Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I strongly associate myself with the statements that have been made in parliament, and I support the comments that have been made by the member for Forrest. I acknowledge that the member for Forrest herself was involved in the very terrible Yarloop fires in Western Australia. The Waroona and Harvey shires were very much affected by a major blaze that broke out in the post-Christmas period, and 181 properties were lost, including 162 family homes. Two lives were lost: Les Taylor and Malcolm Taylor. As the previous speaker, the member for Ballarat, has said, I think the thing that really stands out for us all is just how strong and resilient our communities are and the degree to which people come in and support each other when these terrible tragedies have occurred.

Of course, front and centre are our thanks to our local firefighters—the volunteer fire brigades, the career firefighters and also the 120 firefighters and other personnel that came in from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT. We really thank them for their incredible preparedness to put their lives on the line in dealing with the Yarloop-Waroona fires and the Esperance fires that occurred in November 2015, all within this one fire season. We acknowledge all the excellent work and the amazing community effort that was made to deal with the aftermath of these fires and to assist people, particularly those that had lost their homes and their possessions, in attempting to re-establish their lives.

Of course, Yarloop is a particular tragedy. It is a town with immense, extraordinary historic interest in terms of both machinery and the built form—a very rich history which has now largely been lost. For many people in Yarloop, the ability to return to that town simply will not be there. We note that, understandably, Alcoa, who owned 35 of the homes that were destroyed, have decided not to rebuild, so there will be, without doubt, an enormous problem for many people who will now have to make that painful decision to move away from that very close community.

I want to reflect on what is happening with climate change in Western Australia and to say that, when we look at the facts, we see that our problem—what happened this summer with the Esperance and then the Waroona-Yarloop fires—is in fact only going to get worse. We recently saw the Climate Council release a report called The heat is on:climate change, extreme heat and bushfires in Western Australia. They made some very critical findings: the long-term trend is to hotter weather in Western Australia, and that this has worsened fire weather and contributed to an increase in the frequency and severity of bushfires. They go on to say:

By 2030—

that is just 15 years away—

the number of professional firefighters in WA will need to more than double to meet the increasing risk of bushfires.

It says:

Some of Western Australia’s most fire-prone regions may become unlivable as the risks to lives and property caused by bushfires continue to increase.

Quite clearly we have a great vulnerability—

Mr Hutchinson interjecting—

The member tells me that parts of Tasmania may be in that.

Mr Hutchinson interjecting—

They can move to Tasmania? It is a wonderful offer, but we are pretty attached to our patch over there and we would like to try to deal with this.

Obviously there are the macro issues that we need to deal with in terms of climate change, and that is a discussion for another day. But, quite clearly, we have to be the best we possibly can when fighting these fires. I am not in any way reflecting on the frontline skills that we have got, but I do question whether or not we are utilising the best technologies and best personnel that are available.

I was contacted by quite a number of reservist and ex-military personnel who expressed shock that they were not being called upon to assist in the support of the firefighters. They have an enormous array of equipment and personnel that can, at four hours notice, be mobilised. Indeed, many of these reservists say to us: 'Obviously we're not trained to hold the hose and fight the fire, but, my God, can we add backup to those fireys, to those guys, can we give logistical support to them—move people around. We could assist in the creation of firebreaks, the laying of retardant.' Indeed, there is extraordinary equipment that is available in defence in WA that could be utilised. There is a huge array of earthmoving equipment, gigantic water tanks and even the capacity to build temporary bridges, which would have come in handy in reopening some of the damaged bridges and enable the dairy farmers in particular to get their milk to market and not have to, unfortunately, just throw that milk away.

We see, particularly in Victoria and Queensland, a great preparedness to utilise that defence capacity. We know that defence has a well established protocol, a well established decision-making chain that would enable them to utilise this. At a forum for the victims of the fires, this question was asked: why didn't we bring the defence in to assist us? I was very disappointed when the answer came from the DFES officer there: 'We had enough tents, and that is what we use defence for.' I can say to you that defence in Western Australia has a capacity that goes well beyond the provision of tents. As I said, all of these well-trained personnel are eager to get in there and help our very brave and courageous fireys deal with this problem.

I do note that there has now been an inquiry called into the fire and the response to the fire, and that is very welcome. That is as it should be. I note there is not anything explicitly mentioned in that terms of reference about the potential for the utilisation of the defence resources, but hopefully that will be included—I will certainly be making submissions along that line. This is not the talk of armchair generals, as the Minister for Emergency Services in WA likes to call it; this actually comes from the heart of those people who understand what their capacities are, who understand what they could bring to the task if only they were utilised.

I also hope that there will be a proper analysis of the WA government's decision not to utilise the very generous offer of the DC-10 from the New South Wales government. I think that, as someone said, if our model does not include the use of those water tankers, those mass fire bombers, then we really should be reconsidering whether or not we have the right model. Once again, our grateful appreciation goes to all of those people who put their lives on the line, all of those volunteers. Of course, our very deep sympathy goes to those people who lost their homes and to the families of those people who lost their lives.

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