Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a period over the summer months—that we've just been through—that has been incredibly trying for everybody, because we have that sense of duty to our people but also to the people that our friends and colleagues represent. For the vast majority of the time over the summer, I've been incredibly lucky and grateful that the seat of Nicholls has been able to avoid any major fires, predominantly because it's a very, very flat area—mainly pastured land. When fires do break out, the fire trucks are normally able to get to them and simply put the fires out, with good access right across the electorate. We do have areas to the north, around Barmah, that are heavily forested—and we were lucky that we had no fires there—and also to the south of the electorate, around Broadford and Seymour. It's a heavily forested area there again. We were lucky that we didn't have any outbreaks there.

I was able to keep in contact with my good friend Darren Chester—certainly the worst affected electorate in Victoria, where so much of Gippsland and so many communities were severely damaged. When you were talking to Minister Chester, it was really quite worrying because you knew that your good friend wasn't coping very well and that the situation that he was dealing with day after day was really troublesome, when it affects the MPs in the way that it was. I had exactly the same response from my good friend in the Victorian parliament, Tim Bull, the member for Gippsland East—again, the sheer trouble in their voices when you're ringing to ask how they're going, and they simply say: 'No, not good. This is horrible. Our people are being put through an absolute entree into hell here.'

It wasn't until I had the opportunity to travel up there, along with a group of other National Party members, to see if we could help for a few days. On 13 January we took off for a few days and went past Bairnsdale, into Gelantipy and up near Buchan—which is normally famous for the Buchan Caves. We went up to a few places seldom seen. We went nearly up to the New South Wales border, where we were able to help a few farmers there roll up some old, burnt out fences. It's heartbreaking work for the farmers to do this recovery work. To have a handful of pollies trying to help in the best way we could for a few days was well received, I think. Again, it was not our patch; it was the patch of our colleagues.

Until you actually go there and witness it, you don't realise the predicament that these farmers are left with: 200-odd cattle on a farm that doesn't really have any fences. So, how do you build a makeshift stockyard and a makeshift ramp—because the previous one's been burnt out—and how can you do that in such a way that's going to enable you to round those cattle up? They're big strong cattle, so how are you going to be able to round them up and put them on trucks to get them to another farm?

It was Paul Sykes's farm that we were actually working on to rebuild the stockyard. I've never seen such ingenuity. They say that there's not much that wire and a bit of duct tape can't fix—but to see a temporary stockyard get thrown up within a couple of hours, the cattle fed and then the cattle loaded and taken away. The ingenuity of these guys was very impressive. They had been put through the wringer, with the fire going through their property and burning thousands and thousands of dollars worth of hay. You could see the generosity, with a couple of hay trucks coming in to help them get through.

While we're talking about hay trucks, I want to thank my brother Des Drum from Shepparton and his mate Howard Phillips. In conjunction with the Katandra Men's Shed, they've been raising money around the district and taking donations of hay and sending them up towards Corryong. Four trucks have gone up there with hay worth about $20,000. I know that right around Australia there are so many people like that who have gotten off their backsides, raised money and put it to productive use. It was great to see people from around Shepparton, which wasn't touched, contributing in such a fulsome way to people 300 or 400 kilometres away. When we were up there we saw the absolute necessity of the hay trucks that were turning up. There were no questions asked. Obviously people know that the stock are there, they are alive, they need something to eat and there is nothing there for them at the moment. It has enabled these farmers to persevere.

It really is incredible to see the loss. We drove through the Buchan and Gelantipy area. Clifton Creek lost their school and quite a few houses. We talked to some of the landowners there. The sense of loss is quite astonishing. Again your heart goes out to these people who have lost their houses and have had to struggle through. The other thing we have to look at is the amount of people who have been in business—from hoteliers to cafe proprietors—and understand how much income they have lost. They had already gone through some very tough seasons and have had this on top of all of their previous drought problems. It really has knocked so many businesses in. I know some may not recover from that.

I'd also like to mention a Goulburn Valley fruitgrower who has expanded his operation beyond the Goulburn Valley up into the Batlow area. Some 20 or 30 farmers up there are growing some of Australia's best apples. There was a combination: some orchardists were somewhat lucky and lost 30 per cent of their crop while others, such as Billy Barolli, lost their entire crop plus the posts, netting and fencing. It was a total wipe-out for some of the growers.

There's going to be an enormous amount of work for the New South Wales government, with the criteria they've put in place, to see who's going to be able to receive what type of assistance. We're going to have to have that criteria fully tested to make sure the right people get assistance. That's going to be a very complex piece of work for the New South Wales government and the Victorian government, which are going to be in control of putting in place that criteria. I don't want to talk too long on this condolence motion because, as I said, my area wasn't affected and I only visited the affected areas for three days.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:18 to 18:30

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