Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank Senator Back for this motion. I think it was put by Senator Back but maybe by Senator Smith as well. Certainly, we put up a motion over Christmas or early in the new year. We had horrific fires in the south-west of Western Australia. For those people who have not visited Western Australia, it is truly a beautiful part of our country. Many people go down to the winegrowing regions and so on. But it is also a bit of Western Australia's food bowl, particularly for dairy farmers and people like that.

This beautiful, green countryside that had been parched suddenly came alight. We saw massive fires in Western Australia that we have never seen the likes of before, with huge flames. They were completely unpredictable. Those fires were so fierce that they created their own weather patterns. It was truly, truly alarming. You could see the dark skies from Perth, and the fires were at least a two-hour drive away. That is how fierce they were—you could see this darkened sky. Senators in this place might be aware that the town of Yarloop was almost completely destroyed.

Senator Back, Senator Smith and other government senators put up a motion recognising the damage of the fires and wishing the towns and the people who have lost their homes—indeed, people lost their lives in these fires—all the best. It is pleasing to note that the Premier of Western Australia, Mr Barnett, has now established an inquiry. Obviously when there are fires there are all sorts of opinions and so on, but we will have an inquiry and hopefully that will be open and transparent.

A couple of weeks ago I had the real pleasure of meeting the firefighters with our leader, Mr Shorten. We had a thank you barbecue for some of the state government employees who work for the Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife who do a firefighting job, along with volunteers. I have put on the record in this place that, in a former life, I too was a volunteer firefighter in a very similar terrain to what people had to cope with down in Yarloop. We put on a thank you barbecue for those volunteer firefighters and, indeed, the firefighters who work for the state government. It was really of great interest to me and to Mr Shorten to hear firsthand from those firefighters. Many of them said that they were fires they had never seen the likes of before—completely unpredictable.

Certainly when you drive along the highway and you pass through Yarloop, it is an incredibly sobering experience to see this blackened township. Yarloop is a place where people do not always have a lot of money, and most people have lost everything. Many of those residents who lost their homes and all of their belongings in the fire did not have insurance. So they are going to need the help and support of the Western Australian community for a very long time to come. There is also the damage that was done to infrastructure in the region. Bridges were burnt out. The South Western Highway, which is a major thoroughfare, was out of action for a considerable period of time, and re-routing in Western Australia, with its huge geographic spread, adds hours and hours to people's travel. Of course, it being a holiday destination, many families were caught in the south-west and had to find alternative ways back.

The loss of life and devastation, particularly in Yarloop, is really sobering, and the Western Australian community are getting behind those people to try to re-establish that town. It is not clear yet whether the town will be re-established. Many of the workers work at the local Alcoa refinery, and it is just not clear what is going to happen. I cannot imagine losing everything in a fire or to have family members who lost their lives. When Mr Shorten and I went down there it was really great to be able to thank from the bottoms of our hearts the hard work of the firefighters, both volunteer and paid, who really put their lives on the line to fight those incredible fires that we had in Western Australia—fires that I do not think anyone in this place would ever want to see the likes of again. We wish the people of the south-west a speedy recovery to get back on with their lives. Let us hope that, whatever the outcome is for Yarloop, it is a good one.

Question agreed to.