Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to associate myself with the comments of the Prime Minister and other members of the House over the past day. The stories they have told are many and they are deeply moving. I hope by putting the grief, the sorrow and the loss into words we can reassure the broader Australian community of our commitment to one another as Australians. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, when the true horror of the inland tsunami that struck Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley became clear, said, ‘I want us to remember who we are.’ These disasters have certainly made us remember who we are. They have revealed our core beliefs, held broadly across the nation, beliefs made apparent in the actions of care, of determination to hold firm in the face of adversity, to give service, to get in, one and all, and to get on with the clean-up. Across the entire nation, we have shared with another generation, generation Y, a formal and practical induction into the Australian way of enacting the deep understanding that we are an island nation and that we are all in it together.

Today I speak formally to honour the losses of lives and property, in cities, in regional areas and in rural settings. I speak to recognise the heroes and helpers who stood tall and have given such amazing service in extraordinary circumstances. As a citizen of this great country, Australia, I want to say on behalf of the people of Robertson that we care for you, our fellow Australians. Unlike the experiences of those in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, northern New South Wales, Tasmania and, more recently, the suburbs around Perth, our homes on the Central Coast were untouched by natural disaster. Yet the response to the flood crisis, in particular, has been nothing short of phenomenal. The people of the Central Coast have opened their hearts and their wallets and in many cases have put their bodies on the line to help those in need. They have approached me asking me to convey to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Premier of Queensland a recognition of their outstanding leadership and compassion at this time of great trial.

The people of Robertson, the people of the Central Coast, have reassured me that they want to be part of the rebuilding of the nation. We are more than willing to bear and share some part of the burden to ensure a fair go for those who have lost so much. Within days of the floods, every shop you walked into in Gosford had a donation bucket next to the cash register, for the Premier’s flood appeal. I have been to many local fundraisers. Our local Cumberland community newspaper, the Central Coast Express Advocate, ran a barefoot bowls afternoon out at the famous ABC, the Avoca Beach Bowling Club. There was money raised and there was also solidarity and reassurance that in our distant grief we were not alone, nor were we powerless to help from a distance.

A week later I was able to support another event, brought together by two Fire Brigade officers from Umina Fire Station, Billy McLean and Gary King. They are men with big hearts and great friends in the community and the emergency services. So, appropriately, they put on a triple-0 party at Woy Woy Leagues Club. I spoke that evening to many emergency services workers, who so deeply understand crises and disaster, but I also spoke to three young women who work for an insurance company up in the Hunter. They took calls from flood victims by day and then drove for an hour and a half from Newcastle by night to chip in and support the fundraiser, to do their bit.

One of our local Rotary clubs, the West Gosford Rotary group, asked me to speak at a fundraising dinner. Anthony and James and chef Jess put on a great Lebanese feast for more than 100 people at Byblos Restaurant just around the corner from my office in Gosford. Local businesses donated so generously and, by the end of the evening, Andrew Dickson, the president, and his trusty team had raised over $4½ thousand in one evening. I seek leave to table the list of local businesses who made donations to the event to ensure it would be a success. Their efforts deserve recognition in this place.

Leave granted.

Quietly, and with determination to do his bit for his country again, Australian cricket legend Arthur Morris, a member of Don Bradman’s invincible side, stepped up to do what he could from Tarragal Glen Retirement Village in Erina, where he now lives. Mr Morris donated one of his bats to the auction for a flood fundraiser. Last Friday, organised by our local radio station Star 104.5 FM, a convoy of care—six trucks from the Central Coast—headed up across the border with essentials and toys to bring a little comfort to those with so little. There were so many more local fundraising events that I will not have time to mention them here today, but I must take this opportunity to pay special tribute to two Central Coast mums who simply could not stand by while their fellow Australians were suffering.

Vanessa Betland and Sam Schuetze put together a mission of mercy to the flood ravaged area around Ipswich. They call their group the Central Coast Caravan of Angels. With an unbeatable attitude and fierce determination Vanessa and Sam marshalled financial and in-kind support from companies as large as Caltex, alongside local accounting practice Robson Partners, Chittaway Bay pharmacy and tavern, Donut King, Domino’s Pizza, Coastal Liner, Signarama, Axiom Psychological and Coaching Services, Star 104.5 and Sanitarium. These two women then went about rounding up their friends, supporters, local tradies and friends of local tradies—more than 60 volunteers in all. They got a bus, a few utes and they got to Ipswich. Volunteers paid their own way to get on a bus so they could get up there to help.

The practical side of their visit is that from Thursday, the 20th to Monday, 24 January they gutted houses, helped the ADF bag up rubbish, cleaned more than 20 houses and gave invaluable humanitarian assistance. The even more lasting gift they left behind was a delivery of hope for people who were wondering if others might forget their suffering. In her day job, Vanessa works for Robson Partners, while Sam tests children’s toys for safety. I want to give my special thanks to Vanessa and Sam, to their Caravan of Angels and their many supporters. Thank you for your amazing generosity of spirit. You are an inspiration. And it does not end there. The angels are going back to Ipswich on 24 February. Angels, you have done your region proud.

This summer has been one we will never forget, and it is one that we do not yet understand. Even as our amazing teams of emergency workers respond and some semblance of order is restored, there is the lingering question that hangs in the air: why? There are times we need to search out words to help us make sense of the great challenges that come to us in our lifetime. This is such a time. It is such a time because the floods, the rain, the wind and the fire tore away so much that our spoken words are a powerful way—sadly, sometimes the only way—in which we can record and acknowledge what was lost.

We as a nation have lost much. Every life is precious. What mother, what feeling human being would not be moved to tears by the account of 13-year-old Jordan Rice, who told his rescuers, ‘Take my brother first’? My own son, Noah, is just 14. Jordan’s courage certainly moved me.

The members for Oxley, Blair, Groom and Wright all gave moving testaments to both the pain and the resilience of the wonderful communities they represent. I am proud to be in this parliament with them. People across this great country who have survived nature’s worst are speaking of their amazing escapes and terrifying experiences in stories shared between neighbours and in words spoken in conversations down the phone. When the world around us has shifted, words offer us the chance to renew and restate our commitment to one another as human beings, to try to restore some order to the chaos and to reflect on what we have lost. To those who have lived in a disaster zone: we know that you have lost. So many treasured personal memories of places and lifetimes recorded in photographs and letters are lost and gone; so many years of tender caring for gardens, so many special pets, teddies, toys, music, iPods with favourite songs and special memories, computers with half-written books and letters—all gone. We know that, in the middle of that physical and emotional loss, the ordinariness of life was lost too. I want to reassure you that we all want to restore the ordinariness of life for you.

When we look back on this summer of 2010-11, it will be as a marker of time—a key moment in the life of our nation when nature once again revealed our vulnerability in the wake of her forces. Yet in our vulnerability we will find strength in one another’s commitment to our country and to our shared future. We will rebuild, we will not leave those most affected behind and we will be ever mindful of those we lost in the summer of 2010-11.

See this speech in context