 30 of its players and friends working where it was needed—cleaning, taking rubbish and shifting heavy objects. Suzy Wilson from Riverbend Books offered new books to any child who had lost their own and facilitated a hugely effective Facebook site to make links between book publishers and schools that lost had books. Foodbank, which is used to feeding 70,000 needy people a week, managed to squeeze even more hours out of the day to get food to another 50,000 people per week across the state. Priestley’s Gourmet Delights, which employs in its factory many low-income workers whose homes were destroyed in other places, paid over 600 shifts to people who could not actually get to work to do those shifts. The Norman Park Bowls Club went right under but was operating only days later, holding an event that raised $6,000 for the flood appeal. The club did not want to apply for money from the sport emergency fund, because management thought other sporting clubs needed the money more than they did. The amazing Troy and Ellen McDermott, from Bulimba Hire a Hubby, did every single thing one could think of, such as shifting rubbish, cleaning people’s houses and donating goods. They did anything they were asked to do day after day, for weeks after the event. They must surely have lost a lot of income as a result. Over the course of the flood, Phil Major from Major Cuts Butchery must have supplied 300 kilograms of sausages for volunteers and flood victims, as well as for fundraising activities. 52 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Brothers Joe, Serge and John from Feast on Fruit supplied fresh fruit to anyone who had been affected. Balmoral Rotary and Riverside Lions set up their barbecues in flood affected streets and made sure everyone was fed. However, the thing my local community is most proud of is what happened on Australia Day—the Big Aussie BBQ. My colleague Councillor Shayne Sutton and I set up the barbecue, not only to help raise the funds that we knew were so badly needed but also because there were so many people wanting to help. Mud-shovelling is not for everyone and locals knew they had so much else to offer, and offer they did. Those locals included Balfour and Nicky Irvine from the BMI Group, who kicked off the day with a $10,000 donation; the Morningside AFL club, which gave up its grounds and helped coordinate the event; Bidvest, which gave enough food and drink for the 3,000 people who attended; and Goodman Fielder, which supplied 90 loaves of sliced bread. They included Holly Leybourne and Cinnamon Watson, who have their own businesses but who gave up those businesses for nine days so they could help make the event successful, and Mary McKenna, who also gave up a week of her life so she could coordinate all the activities. They included the 3,000 people who turned up and said, ‘We’re here to spend money,’ the 150 volunteers who volunteered their time and the 150 local businesses that donated incredible prizes. They included the 50 people who letterboxed the electorate to let people know about the event, the 67 bakers who made over 3,000 cakes, biscuits and slices for the bake sale, and the performers and service providers who gave us the day for free. All of that work helped raise $27,300. That is a great result, but the best result was that everyone in our community knows that they look after each other, that they are good people and that they can expect a lot from each other when it is needed. I express my admiration for the members on both sides of this House who have clearly shown the most dedicated support for their local communities. The member for Lockyer was absolutely right when he said that our constituents expect us to be leaders. There is no doubt at all that he was that leader and that his compassion and sincerity would have helped many retain their sanity. That applies to all the members of this House who represent electorates affected by the floods who clearly have worked night and day to make sure their constituents are looked after. I especially thank the Minister for Transport for her prompt and effective assistance to the commuters of my electorate—and I will talk more on that later this week; the member for Chatsworth and the Deputy Premier for the hands-on help they provided to people in my electorate; the Minister for Child Safety and Minister Sport for his support for and care of my local sporting clubs; the emergency services minister, who was always so calm and informative; and the many other members of this House who made contact with me to make sure everyone in my patch was okay. Most of all, I thank the Premier. I know for a fact that hundreds of people in the Bulimba electorate managed to get through their days because they knew that Premier Anna Bligh was going to appear in the media and speak to them, to let them know what was happening and to reassure them that life would eventually be okay. I know that all over Queensland many people feel this and are grateful to the Premier for getting them through this crisis. I know they have confidence that she will always be there for them, no matter what happens. I thank her for the inspiration that she has provided to me and to all of us during this period. I wish only the best for everyone in Queensland. I am really proud of the people in the Bulimba electorate for what they have contributed and for what they have helped each other get through. Mr DEMPSEY (Bundaberg—LNP) (4.25 pm): The community of Bundaberg acknowledges with great sadness the devastation and the taking of 36 innocent lives by tragic natural events since December 2010. Our community also extends its wholehearted sympathy and condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed, those who have suffered and those who will continue to suffer. Throughout the disasters we had images in our minds of people being swept away in Grantham, the roaring cascades of water in Toowoomba and, more recently, the cyclone in Cardwell and Tully that highlight Queenslanders’ determination and true spirit. Many images portray the devastation of the disasters, but it is the human dimension that leaves the biggest scar. No-one can ever erase from their minds the image of Jordan Rice telling rescuers to take his little brother first. In life, it is not just what we see and hear that is important; it is how those senses make us feel in our hearts. Sometimes words are unable to describe the feelings that we have in our hearts. We saw that only this morning when a number of different members highlighted what had happened in their electorates during the devastation that hit our great state of Queensland. I turn to how the devastation affected my community in Bundaberg. When people talked about motivation and how to lift each others’ spirits, four terms kept coming up. They are the same words that are used by nearly every successful Olympic team throughout the years. They are ‘rise up’, ‘unite’, ‘believe’ and ‘commit’. That is exactly what the Bundaberg community did, as did many other communities throughout Queensland. Our community rose up to the challenges that it faced. It united all the different characters, age groups and religions that make up a great community. It believed in what it was doing and it made a commitment, not just to things that could be seen immediately but also to change that will be acted upon. It is all right to say that we are going to do something, but that has to be followed by an action or a movement. The community of Bundaberg did that in many ways to help its fellow citizens. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 53

The people of Bundaberg have lived through something that has not been seen there in 69 years. Back in 1942 the Burnett River broke its banks. This time it did the same and it reached 7.95 metres, flooding homes, farms and businesses around Bundaberg. The signs were there all along that Bundaberg and its outlying communities would be hit by the rising floodwaters. However, in the lead-up to Christmas and the festive season it seemed that most people were unaware of the crisis that was about to hit them. Locally we call it the ‘Christmas flood’. In some ways it was very lucky that families were together with their loved ones and so were able to lend a hand. Heavy rainfall in the catchment area in the weeks leading up to Christmas pushed the Paradise Dam to full capacity. The rain kept coming and after the cyclone event that crossed the Queensland coast on Christmas morning and also as a rain depression developed it became clear that there was going to be heavy rainfall in the catchment area of the Burnett River. By 27 December communities west and south of Bundaberg were bracing for floods and the next day floodwaters infiltrated all around the Bundaberg area, particularly in the areas of South Bundaberg, East Bundaberg and North Bundaberg. People were rescued from vehicles in the CBD area and we were warned to expect fast-rising waters and major flooding across the town area. When the Burnett peaked at 7.95 metres on 29 December around 200 homes and businesses had been inundated and over 400 people had to be evacuated. I will give great praise to both the recovery and the emergency evacuation centres in a few minutes. Bundaberg Regional Council needs to be congratulated as do our local emergency services, which excelled in warning residents, organising evacuations and preparing flood prone areas for the deluge. The respite centres that had been set up and the marking of roadways to be closed had been done in a very thorough and well-organised way. However, even the best laid plans can never outmanoeuvre a mass of water that is roaring down the Burnett River and is determined to reach the sea. Having lived through a number of other disasters and cyclones in the past, I think the roar of the Burnett River is very hard to describe. It is incredible to consider its destruction—it bent solid metal piles and eight- and nine-tonne pieces of equipment were pushed nearly a kilometre down towards the mouth of the river. I remember the sound as it crashed into the trees. But it is not just the sound of the river that comes to mind but also the silence of the people as they looked on. They were totally amazed and dumbfounded that Mother Nature had unleashed this huge disaster on our community. I would also like to pay tribute to the disaster management group led by Superintendant Rowan Bond and the local disaster management group led by Councillor David Batt and Deputy Mayor Tony Ricciardi. I would also like to acknowledge the disaster management officer, Mal Churchill. Thank goodness the council employed Mal. Mal is a previous police inspector in the area. He did a remarkable job. He is cool, calm and collected. I hope he accepts those words because he is quite a quiet gentleman. The old saying applies to him: he carries a big stick when he needs to. Sincere praise goes to Mal Churchill. I also praise the council’s executive officer who was on the committee, John Clerke, the council CEO, Peter Byrne, and a number of other people who assisted. As the floodwaters slowly receded over the following days the outstanding cost to the community was revealed: commercial fishing businesses, seafood processors, the Bundaberg spillways and the marina facilities were destroyed by the rushing waters and massive debris that was washed downstream. The city’s premier sports facilities including netball and cricket grounds were devastated, the state-of-the-art disability playground was inundated and businesses in low-lying parts of the CBD had metres of water throughout their premises. All this and the community stuck together and started to recover. But only days later, what happened? The floodwaters rose again. That sense of hope was pushed to its furthest degree. But again the community stood up and asked what else it could do. Whilst this was happening devastation was occurring throughout Queensland. I would like to paint a little bit of a picture through some of the words and comments that I heard as I went about Bundaberg over those days and weeks. As most other electorates were affected it became very evident that the hearts and concerns of the people of Bundaberg were with those people in the Lockyer Valley and the Toowoomba area in particular who had lost their lives. As one person said, property can be replaced but lives and memories are very hard to replace. As I walked along the likes of George Street I heard, ‘There was devastation but we have hope’; ‘These are the Christmas floods and we’re not happy but you know what? We’re going to remember this one even more’; ‘Bundaberg spirit’; ‘Dignity’; ‘It was a matter of being able to get involved’; ‘Suprise’; ‘Fear in our hearts.’ They had the fear in their hearts from the floods but the only thing they could do was get involved as a community. When the floods peaked at 7.95 metres the hearts of the people of Bundaberg were turning to others who were suffering throughout the state. Sadness, fear, tears—all of these things brought people together. They brought families together. They brought strangers together. You heard remarkable stories as you travelled through the different flood areas of people having a sense of surprise that strangers were coming and giving them a hand, people whom they did not know. I remember one lovely lady in South Bundaberg said, ‘My sense of humanity has been restored.’ Another lady had not spoken to her neighbours for several years and they came to help her in this time of need. So from this devastation can come positives. 54 Motion 15 Feb 2011

There were lasting moments. These were others words mentioned by members of the community: ‘The silence in the night, the smell of the flood, the shock, to realise how fragile we are in relation to nature and how nature affects us.’ There are the emotional scars; some people just stood looking at other people and some people just stood still. Others immediately leapt into action as if it was an opportunity. The one thing that can be inferred from all of those reactions is that everyone ended up responding and they did it together. Complacency was replaced by the call of action. This call of action was no more evident than in the case of the evacuation centre. We definitely have to give praise to the evacuation centre and the recovery centre. From the early days when we were setting up the local disaster committee and the district disaster committee, the expertise and professionalism of the people involved in those committees was apparent, and that has to be acknowledged. This group included people from the police right through to the ambulance, the fire brigade and the SES. I think Bill Daniels did a 36-hour stint at one stage. They were tired but they knew the job at hand. The SES and the many volunteers grasped the opportunity to put a lot of their training into operation. They did a magnificent job. Even though they were tired, they were thankful that they had the skills to put into practice. As the flood reached its highest peak, the disaster group decided to set up another evacuation centre on the north side of the Burnett River because the town was split. The water made the bridges inaccessible to the general community but emergency vehicles could still travel across if needed. These evacuation centres were put together. I wish to talk about the great work done there by groups such as the ladies of the Red Cross. The Bundaberg Red Cross has a magnificent group of not just ladies but also gentlemen. They are used to travelling. They helped during Cyclone Larry, in Goondiwindi and in Roma. They have helped far and wide right across this state and this nation. They really embraced the opportunity to help their own community. They did that with enthusiasm and passion. We have seen the good side of people but sometimes we get to see the bad side of people. Professionalism was shown by the ladies of the Red Cross as well as the Salvation Army, who fed and helped clothe other people. Lifeline was also in there, as well as a magnificent group from the Department of Communities. I would like to share that with the minister. Tammy Myles is magnificent. When Department of Communities staff first turned up in Bundaberg at the recovery centre, we tried to give them the biggest welcome we could to show them how thankful we were as a community to have them there. We did that and, sure enough, they came back the next day and they were well planned and well drilled. They gave people the information that they needed. We were very thankful to have those people. They were not just people from the department in Bundaberg; they travelled from far and wide. We wanted to leave them with an impression of what the Bundaberg community was about. Those people deserve great praise. It was an emotional time for them as well—they absorbed everyone else’s problems, and they did that very, very well. I saw some of their humorous sessions afterwards to try to get a bit of normality back into their own existence, and they did that really well. While I have the opportunity, I thank the other ministers as well. Minister Geoff Wilson came to the Bundy East school, the central school and a number of the other schools and met with the principals and so forth. That is very important for our community, to have ministers and other dignitaries come into the community. People can say negative things but, at the end of the day, it is very important to have those people come to your community and show that they do care. I would like to thank the minister. I also thank Minister Neil Roberts, the police minister. I feel as though I am going down the row of ministers. When Minister Roberts came to that disaster meeting at the Bundaberg Police Station—I have commended Superintendent Rowan Bond, Inspector Kev Guteridge, Sergeant Grant Marcus and all the team there—we knew that Bundaberg would be declared a disaster area that morning. You could not help but feel that, once the minister officially signed those documents, the emergency service people knew what was ahead of them. They were trained but they also knew the reality, the fear, of what lay ahead. Obviously, as the state member for Bundaberg, I am very proud of my community. I am very proud of the emergency services there and how they respond to these situations. They did a magnificent job and continue to do so, not just as police officers but as pillars of their community. They provide a great deal of positivity. Minister Craig Wallace is not here, but I would like to praise his Department of Transport and Main Roads. Doug Wass, the regional manager, and the rest of the staff did a fantastic job. Doug Wass and his team restored damaged roads in a timely manner. There again, they are not just heads of departments; they are people who live and breathe within the community and they reacted in a timely manner. There are a number of other ministers I want to thank, including Minister Phil Reeves, who came to Bundaberg and assisted our sport and recreation groups. I spoke about recreation groups before like netball and junior cricket. When we think of netball, we think of Daph Geddes. Daph passed away a little while ago, but to see the work, the heart and soul, that she and many others have put into netball over many years go under 20 feet of water was heartbreaking. Jimmy Dean started working with junior cricket in 1948 and to see the effort that he and others have put in taken away by the floodwaters was definitely emotional. It just shows their true grit to get up and going again. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 55

While I am thanking people—I have thanked the Bundaberg Regional Council—I also want to thank the call centre people who did a remarkable job. I also thank Michael Whiting from DEEDI and his staff. They did not just deal with the economic side of it, but they dealt with the emotional side of people losing their businesses and the devastation of the families. So, too, did Tammy Myles and her team, as I mentioned before. I also thank Mark Barrett from the Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority. He was an Ipswich boy, the same as me. He played for West End; I used to play for Goodna, but that is for another day. He did a great job. He showed up at every meeting and answered all the hard questions. I also thank Karl Sullivan from the Insurance Council of Australia. Nothing was too hard for him and his group. I know we are going to talk about insurance issues later on, but I thank the Insurance Council for assisting us. I thank the Salvation Army, as I mentioned before. I thank Dion Taylor from the chamber of commerce. Dion and his group really pulled the businesses together. One thing that Bundaberg is very strong on is getting information out quickly. It works as a small, united team. That united team—we have gone through the devastation and we are going through the recovery—will keep us strong in the years to come. Bundaberg still has a long way to go, but I believe that as a community we have more givers than takers. Because of that, we will be able to get back on our feet. Whether they be government executives, departments or leaders in other organisations, they are certainly true givers. I also thank the QFRS. The rapid damage assessment teams did a remarkable job. They got in there early and they got the information. That will assist us in years to come. One hero that I would definitely like to mention in this speech is Steven Campbell. He owns the boat Zarob. He saved and towed boats in the river. He was a huge help and helped where he could. He would have used many tanks of fuel. He was a hero on the river. He was a fisherman-electrician. Steven Campbell went out of his own volition into the raging torrents. He is one of the quietest fellows around. He did it because it needed to be done. He did not seek any praise at all. There are many other stories, such as Pete O’Brien, who wrote a song all about contributing and assisting the community. I know that the Bundaberg community will continue to grow and be enhanced to become one of the best towns within Queensland. Dr FLEGG (Moggill—LNP) (4.47 pm): Our No. 1 priority today is to, as far as possible, protect the lives of Queenslanders. You can fix property; you can never replace a tragically taken life. Our No. 2 priority is to support and help, to encourage, to show love and compassion; in other words, to care for the emotional and personal wellbeing and to act in a way that uplifts and encourages. Whilst we can repair and replace flooded and broken property, it is a vital part of people’s lives, of their happiness, of their family and of their security. Our No. 3 priority therefore is to help people to rebuild, to return to normal family life, to get their homes back, to get their security back in order. On behalf of the people of Moggill, I join with the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition in offering condolences and expressing our personal concern for those families and communities that have suffered the greatest loss of all—the loss of life. It is just so awful and hard to comprehend that someone could be just plucked away. As well as having our condolence, the people involved in these circumstances have our admiration for the courage that they have shown. I pay tribute to their courage and the courage of the flood victims, particularly from my own experience here in Brisbane and in Moggill. I can think of no better way to pay tribute to their courage than to tell some of the stories that I witnessed firsthand. There are some things we cannot change, but we saw during this crisis that there are a lot of things you can do to make people’s lives a whole lot better as they come to terms with their loss. Firstly, let me say how pleased and relieved I am that our area was spared the loss of life that tragically hit some of our fellow Queensland communities. I think particularly of my colleague the member for Lockyer, who, along with his wife, Ann, confronted large numbers of tragically killed innocent civilians— something that I think every member of this House would dread most. I think of my colleague from Hinchinbrook who faced the full brunt of Cyclone Yasi. On the afternoon of Tuesday, 11 January, when people in Brisbane started to realise that the city was to be inundated, there was an exodus of people from the Brisbane CBD. The waters rose and reached a flood peak early in the morning of Thursday, 13 January. People in the area of Moggill that I represent are very used to flash floods. We have many flash floods. When creeks rise people get out of the way and the waters recede quickly. What we saw on 12 and 13 January was anything but what we had been used to. When I had the time and opportunity, I went down and watched the waters rise near Rafting Ground Road and Moggill Road and also in Kenmore South around Gem Road. It was, as described by other members here, an eerie feeling. It was silent. In the areas away from the river there was very little flow. It was an experience that those present will never forget. I want to relate a few stories that I think illustrate the spirit of people in our communities in Queensland. I stood on the edge of floodwaters in Wyndarra Street, South Kenmore. I did something we told everybody else not to do. I stood there with Sue and her husband. They wanted to go and see their inundated home in Wyndarra Street so I asked permission to go with them to have a look. It was quite special that, in that moment in their life, they allowed me to walk with them into their home, on their first viewing of their flooded home. 56 Motion 15 Feb 2011

