Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion of condolence and in doing so I acknowledge the many comments that have been made, particularly by members of electorates that have been affected by this horrific tragedy—electorates like McEwen, Gippsland, Indi, Murray, McMillan, Mallee, Wannon, Corangamite and Bendigo. They are all electorates that I have had the opportunity to visit, for various reasons, during my time as a member. No one would argue that when the rains come and the valleys blossom these are beautiful electorates. As someone who has grown up on the land I have some insight—although I would never think that I had a real picture—into just how horrific these areas would be when they were attacked by fire, fire like we have never seen before.

If I reflect on my days when I was a member of the Boondooma-Durong bushfire brigade, fighting fires in gum trees in hilly country was a danger all on its own. But the dangers that I confronted in the forests of Queensland are almost insignificant in comparison to the fires that we have seen in Victoria, with the temperature so much higher, timber so much denser and accessibility so much more difficult. There are few things that frighten me, but fire is certainly one of them. Fire has with it an inherent risk.

With this motion we reflect on what happened to too many poor souls as they attempted to defend their property and their loved ones and lost their lives or were severely injured as a result. We know that the death toll will rise. We know that grief in the communities will arise as the stark realisation hits home. We know, though, that deep down inside these people are Australians, and it is that character, that sense of resilience and that gritty courage that will rebuild these communities—that will rebuild the houses, halls, roads and fences—and restock the land, and, as best they ever can, the communities will be as they once were, but never quite the same. The toll of this horrific event will be far greater on the spirits of these brave Australians than it will be on their pockets. Australians everywhere, including in my electorate, are digging deep and putting their hands in their pockets to help these people overcome an extraordinary challenge that, hopefully, no other region will ever experience.

People in Toowoomba and the Darling Downs have been blessed with country that is not prone to fires and, with a few exceptions, most areas will not see the ravages of fire or the devastation of floods, as we have seen in North Queensland, but that does not mean that these people do not feel for their fellow Australians when such a horrific disaster strikes. From my family, my constituents in Groom and myself, I convey our deepest condolences. I express our deepest sympathies and assure the people of the communities, whose names we continue to hear each time we turn on the television, listen to the radio or read the newspaper, who have lost so much—in some cases everything and in some cases that which is most precious—‘You are in our minds, you are in our hearts and you are in our prayers, not just today but on an ongoing basis.’

In our nation’s history we have faced many calamities, but fire is a recurring theme. Dorothea Mackellar has been oft quoted in speeches, both in this place and in the main chamber, but in fact when you use the words ‘beauty’ and ‘terror’, as she used them to describe Australia, they can actually be used to describe fire. Many of us—probably all of us—have had the opportunity to sit in front of a crackling fire or around a bonfire and gaze into it and feel its warmth on a cold night. We should never, though, be seduced by that warmth into thinking that fire is anything but an absolute danger in the bush.

There will be lessons learnt from this fire and there will be incriminations and accusations—and I am not going to participate in any of that. As I said, I have fought fire, I know its danger and I have seen men almost killed by it but for a stroke of luck and a couple of seconds of timing, but in support of this condolence motion today I really just want to convey, on behalf of the people of my community, how much we feel for the people of the communities affected. I also express our gratitude to the selfless people who go without scant regard for their own safety or time and give their all in a volunteer capacity to fight these fires, care for those who are injured, assist those who are distraught and help begin the rebuilding process.

Members of the RFA and the CFA and volunteers who have travelled from New South Wales, Queensland and no doubt South Australia to assist these people in their time of distress are Australians displaying the true spirit of mateship. They do not expect acknowledgement and they certainly do not expect payment, but they will go away knowing about the eternal gratitude of not only the communities but, of course, all Australians. To them I express my thanks. I also acknowledge and thank those who are administrating the relief effort and those who are treating the injured and the burnt: ambulance officers, medical officers and hospital staff. Their job in rebuilding the bodies of these people will be a critical part of their recovery.

Today in the House we heard about the efforts of the Australian defence forces and the people who have gone in with them from the police force to perform what must be one of the most challenging tasks in the post-fire recovery period—as the Minister for Defence said, optimistically searching for survivors but realistically knowing that they are looking for those who have perished in this fire. I know they have courage and I know they have the ability to do the job, but I wish them all strength in the task they perform. In closing, I again just say that the rural landscape can bring great beauty and reward to Australians and this nation has grown as a result of our involvement with it. At these times, when it has wreaked such huge devastation on life and property, we need to remember the lessons that are learnt and comfort those who are suffering but look forward to a brighter future.

Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise on behalf of the constituents of the electorate of Deakin in support of this condolence motion for the victims of the Victorian bushfires. That such a tragedy has occurred is shocking; that it is not yet over is deeply disturbing. Every day brings more terrible news about more death and more destruction. As the winds pick up today in Victoria, many towns are again under threat. My sympathy, my heart, goes out to all those affected, especially those people who have lost loved ones, friends, neighbours, workmates or those who know others who have. The destruction of life, property, personal belongings, pets and animals, and even little mementos and keepsakes, is on a scale that is almost incomprehensible. The horror of the pictures and the words that have been conveyed from the many destroyed or affected townships fills me with immense sadness, as each of these pictures or stories represents a person or a family whose life has now gone or is tragically changed forever. That such a disaster can occur in the 21st century reminds us all that nature has not been tamed. A bushfire in the 21st century is no less fearsome or deadly than in times long ago.

As a Victorian member I have listened to the other contributions to this condolence motion with trepidation. Each speaker has told of the destruction, whether of life or property, but many have told stories of hope or escape. Some of those stories are almost beyond belief. I grew up in the outer Melbourne suburb of Bayswater in the 1960s when it was still semirural. One of my earliest memories—as a child of probably only three or four—is of looking out the back door on a summer’s afternoon and seeing the fires in the Dandenong Ranges. I think that would have been around 1968. It was a fair distance from where we lived—in fact, at that time it was quite a few miles away—but, as a small child, that was one of the things that was in my memory and will not go away.

Fortunately, on that day, and every other time there were fires in the hills while we were living in that house in Bayswater—and that was quite often—they did not come towards us. They always burnt into the hills. As we have seen and heard in some of the stories of these fires, however, they have gone into areas that are not even regarded as hills. The fires around Bendigo, where bushfire intruded into what are really suburban streets, will need to be looked at in great detail in the upcoming royal commission. Even though I lived a long distance from those fires, distance is no object when a bushfire is raging—as we have seen in recent days. Time seems to go—or does go—in mere seconds. If a bushfire is travelling at the speed of over a hundred kilometres an hour, the best laid plans simply do not always work.

I well remember the bushfires of 1983, which were subsequently known as Ash Wednesday. Forty-seven Victorians died in those fires and another 28 people died in South Australia. The smoke from the fires covered Melbourne, the sky turned a dirty brown and fine ash rained down in many suburbs. About a week or so after the fires had gone, I decided to volunteer and to go up and work in the township of Cockatoo, which had been burnt out in those fires. Three hundred and seven buildings and six lives in that little township up in the hills were gone, and that was just one of many places in Victoria that were burnt—almost beyond recognition—by those fires. I volunteered, and there was so much work to be done; there was quite simply nothing left in the way of services. There were a couple of shops in the main street that had not been burnt and a relief centre—which was a community hall, from memory—that had not been burnt and that had the Red Cross and various others operating out of it. By that stage, the initial clean-up had started, but it was still so far from ever being what it is now; and today it is actually a thriving town.

The work I was doing involved something quite simple: installing temporary builder’s electricity supply poles on each burnt-out block—and, as I say, there were many of them. At that stage, there were no powerlines, there were no phone lines and the roads—where they had been tarred—had burnt. There were lots of volunteers up there doing small jobs so the big ones could start. I suppose it was just a truly devastating experience to see what that township had been through and to see it up close, not in the fury of the flames of the bushfire but in what came after. Even the street signs melted. The glass out of the street lamps melted into big teardrops. There were burnt-out cars, houses and structures of all kinds. Even the trees around Cockatoo were just giant black matchsticks—no leaves, no branches. The smell that had been left behind by the fire was there in every breath you took.

The other thing that I had forgotten—it is 26 years since the Ash Wednesday fires—was the absolute silence of the place. There was no noise—no birds, no animals, no sounds of humans even, because they were spread out across what had been the township, doing small jobs. The silence was all encompassing. Even though I was not exposed to the fury of the fire or the fear of it coming in, seeing the fires on TV now and hearing the stories, seeing afterwards what it had done, certainly brings back those memories. That there have been worse fires than those that occurred on Ash Wednesday is a national tragedy that requires us as a nation to consider all alternatives, whatever they may be, when dealing with bushfires.

Many of the towns that have been razed over the last few days are very familiar to me because I spent many weekends and holidays enjoying the surrounding bushland—going away for the weekend, camping with my Scout group at Glenburn, fishing in the river at Murrindindi, having cold beers at the Narbethong pub, playing bad golf on Sunday mornings at the Marysville golf course or having weekends away with the boys on the Black Spur. For me those things were some of the benefits of growing up in the eastern suburbs and its easy access to the bush: those places were all less than an hour up the Maroondah Highway or the Melba Highway.

Although my electorate of Deakin has escaped any direct damage from the bushfires, there are many people in Deakin affected by this disaster through friends, family, work connections or school, and those stories are widespread. There is probably no-one within the electorate that is not connected or does not know someone in the neighbouring electorates. As I said before, we are only a short distance from the hills and therefore from some of the fires.

