Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to associate myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the other members of parliament who have spoken. It is a long way back from 7 February last year. Many people have lived eternities of regret in just one year, sifting memories from the ashes and recalling faces that are now gone. The things that we remember having shared are the substance of love, and when those things are gone then, indeed, love itself is threatened unless we jointly remember and jointly restore what we can.

The towns and the farms are still there, as are the roads, the yards, the hills and the creeks where people played and grew up. Many people have experienced circumstances beyond nightmare which one would hope never to experience. A long rebuild has followed so far after a fire that took everything—the family photos, the war medals, the books that were passed down from the parents to the children, the backyard trees that seemed so big when you were so little, the horse that ran off into the flames and never came back and the pet dog which was so hurt that it had to be put down. The long return from such a day can be hard beyond bearing for those who have lost property. In fact, when you lose property in a fire you realise how closely and deeply it is linked to the memories that make us who we are. But there are those for whom it was even worse in the days after the fire—those who waited weeks for the release from the coroner of perhaps the remains of a child or a father, and those too-long delayed funerals, and those who were kept away for days on end from those black and smouldering crime scenes, which were their family homes, only to return to find that there was nothing left.

Many of these people carry burdens of their own and they are dealing with their own losses. Many have coped with the aftermath of the fire by turning their loss into a desire to rebuild and to help others heal. They have had leadership thrust upon them and they have coped with this admirably. Some of the leadership that we have seen in the communities is not flashy or the barking of orders; it is just the quiet gesture of carrying on and putting one foot in front of the other. The work that is being done by the local community recovery committees deserves particular mention and recognition. It has been essential in ensuring that the spirit and the essence of communities remain—as has the work of Premier John Brumby and Christine Nixon, the chair of the reconstruction authority.

Rebuilding has been a slow process, and I think that we all wish that it was happening quicker. But, as we travel around the fire-affected communities, we can see that good things are happening—from the radio station at Kinglake to the first sods being turned at the new learning hub at Marysville. The neighbours’ faces do help. Their decision, his and hers, to rebuild, to stay, to confer and to share the memories has been important. Fundamentally, communities help here. The idea of community helps—the idea that no one of us is an island and the place we stand on is common ground.

As we approach this Sunday, we cannot replace the people who are not here or take back the memories of 7 February last year, but we can support the people who are there and their efforts to rebuild. We cannot bring back a lot of things and we cannot expunge regret, but we can embrace with feeling what remains and we can build with hope on those burnt foundations at the first anniversary. A way of life is being rebuilt which still has joy in it, with neighbourhood and comradeship, with a shared kindness which we all appreciate in all our homes and communities. That process, that rescue, that restoration, is well begun and it will continue past the anniversary.

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