We waded through the floodwaters. We advised other people not to do it, but I confess that I did it. We entered Sue’s home. It had been inundated to a high level. As she had left before the flood, Sue had pushed some towels under the front door. When we entered the flooded home with the receding water there was a little pile of filthy towels sitting in the middle of the kitchen. In a very emotional moment she turned around to her husband and said, ‘Thank God I put the towels down.’ I have seen Sue and her husband around Kenmore a couple of times since. I think this typifies the spirit that has helped people to bounce back and put their lives back on track. At a recent street party in Wyndarra Street I could see that the clean-up job they had done on their home was fabulous. I stood at the edge of the floodwaters at Gem Road in Kenmore South with a lady of non-English- speaking background who had not realised there was a flood peak coming in the Brisbane River until there was three feet of water through her home in Kingfisher Place and she was evacuated by a local resident in a canoe. I particularly remember the area around Kangaroo Gully Road near Mount Crosby Road, which is some two kilometres from the Brisbane River. I called on a number of people in homes that had been flooded. I first called on one young family—the wife’s name was Emma—when they entered their destroyed home. They said, ‘We can’t live here anymore.’ I called on that family a couple of times. The next day they said to me, ‘We turned up this morning’—their home had been inundated to the roof—‘and there were 15 people we had never seen before standing at our front door waiting to help.’ I think Emma and her husband are very unlikely to leave the community of Anstead. They had been in that house for three weeks. They had moved there because their previous home had burnt down. They were a very impressive young couple. I certainly wish them well in rebuilding. The other stories from the flood revolve around the amazing response of people in our community as they came forward and could not do enough to help their fellow members of the community. It is something that I have to say I am very proud to have witnessed. As somebody who has done quite a few things in my life—I would not like to say I am cynical, but I am pretty realistic—it was very uplifting to see the spirit with which people gave everything they could to help other members of the community. It even softened an old person like me who has been around a while. When the community of Ipswich was inundated, they needed to relocate a number of nursing home patients from the suburb of Riverview. These were high-care patients such as patients with dementia. It was a very difficult task. There were about 150 of them, I think. The Salvation Army has a new facility at Chapel Hill which was not opened, which was not staffed and which was not stocked, but it willingly accepted the people who had to be evacuated from Riverview. With the aid of the Kenmore Rotary Club it provided volunteer staffing. With the assistance of Kenmore Village and Coles at Kenmore Village, we were able to source all of the things that are essential when caring for people with high-care needs, from milk and cereal to toilet paper and an array of other things. The facility had not yet been opened. I saw the amount of time and effort the Salvation Army and the Kenmore Rotary Club put in to caring for those people. It was moving indeed. When Moggill Road was cut on Tuesday at Brookfield, many, many people from Pullenvale, Bellbowrie and Karana Downs were stranded. They could not get home to their families. Dozens and dozens of cars accumulated near Rafting Ground Road where the police had closed the road. We needed somewhere to tell people to go where they would have a roof over their heads that night and where we would know we could seek assistance for them. The Kenmore Village Shopping Centre immediately offered to stay open. We contacted the manager of the brand-new Kenmore library, which is in that shopping centre. He not only came and opened that library, which had some facilities, but also stayed there the night to make sure everyone was all right. Out in Moggill we were, when the water inundated the area, cut off in many places. We had a series of communities—around 25,000 people—completely cut off from anywhere else. They are large communities. Pastor Costa Stathakis was walking along with his wife and realised that this community with probably 12,000 people was about to be cut off and large numbers of homes were about to be inundated, the shopping centre was about to be inundated and the only two medical centres were about to be inundated. He said to his wife and the elders of the Moggill Uniting Church, ‘I think we’d better open the church so people have somewhere to go.’ There are no designated evacuation centres in my electorate. We had three unofficial ones, of which this was one, and they did not really know what they let themselves in for, because volunteers came from everywhere, as did flood victims. They managed to borrow a generator from somebody who gave it up from their own home. They managed to set up computers which became a very vital link because they recorded people who were displaced by the flood and they also recorded the people who came forward to offer their homes. They set up with local police officers who were not necessarily working in that area but who lived in the area and were stranded and SES officers and firies, so we had a police command post. Dr Grant Elmer, who was in the area, set up a 24-hour medical centre, bearing in mind that all medical facilities in the area had been flooded, and turned the little cottage next to the tennis court into a minor ops room which shocked a few visiting people when they walked in and found somebody in the tennis cottage doing operations. They turned an area into a feeding area and an accommodation area where people could stay overnight. They provided a counselling room. The ladies from the CWA came in and helped to man it and, when food was available later on, they had a food distribution area and a 15 Feb 2011 Motion 57 clothing distribution area. All this from people who were just concerned about helping their neighbours. In fact, it is not a bad model for an evacuation centre from what I could see. Out at Mount Crosby and Karana Downs, a similar sized and equally cut off community, the Reverend Baker of the Uniting Church, with the aid of the Karana Downs Rotary Club—which I always say is one of the smallest Rotary clubs which has probably got one of the biggest hearts; I think it has around 12 members—set up an evacuation centre at the Mount Crosby State School. We did not need to house a lot of people in evacuation centres because, as quickly as people were displaced by the flood, other people came and took them into their homes and they became more of a clearing centre. Therefore, we never had large numbers of people housed in the evacuation centres. People have told me about the 1974 flood and I lived and worked as a doctor in Darwin three years after Cyclone Tracy, but I do not think I would have believed the outpouring of concern if I had not seen it for myself. There are many unsung heroes who deserve to be thanked. Most of them do not even want to be thanked, so you do not ask them before you thank them—you just do it—because they did things out of the kindness of their hearts. As another member said, many of them are young gen Y people who get a lot of bad press, and I do not think it was just because the power was off and their computers and the like were not working. They turned out because they cared about their community. There are a whole range of people who I do wish to mention and thank. With regard to the evacuation centre in Moggill, Graeme Barnard from the Kenmore-Moggill RSL, along with Andrew Solomon and Reverend Stathakis, set that evacuation centre up from scratch and it became a very effective ministry to the people stranded in that community and those who were flooded. David and Mary Kearney of the Karana Downs Rotary Club, together with the Reverend Dave Baker of the Karana Downs Uniting Church, managed the evacuation centre at Mount Crosby. Michael Fitzgerald and Kenmore Rotary assisted not only the nursing home evacuees from Riverview; I saw them everywhere I went. They fired up the barbecue. They got in and got their hands dirty. I know now what it means to be a service club. The Rotary Club of Kenmore, Brisbane West Daybreak and the local Lions clubs all pitched in. People like Mark Mitchell, the manager of Coles at Kenmore, could not do enough to assist and anything I asked they assisted us with. I thank Geraldine Slevin, who manages the shopping centre. It is a big thing for a manager to say, ‘We’re just going to leave our doors open all night and anyone can come into our shopping centre.’ When I asked her to provide a place I could send people, she did not hesitate. She not only did that; she went and emptied the store of management’s own things to provide things like toilet paper and so forth when they were needed. Leigh and Chris Warren and Sue Heath came forward because my electorate office was not operational due to the flood. Telstra kindly diverted my phones to a mobile and they manned those phones 24 hours a day, and we got calls 24 hours a day. The Moggill CWA ladies equally were everywhere—helping, supporting, cooking. I have a particular word of thanks, as many others here have done, to the local ABC, to Richard Fidler and to Anthony Frangi at 612 ABC. I can tell you that when you have 25,000 people cut off with no power information is as important as food. People were getting quite alarmed and we took many calls because they did not know what was happening. 612 ABC very kindly allowed regular updates that made a big difference in the life of these people. Alysia Bridger and James Deveraux from St Vincent de Paul set up a whole St Vincent de Paul at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic school to support people. I would especially mention Energex, which did everything that we could ask of it. There was one poor gentleman from the Department of Communities—I had better not name him here. He came into my office at one of the worst moments when the phone was ringing and everybody was panicking and said, ‘What can I do to help?’ I was probably a bit loud—I did see him a few times; I do not think he held it against me—when I said, ‘We need power!’ I think he was a bit taken aback. I saw him in many places around the electorate. The Leader of the Opposition, John-Paul Langbroek, came and extensively toured the electorate and was terrific with the people whom he dealt with. Mr Mark McArdle, the member for Caloundra, assisted us in sourcing some supplies and never hesitated when asked to help. A group of people came from the Muslim mosques on the Gold Coast, the Queensland Muslim Volunteers. They drove for two hours from the Gold Coast to bring supplies that they had heard on the radio were needed. Mr Peter Dowling, our shadow minister for flood reconstruction, came and spent a great deal of time with our community. If I could conclude by reciting a poem that one of my constituents wrote which I think sums up our thanks. It is written by Sally Johannsen and it is a beautiful poem called Our Mud Army— In answer to the Lord Mayor’s call They came from far and wide On buses, in cars and walking To push back the muddy tide. They came in to clean our suburbs With buckets, gloves and mop And went out somewhat blackened From their toes to their top. ‘Tell me where to start’ said some 58 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Who had never met ’til now ‘I’m here for whatever you need— Please just show me how.’ It was tradies, suits and teenagers Retirees and kids alike Brisbane’s proud mud army A true inspiring sight. And then the Aussie army came With trucks and diggers and men These boys have only just come back From the wilds of Afghanistan. But they weren’t the only ones The boys in blue came too As did the firies and the SES All heroes through and through. And when the sun set on Sunday night It was a sight to behold This proud mud army stood as one Around a beer with stories told. In true Queenslander spirit This city will rise again On the backs of our mud army We will remember them. Hon. NS ROBERTS (Nudgee—ALP) (Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services) (5.09 pm): I offer my sincere condolences to those who have lost family members, work colleagues and friends following the recent natural disasters that have inflicted so much pain on so many Queensland communities. Our hearts and our thoughts are with them. The sadness and grief of these terrible events have left a scar on our state and no words will ever compensate for the tragic loss of so many innocent people. Queenslanders have experienced and dealt with an unfolding series of natural disasters that are unprecedented in our modern history. But as individuals, as communities and as a state we have rallied to the call and responded with determination and a generosity of spirit that Australians are renowned for. These terrible events have taken the lives of 35 Queenslanders, with three people still missing—a terrible toll that reminds us of the power and destructive force of nature and the need to be eternally vigilant to its life-threatening potential. As well as grieving for those we have lost, we also praise those who risked their own lives to save others. In among the anguish and the pain are examples of unselfish bravery and commitment to duty. Two examples among many highlight the best of human endeavour: the actions of the Emergency Management Queensland helicopter rescue crews who lifted 43 people to safety off the roofs of homes in the Lockyer Valley and the young Toowoomba boy, Jordan Rice, who bravely said to his rescuers, ‘Take my brother first.’ To everyone involved in rescue operations, of whom many are also dealing with the grief and emotional trauma of their experiences, we say thank you and trust that the anguish they feel, along with the families of those we have lost, will ease with the passing of time. I do not profess to understand fully what it is like to lose a home, personal possessions and treasures or a loved one in the tragic circumstances we have experienced in Queensland. I live in a comfortable house in Brisbane unaffected by floodwaters, cyclonic winds or storm surges. But I have listened to the stories, I have watched the tears well in people’s eyes and I have seen the devastation inflicted on the landscape and the homes and businesses of thousands of Queenslanders. There is one thing cyclones and floods have in common: their capacity to destroy and devastate. The many communities I have visited since Christmas have highlighted the pain, the destruction and the inspiration that arises in times of great need. Those visits have also left indelible images and memories that will last a lifetime: the flattened crop lands and piles of vegetation debris, trees stripped of their bark and leaves; the terrifying power of the wall of water that inflicted death and destruction in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley; personal possessions, treasured memories, piled high like refuse tips on footpaths and roadways; houses demolished beyond repair; houses with roofs, gutters, walls and fittings stripped by wind or water; piles of cars, boats, children’s toys and building materials; the mud and filth left by stinking brown floodwaters; the silent tears of parents, partners and children, of homeowners, of police and emergency service workers and volunteers as they struggle to come to terms with the devastation in communities and in people’s lives; people in quiet reflection, sitting, watching and waiting, hoping that things will get better soon; volunteers pitching in to help, the mud army, the brooms, shovels and buckets, literally thousands of volunteers with their hearts on their sleeves helping those in need; police, firies, ambos, EMQ officers, SES and Rural Fire Service volunteers, Corrective Services and ADF personnel, council workers, electricity and communication workers, QBuild tradesmen and assistants, state and federal government departmental staff, the Red Cross, the Salvos, Lifeline, Save the Children, the Surf Life Saving Association, Volunteer Marine Rescue and Volunteer Coast Guard, 15 Feb 2011 Motion 59

New Zealanders, interstate workers and volunteers everywhere working for, caring and crying with those they are helping to rebuild their lives; the courage and stoical resolve of the helicopter crews who rescued 43 people from their rooftops in the Lockyer Valley; the courage and the bravery of police officers, Queensland Fire and Rescue teams, SES volunteers and so many bystanders who saw the urgent need to help a fellow citizen in distress and who took the decisive step to risk their own lives to save others; the focused determination of members of the State Disaster Management Group, local and district disaster management groups, all the wonderful people working out of EMQ’s State Disaster Coordination Centre and Queensland Fire and Rescue Services’s State Operations Coordination Centre at Kedron, the dedicated team of forecasters and hydrologists at the Bureau of Meteorology, all with a focused determination to protect communities and save lives; the professionalism, dedication and leadership roles undertaken by police officers, ambos, firies and EMQ personnel within their local communities; the enduring sights and examples of mate helping mate, neighbour helping neighbour and stranger helping stranger, an exemplar of the Aussie spirit that will shine brightly for another generation and beyond; the common refrain, ‘I’m OK; there are people far worse off than me,’ spoken by people who have lost homes, businesses, personal possessions or family members and, in among it all, an optimism for the future, a determination to rebuild and start again; a pride in being Australian, a Queenslander with hope for the future. I thank everyone who has played their part in the herculean effort to respond to and recover from these terrible disasters that have inflicted so much pain on the people of our state. Their professionalism, dedication and generous spirit has saved lives and protected communities from harm. No, I do not know what it is like to lose a wife, a mother, a child, a grandparent, or a home or a business to the ravages of Mother Nature. But like many Queenslanders and Australians, I too have shed a silent tear for those who have and from the privileged position I hold, I will do my best to help them recover, rebuild and get on with their lives. Ms GRACE (Brisbane Central—ALP) (5.16 pm): I remember the 1974 floods. In fact, it was the same area that I live in now that, as a teenager, the floods hit back in 1974. At that time I was a young teenager. My parents lived in Merthyr Road in New Farm. Unfortunately, the same areas that were hit then were hit again. We were lucky then, thank goodness, and we were lucky again. However, I remember as a teenager the amount of rain that fell before the 1974 floods. To be honest with you, it was not until the many days before the flood hit most of Queensland and then Brisbane that I remembered that rain again. It was torrential, unrelenting, and it was amazing the amount of water that fell from the sky, particularly during that weekend before Brisbane and the greater south-east area was hit with the devastating floods. I remember the Tuesday, I think it was, when the advice was coming from the government that the waters were going to come. It was chaos in the Brisbane CBD on the morning of Tuesday, 11 January, and then by the afternoon there was an uncanny, eerie feeling. The city was almost like a ghost town as people evacuated the city and headed home and went to loved ones. Thirty-seven years later, here we were again bracing for a flood similar to what we had back in 1974. I commence by sending my sympathy and condolences to all of those who lost loved ones, particularly in the Lockyer and Toowoomba areas. One cannot imagine what it would be like to lose not only your goods, your house and your chattels but also your family, friends and loved ones. The images that flashed across our TV screens were horrifying and quite unbelievable. In particular, I want to acknowledge the member for Lockyer and the member for Hinchinbrook, whose electorates, I think, bore the worst of the disaster crises that Queensland found itself in with floods and cyclones. Mother Nature truly unleashed her fury and we saw the worst of natural disasters in floods and Cyclone Yasi. We witnessed the worst in Mother Nature, but isn’t it great that at the same time we also witnessed the best in human nature. As I said, by Tuesday afternoon the RNA evacuation centre was opening. Many community organisations were there setting up the centre to prepare for those in need. I arrived Tuesday afternoon after liaising with Assistant Commissioner Peter Martin. My husband, Michael, and I decided that the assistance was needed in that area and we set about doing all we could to get the area ready. Soon families and people were arriving from around my electorate and the wider Brisbane area, as were families and people who were stranded from Gladstone, Cairns, the Sunshine Coast and many Brisbane suburbs they had evacuated from, such as West End and Graceville—the list is too long to mention each one—where homes had been inundated or residents were expecting floodwaters in their homes. You could plainly see the worry, pain and grief that they were going through. As we were busy trying to make life as comfortable as possible for them, from the looks on their faces it was clear that they were concerned. We went about trying to feed those in need. In no time at all donations started to arrive at the RNA evacuation centre. Essentials like bread, milk, canned food, water and other essentials such as toiletries, linen and bedding all started to arrive. It was really quite amazing. We had to set it all up. We had to make sure that we had areas where people could sleep, areas where people could eat and areas where people could rest. It was a mammoth job to try to get it up and running as soon as possible. That evening we did not have a lot of food and we went about making sandwiches. I think many may have 60 Motion 15 Feb 2011 seen me making ham sandwiches. For those who were a bit worried, can I say that my hands were definitely clean and sanitised. I went about making sandwiches to feed people as best we could. The next morning we were short of sliced bread. We did not have anything for breakfast. My good staff member Don Secomb went out and bought 10 loaves of bread which got us underway for breakfast. We started to make toast and then cereal and milk arrived, and we started to feed those who had spent a pretty restless night at the evacuation centre. From then on it was amazing. Within 24 hours—from when we had nothing and we had to go out and buy sliced bread—that centre resembled a large supermarket warehouse. The donations that were pouring through the door were—there is only one way to describe it—almost overwhelming. We could not keep up with the amount of businesses and people walking through the door donating everything from paper plates to food, seafood, biscuits and an unbelievable amount of bread and cereals. Honestly, restaurants emptied their fridges and brought over the contents. Supermarkets provided goods and meat. So many things were coming through the door that the team working in the receiving area was almost overwhelmed. Can I assure members that no-one was left hungry and without the essentials of toiletries, linen, bedding, clothes and shoes. Assistance with grant funds was available from the soon- established recovery centre, also at the RNA. No sooner had we served lunch than 120 pizzas would arrive. No sooner had we served afternoon tea than a whole shipload of ice-creams would arrive and we would be handing ice-creams out to everyone. Mr Moorhead: Shiploads? Ms GRACE: Truckloads, should I say, of ice-creams arrived and we were handing out ice-creams to everyone. Luckily I was on a diet at the time, because I reckon that if I had let myself go I would have gained quite a lot more weight. That is something that everybody here knows I can clearly do without. There was also halal food arriving for the Middle Eastern people and the Muslim community. Cathy DiBella from the Coeliac Society provided much needed gluten-free food that was much appreciated by many at the centre, particularly those who were coeliacs. Being Italian, I guess I do not know what it is, but I took much pleasure in being able to feed the people and make sure they were as comfortable as possible. I want to take this opportunity to thank all those representatives from organisations who did a magnificent job at the centre: Brendan Christou, the chief operating officer and his team from the RNA— nothing was too hard and they managed to turn the RNA into an ideal evacuation centre; Greg Goebel and his team from Red Cross; Save the Children, who turned part of the centre into a wonderful space that any child would love to play in; Karen Walsh and her team from Micah who helped the homeless; and St John Ambulance looking after those needing paramedical assistance. I pay tribute to Major Earle Ivers from the Salvation Army, his wife, Christine, his family and his team who did a wonderful job; the chefs, volunteers and Salvo’s staff who worked tirelessly in ensuring that all were fed and watered. At a peak I think we provided dinner for well over 1,500 people. I got accustomed to my orange apron, and it was an honour to wear it and be embraced as part of the Salvo team. I openly welcomed their friendship that was given during this difficult time. There were security staff and police who made all feel safe and secure. Their efforts, as I said, were outstanding. I thank all the volunteers, so numerous I could not possibly list them all. There were even hairdressers and people doing massages for those in need. It was incredible. We had many visitors to the centre: Governor Penelope Wensley; ministers Lucas, Struthers and Roberts; Prime Minister Julia Gillard; federal opposition leader Tony Abbott; leader of the state opposition John-Paul Langbroek; and many members. In particular I thank the member for Capalaba, who came and assisted me on many occasions and worked side by side with me. We enjoyed our time and his help was gratefully accepted. I also pay tribute to Campbell Newman—he made regular visits— Councillor David Hinchliffe and Senator Claire Moore. We worked together quite solidly. I will refer further to that and what we did in the local community. We had sporting identities, radio stations and media outlets who continually told the stories of hardship and loss. Many parts of Brisbane Central were flooded, as were areas of the CBD: New Farm around Welsby, Sydney, Lower Bowen and Moray streets; Windsor around Northey, Cullen, Victoria, Somerset, Bowen, Grafton and Blackmore streets; and areas around Newstead, particularly in basement areas and at many businesses around Breakfast Creek. I remember visiting the Danish Club in Austin Street. I saw Soren Hoimark, the president, who, together with his wife and other members of the club, was already rebuilding the club. It was very sad to walk in and see the devastation. We visited all the areas and provided information and assistance where required. It was good to see the good humour in particular of the residents around Cullen Street who said that they were the best prepared local street because they had experienced a flood a little over 12 months ago. The local generosity was again overwhelming. Cakes, sandwiches and barbecues were all over the place and people were coming up with baskets of food, offering it to you every five minutes. It was enjoyable to see all the people around the neighbourhood watching the river torrent flowing past and the comments being made about the debris of pontoons, boats, trees et cetera that we saw floating past. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 61

