Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have the great fortune of being in a city seat in Melbourne that also touches the fringes of the outskirts of regional Victoria. I've got the suburbs of Wonga Park, North Warrandyte, Warrandyte and Warrandyte South. Within those communities are four country fire authorities: the Wonga Park CFA and the North Warrandyte, Warrandyte and Warrandyte South CFAs. When I visit them, and I have been to many of their awards, it's such a treat to meet members of your community who have other jobs—they're tradesmen, lawyers, people who work in sales and retail—and here they are, giving up their time during the week to do training and on the weekend to go and help prevent fires.

More than that, they've signed a contract with their life. They have put their life on the line to defend our community when the call is made. That's a real risk. One of the first things I did as a candidate was to speak to one of the captains of those CFAs. I said, 'What is your fear about Warrandyte and a Marysville type scenario?' He said, 'It's not if; it's when.' I hope he is wrong on that. His view is that there will be a date when devastation will come through that community full of families. That's something I know the local police, the local council and the CFAs practice and rehearse again and again. We hear so often about one-in-100-year events, from financial crises to floods to pandemics, but here in Australia, in this continent, natural disasters are more than one-in-100-year events; they're a part of life. So it is right and proper that we consider that.

My next-door neighbour is the member for Casey, and I had the great honour of hearing his first speech in the main chamber. I was sitting just in front of him and I looked up. I didn't have a preview of what he was going to say. He described the Black Saturday experience that he had. He described a moment where he looked at his now wife, who was his partner, and thought, 'I've done something that will get us both killed,' but they survived. I was waiting for the detail, but he moved on. Then we were out at dinner and I said, 'Tell us what happened.' He goes, 'I didn't want to say it because I couldn't get the words out without crying.' I'll tell you what he said.

He was driving through Yarra Glen, which is not far from Lilydale. In an hour, you could be in the CBD of Melbourne. On that day, he was driving out of Yarra Glen and he saw this firestorm in the distance. He thought, 'I'll keep driving east, and then turn north and get out of it.' By the time he had travelled east 500 metres and turned north, that firestorm had completely engulfed him and his car. He couldn't see anything except red fire and smoke. He thought, 'I've killed my future wife,' but he put his foot down and kept going and somehow went through the other side. I said, 'In that moment, what did you say to each other?' He said, 'I said, "I love you," and she said the same back.' He had that glimpse of what we think of in the worst of times. It brings out the best in us.

He got through the other side, pulled the car over, looked back and thought: 'Oh my God. The poor people who are in that.' All across Victoria, in many different areas—Marysville and other areas—people didn't get out. But what we do know is that members of the Country Fire Authority weren't driving out; they were driving into it. That's what they've signed up to do. When I think of Warrandyte, I think of the families that are there. Whenever I visit the schools, I now ask, 'What is your evacuation centre for the children?' These things come on so quickly. Parents are in the city and the children are studying. They would be terrified. You don't want cars moving in lots. They've tried to turn basketball courts and production theatres into evacuation centres. This bill is seeking to do just that—make sure that we are preparing in advance to save lives. They are mostly young people, who rely on us to care for them.

It is not a perfect bill and it is not one that is without flaws. We do note that, as there is a lot of money in the fund, perhaps some better transparency is required about how it will be looked after and how it will be distributed. There's no definition of what constitutes 'mitigation' or 'disaster prevention' projects. In the last few weeks, I have been poring over the National Anti-Corruption Commission Bill. That's going to loom large over everything we do in this building and the Public Service. But, short of corruption—and no-one wants that—it's just about proper management of money. It's a lot of money and it's important that it's allocated well.

We also note that the minister refers to 'consultation on guidelines to be held with stakeholders'. But who are the stakeholders? What are the guidelines? Sometimes bills with the best of intentions head off on tangents that none of us expect because the press knocks on the door, makes the call, gets their voice heard and takes it down a path that we didn't expect. This is a feature of US politics that thankfully we don't see too much of here. They will have a headline for an act or a bill and within the bill there's foreign policy, new bases, a new aircraft carrier for someone and new roads. There's all this horse trading that goes on behind the scenes. So we have to make sure that when we set up funds like this we haven't in other ways—

A division having b een called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:22 to 18 : 3 3

I started talking about the wonderful CFAs that I have in my corner of the world in Warrandyte. I'd like to mention to my colleagues who are sitting to my left that your Greens candidate for Menzies is a wonderful person. We actually became quite good friends. He lives in North Warrandyte and runs this Facebook group about supporting platypuses. I've checked it and had a look. He's a former journalist. The community love it and they love the work that he does. He also won the primary in North Warrandyte, so he'd be the member for North Warrandyte if that were a booth. He's a wonderful person. We had lovely conversations on prepoll about all sorts of things. It's a unique part of the electorate.

I want to give particular recognition to the councillors that cover those areas. Again, as a candidate, in order to find out all I could about a particular area, I reached out to all of the 11 councillors that cover my seat. The City of Manningham is entirely within Menzies, but there's one ward from Nillumbik, and then there are a few from Whitehorse. I've been thoroughly impressed. They're from all sorts of political backgrounds and stripes and persuasions, but each is a person who understands and knows their community. The councillor who covers Warrandyte, Carli, took me on a lovely drive around her electorate. I keep coming back to Warrandyte, but it's the one area that I think will benefit most from this particular bill. She took me up and through North Warrandyte, out to Wonga Park. She pointed out—I won't say his address—the residence of the very famous John Farnham, who lives in Wonga Park. John Farnham hasn't had a great time lately; he has been unwell. But, from media reports, he has sort of come through.

Again, there's a unique perspective on life there that I think this bill will speak to, and I will always be their representative, working hand-in-hand with the councils as well as the state member, Ryan Smith, to help people. God forbid that one day something horrible happens. Wherever we are, I know we will stop what we're doing and get to our committees to help in the best way that we can. There are a lot of things you can do in advance and there are a lot of things that can be done in the immediate aftermath. Again, this particular fund will be very important for providing that assistance. I probably had my train of thought broken, but I'll finish early. I commend the bill.

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