Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The condolence motion before us today allows the parliament to do its job following this national disaster: to mourn the loss of life; to begin a full accounting of the cost of the fires; to celebrate the unceasing work of volunteer and professional firefighters, and indeed all of the other volunteers, including small community based 'mosquito army' volunteers; and to assure our fellow Australians that the parliament stands with them now and over the months and years of rebuilding that are ahead.

There were parliamentary debates in November about the bushfires then in the north of New South Wales and in Queensland; and the dry, hot bushfire season has weeks and perhaps months to go. In April and May, we might conclude that the bushfire season is finally over, but many Australians will have months and years of hardship, uncertainty and loss in front of them.

These bushfires in Australia are unprecedented, but they were not unpredictable. Of course Australia has encountered bushfires before, but the duration, ferocity and breadth of the bushfires and the scale of the firefighting and recovery efforts in 2019 and 2020 are unprecedented. But this was predicted. Reviews of climate science for Australian policymakers, including the Garnaut Climate Change Review in 2008, set out the consequences of rising temperatures, reduced rainfall and increased evaporation rates. Garnaut said:

… fire seasons will start earlier, end slightly later, and generally be more intense. This effect increases over time, but should be directly observable by 2020.

Expert advice, both commissioned and from fire experts who stepped forward themselves, sounded the alarm about the intensifying bushfire risk, with drought, heat, evaporation and other factors elevating all of the factors that made this summer so dangerous. Locals, farmers, RFS volunteers and national park staff also saw the dryness of the bush, the lack of rainfall and the consequent increased fuel, and were concerned about elevated fire risk throughout all of 2018 and 2019. Yet we are a nation unprepared for bushfire catastrophe.

All of the fine words in here will ring hollow if the parliament, after doing its job today, fails to do its job tomorrow and in the months and years ahead—that is, complex, whole-of-government work that requires national leadership of a sustained and determined effort over many years to recover from fire and to keep our communities safe. That means working to ensure that our firefighters have the equipment that they need—the most effective and safe trucks and firefighting gear in local communities, state-of-the-art aircraft ready to deploy across the country and facilities for local fire crews to meet, train and work together. It means resourcing national parks, state forests, farmers, the Rural Fire Service and professional firefighters to the extent that it is possible to reduce hazard and work to insulate communities from fire risk. We must work closely with First Nations too, to use their knowledge and expand its practice, to care for country with the same skills and knowledge that they applied to look after land over the millennia.

Of course, no bushfire response will be meaningful without a genuine approach to climate change adaption and mitigation. We must adapt to the effects of climate change that cannot be avoided. Equally, Australia must contribute and lead local and global efforts to ensure that we in the world avoid what cannot be adapted to—no denialism, no running up the white flag on climate action, just evidence based, proportionate and effective climate action so that Australia can lead efforts to reduce dangerous emissions here and abroad and lead adaption efforts to ensure that communities and properties are safe from fire risk.

It will be difficult to count the cost of these bushfires. It's impossible to do today with so many weeks of fire ahead of us and smoke from the fires still hanging over the parliament, but the cost is, and will be, immense. Bushfires so far have cost us 33 lives—25 of those are in my state of New South Wales. Nothing that's said in this parliament, no carefully-crafted words, can make much of a difference to the families and friends and communities mourning their loss and traumatised by the violence of the fires. Some of them died defending their own homes. Some were caught in their homes or perished fleeing the fire. Some heroic volunteers were killed while fighting the fires to defend the properties and lives of people they didn't know in communities they had never visited before, and of course there were those who came from the United States to lend their expertise in aerial capacity who died in that aircraft accident in the Snowy Mountains.

Many Australians who have been injured and been traumatised will struggle at work and at home and will need the support and love of family, friends, workmates and all of us over the coming months. I know farmers who have selflessly volunteered with the RFS, leaving anxious family behind day after day, week after week, only to have their own property burn and their partners and children left to cope. Commercial fishermen who've abandoned their work and incomes to fight fires far away from their own homes will struggle to recover financially. Men and women in country communities, weary and afraid—on a constant hair trigger of responding to alerts and emergency broadcasts but trying to show courage and calm to those around them, particularly the children—need government to act, to lead and to back them. We should acknowledge too the other emergency service workers—paramedics, doctors, nurses and health workers—who've looked after people in the fires, and police who've staffed roadblocks and supported the firefighting effort.

The property loss has not been calculated—fences, agricultural land, factories and 2,000 homes in New South Wales alone. Add to that the lost jobs, ruined businesses and lost business opportunities for regions who've relied upon holiday-makers over January, the lost farm income from orchards and plantations destroyed, and jobs and contracts gone because plantation forests have been obliterated—all economic and, of course, that matters deeply, but it is a kick in the guts for rural communities who are already doing it tough following years of economic hardship and drought.

Communities who have lost homes are only beginning the process of recovery. The community of South Arm in the Nambucca Valley has set up a relief centre in the local hall, where volunteers are currently providing basic necessities to 30 families, many with young children, who've lost their own homes. The fastest school construction ever has seen children return to a brand-new school in Wytaliba for the beginning of the 2020 school year, just three months after the school was destroyed by fire. Imagine how important that is to a community for their kids to feel safe and loved and valued after the catastrophe that befell their village where two longstanding locals were killed.

There are 10 million hectares of burnt country with five million in New South Wales. There is incalculable animal and native vegetation loss. Some estimates claim 1.1 billion animals perished in the fires. Some animals on the precipice of extinction were pushed over the edge. Others, whose habitat has been substantially destroyed, are now endangered. We've all seen and been horrified by that footage. Rainforest in northern New South Wales—lush, wet, green and cool forests hard fought for by environmentalists and unburnt for millennia—is now irreparably destroyed. This is unequivocally the biggest, most extreme bushfire event Australia has ever experienced.

While we mourn the devastating losses, we must also acknowledge that our emergency services have done an outstanding job of defending lives and property. Without their courage, experience and tireless work, who knows what the consequences for our communities would have been? Also, the work of the ABC has been exemplary. By providing the emergency broadcasts that country Australians relied on for the information that they needed to know, the ABC demonstrated once again its vital role in Australian life and bringing Australians together.

Today is the condolence motion to mourn the lost lives, to comfort the victims, to celebrate the bravery and commitment of volunteers and professionals who've fought these fires, and to say to these communities, 'We stand with you.' Tomorrow and every day after that, for as long as it takes, the parliament must demonstrate all of that as we support the rebuilding of shattered communities and work to keep Australians safe.