Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, I thank the Premier and the government for bringing on this motion, which I wholeheartedly support. I congratulate everyone who has spoken so far for sharing their stories, not only for those who have been to Nepal themselves, but about what the Nepalese community means for us right here in Tasmania. I want to add my voice and send my condolences, sympathy, my hope and my love to everybody, not only those who have been lost or impacted, but to those in Nepal, those Nepalese here in Tasmania, and in particular those who work with us here in this place as well.
Several people today have spoken and called what happened incomprehensible, and that it certainly is not just in the scale of the disaster itself, but in the human toll that it has left behind. Nepal is a country of enormous generosity and, generally speaking, extraordinary happiness. Now they need all of us to repay the same generosity and hospitality as what they would give. I want to thank, as others have, the numerous societies and organisations in Tasmania, such as the Nepal Society of Tasmania, who take a stand for their community, who really help us understand what it means for them to be here in Tasmania and how we can better support them. Certainly, the enormity of the Nepalese community right across Tasmania, but it is particularly profound in the northern suburbs in the south of the state, we are a better island for having them here.
They say that once you visit Nepal, you will almost always go back. The stunning scenery of the mountains is of course alluring, as is the amazing hospitality of their people. I like to think maybe that’s something that Tasmania also has in common with Nepal, and perhaps that’s why so many Nepalese people also choose to live with us here in this state, although they often tell me they’re mainly here because this is the home of Ricky Ponting.
The premier said that the suffering that is being felt is beyond international borders, and indeed it is, and that’s evident here today. But the solutions to alleviate the extreme impacts of climate change also lie beyond international borders. Nepal is disproportionately feeling the impacts of the warming world, which is driven by others and may this be a reminder, as one of the previous speakers said, that this is a global disaster, that we are all people on this planet and we all have a role to play in minimising our impacts and that our actions that we take here do have impacts on other people right around this globe. Like others, I’ve had the extreme privilege of spending quite substantial amount of time in Nepal, mountaineering and being in really remote villages. Even 10 years ago when we were there talking about the challenges that the Nepalese were facing, particularly profound in these regional communities, what it meant for them with the changing climate, what it would mean when floods were coming as the glaciers melted, what it would mean when they ran out of water to feed their towns because they relied on the glaciers being there for a seriously long time. It is not a new story and it’s not a new challenge that they put to us to try and help fix.
I was speaking to some friends around the Ghandruk region, which members might more commonly know as part of the access to Annapurna base camp. It was a week before the devastating floods that we’re talking about today. A similar, almost identical, event happened in that region as well. All of the roads were washed out. The tracks were washed out of what is an incredibly popular tourist route where all of the villages up from the area that was impacted rely on visitation for their local economies and, of course, they are cut off as we’re seeing in other regions from getting food and in some cases at the moment fresh water in as well. So Nepal, it really can’t catch a break lately. This also comes off the back of several of their prolific mountaineers being lost on Broad Peak on 31 July.
There are compounding issues that are happening for our Nepalese friends and I hope they know that they can reach out to all of our offices to help support them where we can and for those needing support or indeed anyone offering to give support, as others have said, to make sure that they are contacting credited organisations, be it the Red Cross, the Emergency Action Alliance or even the Australian Himalayan Foundation of which is quite large in Tasmania and is already over in Nepal with humanitarian aid. As the Nepalese would do for us, we do encourage everyone to give very generously, and for anyone out in the community to attend the candlelight events that are happening right across the state in the coming days to stand in unity with our Nepalese friends. And to them I say maya dhanyabad namaste