However, it soon became apparent that we needed to match assistance with those in need. Together with my colleagues Councillor Hinchliffe and Senator Moore, we established a locally based disaster coordination group. I want to personally thank the New Farm Neighbourhood Centre, who took a lead in this, in particular director Fiona Hunt, Colin Collins, Ross and Desley Garnett, local school principals Virginia O’Neill and Nick Gallen, the Mok family, Debra Fallon and family, Jennifer Lockley, Tina Quintner, Denise Buckby, Cath Nicholson, the Sorbello family, Susan White, Paul Crowther, Matt Collins, Lois Kennedy, Haesley Cush, Glenn Gracie, Michael Hawke and others who came together to doorknock and survey the electorate to ensure that help was getting to where it was needed. Thanks also to Warren and his staff at Coles in New Farm who generously donated many goods and held a community barbecue feeding the masses that raised thousands of dollars. It was these efforts that ensured affected locals received food vouchers, food such as bread, milk and cereal, cleaning products and money. And in one case I even made sure that I got a new bed for one resident who lost his bed in the floods. Thanks also to Stephen Morfea from Westpac who fed locals and set up at the RNA to ensure flood victims had access to cash. Recently one volunteer, Craig Michaels, requested the use of a warehouse so that donations can continue to be collected, sorted and distributed to those in need. It was great to be able to work once again with the RNA and obtain the agricultural pavilion for this purpose. Donations are still arriving and much needed goods such as food, clothing, furniture and even pet food have been distributed to those who lost much. I understand that even victims of Cyclone Yasi are being assisted through this donation collection centre. The clean-up was unbelievable. The mud army arrived in force with buckets, brooms and mops. At one stage my husband, Michael, said that on the streets the volunteers were almost like seagulls fighting over a chip. In no time at all, the only way that you could tell that there had been a flood was by the sandbags left behind or the sand that had been emptied around the grass and trees on the footpaths. In my electorate we lost a lot of infrastructure such as the RiverWalk and, of course, ferry terminals. Every time I drive or walk past their loss it is a stark reminder of the devastation that took place. I look forward to their restoration. I also look forward to ensuring that we get back to normal as soon as possible. I pay tribute to the work of Energex. Mike Swanston, CEO Terry Effeney, Ron Watson and their team of workers did a fantastic job in restoring power, as well as providing explanations and direct assistance despite the enormity of the job. I also thank local electrician Adriano Toso, whom I saw many times in many homes helping restore power to those people needing his assistance. On Sunday, 27 February we will hold a New Farm Recovers event, the purpose of which is to tell our stories, share images, support victims and build on the wonderful community spirit that was so evident throughout this flood crisis. Some businesses are still not open and others have not fully recovered. They need all the support that we as a community can muster. The recovery will take time. Unfortunately, while devastation can be put upon us overnight, sometimes it takes years to repair. We should not let our efforts fade away until the job is done. I urge insurance companies to do the right thing. I urge them not to use the get-out clause, but to compensate those who thought they were covered. I pay tribute to all the Public Service workers, who were outstanding, including the police, SES workers, ambulance officers, firies and departmental workers at a state, federal and local level who staffed the recovery centres around Queensland. As a member of parliament I can honestly say that I was proud to be part of a government whose staff’s professionalism, hard work and compassion are second to none. I give many thanks to the union movement that also came out in force to help its members by directly raising funds and assisting with the clean-up and the back-to-school project. They did a great job. I pay tribute to and acknowledge the outstanding role of and job undertaken by Premier Anna Bligh. She demonstrated strong and compassionate leadership, and she delivered all communication in a balanced, informative and direct manner. They do breed us tough north of the border, and when the going gets tough the tough get going. I fully support the work of the commission of inquiry. Following the aftermath of these disasters we owe it to those who lost their lives and those who lost loved ones to address any areas that can be improved upon. I look forward to being part of a government and a parliament that can work towards making sure that if we can make things better we will. Finally, I pay tribute to my husband, Michael, and my staff, Stella Donatini and Don Secombe. Without their assistance I would not have been able to carry out the work that was required during the floods and after the water had receded. We worked together tirelessly. Stella worked at the evacuation centre. I do not know how he did it, but on Wednesday morning, from somewhere around Brisbane, Don found 10 loaves of bread and brought them up to the centre so that we could make toast to feed people. Their efforts were very welcomed and I thank them sincerely. It is also good to see evidence of life going on. I take this opportunity to congratulate the member for Beaudesert, Aidan McLindon, and his wife on the arrival of their adopted daughter, Grace. It is a great name. From one adoptive parent to another, I wish them all the very best. It is great news. I know exactly the joy and the emotions that you and your family are experiencing. 62 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Thank you to all the volunteers, to the mud army and to all members of parliament, from both sides of the House, who offered their assistance and their sincere condolences. I received many phone calls asking how I was and hoping that everything was fine. Those good wishes and messages were very well received and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Mrs PRATT (Nanango—Ind) (5.34 pm): I rise to endorse the condolence motion put forward by the Premier. I offer the condolences of the Nanango electorate, my family and myself to all those who have lost family members, friends and neighbours and those who have suffered so severely at this time. Like everybody else, I saw the footage on TV. I do not know if anyone else can remember how they felt on September 11, but that is exactly how I felt when I saw communities that I was so familiar with undergoing such carnage at the hands of Mother Nature. I feared for my own son, my ex-husband and his new wife who live in Placid Hills, near the Grantham township. I had trouble contacting them. They travel that area quite a lot and have friends in the Grantham valley. I spent a few anxious days trying to get hold of them. When I did speak to my son Anthony, he told me how he had stood on his back landing and watched the floodwaters come. He thought, ‘The old man should know about this.’ He called him on the phone and said, ‘Where are you?’ His father said, ‘We’re down on the bridge watching the water rise.’ Anthony said, ‘I think you should’— and he used an expletive that I will not use here—‘get out of there and get out of there straightaway.’ He did that and he conveyed the message to other people watching the floodwaters rise. Anthony is a big, strapping man of six feet four, but I could hear the quiver in his voice when he told of all the things that he had seen. He described the debris that landed in his back paddock. He said there were fridges, washing machines, cupboards, photo albums, guitars; there were enough things to furnish probably 15 or 20 households. He said, ‘We tried to save photos, we tried to save lots of things and we have returned quite a few.’ He and his dad are still trying to recover things. Only a couple of days ago he rang me and said, ‘Mum, it is very eerie still. Every time there is a thunderstorm, we all really take a lot of notice whereas we never did before.’ I remember that just before Christmas people were still praying for rain. We had not had enough and we welcomed it when it came. We welcomed the replenishing of the watertable. We even enjoyed seeing the water storages and Wivenhoe being filled. It was an awesome sight. However, we could never have envisaged the awesome power that would be unleashed by such widespread deluges. Certainly, we did not welcome the destruction that followed. Members of this House who have spoken so far have recounted what happened in their electorates and no doubt others still to speak will do the same, and I will be no different. I doubt anyone will have heard much of Kingaroy, Nanango, Linville or a number of other towns in my electorate. I do not know if anyone heard much about Cherbourg, Wondai or Murgon and the floods that hit there. I sympathise with the member for Callide for being unable to be around when those events occurred. I know it is hard to believe because Kingaroy and the South Burnett are on top of a range, but knowing what happened to Toowoomba it is not hard to believe that Kingaroy was isolated from Nanango, and Nanango was isolated from Yarraman which was isolated from Blackbutt and Benarkin. Kingaroy was isolated from Wondai, which was isolated from Murgon and so on and so on. Every town was isolated from its neighbour. I do not know about many members but I have lived through many floods. If a town around you gets inundated, you go and help them. If you get inundated, the town next to you comes and helps you. Community helps community. But in this particular instance in the South Burnett—and I will move on to the Brisbane Valley in a minute because that is a whole different scenario even though it faced the same disaster—each town could not go and help the other town because they were cut off. They were cut off, firstly, by the floods and, secondly, when the floods receded they were cut off because all the roads were so badly damaged. It was a unique situation. It was almost a freakish concurrence of rain events that wrought such a disaster on such a wide expanse of Queensland, and it was often stated that roughly 75 per cent of Queensland had been affected. Once the local roads were opened over the next few days, Kingaroy and also the South Burnett were still isolated from any means of obtaining supplies. No supplies could come from Brisbane or anywhere else via the Gympie road, which is a major access for us. It could not come via the Blackbutt Range or D’Aguilar Highway, which is my main thoroughfare and the quickest route to Brisbane for the majority of people. That was cut as the range had experienced lots of slips. They could not come through Toowoomba because of the damage to bridges and roads. Access to Brisbane was also cut that way. There were so many bridges and roads cut that we had our own disaster as well. Like many other places that were inundated, we also suffered shortages of bread, milk, flour, powdered milk and fuel. Restrictions had to be put in place. The shelves in the supermarkets became bare pretty quickly. When it reached the point at which the police were seeking to limit the purchase of any goods, Aldi opened its doors and said, ‘Take every bit of food stock we have. It’s all yours. You’re welcome to it.’ That was announced at the disaster management meeting. I want to commend Aldi for that. Many of the shops offered what foods they had. As a community we came together. I know most people feel that their communities are losing that community spirit, but in times of hardship it comes to the fore. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 63

I dare say that the member for Callide will outline a little bit of what he knows about the Cherbourg community. They were severely hit. They had lots of flooding and evacuations were undertaken. People were plucked from roofs there as well. When it comes to lives, I have to say that, all in all, the entire electorate fared pretty well. We only lost one life and that was a young woman who jumped off a bridge into the floodwater deliberately, which was extremely sad, especially when the situation was so distressing for other people who had lost loved ones by a fluke of nature so to speak. I have to commend the services around our community: the SES and everybody else. When there was a need for insulin, medical supplies, any sort of medication for the elderly or food it was flown in and dropped where it was needed. I have to commend the police for the coordination that they undertook. Every community that was cut off was almost reliant on the CWA and Red Cross members et cetera to run the evacuation centres or the places where people were housed because they could not go forward or back. It was quite amazing to see how they came together. Again I will repeat what everyone else has said so far: all generations stepped forward to pick up the load; all generations offered their services. I note no-one has actually mentioned it yet—and I hope members find this in their electorate; we found it in ours—but the number of young people who are volunteering and who are signing up to be service organisation members has grown quite considerably in our area and I hope that growth will continue. I would like to now move down to the part of the Brisbane Valley that is included in the Nanango electorate. It includes Moore, Linville, Harlin, Toogoolawah, Esk and goes on to Coominya and down almost to Fernvale. I can sympathise with anyone who cannot contact people. I could not contact people in that part of my electorate by any means for almost three days. The phones were all down and a lot of people did not have mobile phones with them. I did a random ring-around to people whom I personally know in each community to ask, ‘How are you coping? What is the extent of the damage? What do you need?’ Over those first few days I was quite stressed. I can understand how anyone who does not have any information coming readily to them can feel totally useless and can carry a lot of guilt because you cannot be with the people you feel you should be with. It really is emotionally unsettling to be put in that kind of position. I could not travel to that community and I could not even ask my husband to try to fly me down there—that was my only real way out—because he was actually helping out, ferrying other people and bits of pieces here, there and everywhere. I felt it was not my place to stop him doing even one trip, let alone anything else, because what he was doing was more important. It did not ease my stress when I felt that he was, in fact, contributing more to improving people’s situations than I seemed to be doing. I know how hard it can be. The only way I could get down to the Brisbane Valley—and I do know every possible route to get down there; there are several, but they were all cut off—was via the Toowoomba range when it reopened. As soon as it was open I took that first opportunity to do so. It took me 9½ hours driving to get there and back. I cannot tell you the relief I felt to actually talk to people in the community and to see that they were all right, that everything was in place and that they were handling everything okay. It felt really good. What struck me was the size of the trees that were ripped out of the ground, the enormous gouging of the river banks et cetera. In areas up in the Linville valley, for instance, there was a little causeway of maybe 10 feet. It is now 20 or 30 metres wide and people have been cut off; they cannot drive across what was once a little causeway. When you stand on a causeway and you see debris and rubbish 20 to 25 feet high up in a tree it really is awe-inspiring to think what Mother Nature can do. I have travelled around with cleaning products and you name it in my boot for such a long time now and have been restocking it every chance I possibly get. It almost makes you cry when someone says thank you for a bucket or thank you for some cloths or whatever. I was really disappointed to find at one stage when I was buying extra buckets and things that while I used to pay 99c for a plastic bucket the cost was now up around $7.99. I find that really disgusting. It was cheaper for me to buy a metal bucket than it was to buy a plastic bucket. I find that absolutely atrocious. However, those instances are very rare. You do get—can I say ‘mongrels’, Mr Deputy Speaker? Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hoolihan): Order! I think it is slightly unparliamentary. Mrs PRATT: It probably is, but it is the only word I can think of that is appropriate to some people. Therefore, I am sure parliament will forgive me for having said that particular word. Mr Schwarten: Hear, hear! I’m on your side. Mrs PRATT: Thank you. But I must put it on record that the generosity of the majority far outweighs the selfishness of the minority, and I am glad to say that. One thing that was interesting to find out is how quickly people got into appeal mode. I do not think I went into a shop or anywhere without someone having a bucket held out for the flood appeal. I would like to acknowledge every group in my communities who have put their hand up to have fundraisers. They have been doing them since the appeal began. They have been doing them all this week and will continue to do them into the future. They raise small amounts. It might be only $20 from 64 Motion 15 Feb 2011 one class at school. In another case the Kingaroy Lions Club very quickly organised a gala ball. Businesses donated kitchens and double beds for the auction to raise money. Almost everything was donated. At the end of the day, they raised over $60,000. That will be passed on to Lions clubs in areas that have been affected, particularly the Lockyer Valley, I believe. There are places like Camp Duckadang, which is in the Linville valley and is one of their few resources. It is a great little place. People may or may not have visited there, stayed there or camped there. It is now suffering financial hardship because nobody can get there, because the little creek they used to cross is now, as I said, 20 metres wide. But they are not able to get any assistance. There are a lot of places like that that will get no assistance whatsoever. That is another thing that the new disaster group might be able to look at. Rightfully so, the councils were prioritising roads and bridges to be fixed. We still have a lot of areas that have very thin, narrow bitumen, if any at all, or a one-lane bridge that people are traversing. There were several instances where people took it upon themselves to fill potholes or build a road with their tractor blades so that people could get to town to try to help themselves. There was a lot of that, and I hope there will be no repercussions for them, because there are times like this when it cannot just be left to the authorities to rebuild everything. People have to rely on their own ingenuity, and that is what they are trying to do. I can only thank everybody—the CWA, the Red Cross, the SES workers, the council workers who manned the roads et cetera. I do not think there is a single person in my community who I do not take my hat off to. They did everything they possibly could. It does not matter if it was only giving 20c or $5 or buttering sandwiches or whatever: they were just brilliant. I found it interesting when it was stated earlier that a reporter suggested people should not rebuild in areas where Cyclone Larry had caused a lot of damage five years ago. I do not think there would be much land in the state of Queensland or in the whole of Australia that has not been impacted in some way by some disaster, whether it be floods or drought, fires or tidal surges or cyclones. Whatever it might be, there would not be much of Australia left inhabited if we followed that sort of thinking. The reason we live where we live is that it is our home. It is in our soul. We are part of that land. The Aboriginal people know what it is like to feel like you belong to the land. So we live where we live. I believe we, as people, think that we make a dramatic impact on our planet, and I guess we do. But every now and again nature rears up and basically says to us all, ‘Get back in your box. I’m the boss.’ I would also like to say that I do not know if there was a better person to lead Queensland through this than the Premier. The Premier showed extreme strength and endurance and had to be admired. I would like to put on record that I admired her and what she said to buoy the spirits of Queenslanders. We are Queenslanders. We are tough. But sometimes we need to be reminded of it, and she did this at a time when it was necessary. To all those who now have the challenging time ahead of rebuilding this state and the communities’ infrastructure: I wish you all the strength and all the endurance that we have been shown by the people that we lead. Mr HOPPER (Condamine—LNP) (5.54 pm): The floods in Queensland and then Cyclone Yasi— these extreme weather events—have taken their toll in so many different ways. The total losses will probably never be calculated and some losses can never be quantified. The past three months have been extremely difficult for many communities in Queensland. The devastation is unfathomable. The loss of life has been absolutely shattering. The losses to industry and individuals are immeasurable. The clean-up continues and many will face a grim future until normality can be restored. For some, life will never be the same. The losses to primary production, the fishing and aquaculture industries, the charter boat industry, horticulture and those businesses that rely upon these industries are simply massive. Both winter and summer crops have been lost in many areas, with many growers having no income for a further 15 to 18 months. A huge volume of valuable topsoil has been lost. This will take years to recover and will involve a considerable amount of funds to bring the soil quality back to anywhere near its previous condition. Damages to fences, roads, supply channels, head ditches, ring tanks, plantations and fields will be time- consuming to repair and very, very expensive. The banana industry lost $400 million; the cane industry, $500 million; the cotton industry, $250 million; horticulture in North Queensland, $100 million. There is over $1 billion lost to primary industries in such a short time. I recently visited a grain and cotton farmer on the Darling Downs who has lost all his winter crop and summer crops. Looking out at what remained of his cotton field was overwhelming. The farm infrastructure was unrecognisable: fences were covered in unharvested winter crop and the erosion was phenomenal. All around me I could see the pain they were experiencing. Farmers put their heart and soul into everything they do. They are proud custodians of the land, and this pride shows through in all they do. I was struck by a comment that his wife made. She said, ‘The only saving grace was that our house had not been inundated with water. It came well into the yard, but our home was safe. At night our family were able to close the door on the destruction outside and sleep in our beds, eat off our own plates and for a short time restore some degree of normality to our otherwise distressing situation.’ 15 Feb 2011 Motion 65

