Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries) Share this | Hansard source

I join with other senators in expressing my condolences to those who have been impacted by these tragic events, these bushfires, across Australia this summer, starting with those who so sadly have lost loved ones—those people who went into this summer not expecting to lose a loved family member, a friend or a relative of some description. It's a terrible event and a terrible reminder of how much impact these events can have on us as a nation. But I also express my sympathies to those Australians who've lost their homes, who've lost their communities and, perhaps also, who've lost their livelihoods through damage to property.

There's no denying that communities across our country, through many of the mainland states, have been hit exceptionally hard. It will take a great amount of time for these communities to rebuild and to grow into the future. But the key message I want to provide today, in expressing my sympathies and condolences to those affected, is that we are here with you. That is something that applies to all of us in this place, regardless of political persuasion, and across both chambers of this parliament. We will support you—those who are affected by bushfires as these communities, these families, these individuals rebuild their lives and get through, no doubt, the tough times that lie ahead. That's what's important now.

We as a country, as we traditionally have in times where tragedy has struck on the micro, the macro, the national level, band together as we regroup and rebuild for the future. That's what our focus should be. Certainly, from my point of view, that's what my focus is. Australians expect that from us and that's what I hope we deliver as a parliament, as a government, as individual senators and as members of communities. The measures that have been announced—unprecedented support from the Commonwealth government following these bushfires—go directly to that, to the heart of what's needed by these communities as they face the task of recovering and rebuilding. The initial support package, through the Department of Social Services, outlined by the Prime Minister in weeks past of $2 billion will support families and individuals who've been impacted by these terrible events. There is support for our vital primary production industries, including fisheries and forestry—two industries I have a particular interest in, given my portfolio responsibilities—incredible job-generators and economic activity generators in regional communities that have been hit hard by these bushfires. And there is support for businesses—the loans and grants that have been announced to help businesses with the short-term hit that these bushfires have caused them as they go about their business.

It's important that we support these sectors so that we can help communities continue to tick over while they assess their damage, look to rebuild, regroup and grow into the future. Of course, as the Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry, and Assistant Minister for Regional Tourism, I have been working with affected industries. Starting with the tourism industry, right across the country, we've been engaging directly with stakeholders and business operators that are in affected regions, hearing from them about exactly what they need. And I do want to acknowledge the very fine work of Tourism Australia and Austrade—the two Australian government agencies responsible for tourism in this country—who've snapped into gear in an amazing way, working with states and territories and also regional tourism organisations and businesses directly to do what they can to ensure that the measures put in place by the Commonwealth in partnership with states and territories go some way to dealing with the issues that flow from a bushfire.

The Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Simon Birmingham, my colleague, announced a $76 million support package for the tourism industry, which, on an international level, promotes Australia as still open for business. We all know that there was a great deal of media coverage highlighting the bushfires overseas, and the imagery is nothing short of scary. We know from the reports provided back to us by the tourism industry that people were making decisions not to come to Australia for fear that they may be affected by the fires, so I hope the international marketing campaign in our key markets will go some way to supporting those businesses who have been affected. As the Prime Minister said when he was visiting Kangaroo Island, 'For those who have got bookings and are looking for a refund, give these businesses a break.' They're not big multinationals; they're small businesses with limited cashflow, and we need to remember that as we work to support them.

The promotion campaign is also a domestic one—'Holiday Here This Year'—which has been referred to in a number of contributions to this debate. It's important that those who aren't in bushfire affected communities consider going and spending their money and their time in these communities that have been affected. Those dollars spent in those communities will go a long way to helping these communities get back on their feet and remain resilient into the future. One in 13 Australians works in the tourism industry. It generates billions of dollars of economic activity, and I hope this $76 million package will go some way to helping that industry continue to be the contributor it is, particularly in our regional communities.

There is the funding for the events and attraction developments in regional communities. There is the Tasmanian experience of the 2018-19 summer, where the Huon Valley, a community south of Hobart, was hit by some pretty severe bushfires. In partnership with the state of Tasmania, the Commonwealth provided around $1½ million to develop a tourism attraction. That program is rolling out, and that has had a benefit for that community when other tourism attractions were lost. So the $10 million that was announced as part of the $76 million will go some way to working directly with communities to understand what it is they need to bring visitors back in so that they, as I said before, can spend their money. All of this comes at a time when the tourism industry would be at its busiest: summer. The bookings lost are going to have a significant impact for these small-to-medium businesses moving forward.

The forestry industry has obviously been one of the hardest hit industries out of the bushfires. We only have to look at some of the stats, which I'll run through in a minute, to understand the scale of the problem faced by the forestry industry, but one I hope we can find a way to overcome. The impact, too, will last for decades. Trees don't take a couple of years to grow; they take 30 years to grow in the case of a radiata pine, which is one of our most prolific plantation trees.

Looking at New South Wales, in the Tumut-Tumbarumba region in the South West Slopes forestry hub, over 58,000 hectares of productive forests have been burnt, which is about 40 per cent of their harvestable resource—that's on the way to half of the trees they had available in their resources for harvesting over the next few decades. The Eden mill was damaged—the ANWE mill. Of course, those things can be repaired, and I hope that that will be the case. On the North Coast of New South Wales, the timber mill at Wyong was destroyed, and we saw plantation damage there. In East Gippsland we've had considerable damage and loss to hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest, and we don't even have a proper quantified statistic on that yet because our state and territory colleagues are still assessing the damage and still trying to put out these fires.

In South Australia, as was mentioned by Senator Anne Ruston a little earlier on, Kangaroo Island lost 95 per cent of its trees, valued at nearly a billion dollars. This is a significant impact and paints a picture of just how much work we have to do in partnership with our state and territory colleagues and the industry to make sure that we help this industry grow into the future. Thousands of jobs in regional communities depend on this industry—in Tumut alone, 5,000 direct and indirect jobs. In a small community of around 8,000 Australians, 5,000 of those people are dependent on this industry. So we look forward to working with our state and territory colleagues and the industry to make sure that we can replant these trees and, of course, reach our target of planting an extra billion trees.

When it comes to resilience and rebuilding for the future, we do need to consider things like fuel reduction. It's not a silver bullet, which some have tried to claim is how it is being promoted, but it is a measure that needs to be considered when thinking about how we can tackle and minimise the risk of bushfires occurring into the future. The Chief Officer of the Tasmania Fire Service, in a briefing earlier this year, stated that, given the fuel reduction work that's occurred since the year 2014, Tasmania has a 25 per cent lower risk of bushfires occurring. That is something we need to bear in mind as we talk about action on climate and doing things to minimise our emissions. For forests, mechanical fuel reduction and low-intensity burns are some of those measures we should be considering as real climate action.

I conclude by acknowledging that Australians are a resilient people—people who get up and make the best of a situation, who work hard to rebuild and to improve the situation for the future. I want to pay tribute to the tens of thousands of fire volunteers and, of course, paid fire personnel across the country from the various agencies they work for, but also to the Australian Defence Force personnel and reserves, who have done an amazing job right across the nation in supporting our communities.

I think it's important to note point (i) of the condolence motion we're considering today: that the Senate 'commits itself to learning any lessons from this fire season'. I think that's exactly what we need to be doing. I look forward to continuing to work with communities and the industries I represent as an assistant minister in this place. As I said, my message is that we can and we will rebuild, and we are with you.