Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is an honour and deeply humbling to rise this evening to speak on this condolence motion. I join with senators and members in the other place to express my sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the 33 people who tragically died in bushfires this summer, including nine courageous firefighters. Our nation mourns with you. Our hearts are broken by the scale of the loss of human life, of wildlife, of homes, of farms, of stock and of millions of hectares of our country. There is a deep black scar across large parts of Victoria—which I so proudly represent as a regional Liberal senator for Victoria—and in New South Wales, as well as large parts of the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

Whenever our nation is hit by a disaster, amidst the fear, devastation and loss and then the recovery and rebuilding, it brings out the very best in who we are as Australians: courageous, resilient, caring, sacrificing. In Victoria, we saw this in spades, from the beach at Mallacoota to the tiny town of Bruthen to the high country in Victoria's north-east. In Victoria, we lost Mat Kavanagh, Bill Slade, David Moresi, Mick Roberts and Fred Becker. This bushfire disaster has touched thousands upon thousands of families, including my own. My aunt and uncle and their children and grandchildren were evacuated on the South Coast of New South Wales, and they spent a frightening night not knowing if their home had escaped the firestorm. They were one of the lucky ones. Close friends lost much of their vineyard in the Adelaide Hills, but not their home, and they too were lucky.

As the death toll rose and images of firestorms were beamed around the world, tens of millions of dollars in donations poured in. The response was incredible. I want to place on record my thanks for the incredible work of our firefighters and our emergency workers. I pay tribute to their bravery and service. Every day, when they do their job, they put their own lives at risk to keep us safe. I thank our charities, our community service organisations and our volunteers.

I wish to place on record the work of our government, led by our great Prime Minister, to support bushfire impacted communities: the unprecedented call-out of the Australian Defence Force, including some 3,000 reservists; the tens of millions of dollars paid in immediate financial assistance; payments to volunteer firefighters; and the massive investment in the recovery effort underpinned by the $2 billion National Bushfire Recovery Agency and the fund. The support of so many other countries which came to our aid was overwhelming. The loss of three American firefighters, who died when their C-130 Hercules crashed, was just so incredibly sad. The work of our serving defence men and women was incredible.

The recovery and the rebuilding will be long, tough and traumatic. I've seen this firsthand, when I worked with the communities of Wye River and Separation Creek after the terrible 2015 Christmas Day bushfire. The memories of Ash Wednesday are still seared in the minds of so many Victorians, including so many Victorians who I represented as the member for Corangamite. Around Canberra and in parts of New South Wales and Victoria, fires continue to burn and the threat of further devastation continues. As I flew into Canberra yesterday for the start of the parliamentary year, the smoke was so thick from fires burning to the south that our first attempt to land was aborted.

But, even now, our thoughts start to turn to the big questions. What caused this? Could it have been prevented or mitigated? How? By whom or what? Have we learned from Ash Wednesday in 1983 or Black Saturday in 2009? Whatever caused and fanned these huge firestorms—lightning strikes, power lines brought down by trees, climate change conditions, lack of preventive, timely measures like fuel reduction burning or, worst of all, wilful arson—will need to be addressed dispassionately and objectively. We will look particularly at those elements under control of governments and public policy where we can make a positive difference. We must set aside ideology and embrace the science and expertise which will help to prevent and mitigate such large-scale devastation again.

One element firmly within our control is fuel reduction burning. After Black Saturday's lessons, can we say hand on heart that we did all that was possible, that we listened to the lessons and conclusions of the 2009 Victorian royal commission and acted accordingly? Already the Victorian and federal governments have announced separate but hopefully complementary inquiries to address these questions. Now, in this condolence motion, is not the time to address these issues in detail. That is to come.

I do wish to say, however, that some of the wild claims about our government's response to climate change are disappointing and blatantly false. There have been some things said in this chamber which do not bear repeating and which are more than disappointing.

Right across the economy, we continue to address the challenges of climate change, reduce our emissions and meet our Paris targets. The climate is changing, leading to longer, hotter and drier summers, which is why our government is placing so much focus on climate resilience, building dams, hazard reduction, investing in a stronger electricity grid and driving record investment in renewables. We will continue to do whatever it takes to make our nation stronger. But for now we pay tribute to the men and women who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy and we remain united in our determination to support their families and all the Australians who have lost so much at this most challenging time for our country.