Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I pass on my condolences to the member for Canberra and to her electorate for what they've experienced and also all the other members of parliament whose electorates have been heavily affected, including the member for Gippsland and the member for Eden-Monaro, who gave a very touching speech.

I still recall, when I was 16 years of age, leaving Ferntree Gully Technical School on the bus and looking over to see a plume of smoke coming from Belgrave South. At the same time, unbeknownst to me, other fires were going on in the Cockatoo area. That was nearly 37 years ago. Tragically, in La Trobe in Upper Beaconsfield, 12 CFA volunteers lost their lives in two trucks when they were caught in the fire. Townships such as Belgrave South—which is no longer in my electorate, but Cockatoo, where they have an amazing memorial, is—were absolutely devastated. The reality is, even though it's 37 years on, those who were impacted by the Ash Wednesday bushfires will never forget. The locals are still haunted by what they experienced. In Cockatoo, they sheltered in a kindergarten where they survived a night of hell.

Today I speak with a heavy heart as a result of what I have witnessed over the summer—initially, fires in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, and obviously those that have occurred in Victoria. Speaking as the assistant minister for multicultural affairs, I thank the multicultural community for what they have done. We have seen Australians unite together in this awful situation where, tragically, good people—CFA volunteers and firefighters and the New South Wales rural firefighters—lost their lives defending us. The sad reality is that some of the children—one of the mothers is expecting in May—will never know how brave their firefighter family members were. I'd also like to acknowledge the devastation on Kangaroo Island in South Australia. These bushfires are unprecedented. As well prepared as our firefighters may be, they can't manage and fight the fires which have swept across Australia's south and east and parts of Western Australia, burning 11 million hectares of land.

Sadly, millions of wildlife have been killed. They're saying that the figure could be up to one billion. The koalas can only escape by going up trees. There has been devastation when it comes to the superb lyrebird. In some areas up to 50 per cent have been killed.

Then there are the farmers who have lost all of their stock and the people who have lost their livelihood. The Australian government—and I know the opposition—feel for the people who faced the brunt of the fires. Our thoughts will always be with them. As people who have experienced fires before have told me, they don't just need support in the three months, six months or year following; it is in the years to come. Sadly, for those who have lost a loved one, every Christmas and birthday is not a celebration of hope; it's a memory of the loved one they have lost, which is always very sad.

I'd like to speak about the multicultural community. Right across the country this is one thing that has absolutely inspired me. Those communities are not expecting from outback Australia a member of the Sikh community with a turban to give them food. Some of the ladies from the Muslim community travelled for hours to feed firefighters and help those people. It has been absolutely incredible. Every multicultural community I've come across has donated in some way, even some of the less established communities. The South Sudanese community in Cardinia raised a couple of thousand dollars to support them. I want to name the groups I've worked closely with.

The hardest thing to do was control them in the sense of not letting them go into the fire areas. All they wanted to do was provide food and water bottles. At the time of the Gippsland fires, going down to Mallacoota was rather dangerous so they ventured to Bairnsdale. I would like to thank Karthik Arasu and Krishna Ganugapati. A massive campaign was organised to donate food, drinks and water to those impacted. They went to Bairnsdale. Brijal Parihk; his wife, Diwani Parihk; Omar Salim; Jagtar Singh; Chiran Singh Sodhi; Tariq Butt; Fakhar Anwar; and Reehan Hameed in particular did amazing work. Brijal put out an SOS and people came to his place. In a very short time everyone was donating food and water, and then they ventured down to Bairnsdale.

Malimage Suganda Fernando made a very substantial contribution to the Healesville Sanctuary. That was something I got behind. I'm very passionate about wildlife. I've worked with Zoos Victoria. They ran a campaign with the multicultural community to support wildlife. They went on the ground at the Healesville Sanctuary. They had three triage areas set up. They were sending their vets to do this incredible work. When I visited Healesville they already had I think 15 koalas going through. People would not realise—I didn't—even the simple task of changing the bandages on a koala takes three staff. It has to go under anaesthetic. It was incredible to see their dedication and how hard they worked.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:44 to 12: 55

I would like to pass my thanks to the Gurudwara Baba Budha Sahib Ji in Pakenham. It was an incredible effort. One night they cooked food and took it down to Bairnsdale and supplied food to the CFA volunteers. It was also great to have Defence personnel up there. The Keysborough Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple community, in particular Gaya Dissanayake, Noushad Usoof, Arjuna, and Duasha Perera, incredibly donated 35,000 bottles of water that they took down to Bairnsdale. The Australian International Islamic College: I was with the member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell, and it is incredible that the young students raised $1,000 for the bushfire appeal. This is actually on the Gold Coast. Maulana Al-Shaikh Afeefudeen Al-Jailani donated financially to Healesville Sanctuary. I thank him very much. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Victoria branch at Berwick donated over $10,000. They are only a small community. A big thank you to Sikh Volunteers Australia. We all have seen the Sikhs go out on social media. They are just everywhere and they have been absolutely incredible. The Dandenong Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple and its congregation took truckloads of food, water, dry rations and clothing. I thank their chief priest, Akarawita Sangananda Thero, Suganda Fernando, Don Thusitha, Kumari Kulatunga, Priyantha Balasooriya Chalindra, Sachini and the whole Dandenong Sri Lankan Buddhist Temple and all the Sri Lankan community. Sri Durga Arts Cultural Education Centre—Kulwant Rai Joshi and his team—tirelessly raised funds and also made a contribution to the Healesville Sanctuary. Bandu Dissanayake from the Sri Lankan Society of Australia, together with 20 other associations, got together to put their hands in their pockets to help out. I was at their event on Saturday night. Susan Gin and the team at EWC community, organisation were involved in raising thousands of dollars for bushfire assistance. There was Malik Zaveer and the Lions Club of Lyndhurst and District, and the United Sri Lankan Muslim Association of Australia.

I did an event with Minister Alan Tudge with the multicultural community. We had the Chinese, the Israelis, the Filipinos. It was just incredible—all these communities donating their time and efforts. As I said to them, in a time of need it's everyone helping out. So on behalf of the whole government and all the members of parliament, I thank them very much.

In conclusion, I want to thank all the CFAs in my electorate of La Trobe. On Australia Day we had awards for them. Obviously, a lot were out fighting fires. There has been this incredible turnover of volunteers. I just can't thank them enough. As I said before, we haven't got the fires in La Trobe. In fact we have been pouring out wheelbarrow loads of water, which is the bizarre thing, because La Trobe, where it covers the Dandenong Ranges, is probably the most fire-prone area of Australia, yet we haven't got fires there—we have had rain pretty much each week. I know that it is raining in Melbourne this week, where we reside. I'd like to mention Berwick Fire Station, Narre Warren Fire Station, Narre Warren North Fire Station, Clyde CFA, Officer CFA, Upper Beaconsfield CFA, Beaconsfield CFA, Pakenham Fire Station, Toomuc CFA, Pakenham junior CFA, Menzies Creek Rural Fire Brigade, Emerald CFA, Clematis CFA, Gembrook CFA, Cockatoo CFA, Nar Nar Goon Fire Brigade, Tynong Fire Brigade and Koo Wee Rup CFA. Again, I thank all of those people involved in the CFA who may not be fighting the fires but are in those important roles in the feeding stations, going out and giving incredible support. On behalf of my electorate of La Trobe, we very much sympathise with communities right across the country that have been devastated by fire.

See this speech in context