Joint Doorstop Interview with Mr Scott Buchholz, Grantham, Queensland

It’s good to be here in Grantham. I want to thank Scott Buchholz for all the work he has done for the people of his electorate, particularly the people of the Lockyer Valley in the twelve months since this area was hit by Australia’s most devastating floods of modern times. I want to thank Derek and his family for bringing Scott and I onto this property. This is one of the great properties of the Lockyer Valley. Obviously, there has been a lot of clean-up, a lot of work needed to be done here. I want to thank the people of Grantham for the community morning tea that I’ve been to earlier and I want to particularly thank the people who told Scott and me their stories.

 

There are hundreds of human stories that came out of last year’s floods: stories of heroism, stories of tragedy, but above all else deeply human stories. Now, it’s the responsibility of local and national leaders not to forget what happened here and to remember that while the floods have gone, the work continues. There’s a lot of physical rebuilding still to be done, there’s a lot of mental rebuilding still to be done. Some of that mental rebuilding will take a lifetime. It’s important that we do, at all levels of government, everything we humanly can to allow the people of this district to be whole again.

 

I think Scott has done a marvellous job as the local member. Local members have an extraordinary range of responsibilities but in the twelve months since the floods hit this area, Scott has been extraordinary. He has been exemplary: he has been a counsellor, a facilitator, a clean-up manager, at times he has been a parish priest and it’s just fantastic to see a great local member at work – a great local member who has a big future in Canberra as well as a big future here in the electorate of Wright. So, Scott you might just like to say a few words, but I just think that it’s very important as the anniversary of these floods draws near, that Australians don’t assume that the work is done. Much has been done, but much remains to be done and it’s important that all levels of government and all the other institutions that have been involved in the clean-up and recovery continue to stay focussed, particularly some of the insurers. Many of them have been magnificent, but there’s always work that remains and it’s important that, at all times, governmental and other semi-official bodies remember that these are human problems that need to be dealt with, with humanity. They can’t just have the book thrown at them.

 

 

Thanks, Tony. Thank you very much. Firstly, let me say thank you and welcome for your presence here in the Lockyer Valley. As you can see firsthand, we’ve got an enormous amount of rebuilding still to do. But before I go on, let me say thank you to Derek and his family for having us and letting us see firsthand how the valley is starting to rebuild. Here we are twelve months on in a community and I think it’s important with Tony’s presence here that we remind Queenslanders and we remind Australia that the Grantham community has not completely rebuilt itself. There are a million success stories, but there are those little businesses, there are those families, there are those mums and dads that have fallen through the cracks.

 

I’m sending the call out to Australians either to let you know that I will be calling on you once more to come and assist my community in helping in that last bit of rebuild. I’ll be calling on department heads to have another look at the fine print in their documentation when we’ve got people that are being forced to spend their insurance money on just staying alive when they should be rebuilding their houses with it. I’ll be calling on state and federal members to assist me in my cause and I’ll take that fight up along with the Coalition and Tony when we get back up to Canberra. But I again would like to thank Tony for his very generous time in coming up here – a time where he would normally be spending with his family and his friends over this Christmas break. It just goes to show the compassion and the heart that Tony has for this electorate and I do appreciate your humility and the time that you’ve invested, not only in me personally, but for the people of Grantham and the Lockyer Valley. Thanks, Tony.