Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In continuation from my contribution last night in relation to the bushfire tragedies, I want to start again by acknowledging the remarkable work of the RFS, all those emergency personnel and, indeed, the incredible volunteers from our area and throughout the country who have come to our region to assist at a really devastating time. We mentioned last night in the contributions that there are still areas of concern on the New South Wales North Coast that we're all keeping a close eye on.

Also, as I mentioned in my contribution last night, the Leader of the Opposition was recently on the New South Wales North Coast. We were briefed by the RFS at Casino and thank them so much—the briefing at their headquarters was very comprehensive and informative. We also had at that briefing the state member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, and the federal member for Page. The RFS have done a remarkable job.

After that briefing at Casino, we travelled to Nimbin with the opposition leader and toured and spoke to a lot of people at the evacuation centre and heard firsthand the concerns from locals there. We also attended a local CWA. Of course, our CWA are always there to assist in any emergencies, and they've been remarkable throughout our region. Whilst we were there, they mentioned to the opposition that one of the big issues they had was they didn't have enough freezers and fridges for the amazing amount of donations they were getting from many people. The opposition leader later spoke to a member of the Woolworths board. Within hours, he was advised that the next day Woolworths would deliver to the CWA three fridges, three freezers, a pallet of water and a $1,000 voucher. It's great to have that support on the ground to make a difference, so all of those goods that were donated were able to be housed in those freezers.

As I said in my contribution last night, it has of course been devastating—the loss of life and loss of property that we've seen with these bushfires and the impact on our wildlife, including our koalas and our precious rainforests. In our region, on the New South Wales North Coast, rainforests have burned for the first time. This is truly heartbreaking, and it has been for many of the community, when we look at the extent of the damage that there is. The fact is that the fire season is starting earlier and finishing later, and we are seeing more extreme weather events across the country. And of course, whilst we're out and about talking to locals, many people do raise that we need to be having conversations about climate change and acting on that, and I think that moving forward we do, as a country, need to seriously look at what action we need to be taking in light of the devastation we've seen, and it is time to listen to those experts and time to work together in terms of a way to tackle climate change.

I welcome the opposition leader's call to convene a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments to look at practical measures towards a new national strategy for disaster preparedness and for real action on climate change. I certainly support that. I think we need to seriously be looking at that moving forward. I also note and commend the New South Wales opposition, which has recently called on the New South Wales Auditor-General to urgently investigate whether our firefighters have the resources they need. I think it's important that we have a proper audit. Unfortunately, we know that this situation continues. The New South Wales Labor opposition is suggesting that the Auditor-General take a whole-of-government approach to the audit, considering the funding and resourcing of the Royal Fire Service and other areas, and also whether staffing levels are adequate and sustainable—what additional services, responses and measures are needed. So we need to have that auditing done as soon as possible to ensure that our firefighters, our wonderful RFS, have all the resources they need in these very difficult times. One of the things we keep hearing on the ground is that we need to have more permanent, retained firefighters on the front line to keep our communities safe into the future.

I also want to note that a number of disaster recovery grants have been in place since the fires started. They provide immediate relief to eligible primary producers, small businesses and non-profit organisations. It's also for clean-up and restoration costs in the aftermath of extreme natural disasters, and it's important to have all those measures in place for those communities.

Again, I commend all those in the RFS—the emergency personnel, all those volunteers from our local area who have come throughout the state and throughout the country. The spirit of generosity, community and resilience is truly alive and strong, and it's wonderful to see so many people assisting one another in such devastating times and such heartbreaking scenes of loss of life and property and devastation to our rainforests and our wildlife. It is a very difficult time for those throughout the communities who are battling these bushfires. We heard from the RFS that we may not have heavier rain until early next year. So it still is a very difficult time, but we stand with all those communities and commend all those people who are doing their utmost to assist.

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