Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak after the member for Page, who represents a very beautiful part of Australia. I want to commend her care for her constituents, along with the previous speakers, the member for Hinkler and the member for Flynn. This is the second time in two years that I have been on my feet in this place expressing condolences as a result of flooding events in my electorate and across Queensland. The damage and the devastation from ex tropical cyclone Oswald in my electorate was not as severe as that in 2011 and nowhere near the level that we have seen in Bundaberg and other central Queensland and northern New South Wales communities. However, the effect on some pockets of my electorate was very significant.

In 2011, the flooding in Brisbane predominantly occurred as a result of the Brisbane River reaching dramatic heights. This time, it was localised flooding as a result of storms that caused suburban creeks and waterways to swell and to overflow. This led to houses and businesses getting flooded all over again. There were hundreds of thousands of dollars of storm damage, with trees and power lines coming down right across my whole electorate. Tens of thousands of my constituents were without power for periods of up to three or four days. Businesses lost their Eftpos facilities. Homes were flooded. Possessions and memories were lost.

Tragically, little Angus Burke, a three-year-old boy from Gordon Park was killed after a tree fell on him and his mother, Dr Zara Weedon, as they were innocently standing and watching the water rise in Kedron Brook creek while taking a walk with his dad, Dr Andrew Burke, and his little brother, Joseph. Dr Weedon is still in a critical condition in a coma at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. The Courier Mail today printed a very moving eulogy that was given by Dr Burke at Angus's funeral yesterday morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and his friends at this very sad time.

The sense of deja vu as the waters poured down and emergency warnings were issued sent shivers down my spine. We all recall the trauma and the devastation of the 2011 disaster. However, the extra warning made a big difference and people rushed to SES depots and began sandbagging their properties. The fact that some people sandbagged their businesses and properties and were not flooded was a good thing. This time, the Brisbane community was much more prepared than ever before.

I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, for visiting the Newmarket SES depot with me and helping to fill sandbags with volunteers. It is really important during times of disaster that we as a community—and particularly community leaders—express our appreciation for the work of volunteers. There were so many people out there helping so many of their fellow men and women. I want to pay tribute to all of the parents, the P&C and the principal, Paul Zernike, of Milton State School. A working bee of some 100 people and more rolled up at the school before the anticipated waters hit. Fortunately, Milton State School was not flooded, which was a great thing. They then had the mammoth task of putting back all of the equipment. Their preventative action is to be applauded.

The most affected areas in my electorate were parts of Windsor, Albion, Enoggera, Milton and Ashgrove. I want to pay tribute to Councillor Vicki Howard for coming out with me when we visited the northern suburbs of Brisbane where people were starting the heartbreaking process of cleaning up. The anguish and frustration on people's faces was truly heartbreaking. I want to also acknowledge Councillor Peter Matic and Saxon Rice, the state member for Mount Coot-tha, for coming out to the Rosalie shopping district, which was the scene of much devastation in the 2011 floods. Luckily, this time it was spared, so we all breathed a sigh of relief. I do not think that you ever recover from watching residents carry out wrecked and mangled furniture onto footpaths and hosing out their living areas for the second time in two years. That is a terrible thing.

When I visited Newmarket I saw businesses that had been flooded with two metres of water. Elite Dance Studio, for example, had just finished refurbishing their dance studio. They were waiting for enrolments and the start of dancing classes for the year. It was terrible to see the devastation of their fittings. There were volunteers working there. There is a wonderful bakery at New Farm, Chouquette Bakery. I want to pay tribute to this incredible bakery. People line up there every day to have a coffee and taste the finest French pastries. They had just started a wholesale bakery, had purchased the equipment and were about to start producing wholesale pastries for delis and for businesses in Brisbane. I saw the effect of the floods on their $80,000 brand new baking oven. You cannot move huge ovens like that. They were able to move some equipment but sadly they are now in the middle of an insurance claim.

The incredible community spirit that was celebrated in 2011 was on show again as neighbours and community members rallied to help their fellow Queenslanders. It was the case in the CBD, where I again waited and watched the water in the Brisbane River rise, praying that it would not go over the boardwalk, with Councillor Howard and also the state member for Brisbane Central, Robert Cavallucci. Watching the waters was very tense. Many CBD workers and many of those who owned buildings in the CBD were watching with dread and anticipation. Sadly, the effects of the last flood, the one in 2011, came to our minds. I want to acknowledge that, while the water did not reach the upper end of the boardwalk, it did damage Matt Moran's Riverbar restaurant. Our thoughts are with them at the moment as they try and rebuild from the damage that was done there.