Like just about every other speaker on this motion I have to say what a great job the CFA, the DSE and the MFB—who have sent some of their services across—have done in doing everything they can to protect people’s lives and properties. It is a huge effort in Victoria at the moment with so many fires burning at once, and some of them are in such inaccessible areas. You could never have enough people available to counter what is happening at the moment. Fortunately, in the last few days the weather has been kinder than on the weekend, but I think many people in Victoria on Saturday, when it was 46 degrees, knew it was going to be a rough day. It is not as if it was a total surprise. The warnings had gone out, but then things just got dramatically worse.

Of course I cannot forget the work the police, the SES, the ambulance services, community groups, the Red Cross and the Salvos have done and are doing. It is fantastic to see that community spirit come out. It is still out there now—and it needs to be out there for such a long time to come. I am told there are 5,000 homeless people; I am sure that figure will grow. As I said before, rebuilding is going to be an even bigger task than it was after Ash Wednesday. It took many communities many years to overcome that, and we still do not know how much more Victoria is going to face. As the Deputy Prime Minister said in moving this motion:

Every one of us here today will do everything that we possibly can to respond, to rebuild and to make certain that, to the extent that we can ever combat nature’s might, such tragedies cannot happen again.

I wholeheartedly agree with the Deputy Prime Minister, and I commend this condolence motion to the House.

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the condolence motion moved by the Deputy Prime Minister and supported by all who have spoken to date in this debate. I add my condolences to the families who have lost loved ones and my commiserations to those who have lost property and assets, and I bring with me the condolences and commiserations of the electors of Berowra to the parliament and to my colleagues, particularly those colleagues whose electorates have been affected.

In the time that I have been in the parliament I have witnessed many events of great enormity and tragedy, often in other parts of the world. There are not many that impact upon Australia, but when you think of the Australians who lost their lives in the Bali bombing it was significant in this parliament. The services in the Great Hall reflected that. But I do not think I have seen, since 1973, the activities of the parliament truncated in the way in which they have been so that a universal view can be conveyed to the Australian community about the enormity of the loss that has been suffered, nor do I think that I have heard such fine addresses by colleagues. When I think about the member for McMillan speaking yesterday, joined by the members for Wannon, Mallee, Casey and Bendigo, when I think about the fine addresses today from the members for Gippsland and Indi and add to that members affected by flood who acknowledged the enormity of the disaster that is being suffered in Victoria—the members for Herbert, Dawson and Kennedy—this has been a remarkable couple of days.

I was gratified today to hear that the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have met to discuss the way in which we might move forward in common purpose. At times of emergency, there is an expectation that that will happen, and I certainly hope it can continue, because the wide range of issues that we have to deal with demand it. I thank the Prime Minister, as the Leader of the Opposition did, for his engagement with members of the parliament generally and his messages of support and encouragement. Particularly the members who have received them have acknowledged the importance of that common purpose. It is in that context that I look around this chamber. I see the members for Bradfield and Werriwa, and they will know, as I do, that fire is a present threat for many of us in the outlying areas of our great cities, where you have great national parks and open spaces adjoining urban and semiurban areas. So when I hear something of the horror that people have experienced, while I know that my constituents have not had the same level of adverse experience, nevertheless constituents know about the enormity of threat that fire poses.

In 1957 I fought my first bushfire in Sydney with a hessian bag. In that sense, I felt overwhelmed as significant parts of Hornsby, including St Peter’s Church, were lost as the fire came up out of the Berowra parklands and Galston Gorge. We have had more recent fires. I relate to those who have spoken with horror at the prospect that somebody may deliberately light fires. Close to my own home at Pennant Hills, out of the Lane Cove National Park, we used to regularly experience bushfires that we now know were always deliberately lit, because the culprit was found and prosecuted. Since that time we have not had any fires, except I think the one that was at the eastern end of Lane Cove National Park, adjacent to the member for Bradfield’s electorate, last week.

I know the enormity of the anguish that people experience as they think about fire. We have lost life and property in my constituency but we have not experienced the enormity that our Victorian colleagues have had to endure. It is right that we should mourn and commiserate with them. It is right that we should express our condolences in the way that we have. But it is also important that we learn the lessons. At times I have had some responsibility for assisting in relation to the work of Emergency Management Australia, an agency within the Attorney-General’s Department that has had responsibility for liaising with states and territories and ensuring that Commonwealth support, where it is possible to assist, is available.

I notice that the Commonwealth disaster plan has been activated. It has happened again and, as the Prime Minister acknowledged, EMA played a role in ensuring that the Defence Force could bring together the tents, stretchers, sleeping bags, portable beds and mattresses as well as the heavy machinery—the bulldozers and loaders—and the chainsaw crews, the aerial imagery and the defence personnel who can provide search and recovery assistance.

The Commonwealth disaster plan provides the ability to gather together the support that the Commonwealth can offer—and it is appropriate that it should—but the Commonwealth’s role is quite limited. While Emergency Management Australia provides that critical support—and it has done so again, through Tony Pearce, its director, briefing the Prime Minister—you can see from the arrangements outlined by the Prime Minister that the royal commission will be a Victorian royal commission. The Victorian government will establish, under Victorian legislation, a Victorian bushfire reconstruction and recovery authority. The personnel are eminently well qualified; nevertheless they are the choice of Victoria.

While I am not critical of those arrangements that were put in place to respond, or of the activities of those that did respond—I know the enormity of it and the difficulty associated with the response and I know of the professional and volunteer support that has been given—I think we will have to reflect on whether or not there should be some further Commonwealth engagement in relation to the way in which these issues are taken forward in the future. I offer the comments constructively when I say that. I have spoken, long before this tragedy, about reviewing some of the material that has been prepared by ASPI, and I noted that in the Smith review, which was undertaken in a broader context dealing with national security issues, it was proposed that Emergency Management Australia be integrated into an Australian emergency management committee with a national security adviser as the chair. This was seen as providing enhanced capacity to respond to an all-hazards approach to dealing with emergencies that we face.

My view, as I said in a speech that I made in Victoria several days before these fires, is that the Commonwealth needs to go further. Emergency Management Australia has played an important role in Australia’s response to and recovery from many disasters, both locally and abroad, but I believe that that role needs to be expanded along the lines suggested by ASPI, to include a greater command role for disaster recovery and response. That is a matter that the government might be prepared to consider. I think its role needs to be more than just providing grants for volunteers, education at Mount Macedon and grants to enhance facilities of agencies. I oversaw its implementation. Our Rural Fire Service in New South Wales has seen increased participation by volunteers. While volunteerism has been in decline in so many areas in Australia, it was interesting that, in that one area, where people’s property and life were threatened, there had been increased voluntary participation, particularly in New South Wales. I believe that the role of the former government’s programs in attracting people to volunteer was important.

I very much want to contribute positively in this debate, but I more particularly want to associate the electors of Berowra, my constituents—who understand something of the loss that the Victorians have experienced—with this condolence motion and the commiserations that have been offered in terms of the loss. My electors, along with Australians generally, have been and, I am sure, will continue to be generous in their financial support. I know from calls to my office that people have been looking at ways and means by which they can be of assistance, and it is a great tribute to Australia and Australians that in a crisis of this sort people have so willingly pulled together. I also commend my colleagues, who have given leadership, and also the parliament for its fulsome engagement in this motion. It says a great deal about the nature of our democracy that on an occasion like this we can put aside our more combative approaches and speak with one voice and in union.

Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to join in support of this condolence motion by the Deputy Prime Minister. I do so on behalf of my community of Werriwa and certainly my family and myself. Along with all of my colleagues on all sides of this parliament, I have over this week witnessed a national tragedy. Presently some 4,000 firefighters are in Victoria fighting 23 fires. What has occurred in Victoria since last Saturday has probably been the worst natural disaster in our recorded history. I observed, shortly before coming down here, that about 181 people had been confirmed dead and that over 5,000 people were now homeless.

This tragedy has really shaken the whole nation. I know it probably does not mean much for people outside of parliament at the moment, but those of us in here cannot help but feel the sombre nature of this place. I think my colleague the member for Berowra put it pretty eloquently when he said that this place is probably more well known for its feisty and combative nature. The nation has been shaken to its core and, quite frankly, we are reflecting the views not only of our constituents but of the nation as we approach this dreadful tragedy in Victoria. The nation is being shaken by this disaster as it unfolds.

The people of Victoria are in my thoughts and prayers. The people of south-west Sydney and families right across Australia have the people of Victoria very much in the forefront of their thinking at the moment. As a member of this parliament, like many others, I have regard for the many Victorians who have lost friends, families, loved ones and homes and have suffered terribly. We want them to know that we are thinking of them and are praying for them. We are committed to doing everything possible to respond, to rebuild and to make certain as far as we can, in the words of the Deputy Prime Minister, that ‘such tragedies cannot happen again’. I look forward to the contributions that various experts may care to make in the Victorian royal commission that has been announced. I wish the royal commission well not simply in looking at the causes of the great tragedy in Victoria but also in pointing in its findings, hopefully, to what can be done in our communities to make them safer.

At this time we must also think of those families struggling in North Queensland. There is great irony in this great country of Australia. At the same time we have fire devastation in Victoria we have a flood devastated Queensland, where a number of people are missing and over 3,000 people are homeless. Today I take this opportunity to personally pass on my gratitude to all of those firefighters, emergency service workers, police, Army personnel and medical staff and those providing counselling and support to those affected by the fires, and those providing financial assistance, including the dedicated staff at Centrelink. I extend my gratitude to all of those people contributing for doing the work they are doing, work that we physically cannot do.

There is no person in this country who has not been touched by the unprecedented nature of this disaster. It takes your breath away every time you turn the TV on. There is almost the expectation that things will be getting worse because over the last week when we have turned on the television things have gotten progressively worse. I have been speaking regularly to Mark Burgess, the Chief Executive Officer of the Police Federation of Australia. I was talking to him about the welfare of the police not only in North Queensland but in Victoria at the moment. Each time I end those calls only one thing really stays in my mind—and this will not come as any surprise to members—and that is just how wonderful our emergency service workers really are. I greatly value the difficult and often very dangerous jobs that they do. They do them with complete and utter commitment. I have said in this place before that it takes a special kind of person and special kind of courage to commit to wearing a police uniform. This too can be said no less of our firefighters, who as we speak are continuing to fight the most devastating fires in our nation’s history.

