Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the contribution of my friend Mr Neville and thank him for it. As were all the contributions which have been made in this discussion, it was heartfelt, resonating across the chamber of this great parliament of ours to see how we can positively work together. The imagery which he painted through the poem gives those of us who know anything about this part of Victoria a good insight into the sort of country which has been traversed and the magnificence of these fires, the horror of them and the courage of those who seek to survive them. It also illustrates to me the contrast of this great country of ours. I live in the dead heart—it is not dead but it is almost at the dead centre—of Australia. My electorate is 1.34 million square kilometres and traverses the country from the dry deserts to the tropics. It used to include the great city of Darwin.

My neighbour on one side is the member for Kennedy and the member for Maranoa is lower down. We see the dichotomy that exists across this country—the floods which have appeared in the backyards of people in north-eastern Queensland and across the north, the recent flooding of the Barkly Highway, where traffic was stopped for almost a fortnight and, at the same time, we have the horror of these fires. The contrast is just so obvious but we who live in this great country of ours live here understanding the ferocity of it and its extremes. We understand it and live with it and at times it shocks us. It has shocked us in this past week with the horror that it can bring to us through its magnificence. I have reflected a long time on these issues over many years, to see those contrasts and to look at the beauty of the country—its magnificence but its dangers. We see those dangers writ large in this great bushfire which has wrought such damage upon the lives of so many in Victoria.

I know that I can say absolutely that the prayers and thoughts of all of my constituents—and, I am sure, of the people across the rest of Australia—are with the communities of Victoria that have been devastated by these fires that razed and continue to pose a threat in a number of locations across the state. I know that Territorians will stand ready to support these communities in their hour of need. I know that Alice Springs has opened up its heart, fundraising has begun and a number of events are scheduled for the month ahead. In other major Territory centres in my electorate—Katherine, Tennant Creek, Nhulunbuy and Yulara—a community response is underway, and we know that response is the same across the nation. Over the last weekend I was on Christmas Island, way over there in the Indian Ocean. Donations have been collected there to assist the national appeal for funds.

Territorians know only too well how generous Australians can be when tragedy strikes. Over the Christmas-New Year period of 1974, Territorians welcomed the support of the Australian community in their hour of need. Tropical Cyclone Tracy devastated the city of Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. Tracy killed 71 people and destroyed more than 70 per cent of Darwin’s buildings, including 80 per cent of its houses. Tracy left homeless more than 20,000 people, out of a city of 49,000 inhabitants, and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people. The recovery task required the concentrated effort of the national government, just as in this case the recovery task requires a national effort by this government. It required the skills of our service men and women. It required the skills and the contribution of community organisations. Those of us who know of this history know that most of Darwin’s population was evacuated to points south—to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney. In time, Darwin was rebuilt through a magnificent national effort. Now we have a great city.

There are still those who bear the scars of that fateful and dreadful night of Christmas Eve 1974, but what is significant and what I know to be true of these communities in Victoria is that they will come back just as the people of Darwin went back and, with the national effort, rebuild their city and, through doing so, rebuild their lives. Cyclone Tracy was a disaster of the first magnitude that, until now, was without parallel. Now, oh so sadly, we have seen something far worse in its human tragedy. It is for all of us a time of immense and overwhelming grief and sadness.

The imagery which we have seen on our national media tells us not only about the resilience of people and the contribution that can be made by a community and the love that people really have for one another. It tells us how we need to strive together to overcome the adversity. As has happened in previous times, including after Cyclone Tracy, the magnificence that is within us all can be brought to bear on a problem and make our neighbours and families feel close to us even though geographically they could be 1,000 kilometres away.

All of us, but especially those with children—who know the delight of having a family—see the horror of families being destroyed by this fire, but we know that despite the horror, the sadness and the suffering we are a resilient country. Whilst we see the ravages that can be brought about through the harsh environment within which we live, we live with it. We need to accommodate it, but we should not allow it to oppress us. I know that out of this experience we will find improvement, and the learning that will be had as a result of this tragedy will be like the learning which came out of Cyclone Tracy. We have heard discussion this evening, during the course of this debate and in the public domain, about what might be done to fireproof homes. After Cyclone Tracy, all the building codes changed in the Northern Territory. All new government houses had a cyclone shelter. I arrived in Darwin the year after the cyclone and houses were devastated. The community was rebuilding. It took a decade to rebuild the physical infrastructure. I lived in a new government house built after the cyclone. The centre of the house was a concrete bunker—the cyclone shelter. I am not sure that that is the solution or a solution or something that should even be contemplated, but it seems to me that all of these things should be thought about.

There will be many other things that we can learn from the experience. It is enough, though, that we accept our responsibility as the national parliament, as legislators and as community leaders to do as we have done: work together to assist and provide the leadership that the community obviously wants us to show and in a bipartisan way demonstrate to the Australian community that we, working together, can assist them in their most horrible hour of need. I am confident that, given the dedication which has been shown already, the commitment which has been shown by the Prime Minister, the government, the Leader of the Opposition and opposition party members, we can make that happen. Through the goodwill that we are showing in this place, one can hope it might transcend to a whole lot of other debates that we might have. Perhaps we can work more collaboratively on a whole range of other issues. I would like that opportunity.

I must say in conclusion that, as Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, it is with great pride that I note the work which is being done by members of our defence forces, both in Victoria and in Queensland. They are great people. Let there be no doubt about it: they are great people. We owe so much to members of the defence forces—others have spoken about this and I will just repeat it in part at least—to all of the volunteers, to the emergency services, to the country fire people, to the police doing their work, to the NGOs, to the Red Cross and to people who are just doing their bit. In my view, it just goes to show what real love can do.

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