These farmers, like many others, have lost so much. Some will not make it through. The previous years of drought and low commodity prices and increases in fees and charges will make it almost impossible for some to recover. These primary producers are viable, sustainable, generational farmers—good farmers—and even some of those will not survive. The electorate of Condamine suffered several flooding events. Dalby township had major inundation on two occasions. Oakey had flooding in streets where they have never seen water damage before. Clifton went unmentioned, as the member for Toowoomba South mentioned earlier. It experienced flooding as well. Jondaryan went under. It was cut off for ages. It was with great pride that I saw the Dalby and Oakey communities rally around those who suffered losses, and the recovery is progressing in earnest. Much of the flood plain experienced flooding, and those closest to the river were worst affected. It will take some time for the recovery to occur, but the resilience of rural communities is already shining through. I take this opportunity to recognise and thank Councillor Ray Brown, the mayor of the Western Downs Regional Council, for his outstanding organisation and planning during this disaster. Ray mobilised all available people and equipment, and local government staff manned communication facilities 24 hours a day. They slept in swags beside computers and gave of their time to monitor river heights, to inform the community, to update road conditions and to notify people where assistance could be found. Ray, you are an inspiration to us all. Evacuation centres were set up to offer a safe and secure place for families to stay while waiting for the floodwaters to recede. Local volunteer organisations, the emergency services, the police department, the SES, the Department of Communities, Centrelink, local government and many others too numerous to name should be congratulated on a wonderful performance in extenuating circumstances. I would like to thank the Gold Coast City Council and my colleagues Dr Alex Douglas and Peter Dowling for distributing practical baskets of goods. It did not seem much at the time, but everything in those baskets was brand-new. They were such that it was simple for mothers to come and grab one and put it in the car when they were picking up their kids. Those members travelled right through the west distributing these baskets. It was a nice little thing. These baskets were appreciated by all who received them. I would like to acknowledge the devastation that occurred in the areas to the east of my electorate. We all heard the summary given by the member for Lockyer and the member for Toowoomba South this morning of exactly what happened in Toowoomba. I was also in Toowoomba that afternoon. I was shocked by what Mother Nature could conjure up in such a short space of time. Like many others, I watched in total disbelief and horror as the CBD of Toowoomba and much of the Lockyer Valley were literally torn apart. It seemed surreal—like a news clip from Pakistan or Sri Lanka, not from our own country or our own state. We watched the news that night on WIN TV. The news was interrupted with the announcement that a seven-metre wall of water was travelling down Lockyer Creek. I could not believe what I was hearing. We all knew the impact a seven-metre wall of water could have. I do not think anyone would have been able to watch the horror portrayed on the television news that fateful Monday afternoon without shedding a tear or two and remembering how precious life truly is. To all those families who have lost life, as the member for Lockyer said this morning, all of us in this chamber share your pain. It is going to take a long, long time for the electorate of Condamine to totally rebuild. We have roads where the bitumen has been literally picked up and placed two chain away from where the road once was. I visited a cotton farm where there was a paddock of corn as well. As the flood came across it picked up the sorghum stubble and formed a wall against the corn and it doubled in size. The corn a little bit further in was hardly touched. It was an amazing event. We certainly do not want to see something like that again. Hon. KL STRUTHERS (Algester—ALP) (Minister for Community Services and Housing and Minister for Women) (6.03 pm): Like all members in this House, I, too, pay tribute to those who have so tragically lost their lives during these natural disasters. I express my condolences to the families, friends, communities and my colleagues in this House who are grieving the loss of people in their local areas. There has been unprecedented devastation and unprecedented loss of life, loss of homes, loss of businesses, loss of crops and loss of communities but not loss of faith. Thousands of Queenslanders have lived through the slow, creeping terror of rising floodwaters and the terror of the roaring, destructive winds of Cyclone Yasi. What I have been feeling is that too many children have heard and seen such terrifying things. It was heartening for me to be in Grantham in the Lockyer Valley last week and to see that the kids at the school were out in the playground laughing, pushing, cajoling and playing with each other. I know from the member for Lockyer that that school is back in business and has one extra child this year compared to last year. We are trying to normalise that community. Community members, the member for Lockyer and his wife, community leaders, Mayor Steve Jones and others are doing a great job to get that community back to normal. 66 Motion 15 Feb 2011

It was certainly epitomised in the behaviour and faces of those kids that resilience is a powerful thing and that life does get back to normal. These kids can only be resilient when they have support and security around them. I think every Australian, every person in Queensland and everyone around the world who had seen images of the Lockyer Valley devastation on their computers or TVs would have wanted to wrap their arms around those kids. It is good to see that they are happy and they are playing. They certainly witnessed and suffered through some terrifying experiences. All of this will take a long time to heal. I will give you an idea of the scale of devastation of both Cyclone Yasi and the floods in terms of housing. From the floods alone, around 27,000 houses were affected in some way. Some 7,000 houses were inundated to their living areas and 4½ thousand homes were assessed as inundated above the floorboards. The early reports from my department in terms of housing damage from Cyclone Yasi are that 147 properties have been destroyed, 353 have severe damage, 347 have medium damage and 1,600 have minor damage. Housing recovery is going to be a big part of this recovery effort. As we know, many people have lost not only their homes but also a lot of their personal possessions. I met an old fellow at the recovery centre in Yeronga. Someone was chasing behind him saying, ‘We have finally found your medals.’ He chuckled and said, ‘Mate, I don’t really care just now.’ The member for Yeerongpilly would know this man. He has been helping throughout his community during this period. Neville was his name. At that point he was not so much interested in those medals. I am sure that they have been a big part of his life for many decades. Our housing assistance effort has been a major part of the focus of my work as I have been travelling around the state. I have seen amazing efforts from a range of people. Emergency services workers, the police, QBuild workers and the Army have been clearing communities and clearing houses and making them safe. Over 3,000 of my Department of Communities staff have been deployed in efforts across the state, in evacuation centres and recovery centres. We have provided more than 46,000 emergency assistance grants and other forms of assistance, including bond loans and rental grants. We have been doing whatever it takes to get a secure roof over people’s heads. I pay tribute to their efforts. Many of you have seen them and many of you have commented in this House on the efforts of the staff of the Department of Communities. They have been the red-shirt brigade around the place. The blue-shirt brigade are the community recovery staff. They have been very prominent in communities. They have been going door to door in community after community seeing that people are all right and checking on their needs. We have certainly made a big effort there. The member for Brisbane Central was an active participant at the evacuation centre at the RNA. I thought as I looked around the couple of pavilions that were occupied, ‘How are we ever going to house these people? How are we ever going to clear these pavilions and get these people back to a normal routine and back to somewhere safe?’ What a mighty effort that has been. The Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Save the Children Fund, Lifeline and a whole range of service providers have been providing support to people who have suffered such extreme loss and grief. What a great job Micah Projects has done in brokering housing support services and getting people into motel and temporary accommodation. It has been a great effort. Project Exit is one of the names this project has had. Many householders and many families were assisted. About 60 international students also needed support. I met four young Chinese women at the evacuation centre early on and they were about to head home. They had finished their couple of semesters of study. They could not believe what had happened. They could not believe they were rushed out of an inner-city hotel to an evacuation centre, and they were desperate to get information and get support. The great thing about the way the evacuation centre was working was that people were getting that support—very practical assistance as well as much needed emotional support. It has been a really big effort right across the state and all of us have commented on the resilience, the humanity, the compassion, the way in which people have all pitched in. I have seen it across a range of communities. I also want to commend the thousands and thousands of volunteers. In fact Volunteering Queensland formally registered about 80,000 volunteers, but many more were part of what we have come to know affectionately as the mud army. Many more were just in there doing it. My own local community was not affected by the floods in any serious way, but many of our local people were helping others, such as Mary Quaile baking the biggest anzac biscuits in the world to give to the volunteers, Joan and Keith Rae and others collecting donations and many people in my community, including service clubs, rallying to raise money. The other people that I think deserve a lot of commendation are the local mayors and local government councillors. They have worked tirelessly. It is a big responsibility being the chair of a local disaster management group and managing your community, supporting your community, keeping your community safe and getting your community back on track. Mayors and councillors like Joy Jensen—I visited Gayndah and Mundubbera with the member for Callide and others—are doing a great job up there. These are little council areas with little budgets in difficult circumstances just getting on with the job and doing so well with such a professional effort. Ray Brown, the mayor of Western Downs, has 15 Feb 2011 Motion 67 been mentioned on a couple of occasions here. I rang Ray at one point and said that I would be keen to get out there in the next couple of days. Ray said, ‘You won’t be coming out. The floodwaters are rising again. You’d better look up the RACQ website to check the roads because we’re in trouble again. You’re welcome any time, but now might not be a good time.’ Ray in a cheery way was giving us good guidance and support while needing a hell of a lot of support himself. He did a great job out there with his team in his local communities right across the Western Downs area. Steve Jones in the Lockyer has had enormous responsibility. All eyes were on the Lockyer for all the wrong reasons. As we have heard on many occasions today, a devastating series of events led to such tragic loss of life in that area. Again, there was great courage and great determination by people to keep people safe, get them to a place of safety and then help them in the recovery effort. I visited a number of communities and members like the member for Mount Ommaney, who was out and about helping people as much as she possibly could. Jamboree Heights State School opened its hall for a community recovery centre. With regard to the good old P&C at Yeronga State School, what a great mob it was! It opened up the school before it was officially meant to be opened. It took it upon itself to help out, and before we knew it we had a recovery centre happening at the Yeronga State School and it kept it moving. There was a whole array of support—from food to personal items such as toothpaste and toothbrushes. Anything you needed, it was trying to make sure it was there for people. The kids play area was set up really well to help people. It was great to meet with a lot of members around the state who were just getting on with the job and helping their local communities. I pay tribute to members on the other side of the House as well. The member for Hinchinbrook and others are personally devastated to see their own communities suffering so much. I have had some conversations with the member for Hinchinbrook and I heard his powerful and heartfelt presentation this morning, and I want to assure him and his communities that we are on the case. We are assessing the housing need. We are rolling out housing. We are sourcing prefabricated and factory-built housing. We are looking at whatever we can put into the caravan parks in Cardwell and Tully and other land that is available. I have a great team of staff on a housing recovery task force. Just last week I was able to hand over keys for three demountable houses in the Lockyer Valley in Grantham and we have also bought some land there to move in a three-bedroom Glendale home in the next month or so. We are on the job, and I want to assure my colleagues and the local councillors and community members that housing is such a priority for these communities. We want people to stay in these communities as much as we possibly can. People want to be in their own communities as soon as they possibly can, and it is important that as soon as communities are safe and the utilities are up and running we can bring in factory-built housing. We are sourcing caravans. Some people have said that they want caravans on their land so that they can stay in their own area in their own community and the kids can go to their school. That normalisation of community life and of family life is so important, and it is very important that that happens quickly. I again want to thank and pay tribute to some staff within my own agency. I mentioned the workforce of Community Recovery staff. Many people have been out of their comfort zones. We have had internal audit staff trained in community recovery on the front line in various parts of the state, and we have had over 3,000 staff involved in that front-line effort. We have a tremendous director-general in Linda Apelt and senior executive staff. She has remained calm. She is always on the job. She is always bringing a very considered and compassionate approach to these very important matters of community recovery and support, and she has done a tremendous job. I thank members who have commented on and provided very positive feedback about the Department of Communities’ recovery effort, because it has certainly been determined in its efforts and that feedback is something that I will certainly pass on to it. Someone mentioned Brooke Winters. Brooke has had a tough region in the south-west and she has made a tremendous effort, as have many other regional executive directors and senior staff. It has been a big effort state-wide. Many people have worked hard. We have had over 60 local government areas directly affected by flooding or the cyclone from Warwick in the south-west to Wujul Wujul in the north and many communities out west towards the border. I certainly want to convey a message to communities that, however small or large you are, you are not forgotten. We are here for the long haul and people are not alone. There is support available, and that is the tremendous thing we have seen— that is how well this effort has been coordinated. I witnessed on television some of the devastation from floods in countries like Brazil, a stark contrast to the way things happen in a developed nation like Australia. Those developing nations like Brazil experienced hundreds of deaths—in fact 500-plus deaths—through flooding. We have had a very professionally coordinated effort. I am very pleased and heartened by the bipartisan support that has been provided to our Premier. She has done a tremendous job as commander in chief. She has been leading from the front, obviously feeling a lot of the sorrow and pain that people are enduring but able to keep that logistical exercise moving, keep informing people, keep reassuring people. As I have travelled around I have certainly heard very positive feedback about her leadership. My colleague Neil Roberts has had a tough job and his staff—the senior police and emergency services staff—have done a great job. Ian Stewart, Police 68 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Commissioner Bob Atkinson and others have all worked extremely hard. In closing I want to say also that we are here for the long haul. This effort—this community recovery effort, this housing support effort, the financial assistance and support that is needed—will be an enduring effort. The effort will be effective and this effort will rebuild Queensland. Hon. TS MULHERIN (Mackay—ALP) (Minister for Primary Industries, Fisheries and Rural and Regional Queensland) (6.18 pm): Since this House last sat in November, Queensland has faced unprecedented natural disasters through the combined effects of flooding and Cyclone Yasi. I wish to express my sincere sympathy for those who lost family members or friends during the flood events of December 2010 and January 2011. The loss of 35 lives across Queensland during these natural disasters is tragic and I wish to extend my heartfelt sympathy and empathy to those who were affected. In particular, the horrific events that occurred in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley on 10 January, I think, will resonate in the minds of all Queenslanders for years to come. The flood events of December 2010 and January 2011 impacted on such a large area of Queensland that their emotional, social and economic effects have touched the majority of Queenslanders. From what I have seen on the ground in the extensive visits that I have made to Central Queensland, South-West Queensland, the Darling Downs, and the Cyclone Yasi affected regions of North Queensland, people are largely in shock about how wide ranging the effects of these events are and the mammoth task of recovery that is before them. From speaking to growers, industry and small business and local government in the regions, mental health issues within the community are of great concern. This is also a great concern for government. We have had counsellors on the ground assisting communities in accessing mental health services. From my visits to many of the affected towns and communities over the past two months, I have been amazed by Queenslanders’ resilience and desire to help each other clean up and get on with the community recovery. While visiting Innisfail, Cardwell and Tully last week only days after Cyclone Yasi struck North Queensland, I was impressed to see firsthand the number of government officers and other people on the ground responding to the devastation and beginning the recovery immediately. It has been said many times over in the past two months that Queenslanders are truly stoic. When faced with the insurmountable they dig deep and they find the guts and the determination to survive, which all Australians recognise. What I have found remarkable from the towns that I have been to is how humble people are about their own situations and the sympathy they feel for what has happened to people in other parts of their community and the state, particularly those small communities of Grantham, Postmans Ridge and Murphys Creek. While talking to cotton growers in Dalby about the level of damage that they have sustained to crops and infrastructure, they were quite philosophical about their situation and showed empathy for growers in the Theodore region where crops were wiped out. In the Theodore region, despite losing millions of dollars worth of cotton, growers expressed thanks that they had sustained no loss of life and they just wanted to get on with the job of recovery and replanting. These are just two examples of the kind of extraordinary generosity that I have witnessed throughout Queensland during these extreme events in the past two months. That generous attitude has also been expressed throughout the communities I have visited through volunteering and fundraising efforts. In many areas that I have visited, despite being personally affected, people were raising money and volunteering to help those in less fortunate situations. I would also like to thank DEEDI staff who have been working tirelessly to assist those affected since mid-December last year. Some of the staff were also impacted by these events but they put their clients ahead of themselves and their families. I would also like to extend my thanks to the mayors of the various regional councils and shire councils throughout the state and their councillors and council officers, to the military, the Queensland Police Service, the state emergency services and their interstate and New Zealand counterparts, charitable organisations, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, service clubs and church groups for their help during this devastating time. Their assistance has certainly made a difference to many Queenslanders. My electorate of Mackay received heavy rainfall during November and December and then also rainfall following Cyclone Anthony in January. That rainfall has certainly impacted on crops and on the tourist sector, but it is nothing in comparison to what has been suffered in other parts of the state. I know individuals in Mackay who are out there raising funds to assist these communities. The Mackay Regional Council put on a special flood appeal concert, which was an example of how local government is working to assist other local government areas. I also know that local governments in areas that have not been impacted have sent officers to assist other local governments that are worse off. To the members of parliament, particularly the member for Lockyer, the member for Toowoomba North and the member for Toowoomba South, on behalf of the people of Mackay I extend my deepest sympathy for their loss in this devastating time. The member for Lockyer personally knew families who were affected. That will be in Ian’s and Ann’s minds for the rest of their lives. The little tight-knit communities in that area will certainly go through a long period of grieving before they reach the point of recovery. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 69