We are truly indebted to those brave men and women who are currently committed to fighting and containing the remaining fires, those who are sifting through the rubble of houses looking for bodies, those who are hunting down arsonists and those who are undertaking the grim task of formally identifying those who have perished so the next of kin can be formally advised. To all those involved, you should know that your significant and tireless contributions are valued, and I want to assure you that we do not take you for granted.

Before coming into the chamber today I spoke at length to Inspector Brian Rix, a very seasoned Victorian police officer, a homicide squad investigator and a person who has probably seen the worst of humanity to that extent. He is also President of the Police Association of Victoria. When I was talking to Brian today, I told him that I would be speaking to this condolence motion and Brian asked me to personally pass on sincere thanks from him and on behalf of all of his members who are directly involved in working on this tragedy. He told me that dreadful times like this really bring to light how being a member of the police force is more than just a job. He has received many calls from members each day and he has received numerous calls of support from every police force, state and territory, and the Federal Police. As a matter of fact, I think the Australian Federal Police have now committed over 90 officers to work down there alongside their Victorian counterparts. Inspector Rix said:

We really are one family and in times of need, we support each other and right now you are all showing us here in Victoria that support.

He went on to tell me that the capricious nature of these fires has meant that the welfare of members will require close monitoring. However, he assures me that the service in Victoria is certainly meeting the immediate financial needs and providing emotional support for those who need it. In fact, it was only yesterday that Inspector Rix was at the police operations centre, where he was providing support to his members and colleagues who were exposed to the extreme, traumatic event. In some cases there are members who have lost their own homes but they too are out there still working, still sifting through the rubble and trying to establish what they need to with regard to what they now regard as a crime scene.

While Inspector Rix was out there yesterday, as president of his police association, he too went out to assist his colleagues. He was telling me that he uncovered a body himself and retrieved a body from an area. He left me with a very clear sense of the impact of seeing the effects of this devastation. It is not just something that you see when you put Sky News on and that then goes away when you turn the news off. This actually stays with you. Whilst I know firsthand, having regard to my previous association with the police, about the work that police do and how they are affected, what Inspector Rix wanted to leave me with was that it is not only the police who are going to be affected by this; it is all those various members of the community—the volunteers and professional firefighters, the ambulance officers and all those who are assisting. They also need to be looked at and supported as time progresses.

Additionally today I would like to take a little time to express my appreciation of the numerous dedicated and valuable volunteer members of the Rural Fire Service from my own area in Werriwa. In addition to assisting our local community over the weekend, our firefighters travelled to Victoria on Sunday. Tankers from Casula, Lynwood Park, Minto Heights, Narellan and Varroville bushfire brigades—24 crew members in all, together with a deputy group captain from Camden—departed on Sunday morning to assist the CFA. They are in the Beechworth area as we speak.

I spoke to Superintendent Caroline Ortel, the Macarthur zone manager for the Rural Fire Service, who advised me that these volunteers are providing relief for the Victorian crews and there will be more who will interchange from Macarthur. I understand from Superintendent Ortel that there are any number of local volunteers with their hands up to go down to help. Her task is to ensure that we provide not only assistance in Victoria but also the necessary protection for our own bush areas. She told me that I should mention the dedicated service of those RFS members who as a consequence remain, because they are actually doubling their time on standby in order to protect the south-west of Sydney at the moment. This is an example of a situation where we see all the members of our community pulling together to do something. They have the necessary training and they intend to use it to support the people of Victoria.

Kevin Harder, the commander of the SES at Campbelltown, advised me today that, while there has not been a formal call on the SES, he has already had two of his team volunteer. They have gone to Sydney to refill relief supplies so they can be transported to victims of the Victorian fires. Again, I thought it was very good that, even when our volunteer organisations have not been called upon to do various things, they have initiated their own activity in trying to make a difference in Victoria.

To all those volunteers I say: all your contributions are admired, and I would like to take this opportunity to convey my sincere gratitude to all of those local heroes. To the people of Victoria, who have suffered so much: we are truly sorry for the horror that you have had to endure. Words are unable to successfully communicate the sorrow that I feel or the losses that people have suffered on both an individual and a community level. It is very difficult to stand here and imagine the depth of their loss and grief. To the people of Victoria I say: may you find the faith, the courage and the strength to carry on and to rebuild your lives, remembering those who have passed and what you have lost. Knowing the spirit of true Aussie mateship, all Australia mourns in respect of this dreadful disaster. Genuinely, we send you our love, our thoughts and our prayers. As the PM indicated, we will be there with the people of Victoria to support you with whatever it takes to rebuild your communities.

I also indicate that my thoughts and prayers are with my parliamentary colleagues whose electorates have been affected by the fires, in particular the member for McEwen, Fran Bailey, who is currently unable to attend parliament and is still tending to her community. I have a lot of admiration for Fran in that respect and I think every member of the parliament certainly appreciates her commitment and dedication in staying with her community in their time of absolute need.

Finally, like the Prime Minister and all my parliamentary colleagues, I support the appeal effort throughout Australia. I know Australians will dig deep into their pockets. They will strengthen their resolve and do what is necessary to ensure that we return Victoria to how it was prior to these bushfires. We will be part of rebuilding these communities. We will not forget what has occurred, but we will be part of rebuilding these communities.

Petro Georgiou (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to support the condolence motion on the devastating tragedy that bushfire has inflicted on the state of Victoria. Victoria has endured this nation’s worst natural disaster. The fires that raced through many townships around the state have produced tragedy and immense loss. Almost 200 lives have been confirmed lost, many hundreds of people have been injured and hundreds are in hospital—some of whom are in a critical condition. Literally hundreds of properties have been reduced to ashes and entire towns have been wiped off the map. For many Victorians, the pain and suffering continue as they search for their loved ones who are still unaccounted for, as they grieve for those they have lost and as they wonder how they will rebuild their properties, their communities and their lives. Many people are unable to return to their properties, as roadblocks continue and townships remain closed off. In some cases they are closed off because the fires are still burning and in others because victim identification continues.

The images that we have seen on the news convey only part of the devastation that has afflicted Victorians. But these images convey some of the terror that has been and is being felt by so many. One of the things I have noticed is that, every time you think you are inured to the images, new ones come up that reimpact. For example, in today’s Age a profound impact was made by photos of the people who, just a few days ago, were alive and happy and who have been killed by the fires. The costs of the catastrophe are staggering: 181 people are confirmed dead and the expectation is that more will be found as the task of going through burnt-out shells of houses continues. Close to 600 people have been hospitalised, many in a critical condition with burns and smoke inhalation and some remain in intensive care. More than 5,000 people are refugees; 1,000 homes and 400,000 hectares have been destroyed; people have lost everything and rely on welfare centres and emergency evacuation facilities as makeshift homes.

Most of the people of Marysville, whose town no longer exists, eat, sleep and wake in the community hall of a high school in Alexandra. They wait for a future that is uncertain. They have no homes to return to and their town has stopped existing. The people of Victoria and of Australia have been deeply affected by the tragedy, and all our hearts are heavy this week as we read the newspapers, listen to the latest updates on the radio and watch the images of horror on the TV news. Beyond this, there has been a response from the international community, as the Prime Minister outlined yesterday.

The stories of loss, anguish, fear, escape and survival make us shake our heads in bewilderment and disbelief. One phrase that keeps cropping up in speeches on this condolence motion is that it is very difficult to express in words what people are feeling. In part, it is from the expression of these feelings and the inability to quite express them properly that we can see a community that is pulling together and acting as one as the distinctions between state and state, city and country, are erased. While those affected have been consoling and comforting each other, the support from the broader community has been phenomenal. The Red Cross has received over $31 million from over 153,000 donors. The blood bank in Melbourne has been overwhelmed with thousands of online pledges to donate blood, and many people are streaming through the doors. Many corporations have pledged donations or are facilitating appeals within their businesses. I note with some pride that the members of the Australian parliament, who are so often divided by principle and interest, have on this occasion come together in unity and in a commitment to do whatever is necessary to try to restore as much of people’s lives in the affected areas as is humanly possible. I think that that is, as the member for Berowra said, a sign of a very strong democracy. And I think the leaders on both sides of politics have given the Australian people the sort of leadership that they are entitled to and do not always get.

I join with others in acknowledging the courage and determination of our outstanding emergency services personnel, our police, our military and particularly the thousands of volunteer firefighters committed to battling fires and saving whatever they can, despite facing the most extreme conditions ever. I would just like to close by quoting from the quite remarkable speech by the member for McMillan yesterday. He closed by saying:

To those who pray, I say: pray now; do not leave it until next Sunday. To those who fight, I say: all strength to your arm; stay safe. To those who serve, I say: we in this parliament stand with you as one.

I commend the motion to the House.

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a privilege to follow the honourable member for Kooyong, who quoted from an extraordinary speech in the House by Russell Broadbent, the honourable member for McMillan. I want to start where he left off, by saying I think we have had some outstanding contributions in the House, from my own side by the member for Bendigo and the member for Ballarat and equally from the opposition side. Today we heard from a very new member, who was elected in a by-election not so long ago and has surely been tested by these events. In the House, he was demonstrably affected by what he has seen, but it was a very, very good speech. In relation to the member for McMillan, I can say I have not heard anything like that in my time in this House.

