STATEMENTS ON INDULGENCE

Ms PAYNE (Canberra) (17:43): It's a pleasure to follow my friend, the member for Bean, who has been such a friend to the people of Nepal and the Nepalese community here in Canberra. On behalf of the electorate that I represent, the electorate of Canberra, I want to offer our condolences and our deepest thoughts and prayers for everyone affected by this horrible tragedy that we continue to see unfolding in Nepal, Tibet and China, which is heartbreaking and incredibly sad.

The extraordinary torrent of water, mud and debris that swept through valleys and villages has left a terrible trail of destruction and loss in its wake. Currently, 1,399 people have been killed, and a further 5,400 remain missing. Our thoughts are with all of their families and loved ones and those who we hope and pray may still be found alive.

Homes, roads and bridges that communities had relied on for generations were swept away in a matter of minutes, leaving behind a landscape that is almost unrecognisable to those who once called it home. I offer my deep condolences to everyone affected by this horrible event. At this time, I'm particularly thinking of the Nepalese and Tibetan communities here in Canberra, who are in the awful position of not knowing whether relatives, family and loved ones have been lost.

That uncertainty is an agonising thing to carry, and I know it weighs heavily on so many families in our own community. We stand with you, we share your distress, and our government is doing everything that we can to help at this time. This includes assisting in the search for the 35 Australians who remain missing, with officials in Kathmandu, Beijing, New Delhi and Canberra working around the clock to find them.

This includes seeking answers from local authorities, tour operators, hospitals and other organisations, pursuing every possible avenue for information, however small, in the hope that it brings families closer to answers. Support is being provided to the next of kin of those missing, and officials are meeting directly with family members who have travelled to Nepal to search for their loved ones, offering them practical assistance and support through an extraordinarily difficult time.

The Australian government has from the outset provided support to Nepal, including on search and rescue efforts, and we continue to offer assistance to China, recognising that communities in Tibet have also suffered greatly from this disaster. Australia has committed $11 million in humanitarian assistance, supporting emergency shelter, food, clean water, sanitation, health care and other essential supplies to communities who have lost so much.

A Royal Australian Air Force C-17 has delivered almost 24 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Nepal, and I want to thank the Defence Force personnel who worked to get that aid where it needed to be quickly and safely. Australians themselves have responded with characteristic generosity, donating over $4.5 million of their own money to the Emergency Action Alliance, which the government has matched with a $5 million contribution from the government.

I know that, here in Canberra, Nepalese businesses like Bittersweet Café in Kingston have launched appeals to raise funds for affected communities in Nepal and that those are being well supported. It's an example of our local community rallying to help those a world away. I was really pleased to hear Nabin from Bittersweet in Kingston say that his family were safe.

But, of course, so many are not, and, as I've said, our whole community stands with those who have loved ones in the region that remain unaccounted for or that they have lost. We just offer any way that we can help to help you through this horrible time. Specialist Australian drone operators have now travelled to Nepal as part of a 15-person disaster assistance response team, bringing advanced technology capable of rapid mapping, imaging and supporting searches in extraordinarily challenging terrain, where traditional search methods are especially difficult.

AFP disaster victim identification specialists are also deploying to Nepal, undertaking work that is sombre but essential, and we have provided telecommunication data to Nepalese authorities with the hope that this may narrow the last known location of missing Australians. Nepalese search and rescue teams are on the ground in the areas where we believe most of those Australians were last known to be, and we are working directly with the authorities to gather any information we can, following every lead in the hope of finding those still missing. 26 August was an absolutely terrible day for the people of Nepal and Tibet, and I, along with all members and senators of this place, offer our very deepest condolences to everyone affected.

Its consequences will be felt for a long time to come in the rebuilding of homes and communities and in the far longer process of recovery for those who have lost loved ones. Again, I thank all responders involved in rescue and recovery operations in Nepal, in Tibet, China and from Australia who are undertaking their work in very difficult circumstances, often at great personal cost and with real courage and compassion.

While there are complex reasons that have led to this disaster, we cannot ignore that man-made climate change is part of this—and I know that, in the briefings I've been involved in with leaders from the Nepalese community, this is something the community are talking about. It is an incredible injustice that some of the regions that play the least part in that man-made impact, like Nepal, are bearing the brunt of these disasters.

It is important that, as a global community, we stand with them and address this incredible challenge, and play our part in doing that, to ensure that we can help those who are most exposed because of the geographic characteristics of their regions and that those most exposed to this changing climate, weather conditions and extreme weather do not face this alone.

In closing, I continue to hold out hope that the missing will be found safe and well. My thoughts remain with all those affected by this disaster here and abroad.