Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience) | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Davey, for the question. Firstly, I want to extend my, the government's and, I'm sure, this chamber's sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the now 24 people who have lost their lives to the terrible flooding event that started in Queensland on 22 February and has spread throughout the east coast to encompass over 81 local government areas in Queensland and New South Wales. I also want to thank our amazing SES, RFS, emergency service volunteers and ADF and all those wonderful Australians who've done what we are best known for: helping out our neighbours and our communities when times are tough.

This isn't over. Just today the rains are continuing to fall, and right now we have six evacuation orders in place for these already traumatised communities. We will continue to work closely with both New South Wales and Queensland to ensure that support is available to those communities in need. I want to pay tribute to both my state Labor colleague in Queensland and my state Nationals colleague in New South Wales for working so collaboratively during this period.

Having visited Lismore, Gympie, Ballina, Brisbane and other communities, I know that, as former Governor-General Cosgrove said when he was on the ground in Lismore, it is like ground zero. This recovery effort isn't going to be a sprint; it's going to be a marathon. Our government has delivered the fastest rollout of both financial and non-financial assistance to these communities we've ever seen following a major disaster event. It is at a scale that is likely to surpass our response to the Black Summer bushfires.

In anticipation, we activated COMSDISPLAN on 25 February, and it remains active. Queensland made its first request on 26 February, and later that week we also had requests in for category A and B assistance from New South Wales. Since then, we've been able to support over 1.4 million Australians, in combination with our state government colleagues, to get through this disaster. (Time expired)