As the member for Kooyong said, I think that the people of Australia can be proud of our leaders. I am proud of the Prime Minister and the time he spent down there. I am personally touched by the fact that he rang or sought to ring members—opposition members as well as government members, but particularly opposition members, who have been more affected in their electorates—to comfort them, to reassure them and to see what could be done. Equally, the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition have conducted themselves in a most admirable fashion and have spoken well in the House, as did the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. I commend Mr Turnbull, the Leader of the Opposition, and Julie Bishop.

We really have not seen the like of this before. If you want to do the statistics, then unfortunately the bushfires in Victoria, which are far from over, have taken more lives than both Black Friday and Ash Wednesday. Regrettably, the toll is still mounting. We all know that the numbers that have been publicly disclosed are going to climb much higher.

I do not come from Victoria. I come from New South Wales. I come from Sydney, like Mr Nelson, the former Leader of the Opposition. In a way, in Sydney we are always used to somewhere on the North Shore or somewhere like Heathcote, in the southern suburbs, having a bushfire each year. And we are aware of floods. It is the nature of things. It is almost as though, in a way, we are desensitised in our country to floods and bushfires. But this is altogether of a different magnitude.

Again, can I just say that, as a member of parliament, I am really proud of the parliament—proud of the government, proud of the ministers and proud of the opposition, their leaders and the backbench, for all that they are doing in terms of leadership, comfort and support. Both sides have said, ‘Whatever it takes, we’ll do it.’ The Prime Minister has indicated his determination by saying that there will be no cap on the federal government involvement. And that is not just a speech for today or tomorrow; it is really an assurance to those communities that the Australian government and the Australian parliament—I say that to include the opposition—have a steely determination that we will overcome. We will be there. As days and weeks go by, we will all be asking what has been done and what is to be done. The task is not very easy. It is quite enormous. The expectations are very high. But we will be there today and tomorrow.

I want to commend, too, Minister Jenny Macklin, who has not had the opportunity to leave Victoria. She has been there as our principal minister. Down there we have had the Prime Minister and the Minister for Human Services, Senator Ludwig, and today we had Joel Fitzgibbon, the Minister for Defence. But Jenny Macklin is on point duty as the main representative there in Victoria. We await her return, because I am sure that she will have a lot to say.

The Prime Minister mentioned Dorothea Mackellar and her very famous poem My Country. I am ashamed to say that I thought it started with ‘I love a sunburnt country,’ but it does not. I thought I might quote a couple of lines from the poem, starting from the second verse:

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of drought and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror,

The wide brown land for me!

I will also quote the second last verse:

Core of my heart, my country!

Land of the rainbow gold,

For flood and fire and famine

She pays us back threefold.

Over the thirsty paddocks,

Watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as we gaze…

I think the poem really describes the extremes of our country. In what other country would a government, a parliament, need to confront serious floods in its north and bushfires of an unprecedented scale in its south?

My electorate is a very poor one. We do not rate highly on lots of things. But the one thing I can tell this House is that it is a very generous electorate. You will not find big donations. You will not find magnificent donations. But what you will find are a lot of donations from people that battle very hard just to survive and feel very deeply about what people in Victoria are going through. I can quote one statistic that might surprise honourable members: the volunteers at the Mount Druitt Hospital raise more money than any other volunteers in New South Wales. That, to me, speaks volumes about their dedication and, more importantly, their generosity.

I want, like so many other members, to praise all those who have been and are involved in trying to battle on in a war that is not yet won. They are the police, who have really got an awful job in trying to identify those who are deceased and to tell us who the deceased are; the permanent firemen and the volunteer firemen; the Red Cross; the ladies auxiliary; and all those people who give so generously of their time, their emotions and their energy. I want to commend all those who have been involved. Really, I think the nation thanks you.

In my own state of New South Wales we currently have bushfires. I cannot stand here and say to you that there will not be a crisis in New South Wales. It could go belly up. But I do want to say that I am proud of the people of New South Wales, who are, through their government—as are others in this great Federation of ours, through their governments—contributing money and services. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service, New South Wales Fire Brigades, New South Wales Police Force and the Ambulance Service of New South Wales have all been involved in trying to assist our brothers and sisters in Victoria. Three hundred firefighters and 71 fire engines are already there. And I do not say this to say that only New South Wales is doing it—I know that other states are—but rather to demonstrate, I suppose, how everyone is rallying to the cause.

The New South Wales Minister for Emergency Services, Steve Whan, whose electorate is in Queanbeyan, has advised that an extra 20 lightweight striker units may be able to assist in inaccessible terrain. A team of nine police officers trained in disaster victim identification have been tasked with assisting their Victorian colleagues. Five New South Wales ambulance service paramedics are on site, and another four are on standby to accompany the New South Wales Fire Brigades’ urban search and rescue personnel who may be deployed. A New South Wales burns specialist and two burns nurses are on standby, with beds at Concord Hospital also on standby. Two critical incident support personnel from the Rural Fire Service are to provide counselling and to support New South Wales firefighters on the ground. New South Wales has also offered 25 specialist urban search and rescue personnel from the New South Wales Fire Brigades to assist with the search activities and damage assessment. So, as I am talking here tonight, there are 25 fires actually burning in New South Wales, and it reflects the Australian can-do sort of nature that, notwithstanding these threats that are posed in New South Wales, we are—and we are proud to be—assisting in Victoria.

To all those who have lost loved ones in Victoria, I say: please accept our deepest sympathy. There is a time to mourn, there is a time to grieve but there is also a time to rebuild and renew, and we sincerely hope that they will be assisted in doing that by the expression of so much community grief.

The last thing I want to speak on is the suggestion that some of these fires may have been deliberately lit. I do not know which may have been and which may not have been, but I have great difficulty in understanding how someone could get some satisfaction, pleasure or delight in being involved in such a catastrophe. It is a particular sickness, I truly believe. But the fires have not all been deliberately lit. The peculiar conditions and the ferocity of this fire are things we have not seen before—conditions that can melt metal, boil water and move with such vicious and deadly speed.

There will be lessons to be learnt from all this and we need to learn them. I repeat the sentiment of both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition: we have a determination in this place to collectively and individually do all we can to see that, over time, these communities are returned to some form of normality—that houses lost are replaced, that businesses destroyed are resurrected and that farms and farmers who have suffered their losses are able to recover. I applaud the generosity of the people of Australia. I thank my state for its involvement in assistance, but in particular I want to record how much I appreciate its generosity. I know that people whose lives are really a daily struggle compared to those of so many, will find money to express their sorrow and their solidarity with all those in Victoria. They will be making a real and conscious, if modest, contribution to the rebuilding of those communities. I commend the condolence motion to the House.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In this contribution, I could not hope to emulate the poetic eloquence of the honourable member for Chifley, who just spoke—particularly when he quoted poetry. But let me say that in Australia we are singularly fortunate to live in what many people describe as the lucky country. Other honourable members have outlined the beauty of our landscape and the beauty of our climate, and we have also heard the most terrible stories of how we live in such a harsh environment. At the present time in Queensland we have some two-thirds of the state either drought declared or flood declared, and in some cases areas are declared to be both. That of course is in the north of our country. In the south of our country we have the most horrendous bushfires we have ever seen. I have to say that in times of adversity Australians really demonstrate what is our national mettle. I have been very impressed with the way the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have confronted this national tragedy. They have worked together and the government is working with other governments, not only within Australia but around the world, to assist people in their time of need and then of course to assist in the process of recovery, which will not be achieved overnight.

We have had messages of sympathy from right around the world, from Her Majesty the Queen down. A couple of days ago in the House, the Prime Minister outlined some of the governments who had passed on their sympathy with respect to this tragedy and also had offered assistance in various ways. I hope that we are accepting as many of those offers of assistance as we need and I hope that in the fullness of time we will know what assistance from around the world we have accepted. Whenever there is a tragedy anywhere on earth, the Australian people and the Australian government are the first to offer assistance. I have to say that what goes around comes around. We have a situation where people around the world are now endeavouring to reciprocate.

I have also been particularly impressed with the way there has been facilitation in the parliament to allow those members who represent the most affected areas to make contributions: to set out poignant stories and to tell us about the challenges, the endurance and the horrible events but also to tell us about some inspirational actions by people. The fact that this debate is moving back to the main chamber when one of the most affected members wishes to speak is an example of how this parliament should operate.

The honourable member for McEwen was praised today by the Prime Minister for doing an outstanding job. She has confronted challenges, as have other honourable members in their electorates, but she remains at the wheel, so to speak, and has stayed where she ought to be. I look forward, in the fullness of time, to hearing a contribution from the member for McEwen. We have heard from the members for Gippsland, Indi, Murray, Mallee, Corangamite, Bendigo and Wannon—and I apologise if I have left any honourable members out—whose electorates are those principally affected.

I must say that I have learnt quite a lot about bushfires from listening to the debate. I thought that when a bushfire confronted property, threatening lives, that there were certain processes that were followed—I know that there are—but I just did not comprehend that you could have fires the centres of which could have temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius. They are fires which melt metal—they can melt gearboxes! There are huge fireballs that drop out of the sky, like bombs, onto homes. At times some properties are spared and other properties are gobbled up by the flames. There seems to be a sense of irrationality as to what properties are spared and what properties are consumed. People have come forward with some heroic acts. There have been some remarkable survivals which, in many cases, are entirely inspirational.

The member for Chifley mentioned his horror at the prospect that some of these fires may have been deliberately lit. I share his horror, and I know that all honourable members do. In fact, the Prime Minister in the House today—and I think previously—highlighted the need for us to look at this area of the law. There is no doubt that someone who deliberately lights a fire that becomes a bushfire which consumes life and property, as these bushfires have, is guilty of nothing less than murder. I know that our law enforcement agencies are being given all the assistance they need because people who do these things have to be made an example of. It has to be clear in our community that conduct such as lighting fires is absolutely unacceptable.