If something positive can be taken from the events of the past two months I think it is the renewed sense of community and unity across Queensland. These events have shown Queenslanders to be not only tough in the face of adversity but also willing to help others around them and, most importantly, to have a desire to get on with the job and rebuild and recover. I would like to take this opportunity to place on record my sincere sympathy to all of those who were affected and who lost their loved ones in the recent floods. Sitting suspended from 6.25 pm to 7.30 pm. Mr SEENEY (Callide—LNP) (7.30 pm): On behalf of the people of Callide, whom I am honoured to represent in this place, I stand to support the motion that was moved by the Premier in parliament this morning. I think it is a very appropriate motion for this parliament to consider, given the summer of sorrow that the Premier described and that so many speakers have already spoken about. Given the natural disasters that have struck Queensland in the summer of 2010-11, I think it is very appropriate that the motion before the House receives the support that it has received from every member in this parliament and I would, in my contribution to its consideration, add the support of my constituents. The motion acknowledges with great sadness the devastation, it extends the condolences of this parliament and all of the people whom members here represent, it acknowledges the grief, it places on record our sincere gratitude for the leadership and valued contribution by so many people—too many people to list and to name—it acknowledges the fundraising and the generosity of Queenslanders and it pledges to work with those communities to rebuild their communities and to rebuild Queensland as a whole. In a great many ways the motion encompasses the events that have struck Queensland and the great spirit that has emerged from those natural disasters. The law of the bush is rich with tales of natural disasters. The old-timers talk about the drought of 1902, the flood of 1946, Cyclone Tracy and a range of such events. The natural disasters that struck Queensland in 2011 will take their place in that long list. They will be talked about for many years to come. They will become part of the law of the bush, part of the tales that are told to generations of Queenslanders, because both the flood event that extended across South-East Queensland across three weeks and the cyclone that struck North Queensland shortly after were in themselves both truly remarkable climate events. To have two of them occur so quickly one after the other was truly a trick of circumstance—something quite extraordinary. It was something of a trick of fate that when my electorate was first affected by the flooding event—the member for Rockhampton outlined it in his contribution to this debate—that began a few days before Christmas and extended through the new year period I was in the unhappy circumstance of being out of the country. My wife and I were in Europe. It was a trip that we had planned the year before. It was a trip that I had planned to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, which was actually the Christmas before. We did not go that year and I suffered for it all through the 12 months, as members could imagine. Our first overseas holiday in 30-odd years of marriage unfortunately coincided with an event which, as every member in this parliament has expressed, was an occasion on which those of us who occupy community leadership roles needed to be with our communities. I found it very difficult that I was not able to be with the communities that I represent. I found it very heart-rending that I was not able to be with those communities that I have grown so close to over the 12 years that I have represented them. Tonight I want to thank the people who filled any gap that I may have left. I thank my fellow members, my neighbours in the surrounding electorates—Howard Hobbs, the member for Warrego, and Vaughan Johnson, the member for Gregory—who filled any gap I may have left in those areas of my electorate. Few people understand that the electorate of Callide extends to within sight of the CBD of Bundaberg so we share a lot of the issues that Jack Dempsey spoke about, and I thank Jack for the work that he did. I thank Dorothy Pratt, the Independent member for Nanango, who is my neighbour on the southern side and who still takes an interest in the South Burnett area, for fulfilling a role that I should have been fulfilling had I been here at that particular time. I also want to thank the mayors of the shires who not only fulfilled their own roles but also compensated for the fact that I was absent, particularly John Hooper, the mayor of the Banana Shire Council—probably the part of my electorate that was most affected by the flooding. Joy Jensen, the mayor of the North Burnett Regional Council, and David Carter, the mayor of the South Burnett Regional Council, and their respective councillors fulfilled a role in this natural disaster which is difficult to adequately describe. In those small communities those local governments really proved their worth. It is almost impossible to fully appreciate the role that the mayors and the councillors played in those small communities at a time such as this. Not only did those people have to fulfil those roles; they also had to compensate for the fact that I was absent, just as so many other community leaders were because of when this event occurred. For example, the mayor of the Gympie Regional Council,—I share a significant amount of constituents with that council—Ron Dyne, was overseas. Lorraine Pyefinch, the mayor of Bundaberg Regional Council, was overseas. Those people who were here certainly carried an extraordinary burden, and I acknowledge and thank them for that. 70 Motion 15 Feb 2011

I also want to thank the ministers who visited my electorate. The Premier visited while I was absent, as did the Minister for Primary Industries. Since then the Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas, has visited and Karen Struthers has also visited in her ministerial capacity. I want to thank all of those people. I think collectively they have ensured that none of my constituents suffered very much from my absence, but I still found it very difficult to deal with the fact that such a calamity could be visited upon the people that I represent when I was not there to play whatever role I could. I also want to acknowledge, as so many other members have done, the role of emergency services personnel right throughout all of those communities that I represent. The SES proved itself, if there was ever any doubt—and there should not have been—about the important role that its members play in communities. The SES was formed after the 1974 flood. I remember well the inaugural meetings that were held to form the SES. I attended one of them. Since then the role of the SES has been considered by a number of different people, but in this particular series of natural disasters the SES certainly proved that it has an incredibly important role to play and I acknowledge each and every one of its members. To name the SES members in my electorate would be impossible. The police, council workers and people who performed those roles in those communities are too numerous to mention. As there are 22 communities, it is impossible for me to mention all of those people. However, some communities are worthy of special mention and one of those is the community of Theodore. Theodore has experienced many floods. Theodore was built on the banks of the Dawson River. It was built on a narrow V-shaped piece of land between the Dawson River and Castle Creek. In Queensland, most towns that are built on the banks of a river and suffer flooding ended up there because of some trick of history. Perhaps that was where a particular wayside inn or pub was built and a town grew up around it. Theodore is different. Theodore was built by the . It was a planned town. It was built by the water resources commission as part of the irrigation scheme. It was built in a place where floods have always been a problem. In this particular case, between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day Theodore suffered a series of flood peaks, one of which was a metre and a half higher than anything that had ever been experienced before. It required the entire town to be evacuated. Most of the 350 residents were evacuated by eight helicopters that landed on the street between the pub and the shire hall. To do that out of a town like Theodore was a feat indeed and I congratulate everybody involved. I could not believe it. I was in a part of Europe where communication was difficult. I could not believe that a town like Theodore could be evacuated by helicopter, but it was. You can appreciate the size of that task even more when you understand that Theodore has a retirement village and a significant number of people from that retirement village had to be evacuated. The people involved in that deserve every congratulation. One person in particular needs to be congratulated and the member for Warrego referred to that person. Councillor Vaughan Becker was a tower of strength in that 10-day period. He spent Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve in Theodore. He told me that he slept on the stage of the shire hall. He was the essence of a community leader. It was because of the great work that Vaughan did that the whole operation was able to be carried out in the way that it was. I would also mention some other councillors from the Banana Shire Council. Councillor Maureen Clancy and Councillor Warren Middleton put in a great effort on behalf of the people of their communities. What they did was far and away above anything that traditionally would be required of a shire councillor. They acted on behalf of their communities. Their local knowledge and their local involvement was an important part of ensuring that their community was safely evacuated and returned, as has now occurred. There are many people who need to be recognised in the case of Theodore. For example, the coal company that operates the Moura mine, Anglo Coal, made accommodation available for the entire population of Theodore. Unasked, they offered the accommodation for a period of over one week. When I first went to Theodore, one of the most common stories I heard from the people was how wonderful that accommodation was, which was offered to them free of charge by Anglo Coal. I thank the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and all of the government agencies that came to help the town deal with the evacuation and the return to flooded houses. It was an enormous effort and volunteers came from everywhere. In the time I have available I could not list all of the volunteers who helped, but one group I have to talk about is the group of Queensland Rail workers who travelled every day from Gladstone to help to clean up Theodore and restore it to a habitable state. Their efforts will forever be acknowledged by the people of Theodore. I have met those guys. There are not enough words to describe the gratitude that the people of Theodore feel towards all of the volunteers, but the crew from QR stand out. They will be forever remembered in the stories that are told about Theodore in the days to come. There are so many others I would like to acknowledge, but the danger with naming some is that you forget others. I want to acknowledge all of the people involved. Theodore was just one of the communities affected. While it was certainly the town that was evacuated completely, all of the communities in the Callide electorate have been impacted by flood. Everybody has suffered. There has been an incredible loss of infrastructure and an incredible loss of 15 Feb 2011 Motion 71 personal wealth across a whole range of the community and throughout all of the towns on the Dawson River. For example, Taroom had the highest flood peak in history, which caused flooding in businesses and houses in that community. At Wowan and Baralaba, Councillor Nev Ferrier performed a similar role on a smaller scale to that required in Theodore. In smaller communities like Goovigen, Jambin and Dululu people were flooded. People were forced out of their homes, infrastructure was lost and major roads were washed away for periods of six and seven days. It will be months and months before many of the local roads are re-established. The flood in the Dawson River was the first of the series of natural disasters that struck Queensland. On the other side of my electorate, in the Burnett Valley, the flood came later. It came after new year, but it was no less severe. In places like Murgon, Wondai, Cherbourg, Kilkivan and Goomeri, businesses and homes were inundated and infrastructure and roads were severely damaged. All of those communities will take a long time to recover. Equally, individuals who have suffered from inundation will take a long time to recover. Further up the Burnett Valley in Mundubbera and Gayndah, houses were inundated. Rivers reached heights that were never expected. Once again, the councillors and the council staff of the North Burnett Shire Council played the lead role in the community response. Councillors such as Faye Whelan in Mundubbera, Peter Huth in Gayndah and Peter Baker in Mount Perry played a tremendous role. Across the eastern side of my electorate at Gin Gin, Councillor Wayne Honor of the Bundaberg Regional Council played a similar role. He dealt with not just the flooding in the Gin Gin, and immediate areas but also the logistics of the situation that arose with the Bruce Highway. When the Bruce Highway was blocked, Gin Gin became the point where the traffic banked up. Thousands of people ended up in Gin Gin, which is a tiny little town. Some people call it, somewhat unkindly, an elongated truck stop. It is a small town. Thousands of vehicles ended up in Gin Gin. It is a tribute to the people of Gin Gin and to people such as Wayne Honor that people were able to be accommodated, fed and looked after in a way that provided them with basic needs. Tony Perret of the Gympie Regional Council is a constituent of mine. He played a big role in Gympie. He also played a big role in looking after communities such as Kilkivan and Woolgoolga. In the tiny little community of Woolgoolga, nobody ever imagined that the pub and the community hall would be flooded, but over a metre of water went through the bar of the pub and washed the old hall off its stumps. It is incredible that such a building would be subjected to flood. Those were the sorts of records that were broken right across my electorate, just as they were across big areas of South-East Queensland. There has been enormous financial loss to farmers. It is heartbreaking to talk to farmers and to hear them catalogue their losses, especially those who suffered in the Dawson River floods in March. Farmers along the Dawson River have lost two crops in 12 months. In March the cotton growers lost a crop that was almost ready to pick and now they have lost another crop. For many, that will be a financial burden that is too hard to bear. We need to do all we can to ensure that the expertise that is in our rural sector is retained, that we can recover from these floods and take advantage of the improved seasons that we hope that they herald. To do so we need to be able to financially save as many of those farmers as is possible. Similarly, the financial burden on local authorities will be extreme. Roads are the big problem for so much of my electorate. Roads are the basis of the rural economy and the problem at the moment is fixing the roads. Not just the main roads but also the local roads desperately need a major injection of money. There is a silver lining to this particular cloud. If we can get through the initial shock, if we can get through the initial financial impost, then the prospects for the rural sector are bright. A number of dams that have been empty or very low for years are now full. Cania Dam and Callide Dam have been at around 25 and 30 per cent capacity since they were built 27 or 28 years ago. Both are now full as are all the other SunWater dams in Queensland. Hopefully, they will provide the basis for better times for our agricultural industries, and it is those better times that the people in my electorate are now beginning to focus on. I commend them for their resilience. I commend them for their strength of character. I look forward to working with them towards recovering from this extraordinary series of natural disasters. Mr GIBSON (Gympie—LNP) (7.50 pm): This has been one of the hardest speeches that I have ever had to try to prepare for. In some ways words have been elusive in trying to find the way in which to express an appropriate desire for this motion of condolence. Somehow words fail to convey the desires of our heart in saying ‘thank you’ to those who helped out; in saying, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ to those who grieve; in saying, ‘I’m so proud to be a Queenslander,’ for those who volunteered; and in saying, ‘I’m there for you,’ to those who carry the scars of these recent disasters. I used to think that Queensland was a big state geographically, but these disasters have made me realise that this state can be covered from edge to edge, from border to border, from coast to out west simply by extending and reaching out your hand to help someone in need. If we have learnt anything 72 Motion 15 Feb 2011 from these disasters it is that Queenslanders are there for each other in their times of need. On behalf of my community of Gympie, which was affected by the floods, may I say our thoughts and prayers have been with all those who are affected so much more than we ever were. Gympie is no stranger to flooding. From the first recorded flood event in March 1870 to the floods this year there have been at least 19 major flood events. For Gympie to recognise it as a major flood event the Mary River must rise at least 17 metres above the Kidd Bridge. These recent floods peaked at 19.3 metres. The experience in major flood events in my community means that the community is well prepared. We know the signs to look for and we act upon them early in preparing for any floods. For our local disaster management group, flooding is not a theoretical exercise but, rather, one in which they have corporate experience. They know from previous floods what needs to occur and that was very evident in the way in which the Gympie community was well prepared for the floods that hit. That is not to say, though, that this preparation lessened the impact upon families, upon farms and upon businesses that were affected by the recent floods. There are many who are still doing it tough, many businesses who have not yet reopened, families who are still struggling to work out the direction forward as a result of these recent floods. There are farmers who are now reassessing their own viability, farmers who have been on those properties for generations now asking questions as to whether they can continue operations. That is the impact that comes from these flooding events. I am proud to say that a man, woman and child in Gympie will all say that we have nothing to complain about when you look at the impact and the devastation that has occurred in the other parts of the state as a result of the recent flooding and cyclone. We understand that there will be higher priorities in the reconstruction effort, in rebuilding of homes and communities that were totally devastated. That is something that my community understands very clearly and we have but one simple request. We simply ask that when that job is done please do not forget us. We may have endured nothing more than an inconvenience from the rising floodwaters. I personally was isolated for five days with children on one side of town and my wife, myself and other children on the south side of town. But what has impacted upon Gympie even more so than the inconvenience is the economic shock, the economic shock that comes from the closure of businesses over that flood period and, further, the economic shock that comes as people are nervous and reluctant to spend money in the proceeding days after the flood. It is the effects of this economic shock that will be felt for some time in my community. As with Queenslanders across this great state, the people of Gympie proudly stepped up to the task that was before them. They cleaned up their businesses, they cleaned up their homes and then they shifted their focus to helping others. One of the things that impressed upon me this attitude of wanting to help out others was calls that my office received from students and teachers who were looking to conduct fundraisers as their schools reopened and wanting to know to which schools in the state could they send that money. It was wonderful to see students recognising that their circumstances were such that they could help out others and the desire to do so has resulted in many schools in my electorate providing the funds that they have raised from student free-dress days to other schools in this great state so that they can support them. We have also seen that occur through businesses and through service clubs that have banded together to help out those in other parts of the state. There is a business in town which stored the supplies of affected businesses in Mary Street. Once that stock was returned to the various businesses, they then decided to use their space to collect donations, and the word went out. Very quickly they found themselves overwhelmed with the donations that came from the people of Gympie. Truckloads of the stock—and some of it was brand new—were sent to those areas where it was needed for distribution amongst those who had less. In my speech tonight I have deliberately chosen not to name people not because their efforts are not worthy of recognition, but because I know that so many have told me that they were simply doing what was required. Then they would tell me that the real hero was—and then would promptly name another person who they believed should be recognised. In doing so, I simply say thank you to everyone in my community. They know who they are. Whether it was the simple act of looking after a friend’s child because they were stranded on the other side of the river or those who worked tirelessly day and night to keep our community safe, your efforts were appreciated. This was the first major disaster for Queensland where social media played an important part in communication. Indeed, within my electorate we could often find out if you could access a bridge or a road by putting a post up on Facebook or making a request on Twitter and getting local feedback far quicker than the official websites were updated. I note the QPS, the Queensland Police Service, made very effective use of both Facebook and Twitter and it was something that was relied upon greatly during those days, particularly when those people in Gympie were concerned about friends and relatives in other parts of the state. I believe that social media has a very important role to play in communicating during these disaster events. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 73

Another first for this event was the use of Auslan interpreters during briefings from the state disaster management centre. Deaf Services Queensland and their interpreting staff can be very proud of this initiative, as I know that it provided vital information to many Queenslanders who are deaf. Stories have been relayed to me of Queenslanders in Brisbane who are deaf and were not aware of the seriousness of the flooding event that was about to occur until they saw the interpreters on the news providing that information. Of course there were some teething problems with this, such as on the first day a camera operator was keeping the head shot of the Premier cropped in very tight and the interpreter’s hands could not be seen. But this was rectified very quickly and we then were able to ensure that the deaf community throughout this great state were informed as well as the hearing community. I can now inform this House that Queensland is the talk of the deaf community across Australia, and for this I am sure other states will look to our initiative and adopt this during their future disasters. As I said at the outset, this speech has been one of the hardest to prepare, and I believe that this motion will be one of the most important to be debated in this House this year. From listening, as we all have, to the various speeches made, I know that if you closed your eyes and just listened to the words you would realise that party politics has no place in this debate. May I put on the record my thanks to both the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition for their respective leadership during these events and for the visit from both the Deputy Premier and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to Gympie. Those visits meant a great deal to the community. To the ministers who contacted my office and me personally to see what support was needed in the community: I thank you. To my colleagues from both sides of the House for their messages of support during the flood event: I thank you. I also express my thanks to our Governor, who has visited Gympie today to see firsthand the recovery efforts. I know that the anticipation of her visit was high and that she would have been well received. We may draw from differing political parties and often find ourselves on opposing sides of the ideological debate, but it is clear to me that, during the types of events that we faced at the end of 2010 and the commencement of 2011, as members of this House we roll up our sleeves and get on with the job of working in our electorates to do the best for our communities. What is inspiring is to see what our communities are capable of. We have heard from many and will, I am sure, continue to hear stories and examples of individuals who have given far more than was ever required or expected. If we are to learn one thing from these tragic events that have taken lives in this state, it is that Queenslanders are always willing to rise to whatever occasion is placed before them. Of that we can be confident and always proud. Hon. RG NOLAN (Ipswich—ALP) (Minister for Transport) (8.02 pm): I offer my condolences to the families of those who have been lost through the recent shocking natural events. I was born in Ipswich a couple of months after the 1974 flood. All my life the ’74 flood has been described as a seminal event in the history of our community. All my life I have marvelled at yellowing photos of water up nearly to the town bridge. All my life I have imagined that this would never happen again. In Ipswich the ’74 floods are spoken about as a terrible event, one that brought hardship to many families. But they are remembered less for that than for the good—for the sense of community that emerged, for people helping one another. As individuals, we all know that it is the hard times that make us—that what does not kill us makes us stronger. I believe that such spirit will be the enduring result of the 2011 flood, just as it was in 1974. By Monday, 10 January Queensland was already stricken by disaster. Rocky was flooded, as were the Downs. In the evening some shocking news was emerging about the flash flood in Toowoomba when the Premier rang me to say that Ipswich was going to flood and it was going to be bad. The next morning Ipswich’s local disaster management group was stood up. While people talk a great deal about the adequacy of disaster response, there is little explanation of how it is in fact supposed to work. The state’s Disaster Management Act provides for state, district and local disaster management groups. These groups coordinate the response. On Tuesday, 11 January the local disaster management group in Ipswich met three times. Decisions were quickly made; Bureau of Meteorology projections were translated into flood predictions for the city; warnings were issued through local media, particularly the local radio station River 94.9 and through SMS; sandbags were filled; the SES prepared; nursing homes and hostels housing the vulnerable were evacuated; and evacuation centres were established at the showgrounds, at Mark Edwards’ Ipswich Region Community Church and at the girls’ and boys’ grammar schools. All day in Ipswich the rain poured down. A riverine flood is an extraordinary event. While other members have spoken graphically about the violence of a natural disaster, about howling winds and raging flash flood, the Bremer in flood eerily, silently, stealthily creeps up. Through Tuesday the waters began to rise. While for everyone the public warnings were the same, some understood the risks sooner than others. Some believed it would not happen to them until it was too late. 74 Motion 15 Feb 2011

