Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin my speech on the Defence Legislation Amendment (Enhancement of Defence Force Response to Emergencies) Bill 2020, I want to acknowledge the member for Macquarie and her sterling leadership through the fires in her electorate, Fiona Phillips, the member for Gilmore, Mike Kelly, the former member for Eden-Monaro, and of course Kristy McBain, the current member for Eden-Monaro. There were many others who were genuinely there to help, but I wanted to particularly point out those people.

Labor supports the passage of this bill through the House. We understand the need to expedite it, but we also note our intention to refer the bill to the Senate for legislative inquiry. I'd like to take this opportunity to once again thank our men and women in uniform, our firefighters, police officers and emergency workers, and volunteers from across society who pulled together to fight those devastating fires, and I want to again offer my condolences to the families and friends of those Australians who were lost.

We also had international assistance that flooded in to help Australia in our time of need. I especially thank our US ally for sending over 100 firefighting personnel, the 44 Forest Service and wildlife personnel to assist Australians. At an airport down south, I spoke with one of the American Forest Service personnel; he was in an air bomber. He was keen to be here. He was keen to help. But, of course, we also remember with great sadness the three Americans who lost their lives fighting the bushfires: Ian McBeth, Paul Hudson, and Rick DeMorgan Jr.

I also want to thank our Pacific family mates, including those from Papua New Guinea, which sent a hundred soldiers to help fight the flames and offered up to a thousand personnel to help us during the crisis. Thank you to our wantoks. Fire-ravaged towns like Merimbula received $60,000 in donations raised by youth from Lae in PNG. We thank them. I've got family in Merimbula. I've also got mates who are veterans who were in Merimbula during the fires. On their behalf, I say thank you. Vanuatu offered $250,000 to assist bushfire victims and their families. I want to acknowledge the Vanuatuans picking mangoes right now in the Northern Territory. The Anzacs, our trans-Tasman cousins, also sent over 125 firefighters and personnel to help, as early as October. We thank them. A 43-person Indonesian military engineer contingent supported efforts in the Blue Mountains region, so we say terima kasih banyak.

Singapore and France offered military assistance. Thank you; merci. Canadians offered to come and fight the fires. Thank you to them. I note the help of our heroic friends, allies and families because it reminds us of the fact that the bushfires on this scale across our nation, across our continent, did resemble a coalition task force who were at war through fire ravaged communities. It was a form of coalition warfare as the fire advanced on many fronts. So I want to thank all of those internationals. It's important to note that this legislation will provide cover for those personnel when they come to help, and it also reminds us of what our own ADF Reserves and regular personnel were up against and why it's so important to protect them from, for instance, potential prosecution for just doing their jobs, or loss of income, or being forced into conditions of full-time employment when their personal situation might determine a better response to be of a part-time nature.

In this bill, we ask a lot from our men and women in uniform. Labor will not oppose the bill, and we'll make our final position on it known after the Senate legislative inquiry helps to ensure that our ADF members are given the same protections that their Indonesian, American, New Zealand and Papua New Guinean foreign military personnel in Australia would have enjoyed—and, indeed, the same protections that our civilian emergency personnel, like my brother, who's a professional firefighter, also enjoy.

There's very important and even critical risk to assess around issues such as civil military relations, as raised by my learned colleague the member for Wills. I acknowledge those. Labor is aware of concerns around some of the immunity provisions. It's vital for our own ADF personnel as well as for the high esteem in which the community hold our armed forces that this issue be thoroughly and adequately addressed.

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