Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to echo the Prime Minister's comments. We live on a challenging continent, where you can see not only amazing storms drench Sydney but terrible bushfires further up the Australian coast between Cooktown and Gladstone. There are 80 fires burning but of particular concern in these conditions are some of the fires near Gladstone. There is a little town called Baffle Creek. It is not even really a town. There is the Wartburg State School, a bait and tackle shop, a petrol station convenience store, a liquor store and a real estate agent. There are about 1,000 households in this area. Most have evacuated. There are perhaps 50 households which have not.

What's been happening for the last number of days is all of the emergency services, the volunteers and the professionals, in particular the rural fire brigades, have been fighting this fire site for five days. I spoke to the Mayor of Gladstone, Matt Burnett, and he explained that today was crunch day. So as the rains and the heavens fall upon us here further south, the fire brigade there has got to try and stop the fire getting to Coast Road; otherwise, people will be blocked. We're very fortunate to have our volunteers and professionals, and they should know that we're thinking of them today.

See this speech in context