Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I endorse the comments of most of my colleagues that I've have heard over the last day or so, and I'll try and be very brief. We were asked to keep it to four or five minutes if our electorates weren't directly affected, and I've seen some contributions that run over 30 minutes from people whose electorates were not affected.

Many other members here do represent communities that have been profoundly affected, and I particularly pay tribute to their words. I've heard many moving contributions from government members, but particularly on the Labor side the members for Gilmore, Macquarie and Eden-Monaro. Of course the member for Macquarie lost her own house just some years ago in the last bushfires in her electorate. The member for Gilmore is a newly elected member and she has been certainly thrown in the deep end beyond anything any of us would wish to experience. She's been out there every day visiting her communities, travelling, absorbing people's pain, empathising and fixing all of the problems that she can. The member for Eden-Monaro is a legend in his own community and has certainly been responding well despite his health issues.

I want to add a few words from the perspective of my community in south-east Melbourne. We are a multicultural suburban community, and it is fair to say, like others, that the fires haven't directly affected our lived area. Except like millions of Australians we have been watching in shock and horror at what our fellow Australians have been going through and we pay tribute to those who've lost their lives, particularly of course the firefighters who died in the service of others.

The loss of property is still being calculated. There is the loss and impact to our natural environment, to see areas never before in our continent being burnt—ancient rainforests. There was an article a couple weeks ago that really touched me to hear that ancient rainforests from the Gondwana times, before this continent was even in its modern form, had never been burnt or under threat with over a billion native and domestic animals with many now pushed to the edge of extinction.

The catastrophe over summer hasn't just shocked the nation; it's shocked the world. Images of red skies and smoke-filled choking air in what is supposed to be the world's most liveable cities were flooded around the world, changing people's image of Australia. As we know—and I'll touch on climate change briefly—those images, when contrasted with our appalling stance internationally on climate in international forums, have certainly provoked comment from other governments and neighbours.

But, of course, standing here in Canberra, the crisis isn't over. In the last few days when you walk outside you still choke from the smoke and your throat gets sore, reminding us that the crisis is still going on outside. Indeed, in my community in Victoria the CFA in the east of Victoria down in Gippsland has now been told that they're on standby and are rostered on until the end of May. I've got people in my electorate who help out in the CFA and have been seconded to those brigades who have said that this has never happened to them before: that the fire season is now going until the end of May.

In terms of my community, as I said we're not under threat but the smoke and all the other impacts that so much of the nation has experienced have been felt. However, we do pay tribute to the firefighters—many of whom do come from suburban electorates to help out and get seconded—for their courage, dedication and resilience. Of course there's the ADF's contribution.

The other thing that I've detected that I do think I need to reflect on—and sometimes I saw earlier in the debate when you say this some people accuse you of making political points; I don't believe this is political—has been the shock and fear emerging in the community about the impact of climate change. I believe that, from what I've heard at community gatherings in the last couple of months, the public are now way ahead of so many people in this place. People are joining the dots and they're thinking about it and talking about it, and there is deep shock and fear about climate change. As the shadow minister who spoke before me from this side outlined: if temperatures continue to rise, if the scientists are right—not the member for Hughes—then the new normal will be far worse than what we have seen this summer, and that's not a future we can accept.

There's also debate about the government's performance: questions about the adequacy of preparation and the response which will play out in the coming days and weeks. We heard in question time only today the debate about the Prime Minister's arrogant refusal to listen to expert advice, to accept advice that additional aerial firefighting capacity was needed and to pay any serious attention to the forecasts. The experts and scientists had said that all of the conditions were there for the horror that we have seen. As some people who were being perhaps kind to the Prime Minister in criticising his performance said, maybe he is just having a bad summer. I don't believe that to be the case. I see many character traits have emerged—I won't name them lest I be accused of offending the standing orders. I believe that many of the traits which Australians are now seeing from his performance are those we have seen day in and day out in the parliament. People will join the dots and realise that's actually who he is.

I do want to record the community's concern about climate change and the link between bushfires and climate change and the expectation of action. A very clear message that many of my constituents have sent me over the last couple of weeks has been, 'You have to speak up in support of greater action on climate change.' Yes, of course, adaption and resilience have to be part of that. The hypocrisy of the Prime Minister, as the Treasurer, to cancel the adaption fund a few years ago, and now to stand up and tell us that adaption is everything! We must not give up on mitigation. It is not acceptable to the people we represent that we say it's all about adaption and resilience and then say: 'We give up. There is nothing we can do. Things will go to hell in a handbasket, and we'll just make the best of it.' We have to do more as a country. We can do more as a country. We can be a good international citizen and encourage and demand that others do more. These are things that my community are saying.