Mr Deputy Speaker, as you would know, I am privileged to represent the Sunshine Coast. It is a wonderful part of the world. It is a part of the world that many people visit. Many people from Victoria spend their holidays there, and because of internal migration in Australia many people living on the Sunshine Coast, and in Queensland more generally, originate from the areas where these bushfires are. My office has received lots of phone calls from people making offers of help, and I would commend the various appeals that are under way.

I stand in this chamber today to convey the very sincere sympathies of people resident in the electorate of Fisher towards those people who have lost loved ones, who have lost property and who have undergone experiences just too horrible to contemplate. It is important that, in a bipartisan way, all assistance is given—assistance firstly to extinguish the fire and secondly to ensure that there is not a repetition. That process will take a while, but the process of doing that is much shorter than will be the process of rebuilding communities and, even more importantly, enabling shattered lives to be put back together. It is impossible to read a newspaper without being brought almost to tears. When one looks at the media coverage on television or listens to the radio, the circumstances are simply beyond belief. I would like to formally associate myself with this motion and commend the mover of the motion and, more importantly, associate my constituents with the various expressions of sympathy to those people who have lost loved ones and lost everything.

Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight with a heavy heart, as have so many members of this House, to speak on this condolence motion in relation to the Victorian bushfires and the people whose lives have been changed forever. I do this not only on behalf of myself but also on behalf of all the people in the electorate of Shortland, who have been ringing my office offering their assistance and support and commenting on the way this parliament has handled the matter.

No member of parliament wishes to be a member of this House at the time an event like this happens. I understand bushfires. In the electorate of Shortland, we are constantly confronted with bushfires, but they are nothing like the magnitude of the fire and the devastation that the people of Victoria have been confronted with. I have been faced with a wall of fire, but it was easy for me to get out. There was no real danger. We have had sparks on our lawn from various bushfires. We have had neighbours who had to fight to save their house, but they did save their house. They were safe and there were ways out. Unfortunately for those people in Victoria, it was a very different situation.

I feel very privileged to be a member of this parliament. We have had all politicians, all members working together with the common goal of expressing their sympathy and condolences to the people of Victoria. The whole process has been removed from politics. The whole situation has been depoliticised. It makes me very sad to think that many of these fires were started by my fellow Australians—people who have ruined and changed the lives of so many people and who have even changed the psyche of our country. The fire has been horrendous. The damage and devastation, the loss of life and the way it has changed people’s lives forever has been spoken about by so many members in this House. It shows that members on both sides of this House are very compassionate people.

The extent of this fire—the death and devastation—is, I think, still not known. I look at the Hansard and I see when the Deputy Prime Minister moved the motion on Monday that there were 107 people who were confirmed deceased. By the end of question time, it was 126. When the Prime Minister spoke to us yesterday in the parliament, there were 173 people who had lost their lives. Today when the Prime Minister spoke it was 181 who had been confirmed dead in the fires. They are just numbers, but every one of those numbers is a life that will not be lived. Every one of those people has family and friends who will miss them and who will never quite come to terms with what has happened.

Last year the Friends of Epilepsy had Christine Walker as a guest speaker. I was talking to the Epilepsy Foundation Victoria yesterday and I learnt that Christine’s husband was in Maryville and has not been seen or heard from since Sunday. I think each and every one of us is touched in a particular way. Christine is somebody who has spoken in our parliament to us as members and who is suffering in a very personal way.

I would like to acknowledge the Prime Minister and the role he has played, showing great leadership in being there with the people of Victoria; the Deputy Prime Minister; Minister Macklin; the Leader of the Opposition; the Deputy Leader of the Opposition; and all members of the opposition who have been so devastatingly affected by this event. We have talked about the member for McMillan, who made I think one of the best speeches. I felt very privileged to be in the parliament yesterday when the member for McMillan made his speech. The member for Bendigo gave a perspective from a different area and made an outstanding speech. The thing that has really struck me is how members of very different political persuasions are all champions for their community. They are part of their community; they are their community. Their community is hurt and they hurt.

Australians come together in the good times and in the bad times. At the time of the Sydney Olympics, all Australians banded together, and that was a time of great happiness and excitement. But we also come together in the bad times. Each and every Australian is supporting those people in Victoria. Within my own electorate on Monday night, Lake Macquarie City Council—which is in my local government area—passed a motion of urgency expressing condolence to the Victorian Premier and congratulating the emergency services. They have informed the Local Government and Shires Associations that, if there is a request for resources, vehicles and personnel, Lake Macquarie are ready to go. The whole of the council is coming together.

Tonight the other council in the Shortland electorate, Wyong Shire Council, also has a motion of urgency expressing its condolences to the family and friends of those who have perished or been injured in the fires. It congratulates the Wyong Shire Council staff, who have raised $10,000 and donated it to the Red Cross. Included in the motion is encouragement to all residents and ratepayers to contribute financially and to donate blood. The council is in contact with local emergency services and the Victorian authorities in order to identify any assistance it they might be able to offer.

In addition to that, I have had some pretty special phone calls in my office. Rob Stirling from Buff Point has three trucks full of goods that he is driving to Victoria. He has made arrangements and is going to do it all at his own cost on Saturday morning. Robbie Baldock contacted me, and he has advised me that the Catholic community on the Central Coast are prepared to donate 500 tents and take them to Victoria via a truck supplied by Energy Australia. There was also a woman who rang my office who had collected goods in her local area and wanted to donate them. There has been such a strong response within the Shortland electorate that I felt I wanted to do something—I felt that, within my community, I would like to show some leadership—so this Sunday between 11.30 am and 2 pm on the Belmont foreshore, on Brooks Parade, near the jetty, we are having a fundraising event.

It started as my idea. I started the organisation and contacted all those people who are involved—we have a sausage sizzle, jumping castle, slide, entertainment, face-painting and bands—but it has been picked up by the community as a whole. The state member for Swansea, Robert Coombs, is involved, and the mayor of Lake Macquarie City Council, Councillor Greg Piper, who is an Independent, of a different political persuasion from me, is joining us. It is a bipartisan approach to this fundraising event. We have the Swansea Lions. The Belmont Chamber of Commerce have been absolutely fantastic. They have assisted with the printing and distribution of flyers and with ensuring that everyone knows about it. Belmont Citi Centre and local businesses are also involved. Lake Macquarie City Council and the mayor, who are allowing us to use the foreshore free of charge, will be involved on the day.

One of my staff members drove by Belmont High School today. They have a big noticeboard out in front of the school, and on that noticeboard they highlight special events that are taking place in the school. They have a notice telling people about the fundraiser down on the foreshore on Sunday. It is a way that the people in my community can come together and do something. We can collect funds and send money to the people in Victoria. People will have the opportunity to do more than just feel totally devastated and helpless; they will be able to contribute toward making better the lives of those people who have lost their homes and, in some cases, their family and friends.

We must look to the future. The people who are involved and the Australian community as a whole will move through the grieving process. At first, there will be horror, shock and sadness. Then there will be anger. Eventually, life will return to some sort of normality, but it is going to take a long time and a lot of help and assistance. We, as members of parliament, must continue to work together in a way that is not political. We must work together to find some way to find some positives in this tragedy and to see that it never happens again—at the least, that it never happens again on the scale that it has here. We must not be distracted from continuing to work together. We must not seek to attribute blame. We cannot blame the victims. We cannot blame the government, emergency services or police. We can, but it achieves nothing. To achieve something, we have to be positive and move forward, and we have to do it together. We need to learn and make sure that the death and devastation never happen again.

I would like to congratulate everyone associated with the response to these fires: the Prime Minister, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the Premier of Victoria. I think that the royal commission that he has called for and has put in place is something that needs to happen, because, as one of the speakers said in the chamber today, we need to look at what has happened and talk about it and try and take steps for the future. Congratulations also go to the CFA, the emergency services, all those thousands and thousands of volunteers who have been working down in Victoria and the police and the ambulance service. We have all got to continue to work together and look to the future and provide support and compassion to all those people whose lives have been changed forever.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The words of Dorothea Mackellar have been used a lot in describing this tragedy that has happened, and of course my electorate is named after Dorothea Mackellar because she lived there. Her words ‘droughts and flooding rains’ ring out particularly now, with the floods in the north and this vast, hideous fire in the south.

In Mackellar we are familiar with fires. In 1994 we had really appalling fires which were fought valiantly by our Rural Fire Service, our volunteers, and we were fortunate that we had no loss of life, although there was loss of property—but even that was minimised. Despite the fact that I watched the roar of those flames and watched the eucalypts explode and the fireballs race across the forests and set them alight, I do not think I can quite comprehend the intensity of the fires in Victoria: the sheer heat, the radiating heat, the speed, the lack of warning and the nearly 200 people who have lost their lives—and that number is still growing. It numbs the mind to try and come to terms with such a catastrophe and such a tragedy.

In listening to our colleagues who have spoken and whose electorates are immediately affected, you would not be human if you did not feel a catch in your throat and weep silently for those people, people whose lives will never be the same, people who will be looking for strength that they will find within themselves but that hopefully will be bolstered by the fact that they know the rest of the country is pulling with them, feeling with them and determined to enable them to build their lives again, even though they will not be as they were. And we are in the middle of it; we do not really know how these fires will be quenched. I think they need two inches of rain, and that is not likely. So we are depending on the willingness and the ability of those people who are courageously continuing to fight those fires.

There is something quite special, though, about the Australian character that brings us together to feel for each other and to reach out and give assistance. It is something quite special about this nation which I trust we will never, ever lose. When the word goes out that help is needed—and I have heard so many members speak about the way in which they have met with people or been involved with people who are raising funds or sending off things that are needed, whether it is to feed animals or clothe the people who have lost everything—there is that spark of generosity that runs true.