Remarkable stories abound always in times of crisis. Strangers help other community members with hot showers and accommodation. They roll up and clean up houses. They clean up businesses, even though they do not know the owners. To see those acts of pure selflessness and generosity makes me really proud to be the member for Brisbane.

There are so many people I want to commend. I commend Volunteering Queensland for the website that they set up, Emergency Volunteering. There were some glitches during the 2011 flood; I know that they took away a lot of those lessons, and they were absolutely marvellous. This website basically connected those people interested in volunteering to help businesses and residents that needed help with sandbagging or cleaning up. This service was of huge benefit to my constituents who needed help. It ensured that help went to those who needed it the most.

I want to thank all of the police officers, the SES volunteers, emergency service personnel and community volunteers for their service. I have incredible admiration for their commitment. I want to particularly thank Mike Swanston and Energex. I did not have the need to ring Mike Swanston on this occasion. He and his crews were out there trying to reconnect power under some very difficult circumstances. I want to thank all of the workforce at Ergon Energy for the incredible work that they did, particular as they were under incredible pressure. Interestingly enough, the time that it took to reconnect homes and businesses was much shorter than it was in the 2011 disaster. I acknowledge the inconvenience of having no power for extended periods, causing food to go off in fridges and freezes, meaning that it needs to be replaced.

I want to thank the Australian and Queensland governments for activating the National Disaster Relief and Recovery arrangements. I am encouraging my constituents to take advantage of the emergency assistance grants available at community recovery centres. I have written to most of the affected areas, informing them of what relief grants are available to them. I would like to thank the Premier, Campbell Newman, and the Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk, for their outstanding leadership throughout this disaster period. The efforts that they went to to provide Queenslanders with as much information as possible and as soon as possible were suburb. Those efforts provided reassurance to residents that the government was there no matter what.

In particular, I want to commend the Premier. I met with him last Thursday and he announced the decision that allowed SEQ Water to release water early from Wivenhoe and Somerset dams. This ensured that when mass water flowed into the Brisbane River from the Lockyer and Bremer rivers there was capacity in Wivenhoe and Somerset to hold and contain water that fell within their catchments until the Brisbane River went back down. The people of the electorate of Brisbane would have been much more severely impacted if this action by the Premier had not been taken. I thank him for his leadership. I want to place on the record also the thanks that was expressed by Mayor Pisasale. I also acknowledge the incredible work that Mayor Pisasale did in his region as well.

I also agree with many representatives and the Premier on the need for governments at all levels to work together to ensure that we invest in infrastructure and planning policies so that neither I nor any future member for Brisbane has to stand up in this place and make a similar speech about floods ever again.

I would like to talk about something that I feel is absolutely essential. After a crisis, it is really important that we think about ways in which we can prevent these disasters from happening again. But I cannot emphasise enough—and I have spoken at roundtables with Minister Shorten about this—the need for digital elevation modelling and the real need for DEM mapping. This would allow more extensive and accurate hydraulic modelling. Normal flood mapping is useful, but it is a very generalised tool across suburbs and often does not allow or account for the different property levels within a suburb. While a property may be coded a certain way on a flood map because it is within a certain area, it may in fact be higher or lower than the proposed water levels because of individual characteristics of that property. DEM mapping also allows for identification of impediments to the water flow. It is really important that governments at all levels—local governments and the Queensland government—work together to make sure that this information is available not just to prevent floods and disasters from happening but also to help with infrastructure planning in the future.

I would like to urge insurance companies to act with fairness and compassion when dealing with claims from flood victims. I note the concerns that have been raised by many members of this House both on the opposite side and from our side of politics, particularly in the media, regarding the length of time that it is taking for insurance companies to respond to claims.

I am also getting reports that insurance companies are refusing to pay claims and, instead, are blaming local councils regarding local flooding and backflow issues. I share these concerns and will not hesitate to publicly expose any disingenuous conduct by insurance companies. The last thing that people need when they have gone through a natural disaster is again to have a fight with an insurance company.

In concluding I want to acknowledge the resilient spirit of Queenslanders and to reaffirm my commitment to continuing to work to get Brisbane families back on their feet after these recent events.

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