Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

This morning, I had a very constructive discussion with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Prime Minister Trudeau was deeply grateful for the help that is being provided by Australia to deal with the dreadful fires that are currently ripping through Canada. It was late at night there in Canada, but he wanted to speak to me to convey his thanks to our firefighters and to our nation, and I committed to passing on his thanks here to this chamber. There are currently 422 active fires burning across Canada, with 199 of those considered to be out of control. Over 3.3 million hectares of land have burned, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Unfortunately, we in this chamber are familiar with these scenarios, which are coming more often and with more intensity around the world.

I am so proud, as all Australians should be, that there are currently 364 Australian firefighters and incident management specialists on the ground and that additional crews of 124 are preparing to leave in coming days. These Australians come from every single state as well as from the ACT, and they are making an enormous difference on the ground. I say to the Australians: please keep yourselves safe. We know that in 2019-20 that not only did so many Australians lose their lives but American firefighters who were here to assist lost their lives as well. So, to our firefighters, we say: we are proud of you. We now return that favour to our friends. Canada provided 100 firefighters here during that summer of 2019-20. We spoke this morning with Prime Minister Trudeau—and I have had these discussions with President Biden as well—about how, increasingly, with climate change leading to more intense and more frequent events, we're going to have to have these exchanges more and more, most tragically. We say to our firefighters: thank you. You do our nation proud.

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