David Hawker (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Speaking in support of the motion moved by the Deputy Prime Minister and supported by all other speakers, I would like to start by saying it is very hard to know where to start. You look at the headlines in today’s papers and take a small snapshot: ‘Hell and its fury’; ‘Disaster beyond belief’; ‘From the air, it’s like Armageddon’. We hear the latest figures: the death toll 126; 750 houses lost; many others injured. But I am warned by my colleagues, like the member for McEwen, Fran Bailey, that those losses will increase.

It is certainly worse than Ash Wednesday in 1983, when 75 lost their lives, or Black Friday in 1939, when 71 lost their lives. I think it is impossible to imagine the terrifying last moments of those 126 and others we are yet to hear of. Maybe the article written by Gary Hughes of his own experience in today’s Australian captures just some of the magnitude of this enormous disaster for individuals. As a former Country Fire Authority captain myself at the time of the Ash Wednesday fires, I have never seen anything like last Saturday’s fires. I cannot even pretend to fully appreciate the courage of our volunteers.

There were two what I would call relatively minor fires in Wannon, but I would like to particularly empathise with my colleagues the member for McEwen, Fran Bailey, and the member for McMillan, Russell Broadbent, who has had five fires in his area—and they are still going. I also empathise with the member for Indi, Sophie Mirabella; the member for Bendigo, Steve Gibbons; the member for Gippsland, Darren Chester; and my neighbour, the member for Mallee, John Forrest, who had a particularly nasty fire at Horsham. Like all members, I am shocked, I am saddened and I am horrified, but I admire the community support and know that it is times like these that communities really pull together.

As the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Victorian Premier and everyone else who has spoken today, including the Leader of the Opposition, have said, the fact that the federal and state governments have moved quickly is something that we know is truly Australian, and they will certainly give generous support. I know that all members of this parliament will support that. I know that all Australians will be very generous and they will give to the different appeals and help in so many ways. In an act that may typify something we hope to see repeated, one of my constituents from Heywood rang today to say that his family would donate the $950 from the government’s new package to the Red Cross. I hope his example will inspire many others to follow.

The local losses in my electorate of Wannon, unlike those in the Ash Wednesday fires, were relatively minor compared to others. On the outskirts of the town of Coleraine, 800 hectares burnt. In Camperdown, 1,300 hectares burnt and it would appear that both those fires were not deliberately lit. But I cannot say the same about the Horsham fire in my neighbour’s electorate of Mallee. Eight houses and the Horsham golf club are gone, and the feeling is that the fire was deliberately lit. I think the anger towards such behaviour, as it has been displayed throughout Victoria, is only just starting to rise to the surface, and I am sure we will hear much more about that. Frankly, I find what goes through the head of a firebug incomprehensible.

Again, I support the comments of all other members. Like them, I am thinking of those directly involved in the bushfires. I admire the extraordinary efforts of volunteers and express my deep and sincere condolences to those who have been directly affected and to those whose families have been affected. We remain conscious that the full magnitude of this disaster is yet to be realised. We know that fires are still burning and hope that volunteers’ extraordinary efforts will enable those fires to be brought under control sooner rather than later. I support the motion.

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