I do not think that I have words enough to say how desperately sorry I feel and, in a way, how helpless I feel when it comes to alleviating the pain that is being felt by the people of Victoria. I can just hope that adding a few words in this debate on the condolence motion is just a little signal that says that the people in my electorate and I feel enormously for them, that they are in our prayers and that we will do all we can to give them back something of what they had and give them the courage to fight on.

Sharon Grierson (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to support this condolence motion and register the heartfelt sympathy and concern of both myself and the people of my electorate, Newcastle, for our fellow Australians, the good and innocent people of Victoria, so tragically affected by these devastating bushfires. To see a map of the fires in this relatively small state, by physical area, shows so well the terrible ‘arc of destruction’, as the Deputy Prime Minister described it, surrounding the outskirts of the city of Melbourne. But to those in the most affected areas, in the Yarra Valley and Gippsland, we say that we are truly sorry for your loss and suffering. Our thoughts are with you and we hope for the day that the fires are stilled and that you may feel healed in body and spirit, optimistic once more about your lives and nurtured by your again strong communities.

The Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have pledged the government’s determination to assist the process of complete recovery and restitution. I take this opportunity to join with my colleagues from both sides of the House and state my personal commitment to positively influencing this process. I wish to register too my admiration for the members of parliament who represent the affected electorates. In their heartfelt speeches they have so eloquently painted the pictures and told the stories for us and for the Australian public of the overwhelming experiences and emotions endured by their constituents, our fellow men and women, at a time when these victims have other pressing demands and priorities. For sharing that with us, we thank them. It was not easy.

In this parliament and all around Australia we have been moved and tears of compassion have flowed. But we can only imagine the fear, the terror, the pain, the courage, the grief and the despair endured firsthand. Our regret is that so many Victorians do know firsthand, with the death toll now exceeding 180 and anticipated to grow.

To the victims and their loved ones, there are many people in my electorate of Newcastle who know a little of what you are going through. They are thinking of you now and they are remembering. We have had our own tragedies—the 1955 Maitland floods, the 1989 Newcastle earthquake, the 2005 Bali bombings and the June 2007 storms, events that all took innocent lives and wreaked havoc and destruction on many—and they hurt deeply. But compared to the devastation of the 2009 Victorian bushfires they recede in their significance.

Their relevance, though, is in sharing what we have learned from the human experience with the victims of this terrible tragedy. The one thing I know and wish to impress on everyone involved is how important it is to seek and receive help, particularly counselling services, now and in the future. Know also that there is no place for personal guilt or blame. Whatever you did, whatever you did not do, whatever you said, whatever you did not say, whatever you thought—do not feel guilty. You have been tested in a way few people will ever be tested. That you are still here to go on and do good things for yourself and for others must be a priority in guiding your thoughts and actions now.

If you have lost a loved one, you will feel a desolation, a cold and hard black hole in your heart that feels unfillable and all consuming. But your partners, your family members, your friends and your neighbours will feel the same. Just to go on will take all your emotion and energy, but do not turn away and lock everyone out—at least not for too long. Try to turn towards each other and let others in to gain comfort and strength.

Several colleagues in their condolence speeches have quoted Australian literature—poems, particularly—to inspire or draw analogies with these terrible events. Literature does that well, especially Australian literature in its raw honesty. I recall, as I did when this happened, Ruth Park’s autobiographies Fishing in the Styx and A Fence Around the Cuckoo. In one part she tells of her emotions on learning of the death of her partner, D’Arcy Niland. She describes being on a ferry in Sydney Harbour and looking down and not knowing where she was, where she was going, why she was on a ferry or indeed who she was.

Grief does engulf. It takes other humans to lessen the burden. If you lost only property and feel bereft, do not think your loss is not important; it is. Our possessions, the places we work, the places we gather to enjoy the company of others and our homes are part of who we are, of the lives we have lived and of the people we have loved. They matter and their loss matters. If you escaped loss, be glad. Do not be confused or guilty. There is no explanation. Reflect that Mother Nature is a force that predates our human experience. She is at times a marvel and at other times awesome in her power. Her seemingly capricious and cruel ways can never be fully translated or rationalised. It is part of our human existence and the mystery of human life. Try to accept.

Take special care of your older citizens. Their health will suffer. Their recovery will be harder. Watch your children. Although they are resilient and strong and may seem to be coping well, they frequently cannot express what they are feeling and their fears. It will be very hard for them with their schools and their teachers not being there to assist them in that process. So do pay special attention to your children.

To the volunteers, emergency service workers, medical teams, welfare workers and those ministering to the communities in Victoria: from our personal experience in Newcastle we know you are heroes. Thank you. To our ABC: we in Newcastle know how wonderful you have been in Victoria because we remember the voice of 1233 ABC Newcastle during our storms and floods. You gave hope and encouragement, provided vital information and linked people and services around the clock for days when basic services were lost and mobility was constrained. Thank you ABC Victoria.

To the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who came to us in Newcastle in our most recent time of need: thank you for your compassionate leadership in Australia’s greatest emergency. Thank you also for your incisive and analytical understanding of the processes needed to respond to this crisis. To our Deputy Prime Minister: your standing as a Victorian in the House of Representatives in parliament on Monday, whilst so many were experiencing such loss, and representing us all and Australia so well made us immensely proud. I thank you both.

I also thank a constituent of mine, who was a near victim of the 2005 Bali bombing, for his persistence in trying to get governments to understand what is needed to ease the burden for victims of extreme trauma, who require ongoing medical attention and who will relive the horror of their experience over and over. You have been heard and your advice will be given the proper consideration that it deserves. His advice was given more from concern for others than for himself, advice that may now be put into effect to ease the burden of so many Victorians.

Anglican Bishop Dr Brian Farran at a memorial service after the 2005 Bali bombings said:

Tragedy is never a private thing, especially in times like this, and in—

our community—

feelings of affection run particularly deep. The pain of this trauma will be felt throughout the—

area—

and for members of the community, the pain will continue for some time.

For the people of all those Victorian towns and villages we hope that in some way our caring will help you now and in the difficult times ahead.

Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have always loved poetry, drama and theatre. A poem came back to me this week as we heard the horrific story of the bushfires in Victoria. By today’s standard it is quite a melodramatic poem and even a bit romantic, but there are two themes in the poem: one is the fury of unrelenting bushfire and the other is the Australian spirit of sacrifice. The poem is called Bannerman of the Dandenong and it was written by Alice Werner in 1891. The word that kept coming back to me through the poem was ‘Dandenong’. To many of us who have enjoyed the beauty of the Victorian bush the word ‘Dandenong’ is synonymous with outer Melbourne and, more poignantly in this instance, with the electorates of McEwen, La Trobe and McMillan, where our colleagues Fran, Jason and Russell have been so sorely tested over recent days.

Over the years the Dandenongs have had more than their fair share of bushfires. The link between the word ‘Dandenong’ and what has happened in the past week was not a hard link to make. The poem tells the story of two young men, one returning on his grey horse to see his girlfriend on the Lachlan, the other a horseman from Dandenong who rode a very strong bay horse. Not unlike recent days, the poem tells the story:

There fell a spark on the upland grass—

The dry bush leapt into flame;

And I felt my heart go cold as death,

But Bannerman smiled and caught his breath,

But I heard him name her name.

Then the ride of the young man and Bannerman takes off in earnest as the bushfire develops, and it is oh so familiar to the reports we have received in recent days:

Down the hillside the fire-floods rushed,

On the roaring eastern wind;

Neck and neck was the reckless race,

Ever the bay mare kept her pace,

But the grey horse dropped behind.

He turned in the saddle—“Let’s change, I say!”

And his bridle reign he drew.

He sprang to the ground, “Look sharp!” he

said

With a backward toss of his curly head—

“I ride lighter than you!”

Down and up—it was quickly done—

No words to waste that day!

Swift as a swallow she sped along,

The good bay mare from Dandenong,

And Bannerman rode the grey.

The hot air scorched like a furnace blast

From the very mouth of hell;

The blue gums caught and blazed on high

Like flaming pillars into the sky;

The grey horse staggered and fell.

How many stories have we heard in the last week similar to that? Someone stays behind to protect the home; the wife leaves and the husband is never to be seen again. These scenes have been reported over and over again in the 118 years since Alice Werner wrote that poem. We know there have been major recorded bushfires since 1851, when, in 47-degree temperatures and fierce winds, five million hectares of country was burnt out, countless livestock were lost and 10 people were killed. It was repeated again in 1898, then in 1919, 1926, 1932, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1952, 1962, 1969 and of course Ash Wednesday in 1983.

As we speak, we know that 181 people have died, which is moving towards three times the scale of the next worst incident that has been recorded in Australian bushfires, and we know that at least 800 homes have been lost. But the story is not much different. The image of the horse has been replaced by the image of the car. The basic story stays the same. Some cars escaped; others were engulfed like Bannerman’s horse, never to be seen again or just to be left on the roadside, burnt so much that the metal is almost white.

Many of the other stories of this bushfire have been eloquently conveyed by my colleagues, so I will not go over the same things again. But there are three images, perhaps even more than images—realities—that come back to me. The first is the faces of children. To open the paper and see the faces of children from the one family who have been lost is just overwhelming. There can be no greater loss or sadness than the loss of children by parents; almost of equal sadness is the loss of parents by children. And we have seen plenty of that in those 181 deaths.

