Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to record my distress and that of thousands of my constituents regarding the devastating mudslides and floods that are presently affecting large swathes of Sri Lanka. The worst affected is the Ratnapura district, east of Colombo. I was sad to learn this morning that the death toll has now passed 200, with 202 confirmed dead and more feared. There are 600,000 people displaced, and these are the worst floods in 14 years to affect Sri Lanka.

The good news is that the water is receding slowly. However, the United Nations has warned that with increasing numbers of displaced people in temporary shelters, the risk of disease—particularly waterborne disease—continues to rise in the coming days and weeks. There are hundreds of thousands of people still with no access to water or electricity and they are fully reliant on voluntary services. I was pleased that over 24 countries so far have pledged support. Australia, along with Japan and Pakistan, has made an initial commitment of $500,000 for supplies, water purification tablets and so on.

Sri Lanka is very important to me; it is place I have visited. It is a country I love and I have people I consider as family there, as well as Sri Lankan people in my electorate and in my office. In this, the 70th year of diplomatic relations between Australia and Sri Lanka, I urge and encourage the Australian government to monitor the situation and to continue to be generous in our response in the coming weeks.