Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It is appropriate that the national parliament should pause and offer our condolences to our friends in Japan, and I thank the government for scheduling this time. I also congratulate the government for the announcement this morning of the aid and note that we were among the first responders, as Japan was, right after the earthquake in Christchurch. That spirit of generosity now is being more than repaid and I am proud to be a part of that. This condolence is unusual in that we are not paying our respects to a disaster in the past tense but one that is still unfolding. All of us here are aware of the unthinkable magnitude of this disaster—the compounding horror of quake, tsunami, the crippled nuclear power complex and heavy unseasonal snowfalls—so I wish to add the condolences of the Australian Greens to those who have spoken already. Our thoughts are with those who have lost family and friends, those made homeless, and those who still endure the fear of not knowing if their loved ones are safe with so many still missing.

It would be easy to dwell on the unbelievable suffering that overtook the Pacific coast without warning the Friday before last. But what shines through are the moments of courage and resilience that show up the true character of the Japanese people. The website prayforjapan.jp hosts translations of messages from inside the disaster area. I have just picked out two. The first:

An old man was rescued after being stranded in a house for 42 hours. He smiled at the camera, ‘I’ve experienced the tsunami in Chile. I’ve seen everybody get back on their feet. I know we can do it.’

Another one:

Nights were never this dark, and I never realised how beautiful the stars were. Sendai, look up and keep your heads high.

That was overheard in an evacuation camp. Yesterday, we saw a young man and his 80-year-old grandmother rescued from the freezing ruin of their house where they had been surviving on yoghurt and soft drink while they waited for the Self-Defence Force to arrive.

A day after the quake shook Tokyo and stopped the city the trains were back in operation. I have seen an image of a road in Ibaraki prefecture torn in half and displaced several feet in either direction and a photo that was taken four days later showing the road repaired. The nationwide energy-saving crisis was dubbed Operation Yashima, from a famous Japanese animation. On 14 March, in the face of extreme power shortages, people cut 40 per cent off demand for electricity.

We must acknowledge those at the centre of the exclusion zone: engineers, technicians, emergency services workers and SDF personnel who, as we speak today, are taking extraordinary personal risks to prevent the meltdown disaster from escalating to something truly unthinkable. We do not know the names of those people cycling in and out of the plant on 10-minute shifts, but we owe them our gratitude nonetheless. One of them wrote to his wife:

Please try to be well. It’s important at least you do. I won’t be able to come home for a while.

It is too soon to know what lessons will be learnt from the meltdown at Fukushima, even as the invisible killer of radiation stalks northern Japan and complicates rescue efforts. That is not a debate for right now, but one day soon there will be a reckoning.

I have been fortunate to travel to Japan on several occasions and must admit I love the place dearly, the warmth of the people and the sheer crazy energy of the place. It is deeply distressing to see our friends there put under such awful stress. My partner, Rico, who is in the gallery today, has already taught me a lot about the resilience and the stoic courage of her people and has shown enormous courage and love herself. She emphasises that spirit of ‘what can I do?’ and she just got to work. I am in no doubt at all that this country will rebuild stronger. This is a country that does what it sets out to do. For the moment, we focus on disaster recovery and relief for those in the midst of suffering; tomorrow thoughts turn to rebuilding. Another useful word to add to our lexicon that Senator Abetz introduced is ‘Ganbare,’ which translates roughly as a combination of ‘take courage’ and ‘keep your chin up’. Ganbare, Nihon. Ganbare, Tohoku.