Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

If people think that the fires we're seeing are business as usual, they're clearly not looking at a map of New South Wales. It's been a month since the Gospers Mountain bushfire began. It's in my electorate of Macquarie and many other electorates around me. It is a huge fire. Hundreds of volunteer rural firefighters and members of the SES, as well as New South Wales parks and wildlife and fire and rescue staff, have been on the go, day and night, simply trying to control it. We've also had great support from the CFA—and I have never been so happy to see a Victorian as I was when their trucks rolled up a week or so ago! Realistically, people are not trying to extinguish this fire. It's too big for that. They're just trying to move it around and through so that it causes as little damage as possible. We're simply waiting for huge amounts of rain. As of this morning, the area burnt is 188,507 hectares, with a perimeter of 570 kilometres. The sporadic rainfall and new fires started by lightning haven't helped the efforts to bring it under control, and this fire is likely to flare up and expand until we have those decent rains.

We have had an emergency in the Hawkesbury. We've lost two homes. We've lost property, fences, farmland. There have been losses to business. There has been dislocation of families. An emergency is not defined by mass house losses or by death. It doesn't need to be a tragedy to be an emergency. There are people who are impacted. I spoke to Colo Heights residents who were away from their homes for nearly two weeks. Some were staying with friends, some were with relatives and some were in caravan parks. One woman had no information, because there was no central place to go to find out what the current situation was, so she called me to see if it was okay to go home. Another Colo Heights woman has carried heavy losses. There is the cost to repair fencing—and this is really typical of what people are now going home to; there is the refilling of water tanks, because there's no town water; and there is the huge clean-up of trees that were felled but not mulched as the fire moved closer. Power has been lost, obviously, so fridges and freezers need to be cleared out. There is stock to be relocated and taken back to properties. There is a lot of cost involved. People have taken time off work to fight the fires, not only around their own properties but around their neighbours'. Of course, many of our RFS volunteers have also taken time off work.

The people directly affected by the fires on their properties are now facing pretty heavy costs. I asked questions this week about why the Hawkesbury was not included in the new announcement by the New South Wales and federal governments. I really support the announcement of additional funding for the north of the state—that's as it should be; they've had a horrific time there, and they will need immediate and long-running help—but our businesses, our farmers, places like the Settlers Arms pub in St Albans, are not eligible for the $15,000 grants, yet they are businesses that have lost business. People have lost income.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:44 to 18:20

During these fires I have been amazed at the determination of the Rural Fire Service leadership in the Hawkesbury under Karen Hodges, who has brought together the various districts affected by fire—from the Blue Mountains to the Hunter in the north and Lithgow in the west—and also at the willingness of so many volunteers from within the Hawkesbury and across Sydney to show up for very long shifts after shifts. This has been going on for a month. There have been weeks of intense 24-hours-a-day firefighting. In the mornings, when the night shift hands over to the day shift, I see the tiredness starting to grow. You'd not be a human being if you were not exhausted by the sort of effort that they are making.

I say to the volunteers, who can travel for hours either side of their shift: thank you for what you're doing. Last Friday I came across a crew from Davidson and I recognised former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. As I have with all the firefighters, I thanked him for being part of the effort that's being made in the Hawkesbury. Not only do those volunteers do 12- or 17-hour shifts but they then front up for their paid work the next day—except those who have employers who are good enough to give them time off work.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:22 to 18:50

The volunteers who have been on site trying to control these fires for the last month have done an incredible job, supported, of course, by SES, police, and Parks and Wildlife, who have been fully involved in the process. A very grateful community has wanted to do whatever it can to help the firefighters. While meals are provided by the Hawkesbury headquarters, the community has been keen to donate all of the snacks that get the firefighters from their brigade to the fire site. We've been really pleased to help collect and distribute those supplies—everything from chips and electrolytes through to lip balm and all the things that make the job just a little bit easier. I spent Saturday distributing some of those supplies and I was able to talk to people from right up the top at Bilpin. I have also been in to see the Yarramundi mob and the Winmalee firefighters. The mountains firefighters have been putting in hours and hours of effort to help contain this blaze, because we know that it's not that far from the Blue Mountains. It's a huge fire and it's going to keep growing.

Thank you to everyone who has donated—people like the staff of WISE Employment; Kurrajong Kitchen, who were very generous with their lavosh; individuals like Anthony and Sophie; and people like Alison and Kirsty, who helped get supplies not just to rural fire brigades but also to residents of Colo Heights who weren't able to get easy access in and out of their properties but who didn't want to leave the area while the fires were really active. I'm pleased to see that the police have today been able to open Putty Road up to Colo Heights. That makes a huge difference and will help with the recovery process.

One of the things that hasn't been working so well is telecommunications and I really want to flag with the government and with Telstra and Optus that there is a lot of work to be done to give people peace of mind—people like the residents of Mountain Lagoon, who have no landlines. There's no mobile signal there and they have no landlines. When a bushfire is in the area and heading their way, that is a huge concern. I will continue to be a very noisy voice in making sure that those communications are restored and maintained. Another place where that's an issue is Saint Albans. It would be great to see the black spot mobile towers that have been promised actually delivered. There is extra anxiety when fires are around, and people deserve to be able to communicate. The NBN truck that we saw outside parliament today, a mobile truck to deliver communications, could provide great benefit, but we actually need to see things like that in the field, as well as having Telstra and Optus putting in mobile equipment—temporary, portable equipment—so that people can have communication.

There has been an extraordinary effort by firefighters, police, emergency services, all of the people I have named and the community. I've been a bit underwhelmed by the response at a local level from the state government and the local council. They have made efforts, but I've got to say that I think we can learn from what we've seen so far with this fire. There is a whole lot more we can do. We can have elected representatives at RFS community sessions to hear what people are feeling and experiencing. We can open contact points, so people have a single place to go to get information. If people are told to head to Wilberforce, there could be safe places they know they can go to. Those safer neighbourhood places really don't exist in the Hawkesbury. So I think there's a lot that we can do and I think we have to better recognise when we are in an emergency. We have had an emergency. Businesses have suffered. Lives have been impacted. Community members have been through terrible things. Two homes have been lost, and a lot of property has been destroyed. Anyone who doesn't think it's been an emergency is out of touch. And it's not summer yet.

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