Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for this motion of condolence. It is very hard to know what to make of a tragedy of the scale of what we have witnessed with Victoria’s bushfires. Several hundred people taken in the blink of an eye: how do we rationalise it? How do we come to terms with it? How do we make sense of it? Sometimes there is simply no explanation—no cause, no effect, at times no-one to blame. Sometimes in this great south land of rugged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains, indeed a land of fire, sometimes things go horribly wrong. With thousands homeless, hundreds perished, the images are reminiscent of a battlefield. Having been in the civil war in Bougainville and having seen the effects of a battlefield on the town of Arawa—a town of 30,000 almost wiped off the map—these are first scenes I have seen in Australia that come close to the horror of what a civil war can deliver.

Families have perished together. We have seen dreadful and haunting photographs of small children, mums, dads and grandparents; images of charred swings floating in the breeze, looking down on a charred, barren and black landscape. Amidst the horror and tragedy, there are stories of great courage, as there always are: of CFA volunteers, of neighbours people hardly knew, of safety, of survival, of families coming together to defend one house—watching their own homes perish but knowing that, staying together united, they could survive. My heart goes out to those who are surviving, to those who are fighting the fires, and to the men and women of 4 CER as they work to provide logistics and other engineering support to assist with fighting this most dreadful fire.

Let me continue to encourage all Australians to give as they have so generously done. Donations can be made at any of our major financial institutions, at the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, who are an incredible organisation, and at Bunnings. So many tens of millions of dollars have already been provided by generous Australians and businesses, which is even more noteworthy considering the difficult economic conditions the nation finds itself in. I am so encouraged to hear the member for Lyons speak of what politicians are doing in Tasmania and, whilst I am sure the inconvenience of his office filled with clothes will quickly pass, the gesture of what his office has done will last a lifetime.

Let me also encourage all Australians to be prepared. Kyle Watson, who lives in my electorate, is a co-founder of the Foundation of Public Safety Professionals. A public safety professional has put together documentation on how to put together a family safety plan. I spoke to Kyle yesterday. I certainly apologised to him for not making sure his work was more publicly known. Kyle’s mother has lost her home twice due to bushfires. As a public safety professional, he has put together a family safety plan, a four or five page document, that helps families plan for cyclones, flooding, fire, hazardous spills, earthquakes, tsunamis and storms. I will certainly endeavour to get this to every member of parliament so they can use it as they wish.

In the midst of the tragedy my personal faith in God somehow does not provide a full explanation. But it does let me know that he comes to us as a fellow sufferer through his son Jesus. It is what the apostle Paul refers to as entering into the fellowship of suffering. One day in heaven we may understand all things but right now, in these dark days, it is a great consolation to know that in the midst of it, whilst we cannot understand all things and what has happened is beyond understanding and the death of families and small children in an horrific fire is something so difficult to comprehend, I know that our God is with us and shares our pain.

Let me conclude by looking at Ecclesiastes chapter 3, which I will paraphrase. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the sun. There is a time to be born; there is a time to plant; there is a time to weep; there will be a time to laugh; there is a time to mourn; there will be a time to dance; there has been a time to scatter stones; there will be a time to gather them; there is a time to embrace; there is a time to search; there is a time to keep; there is a time to love; there is a time for peace. Right now there is a time to heal and there will be—and I know this parliament commits itself to—a time to build.

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