Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support) Share this | Hansard source

I also pay tribute to all the members we have heard from in these last two days. They have been eloquent and moving and have shown real leadership in contributing to the healing that is so very necessary for the victims of these tragic fires. All of us are touched so much by it because so many Australians have had experience of bushfires. Even those in metropolitan areas like Sydney and, of course, Canberra most recently have tasted the devastation of rampant bushfires. It is something we all have some experience or knowledge of, but those of us who are members of rural and regional areas appreciated even more that entire communities, as we have seen, can be annihilated or threatened by fires.

Some members have referred to the devastation being comparable to that in war zones. As someone who has experienced many of those environments, I can say that that is a very accurate analogy. During the 2003 bushfires here in Canberra I was very much reminded of many of the war zones that I have served in. It is a quite common scenario for the roller-coaster of emotional and physical reactions to traumas that people go through to be very similar in each of these types of environments and situations. Before the bushfire you will see that impending, glowering, looming threat coming over the horizon and feel the smallness of humanity in the face of the awesome power of nature. It is a terrifying prospect and one that brings us closer to the frailty of humanity and reminds us of the respect we must pay to Mother Nature. That initial adrenalin rush from the fear and the threat is compounded by the indecision and the uncertainty as to what should be done. Do we defend the home? What do I do about my belongings? Which are the most precious? Which should I seek to save first? Should I save anything? What about my family—what is my responsibility to them? All of these terrible questions will pass through the minds of people faced with and confronted by this threat. Once they have made their decision and the consequences are known, if their homes are lost then there will be relief that their lives have been spared but then the realisation that they have lost everything. And that is going to be a long-term psychological wound because there will be times when there will be that little thing—that souvenir, that memento—that they will want to reach for or will recall that they now no longer have. The Prime Minister was very apt in referring to the fact that it does kind of cut you loose from your moorings in many ways—the sheet anchor of the things in your life has been cut away, and you feel adrift. That looseness, that devastation, has a big psychological impact and, of course, this can be magnified greatly by any consequent loss of family or friends that may also be associated with a disaster like this. In this case, tragically, we have very many examples of that. Consequent to that there will be other emotions, such as guilt, which is classic: ‘Why did I survive and my relative or my friend not? Is there something more I could have done to assist those who fell victim?’ There will also be the emotions associated with those questions we have heard posed: ‘Where do we go from here?’ and ‘Do we rebuild our community or abandon it?’ All these things play through the physical exhaustion which comes into play as the adrenalin washes out of the system.

So we should really feel for the roller-coaster that all of these people who have been involved in this tragedy will now be experiencing. Some of them will fall back on their faiths and find comfort and succour there. Others will have found their faith challenged by this experience: ‘Why would God select this or that house or this or that person? What is the answer to this question?’ There will be these sorts of challenges to their very fundamental beliefs going on. But, for all of these people, whether people of faith or not, it is important now for a very great reaching out to occur and for a healing to happen. We must provide them with all the comfort and emotional and psychological support that we can. That is why I am so proud both of this parliament and of the Australian community as a whole. It is just a hallmark of Australians that we understand that intuitively and reach out, and we have seen that happening in this situation.

Our nation has really been forged in this sort of crucible. It has made us who we are and shaped our national character. I heard a reference to this by the member for Murray, talking about the fact that our record and experience in war probably was shaped by communities having gone through these experiences, and I think she is completely accurate with that statement. We learned very early, especially in rural and regional Australia, the necessity of being able to support each other, of being able to fall back on a community, and of providing that support in times of crisis like this—of the need to be volunteers, of the need to rush to the call to arms to defend communities against natural threats. The survival of our communities in such a challenging natural environment as we live in has forged, in that crucible, a very tested and, I think, at heart an extremely strong society that is very impressive and awe inspiring.

Of course, the front line in that struggle has been our first and secondary responders, and many people have commented on them. We are intensely proud of them, and they are struggling out there as we speak. It has been my own experience as a youth, embedded in the bush as I was and working with the volunteer bushfire brigades, as they were then, in New South Wales, to have lived through many of these experiences with my community, to have had relatives burnt out by fires like this and to have come to their aid and rallied around them.

Also, I might add as a member of the ADF, quite often you will find in these circumstances not only that there will be those members of the ADF who are organised to get out there and assist but that there will be members of the ADF everywhere who will automatically don their DPCUs, get out there and contribute in whatever way they can. It is an instinctive thing for members of our ADF, and certainly that was my experience in 2003. We just gathered together at the RMC transport depot—there was no organisation and no overarching direction involved—and got busy with the rest of the emergency service providers. In that respect, I would also like to highlight the contribution that the ADF is making in this current crisis: hundreds of personnel—and, of course, not only the personnel involved with the fire situation but those who are providing very essential and magnificent support to those affected by the floods in the north of this country—and assets, from the tip of this country to its base, are out there doing wonderful stuff.

