Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wright for sharing with us the devastation that he has listened to people talking about within his electorate, amongst his communities. It just reminds us how far and wide the bushfires have spread and how they have affected so many lives in this country. I'm glad and fortunate to say, as the member for Gorton, that we've not been directly affected in the way that the member for Wright describes, but of course all of my constituents are shocked and have been watching the television over summer and of course have been donating in response to the many invitations to provide support to those who are directly affected.

It perhaps has not taken the nation by surprise but it really has had people sitting up and taking notice about the extent and nature of these fires. I agree with the member for Wright about mitigation and preparation. We need to follow the facts. We need to take advice from those who've been fighting fires for many a year. We need to ensure we mitigate the potential risks. We have to do all of those things. We have to be prepared in a manner that perhaps we are not always prepared. There is no doubt we have to do that.

But the firefighting seasons are getting longer. That's the truth of it—in both hemispheres, which is one of the reasons why some of the assets that were to be deployed to Australia were held up, because we now have overlapping fire seasons between, for example, the south-east coast of Australia and California. That in itself is quite a remarkable thing.

According to the firefighters I spoke to on Kangaroo Island, the flames are getting higher and moving faster, and the wind is wilder, the heat more intense. We have to listen to those firefighters—the former chief firefighters, the ones who have been fighting fires for years—because they're telling us what has happened. Of course, the scientists told us what would happen. It's all there in the 2008 Garnaut climate change review, which talked about temperatures rising, the increased incidence and duration of drought and, of course, the potential for worse fires. Unfortunately, the forecast in that review of 12 years ago has been realised, and it's likely to get worse.

We've had these debates around climate change, and there is a correlation, we would argue. Certainly Labor argues that, and I think most members of the parliament agree. But I think it's important to note that, even if we do everything that scientists say we should do to tackle climate change, temperatures are going to continue to rise, and we will have to deal with these fires. Temperatures will rise for a considerable period. Even if we put in place everything in the scientists' handbook about tackling climate change, we're not going to see the end of temperatures increasing. We'll be lucky to see the plateauing of rising temperatures. This is going to be with us for many, many years, even if the world takes better action and more effective action to tackle climate change. We must remember that. You only have to look out the window of this parliament to see the haze or walk outside to breathe in the smoke. I was flying to Canberra on Monday morning, over bushfires south of Canberra, and noted that they are still continuing.

I also note this—Anthony Albanese, the Labor leader, has already made this point, and I think it's important to reinforce—we're still two days off the 11th anniversary of Black Saturday. Black Saturday, in 2009, commenced on 7 February, when we were last in government. I can recall that vividly because the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd phoned me to ask where these small towns were. I happened to be elsewhere—I wasn't in Victoria that evening. He wanted to know. It was just before, really, the fire took hold. He, to his great credit, travelled down to Victoria very early the next morning—4 am, I think—to meet with John Brumby, the then Premier. And of course, unfortunately, it was devastating for the state of Victoria: 173 deaths, 414 injured people and countless people that are still suffering the scars and the mental anguish of that event. But that was on 7 February, and we are here at 5 February, so we can't forget that we're still in the summer season. Temperatures are still very high, and fires are still continuing, and that's not something we should forget.

I mentioned the 173 deaths, which was just an extraordinary number, and which took everyone aback. It's fair to say that one death is one too many. But if we've got something right, we've certainly improved the way we respond to fires in terms of evacuating areas more effectively. Because despite the fact that many more hectares have been burnt and homes lost in this crisis, the scale of the deaths is not as large, fortunately. Of course it's still very, very tragic.

We need to continue to learn how to respond to the bushfire seasons and the fact that they're likely to become increasingly intense and go for longer. There'll be multiple inquiries arising out of this bushfire season. There'll be coroners' reports and there's going to be an inquiry, as the government's made clear. We need to determine the facts. We need to comply with recommendations that are made by the experts, and that's absolutely critical.

I found myself planning a holiday in the second week of January, but I'd made the decision to go to Kangaroo Island before the fires started. I made that decision in December. And then I realised that I might not be able to travel there because it would be too dangerous or because I'd be getting in the way. But I was advised that it was safe to travel and that the businesses there, certainly on the east side of the island, were hoping people would continue to go. So my daughter and I travelled over to Kangaroo Island, met with the small businesses in Kingscote and Penneshaw and talked to them about what has happened as a result of the devastation. It's a story of two islands. The west coast has been devastated, with parts of it incinerated by the intensity of the fire. There were many, many homes lost and two tragic deaths. Livestock and fauna were devastated. The east side of the island hasn't been touched, physically, at all. But of course it has now been commercially hit to the point where at least 75 per cent of the accommodation bookings for the year—not for January-February, but for the year—have been cancelled, domestically and internationally.

You can see the direct impact of the fire on the west side of the island. I thank Dion and Linda Buick, friends of mine, who showed me around the west side of the island to see the scale and extent of the sheer devastation. I talked to farmers who had lost their stock. I talked to a potato farmer who had lost all of his machinery and his home. I spoke with their daughter, Lilly, who, along with her partner, Josh, had lost their home and had made a makeshift home in a caravan that was donated to them by a stranger, which is a lovely reminder of how people can act in these circumstances. They're obviously trying to rebuild their lives. Most of the people I spoke to were insured, but there'll be issues around whether they're underinsured.

Then there are the businesses on the island. Michelle Peacock is the general manager of the store at Vivonne Bay. The store is still there, but the area was evacuated and there is no trade. It's predominantly summer trade. It was going to be a bumper season for the island. She had to lay off all the staff. She gave away the food to the volunteers where she could. Of course, she has now got bills and no revenue. Unfortunately, in the circumstances she's in, she's not in a position to get a direct grant. Those are confined to businesses directly affected by the fires themselves. She has to consider whether she will access the loans. Hopefully, there will be other acts of kindness. Commercial landlords might waive or reduce costs of tenancies or energy suppliers might waive or reduce energy costs which will make it easier for businesses on Kangaroo Island, on the south coast of New South Wales or in the Blue Mountains, which I visited last week, to survive. We know that these businesses rely on cash flow. If the cash dries up, often they don't have much collateral or back-up to continue. We need to do everything we possibly can to make sure those businesses continue for the business owners themselves, the workers who are employed by them and the communities that rely upon them.

I would like to thank Leon Bignell, the state member who represents Kangaroo Island. He did a wonderful job getting generators to people who didn't have electricity. He is a Labor member—not a government member—in South Australia. He has been working tirelessly. I pay tribute to him, as I do to all of my federal colleagues, starting with Anthony Albanese, who has been working throughout the entire summer. In the government, I pay tribute to the minister in particular. I also pay tribute to Susan Templeman, the member for Macquarie, Fiona Phillips, the member for Gilmore, and Mike Kelly, the member for Eden-Monaro, who made great contributions to this debate and who really have been working tirelessly for their communities. We need to be with them and work with them over the days, weeks, months and years ahead. Our job as representatives is to respond when things like this happen. We need to immediately respond to the needs of the people who have been most affected. We need to be there to provide support, but also we need to put in place better mitigation, better preparation to fight fires in the future and, ultimately, policies that will reduce temperatures globally so that, in the foreseeable future, Australia, the hottest continent, is less likely to experience the devastation that we witnessed this year.

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