Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Calwell for her contribution. I too rise to speak about the events surrounding ‘Black Saturday’ in Victoria—not from a personal note but to reflect on some lessons that I think are important to take away from those tragic events on Saturday. We have lost so many good Australians, such as the one that the member just spoke of, in the last few days. We are all in shock and horrified by these events. It will take us some time as a community to come to terms with just exactly what has occurred. I have been very proud of how we have handled this in the parliament in the last few days—with the bipartisan nature of the response and the speeches delivered by the leadership group, members in the Main Committee and those affected in this place. Of course, our heart goes out to the member for McEwen, who tonight still battles with these fires as we stand here.

The fires bring to our attention issues that we must deal with in a proper way in the weeks and months ahead. It is very pleasing that the Victorian government has decided to announce a Royal Commission, and I think that we also need to look into an inquiry at the federal level as well. I speak as the member whose electorate has the greatest fire risk in Adelaide—the Adelaide Hills. Tragedy, of course, struck the Adelaide Hills in the past on Ash Wednesday. If truth be told, there has not been a significant fire in the Adelaide Hills since Ash Wednesday, which many will remember predates the former member for Mayo, so there is 26 years of built-up load there.

Saturday was a worrying day, and I acknowledge the efforts of the state government, which it is very rare for me to do. But on Saturday I think they had every police car they could find driving around the roads in the Adelaide Hills. They also have a policy of harassing—I guess that is the best word—known firebugs and making sure that they know that they are being watched. Thankfully we survived Saturday. We did not have a fire. That was through good luck. We did not have a thunderstorm and, of course, lightning is the other major contributor to starting bushfires.

What the Victorian fires bring to our attention is that the population in the Adelaide Hills has grown significantly since Ash Wednesday. The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party grew up in the Adelaide Hills. She spoke the other day of the previous fires, which were about 25 years before Ash Wednesday, when there was an even smaller population in the Adelaide Hills. But these days the Adelaide Hills is suburban Adelaide. As many of you know, many people commute from Stirling, Crafers, Aldgate, Norton Summit, Meadows, Mount Barker and all those towns throughout my electorate. They live amongst the trees, which is why they want to live up there.

I am very concerned because we are halfway through the fire season and halfway through a very dry year which has come on top of many very dry years. I am worried about the safety of the people who live in my electorate and I am particularly concerned about our warning systems. I think we need to look very urgently at how we warn people about the severity of bushfires. We tell people when cyclones—or hurricanes, in the Northern Hemisphere—are heading their way and about the severity that they have: if it is a category 4 cyclone, you know to get out of the way; if it is category 1 or 2 then you know that it is probably something that you can get through. I think we need to look at that very urgently. We knew on Saturday that it was going to be 41, 42 or 43 degrees with high winds—which are the worst conditions, of course. We are going to have to look at whether we tell people earlier and with more force that they need to think about how they are going to handle a situation like that.

We need to do this very quickly. I know it is a difficult time and we have to be very careful and considerate of what the people in Victoria are going through. However, we have to look at the other potential threats. My colleague at the table in front of me, the member for La Trobe, has a similar electorate with similar issues, and it is incumbent on us in this place that we make these considerations. We could look at bunkers in places that are in fire zones, but in the very short term we must look at the early warning systems, if for nothing else than to protect more lives in the future.