I also hear the other stuff—the climate change denial stuff, most of which seems to circulate on social media, driven by the member for Hughes. That's a debate which we need to continue to have. The other point I would make, when we think about experts—it's funny, isn't it, the selective listening to experts. We heard in question time and over the last week in response to the coronavirus crisis that the government is listening to experts. Whenever they take a piece of action, they are very careful to say, 'That's because the Chief Medical Officer told us so,' or, 'That's because the chief state health officers told us so,' or, 'We've paid attention to the World Health Organization.' That's what they are saying. Why is it so different on climate change? The government is prepared to listen to expert advice, to follow it, to largely get the response right, to take tough and firm decisions and have the guts to stand up and try to explain the need for those decisions to the nation, to our neighbours and to people around the world. But they are not prepared to do that and to listen to scientific expertise on climate change. We know the reason for that is political because any leader of the Liberal Party that chooses to act on scientific evidence on climate change, as opposed to internet conspiracy theories, will be ripped down and torn apart by their divided party. The country should not put up with this.

The other thing I will just touch on briefly is with regard to recovery. As many members have remarked, governments and communities must support recovery. I have some experience of this from over 10 years ago, when I worked in the Victorian government alongside the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority after 2009. I know what a long hard road it is. There are psychological stages, the community decision-making and economic damage. I hope that all governments will work collaboratively together and not politicise the recovery process.

The final thing I want to do is briefly pay tribute to some people and organisations in my community. I am just going to mention a few; this is not a comprehensive list. We have played some small part, and I am so proud of so many people in my community who've played some small part to the best of their ability. We are not a wealthy community overall. The council that makes up the majority of my electorate is the most socioeconomically disadvantaged in the whole of Melbourne, and the second-most disadvantaged municipality in Victoria. That's why the government gave us no election commitments. We didn't get any sports grants or anything like that. We got zero dollars out of the government, because we are the most disadvantaged. That gives you a sense of their priorities.

Despite the lack of attention from the government and the fact there are so many people who are doing it tough, so many people have been generous. One in two Australians, we understand, have put their hand in their pocket and made some sort of donation, to a total now surpassing more than half a billion dollars. I particularly want to call out the Cambodian community. I am proud to represent a wonderful, vibrant Australian Cambodian community. I was down at the temple as part of the cheque presentation for over $50,000 they raised on the day. There is also the Victorian Vietnamese community. More than 12 per cent of my electorate speak the Vietnamese language at home. They are the largest single cultural or ethnic group in the electorate. They have been leaders in helping to raise more than $1 million across Victoria from the Vietnamese community, which was talked about at the Tet festival and celebrations last week. I was down at the Omar Farooq Mosque in Doveton—it is predominantly an Afghan mosque—to receive a cheque for $20,000. I will put on the record that they gave me the bank cheque and insisted I carry it away. It is made out to the bushfire authority. We are sending it off and getting a receipt. It was a very generous effort by the Afghan mosque. We received a cheque for $18,000 in this presentation ceremony from Reza Andesh and the Afghan Hazara community.

On Saturday night I attended a dinner with the member for La Trobe. It was a very bipartisan event. I think it was the largest multigroup gathering of Sri Lankan community organisations I have been to. There are many Sri Lankan community organisations in Victoria. We had 17: every organisation working together for a very large dinner to raise money for the bushfire appeal. They are still totalling up the money—there was an auction, this, that and the other. I pay tribute to them for their collaborative effort. Many of the local temples, like the Dhamma Sarana Vihara temple in Keysborough, were first out of the blocks collecting water bottles. They collected 30,000 water bottles and sent them down to the fire affected areas to help out the CFA volunteers. The Tamil senior citizens group raised money and presented that recently. On Saturday week, like so many others, I am going to the Bangladeshi community of Australia to an appeal in Keysborough College and speaking there.

There are two particular efforts of direct work that I want to call out and praise. Firstly, the incredible Sikh Volunteers Australia. These people are amazing. They are out there every week, week in week out, practising their religion and their culture, the custom of langar and the community kitchen and giving free vegetarian meals and water bottles to anyone. They went en masse down to Bairnsdale in Gippsland at the height of the fires. They camped there for over two weeks and fed the locals and SES volunteers and firefighters, working with some of the local Sikh and Indian restaurants but continuing that supply chain back from our part of Melbourne. It was an incredibly beautiful effort. The Sikh Sewaks of Australia took hundreds of meals up to Wangaratta and have done collections and donations and so on.

One of the most difficult things by mid-January was fielding the calls from so many locals who wanted to help and having to explain to them that it was not going to help to drive up to a fire front with cars full of stuff. The last thing they needed, the locals told us, was more things to clog up the halls where they were trying to make critical decisions. We actually had to talk so many groups out of that and explain to them that there would be a time for those things, but it wasn't now. I am sure that many people will continue to be part of that recovery.

The final thing I would say is thank you to everyone who has contributed in my community and nationally. It does show the very best of the Australian spirit. Thank you.

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