Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I associate the opposition with the Prime Minister's fine words and send our very best thoughts, wishes and prayers to those who are fighting in our country's name on behalf of Australians, alongside their brothers and sisters in Canada at the moment. Australia is renowned around the world for those men and women who wear the uniform of our Australian Defence Force, but there are also those paramedics, those firefighters and those police officers who are quite often deployed internationally to hotspots of difficulty in our region and right across the world because of the reputation that they have earned over a long period of time. The training that is done conjointly and the shared values that we have with a country like Canada come to the fore in an hour of need. Canada knows—and no doubt Prime Minister Trudeau would have conveyed this to you, Prime Minister—that when Canada is in need of help we stand up and provide that help to her, as Canada has on so many occasions provided it to us.

We say to the families of those Australian firefighters who are deployed at the moment that this will be a period of anxiety for you and for those colleagues who are left behind, who will be worrying about the safety of those officers who are fighting these fires in Canada. We wish them every success. Godspeed, and may they return safely and quickly. No doubt they will provide support to the Canadians to save life and property in their quest there.

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