Mr AH KIT - 2000-05-16
During the past wet season, the community of Wugularr, also known as Beswick, was flooded 3 times resulting in evacuations from the community. The local store provided enormous support to this stricken community, cooking meals and handing out supplies as needed during the emergency. Consequently, the store is now broke and will close for the want of $40 000, which will be devastating for this community.
When Katherine was flooded 2 years ago, some $52m was poured into the town with Commonwealth financial and military assistance on tap. People were fed without having to pay. I ask the minister, doesn’t this demonstrate all too clearly how the CLP fails to deliver equitably for all Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, you cannot deny that that statement denigrates the professionalism of the police, of members of the Fire and Emergency Services ...
Ms Martin: Answer the question.
Mr REED: ... and of other agencies who - I am answering the question and I am very serious about it, and it is a pity you are not. It is those agencies, and the professional officers in those agencies, who determine who will get assistance. The inference in that question also is that in 1998 when military assistance was provided to the people of Katherine because of a flood, nothing happened at Beswick. Military assistance was also provided to the people of Beswick on that occasion. If you did not live in Nightcliff or the northern suburbs you would know what was going on. Your electorate office should be in your electorate.
If I have my dates correct, the peak of the flood on the first instance in March was Friday 3 March. It was the end of the sittings. I had received reports from police that there was a serious flood threat to both Katherine and Beswick throughout the course of the day. I took particular care in this House on a number of occasions that evening to advise the member for Arnhem what the circumstances were in a community in his electorate so he was aware from the outset.
At about 8 pm that evening, I approached the Chief Minister and said: ‘The situation is looking quite serious in Katherine and Beswick. I am going to charter down tonight to be there in the event that support is needed, and there is a minister’s ability to make decisions on the spot, if that is what is required, to support to police’.
Together with the member for Victoria River we chartered down. It was not very nice weather, I can tell you, but we got there. We arrived about 10 o’clock. The following day, I took the opportunity to have advice provided on a regular basis to the member for. On that Friday, I travelled out to Beswick. I took the trouble. I got in a helicopter with the minister ...
Mr Ah Kit: What did you deliver?
Mr Burke: Where were you?
Mr REED: I got in a helicopter with the minister, the member for Victoria River ...
Mr REED: I will tell you where he was, because it is very interesting. I went out to Beswick and I spoke to the people, and I asked them if there were some particular additional support they required. I accompanied Commander Burke from the Katherine Police Station, who wanted to be there to see first hand what level of services should be provided, and I reported back again. I had reports sent back to the member for Arnhem’s office.
The Saturday was the interesting day, because I kept in touch with what was going on so that if additional assistance was required, then I could pass it on to the member for Arnhem. I rang his house on the Saturday afternoon. The phone answers: ‘Hello, would John Ah Kit be there?’ He said, ‘No, he has gone to a social event in Alice Springs’. That was his interest in his constituents. I was out looking after his constituents and his big priority was to jump on an aeroplane and go to a social event in Alice Springs while his constituents ...
Mrs HICKEY: A point of order, Mr Speaker.The minister’s answer is not relevant to the question. This question relates to the bail-out of the store for the people of Beswick, and I’d ask him to answer the question.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I allowed the member for Arnhem a very long preamble to the question and I would give the same opportunity to the minister in his response. He has some leeway and I would ask him to get on with the answer as quickly as possible.
Mr REED: On the occasion of the visit to Beswick on the Friday, I took the opportunity to walk around and talk to people, to groups of women and young girls who were sitting under tarpaulins, and to some men who were preparing further shelter for other people. I talked to them about a range of issues. I asked: ‘Do you want anything?’ A particular group of ladies asked for, in their words: ‘More pots. We want more cooking utensils and some gas rings to be able to cook more food’. They were delivered that evening.