That includes, of course, the joint task force under Brigadier Michael Arnold, the commander of our 4th Brigade. I am very proud of these people, as one of my portfolio responsibilities is the management of our reservists, who are wonderful citizens in that they make so much effort in support of their communities during the day in any event—in their day jobs, so to speak—but also go that extra yard in serving their country by taking on the responsibility of serving as reservists. It is those men and women who are out there right now with the 4th Brigade, as well as our permanent members, who are rendering such incredibly important assistance. It is assistance that is vital. They bring very relevant and useful materials, such as, of course, the heavy plant that our construction engineers have available to them; the lower scale equipment of our combat engineers, such as chainsaws et cetera to clear away debris; the robust communications support that can be provided by our ruggedised vehicles and communications systems that are being sent out there now, the APCs that have been deployed and the signallers and others who are getting out there; and also our transport vehicles that are out there searching at the moment to find other survivors or casualties. There are about 160 reserve soldiers, headquartered in Kilmore, who are part of that search task group and who are out there right now looking for people. Even the company group that are now doing lead-up training to deploy to the Solomon Islands have stopped their lead-up preparation and got out there to assist; they are based out of the Puckapunyal area, which I know so well, and I salute their efforts. It goes a lot further than that, in relation to bedding, tentage, rations and all sorts of logistic, command and control and communications support that our Australian Defence Force is providing in this crisis and, as I mentioned, in the floods—as they always do. It goes to show that the investment that this community and this country make in the ADF has paid us dividends not only in conflict but in our own domestic need.

My thoughts are very much with my fellow members of parliament in the affected areas. We have heard of the member for McEwen and the travails she and her staff must be going through. There are the members for Indi, Ballarat and Bendigo. The eloquent speech we heard from the member for McMillan today was very moving indeed. I would also particularly like to send my best wishes to the member for Gippsland, my near neighbour, for whom I have a very high regard. I know that Gippsland has suffered greatly. Their fires can be seen from my borders, and certainly there are a number of fires burning in my own electorate right now, both on the south-west slopes and on the south-east coast. In fact, as soon as I have concluded this speech I will be driving down south to hook up with our RFS people in the Wyndham area. They are doing a wonderful job of keeping those fires under control. So far we have been blessed not to have lost property or life in the fires that are raging around Eden-Monaro, and it just goes to show the importance of the investment that we made during the course of last year in the fire trail work that was done.

The Volunteer Grants Program is a system I should highlight here. The last speaker talked about GPS devices et cetera. Support for such things is available under the Volunteer Grants Program. I am delighted that about 69 of our organisations in Eden-Monaro have benefited from making applications to the Volunteer Grants Program, which resulted in them being provided with funding for petrol for people to come for training, for GPS devices, for communications gear and training facilities et cetera for all our RFS, SES, VRS and other support services in the region. A combination of those things has set our region up well. Our RFS and SES teams are so professional. They are tired and they have worked extremely hard, but they have been very successful. Certainly everybody in Eden-Monaro salutes their service. We owe them so much. I will be passing on that message and the messages of support and salutation from this parliament to them tomorrow morning.

Communities have suffered great devastation, and we have all resolved that they shall be rebuilt. It brings to mind the words of the hymn about building a new Jerusalem. In fact, this devastation can be seen in some ways as an opportunity. We will need to use it as a way of building communities that are worthy of those whom we have lost but also that meet the challenges that climate change and living in this environment poses. When these communities are rebuilt, we should focus on the best that we can bring to them in terms of energy and water efficiency et cetera. This should be seen as an opportunity to build model communities to deal with the climate change threats that we face.

If you will permit me to, Madam Deputy Speaker, on a personal note I would like to pay tribute to my son, Ben. In the last several days of no sleep he has been centrally located in coordinating the efforts of EMA, Defence and other organisations in the federal-state response to this crisis. I am extremely proud of him. He has shown his commitment to duty and motivation in looking after his fellow Australians. My wife and I are very proud of him.

Finally, I would ask that Australians, as they are doing, continue to dig deep. Cash is what is needed now. It is very simple to donate that. The online service of the Red Cross is very efficient. It is the method that I use. Also, as the Minister for Health and Ageing pointed out to us today, the giving of blood will be necessary over a period of time. We have to sustain that effort. It is actually better if people make donations further down the track, in the next week or two ahead of us. I hope people will bear that in mind and, where they can, make blood donations.

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