Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to say that in so many ways this has been a 'black summer' for Australians—the physical darkness, the scarring, the human tragedy, the loss of property and the loss of wildlife which has been raised by so many people and which tears at all of our hearts. All of these things come together. At the same time, it has been a summer of hope and resilience across Australia—the worst of nature and the best of humanity coming together. We know there are many causes: the traditional Australian landscape—that history is well-known—and the additional impact of climate change, which is real and significant and, as I have said for so many years, decades now, fundamentally important.

There is terrible work of some people—the last figure I saw was over 180 arrests for arson—and the challenges. We have to live up to the royal commission, in Victoria at least, standard of hazard reduction and fuel reduction. All of these things come together, but let there be no doubt as to the impact of additional factors such as climate change on the resilience and adaptation issues which we face as a nation as part of a globe.

But it's the human stories that are the real ones that I want to address here as being the most profound. When the Mallacoota evacuees came to Somerville, in my own electorate, I met many of them and was perhaps most struck by the three young women who had been asked by their parents to leave because of concerns about the impact of the air quality on them and their asthma: Tahnee, Emily and Darcy. Darcy's family had lost their home and this young woman, despite the trauma of that, was remarkably positive. She said, 'We will get through this.' Those are words which have stuck with me and which I have in her honour repeated in relation to coronavirus and the national challenge that we face on that. The words come from Darcy, but they speak for all of us. Although she had a tragedy, she was an inspiration. The girls talked about the work of the ADF and the volunteers and the extraordinary professionalism that we saw with the naval evacuation and the way in which the ADF gave them comfort: 'When we saw the defence forces and the Navy arrive, we felt safe.'

We know that our firefighters—and firefighters from the Mornington Peninsula and from around Australia—have descended on the different fire areas to put their lives forward and put themselves at risk and, tragically, we have lost nine firefighters. We have lost 33 Australians. We've lost over 3,000 homes, and many other people have suffered emotionally as well as physically. Against that background, we offer our tribute and our immense thanks.

Resources have been mobilised and, as part of that, I saw the arrivals not just at Mallacoota but also at HMAS Cerberus. One woman, who migrated to Australia some years ago and married an Australian, said to me that she was so proud to be here. She asked me to pass on her thanks to all those involved: the military; the volunteers; the Red Cross; again, the firefighters—the story everywhere is the firefighters, the firefighters, the firefighters, both professional and volunteer. On that front, one of the things we have been deeply aware of is the mental health impacts of bushfire and trauma on residents who have faced the fires and on first responders around the country. I met with the captain of the Balmoral Village RFS, Brendan O'Connor, and one of the members, Victoria Herrera. Victoria lost her own home in the fires. Brendan faced horrific fires and that RFS unit saved the town. They lost, I believe, approximately 20 homes; they saved more than a hundred. Victoria told a story of being on the radio with her daughter, who is also in the RFS, as is so often the case. She lost contact with her daughter when her daughter was in the midst of fighting the fires and sheltering in the RFS headquarters, because the town had been overwhelmed. The words Victoria heard were, 'Mum, it's filling; it's filling with smoke.' And then it went dead. Her daughter survived, but Victoria did not think so—she thought she had lost her daughter. She said, 'I'm not happy about losing my house, but I'm very happy about saving my daughter.' That puts some of this great tragedy into perspective.

In order to support people who have been on the front line, in order to support the families that have lost, we have worked very hard across the government. I've got to say that the PM said to me, 'We need to work on mental health.' In the earliest days of January, he said, 'We need you to work in the sector. There are so many in the sector who helped. We need you to work on getting us a mental health package.' After meeting Victoria and Brendan, we announced that day support for mental health. Yes, there's a large number, but that's not the thing that matters. It was the counselling support; it was the psychological support; it was the support for communities.

Only three days after that was announced I was in the Upper Murray, in Corryong, and I went out with Helen Haines, the member for Indi, and Bill Tilley, the state member, who was himself a CFA volunteer who was on the front line during many of these fires. He showed me the scars of the land and took me to the places where he and others had fought. He was pleased that they'd been able to help, but I saw the same tears from him for the houses they couldn't save and for the people across the border in New South Wales who had been lost fighting the fires. These scars will run deep for a long while.

What struck me in Corryong, when I spoke with Bill and Helen, when I spoke with Dominic Sandilands, who is the CEO of the Corryong Health, and with Sandi Grieve, who is the CEO of Walwa hospital, and with the mayors and CEOs of Alpine and Towong shires, was the extraordinary resilience. On the way from Wodonga, where we had been at the incident centre, to Corryong, there had been rain only a few days after the fires. Incredibly, in that short period of time there were green shoots along the side of the road—not enough for cattle yet, not enough for livestock, but enough to say that there are green shoots. We have many more fires still to battle but that physical resurrection, that physical recovery, is in many ways a symbol of the emotional heart of the nation. Our job is to support in every way and to thank all of those who have been there.

I saw the ADF working in the communities. I heard from the communities—people like Cam Jackson, who said the Corryong Man From Snowy River Bush Festival will go ahead in early April and they had put out a video urging everyone to join. That resilience of the land, that resilience of the towns of Corryong and so many others, is the Australian story writ large. It always has been, it is, and it always will be. For that I want to thank, honour and recognise all of those who have contributed in every way to what, whilst it has been the 'black summer' that Australia has faced, has also been a summer of hope.

See this speech in context