Our next stop was Jilkminggan. We flew in the helicopter from Beswick to Jilkminggan and then into Mataranka. At the Mataranka Police Station I phoned my office in Darwin and I asked them to organise, through a supplier in Katherine, to have the requirements requested by those women sent out there, and they were there that night.
Mr Ah Kit interjecting.
Mr REED: I was looking after his constituents while he was on the way to a social event in Alice Springs. Further, I spoke to the Town Clerk about the flood, the difficulties that people had, and the circumstances they were finding themselves in because there was no shelter above the flood level. He said: ‘It is rather ironic you should mention that, minister, because only last week we started excavations on the new women’s centre and it is down in the flood zone’. I said: ‘Look, we have to do something about that. I want to pursue that after the floods. We can’t to it today’. Subsequently, to cut a long story short, the building is now not being constructed in the flood zone. An above-flood level site has been selected. The minister for Health has found an additional $194 000 to add to the $300 000 project and that building, as we speak, is being constructed above the flood level.
Not one approach did I receive from the member for Arnhem in relation to that. He has not contacted me in relation to these issues. In addition to that, of course, I have suggested to the community that they should look progressively, if it is their wish, to move the community to higher grounds so that are not affected so much by floods. Do I get any inkling of concern in relation to that?
I will turn now to the store. It took me a month to get a letter out of the store manager who was conveying messages through ABC Radio, the NT News, the Katherine Times, and television programs. It took me a month to get a letter out of him in relation to what his problem was. It was explained to him that if he really wanted to get to one of the few people who might be able to help him - and it was not the ABC or the KatherineTimes or whoever, as much as an important part they play in disseminating information - he might provide me with some advice. Having received that, some further advice was sought.
If the member for Arnhem had only shown a little bit more interest rather than trotting off to Alice Springs to a social event, if he had only tried to get the women’s shelter constructed above the flood level so that if there is another flood at least people will have an appropriate place to shelter in rather than under sheets of corrugated iron, if only he had taken sufficient interest to help them move their community to higher ground over a period of time rather than being comfortably ensconced in his office in the northern suburbs of Darwin when he should be in his electorate, he would be able to help his constituents as much as I and the member for Victoria River and the health minister have since the floods in March.
When Katherine was flooded 2 years ago, some $52m was poured into the town with Commonwealth financial and military assistance on tap. People were fed without having to pay. I ask the minister, doesn’t this demonstrate all too clearly how the CLP fails to deliver equitably for all Territorians?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, you cannot deny that that statement denigrates the professionalism of the police, of members of the Fire and Emergency Services ...
Ms Martin: Answer the question.
Mr REED: ... and of other agencies who - I am answering the question and I am very serious about it, and it is a pity you are not. It is those agencies, and the professional officers in those agencies, who determine who will get assistance. The inference in that question also is that in 1998 when military assistance was provided to the people of Katherine because of a flood, nothing happened at Beswick. Military assistance was also provided to the people of Beswick on that occasion. If you did not live in Nightcliff or the northern suburbs you would know what was going on. Your electorate office should be in your electorate.
If I have my dates correct, the peak of the flood on the first instance in March was Friday 3 March. It was the end of the sittings. I had received reports from police that there was a serious flood threat to both Katherine and Beswick throughout the course of the day. I took particular care in this House on a number of occasions that evening to advise the member for Arnhem what the circumstances were in a community in his electorate so he was aware from the outset.
At about 8 pm that evening, I approached the Chief Minister and said: ‘The situation is looking quite serious in Katherine and Beswick. I am going to charter down tonight to be there in the event that support is needed, and there is a minister’s ability to make decisions on the spot, if that is what is required, to support to police’.
Together with the member for Victoria River we chartered down. It was not very nice weather, I can tell you, but we got there. We arrived about 10 o’clock. The following day, I took the opportunity to have advice provided on a regular basis to the member for. On that Friday, I travelled out to Beswick. I took the trouble. I got in a helicopter with the minister ...
Mr Ah Kit: What did you deliver?
