Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is indeed an honour to rise in this place and speak in support of this motion, which—as outlined by the member for Hindmarsh—was very eloquently spoken to by the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and many others.

I'm pleased to say at the outset that, fortunately, my electorate has been spared the horrors of the fires we have seen not only in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia but earlier in the season in parts of Queensland as well. I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to the families of the 33 Australians who lost their lives in these fires—not forgetting that, importantly, in many places these fires continue.

I would also like to recognise and acknowledge and pass on my condolences and sympathies to the families of the six volunteer firefighters who tragically died in the line of duty. I also extend my deepest condolences to the families of our American firefighter friends and colleagues who came to this country to help us out in our hour of need and perished, fighting those fires in southern New South Wales. Equally, I address my colleagues in electorates that have been affected by the fire. Over summer I spent an amount of time speaking to many of those colleagues just to touch base and see how they're going. I think it's right that we should mourn and commiserate with these families and these communities. It's right that we take the time to express our condolences in this manner, through this motion.

If there's one thing that this summer of fires has demonstrated yet once again, it's the resilience of our communities—the help that our fellow Australians will provide in time of need. With that, I want to take the opportunity to thank all our brave firefighters, emergency services and Defence personnel and the medical staff for giving their everyday support to these fire impacted communities right across the country. As I said in my earlier remarks, this is something that started back in September-October in Queensland and has progressively moved south. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our local rural fire brigades at Ormeau, Chambers Flat, Cedar Creek and Greenbank—and also nearby at Logan Village which is in the electorate of Wright. But equally, I would like to thank our metropolitan brigades at Beenleigh, Waterford West and Browns Plains. When there has been the odd small outbreak in my patch, they have been very quick on the scene to deal with those outbreaks. They have also been very readily available to help where needed.

Whilst my electorate has not been directly impacted, the impact of these fires has certainly been felt and has touched many across my electorate. I've spoken to locals who have had loved ones lose property and livelihoods across New South Wales and Victoria. And I know from the calls to my office that people are still looking at ways and means by which they can be of assistance. This is, again, a great tribute to Australia and Australians—that in a crisis our people are ready to pull together and support each other. Fortunately, now in Queensland we are seeing plentiful rain, and I hope that continues to move further south to bring some relief not only to the fire areas in New South Wales but also to some of the drought affected areas in central and western New South Wales.

Over the past few months, I've had the honour of witnessing businesses, organisations and individuals from all over my community—from Park Ridge to Pimpama, Carbrook and Upper Coomera, and all areas in between—who've come together to help our fellow Australians in their darkest hour. People like Louie Naumovski, from Logan House Fire Support Network who, with many other local stalwarts, organised and coordinated a mass bushfire recovery donation drive.

In total, our community donated over two tonnes of food and personal care items as well as over 3,000 bottles of water to rural and urban fire brigades across the south-east and to bushfire affected communities in New South Wales and Victoria through Food Bank. None of this would have been possible without Shane Drew from Drew's Sign It, who, together with his son, Ashley, and daughter, Tiffani, collected hundreds of donations from individuals and organisations across Logan in their vans every day and dropped them off at the Bethania Community Centre for our volunteers to sort, organise and pack into hampers. These were distributed to our local rural fire brigades, who'd offered their support to their counterparts and communities interstate.

People like Darrell Dhnaram offered his IGA stores in Loganholme and Boronia Heights as drop-off locations for contributions, and also the team from Bunnings at Bethania supplied the boxes necessary to pack up the donations. And let's not forget the wonderful ladies from Sewing for Charity who threaded and sewed over 100 cooling wraps for the SES volunteers and Robyn Eadie from Upper Coomera who made custom cards to distribute to bushfire victims with messages of love, hope and support. Just this weekend, I had the pleasure of being at Bunnings at Bethania, where the Marsden Lions Club were putting on a barbeque fundraiser for bushfire relief.

As we know, we still have over 50 fires burning across the country. Almost 3,000 homes were lost and over 10 million hectares have been lost this bushfire season. The devastation our country has faced is unprecedented in living memory, and many aspects in the subsequent road to recovery will be protracted. But, importantly, this government—and I think everybody from their contributions across this chamber on this motion—recognises that the long-term effort of planning for recovery and rebuilding is critically important; that once the news of the fires disappears from the front pages that we do not forget these communities; and that we are here for that long journey of building and recovery to ensure that they can rebuild their lives and once again take, pursue and follow the opportunities, dreams and goals they have as individuals and families. Whether it's in business or in other activities, we need to see these communities rebuilt and regain the strength that they once had—for our primary producers and our farmers for the contribution they make so importantly to our economy. I think we can safely say that all in this House are committed to ensuring that this occurs and we have demonstrated in the past that we have the capacity to do so. I wish all of those communities affected every success and support for the future as they face now the long journey of recovery.

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