Queensland's first Greens politician has paid tribute to the flood victims and 35 lives lost in her home state during her inaugural speech to the Australian Senate.
Senator Larissa Waters received a standing ovation from the public gallery after her speech on Tuesday evening.
She said from the depths of this loss grew a great sense of common purpose after Queensland endured its worst flooding since 1974.
"I will never forget the image of a man rescuing an injured kangaroo joey from floodwaters, carrying it in his arms to safety," she told the chamber.
"The sheer destruction was almost incomprehensible, but overwhelming adversity was a great unifier."
She said the depth of community spirit had given her "unshakeable hope for our future".
Senator Waters said as a Queenslander, she felt a fierce protectiveness towards the Great Barrier Reef and condemned the race to double coal exports and turn it into a "coal and gas highway".
She called for a moratorium on coal seam gas mining approvals to secure Australia's food security.
"You can't eat coal and you can't drink gas," she said.
"It beggars belief that neither the state nor federal government is taking a long-term view of how we are going to feed ourselves if the groundwater table drops or aquifers are contaminated."
Food security should be beyond politics and it should not be sold out for short-term royalties and offshore private profits, she said.
Senator Waters applauded the strong spirit of farming families on Queensland's Darling Downs in locking their gates to coal seam gas companies.
"Why risk it, when we have alternatives to energy production, but no alternatives to food?" she said, adding that Queensland had "wonderful solar resources, promising geothermal deposits, wave and tidal potential".
Eschewing the "emptiness of corporate legal work", the former public interest environmental lawyer said she was driven to politics because environmental laws needed beefing up.
A veteran of many a David and Goliath battle, she hailed her former colleagues as heroes for their tireless work.
She said her experience working in a community legal centre brought home the lack of genuine access to justice.
"Having good laws on paper doesn't do much if people aren't aware of their rights, aren't able to enforce them, or can't afford legal advice to even know where to begin."
She said there was a need to provide legal aid for the environment.
Senator Waters despaired that society had become more detached from the natural world and communities.
"We are richer now than at any time in history, we have more stuff, but are we happier? The endless treadmill of consumption is not enriching our spirit or fulfilling us," she said.
"The impact of our current consumption is such that we need 1.5 Earths to fuel our greed."
But she's still full of hope.
As her two-year-old daughter hung upside down on her father Brendan's lap in the public gallery, Senator Waters pondered what the world would be like when she grew up.
"To little Lana, you are the light of my life and it is you that keeps me going," she said.
"Although you are too young to understand, I hope you will be proud of your mum, and learn to dream big."
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