STATEMENTS ON INDULGENCE

Mr KHALIL (Wills—Assistant Minister for Defence) (17:09): This is difficult. There are really no words that can describe or alleviate the devastation that we've seen in Nepal, Tibet and China. Thousands of people have lost their lives across Nepal, Tibet and China, and tens of thousands of people in the surrounding communities have been severely impacted by these disasters.

Of course, thousands of people remain missing, and tens of thousands of family members are waiting to hear from loved ones that they've lost contact with. I understand there are some 36 Australians that remain unaccounted for, although we remain hopeful that efforts underway will eventually locate them. As we all have, I want to pay my deep respects to each and every person who has been impacted by these floods in Nepal but also here amongst what is a marvellous, wonderful diaspora community that lives in Australia, because this devastating event has touched communities right around the world, who are grieving for those who've been lost, who are worried for those who have been injured and for those orphaned, for those people who are bereft at the loss of so many loved ones.

And this of course includes members of my Nepalese Australian community in my electorate of Wills who have been so impacted by this devastation. In fact, my electorate, part of my electorate is known as Little Nepal, there are so many Nepalese who have decided to settle in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Two and a half per cent of my electorate was born in Nepal.

That community and the Tibetan and Chinese communities along with the Nepalese community have been such wonderful contributors to our nation and to the wider Australian community, and I think it's incumbent upon us to provide all the support to them in whatever way we can as local MPs, as their representatives here in Canberra. The Australian government, of course, is doing all it can to find the Australians who remain unaccounted for but also to support those tens of thousands of people who have been impacted and to assist in the disaster response.

We've heard, of course, that the Australian government has committed $11 million to the humanitarian response. This includes $2 million in emergency supplies, $2 million to NGOs specifically around water and hygiene measures, $5 million for the Emergency Action Alliance, $2 million to the World Food Program and also other contributions around logistics that are so necessary in this period.

More than $4 million has been donated by the remarkable generosity of the Australian public. For those who also wish to donate or continue to donate, they can do so at emergencyaction.org.au. We have Australian officials now who are urgently working to confirm the welfare of Australians believed to have been in the affected areas.

They are liaising closely with local authorities and tour operators. We have some 49 additional personnel that have been deployed to Nepal to support this crisis response. Now, the deployments include drone operators in a 15-person disaster assistance response team as well as an AFP disaster victim identification team.

All these personnel are people who have specialist skills in humanitarian work, assessments, logistics, communications and planning—very much needed in the response and the recovery period that is occurring right now. And of course Australia stands ready to provide consular assistance those to who need it as well. Australians in the affected area should follow the advice of the local authorities, and those Australians who need emergency consular assistance should contact the Department of Foreign Affairs.

There's a 24-hour consular emergency centre. The number is 1300555135—or +61262613305 if you're calling from overseas. The extraordinary scale of this disaster is somewhat incomprehensible to many of us.

The conditions on the ground and the remoteness of the affected areas in the regions that have been impacted mean there's an immense challenge for the rescue and recovery efforts. We've seen the pictures and the footage of some of these efforts and of the bravery and heroism of many people who are trying to save lives even today. I mentioned the fact that Nepalese Australians particularly had made this contribution to Australian society.

I say this because I had the privilege of being the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Nepal. I got to know the community in my electorate and across Australia in a very fortunate way because their contribution to business, to education, to health care, to many of the skilled professions and to community leadership has really been one that I can only describe as the grace and the kindness of that community.

The way they think about others and support others, whether it's in response to disasters like this in many of their own community or more broadly, is truly remarkable. There is a kindness and a grace to the Nepalese people. Those who've travelled there would have experienced it, but certainly those who have had contact and engagement with Nepalese Australians would also have experienced the wonderful kindness of this community.

Last year, Australia and Nepal celebrated 65 years of diplomatic relations. It was a truly important milestone, and I was able to be part of those celebrations. The relationship between our countries runs deep.

It extends to mutual democratic values, to a commitment to an international rules based order, to trade and to economic cooperation. But, by far, the deepest and the most profound element in this relationship is the human-to-human connections. We're seeing that very much front and centre today with this terrible disaster and in the response to this terrible disaster.

We're seeing the human connections we have as Australians with our Nepalese brothers and sisters and the generosity of Australians who are donating. We're seeing that in the response of the Australian government and in the response of many MPs here and on both sides of the aisle who have Nepalese community members in their electorate. We understand what a wonderful community they are and what a wonderful contribution they've made to our multicultural Australia.

It's not that hard to understand why there has been such an outpouring of grief but also empathy and sympathy for what is happening. More importantly, the action that has been taken to support those communities in their time of need is something that I'm so truly grateful for across this parliament and across the Australian community. We stand with the Nepalese Australian community and the Tibetan and Chinese Australian community who are suffering and who have lost loved ones.

All of us could say that we are doing everything we can to support the community in their time of need, and we will continue to do everything we can. Even when the pictures are no longer on the front pages or in the news cycle, that human-to-human connection will mean that we'll continue to do the work necessary to support our wonderful community members here who are going through such a difficult time.