Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take the opportunity to again raise in this House the plight of the flood victims on the Coffs Coast from the flood event of 31 March. I also take the opportunity to commend the local newspaper, the Coffs Coast Advocate, for its work in campaigning on behalf of the flood victims. We saw in this Saturday’s copy of the Coffs Coast Advocate an open letter to Minister Macklin requesting justice for Coffs Coast flood victims.

We have a situation where, if you had a flood in February or you had a flood in May and it was declared a natural disaster, you received a Centrelink emergency disaster payment but, if you had a flood on 31 March on the Coffs Coast and it was a declared natural disaster, for some incredible reason you did not get access to that same Centrelink emergency disaster payment. It has been a subject of great inequity; it has been a subject that I have brought to this House on numerous occasions. This House received a petition on this matter signed by some 6,002 petitioners protesting about this injustice. That our Prime Minister would come into this House and promise assistance to these people in the glare of the lights here and in front of the whole press gallery and then the very next day deny that assistance is an absolute outrage.

Part of being Australian—and I think most people agree—is that you should get a fair go. People expect a fair go and Australians expect to be treated equally—not any better, not any worse, but equally. Yet this Prime Minister and this government are denying assistance to the Coffs Coast flood victims who had their property damaged or destroyed, who had their lives tipped upside down on 31 March. We have seen nothing but excuses from this government; we have seen nothing but excuses from Minister Macklin.

It is an interesting chronology of events. On 3 April, after the disaster occurred, Minister Tony Burke came to the area and had a look around the Coffs Coast. To his credit, he came and he had a look around and he saw the devastation inflicted on private homes; he saw the devastation that was inflicted in the CBD and other badly affected areas around Coffs Harbour, and I was pleased to be able to show him around some badly affected areas. I give full credit to him: he came to Coffs Harbour, he had a look at the situation on the ground and, quite obviously, he reported back to the Prime Minister.

The concern is that some time later, when Minister Macklin was asked for input by the Prime Minister, she indicated that the problem was that the destruction was primarily to public infrastructure. She had received reports; Minister Burke had been to Coffs Harbour and seen the damage. Yet Minister Macklin, obviously living in a dream world, claimed that the damage was to public infrastructure. We corrected that straightaway. As soon as I received the advice from Minister Macklin that that was why the flood victims were not offered assistance, we immediately contacted the council, which gave us the statistics: some 2½ thousand homes damaged, people still out of their houses months later, still unable to move back into their homes. We provided all the statistics that were available to correct the minister’s mistake.

You would reasonably expect that, having given the excuse that damage to public infrastructure was the reason the victims did not receive any money, once that was corrected it would be fixed. But we then had another excuse from Minister Macklin: in fact, there were only four local government areas affected in that 31 March event. That became the new reason why Coffs Coast flood victims were not paid. Then the minister, suffering from incredible embarrassment, decided to blame the volunteers of the SES: they obviously gave her the wrong information! That was the next reason why she was not able to pay.

We have the situation where, months later, this government is denying Coffs Coast flood victims their rightful entitlement to be treated just as other Australians have been treated in recent flood events. We have had our local newspaper, the Coffs Coast Advocate, campaigning on behalf of the local victims. I certainly made the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government aware with my megaphone. He came to do a local council event and I was there with my megaphone. A range of locals protested and made him aware that they will not take this lying down and that they expect justice. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.