Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote:

… pain that cannot forget

Falls drop by drop upon the heart,

But in our sleep, against our will,

Comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.

It was the late Robert Kennedy who evoked the memory of Aeschylus after the tragedy of the assassination of Martin Luther King. But here we are in 2009, in our own country, with all Australians wanting to put their arms, collectively and individually, around Victorians who have lost their loved ones, their identity, their meaning and their homes in what is the worst natural disaster that has beset this nation since the arrival of our European ancestors. It is a deep, permeating pain that will go through not only the lives of those who have been directly affected but also through the volunteers, the CFA, the emergency workers, all of those police officers, the forensics, the army people and every single person who, directly and indirectly, is involved in trying to come to terms with this in a very practical and, indeed, emotional way.

We who are quite distant from it have had many images presented to us over the last few days via photographs, film and descriptions: a man and a woman described lying next to one another with their dog, found deceased; a man standing on a roof in a pair of shorts, hosing the roof to protect children in the dwelling; the image—which we understand was taken in burn-offs in the previous week—of the CFA firefighter holding the paw of a koala bear and giving it a drink. Whilst that image is not directly, I understand, part of this tragedy itself, it is nonetheless saying something about the sort of people that we want to be. There was also the image of the panel van, its driver having driven, obviously in desperation, from the home to the dam’s edge. We understand that the driver and any other occupants are yet to be found. There are so many images that those of us who have never experienced anything like this cannot even begin to understand.

I have had the privilege to be in this parliament for almost 13 years, and I must say that I regard the speech given by the member for McMillan as the finest that I have heard. It was not necessarily the most erudite or anything like that, but it was the most moving, graphic, and sincere depiction of what has been endured, and is being endured, by these people. I also have an extraordinarily high regard for the contributions made by all other members of the parliament, and I think that it says a lot about the men and women who represent people the length and breadth of this country, irrespective of their political party, that our parliament has tried to rise—and has risen—to the occasion during these heinous events. I would also like to pay tribute to Fran Bailey, the member for McEwen—as others on both sides have done—for what she has been doing, and is doing, for her own community through all of this.

One of those people who appear to have been lost in the fire at Marysville is Dr Ken Rowe. I knew him very well and held him in extremely high regard. His wife has arranged for a memorial service to be conducted for him in Melbourne on Tuesday morning. I understand that his motor vehicle was found adjacent to their home in Marysville, and he is presumed by his wife and those who love him to have died in the fire.

Ken Rowe was the head of standards and development at the Australian Council for Educational Research, a man of emotional and intellectual depth that I have rarely encountered. When I was Minister for Education, Science and Training, I described him as ‘Mr Common Sense’. Amongst other things, he chaired the national inquiry into literacy. He will be greatly missed by people in the educational community. The reforms in schooling and teacher training in particular which were initiated by the previous government and, to its great credit, have been taken up by the new government are in no small way informed by the work of Dr Ken Rowe.

The other observation that others have made, which I would reinforce, is that it seems that those who have so little to give are the ones who have given the most. In terms of shaping us as a people, whether as individuals or as a nation, as tragic as all of this is, it is not so much what happens to us as individuals or to our country that determines our value and our worth; it is how we deal with it. What we have seen over the last week is the very best in human beings, the very best in the ideals that we have as Australians of the sort of people that we want to be.

I would also make the observation, which I think was made by the member for McMillan and also some others, that we are going through an enormous period of change in our world. It is a world frequently characterised by fundamentalist intolerance, by what appears to be unprecedented global economic uncertainty and by technological change. The very graphic reminder that we have had in all of this is that, irrespective of our sophistication and technological advances, there is little at times that we can do against the fury of nature, but in all of this what we need most is one another, the resource of our personal relationships and the belief in one another and that we can support one another and face our adversities.

In my own electorate of Bradfield, we, like many other Australians, live in and very close to bushland. In Hornsby, the Lane Cove National Park and the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park are bushland, and fires are a part of the community in which we live. But, unlike these communities that were affected, we are not living at the end of isolated roads. We live close to sophistication. We have had fires, particularly in 1994, which have certainly threatened homes and lives, but nothing like this. Whilst the debate continues about whether you stay or whether you go—and the royal commission and other inquiries will establish whether or not that has been the right advice—I suspect from a distance from this that it is the right advice for ordinary fires, but by all accounts this was no ordinary fire. And I am mindful of the fact that the fires continue.

On behalf of the people in my community, from Willoughby, Chatswood, Pymble, Gordon, Roseville, St Ives, Hornsby, Asquith, Waitara, Wahroonga, Warrawee and all of the communities that I am privileged to represent: there is an enormous repository of grief and goodwill for the people of Victoria. There is, I know, an enormous generosity in my community. On behalf of the people whom I represent, I send condolences—and, indeed, we will send money and other resources, as we have already begun to do—to the people of Victoria.

We are who we are, and we are defined and shaped in no small way by our adversities. Whether as individuals, as I said, or indeed as a nation, it is how we will deal with this. I would also like to thank all of my colleagues across both sides of the House for the way in which the parliament has been conducted this week.

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