Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to advise this chamber of the wonderful work of five of the local members of the Scenic Rim State Emergency Service. At the recent Australia Day awards held on the night of Friday, 25 January in Beaudesert, I was privileged to present those five men with National Emergency Medals for their work during the 2011 Queensland floods. The men are Jeff McConnell, Graham Taylor, John Dixon, Josh Stumer and Graham Stumer.

The very next morning, these men were out doing what they are trained to do within the Scenic Rim as, once again, we were hit with heavy rain and winds causing flooding and requiring rescues, with massive damage to crops and farmlands, bridges and roads, and other vital local infrastructure—some of which had only just been repaired following the floods in 2011.

Congratulations to these men on this recognition and these medals, and a special thanks to them and the other members of the Scenic Rim State Emergency Service for the wonderful work they have been doing in the past couple of weeks. Currently in consideration are the deliberations of Attorney-General's on the Scenic Rim's classification or disaster declaration for category C. These are declarations that need to be approved, and I can only encourage that. That assistance is desperately needed by my growers on the ground and the businesses that have been affected. I trust that DAFF appraisers on the ground will understand the severity of the need for support in my electorate at the moment.