Mr Burke: Where were you?
Mr REED: I got in a helicopter with the minister, the member for Victoria River ...
Mr REED: I will tell you where he was, because it is very interesting. I went out to Beswick and I spoke to the people, and I asked them if there were some particular additional support they required. I accompanied Commander Burke from the Katherine Police Station, who wanted to be there to see first hand what level of services should be provided, and I reported back again. I had reports sent back to the member for Arnhem’s office.
The Saturday was the interesting day, because I kept in touch with what was going on so that if additional assistance was required, then I could pass it on to the member for Arnhem. I rang his house on the Saturday afternoon. The phone answers: ‘Hello, would John Ah Kit be there?’ He said, ‘No, he has gone to a social event in Alice Springs’. That was his interest in his constituents. I was out looking after his constituents and his big priority was to jump on an aeroplane and go to a social event in Alice Springs while his constituents ...
Mrs HICKEY: A point of order, Mr Speaker.The minister’s answer is not relevant to the question. This question relates to the bail-out of the store for the people of Beswick, and I’d ask him to answer the question.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I allowed the member for Arnhem a very long preamble to the question and I would give the same opportunity to the minister in his response. He has some leeway and I would ask him to get on with the answer as quickly as possible.
Mr REED: On the occasion of the visit to Beswick on the Friday, I took the opportunity to walk around and talk to people, to groups of women and young girls who were sitting under tarpaulins, and to some men who were preparing further shelter for other people. I talked to them about a range of issues. I asked: ‘Do you want anything?’ A particular group of ladies asked for, in their words: ‘More pots. We want more cooking utensils and some gas rings to be able to cook more food’. They were delivered that evening.
Our next stop was Jilkminggan. We flew in the helicopter from Beswick to Jilkminggan and then into Mataranka. At the Mataranka Police Station I phoned my office in Darwin and I asked them to organise, through a supplier in Katherine, to have the requirements requested by those women sent out there, and they were there that night.
Mr Ah Kit interjecting.
Mr REED: I was looking after his constituents while he was on the way to a social event in Alice Springs. Further, I spoke to the Town Clerk about the flood, the difficulties that people had, and the circumstances they were finding themselves in because there was no shelter above the flood level. He said: ‘It is rather ironic you should mention that, minister, because only last week we started excavations on the new women’s centre and it is down in the flood zone’. I said: ‘Look, we have to do something about that. I want to pursue that after the floods. We can’t to it today’. Subsequently, to cut a long story short, the building is now not being constructed in the flood zone. An above-flood level site has been selected. The minister for Health has found an additional $194 000 to add to the $300 000 project and that building, as we speak, is being constructed above the flood level.
Not one approach did I receive from the member for Arnhem in relation to that. He has not contacted me in relation to these issues. In addition to that, of course, I have suggested to the community that they should look progressively, if it is their wish, to move the community to higher grounds so that are not affected so much by floods. Do I get any inkling of concern in relation to that?
I will turn now to the store. It took me a month to get a letter out of the store manager who was conveying messages through ABC Radio, the NT News, the Katherine Times, and television programs. It took me a month to get a letter out of him in relation to what his problem was. It was explained to him that if he really wanted to get to one of the few people who might be able to help him - and it was not the ABC or the KatherineTimes or whoever, as much as an important part they play in disseminating information - he might provide me with some advice. Having received that, some further advice was sought.
If the member for Arnhem had only shown a little bit more interest rather than trotting off to Alice Springs to a social event, if he had only tried to get the women’s shelter constructed above the flood level so that if there is another flood at least people will have an appropriate place to shelter in rather than under sheets of corrugated iron, if only he had taken sufficient interest to help them move their community to higher ground over a period of time rather than being comfortably ensconced in his office in the northern suburbs of Darwin when he should be in his electorate, he would be able to help his constituents as much as I and the member for Victoria River and the health minister have since the floods in March.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016