The other image that touches me very much is the one of three firefighters—it looks like a girl and two men—lying by the side of the road in a little bit of green grass, trying to catch a moment of sleep before encountering the next fire. That, to me, is a very potent image. It is emblematic of the commitment of the firefighters, the SES, the Army, the police, the ambulance officers and the community organisations who provide food, shelter, clothing and the like. They are all practised in their art. Those three young people sleeping by the roadside are, as I said, emblematic of those who after exhaustion have to line up again for another period of intense activity. The topography of Victoria in particular but of the southern states generally dictates that these areas will burn. Given the right conditions, there will be very fierce fires. It is a fact that we have to live with.

The other image that comes to me is that of accountability. Today is not the day to go into who is to blame, whether there was too much fuel on the forest floor or any of that sort of thing. That is for others to deal with. But I am very heartened by the promise of the Victorian Premier that there will be a full and frank royal commission. He is supported by the Prime Minister in that. He did say that all things will be on the table. I think that is commendable, and I ask that everyone cooperate with that royal commission. There was a study of this parliament into bushfires not so many years ago, in which at least one state would not cooperate. What a shame that was. We cannot afford to let that happen again. We need total and utter cooperation. I hope the other states will introduce parallel legislation so that, even though it will be run in Victoria, it can become a national royal commission. It should not just be, in my opinion, putting things on the table. What is infinitely more important is that, after the report is written and the recommendations are made, those recommendations are acted on. How often we in this place have seen great reports that have not been acted on. We cannot afford to have in a few years time another conflagration that perhaps is three times this one. This should be the line in the sand.

The other thing I ache for is the people who have lost their homes. When it first happened, we had commentators on the radio and television saying: ‘These people must never return to these places again. They are going to have to go and live somewhere else.’ That really offended me. God, how that offended me. Australians have a love affair with the bush. Many people do. Some people like solitude in the bush, in the jungle in North Queensland, in the mountains of Victoria or wherever it might be. We have to make sure that our preparedness is good, that things like back-burning are well done and that there is a routine for these things. To diverge for a second, some people in my electorate were told at one stage by Main Roads that they could not burn along roadsides. They were doing it voluntarily. You know what farmers are like. They never light a fire unless it is a slow burn. In the end, they gave up looking after the sides of the roads in some parts of Queensland. It was not many years before Main Roads came back and said, ‘Would you start doing the roads again?’ We have to this time be humble enough to know where the mistakes were made and to make sure they do not happen again.

There is the idea too that people who want to live in those places should have a shelter of some sort. After all, the Americans have been doing this for nearly 100 years. They have cellars and underground bunkers. In the twister country, that is second nature. The few that did have them in this circumstance used them to survive. We have to do that.

The other thing we have to remember is that most of us—not all of us—come from an Anglo-Celtic background. I remember an old Irish priest whom I knew many years ago, addressing a group of businessmen in Bundaberg and saying he was going back to Ireland to retire. We said, ‘Why don’t you stay in Australia?’ He was trying to explain it to me. He said, ‘There’s an Anglo-Celtic syndrome in all of us.’ He recited Oliver Goldsmith. I cannot remember the exact quote, but it went something like this: that the Celtic person returns with the swains to where he was born ‘to die at home at last’.

I suppose a lot of people will want to go to their homes not just in defiance of the fire and because they are comfortable with the area but because it says, more eloquently, that that is relevant to them. It says that that is where they want to live. That is their magnet. That is what they come home to. Probably many of them would be happy to die there—although not in these sorts of circumstances, of course. I think a lot of respect has to be handed out to those people when the time comes. We need to work very carefully to make sure that we replace not only the physical goods but also the psychological. That will not be an easy task.

At the time of our intervention in East Timor, I ducked a speech that I was going to give in this place, and I have regretted it every day since. What I was going to suggest to the government of the day was this: if we wanted to have a real engagement with East Timor, every town and city in Australia should adopt a town or village in East Timor. I was going to suggest that we should use that as a basis for empowering the people of that town or village. It might be to give them an old horse plough that has been sitting in the back shed for years. It might be to give them a couple of tinnies so that they can fish and be self-reliant. It could involve sending a group of Rotarians or Lions over there to restore or build a school. In fact, there are a group of Rotarians in my area of Queensland that, for a number of years, have been going over to the Solomons to build high schools. So it can be done. These sorts of things are not impossible.

We have had lots of offers of help in my office. One CWA organisation raised $20,000 in a morning just recently, virtually with no notice at all. I get a lot of people ringing up with good ideas. A certain Toni Sargent from Hervey Bay wrote to me, and since then I have spoken to her mother, Kayleen Bilson. What is interesting about these two people is that they came from Diamond Creek, so this fire is resonating very strongly with them. Their suggestion was very similar, and that is what made me say what I have just said—that is, that every town should adopt a town. We have big provincial cities that could adopt a village.

There will be certain things that state and federal governments will do and that insurance will do, but there will still be gaps at the end of that. We know that, with the best will in the world, there will still be gaps. It might be that you restore the civic hall or the community hall. It might that you provide one of those $30,000 or $40,000 new, coloured playgrounds that are becoming so popular around Australia. It might be that a busload of Rotarians or Lions come down from some town in New South Wales or Queensland to re-grass and replant the civic park. If we had a list of all the towns and villages in the fire areas, then people from bigger cities and towns—obviously they would need to be bigger so that they would have the gravitas to be able to help—could go in and do practical things to bring those very beautiful communities back not just in a utilitarian sense but in a meaningful and aesthetic way so that the scars of these dreadful bushfires will be behind us. It has been a great test of us all and I hope Australians will continue to be generous. I throw that suggestion on the table—that cities and towns adopting small towns and villages could be a very good and tangible way for us to show solidarity between various parts of Australia and this ravaged landscape.

I would like to conclude my presentation today with another stanza from that poem. It tells the story of the boy who has been through the bushfire. His mate has gone and, like a lot of the firefighters we have seen on TV and some of the animals we have seen come out of the fire areas, it says:

She bore me bravely, the good bay mare;

Stunned, and dizzy and blind,

I heard the sound of a mingling roar,

‘Twas the Lachlan River that rushed before,

And the flames that rolled behind.

That should be our image—that, as the flames roll behind, we take these people who have been so sorely hurt, as it were, to the Lachlan, to fresh water and fresh life.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contribution of my friend Mr Neville and thank him for it. As were all the contributions which have been made in this discussion, it was heartfelt, resonating across the chamber of this great parliament of ours to see how we can positively work together. The imagery which he painted through the poem gives those of us who know anything about this part of Victoria a good insight into the sort of country which has been traversed and the magnificence of these fires, the horror of them and the courage of those who seek to survive them. It also illustrates to me the contrast of this great country of ours. I live in the dead heart—it is not dead but it is almost at the dead centre—of Australia. My electorate is 1.34 million square kilometres and traverses the country from the dry deserts to the tropics. It used to include the great city of Darwin.

My neighbour on one side is the member for Kennedy and the member for Maranoa is lower down. We see the dichotomy that exists across this country—the floods which have appeared in the backyards of people in north-eastern Queensland and across the north, the recent flooding of the Barkly Highway, where traffic was stopped for almost a fortnight and, at the same time, we have the horror of these fires. The contrast is just so obvious but we who live in this great country of ours live here understanding the ferocity of it and its extremes. We understand it and live with it and at times it shocks us. It has shocked us in this past week with the horror that it can bring to us through its magnificence. I have reflected a long time on these issues over many years, to see those contrasts and to look at the beauty of the country—its magnificence but its dangers. We see those dangers writ large in this great bushfire which has wrought such damage upon the lives of so many in Victoria.

I know that I can say absolutely that the prayers and thoughts of all of my constituents—and, I am sure, of the people across the rest of Australia—are with the communities of Victoria that have been devastated by these fires that razed and continue to pose a threat in a number of locations across the state. I know that Territorians will stand ready to support these communities in their hour of need. I know that Alice Springs has opened up its heart, fundraising has begun and a number of events are scheduled for the month ahead. In other major Territory centres in my electorate—Katherine, Tennant Creek, Nhulunbuy and Yulara—a community response is underway, and we know that response is the same across the nation. Over the last weekend I was on Christmas Island, way over there in the Indian Ocean. Donations have been collected there to assist the national appeal for funds.

Territorians know only too well how generous Australians can be when tragedy strikes. Over the Christmas-New Year period of 1974, Territorians welcomed the support of the Australian community in their hour of need. Tropical Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. Tracy killed 71 people and destroyed more than 70 per cent of Darwin’s buildings, including 80 per cent of its houses. Tracy left homeless more than 20,000 people, out of a city of 49,000 inhabitants, and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people. The recovery task required the concentrated effort of the national government, just as in this case the recovery task requires a national effort by this government. It required the skills of our service men and women. It required the skills and the contribution of community organisations. Those of us who know of this history know that most of Darwin’s population was evacuated to points south—to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney. In time, Darwin was rebuilt through a magnificent national effort. Now we have a great city.

There are still those who bear the scars of that fateful and dreadful night of Christmas Eve 1974, but what is significant and what I know to be true of these communities in Victoria is that they will come back just as the people of Darwin went back and, with the national effort, rebuild their city and, through doing so, rebuild their lives. Cyclone Tracy was a disaster of the first magnitude that, until now, was without parallel. Now, oh so sadly, we have seen something far worse in its human tragedy. It is for all of us a time of immense and overwhelming grief and sadness.

The imagery which we have seen on our national media tells us not only about the resilience of people and the contribution that can be made by a community and the love that people really have for one another. It tells us how we need to strive together to overcome the adversity. As has happened in previous times, including after Cyclone Tracy, the magnificence that is within us all can be brought to bear on a problem and make our neighbours and families feel close to us even though geographically they could be 1,000 kilometres away.

