Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When flying into Canberra this week, after months away, seeing burnt earth and fires blazing to so close to towns and our capital city, all members would have been reminded of this horrific summer, and, more importantly, that the danger is far from over. The summer of 2019-20 will be one that will live on in the minds of Australians for a long time, unless, of course, our fears are realised and this is the pivotal season and, as predicted by the scientists, worse is to come. We watched and continue to watch in horror the confronting pictures in our newspapers and the videos on our computer screens. We watch on in awe of the bravery of our firefighters, thankful for the international help we've received. We watch on, unable to comprehend the pain, the suffering and the frustration of our countrymen.

The facts of the 'black summer' are this—33 people have perished; nearly 3,000 homes have been destroyed; 10 million hectares of farms, towns and national park are ash; and over a billion animals are lost, from cattle and livestock to our unique wildlife—and the scariest fact of all is that it isn't over yet. While so many of us around the nation were shocked and horrified by the images and videos of trees exploding, fire moving at great speed, and the air above the canopy bursting into flames, for most of us this was contained to our newspapers and to our news feeds. But for our bravest it wasn't on a screen. It is what they saw in front of them; it is what they were going in to fight. To the firefighters, the SES, the police, the doctors and nurses, the forestry workers, the ADF personnel, those who work at a charity, or the public servants getting those affected back on their feet, to all those and more: thank you. You are all heroes.

I particularly want to pay thanks to my local brigades, the brave CFA officers and volunteers from Werribee Brigade, Hoppers Brigade, Little River Brigade, Tarneit Brigade, Truganina Brigade and Wyndham Vale Brigade. They protect our community every day in our metropolitan area, going to building fires and, most importantly, to the prevalent grass fires on the area's plains. Some travelled from these brigades. They headed to New South Wales and spent considerable time in East Gippsland to fight in solidarity with their fellow volunteers. I look forward to thanking them all in person, with the Wyndham City Council, in the weeks to come.

It's a cliche, but this summer has once again shown us that when Mother Nature throws her worst, the best in the Australian spirit comes through. There are so many examples across Australia. We've heard from speakers across three days now of Australians rallying together, donating loose change, pocket money, large sums in pubs and clubs, or using GoFundMe pages, or directly to some of our largest charities—and as a Victorian, I'd like to thank the Bendigo Bank for their work here. People have donated food to organisations and they've donated clothes and nappies. They've rung vets to get supplies for wildlife. But I took immense pride locally in seeing our local Sikh community rally to assist in Sikh Volunteers Australia's efforts to work with Desi Grill in Bairnsdale, providing free dinners to volunteers and dropping off free food to camp sites. I give a particular shout-out to Let's Feed, who are continuing to work with the Bairnsdale Neighbourhood House to help a hundred families across the next six months, and assist Neighbourhood House to replace their equipment. Let's Feed also partnered with our local Filipino community to deliver supplies, cash cards and food to people in the bushfire areas around Bruthen.

Australians devastated by these fires also need the help and understanding of government and organisations to get back on their feet. So, thank you to the staff of Werribee Centrelink, who I met with last week, who travelled hundreds of kilometres to help administer payment applications and assist in getting people back on their feet. This is Australia at its best. Politics can be a nasty place, one driven down the lines between whatever party's hat you wear, but the only red, blue and orange we saw in these fires was on the fire trucks. The leadership shown by the members for Gilmore, Macquarie, Eden-Monaro, Mayo and Gippsland, working with their local state MPs, Commonwealth and state ministers, to meet the needs of their communities has been inspiring. I'm sure there are many more stories across the aisle and across the nation, much the same, because this is what leadership looks like.

I want to pass my thoughts to the constituents of Bean, Canberra and Fenner as they deal with the fires engulfing parts of the capital, and the consequences. As a Victorian, I say that the leadership of Premier Andrews, Minister Neville and Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp have been extraordinary. It is reassuring to know that the lessons of previous fires have been learnt and that this has meant that lives have been saved. I won't go into the arguments of climate change now. There will be time for that. But we should ensure, as a House, that we turn the devastation of these fires into the motivation for coming together and taking action.

In our cities, we felt this too—the ash in our hair, the smoke in our lungs and ambient heat driven by hot winds, lashing our skin. This has been a summer where, once again, the worst of Mother Nature has been met by the best in Australians. And while the threat is not over yet, we must always remember who and what we lost, and we pause to remember in this parliament that every day of despair, loss and destruction was met with bravery, solidarity and generosity. I call on those in this place to demonstrate the same: to embrace the science and take the action required at home and at international forums.

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