Danna Vale (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great sadness that I ask to have my name associated with the words of the Deputy Prime Minister and all other members of the House who have spoken so eloquently on this motion. I wish to express my condolences, and that of my family and of the many families in my electorate of Hughes. The good people of Victoria are facing their darkest hour as they stand against the fury of the worst firestorm recorded in our history. However, the good people of Victoria should be encouraged that they do not stand alone. The rest of Australia is with them in our hearts, in our prayers, in our practical support and in the very physical presence of so many hundreds of volunteers and service agencies.

The sheer terror of this natural phenomenon subdues us all into a shocked silence as we watch the news footage that shows the utter destruction of homes, hamlets and communities. We listen in disbelief to the daily increasing toll of our fellow Australians, and I understand that it is now above 180. While we are fully aware that the fiery month of February brings with it the terror of rampaging bushfires across our wide brown land, the firestorms raging through Victoria are unprecedented and leave us all bereft of the proper words to express our shock and disbelief. Our fellow Australians in Victoria have been on hell’s anvil this week; and, worst of all, it is not over yet. The inferno continues. The firestorm advances on several fronts and we learn that the death toll may reach 200 before it is over, which still may take weeks.

However, where words may fail, the people of Victoria have seen the giant hearts of their fellow Australians as they bolt into action, and in the face of the wrath of outrageous nature so many committed Australians are already lending a helping hand, a broad shoulder or steadfast support. So many of our fellow Australians are living embodiments of the spirit of mateship in the meaning of that true-blue Aussie term.

While I wish to associate myself with all the words of my colleagues who have spoken on this motion, I also wish to acknowledge the fine contribution and tireless commitment of all those involved in assisting the many families to cope with the reality of surviving these firestorms. I include the police, the paramedics, the ambulance service, the doctors, the nurses, the firemen, the Red Cross and the Salvos, to name but a few of the many agencies who are out there in the field lending a very practical and welcome hand to the thousands of victims who are traumatised, homeless and, in some cases, grief stricken at the loss of a loved one.

Further, on behalf of my constituents, I especially wish to thank all those members of volunteer emergency services who put themselves at risk to help their fellow Australians at times of crisis and who now, once again, step up to the plate to serve their local communities. We have all seen footage of those heroic members of the Country Fire Authority, tired and exhausted from hours of fighting the flames of an unforgiving and relentlessly rampaging element. We have all heard that many of these volunteer firefighters from the Victorian CFA have also lost their homes and, in some cases, family members in this firestorm. I also acknowledge the many volunteers, and especially the volunteer firefighters, who have travelled from other states to assist the CFA in this time of great need.

I especially wish to commend the men and women of the Sutherland Shire Rural Fire Service from my electorate of Hughes. Thirty-one volunteers from local rural fire brigades travelled to Victoria last Sunday and have been deployed in the Beechworth area assisting the local CFA brigades. Sutherland shire personnel from Heathcote headquarters, Loftus, Maianbar, Waterfall, Menai, Illawong and Heathcote communications brigade—which, I might add, includes my long-suffering husband, Bob—formed a strike force, lead by team leader Peter Evans, comprising five heavy tankers and the communications operational command vehicle. They were ready to be deployed on the Monday. The team will be relieved this coming Thursday by a further 30 personnel from Sutherland shire brigades. I also acknowledge the work of the personnel who remained at home at the Heathcote fire control headquarters under the leadership of Andrew Pinfold and who continue to work to support all our brigades and personnel in the field.

We are not strangers to the ravages of bushfire in the Sutherland shire. In a beautiful bushland area just south of Sydney, bordering on the Royal National Park and stretching across to the Heathcote National Park and the Holsworthy defence area, the leafy tranquillity of peaceful residential areas between the waters of the Georges, Woronora and Port Hacking rivers belies the very ready threat of bushfire that comes with every summer. Some of the places that I visited once upon a time when I was lucky enough to travel through the Yarra Valley—and I have seen Marysville and the beautiful Healesville area—are very similar to the leafy residential suburbs of my electorate of Hughes, and it is easy to understand how the kind of tranquillity that presents itself in softer climates can turn into an inferno so very quickly.

The people of the Sutherland shire are not strangers to the traumatic loss of life and property which is left in the scorched wake of a rampaging bushfire. As a matter of fact, in the fires of 1994 we lost 94 houses almost in one street, on Woronora Crescent in Jannali. One young mother died in that particular inferno. Indeed, our awareness of the destructive force of fire is the very reason that our communities are protected by 13 brigades under the Heathcote fire control headquarters. Many of the volunteers serving in these brigades represent several generations of family commitment, with many a grandfather serving alongside his grandchildren in the defence of their neighbourhoods and their local communities. To the list of the brigades already mentioned, I would also like to add the brigades from Woronora and Sandy Point in my electorate, as well as the brigades at Kurnell, Bundeena and Grays Point, who serve in the neighbouring electorate of Cook. I also wish to take this opportunity to thank the members of those brigades for their commitment and service to the people of Victoria, as well as their service and commitment to the people of the electorate of Hughes. We are all very much aware that, given the same weather conditions, we could once again find ourselves facing the very same danger as our fellow Australians in Victoria.

I note that the Premier of Victoria has called for a royal commission into the causes of this firestorm, with its unprecedented ferocity and its unprecedented intensity. I sincerely hope that such a commission will provide sound recommendations that will be implemented so that the ferocity and intensity of this firestorm may not occur again. At the very least, we owe such a commitment to the many families who have lost treasured loved ones in this inferno. It is all very well to call for a royal commission, but if its recommendations sit on a shelf somewhere to gather dust then we have failed these Australian families and, worse still, these dark days will be repeated sometime in the future. We all know that there are reports that have taken a lot of time, money and effort, yet, regrettably, their recommendations go unheeded. I do not want to see that happen to this particular report of this Victorian royal commission.

We all clearly understand that we cannot control the weather, the high temperatures or the strong wind velocity, which combine with forest fuels to produce a bushfire. But we can do something about the amount of fuel on the forest floor, about hazard reduction in the winter months and about the amount of red tape that limits the opportunities for our volunteer fire brigades to undertake the appropriate hazard reduction at appropriate times. Local fire authorities should be able to make local decisions about the need for, the time of and the amount of hazard reduction in any given area. This fire is unprecedented. It really is a firestorm, and I do hope that the commission seriously looks at the impediments to appropriate control at the local level by well-trained local bushfire brigades not only in Victoria but also in New South Wales.

I have been very proud of all my parliamentary colleagues this week and of the manner, the sentiment and the tone of the many contributions that they have made in this House. We are united in trying to deal with the enormity of this national tragedy which has become the heartbreak of our nation. But let us continue that unity and all commit to implementing the recommendations of this report when it is handed down. The Nairn inquiry’s report into the Canberra bushfires in 2003 still gathers dust on the shelf, yet there are recommendations in that report on appropriate hazard reduction that have not been implemented anywhere. I also urge everyone in my electorate—and I know that they are noted for their generosity; they have been generous in the past—to dig deep and make contributions to those calling for them. There are many options available to them, and I do urge them to donate. I know that they will. As I said, they have been very generous in the past. But it is with great sadness and, again, with continued disbelief that I join my colleagues in commending this condolence motion to the House.

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