Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're all painfully aware that last week south-eastern Turkiye and northern Syria were devastated by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which was phenomenal. As that news came through, we knew what impact that would have. Since then, it has just been tragedy upon tragedy. It is just too staggering to comprehend that, as of this morning, 40,000 lives have been lost in both Syria and Turkiye.

The community I'm proud to represent in Chifley has a lot of people from Turkish and Syrian backgrounds who've made Australia their home. We are saddened not just for the people in Turkiye and Syria, but also feel for them as they go through this humanitarian crisis. Behind the numbers we see on the news is the human tragedy, there are the lives that are forever changed. People who are grieving the loss of their loved ones, who have lost their homes, are scrambling to save whatever's left in those freezing conditions.

We want to extend our condolences, if we may, to those who've lost family and friends during a very tragic event. We extend our thanks to the tens of thousands of rescuers, including the 72 Australian emergency personnel. They've landed in Turkiye. The rescue specialists, medical staff and engineers are bringing 22 metric tons of equipment, including first aid supplies, cameras and underground listening equipment to help them search for survivors.

I want to commend organisations in our area for the work that they're doing to help out in this time of need, in particular the Western Sydney Turkish Islamic Cultural Centre in Mount Druitt, who are doing some extraordinary work in helping in whatever way they can and providing a centre where people can drop in and deliver essential items that they want to deliver. They're calling out for other donations to aid impacted communities. As part of their humanitarian efforts, the centre is going to be holding fundraising stall at the mosque this Friday in Mount Druitt.

Some of the images from this devastating situation have been really hard to watch, like the dad holding on to the hand of his daughter who lost their life, crushed by some of that rubble. We all feel this and we just want them to know that we've seen it, we know what they're going through and we're there to help them at this time of crisis. We are very grateful to everyone who was there giving a helping hand at that truly terrible time.