By Tuesday afternoon the city was commencing the quiet wait. Some were moving out of their homes; some were walking down to the river to see how much further the water had come up. Like many in Ipswich, I began to contend with the shocking realisation that my house may well flood. Friends came with utes and took everything away. As I moved my possessions out late into the night, people walking down my street to see the river—people I did not know—would pause to ask if I needed a hand. I was touched by their generosity. All over the city people offered to help one another in exactly the same way. On Tuesday night I dreamt that water came up through the floor. I am sure that many others did the same. For some, it was not a dream. The Bremer River peaked at around 19½ metres after lunch on Wednesday. It was not the 22 to 24 metres that had been predicted. But in town and at Sadliers Crossing, West Ipswich, Churchhill, East Ipswich, Bundamba and Basin Pocket there was flooding. The area around David Street at North Booval was the worst. Street after street of homes were totally swamped. Community facilities were hit very hard. The Ipswich Turf Club, the Ipswich Knights Soccer Club and the Ipswich Basketball Stadium all flooded. Bundamba Primary and my old school, Ipswich East, had a lot of water through. Ipswich East thinks that as many as 120 of their families were affected directly by flood. The worst thing about a flood is the smell. The waters look murky but calm, but as they recede they leave an indescribable stench—a combination of something dead, sewage and a very wet dog. At each house I doorknocked to see what help people needed, I was confronted by exactly the same smell again and again. Within those flooded houses were people who were shocked and who were sad. Mrs Turvey, 94, who lives in Trumper Street, has lived on her own since her husband died. She was flooded in the same house in 1974. It is hard to imagine cleaning your house when you are alone and you are 94 years old. Down the street from her, I spent some time with a couple who have five kids. They were not insured. They were cleaning out a house that now had no kitchen, no bathroom and no internal walls. The community response to the flood was extraordinary. Thousands of people came out to help. At many houses the biggest challenge for a doorknocking local member was to establish exactly whose place it was. You would front up, ask for the owners and volunteers caked in mud would look around and say, ‘I think it is that bloke over there.’ The owners of the ruined houses were remarkable too. The Lockyer Valley is not far from us. The people are our neighbours. In the days that I doorknocked, to a man and woman, people stood in ruined houses and they said, ‘It’s bad, but there are a lot of people worse off than us.’ People helped in extraordinary ways. They baked and walked the streets feeding the workers. At Basin Pocket a roadwork company fronted up with their machinery and set about cleaning the streets. Impromptu sausage sizzles sprung up. In my view, the SES did a remarkable job. Led by local controller Arie van den Ende they helped when people needed it most. Police, fire and ambulance officers were capable and compassionate and state and council public servants like Brooke Winters from the Department of Communities, regional health director Pam Lane and the council’s Tony Trace did a very good job. I would also like to note the efforts of Councillor Trevor Nardi. In other local government areas the mayor chairs the local disaster management group and coordinates the response. That is the role that allows mayors Brad Carter in Rocky and Campbell Newman to be decisive and to keep the community informed. In Ipswich that role is fulfilled by Councillor Nardi. Trevor sought no credit and no media attention, but he worked incredibly hard. It is now four weeks since the floodwaters passed and for those affected I am concerned that as time goes by for many people it gets more tough. Four weeks after the flood, the grunt work of cleaning out has been done and the frenzied effort of volunteers has passed. Four weeks after the flood many people are finding themselves unable to live in their homes or are in them but virtually camping out. Most of my constituents have received some government assistance, but there are more people in Ipswich who are not insured than who are. Four weeks after the flood these people—hundreds of them—have ruined, devalued houses and many are wondering how on earth they are going to pay. As a Labor MP, I strongly believe that when resources are limited we should most help those who have the least. There is no doubt in my mind that assistance from government—be it through our state or federal welfare systems or through the Premier’s relief fund—should be means tested so as to adhere to that principle of most helping those who have the least. But we are under no illusions. Neither governments’ welfare schemes nor the Premier’s relief fund will stretch to covering the extent of people’s personal loss. With that reality at hand, it is imperative that as a community we continue to give. People should continue to volunteer. The council is matching workers to those in need. In the full knowledge that every cent will go directly to someone in desperate need, people should continue to donate. The Ipswich Region Chamber of Commerce, ably led by Mr Michael Munt, has commenced a ‘shop local’ campaign. With much of the city’s business community affected, shopping locally is a very practical way to help. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 75

While thankfully in Ipswich no lives were lost and the immediate clean-up is now done, people remain terribly affected and the saddest impact is on the poor. I am confident that as a community we can and will overcome this, but I am certain too that doing so will take a very long time. Moving beyond Ipswich, much of the state’s rail network has been struck. The line was cut all over the place as the flood proceeded and Queensland Rail worked incredibly hard to open it again. I note too the member for Callide’s comments about the Queensland Rail crew based out of Gladstone. Queensland Rail is an extraordinary organisation with a wonderful history linked to this state and workers helped in places that will never fully be known. There is very serious damage on the railway line up the Toowoomba range. The flood that hit Grantham and Murphys Creek came down that line past Spring Bluff. Bridges are out and there are landslides at many points. Now work is underway to restore the historic line. The other place where the line is cut today is in the Far North. Cyclone Yasi’s powerful winds knocked over level crossing lights, signs and boom gates along more than 100 kilometres of track. As the responsible minister, I decided to head to Tully as soon as I could. There I went to see the railway workers who were labouring on the line. I told them their work was important and on a hot day, on behalf of the people and communities that need that railway, I asked them to carry on. I have always known that we have family in Tully—the kind of family you keep in touch with almost exclusively by Christmas card. When I needed to go up there I turned immediately to these people, calling a distant cousin I had never met, checking that they were all right and, because there is no accommodation available in Tully, asking if I could stay. In true North Queensland style the answer was that they were fine. The patio had blown off, a shed roof was gone, but they were all right and of course I could come. I was welcomed by my father’s cousin Maureen Vipiana, her husband Ray, her brothers Johnny and Kevvie Cuddihy and by their children—the cousins, albeit more Italian and Spanish cousins than we are, of my generation. Everyone came together and I was taken in with the warmth and openness that comes with family. There were two generations— Ms Grace: You would have been fed well. Ms NOLAN: I was very well fed. There were two generations of news to catch up on and I needed to get used to the ways of people who are so much like us but who I had never met. One of the first questions to be asked was how my branch of the family had got on in the south with the flood. Meeting my family was a gift that came from this terrible time. If not for the cyclone who knows when I might have gone there and I very much doubt I would have fronted up and invited myself to stay. But this connection in my own family I believe is a metaphor for what is now going on across the state. Queensland is a place of just 4½ million people, spread across a huge area and dominated by the stark natural beauty and power of our place. In recent months we have been tormented by the worst natural disaster in our recorded history. Like the family our state ultimately is, we have drawn together to look this adversity in the face. Across the state people have rescued others from floodwaters, huddled together as a cyclone passed and taken one another in. We have forgotten the pettiness that so often is at the front of our minds and we have found a clear and common purpose. Together we have drawn on the better angels of our nature. Inspired and comforted by Premier Anna Bligh, a truly remarkable woman, the people of Queensland have found strength within. Hon. AP FRASER (Mount Coot-tha—ALP) (Treasurer and Minister for Employment and Economic Development) (8.18 pm): The practice of story-telling has been around since ancient times. From the Dreamtime to the nightmare of recent days, as human beings we have sought to share our stories—stories to be heard, recorded and remembered. There are many stories from this extraordinary summer that should be told. No doubt in time there will also be lessons to be learned. Our capacity as humans to share our experiences has been central to our ability to create societies, engender community and promote our innate capacity for empathy, compassion, care and concern for others. Today is a day when just some of the stories of our citizens can be given a voice in their parliament. It is all of our duty and our privilege to be their voice today. In this condolence motion we join to honour those who have lost so much. No doubt there are those amongst us today who will struggle to find their full voice. That will be a perfect reflection of the thousands of Queenslanders who will struggle to comprehend their experiences for some time to come. There will be days when their voice completely escapes them or, despite their crying aloud, they will feel that they are not being heard. Today has been reserved to honour the stories of Queenslanders, but upon tomorrow we must all recall that we can only truly honour the struggle of so many through rededicating ourselves to work on their behalf. So many Queenslanders need our support, our attention and our endeavours not only today but for the many long days ahead. This will be a long year for so many. At the end of last year some of us were firmly in the ‘bring on 2011’ camp. A new year always brings hope and a chance to start anew. As things transpired, I spent New Year’s Day walking through the filthy mud of Bundaberg streets as the floodwaters were beginning 76 Motion 15 Feb 2011 to recede. Businesses and homes were wrecked. Those forced from their own homes were in the council evacuation centre. I met a family whose home had been burned down two years ago and was now flooded. Their cruel luck had not yet broken them, stoically saying that they would ‘just get on with it’ and ‘see what they could clean up’ and then ‘figure it out from there’. Cowering in one corner were an English couple intent on backpacking their way through the region with the wages earned from fruit picking. The backpackers hostel around the corner had gone under and the beds and couches were already piled high on the footpath. Now these two adventures were without a place to stay and broke, without a prospect of work on the region’s broken farms. Fortunately for them, their embassy was ready to render assistance. In the North Burnett through Gayndah and Mundubbera I met the folk who truly do get on with it. It was not for them to stand on their footpath wondering aloud when the cavalcade would arrive. They knew about drought, but this was a disaster of a very different kind. When I got back to Brisbane my kids were complaining about the dinner before them. I sat down and told them about the kids’ rooms in Mundubbera I had stood in that day—their beds, clothes, toys and books all covered in filthy mud. I told them how awful it smelt, how awful it felt to stand there. We then all agreed that we were very lucky. Later on we packed up clothes and toys and joined in on a special delivery that a mum from the kindy was organising for her home town of Emerald. My six-year-old declared that we would not flood because our house is on a hill. As any bike owner knows, practically all of Bardon is on a hill! ‘There won’t be floods here,’ he declared. He was pretty confident of his logic, but 10 days later we stood together at the edge of the floodwaters as they rolled into our community. The Brisbane River is one of the boundaries of the electorate of Mount Coot- tha. Milton, Auchenflower and Toowong lie along its banks. The floodwaters breached the banks and flowed into these suburbs and beyond. Taringa, Paddington and the area around Rosalie Village were all inundated. The basketball centre at Auchenflower, the scouts headquarters and the McIlwraith Croquet Club were amongst the first to go under. Toowong Bowls Club and the soccer club later also went under. Most of Queensland saw the pictures of Suncorp Stadium. For some, the memories of 1974 compelled them to act early. Shops and homes were emptied. Chances were not to be taken. For others, it must have all seemed just too unbelievable. A few things were removed or put up high and, by the next morning, the floodwaters had marched into homes and businesses—and the peak was yet still 24 hours away. That morning a human chain formed in Rosalie as shops were emptied to higher grounds. It is known as a village and it lived up to its name that day. The folk who normally wander down to support their local shopkeepers with their custom were helping out in a very different way. The water was already chest deep. The images were shown right around the world. Someone spotted a fan still swirling in a shop and we had to get everyone out until we could get the power cut to that building. A sightseeing boat came through the village. It got turned away and put to more productive use. Later that afternoon as we sandbagged down at Milton we worked under a typical January sun. The blue-sky flood was unbelievable, as was the mess it left. As the floodwaters receded a day later, something even more remarkable occurred: people flooded into the area. Neighbours, friends and people from across the city and further afield just turned up and pitched in. Within a day Rosalie Village was reclaimed. The shops were cleared of debris; the streets were cleaned. With the help of Glenn Hickey and Ben Dorman from the Brisbane City Council, we marshalled trucks, bobcats, skips and portaloos. The firies started pumping out and hosing out. The Army turned up and began the huge task of clearing out Milton State School. The whole bottom level of the school went under and the floodwaters were still pooled around the school. It is a unique place— Gregory Park behind it is used as the school oval. As some folk will attest, Gregory Park used to be known as Redjack Swamp. A natural history lesson was evident. Principal Paul Zernike, the P&C president and I took a walk around the school. I pay particular tribute to Paul, his deputy Lisa and to all of the teachers at Milton. They set up camp at Toowong Smart State Academy so the school year could begin on time, if out of place. The original buildings at the school had seen a flood like this before, but none of us had. I found a fish on the doorstep of the prep classrooms. We were about one kilometre from the banks of the river. Everyone stood there and then we laughed about it, not knowing what else to say. The river is a natural beauty in this city, but during January it was feared more than it was revered. The losses from nature’s forceful invasion of our summer will take some time to overcome. We have seen tremendous leadership from the Premier down to local SES workers, but this is a task that has only just begun. The grief of those who have lost loved ones deserves this parliament’s gesture today. It will not overcome their grief, but today we stand as one with them all. Amongst the loss of so much— lives and livelihoods—we did however regain something. For against the dominant negative discourse we daily encounter, against the promotion of individualism, we rediscovered the very essence of life— the essential human experience, the old verities of compassion, care and concern for others. Young people proved their hectoring baby boomer critics wrong. People met those who lived at the end of the street for the first time. Homes were lost but communities regained. As we pause in the normal rhythms 15 Feb 2011 Motion 77 of this chamber, we should pause also to resolve to nurture and protect the best of humanity that we saw this summer. Perhaps that would be the best way we can honour our fellow Queenslanders—today and for the many long days ahead. Mrs MENKENS (Burdekin—LNP) (8.26 pm): I rise to support the Premier’s motion of condolence. Over time Queensland has had a well-documented history of natural disasters. We as Queenslanders are no strangers to nature’s wrath in its many forms, but the series and scale of recent events is difficult to comprehend, let alone accept. My heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones and to those who have and will continue to feel the despair brought about by these events. In the latter part of 2010 widespread sodden conditions were compounded by additional falls resulting from ex-Cyclone Tasha. The mighty Fitzroy catchment had already seen many parts of Rockhampton inundated. Farmers and graziers were severely impacted, seeing their fields covered by floodwaters, crops ruined and stock lost. In the first five weeks of 2011 Queensland saw and endured horrendous flooding throughout central and southern Queensland resulting in huge loss of life. The flooding and footage from the Toowoomba and Grantham areas in particular was confronting and the stories of human tragedy and those of selfless rescue will endure over time. Precious lives have been lost, with further people still listed as missing. This is a terrible burden for Lockyer and the surrounding area to embrace. The close- knit community has been impacted and its plight thrown open to the world. The emergency crews are to be thanked for their swift actions together with those who worked in the evacuation centres and the many volunteers and people who helped. I must acknowledge and applaud Ian and Ann Rickuss, Ian Rickuss being the member for Lockyer, because they set up and manned an evacuation centre on the first night, comforting many of those distraught from the disaster that had befallen them. Ian has been working tirelessly in his electorate since then and I know that images of this will haunt them both and the other members of the community for a very long time to come. Many parts of Brisbane were of course directly affected by flooding, with scenes of devastation and despair, and we have heard so many of those stories from members in this chamber this afternoon and this evening. The vision of the inundation of iconic structures was very powerful. The scenes of the pieces of infrastructure and various flotsam being carried down the Brisbane River was also quite numbing. As the floodwaters receded, the largest military operation for a natural disaster since Cyclone Tracy was undertaken to assist in the clean-up and to reinstate roads and infrastructure. Within weeks, though, North Queensland saw two further cyclones cross the coast: tropical cyclones Anthony and Yasi. Cyclone Anthony passed over the Bowen area as a category 2 cyclone on the night of 30 January. Winds of up to 145 kilometres per hour were recorded. Luckily there was minimal damage, although there were lots of trees down. The Whitsunday Regional Council hopped to and really is to be commended for its preparations beforehand and for the swift clean-up after the event. But as I was down there, and even as Cyclone Anthony was coming, all eyes were on the threat that was coming—that of Cyclone Yasi. The comments from the community were, ‘Look, we’ll handle this one, but it is the next one that we’re worried about.’ And well we should have been, as Cyclone Yasi was certainly of a scale of intensity and breadth unseen in living memory. Cyclone preparation is a necessity in North Queensland, but the local disaster management groups really come into their own when cyclones threaten. In the lead-up to Cyclone Yasi, the Burdekin Shire Council set in motion the local disaster management group to bring key agencies together to plan for eventualities and to minimise exposure of residents to any harm or loss of infrastructure. Special acknowledgement must be given to Mayor Lyn McLaughlin and Trevor Williams, who play key roles in this group. To the north, the Townsville City Council, with a large residential base, was also honing its preparations. Local disaster management group chairman and Townsville Mayor, Les Tyrell, must be thanked for his untiring work. In addition to cyclone preparations, Townsville was preparing for the potential of a flood surge. The scenarios that were being modelled had up to 70,000 residents living in flood surge areas. I pay tribute to Les’s demeanour in these most troubling of times and the clear messages that he conveyed as the cyclone closed in. Many people heeded the evacuation warnings, with the police and the Army doorknocking and advising people of the impending cyclone. As the cyclone came closer on the night of Wednesday, 2 February and the winds intensified gradually, the great majority of the Burdekin area lost power. Of course, that was to be expected, but the thoughts of the people, particularly in my area, as this occurred were for those in the northern area of Hinchinbrook, where Cyclone Yasi was destined to cross as a category 5 cyclone—and it surely did. As winds were being encountered hundreds of kilometres to the south, prayers were being offered for those closer to the path of the destructive winds. These destructive winds were said to be in the order of 285 kilometres per hour, with the tidal impact being felt well to the south. 78 Motion 15 Feb 2011

