Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

In supporting this motion, which is describing one of the worst disasters in Australian history, I also represent my electoral neighbours, Fran Bailey, member for McEwen, and Sophie Mirabella, member for Indi. As I speak they are both with their communities, doing all they can to assist as the fires in those parts of Victoria still rage through the central highlands in the north-east and the beautiful Yarra Valley areas.

I was speaking to the member for McEwen about an hour ago. Fran Bailey has some clothes and family photos in her car. She is travelling from location to location, from one emergency centre to another. She did not go home last night—her Healesville home is in a vulnerable place and she is prepared to find it gone when she returns, perhaps tonight. But, like all members of this House in similar circumstances, with electorates threatened like hers, she will do all she can for as long as she can.

Sophie Mirabella, member for Indi, wants me to say on her behalf that she joins with her north-east residents in concern for the individuals and families affected by the fires, not only in her electorate, where fires still rage, but right across Victoria. Of course, we join with her in those sentiments, but how selfless of her to be thinking of others right now, with some of the most historic and still affluent parts of her electorate under direct threat.

Murray electorate, my electorate, crisscrossed by irrigation channels, has been spared all but two fires so far. But every available CFA volunteer and our police and emergency services are at the fire fronts. Our hospitals are taking burn victims and we stand ready to do all that is humanly possible to help save our neighbours. Now, and as they rebuild their lives and their communities in the weeks, months and years to come, they will need all of us. A donated truck from Shepparton is already loaded with donated goods and heading for the emergency centres in the regions beside us. And this is from the Murray region, which has been devastated by 10 years of drought and where there is no spare cash. But that is what Australians do, and that is what Australians, I am sure, will do in the days and weeks to come.

The death toll, as we have just heard, has now risen to 126. There is no doubt that, as the hours and days go past, that death toll will rise. Over 750 houses are gone. In whole towns, once renowned for their tourist attractions and their history—where Ned Kelly was jailed; where the first wines were grown—those houses are ash; those towns are ash. Water catchments and farmland are burnt out. Livestock and wildlife are destroyed. Victoria’s great Central Highlands mountain ash forests are burning. Northern and Central Victoria’s water supplies are already diminished through a decade of drought but, as these catchments burn, we will all face even greater hardship in the decades to come. It takes some 40 years for catchments to recover from fires like this, and so it will take a generation to recover from nature’s worst. In the years to come the legacy of these fires will be great, but we know that the human spirit is also great. We have seen historic old gold towns such as Bendigo burn—towns that have survived over 150 years of droughts, heat, high winds and lightning. But it seems that Victorians have never had to face conditions like those on the weekend: 48-degree-heat, 100-kilometre-an-hour winds and the north of the state, of course, tinder dry after years of drought.

I know all Australians are deeply shocked and are reaching out in heartfelt sympathy and with compassion to those wiped out or who remain in the path of the fires. The victims are traumatised and they are homeless. Hundreds of families and businesses have lost everything and they need our urgent support. I have no doubt that this aid will be forthcoming as ordinary men and women donate what they can. And, as you heard from the Leader of the Opposition, the coalition will support the government in everything they do. The $10 million mentioned so far, of course, will just be the beginning and, as the Leader of the Opposition said, whatever it takes is what we will be prepared to support.

I want to remind all Australians that most of the firefighters are volunteers—using equipment that their communities have fundraised to supply, training year in, year out in their own time and educating their own communities about the risk of fire. The men and women of the CFAs across the country are working across a life-threatening fire front in Victoria. Some know that, as they fight fires to save other people’s properties, their own homes and their own families may suddenly come into the fire path. But they do not hang back. They are fighting these fires with raw courage and in conditions no-one in the rest of Australia could possibly imagine. Two firefighters have already had the tragic news that, while they were on their community duty, their own families have lost their lives. One firefighter is also now reported as dead. Australia needs to acknowledge and never forget this extraordinary, magnificent effort—this love of country and consideration of others that drive volunteers, neighbours and our professional services to give their all in the face of such a disaster.

We often and rightly remind ourselves of the defining characteristics and values of Australians, which, we commonly say, were forged on the battlefields—in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War and wherever we have been peacekeepers. But perhaps these characteristics were not forged on the battlefields under enemy fire, but were carried into the campaigns by ordinary men and women who had battled with natural disasters back home. Sophie, Fran and I want to thank all who are making a superhuman effort in and from our electorates. We want to acknowledge all Victorians who right now are worried about their parents, their brothers and sisters, their children and their neighbours and who are hoping and praying that they do survive.

As well, we want to acknowledge the interstate and international offers of help—for example, the 100 firefighters from New Zealand, the banks and other businesses which are already organising donations and the Red Cross and other organisations which are making their usual huge contribution. I also want to commend and thank the ABC, particularly station 774, which has, since this disaster began, made sure around the clock that they transmit excellent communication about the fire fronts, the road closures and road dangers, where to go and where not to go and carry community messages. I commend the ABC for this effort. I think it has helped to make a difference.

The impacts of these fires will be felt for decades. The deaths of the men, women and children caught in the inferno, however, will remain a tragedy always. We grieve with the families and mourn their loss. And, in the years to come, we must remember them and learn how to better deal with fires in our great but awful country. I commend this motion to the House.

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