Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with a heavy heart that I rise to speak on this motion and to support the wonderful words of both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Like the member for Hunter, I acknowledge the other natural disasters in Western Australia, in the Northern Territory and in the Hunter that have occurred over the summer, but in this contribution I want to speak about the terrible bushfire that occurred in Wye River and Separation Creek on Christmas Day 2015.

For anyone who has not visited, this is a magical part of the world; two tiny settlements on the Great Ocean Road nestled between this magnificent iconic coastline and the Great Otway National Park. As a child I camped in the local caravan park with my family every Easter. The two caravan parks, the Wye River general store, the pub and the surf lifesaving club were and remain the lifeblood of this community. Through sheer bravery, good planning and determination all of these community assets were saved on Christmas Day. Through an incredible miracle, I think it is fair to say, there was no loss of live and no serious injuries. But within a matter of hours the ferocity of this fire had taken 116 homes. Many were holiday homes that had been in families for generations. Around a dozen permanent residents lost their homes. This included three members of the Wye River CFA—people like Tony and Lesley Maly, who lost everything except their beloved cat Muppet.

The Turnbull government stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Wye River and Separation Creek as they embark on the long and painful rebuilding process after the terrible Christmas Day bushfire. Within a matter of days, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy joined me to visit this community and see first-hand the devastation. It was an incredibly important opportunity to say thank you and to commend this community for its bravery, its resilience and its positivity in the face of such adversity. It was an opportunity to thank members of the Wye River CFA, led by captain Roy Moriarty, who have become real local heroes; to thank the many other firefighters and emergency workers, including CFA volunteers from right across south west Victoria; to thank the community members who worked around the clock from the surf club to provide vital support—food, water, emergency shelter; and to thank the many people now involved in the recovery phase, including the difficult task of rebuilding those homes.

There are some very significant challenges in an area of such high fire risk and with the sort of topography that makes Wye River and Separation Creek so unique: land stability, water quality, the cost of rebuilding in such steep terrain and the damage done to local business during the most important two weeks of the year when the town would ordinarily be swamped with tourists. Let's not forget, the town was closed to the public for about a week with the Great Ocean Road closed as well. It has been very, very tough for local businesses.

The Commonwealth, of course, is very pleased to be providing vital support as this community begins the difficult and painful journey to rebuild and recover. Under longstanding cost-sharing arrangements, the Natural Disaster Relief And Recovery Arrangements, the Commonwealth and the Victorian governments have activated a range of assistance to support affected communities including: personal hardship and distress assistance to help meet immediate needs; repairing damaged homes; providing counselling support; assistance for the demolition and clean-up of residential properties, including the disposal of debris, asbestos and contaminated material from destroyed homes—asbestos is a very big issue—and financial assistance for local and state authorities to restore damaged public infrastructure and undertake disaster recovery operations. The support is extensive. The Victorian government has also announced it will establish a one-stop shop to assist with rebuilding and planning, which is so important, and funding for water infrastructure and marketing to boost tourism. There is a $1 million Economic and Community Recovery Fund which will go towards locally driven recovery priorities to support local businesses.

I am very pleased to say that with the support of the Minister for Communications, the Commonwealth also was able to assist the Falls Festival which is normally based in the outskirts of Lorne. It is a wonderful event for our region and is very important for the local economy. Due to the evacuation of not only Wye River and Separation Creek but also of Lorne, the festival had to be relocated. We are very, very proud to have supported that important festival.

There has been an incredible effort from the Spirit Foundation which has raised a very considerable amount of money to support the community as it recovers. I am concerned that only one permanent resident has been able to access the larger $32,500 grant and I have raised this with the Victorian Government, which administers the scheme, and I am hopeful that this particular matter can be resolved. What is also clear from this natural disaster is the importance that fire sirens played in Wye River and Lorne where they are being trialled. They were activated and generally the feedback is that they worked extremely well. It is very disappointing that the Victorian government has not allocated the $3 million in its budget. The request to provide fire sirens all along the Great Ocean Road, where they are desperately needed, was refused last year—places like Anglesea, Aireys Inlet, Fairhaven and Moggs Creek, where the memories of Ash Wednesday still run very, very deep. I do hope that this matter can be urgently remedied.

There are a number of other issues of course. As the local federal MP for this area there is no doubt that Wye River and Separation Creek will need much more ongoing support. I am focused on how our government can deliver better communications. Improved mobile reception is one particular need in this community as well as the expedited rollout of the NBN .The NBN has been rolled out to some 70,000 premises across Corangamite but Wye and Sep Creek are currently not on the rollout plan, so I am hoping that that can be remedied as well.

One of the great commitments we have made—unfortunately, a commitment not shared by federal Labor—was $50 million towards an upgrade of the Great Ocean Road, in partnership with the state, announced by the previous Liberal state government. This has been received incredibly positively. We are also allocating some $4 million to upgrade the Separation Creek bridge in this community—which is wonderful—but there is no doubt that on such an iconic road, on such a challenging geographical road, more investment is required. Even in places like Kennett River and at the Mobbs Creek arch, we need some basic tourism infrastructure, such as toilet blocks, to make the tourist experience much more significant, better signage and better investment in this road because this is the centrepiece of a $2.1 billion local economy in terms of what it contributes to the tourism economy as an incredibly important tourism asset not just at a national level but also at an international level.

I do need to acknowledge that every year many Corangamite residents face the threat of bushfire. We have been very proud of the mobile base stations that we have rolled out, because mobile communications during any emergency are so incredibly important. We have announced mobile base stations for Gellibrand, Carlisle River, Kawarren and Dereel—all areas of high fire risk. I am hoping that Telstra will prioritise these areas as well as look at other vital areas that need communications along the Great Ocean Road in places like Aireys, Bellbrae and Anglesea.

There are many issues facing these communities at this very difficult time—both immediate issues and, of course, some of the longer term issues that I have referred to in relation to bushfire mitigation and better management when such a terrible emergency occurs. I join with the Wye River and Separation Creek communities in saying it is an incredible feat of bravery that we have seen. There is incredible resilience. There is incredible determination from this community to get back on its feet, and I will be there with the community doing whatever I can, proudly, as its local member.

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