At this time praise must also be given to radio stations such as the ABC which are the conduits for the passing on of news and information to hand. I know that so many people would have been like my family as we sat in the darkness around the candle. Certainly, the ABC was the light and lifeline to many who felt so very alone. Hearing those phone calls coming in at 2 am and 3 am from places such as Mission Beach was really quite awe-inspiring. I must also mention Burdekin’s own radio station, Sweet FM. Throughout the cyclone Merle Scott and two other volunteers spent the night at the radio station broadcasting. My thoughts and prayers are with the good people of the electorate of Hinchinbrook, as they bore the brunt of Cyclone Yasi and as they now face the clean-up. My good friend and colleague the member for Hinchinbrook, Andrew Cripps, is to be thanked and applauded for his absolutely untiring work in touring and working with his constituents at one of their greatest times of need. Andrew truly cares about his constituents. Andrew’s office staff are also to be commended for the work they have performed in the face of adversity. Support is so very vital, and I, for one, feel a great empathy with Andrew as he continues his important work for his constituents and his district. As we know, cyclones are no strangers to North Queensland, but Cyclone Yasi was an exceptional system. The widespread devastation—from Innisfail in the north to where the eye crossed in the Tully-Mission Beach areas and further south through Ingham—is a sombre reminder of its path. Some of the most vivid images are those of Cardwell, where the Bruce Highway almost touches the sea. The damage to the shops, the houses and the concrete walkway, which has been broken and washed up onto the highway, is the epitome of nature’s potential force. The images of nearby boats tossed like playthings in Port Hinchinbrook are testament to the additional tidal influence in the area. This cyclone spread for hundreds of kilometres. I have been advised that many people in Bowen felt the impact of Cyclone Yasi much greater than they felt the impact of Cyclone Anthony, which had come less than one week before. The Burdekin-Ayr-Home Hill area where I live incurred significant tree damage, with some dwellings sustaining structural damage. I acknowledge officers of the Department of Communities who have visited every one of those houses that has been damaged. The strongest gusts recorded in Townsville were 220 kilometres an hour, which means that it was a significant cyclone. Readings in the Burdekin area are inconclusive. In this time of need the work of the SES and emergency services has been very much appreciated and I cannot speak highly enough of their efforts. Townsville City Council has also been very proactive in setting up Operation Restore Townsville. This operation is effectively taking note of people who need assistance to clear trees and debris and is seeking volunteers to undertake this work. The Townsville City Council’s community safety chairman, Dale Last, has overseen much of this work, and this is appreciated and certainly needs acknowledgement. As a prelude to the operation, given the amount of work that necessitated the operation, a chainsaw awareness and safety course was arranged. This work started in earnest last Saturday and Sunday, with over 400 people participating. As Councillor Dale Last has said, it will take many weeks, if not months, for some remedial works to be carried out. Last night on the Townsville news an elderly gentleman was full of praise for the work that was carried out on his behalf, knowing that he could not manage it himself. Councillor Last also said that there were many elderly people who openly cried at the assistance that had been afforded to them. That assistance has no doubt been mirrored elsewhere right across this great but impacted state. In many respects, the scope of the damage is still too difficult to quantify. From one piece in isolation, the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi has seen the largest mobilisation of electrical field staff in Australia, with more than 2,000 people working on the restoration effort. Ergon has been supported by Energex workers, together with others in the state and additional personnel from New South Wales and Victoria. Approximately 36 hours after the cyclone crossed the coast it was estimated that 144,000 Ergon Energy customers in North Queensland—or 46 per cent—were without power. However, Ergon has commenced operations, having already restored 36,000 customers, mostly in the Mackay- Whitsunday area. As of 10 o’clock this morning, 1,792 homes had been connected in the previous 24 hours. There were still over 10,000 homes without supply; however, significant progress was being made across the regions that were most severely impacted. I am aware of Burdekin crews who, having now completed repairs within the district, are now in place at Innisfail assisting with their restoration. These teams, along with other emergency services and agencies, are to be thanked for moving to these areas of need away from their own families. Their efforts have been magnificent. As the emergency services minister, Neil Roberts, has said, a total of 63 out of Queensland’s 73 local government areas are now covered under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements. Those figures can sum up the isolated but often intertwined weather events that Queensland has endured. I must also acknowledge and thank Minister Roberts for his office staffer David Smith, who kept us in the north supplied with this information. Mr Roberts: I have thanked him on behalf of many members. Thank you. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 79

Mrs MENKENS: I thank the minister. The impost of this cyclone on industry has been great. Losses to the bulk of Australia’s banana industry are huge and will once again put pressure on growers following on from Cyclone Larry. The cane industry, after a trying 2010, has sustained damage to both infrastructure and the crop. Tourism has been hard hit, with many of the pristine resorts and natural wonders severely impacted. Another industry that has been impacted is the vital fishing industry. Early indications show that Cyclone Yasi and Cyclone Anthony have had an impact. In the past there was a Tropical Cyclone Hamish working group, with input from bodies such as Fisheries Queensland and James Cook University. Their studies and surveys reflected the decrease in catch after Cyclone Hamish. A Bowen mango growing family who I know well has been hit with a double whammy. The great majority of their 2010 mango crop was transported and held in frozen storage at Rocklea. Despite their best endeavours this fruit was not able to be removed prior to flooding and they have incurred the loss of their entire 2010 income as they retained ownership of the fruit. Because of the criteria it seems that they do not qualify for any form of assistance. This farm has now endured tropical cyclones Anthony and Yasi which will certainly test their resolve and resilience. Sadly, there are many businesses that are caught in the vortex of the criteria and they will have a great deal of difficulty in rebuilding. The scale of the devastation has almost been exceeded by the number of people who have volunteered their time and resources to support people and businesses in their quest to get some normality and routine back into their lives. Every affected person’s coping mechanisms have been put through an enormous test. Over the past two months throughout many parts of Queensland people’s lives and livelihoods have been at best put on hold, with many very much in limbo. In many ways it can be seen that the bigger the challenge presented to Queenslanders the more resolve there has been as a collective to overcome it. We in this House need to acknowledge this and support these Queenslanders and industries. The heartfelt speeches that we have heard from so many members today whose electorates have been badly affected by these multiple disasters have been a testimony to the hurting right across Queensland. I know that all of those members are feeling for and caring for their constituents. On a personal level, I must thank the Speaker and the Clerk and the minister for community services for their phone calls and messages of concern for my family and also the messages from my colleagues in the opposition. But it is onwards and upwards. We can and we will rebuild. I have no doubt that with the combined support of federal and state governments this will be achieved. The infrastructure can be rebuilt but, more importantly, we must be able to offer to those who have lost so much the assistance to rebuild their lives. The clean-up is huge. We applaud the efforts of the Defence Force, the SES, volunteers, the Department of Communities, EMQ and so many more. But at the end of the day, it is the individuals who are working the hardest. I would like to finish on a lighter note. Anybody who knows about tropical vegetation will know that it is well known as the home of myriad green ants. These are some of the nuisances that are being encountered by people right across North Queensland in their clean-up. I know that everyone in North Queensland cleaning up after Yasi would share the thoughts—and the green ants, should I say—of local Burdekin poet Anne McCubben. I would like to share this excerpt from her poem— The green ants are annoyed round here; Their nests have been destroyed, Blown down with many branches and They are not overjoyed... But we are cleaning up the yard And green ants must be faced. They’re even walking round our house Inside—they’ve ventured in; They must have blown there from the trees; It seems we cannot win; Now, even when they’re partly squashed, They cling the more and nip; Half-dead they’re biting very hard On thigh or knee or hip; I’m sorry that they’ve lost their nests; I’m told they’re good for plants, But I don’t like their nasty bite; I can’t abide green ants. Mr KNUTH (Dalrymple—LNP) (8.43 pm): I rise to speak to the motion of condolence for Queensland’s natural disaster victims and in doing so support the motion. In December last year as I looked at some of the weather patterns throughout Queensland I noted that the rainfall for various towns was above the normal average. In relation to Charters Towers, from August right through to December we were getting rain every seven days. That was unheard of. When I was speaking to my family in December I told them that I felt this was going to be a big year. 80 Motion 15 Feb 2011

Some of the graziers have said that they have never seen anything like this where Charters Towers, usually a very dry area, received so much rain, especially from August right through to December. Sadly, it resulted in the devastation that we have seen, and we hope that there is no more to come. The end of 2010 and the first month of 2011 will be forever imprinted in the minds of Queenslanders as a time when we were reminded of what can sometimes be the destructive force of nature. It has been a time of tragedy and widespread devastation but also a time when we saw the selfless and resilient nature that is at the heart of Queensland communities. As we saw towns all over South-East Queensland and Central Queensland facing rivers rising and breaking their banks again and again, people were moved to pray, to volunteer, to donate money and to help in any way they could, big or small. We watched in disbelief as homes and businesses in towns like Alpha, Jericho, St George, Emerald, Rockhampton, the Granite Belt and many others were inundated with floodwaters and livelihoods were washed away. As we saw the horrible destruction and losses of our fellow Queenslanders in the Lockyer Valley and Toowoomba and devastated communities in the Darling Downs, Ipswich and later Brisbane, we were staggered and saddened at the loss and were overwhelmed at the mammoth task of rebuilding that lay ahead. As the 500-kilometre wide storm cell Cyclone Yasi bore down on Far North Queensland to tear a path of destruction through coastal towns near Mission Beach, Tully and Cardwell stretching from Cairns to the Burdekin and extending inland belting an area from the Atherton Tablelands to Charters Towers, we in Far North Queensland bunkered down. I was in my electorate office on the Monday afternoon before the cyclone hit on Wednesday. On the Tuesday I was flying down to Mackay to attend the opening of a new Emergency Services building at Moranbah. As we looked at this cyclone the weather bureau forecast it to hit somewhere between Townsville and Ingham. Looking at that and the size and the scale of this cyclone, which had a cloud mass bigger than Queensland, I believed it was not a time to go anywhere. My main focus was to get home. Directly behind Townsville was Charters Towers. Burdekin was going to cop it, likewise Ingham. The next day, as I arrived back in Charters Towers, the bureau forecast that the cyclone was going to hit somewhere around Innisfail and Cairns. Directly behind Cairns is the Tablelands, which is in the northern part of my electorate. On Wednesday, on the eve of the cyclone, I rang my colleague Andrew Cripps. I probably used most undiplomatic words; I just said, ‘It doesn’t matter, Andrew, which way the cyclone goes, we’re not going to escape’. It was probably the most unstimulating and boring conversation that I have ever had with him. I rang him up again two hours later to try to encourage him through this event and to cheer him up. He was very focused on what was happening, which was totally understandable, and I would like to commend him for what he has done for his electorate. I would also like to acknowledge all of the other members of parliament because I really believe that this is a difficult time for all of us, as members of parliament, and likewise for our staff. It is a time when there is a lot of work in front of us. There is a lot of emotion and we have to deal with those emotions. It is very difficult for all of us. As the cyclone hit and we saw the devastation at Mission Beach, Tully and Cardwell, I had the opportunity to inspect an area of 500 kilometres which was damaged in my electorate from the Tablelands to Charters Towers. There was extensive structural damage and roof damage; there was wood and metal debris in backyards; trees had fallen on homes; fences, gates and gutters had been lost; sheds, cattle yards and thousands of kilometres of fences had been destroyed. I am advised that as of today my electorate has been returned to full power. The clean-up will take a long time and many sick and elderly are still unable to clear debris and wreckage from their homes and properties. I would be happy to support any gesture from Queensland Corrective Services to provide very low-risk prisoners to assist in the clean-up in the Dalrymple electorate. I would also like to acknowledge all of the church groups and volunteers who came in to assist the elderly, those people with disabilities and the most needy during this time. The scale of the devastation is so huge that there is much work to do. There has been a great impact on small business and farmers. For example, many dairy farmers have lost thousands of litres of milk through the lack of power generation. Many properties are still inaccessible and some cover hundreds of square miles. I raise the plight of graziers whose properties lie behind the Tully area and were battered by category 4 winds. They have suffered from loss of stock and structural damage to their homes and sheds. Everywhere, trees have fallen on fences. Repairing homes and sheds is a mammoth task, but the biggest task that the graziers face is clearing trees from access roads and repairing and rebuilding vast fence lines. Thousands of kilometres of fencing needs to be repaired to secure boundaries before the mustering season can start and cash flow can be generated. Cattle are roaming from one property to another and that situation is almost beyond control. For many places, it could take up to two years before they are secure again. However, with assistance, that time frame could be reduced to six months. Many properties only have a husband and wife team. Other properties are run by couples with young families. The task ahead is overwhelming and many owners do not know where to begin. Fatigue and depression is setting in. They are not asking for financial assistance; they are just asking for manpower. In the bush there is a total lack of manpower to assist the recovery of people who desperately need support. They need Army support or support from such things as Operation Farm Clear which was used following Cyclone Larry, and BlazeAid which was utilised to 15 Feb 2011 Motion 81 repair fences and other things following the Victorian bushfires. We do not need a repeat of the lack of assistance and hardship that graziers faced following the 2008 floods in the gulf. At that time, graziers were basically ignored, thousands of head of cattle perished and the workload was overwhelming. As members would be aware, for an extensive period the Bruce Highway was cut at Cardwell and Tully. Reports on the radio suggested that behind Tully an inland highway could be used to access Charters Towers and the Tablelands. For years we have been pushing to have that road permanently secured, sealed and upgraded to a double-lane highway. However, a lot of work needs to be done. When word got out that there was an inland highway, a convoy of trucks, tourists and others began to use that road. However, a lot of work still needs to be done to flood-proof the highway at the areas where people were stuck for days. Those areas include Hann Creek, Lolworth Creek, Fletcher Creek, Basalt River, Sandy Creek, Stockyard, Snake Creek, Clarke River and other low-lying areas. By sealing and flood-proofing the inland road, we can solve a lot of the problems that people faced. It would relieve congestion on the coast road. It would create an inland highway that could be utilised when the coast, which can receive extremely high rainfalls, is flooded. It would bring great benefits to the region. The Minister for Main Roads and Transport is in the House. I acknowledge that through state and federal funding, over $150 million over five years will be spent on the road. However, I really believe that this is the time to fast-track that road, because if the Bruce Highway is cut we will always have an access road from Charters Towers to Mount Garnet. That would secure the Atherton Tablelands and would provide a vital food chain and supply line to the regions, which is what we lacked when the Bruce Highway was cut. In relation to Telstra, I would mention that Ravenshoe was out of power for five days. The saddest part about that is that Telstra telephone towers have batteries that provide power for only 24 hours. Once the power goes off, the battery goes flat within 24 hours and we have no coverage. It was difficult to have no power, but that was understandable because of all the lines that were down. However, to have no communication was terrible. I believe that problem can be resolved. Hopefully, we can take that to the feds and have it sorted out. Mount Garnet had no suitable evacuation centre. The scale of the cyclone was so big that all possible centres were considered unsafe. During Cyclone Larry, Mount Garnet was pelted pretty hard and a lot of people were extremely concerned about that. We need to ensure that there is a secure evacuation centre for those people to access. A lot of people were very scared and frightened as the cyclone pounded down upon them. I congratulate the disaster management committees of both the Tablelands and the Charters Towers regional councils. I acknowledge David Smith, the principal policy adviser for the office of the Minister for Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services. David did a great job. We are talking about an area that covers 500 kilometres, which is home to many small communities that were without power. Every day or twice a day David would update us on when the power would be restored. That really helped alleviate the feeling of isolation felt by those communities. That was much appreciated. He did a wonderful job. Appreciation also goes to the Clerk of the Parliament and the Speaker for continually contacting us to see that our staff were okay and that we were okay, and to offer any assistance that they could. You cannot ask for anything better. I thank my colleagues and the Leader of the Opposition, John-Paul Langbroek, for their kind support during that period. I acknowledge the heroic efforts of our emergency services, the selflessness of volunteers, and the prayers and support of many through some of the worst disasters in our state’s history. That is what makes us really proud to be Queenslanders. Hon. GJ WILSON (Ferny Grove—ALP) (Minister for Education and Training) (8.56 pm): Schools are the heart and soul of our communities and, during the disasters of the past two months, the hearts of those communities have been broken. I wish to convey my deepest sympathies to the Queensland school communities, principals, teachers, school staff, students and their families who lost loved ones, homes and precious possessions in the floods and the cyclone. Despite all of the devastation and heartache, communities have responded with a strength of spirit never seen before. Volunteers turned out in their thousands while Education Department staff, QBuild and contractors hit the ground to clean up and repair schools as quickly as possible. Getting back to school was and is an important step towards restoring a sense of normality and stability for disaster affected students and their families. Thanks to the mighty efforts of workers and armies of volunteers, that was able to happen. Ninety-two state schools were damaged during the floods that hit Central Queensland, South- West Queensland and South-East Queensland in December and January. By the first day of the 2011 school year, namely 24 January, 89 of the 92 schools were able to reopen. The reopened schools may not have been pretty—for example, some were missing carpet—but all were safe. Contingency plans were worked up for all affected schools but only had to be activated in these cases: Milpera State High School students have been temporarily relocated to Yeronga TAFE, Rocklea State School students are learning at Moorooka State School and classes for Milton State School students are being held at the Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology at Toowong. Education Queensland is working to have repairs completed at those three schools and students back at their own schools as quickly as possible. 82 Motion 15 Feb 2011

During Cyclone Yasi earlier this month we faced the challenge of a natural disaster during the school term. Unlike the flooding, 346 state, Catholic and independent schools and several TAFE campuses in Far North Queensland, North Queensland and Central Queensland were closed on Wednesday, 2 February and Thursday, 3 February because of Yasi. Some were able to reopen by the Friday, but 170 were damaged or still without essential services such as power. Most were progressively reopened last week after repairs and safety checks. Just six school days after the cyclone, the last 11 of the 170 schools reopened and one TAFE institute began operating again from a nearby location. Like all Queenslanders, I was saddened by the dreadful vision and the pictures of the disasters, but to see the flood devastation for myself personally when I visited Murphys Creek, Toowoomba East, Withcott, Helidon, Grantham and Forest Hill state schools earlier this month was deeply shocking and moving. Touring the area with the member for Lockyer, Ian Rickuss, I heard stories of heartbreak, heroics and dedication. These include Grantham principal, Christie Minns, who opened her school to her community to provide support to locals who lost everything and worked tirelessly along with others to reopen her school again, all with a nine-month-old baby on her hip, and Murphys Creek principal, Jo Sinclair-Jones, who rallied her community despite her school experiencing personal tragedy with the deaths of two staff members. The response from community members, businesses and organisations to help disaster affected students, teachers and schools has been overwhelming. More than $2 million worth of donated goods such as books, clothing, shoes, bags and computer software has been collected and distributed to Queenslanders in need by OneSteel Pty Ltd at Acacia Ridge. Support is also coming from across Australia. SchoolAid Australia, an organisation representing peak bodies in the Australian education community, has arranged a national school aid day for Thursday of this week. Staff and students are encouraged to make a gold coin donation and schools are encouraged to hold a minute’s silence. It has not been the start to the school year that anyone expected and certainly no Queenslander ever wants to see this repeated. I want to acknowledge the exemplary work of my director-general, Julie Grantham, all senior staff, regional staff, principals and school staff, parents and volunteers who met and overcame great odds in the service of Queensland students. However, in truth there are too many— far too many—people to thank individually. So I want to thank everyone from all parts of the state, from all sections of the community, from all points of the compass within the communities in which these schools are, have always been and will always remain the hubs of the community. I thank all the people involved in the disaster response and recovery across the three school sectors—state schools, Catholic schools and independent schools—for minimising the disruption to the learning journeys of young Queenslanders. It is an extraordinary testament. What we have seen in the last six weeks against the backdrop of these extraordinary tragedies is the display and the clear demonstration of a powerful community in many places across Queensland coming together, putting the future of children and families first and working tirelessly to restore schools to full operating conditions to enable students to get back to school as quickly as possible. This has enabled them to resume a life of routine, normality and stability to make the biggest contribution that the schooling sector can make to the restoration of normality and stability to the lives of many thousands of flood affected families. In one way or another up to 130 schools and school communities have been affected by the floods or Cyclone Yasi. This may total approximately 60,000 to 70,000 students who in some way have been directly affected because their school has been damaged or their community. Whilst school infrastructure itself may not have been damaged, the community surrounding the school and the families within it may have been flood or cyclone affected. That is a very large body of students who, for months and maybe longer ahead, will be in some cases struggling to come to terms with not only tragedy but also the broader negative impact of these experiences upon their lives and the lives of their families. I know that every principal and every schoolteacher in every classroom, dedicated as they are to the education of these young students but more so to the broader welfare of their students, will be on standby and on careful watch to keep an eye on these students to assist us, through our guidance and counselling services, to make all of the appropriate responses that we should make to support these students, and indirectly their families, in their potentially challenging role of moving through this year on their educational journey to get the best they can out of their educational opportunity despite the experiences of the last six months. Hopefully, they will overcome those experiences so that they are stronger and better for those experiences nonetheless. I commend the motion to the House. Ms JARRATT (Whitsunday—ALP) (9.05 pm): I rise to endorse the Premier’s motion and in doing so, I extend condolences on behalf of the good people of my electorate to the friends, families and communities of those who have lost loved ones in this summer of devastation. I remember only one other time in my 10 years as a member of this parliament when we have suspended standing orders for such a prolonged period in order to express a unanimous and heartfelt outpouring of sadness, and that was on the morning after the planes flew into the twin towers and the Pentagon in the United States. In many ways, that day marked the end of an era of trust and peace in the international community and we grieved its passing. Today we grieve for the loss of life, lifestyle and property suffered by so many across this vast state. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 83