All of us, but especially those with children—who know the delight of having a family—see the horror of families being destroyed by this fire, but we know that despite the horror, the sadness and the suffering we are a resilient country. Whilst we see the ravages that can be brought about through the harsh environment within which we live, we live with it. We need to accommodate it, but we should not allow it to oppress us. I know that out of this experience we will find improvement, and the learning that will be had as a result of this tragedy will be like the learning which came out of Cyclone Tracy. We have heard discussion this evening, during the course of this debate and in the public domain, about what might be done to fireproof homes. After Cyclone Tracy, all the building codes changed in the Northern Territory. All new government houses had a cyclone shelter. I arrived in Darwin the year after the cyclone and houses were devastated. The community was rebuilding. It took a decade to rebuild the physical infrastructure. I lived in a new government house built after the cyclone. The centre of the house was a concrete bunker—the cyclone shelter. I am not sure that that is the solution or a solution or something that should even be contemplated, but it seems to me that all of these things should be thought about.

There will be many other things that we can learn from the experience. It is enough, though, that we accept our responsibility as the national parliament, as legislators and as community leaders to do as we have done: work together to assist and provide the leadership that the community obviously wants us to show and in a bipartisan way demonstrate to the Australian community that we, working together, can assist them in their most horrible hour of need. I am confident that, given the dedication which has been shown already, the commitment which has been shown by the Prime Minister, the government, the Leader of the Opposition and opposition party members, we can make that happen. Through the goodwill that we are showing in this place, one can hope it might transcend to a whole lot of other debates that we might have. Perhaps we can work more collaboratively on a whole range of other issues. I would like that opportunity.

I must say in conclusion that, as Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, it is with great pride that I note the work which is being done by members of our defence forces, both in Victoria and in Queensland. They are great people. Let there be no doubt about it: they are great people. We owe so much to members of the defence forces—others have spoken about this and I will just repeat it in part at least—to all of the volunteers, to the emergency services, to the country fire people, to the police doing their work, to the NGOs, to the Red Cross and to people who are just doing their bit. In my view, it just goes to show what real love can do.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise with considerable sadness to join the previous speaker, the minister, and other members to speak on this condolence motion for the victims of the tragic bushfires in Victoria. These are awful and horrific times for us, especially for those who have been so badly affected by the fires.

Growing up in rural Gippsland, not far from where some of these fires have occurred, we were always aware of the dangers of summer and of fire. At the beginning of each summer, we would re-plough the firebreaks in the paddocks around the farm and clean up the foliage and growth around the buildings and the houses. Farmers would overgraze the home paddock as added protection for the house in case, as inevitably happened at some stage, fire came long.

I can recall as a child the warning, the wail, of the CFA bell in the nearby town on a regular basis—once a week as the CFA practised with the volunteers who would turn up—but then on other occasions when not expected, as an indication that there was a fire somewhere nearby. Often it was a grass fire in that area, but sometimes it was a lightning strike. I can remember, in particular, haystacks going up in fire. But, worse than that, on occasions there was a fire in the nearby hills, in the foothills of the Great Divide to the north, when places like Licola and Dargo and, closer to home, Briagolong, were under threat, or, a few miles to the south, in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, where fires from time to time would break out.

At this time just a week ago that is what happened again. These fires at Callignee and through that part south of Traralgon are in places that are familiar to me from my childhood. They were the hills where we would go for a drive on the weekend and have a picnic. They were the farms where my father, who ran a livestock transport business, would collect stock to take to market. Those places were part and parcel of the neighbourhood in which I grew up.

The tragedy is that, once again, we see fires returning. Indeed, just before coming here to speak tonight, I phoned my brother, who lives near Willung, Gormandale—that area, a few miles from part of the latest fires—just to ask what was happening. They said that things were okay at the moment. In fact, they have just had a bit of rain. It is not enough rain; a lot is needed to put these fires out, but at least they have had little bit. And the wind is not blowing in their direction. But, if it does and the fire gets into the pine plantations, they will go up like a tinderbox. And who knows how many kilometres the fire could travel in a short period of time?

The damage is so great because of a combination of factors: the furious winds that we had, particularly on Saturday, in Victoria; the extreme heat, which others have spoken about; the tinder-dry bush; and, of course, the unique nature of eucalypt forests in Australia, which adds to the ferocity of fires which occur under these circumstances. The damage is also compounded by the fact that greater Melbourne extends these days to areas that it once did not—areas such as Pakenham, to the east—which are dozens of kilometres from the CBD and are now at the extent of the urban sprawl and to towns like Narre Warren; to the south, Cranbourne; up in the Dandenongs, Cockatoo and Gembrook; and, further to the north, Kinglake, Whittlesea and St Andrews. Once these were small villages and hamlets, miles away from what we regarded as suburban Melbourne. You would drive out through farmland and paddocks to get to these places. But the reality today is that they are encompassed by what we would overall describe as metropolitan Melbourne.

That means that there are many more people living in much closer settlement than there were even 10, 15 or 20 years ago and, of course, when a fire then comes through those areas there are potentially so many more victims, as unfortunately and tragically we have seen over the last week or so. Indeed, some of these places are so close that towns like Kinglake, Kinglake West, St Andrews and Whittlesea are places that I and friends of mine often ride our bikes to on weekends. They are not that far from where I live, and you would regard where I live in my electorate as much more central to Melbourne than these sorts of places. The reality, and this is part of the challenge, is that when we come to ask the hard questions and look for answers we will need to address this continuing spread of metropolitan Melbourne—and this occurs in other cities around Australia—into areas that were once regarded as bush. Yes, there were small villages and hamlets there, but they were not populated to the extent they are today. I remember the same thing was occurring, at the time of the Ash Wednesday fires, at Macedon and Mount Macedon and places like that. I was a lawyer at the time and spent about a week or 10 days coordinating a voluntary legal relief information and advice service for victims of those fires at Macedon and Mount Macedon. The spread of population is even greater now than it was, tragically, at the time of Ash Wednesday.

These are issues that we have to address when we come to ask the hard questions. In the meantime it is appropriate that this parliament offers its condolences to the victims and their families—those that are known tonight and, tragically and regrettably, those that we will only come to know of in the days and weeks ahead.

Anybody who has been to a fire location such as this knows the total and utter devastation that a fire causes. It is indescribable. And it is not just the scene; it is the smell, the atmosphere, which, having breathed, is difficult to get out of your mind and your senses for a considerable time afterwards. In those circumstances we owe a particular debt of gratitude to all those who have been fighting and are continuing the fight against this natural catastrophe. I think of people like the members of the CFA at Warrandyte in my electorate and of the other CFAs, not just in my electorate but elsewhere, who are out fighting fires in neighbouring areas. I think obviously of the Salvation Army and the other charitable organisations and of the hundreds if not thousands of volunteers. I think of the members of the SES, also volunteers, who give up their time to do this work. There are many others who are not so visible but whose efforts and services are equally invaluable at this time. I saw an email from one of my local councils, Maroondah—which borders Yarra Ranges, the next council, whose area is affected by this—indicating how officials and officers from Maroondah council are out there assisting in the Yarra Ranges area. I am sure this is the case for so many other councils and government departments. There are also thousands of other people who are doing what they can in these circumstances. Then there are the ordinary people who are making donations in their millions. There is such generosity from so many people in this country who have gone through their clothing or toys or found the bike sitting out in the back shed that is no longer used and have thought, ‘Maybe there are kids somewhere in this fire ravaged area who have lost not just their bikes but everything, but this at least might bring some joy back into their lives at a time of great mourning and tragedy.’ To everybody who is contributing in this way we owe our heartfelt thanks at this time.

There is a pall hanging over these areas. It is not just a pall of smoke and smell; it is a pall that affects the atmosphere and people’s thinking. I have spoken to people in my electorate, members of my family and my friends. We are all burdened, in a sense, by what has happened. Everybody is bewildered by it. We ask those questions which we all ask at times of tragedy: how could this happen? How could so many people, in such an indiscriminate manner, be the victims of this? There is that grieving and bewilderment at this time. That will turn to anger, and much of that anger will be righteous anger. That is appropriate. The grieving process will not occur unless people have the opportunity to express that. As observers we must support them at that time as much as we are supporting them now during this time of bewilderment over how this could happen.

It is appropriate that we have inquiries into these matters. Those inquiries, I will simply say, should be complete and should be timely. We owe it to the victims to have complete inquiries that ask the hard questions and do not shy away from looking at the issues that need to be looked at if we are going to try and prevent or militate against such a tragedy occurring in the future. As I said, the inquiry should also be timely, not one of those things that go on for years until it is all forgotten and we have moved on but those who have suffered are still grieving and in many cases still traumatised. As a community we owe them a timely response to what has occurred.

The sad reality is that fire is capricious and indiscriminate. Some who were well prepared have perished. Others were saved by a shift in the wind or the fact that the fire jumped their house—what seems to us just sheer luck, because there can be no explanation as to why one house stands in a street where eight or a dozen or 20 others were totally destroyed. As the member for Gippsland said today, the psychological or mental suffering of the people who survived, who wonder, ‘Why me?’ is just as great, I suspect, as the suffering of those who lost family and friends in this tragedy. This fire favoured neither the rich nor the poor. It favoured neither the young nor the old. It favoured neither the farm nor the town.

We live in both a beautiful and a terrible country. It can be both things at once. It has always been thus, and I suppose it always will be thus, but it is our duty as legislators and as elected leaders and representatives of our communities right across this nation to do our utmost to ensure, insofar as possible, that we prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.

I conclude my remarks, which are so inadequate in response to this tragedy, in this way, Mr Deputy Speaker: we hope that our words will bring comfort, that our actions will provide support, that our prayers will bring relief and healing and that our common humanity will unite us to do all that we can for those who are suffering tonight because of their losses.

Debate (on motion by Mr Raguse) adjourned.