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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 Queensland 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 Toowoomba 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 Cyclone Yasi. (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 Brisbane—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 Australia 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 North Queensland 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 Bundaberg, Gayndah and Mundubbera, Emerald and Rockhampton, Condamine and St George. The Condamine River, the Balonne River, the Burnett River, 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 Lockyer Valley, 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 city of Brisbane 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 Central Queensland. 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