Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on the government’s response to the recent earthquake that struck Indonesia?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Pearce for her question and her interest. The latest official estimate of the death toll from the earthquake near Yogyakarta is 5,136. Injuries are estimated at 20,000 and up to 200,000 people are now in need of shelter as a result of 60,000 homes being destroyed. This is a major disaster. The Australian government will now provide $7½ million for critical humanitarian assistance to the survivors of the earthquake, and as part of this we will send supplies and over 80 experts to Yogyakarta urgently to assist with the relief and recovery effort.

An Australian medical team of 27 medical and surgical personnel, all coming from New South Wales, is going to depart for Indonesia today to join with the AusAID team which is already on the ground in Yogyakarta. That team coming from New South Wales will include surgeons and operating staff, disaster medicine specialists and logisticians. Also, they will take with them 12 tonnes of medical equipment. Food and water will also accompany the team. AusAID staff who have been on the ground since Saturday are assisting with the assessment of the needs of the people of the Yogyakarta area. They have recommended sending urgent orthopaedic instruments as a result of the massive injuries suffered by people, and those orthopaedic instruments are now on their way.

There have been reports of heavy rain falling in the area, and that is of course compounding the challenges of the relief effort, so AusAID are purchasing tarpaulins for the local people to help address that problem. There have been also, importantly, a large number of aftershocks. There have been 750 reported, and that means that people have been very reluctant to return to their own buildings. So at this time of crisis Indonesians are calling on their friends and their neighbours to help them out and, because this is a genuine humanitarian catastrophe, I think we have a humanitarian obligation to assist, so assisting is what we are doing.