Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Human Services. Will the minister update the House on how the government has prepared for Tropical Cyclone Debbie to ensure that Queenslanders will receive assistance as soon as possible?

Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question. The member for Leichhardt understands very deeply how destructive these cyclones can be, particularly having experienced Cyclone Yasi in 2011.

My department, the Department of Human Services, provides services to more than 98 per cent of the Australian population, and it stands ready to assist people in communities impacted by Tropical Cyclone Debbie. During an emergency or major disaster, our initial goal is to ensure the continuity of Australian government payments and services to Australians when they need them most. We are fully prepared for this, even knowing that some service centres in affected areas are closed temporarily, including several in Townsville today. In addition, the National Emergency Call Centre Surge Capability has been placed on standby to provide assistance to the Queensland government. This centre will allow the Queensland government agencies to divert excess calls to their non-triple 0 emergency lines during the response and recovery effort to ensure that they are answered promptly.

We hope the damage caused by Tropical Cyclone Debbie will be minimal, but we will assess the impact on the North Queensland communities and on our service centres once the cyclone has passed. If Tropical Cyclone Debbie is formally declared as a major disaster in coming days, our emergency response actions are on standby and ready to be activated immediately. This can include dedicated teams of experienced staff that we send out to evacuation centres to support the emergency response and restore our normal business; the opening of hubs in evacuation centres; and work on the ground, one on one, with individuals in the community to ensure that they receive all of the support that they need. We also deploy our social workers to evacuation hubs in affected areas immediately after an emergency. They provide people with immediate morale and emotional support to get through what is often a very traumatic experience. Support is also given to pharmacists to maintain supplies of medicines and to dispense PBS medicines to people whose prescriptions are lost or destroyed. In addition, our mobile service centre buses are on standby, and we are currently moving one of them to North Queensland to assist on the ground.

My department has good experience and expertise in these matters and has assisted the response and recovery efforts for several cyclones in recent years, including Lam, Marcia, Nathan and Olwyn. I take pride in knowing that staff from my department are often first in and last out from disaster areas. I hope that these services that I have outlined will not be needed in North Queensland, but we are standing ready to work with the state governments on a coordinated and swift response if necessary.