Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add my voice to those who have already spoken on the anniversary of the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires. Black Saturday occurred in February 2009 and, for those of us who were in the state on 7 February, I don't think there would have been anyone who wouldn't have thought that this was going to be one of the worst days for bushfires in Victoria if those fires got away. Sadly, that's what occurred. One of the things that we have to do is remember the lessons learned. The sad reality is that we still haven't learned all the lessons from Black Saturday. If you look at how the majority of fires started, you see they were overhead power lines, and yet, following Black Saturday, we have still had fires started by overhead power lines in the state of Victoria. Now, you can never foolproof and you can never completely bulletproof every single way a fire can start, but we still haven't done enough to make sure that overhead power lines are not the source of bushfires in the state of Victoria. That is something that we need to continue to redouble our efforts on.

A hundred and seventy-three people lost their lives, 414 people were injured and more than 450,000 hectares of land was lost. It was a catastrophic set of fires the like of which, I hope, we will never see again. In my electorate, there were two serious fires on that day. The first was at Coleraine. If it weren't for a sudden shift of wind, it is likely the whole township of Coleraine would have been burnt to the ground. In many ways, what happened was nothing short of a miracle. The wind changed to a nor'-westerly just as the fire was approaching the town, and that saved it.

I commend all those who fought the fires right across the state, but particularly in my electorate and particularly those who fought the fire around Coleraine, and give them a big vote of thanks for what they do. I also recognise John Smeets, who went to save the house and the farm machinery around a neighbour's place, but that wind change caught him unawares. Sadly, he received burns to over 50 per cent of his body. I've met John Smeets and I've discussed with him what happened on that day, and I must say his bravery and the way he has dealt with what occurred to him are an absolute credit to him. It shows, once again, the dangers that bushfires present to our communities and the reason we have to continue doing what we can to keep our community safe from bushfires. There was also a fire at Weerite; 3,200 acres were burnt and a rail line was damaged between Geelong and Warrnambool—over 3,000 sleepers damaged. Fortunately, there was no serious injury.

I want to end on this note: in the last five or six years we've seen significant changes made to the Country Fire Authority in Victoria. That has hurt volunteerism in the CFA in regional and rural Victoria, and we need to put it all to bed. We need to get back to doing everything we can to support our wonderful volunteers in regional and rural Victoria. We have to make sure that we're providing them with the support and the encouragement to keep our communities safe. The Andrews government needs to stop the politics in the CFA and get behind our wonderful volunteers, otherwise, if we get another fire like this, our communities won't be— (Time expired)

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