Tropical Cyclone Alfred

That was a frightening last thought from the member for Brisbane—the Greens with the balance of power in a minority Labor government. I couldn’t think of anything worse as a nightmare scenario than that being the case when we return from the federal election, apart from the fear that my community felt during the effects of Cyclone Alfred.

I’ve never felt closer to my community than during the storm when so many sent me text messages and photos of the erosion along the beachfront in the electorate of Moncrieff and beyond. As we know, Cyclone Alfred severely impacted the Gold Coast across all three electorates of McPherson, Moncrieff and Fadden to the north, with 130,000 homes and businesses losing power, including my own. I was in a situation where I was at home, alone. My partner was elsewhere and couldn’t get home on a flight. It was quite harrowing with the wind, the rain and the noise that could be heard from the inside of homes. Of course, I felt for all Gold Coasters who then went without power, and very many of them—again, including me—were faced with a situation where there was no power for some time. Some Gold Coasters were without power for five days or more. I was only without power for about 36 hours. The work involved in preparing your home and working through the impacts of the cyclone as you’re inside your home—stuffing the windows and doors with towels and, in the aftermath, cleaning all of that up—but also losing the contents of your refrigerator or freezer impacts your family in this cost-of-living crisis that we’re having at the moment. They’ve lost that and, of course, are going through applying for payments and making insurance claims at the moment.

On the Gold Coast we had damage to infrastructure and to beaches. Whilst Cyclone Alfred hovered off the coast, he took our patience, but he also took our beaches. Southport Surf Life Saving Club in Main Beach was particularly impacted. We lost about 6.4 million tonnes of sand, which is the equivalent of 320,000 semitrailer loads. Some of the surf conditions were quite incredible, with a record-breaking 12.3-metre swell that was recorded off Main Beach. Residents across the coast felt at risk from those storm surges at very high tide, and we were very grateful that our rock wall was not penetrated during the storms. There was about two months worth of rainfall in 24 hours. The city informed me that there were 800 trees down across the city and some 2,000 jobs that were required and logged to fix that and get trees off the road, the paths and the powerlines to restore power. I thank all the emergency workers and also those that work for the City of Gold Coast for their continuing work which is being undertaken today. We do see the best come out in people at the worst times, and I want to thank my neighbours for sandbagging the front of my place while I was helping others in the community with serving our people and sandbagging their houses. I came home to a house that looked a bit safer than when I left, so I was very grateful for that.

I did convene a Moncrieff community cabinet before the storms to speak with faith leaders and not-for-profit community organisations across my electorate so that we could help the city with a list of resources that we could put forward that they could use in terms of meeting rooms, community halls and those sorts of things as additional resources for the city. I want to thank my community cabinet for coming together before the storms and again after the storms. I convened a meeting after the storms so that we could discuss how we could improve, the medium- to long-term recovery of our community and how we could best help with food security and other measures.

I want to praise the City of Gold Coast for the preparation and the recovery work, and I also want to assure Australians that the beach recovery is well underway. In fact, it’s changing daily, and our city’s mayor has outlined that by Easter we’ll absolutely be ready for our tourists to return to our pristine beaches and, of course, our theme parks and tourism attractions, which are so very important to jobs and to hospitality businesses and tourism businesses on the Gold Coast.

We have a ‘love Gold Coast’ campaign that the city has launched. Spend $50 and get $50 to use across accommodation, experiences and dining providers. I also want to commend Premier Crisafulli for his very strong messaging. His clear and concise communication left no doubt—particularly for schools, for example, about when they were closing and when they were able to reopen—how the state was helping volunteers and the SES. It was so very important that that messaging was clear, and that was the clear message that I got back from schools in the following days when I was visiting schools and welcoming students back to school.

I also want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for coming to the Gold Coast and meeting with the member for Fadden and with some local councillors, including the Mayor, Tom Tate, and Deputy Mayor, Donna Gates, at the disaster management centre. I want to thank them for their time and thank him for his time on the Gold Coast and for coming to visit us and interacting with all those people who were working at the disaster centre.

It’s been a difficult time for many Gold Coasters, and we’re still recovering. Our economy is also suffering, so, if you’re a Gold Coaster, I encourage you to stay at home at Easter. I certainly will be staying at home and enjoying the benefits of being a Gold Coast resident, with our fantastic dining offers and our tourism experiences—everything from jet skis, boats and sailing to the surf clubs along the beach. I’ve certainly got nine of those in the electorate of Moncrieff, and they really need your support at this time so that they can get back on their feet and continue the work that they do of saving lives on our beaches.

To the faith leaders and those not-for-profit organisations in Moncrieff and the wider Gold Coast, thank you for what you do every day to help those families who are struggling, particularly right now with food security, paying their electricity bills and paying their mortgages whilst trying to recover from the adverse effects of Cyclone Alfred, which are far and wide across the Gold Coast.

I will just finish by saying that if you need any extra support and you’re not sure where to turn, please feel free to contact my office. My team will put you in touch with someone who can help you directly on the ground. If you need some volunteers to help you clean something up or to move some furniture—whatever it is that you need done as a result of the impact of Cyclone Alfred—please reach out to us and we will help you in any way that we can.