Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On this date at this time four years ago the first of 200 houses that burnt down in the Blue Mountains bushfires were alight. Mine was just one of them. As we mark this anniversary, I want to say on behalf of all the people who found themselves unexpectedly homeless that Thursday that we have remained hugely indebted to the generosity that the rest of the Blue Mountains and the wider community has shown us. I think we all have an idea of what the people in California who have suffered terrible losses are going through right now, and we send them our thoughts. Of course, we were spared deaths.

While most people have forgotten the Winmalee and Mount Victoria fires, the recovery process goes on. The situation that unintentionally left many people massively underinsured remains. Insurers still haven't made a commitment to inform home owners of new changes to bushfire building standards, which can massively increase the cost of rebuilding. In New South Wales, the most recent decision to mandate steel shutters, instead of aluminium, for the highest risk areas will add possibly $20,000 or $30,000 to rebuilding costs. We should be demanding that insurers do their bit to notify every single policyholder in every bushfire-prone area of the changes, as they happen, and what the financial implications are; otherwise, at some time in a dry spring or summer, we will see history repeat itself.