Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's an absolute honour to be able to make a brief contribution in the limited time available today to this condolence motion relating to the bushfires—the 'summer of dread', as it's become known by many people in Australia. Having spent my early years in primary school at Bermagui public, I'm quite familiar with the South Coast. I returned there to work in a disability service later in my life too, in Bega. So I have many friends still living on the South Coast and I remained in touch with them throughout the bushfire period, and I hope to come back to some of those messages briefly, in a little while.

The extent of Australia's summer of dread is quite overwhelming for most people to contemplate. Over a five-month period, the bushfires that raged along the entire south-east coast of Australia burnt an area that is larger than the country of Ireland. Sometimes that's an easier way for people to picture the magnitude of these fires. These fires have taken 33 lives. They have damaged almost 3,000 homes. The smoke that descended upon our cities and towns left us in a toxic environment; many people who weren't even facing the full brunt of the fires lived under the cloud of toxic smoke that came across their communities. And the fires have absolutely devastated the utterly unique flora and fauna for which Australia is renowned internationally. I think we are still really struggling to fathom just how much damage has been done, and I do acknowledge the efforts of the shadow minister, Terri Butler, in her call for an environmental audit. People are estimating that one billion animals are now dead. It is pretty unfathomable. Some 7.7 million hectares of bush has been burnt. So there is a lot to take stock of.

I'd like to spend some time thanking people in our communities, people who often regard themselves as quite ordinary, for stepping up and being the most extraordinary human beings in a time of crisis. I really do want to give a big shout-out to New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, who we watched day in and day out, multiple times a day, reporting on the state of the fires and dealing with the terrible grief when firefighters lost their lives, and when people died defending their properties and other people lost everything. He showed extraordinary leadership, and I really want to extend a very personal thankyou to him.

I also want to thank all of the extraordinary broadcasters on ABC emergency radio that kept everyone, many who were literally in the dark, in touch with events and in such a detailed manner, who maintained calm and the information flow into those communities when they had no alternative sources of communication.

I'd also like to acknowledge upfront the amazing efforts of our Pacific neighbours. We've often been called on to deliver aid and support to our Pacific neighbours in times of emergency. I'm sure, like many members of this parliament, my heart just melted when I saw those photographs of young people in Lae in Papua New Guinea pushing a wheelbarrow around and getting donations for Australians. The idea that people who are amongst our poorest nations in the world would give cash donations is just extraordinary, and it says a lot. And it wasn't just the people of Lae. There were fabulous efforts in Vanuatu as well. But I hope that people in this House remember that in times to come. When this parliament deliberates on overseas development assistance issues, I hope Members remember why it is important that we should be good neighbours in our region, because, when our house was quite literally burning down, our Pacific neighbours were there to support us.

I'd also like to acknowledge their warm condolences to Australia. I was here in Canberra from 13 to 15 January because we were hosting the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum. In fact, I was chairing the climate change session at that forum. I would like to convey to the House that every single nation at the table for that discussion offered their profound condolences to Australia before making any further remarks. They were in Canberra at a time when that toxic smoke was hanging right over the top of this city, so they had a very good feel for what Australians were contending with at the time. They offered their condolences to Australia and asked how they might support us, going into the future, in trying to make efforts to ensure that we are doing absolutely everything we can to look at not just mitigation and adaptation but also real, long-term solutions for the climate change issues that we as a region are facing. They were very, very alive to those issues and are looking very carefully at Australia to see what steps we will be taking on those matters

As I said, seemingly ordinary people stepped up to do extraordinary things in all of our communities, and I would like to take some time to acknowledge a few of those people now. Newcastle artist Sally Bourke, who's a volunteer and a member of the Animal Rescue Cooperative, was initially driven to respond by those North Coast fires that took place later last year. She's part of a series of hubs or collectives of people that were collecting donations for animal food, water, medicines and other items that wildlife carers across the country need. So a big thankyou to the Animal Rescue Cooperative. The people in Newcastle did some terrific work around making and providing bedding and support for native animals who'd been devastated by the fires. Likewise, there was Merewether's Beach Hotel supervisor, Claire Hamilton, who was hosting 'sewing bees' at the pub to make pouches for animals injured in the fires.

There were incredible donation drives across the Newcastle community. Novocastrians donated approximately $50,000 worth of food, drink and health products in a big drive organised by Gillian Summers. The items were then loaded into five seven-tonne trucks and a one-tonne ute and driven to the Shoalhaven emergency management centre, the Hunter Valley Fire Control Centre in Bulga and the Lower Hunter Fire Control Centre in East Maitland. Gillian doesn't like to take credit for that work herself and has acknowledged a number of the volunteers who worked with her. I'd like to give a shout-out to those people now, including those who loaned and drove the trucks: Allan Woodham, Oliver Coakes, Mark Trenter, Luke Orton, James Ferguson, Ian Bamford, Greg Kerr, Mitchell Vajda and Samantha Phillips. Thank you all.

Newcastle ArtSpace in Islington held a fantastic art sale, with proceeds going to the bushfire charities, including the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, WIRES and the Red Cross. I understand that almost 50 Hunter Region based artists took place in that event, raising about $7,500 from the sale of their works. The Newcastle Surf Life Saving Club raised $24,700 in a bushfire appeal event they conducted, with that money going to four different charities. The Newcastle Pride, Timber Productions and Heaps Gay presented a 'queer bushfire fundraiser' at the Mayfield Bowling Club. Again this was great support from our LGBTQI community in Newcastle. The bushfire relief gig at Lizzotte's last week raised more money, with a fabulous rollcall of local musicians, including our perhaps most famous export John Paul Young. In January, Big Dog Comedy was fundraising at The Happy Wombat. Last week Nicholas Connors and Ahlia Williams put on a rock'n'roll barbecue bushfire fundraiser, at a very infamous live music venue in Newcastle called The Lass O'Gowrie. Again, all proceeds go to the RFS and WIRES. The Prince at Merewether held an Australian Day sausage sizzle. On Australia Day most of the pubs in Newcastle, including Mayfield's Stag and Hunter, were all fundraising for the fire victims.

You have great community groups like the Newcastle Greek Orthodox community, whose Blessing of the Waters Ceremony was dedicated to those affected by the bushfire crisis. The Newcastle mosque has been doing fantastic work—again, handing over much-needed cash that is required by these communities now. There are too many more to mention.

I know many other members have acknowledged this in the past; but, when you're in a time of crisis, you really see the most remarkable responses from our community members. My conversations with people on the South Coast during that period of fire also reminded me how people who would otherwise regard themselves as very ordinary people in their communities showed tremendous leadership when that was needed, and they are acutely aware of the need to now rebuild their communities and the important role that each of them will be playing in that rebuild. They want all of us in this parliament to work collaboratively towards that endeavour.

Many of these people know there are some long-term issues to be addressed in terms of how we better prepare for these seemingly more frequent and more intense fire seasons. People are looking into the future and wondering about how this parliament will respond to these very real issues of climate change. They don't want to see a retreat into the climate wars within this parliament. That has been made acutely clear. It has been the worst habit of this parliament for the last 10 years, this parliament not being able to deal with the very real issues of climate change and reform that have to happen in this nation. I hope that there is an opportunity for everyone in this parliament to rise to the occasion and to meet the expectations of the community. Yes, there is a lot of rebuilding and healing work to be done in all of these bushfire affected communities that are feeling intense trauma, but we cannot walk away from those tough conversations that must happen in this place if we are to address the issues that are driving these profound changes in Australia's climate.

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