In our darkest hour we also take time to quietly acknowledge the rebirth of the Queensland spirit that rises up in time of need and will overcome adversity. This is an important opportunity for us as elected members of our communities from every corner of Queensland to stand here and speak on behalf of those we represent and say the things that need to be said after the events that have unfolded. Whether we have been at the epicentre of tragedy or glued to our television sets as lives have been torn apart, we have all been touched in a deep and genuine way. I think it is true to say that we have never been so acutely aware of the tenuous hold that each of us has on life, a life that can be taken in the blink of an unsuspecting eye. We have never hugged our children so tight as we cried rivers of tears for those who have lost theirs and we have never been so proud to be Queenslanders as a procession of volunteers that formed the mud army snaked its way through the streets of towns helping complete strangers begin to put shattered lives back together. I grew up on the western Darling Downs. So to see images of towns like Chinchilla, Condamine, Theodore and Dalby disappear beneath the muddy brown floodwater was almost unbelievable. This must be the ultimate heartbreak for communities that at first welcomed the rains as an end to long, long years of drought only to witness the welcomed guest turn on them in the cruellest of ways. I also sympathise with the residents of Rockhampton who again spent eerie sunny days waiting for the slow but inevitable floodwaters to engulf their lives just as it has done before. In 1991 I spent a week with my two small children in Rockhampton cut off from the north and the south as the Fitzroy River spread out across low-lying areas and inundated homes. It is tough stuff to walk away from a home knowing that the floodwaters will leave it uninhabitable for many months. However, what in any of our past experiences could possibly have prepared us for the vision of a raging torrent ripping through downtown Toowoomba? And how could we ever prepare ourselves for the news that an inland tsunami was engulfing the Lockyer Valley? I was listening to the ABC Radio when the first call started to go out for people to leave their homes immediately, but for some the warning came too late. As the news of death and destruction started to emerge, I know I was not alone in sobbing for the terribleness of it all. Then, of course, more and more communities were added to the list of those in the path of the waters until our capital city itself succumbed to the muddy torrent. There was a palpable sense of despair and helplessness in my community for the victims of these floods that by now numbered just about everyone south of the Tropic of Capricorn. When the Rotary Club of Airlie Beach decided to go out with the buckets to collect money for the Premier’s flood appeal, they were overwhelmed by the generosity of the community which I am sure was motivated by a genuine desire to do something, anything, that would help. Overnight, various other individuals and organisations set up collection points for goods, had sausage sizzles to raise money or donated resort accommodation to be given away to flood weary people including those from the emergency services who were so magnificent and magnanimous in their efforts. But it was not much later, on 30 January to be exact, that we in the Whitsundays were ourselves preparing our homes for a visit from the nasty version of Mother Nature. For a week or so, Cyclone Anthony danced around the before deciding to descend upon Bowen in the dead of night. As a category 2 cyclone, Anthony was strong enough to send us into our bunkers with emergency kits but not strong enough to wreak structural damage on the area. After the visit from Cyclone Ului last year, we had become efficient with cyclone preparation drill and knew a little more about what to expect in the aftermath. Many areas lost power, some for many days, but with the passing of Anthony all attention turned to the next monster lurking in the Coral Sea. Many local people simply got on the first plane out because, understandably, they just did not want to go through another cyclone, especially one with the destructive potential of Yasi. At this point I want to give all praise to the Premier and the team at the state disaster management centre whose regular, clear warnings left no-one in doubt about where the strike zone was likely to be and what action each of us should take. I applaud the quiet but unmistakeable message that it was time for each of us to take personal responsibility for making decisions early about what action we should take. I cannot for one minute imagine the trepidation and outright fear that must have gripped those in the strike zone as category 5 Cyclone Yasi bore down on them. Even as far south as the Whitsundays we lost power at midday on Wednesday, the 3rd, and were experiencing gale force winds by 6 pm. I am guessing that, for people all over North Queensland, it was the regular updates by the Premier and emergency service authorities coming from a battery operated transistor radio that provided the only comfort on the night of 3 February. While it was a great relief to wake up and discover that no news of human casualties had so far been reported, it soon became clear that the small communities at the epicentre of the storm had been ripped apart. There are so many images that defied even Hollywood’s imagination for disasters, but the sight of those yachts stacked up on top of each other was probably among the images that said it all for me. In the Whitsundays, Cyclone Ului had brought devastation to our boating fleet, so the images from Port Hinchinbrook touched a raw nerve in our community. As the days unfolded the news did not get much better for so many in those small communities from Innisfail to Ingham and beyond. 84 Motion 15 Feb 2011

While I am so grateful that the Whitsundays has weathered three cyclones in less than 12 months with minimal damage to infrastructure, these events have actually had a devastating impact on our economy. When vision of the floods and cyclones went out around the nation and the world, some countries went as far as putting out official travel advisories saying that people should not travel to Queensland. Many of our operators are experiencing cancellations of bookings made for holidays later in the year, up to six months out, and our resorts and business operators are already struggling to hold onto loyal staff and keep their doors open. It is a difficult message to sell, even to fellow Queenslanders. But, while we are experiencing our normal tropical weather patterns, the Whitsundays and indeed all of Queensland is ready to welcome visitors for the holiday of a lifetime. Rates and flight costs have never been so good, so now really is the time to book an Easter getaway in Queensland. Please tell your friends and family to support our tourists operators just as they have supported flood victims right across this state. Queenslanders are optimistic, glass half full people who just need to be cut a bit of slack over the next few months so that the many, many people who need to rebuild shattered lives have the time and space to do this. I know that whatever our politics in this place we are as one in our resolve to assist in that process. We are Queenslanders and we will stick together. Mr FOLEY (Maryborough—Ind) (9.14 pm): I rise to participate in the Premier’s condolence motion. At the outset, as so many other members have said, on behalf of the Maryborough community, we want to pass on our sympathies to the rest of Queensland. Even though we were fairly knocked around by floods, certainly the loss of life that people have experienced in other electorates is thankfully not a feature of what happened in Maryborough. Maryborough is a river city like Brisbane with a river that dissects the town. Maryborites are used to flooding, but I have to say that as a person who lives on the river in Maryborough—and I saw the waters coming up this time—I knew we were in for a flogging when I saw the height the water was getting to. Being a Brissy boy, I lived in Brisbane during the 1974 floods. I remember cleaning knee-high mud out of an automotive business at Albion. The stench, the filth and the enormity of the task was something else. As I saw the devastation in Brisbane this time was similar or even worse, it was so heartening to see the thousands of people who turned up to help. I cannot remember ever a time in Australia when people have turned up wanting to help in such droves that in some cases they had to be turned away. Australians are all about a fair go. We believe in the concept of helping out your mates. I must say that in recent years I have begun to despair as to whether that still accurately describes Australians. I must say now that I think it really does. Now I think that reputation has firmly been put back on the agenda. It was also heartening to see the way that members of parliament worked together, just like today. Today has been a day when we forget about politics and talk about the real hurts that Queenslanders are facing. I remember getting a phone call from my parliamentary colleague Michael Choi, the member for Capalaba. He rang and said, ‘Chris, we have so much stuff being donated in my electorate. Is there anything that you could take for Maryborough to help out?’ Michael sourced three pantech trucks via his electorate, as well as Peter Dowling and Dr Mark Robinson, I am told. Kevin and Josie Roe, who manage the Powerhouse Community Centre, Pastor Diana Allan, my family and a lot of other volunteers from Maryborough unloaded these trucks, and we were able to get those goods out to people who needed them. What we had left over ended up going out to Western Queensland. So they were fully distributed, which was really pleasing. There have been so many heroes in this particular crisis. The suburb of Granville was cut off, which often happens in a flood, but with the speed at which it was cut off they did not have time to get in the food supplies needed. It was very quick. We started experiencing phone calls saying that they needed bread and milk and asking what was happening, and people were getting very, very panicky. An emergency medical clinic was set up at the Granville Sports Club, and that was just an incredible example of people going well beyond the call of duty. There was a doctor, a team of nursing staff there and volunteers, but the members of that sports club—the everyday mums and dads—pitched in and cooked three meals a day for the people who were staffing that club. It was just an incredibly heart- warming thing to see. I had the opportunity of flying over to Granville in a chopper with Mayor Mick Kruger. We were able to deliver bread and milk and some prescription medication to places that were completely cut off—you could not get there by any other means than by chopper. Ironically, that particular sports club playing field has been damaged rather badly by vehicles and also by the chopper landing there, and that will be something I will talk about a little bit later on. We spare a thought for the families who have lost loved ones. We spare a thought for small businesses that have been decimated by the flooding and cyclone events. We spare a thought for the primary producers who have had whole crops wiped out and may not even survive. 15 Feb 2011 Motion 85

There were also funny stories. My family was all packed up to go on a well looked forward to week of holidays just when all of this happened. We quickly had to say, ‘Kids, hate to tell you this but the holidays are off.’ The kids were great. They were so understanding. They went and helped with the flood effort and offloading trucks and things like that. As much as that was a disappointment, I remember getting a phone call from a couple of owners of businesses in the Maryborough marina. They said, ‘We really need you to come down and have a meeting about flood relief and some of the things that are going on here.’ The floodwaters were up to the ceiling of the businesses in town. The marina was certainly devastated. When I went down there a young guy in a tinnie turned up. The marina was well and truly an island almost sitting out in the middle of the river. He said, ‘You’re Chris Foley, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Hop in and I will take you over and show you what is going on.’ So I hopped in the tinnie with this young man and all of a sudden we went straight past the marina. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ He took me over to a houseboat that he owned. It took us about 10 minutes to figure out that this was not the appointment I was actually going to. I looked at him and I said, ‘Basically you have hijacked me, is that right?’ He said, ‘Yes. I just saw you standing there and thought Chris Foley might be able to fix it so I bundled you into the boat.’ When we figured out that this was not the appointment I was supposed to be going to we had a good laugh about it. He actually took me out there and we sat on the boat. That marine suffered utter devastation. The marina itself was broken in half. I have pictures of a boat going backwards down the Mary River still tied to a piece of marina. It ended up near Bundaberg somewhere. Many boats were lost and sunk. But, thankfully, there was no loss of life. Like many other members of this House, I want to congratulate the Premier, Anna Bligh, on her sterling effort. The leadership she showed through this was something else. I think she has gained a great deal of respect in the community for that. It was not just Anna Bligh and her office who were very helpful to me and my staff during this crisis, but I make special mention—and I know she is not in the chamber anymore—of Karen Struthers, the Minister for Community Services and Housing and Minister for Women. She rang me on my mobile when I was in the middle of this clinic in Granville. There were all sorts of needs. She said, ‘These are the things that are available, how can we help?’ I was being peppered with questions from people in the clinic. I said to her, ‘There are people who really want to ask questions.’ So I literally handed over my mobile phone. She was absolutely fantastic. She was so helpful. The Minister for Child Safety and Minister for Sport, Phil Reeves, came up two days ago to have a look at some of the devastation of our sporting facilities and towns. Thank you for that Minister Reeves. I would really like to pay tribute to John-Paul Langbroek, the Leader of the Opposition, who, for no other reason than he was just genuinely concerned, rang me on two separate occasions to ask how we were going in Maryborough when it looked like we were going to suffer far more devastation than we actually did. Australia has well and truly rediscovered its spirit. What magnificent spirit has been shown by Queenslanders and people throughout Australia, whether we are talking about church groups or community groups. One of my great friends is the pastor of the Ipswich Region Community Church, Pastor Mark Edwards. It was really encouraging to follow on his Facebook page all of the work that he and his church did in the community of Ipswich. He opened the church doors and looked after and cared for people. In a very selfless way he put a stamp on that whole area in terms of helping people. On the local front again, there were Chinese whispers. I got a call at the office to ask whether I had heard that a body had been found in the Mary River. I said that I had not. Immediately I tried to find out what was going on. Then we got another call to say it was a three-year-old boy. The Chinese whispers were going well. I was able to ring both Inspector Stephen Wardrope and Inspector Daryl Powell and they were able to set me straight that that was not the case. It was a lady who had died of natural causes. Her body needed to be retrieved from the river. That was carried out by the SES swift- water rescue team, which also did an incredible job ferrying people back and forward from Granville. The Sporting Shooters Association of Maryborough, despite their range being pretty knocked around, have donated $1,000 to the Premier’s flood appeal, which is in my pocket. I have been trying to get a hold of the Premier all day to give it to her. I will get there yet. Helen Keller, the American political activist, said ‘Alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much.’ That has certainly been the theme of the volunteers who have worked together. Woodrow Wilson, a former US President, also said, ‘At every crisis in one’s life it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving.’ I thought of Premier Anna Bligh when I read that quote because there must have been times when she was really tearing her hair out through the crisis. Winston Churchill, whom I love to quote, said, ‘A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year and to 86 Motion 15 Feb 2011 have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.’ A number of members have said that people look at politicians and say that we never do anything. In some respects, we are damned if we do and damned if we do not. The stories that have been told of members of parliament working so hard in their particular communities despite suffering personal devastation has been very encouraging. The human spirit is never so noble as when it selflessly strives to help the helpless. Maryborough is used to flooding. Bill Brown who owns the tackle and chandlery shop was completely put out of business as was the Muddy Waters restaurant. Nev Foord owns the marina. The water was up to the roof. It ripped the infrastructure apart. As frustrating as it has been for those businesses, people in the Maryborough community turned up in droves to help those businesses get back on track and to clean up. Bill Brown was telling our office a story the other day that one person turned up and actually gave him money. He said that he wanted to come down and help but he could not get there and he did not have the time. He wanted to give him the money. People who regularly ate at Muddy Waters restaurant turned up and said, ‘We want to help you clean it up.’ Different church groups went down and volunteered. It was so encouraging to see those lists of people who worked so hard. Sporting clubs that have been hit hard in Maryborough are the Maryborough Football Club, Tinana Football Club, Wide Bay Rowing Club, Dundowran Equestrian Park Authority, including riding for the disabled, the Fraser Coast Shooting Complex—as I already stated before—Maryborough Bears AFL Club, Maryborough Softball, Granville Hockey, Maryborough BMX and Maryborough Memorial Bowls. I have already spoken to Minister Reeves about those particular issues. One of the things that really concerns me in the Maryborough community is that during this inundation the Hervey Bay Road was cut and the Torbanlea Road was cut. That effectively cut off the Hervey Bay Hospital from Maryborough. That put the lives of people in our community at serious risk. With the sharing of those two hospital campuses, most of the high-end emergency work is done at the Hervey Bay Hospital. It is a very good case for why Maryborough, with its proximity to the highway, should have a fully functioning, first-class A&E that is not bogged down at Hervey Bay Hospital. Turning to Cyclone Yasi, when we realised the size of this weather event most of us were stunned. I remember looking at a webpage which overlaid the Cyclone Yasi system with a map of the UK and the borders of that cyclone were larger than the whole of the United Kingdom, including Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. It was almost identical in size to Hurricane Katrina which saw some 1,800 people killed. I remember saying to my wife, ‘I am really, really worried about this.’ The eye of Cyclone Yasi was smaller than Hurricane Katrina which meant that, as it crossed the coast, there was effectively less time for the eye of the storm to provide some relief for people and I was very concerned about loss of life. Like a lot of other people who have a strong faith bent if you like, I decided that I would pray and I see it as nothing short of a miracle that so many lives were not lost given the extent of the property devastation. Some of my colleagues have talked about the boats being piled up, and I cannot get that picture out of my mind of those boats stacked up like a parking lot. These are boats weighing hundreds of tonnes. Despite this and a lot of other physical devastation that was caused, there was no loss of life other than the young man who lost his life due to asphyxiation. One thing that really encouraged me was the countless volunteers in Maryborough—the SES and all of the emergency services. Everyone basically dropped everything and worked like Trojans to help the community. One of my fun stories is that there was footage of a suburban street in Maryborough and when they went around the corner there were two guys in a tinnie fishing in their street. I must clarify that this was well out of running floodwaters. These guys were having a beer and when the reporter turned up they said, ‘Yeah, we just caught a fish.’ The Australian sense of humour is definitely alive and well. With these flood events, as I said before, with the Maryborough-Hervey Bay road at Torbanlea, the Hervey Bay Hospital was cut off from Maryborough. Just to put that in perspective, if someone at Bauple or Tiaro went into labour or someone had a critical health incident no-one could have gotten through to Hervey Bay Hospital, and the road to Gympie was also cut. I believe that is a very strong case, as I have said, for ramping up those emergency services for Maryborough. Lots of little communities like Bidwell were completely cut off. Granville was cut off. Bidwell was cut off and we had to go in via chopper to deliver medicine. A light rail link between Maryborough and Hervey Bay— something that I have spoken to the transport minister about before—really needs to be looked at as a way of getting people out of there quickly in a major flood event. With that, I endorse the Premier’s motion and thank all Queenslanders who worked so hard in this crisis. Hon. AP FRASER (Mount Coot-tha—ALP) (Acting Leader of the House) (9.32 pm): I move—

That the debate be now adjourned. Question put—That the motion be agreed to. Motion agreed to. 15 Feb 2011 Attendance 87

ADJOURNMENT Hon. AP FRASER (Mount Coot-tha—ALP) (Acting Leader of the House) (9.32 pm): I move— That the House do now adjourn. Question put—That the House do now adjourn. Motion agreed to. The House adjourned at 9.32 pm.

ATTENDANCE Attwood, Bates, Bleijie, Bligh, Boyle, Choi, Crandon, Cripps, Croft, Cunningham, Darling, Davis, Dempsey, Dick, Dickson, Douglas, Dowling, Elmes, Emerson, Farmer, Finn, Flegg, Foley, Fraser, Gibson, Grace, Hinchliffe, Hobbs, Hoolihan, Hopper, Horan, Jarratt, Johnson, Johnstone, Jones, Keech, Kiernan, Kilburn, Knuth, Langbroek, Lawlor, Lucas, McArdle, McLindon, Male, Malone, Menkens, Messenger, Mickel, Miller, Moorhead, Mulherin, Nelson-Carr, Nicholls, Nolan, O’Brien, O’Neill, Palaszczuk, Pitt, Powell, Pratt, Reeves, Rickuss, Roberts, Robertson, Robinson, Ryan, Schwarten, Scott, Seeney, Shine, Simpson, Smith, Sorensen, Spence, Springborg, Stevens, Stone, Struthers, Stuckey, Sullivan, van Litsenburg, Wallace, Watt, Wellington, Wells, Wendt, Wettenhall, Wilson