Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight with a heavy heart, as have so many members of this House, to speak on this condolence motion in relation to the Victorian bushfires and the people whose lives have been changed forever. I do this not only on behalf of myself but also on behalf of all the people in the electorate of Shortland, who have been ringing my office offering their assistance and support and commenting on the way this parliament has handled the matter.

No member of parliament wishes to be a member of this House at the time an event like this happens. I understand bushfires. In the electorate of Shortland, we are constantly confronted with bushfires, but they are nothing like the magnitude of the fire and the devastation that the people of Victoria have been confronted with. I have been faced with a wall of fire, but it was easy for me to get out. There was no real danger. We have had sparks on our lawn from various bushfires. We have had neighbours who had to fight to save their house, but they did save their house. They were safe and there were ways out. Unfortunately for those people in Victoria, it was a very different situation.

I feel very privileged to be a member of this parliament. We have had all politicians, all members working together with the common goal of expressing their sympathy and condolences to the people of Victoria. The whole process has been removed from politics. The whole situation has been depoliticised. It makes me very sad to think that many of these fires were started by my fellow Australians—people who have ruined and changed the lives of so many people and who have even changed the psyche of our country. The fire has been horrendous. The damage and devastation, the loss of life and the way it has changed people’s lives forever has been spoken about by so many members in this House. It shows that members on both sides of this House are very compassionate people.

The extent of this fire—the death and devastation—is, I think, still not known. I look at the Hansard and I see when the Deputy Prime Minister moved the motion on Monday that there were 107 people who were confirmed deceased. By the end of question time, it was 126. When the Prime Minister spoke to us yesterday in the parliament, there were 173 people who had lost their lives. Today when the Prime Minister spoke it was 181 who had been confirmed dead in the fires. They are just numbers, but every one of those numbers is a life that will not be lived. Every one of those people has family and friends who will miss them and who will never quite come to terms with what has happened.

Last year the Friends of Epilepsy had Christine Walker as a guest speaker. I was talking to the Epilepsy Foundation Victoria yesterday and I learnt that Christine’s husband was in Maryville and has not been seen or heard from since Sunday. I think each and every one of us is touched in a particular way. Christine is somebody who has spoken in our parliament to us as members and who is suffering in a very personal way.

I would like to acknowledge the Prime Minister and the role he has played, showing great leadership in being there with the people of Victoria; the Deputy Prime Minister; Minister Macklin; the Leader of the Opposition; the Deputy Leader of the Opposition; and all members of the opposition who have been so devastatingly affected by this event. We have talked about the member for McMillan, who made I think one of the best speeches. I felt very privileged to be in the parliament yesterday when the member for McMillan made his speech. The member for Bendigo gave a perspective from a different area and made an outstanding speech. The thing that has really struck me is how members of very different political persuasions are all champions for their community. They are part of their community; they are their community. Their community is hurt and they hurt.

Australians come together in the good times and in the bad times. At the time of the Sydney Olympics, all Australians banded together, and that was a time of great happiness and excitement. But we also come together in the bad times. Each and every Australian is supporting those people in Victoria. Within my own electorate on Monday night, Lake Macquarie City Council—which is in my local government area—passed a motion of urgency expressing condolence to the Victorian Premier and congratulating the emergency services. They have informed the Local Government and Shires Associations that, if there is a request for resources, vehicles and personnel, Lake Macquarie are ready to go. The whole of the council is coming together.

Tonight the other council in the Shortland electorate, Wyong Shire Council, also has a motion of urgency expressing its condolences to the family and friends of those who have perished or been injured in the fires. It congratulates the Wyong Shire Council staff, who have raised $10,000 and donated it to the Red Cross. Included in the motion is encouragement to all residents and ratepayers to contribute financially and to donate blood. The council is in contact with local emergency services and the Victorian authorities in order to identify any assistance it they might be able to offer.

In addition to that, I have had some pretty special phone calls in my office. Rob Stirling from Buff Point has three trucks full of goods that he is driving to Victoria. He has made arrangements and is going to do it all at his own cost on Saturday morning. Robbie Baldock contacted me, and he has advised me that the Catholic community on the Central Coast are prepared to donate 500 tents and take them to Victoria via a truck supplied by Energy Australia. There was also a woman who rang my office who had collected goods in her local area and wanted to donate them. There has been such a strong response within the Shortland electorate that I felt I wanted to do something—I felt that, within my community, I would like to show some leadership—so this Sunday between 11.30 am and 2 pm on the Belmont foreshore, on Brooks Parade, near the jetty, we are having a fundraising event.

It started as my idea. I started the organisation and contacted all those people who are involved—we have a sausage sizzle, jumping castle, slide, entertainment, face-painting and bands—but it has been picked up by the community as a whole. The state member for Swansea, Robert Coombs, is involved, and the mayor of Lake Macquarie City Council, Councillor Greg Piper, who is an Independent, of a different political persuasion from me, is joining us. It is a bipartisan approach to this fundraising event. We have the Swansea Lions. The Belmont Chamber of Commerce have been absolutely fantastic. They have assisted with the printing and distribution of flyers and with ensuring that everyone knows about it. Belmont Citi Centre and local businesses are also involved. Lake Macquarie City Council and the mayor, who are allowing us to use the foreshore free of charge, will be involved on the day.

One of my staff members drove by Belmont High School today. They have a big noticeboard out in front of the school, and on that noticeboard they highlight special events that are taking place in the school. They have a notice telling people about the fundraiser down on the foreshore on Sunday. It is a way that the people in my community can come together and do something. We can collect funds and send money to the people in Victoria. People will have the opportunity to do more than just feel totally devastated and helpless; they will be able to contribute toward making better the lives of those people who have lost their homes and, in some cases, their family and friends.

We must look to the future. The people who are involved and the Australian community as a whole will move through the grieving process. At first, there will be horror, shock and sadness. Then there will be anger. Eventually, life will return to some sort of normality, but it is going to take a long time and a lot of help and assistance. We, as members of parliament, must continue to work together in a way that is not political. We must work together to find some way to find some positives in this tragedy and to see that it never happens again—at the least, that it never happens again on the scale that it has here. We must not be distracted from continuing to work together. We must not seek to attribute blame. We cannot blame the victims. We cannot blame the government, emergency services or police. We can, but it achieves nothing. To achieve something, we have to be positive and move forward, and we have to do it together. We need to learn and make sure that the death and devastation never happen again.

I would like to congratulate everyone associated with the response to these fires: the Prime Minister, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and the Premier of Victoria. I think that the royal commission that he has called for and has put in place is something that needs to happen, because, as one of the speakers said in the chamber today, we need to look at what has happened and talk about it and try and take steps for the future. Congratulations also go to the CFA, the emergency services, all those thousands and thousands of volunteers who have been working down in Victoria and the police and the ambulance service. We have all got to continue to work together and look to the future and provide support and compassion to all those people whose lives have been changed forever.

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