Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My remarks will be short today because I'm mindful of the need to make sure that all members have a chance to speak on this important condolence motion. And I do so because we all know the context in which we've faced these very challenging fires across the Australian continent this summer.

Like most people, I wasn't personally impacted. But, of course, my fellow Victorians, New South Welshmen, Queenslanders and many people in rural and regional communities and those in coastal towns saw the full consequences of these fires and their impact. The tragedy is that 33 people, including nine brave firefighters, lost their lives, 2,900 homes have been confirmed lost and more than 10.4 million hectares has been burnt out—and that's not even to talk about the loss of wildlife and habitat and what that means for animal populations.

Like most people, I didn't have a firsthand experience, and nor did many of the constituents of the Goldstein community. Most of our experience was of the smoke that drifted from East Gippsland to Port Phillip and sat in the basin around Melbourne. I got feedback from constituents, rightly, about some of the issues around respiratory problems and the health consequences, no matter where they were. It was an eye-opener and, for many people, a wake-up call.

We need to acknowledge and pay tribute to the incredible service of our ADF personnel, who have done a wonderful job supporting local volunteers, and to those local volunteers, particularly in the CFA in Victoria and the RFS elsewhere, who put their lives on the line to do what is best for our community and for our country. We thank them eternally for their vigilance and their effort.

But I want to pick up on a point that was raised by the member for Monash in his response to this motion. He made the point that, for many people on the front lines, it is a traumatising experience. To everybody who's gone through those experiences and to those people who've gone through previous fires, where it may lead to being retraumatised, we say, 'If you need assistance and help, please seek it out.' Every family, at some point, has had some experience with bushfires and the consequences. My family tragically lost their home in the Ash Wednesday bushfires, when my grandparents and aunty had to run into a swimming pool to save their lives after the wind changed. My grandfather, Charles Wilson, was the local doctor in the Upper Beaconsfield community and cared for many of the people who suffered as a consequence of those fires after they'd lost their homes or suffered health damage. So, if anybody needs assistance for whatever reason—whether it's retraumatisation from the past or from their experiences being on the front line in these fires—make sure you seek assistance and help. And I urge those volunteers who, through sacrifice of their own time, particularly around Christmas, were away from their friends, families and loved ones to make sure that they seek any assistance and help that they need as well.

The other important thing is to make sure that we don't turn these fires into a political football. There's been a lot of jumping to conclusions. We have all seen in Victoria, for instance, the haunting images of the Mallacoota community and what people fear. There are of course many factors that contribute to fires—hazard burning, arson and the changing climate—and all of them need to be part of a sober discussion to make sure that we can do our best to address these challenges into the future as they escalate, as there is hotter and dryer weather, and make sure we help communities.

Only on the weekend I was talking to people from the Bureau of Meteorology, looking at their scientific research into the contribution of the changing climate into bushfires and the seasons. That research and work is being done and fed into the public policy decision-making that we will make at this place. But we should make decisions based on evidence, not on speculation.

Finally, to those people in the Goldstein community who saw the challenge and the opportunity to do so much good, we say thanks. I know even only last weekend the Black Rock community held a localised fundraiser to raise money to send to those people affected. Many people donated money out of their own pockets. I know Brighton yacht club has a fundraiser this Friday night to assist. To those people, we say thank you. To those people who have lost their lives, we pay homage and remembrance. But for those people who volunteered to do their best to help all of our communities, we give thanks.

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