Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

While I recognise that the Fair Work Amendment (Respect for Emergency Services Volunteers) Bill 2016 affects Victoria and the ACT, and while I do have reservations about this bill, I wish to support it because I support our country firefighters.

I take this opportunity to talk about the fact that my electorate of Mayo is protected entirely by the Country Fire Service of South Australia, and so we depend on the generous spirit of around 3½ thousand volunteers in over 75 brigades. I am extremely grateful that there are these selfless people in my community, and many other communities, who are prepared to give their time, without any pay, and sometimes risk their own lives to protect all of us in regional Australia.

Just in the past 24 hours we have had flash flooding in the Adelaide Hills, with some homes nearly 1½ metres deep in water. The volunteers in both the CFS and the SES are working hard to protect homes, and they are removing debris and evacuating people from danger.

Of course, every summer we are reminded of their essential role in our lives. I have a stark memory of being evacuated from my home during the Sampson Flat bushfire which burned out of control for four days in January 2015. We were very lucky: the volunteer CFS captain lives just two doors down from me. He said, 'Rebecca, it's time to go.' Like many, we packed up photos, passports and insurance papers, and wondered if we would have a home to come back to.

This was the most destructive fire in the Adelaide Hills for more than 30 years, burning more than 12½ thousand hectares of public and private land, with losses including 24 homes, 146 other structures, five businesses and much livestock and fencing. Many native animals and pets also perished.

But those numbers do not tell the true personal cost. We cannot overstate the trauma of losing your home, your business, your animals and having to start again. That is a recovery process that takes years and years. And those numbers do not tell us the economic cost. The direct cost of fighting the fire was around $10 million, including aerial firefighting missions, fire suppressants, transport and accommodation, vehicle and equipment repairs. And those numbers also do not tell us about the brave volunteers who risked their lives round the clock for days. Our volunteers were joined by 600 firefighters from New South Wales and Victoria, and I thank each one of them.

In November that same year in South Australia we were again hit by another devastating fire, the Pinery bushfire, which raged for over seven days just north of my electorate, in the lower Mid North and Barossa regions. This fire affected 86,000 hectares of scrubland and farmland, with the loss of 91 houses, 388 non-residential structures, farm machinery and nearly 100 other vehicles. It also caused significant damage to rural produce. We lost over 50,000 poultry; 17,500 head of livestock perished; and up to $40 million worth of fodder and unharvested grains were destroyed.

Scientists tell us that bushfire risk will increase each year as a result of climate change, so we will be even more dependent on our volunteer firefighters in the future to protect us. And it is not just fires and floods. The volunteer members of the CFS are at every car accident, every road crisis, in my electorate.

I am a strong supporter of volunteer country fire services, and it is for this reason that I support this bill. However, I feel compelled to put on the record some reservations. There has been some debate among legal experts as to whether this legislation is beyond Commonwealth legislative power, which may lead to a potential legal challenge on the basis of it being unconstitutional. There is a constitutional principle that the states have the right to conduct their activities autonomously, without undue interference from the Commonwealth. I am concerned that this bill may be overreaching by the government.

I understand this bill will be referred by the Senate to a committee and examined for unintended consequences. I look forward to the outcomes of that inquiry, which will inform the consideration of this bill by my colleagues in the Senate. But I do support this bill, because volunteers are important to my community. They are the lifeblood of regional Australia.

See this speech in context