Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the worst of times we see the best of Australians, particularly regional Australians, and we have definitely seen that in recent days in and around Forbes. That town on the Lachlan River has of course been besieged by rising floodwaters. Hundreds of homes were under threat. Many of them had water running through them, and now there is the big task of ripping up carpet and doing all those messy and muddy things after a flood goes through—that is the job for those residents.

I want to say thanks this morning to all of those who helped willingly and voluntarily, doing what they could for their colleagues in the town and, indeed, for strangers who they may never have met before. I have to say thank you also to all the volunteers who came from all parts of New South Wales to render assistance. I spoke with a number of them. They were from the upper Hunter, they were from Kempsey, they were from all parts of our great state, there to lend a hand in the dire hour of need of the people of Forbes.

I want also to say thank you to the many businesses that have provided free coffee and free care packs, from the smallest coffee shop in town right up to Woolworths and Telstra. I had a meeting this morning with the regional general manager, Chris Taylor, and others in relation to the Telstra packs that were made available and taken up by 121 residents, providing free data, free calls and assistance when and where it's needed. Fifty thousand sandbags were filled by the State Emergency Service and by people just wanting to protect their own homes. There was of course an outstanding effort by the mayor, Phyllis Miller, and her shire council team. Phyllis Miller is one of the great mayors in my electorate, if not the state, and I know big things are in store for Phyllis as far as local government is concerned. But we saw the best of people and we saw the best of Phyllis during this crisis.

And the crisis is not over yet. The whole town is looking to the skies and watching the river and the floodwater levels, hoping that more rain does not tumble down and that the river does not rise any more, because the danger has not passed yet. But thank you to all of those full-time and volunteer helpers who have pitched in mightily to save what they could. I appreciate that there has been hundreds of millions of dollars of damage done to farms and crops. Forbes will get through it because it's a very resilient town—a fantastic town in the Riverina.