Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I wish to associate the opposition with the eloquent words of the Prime Minister to commemorate the first anniversary of Black Saturday. Black Saturday, 7 February 2009, is the worst peacetime disaster in Australian history—173 people lost their lives, including 38 in Kinglake, 34 in Marysville and 27 in Strathewen. There were 2,029 homes destroyed, 2,439 buildings destroyed and 59 commercial premises lost. This was loss on an unimaginable scale.

Following the tragedy, as the news slowly emerged, Australians were successively shocked, saddened and ultimately bewildered at the scale of the devastation and the realisation that death could stalk even the most peaceful and idyllic Australian landscapes. There was that deep but hard to express grief at people’s almost unthinkable loss, and then, with volunteer fire brigades from around Australia sending fresh teams to the front, with hundreds of thousands of people sending goods and money to those who had escaped with their lives but little else, and with the whole nation sending its prayers, there was a quiet pride in the way our country had faced the fury of nature at its most extreme and responded to the tragedy.

All levels of government promised to do everything in their power to restore as far as possible normal life, and these promises, which were sincerely given, I am happy to say have been efficiently kept. I commend everyone professionally involved in the relief efforts. In rebuilding their lives, the members of these communities have shown the best of the Australian spirit and in our solidarity with them I think we have deepened our sense of collective humanity.

We honour the memory of those lost, we salute the courage of those living and we resolve to learn the lessons of that terrible day. Mr Speaker, I now defer to the members representing the communities most affected.

See this speech in context