Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to begin by taking us back to 2009 at Christmas time. My husband and I made a very last-minute decision to go from Toodyay down to Esperance for a bit of a Christmas break. I'm extremely grateful that we managed to secure cancellations in a couple of places to stay on the route down and then in Esperance itself, which is some 1,000-plus kilometres from my home in Toodyay. It was indeed fortunate because, unfortunately, at that time a fire took hold in Toodyay. There were 38 homes lost, including my own. Since then I have lived in Parkerville, where 44 homes were lost in 2014, and in Wooroloo, where 86 homes were lost in 2021.

The nature of climate change and where we live means that we face incredible and real risks of natural disasters. Be they floods on the east coast or fires on the west coast, these are matters that we absolutely have to focus on because there is no greater threat to our people, our property and our environment. I'm extremely proud to be part of a government that is now unlocking taxpayer funds that rightfully should be made available to mitigate those risks and to protect our communities. We'll now see some $200 million per annum being made available for mitigation, response and recovery to ensure that our communities are well and truly protected when facing these very real threats that are coming at us seasonally and unseasonally as well. It's incredibly troubling.

The focus that this government is placing on it is absolutely evident in the fact that when the Minister for Emergency Services, Murray Watt, made his first trip to Western Australia he immediately ventured into my electorate, which is an area that has a very high bushfire risk, to meet with the City of Armadale, the City of Swan, the City of Kalamunda and the Shire of Mundaring, in which I live. He sat down to fully appreciate not just the issues and the mitigation measures that are needed to lower the risk to families and communities but to consider the impact of the fires that these people have lived through and to work through the quickest and best ways for recovery. We have a government that is focused, a minister who cares and a government that will absolutely work to deliver on this commitment to ensure that we're protecting all Australians.

Debate adjourned.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:2 9

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