Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today on behalf of the people of Aston to offer my support to the condolence motion relating to the Victorian bushfires which was moved by the Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Deputy Speaker, as you would know, the electorate of Aston is not all that far from the beautiful electorate of McEwen, where most of the tragedy at the moment in Victoria is taking place. I am sure the comments that I want to make today will in no way be able to convey the horror of those who have faced the bushfires and survived, the despair of those who have lost loved ones to the inferno or the devastation of homes and farms and indeed whole towns. But I hope the contribution I want to make to the condolence debate today will go some way to touching the hundreds and hundreds of people who have been affected by this terrible event.

Of course, many colleagues on both sides of the parliament in recent days have been making contributions about this dreadful event. My contribution to this debate can, I guess, be summed up by saying that it is all about hope—a solemn hope that the men, women and children who have faced this atrocity will be capable in some way of returning to lives of peace and fulfilment; a solemn hope that those who have lost their loved ones can find it within them to continue on that journey with the love and support of all the people around them. It is the voice of hope that many survivors of this catastrophe employ when they are talking to people in the community at the moment. When asked by the media what they will do now after their families have been ruthlessly taken from them or their property has been decimated, they often say that it is hope that they are holding on to. For our fellow Australians who have been directly affected by the bushfires to have hope under such circumstances shows courage of the first order—a courage which few are ever asked to display and which even fewer should ever need to draw upon. It is that very courage that I have been humbled to witness again and again as men and women—some young and some old, yet all tired and drawn—speak with a sense of purpose about rebuilding their lives and, as one victim remarked, getting back to normal.

It is this truly indomitable spirit, this strength of will, that reminds me of the great character Australians lay claim to, a character which is on display even in the face of unspeakable horror such as that we have been seeing. There will, of course, be those who have witnessed this unspeakable horror, and they will carry the psychological impact for the rest of their lives. I acknowledge the first-rate commitment of the many people who are providing immediate support to those who understandably need help in tolerating the hell that they have experienced.

I am not going to attempt today to chronicle the suffering of our fellow Australians but I want to reflect on the hope the survivors have quietly nurtured and the hope that imbues all our respective communities. Communities, of course, take many forms and this place is as much a community as any other. It is one which more often sees its members drawn to debate rather than deferring to each other, but the hope of the survivors permeates us as we stand together in response to this crisis. We talk about communities; this crisis has impacted upon many, many communities, all communities across Victoria.

I particularly want to talk about my community of Aston. I want to pay my respects to the CFA volunteers that are based in the electorate of Aston: the volunteers of the Rowville CFA, the Scoresby CFA, the Bayswater CFA and the Boronia CFA. I have spoken to each of the stations in the last couple of days, and all of them are deployed in various locations throughout Victoria doing what they can to support the fires. I also want to pay my respects and give my thanks to the many charitable organisations, and others, who are providing wonderful assistance and support to the victims of these fires. There are hundreds and hundreds of people involved in these organisations. An organisation which is very close to my heart is Anglicare Victoria. I am a director of Anglicare Victoria; I sit on the board. They are doing wonderful work right now throughout regional and country Victoria, offering their support and their services to the many, many people that need help.

At this time, I also particularly want to encourage and to mention our parliamentary colleagues, and their constituents, who are directly affected by this crisis: the member for McEwen and her constituents, the member for McMillan and his constituents, the member for Gippsland and his constituents, the member for Indi and her constituents, the member for Bendigo and his constituents, the member for Mallee and his constituents and the members and constituents of the neighbouring electorates of La Trobe, Casey and Wannon, who have also been impacted. As I say, Aston comes very close—it is a neighbour of La Trobe and Casey—and so we are very close to where this crisis is happening. In my own electorate, I have encouraged all people of Aston to do whatever they can to support people in their hour of need. I have encouraged them to do that by contributing as much as they possibly can to the many funds that have been established to support the victims of the fire and also, if possible, by giving blood to the Australian Red Cross at this time.

We stand here united as one parliament, as one community of representatives, seeking to understand, to truly comprehend, what has happened—indeed, what is still happening and what is yet to happen—in the communities of Victoria that have been touched by the bushfires. This crisis is still unfolding before us, and temperatures this coming weekend are expected to increase across Victoria. That is very concerning for all of us. Every single one of us is committed to working in the best interests of those communities who have been devastated by this fire storm. We do that by putting in place immediate measures to assist those most in need. It is in a spirit of bipartisan camaraderie that this parliament tends to the first principle of government: the protection of its citizens. Of course, this applies to threats domestic as well as foreign, both of man and of nature. And diligently, ever so diligently, we foster the hope that those individuals who have been touched by this disaster can regain some semblance of normality and that the victims know that we are thinking of them, we are indeed working for them and we will never, ever forget them.

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