Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the comments of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and everyone who will now make a contribution to this important reflection on the natural disasters we have suffered in this country in recent months.

In particular, I want to focus on my own region, the Hunter. But before I do, I want to acknowledge the other unfortunate and tragic events reflected on by the leaders. There were, of course, the fires in Western Australia, particularly in Yarloop where we had what I would describe almost as a Hollywood-style event, where a whole town was effectively wiped off the map. It was just so tragic. It is very hard to believe. And, unless you were part of that event, I do not think any of us could possibly hope to fully understand the impact on that community. There were also the fires around the Great Ocean Road region, and the floods in the Northern Territory—all are tragic events at arguably the worst time of the year, when people are seeking a break and hoping to have a holiday. But wherever the event, there is one constant, and that is the work, the skill, the courage and the dedication of our emergency services personnel, both those who are paid but also more particularly, in many senses, the unpaid—those who volunteered; those who give up their time. They are simply amazing, leaving their families, often on Christmas Day, more often than not during a period when they are trying to take a holiday from their work. They do that to risk their lives, in the cold or the heat, in an attempt to assist others who are in trouble. I do not think that any of us can speak too highly of those who are doing that important and dangerous work.

Indeed, I pay particular tribute to Paul Sanderson. He was a volunteer firefighter from my own electorate who gave his life in November last year fighting a fire in the searing heat. At 48 years of age, he suffered a fatal heart attack. It is a sad and tragic loss. I suspect that almost every member of this place would have a similar story, given the sheer number of volunteers we have out there on a regular basis.

In my own region, the storms—the cyclonic event—that we suffered over the course of the Christmas period came very soon after the devastating April floods and storms of last year. I have heard anecdotes of people who were only just finally coming around to replacing the carpet in their home or in their small business, only to have it ruined again by the storms which took place over the break. So this is particularly devastating for those people.

The April storms took the lives of three people—not all of them, but some in the electorate of the member for Paterson and one, certainly, in my own electorate. The community of Gillieston Heights in my electorate, for example, was cut off from the rest of the community for days on end. I pay tribute both to the residents of Gillieston Heights and all those who came to their assistance—who volunteered their fishing boats et cetera to get food and supplies onto what the stoic residents came to call 'Gillieston Island' rather than Gillieston Heights, which was both funny and reflective of the courage of the community.

It is time for the state government to do something about the access to Gillieston Heights. I went to school in Maitland, travelling from my home town of Cessnock, and the school bus was cut off regularly at Testers Hollow, the roadway through just before Gillieston Heights. We were unable to get to school. I am now 54 years of age, so that was a little while ago, Madam Deputy Speaker—

Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Twelve years ago!

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and still in heavy rains and floods the access to Gillieston Heights is still being blocked by floods. We are in the 21st century and it is time the state government became very serious about making sure that is not the case and that the residents of Gillieston Heights—I almost said 'Gillieston Island' again!—are not stranded in the way they were during the April storms and again recently. They were not landlocked this time, because it was only blocked off on one side this time, but they were in April. They should never have to experience that again in this modern world. Where we have all the wit in the world, we should be able to address that problem, and money should not be a barrier to such an important project. It does not have to be the lifting of the road; there might be other solutions—for example, a different route for the road. I have heard some alternatives, but whatever it is it should be done and it should be done quickly. Indeed, all three levels of government should be working together to make sure that is the case.

I just want to touch quickly on an area called South Cessnock in my home town. I am going to go back to my youth again. I remember when I was on Cessnock City Council, wading through water that was waist-deep in South Cessnock, helping local residents sandbag to protect their homes from the flood. South Cessnock is still flooding. In heavy rains it floods. I am not too critical of the council; I know it has a strategy or plan that is working on the issue. But I think South Cessnock residents, many of whom were there all those years ago and well before I was wading through the water, deserve to have that problem addressed. They have had water through their homes on too many occasions, and surely in the 21st century we have both the finances and the wit to do something about that problem.

These events are a reminder that we cannot control the weather. We cannot control Mother Nature. Mother Nature is far more powerful than any technology we have, including nuclear capacity. When the volcano goes off or the winds or the high seas come—the tsunami—and wipes an island continent out, there is nothing human beings can do. We need to take care of our environment.

I have never been described as a rabid environmentalist. I prefer to describe myself as a conservationist and a person who believes that we do have to take more care of our environment. If there is any suggestion that the endeavours of the human kind are causing our weather patterns to become more erratic and less predictable, we should be doing something about it and taking any measure as a precautionary principle to make sure that we are, as best we can, as a human race protecting ourselves because, again, when Mother Nature speaks we do not have the answers. We can go out and help as best we can and protect ourselves as best we can, but we cannot protect ourselves from the most erratic weather events. So we should be taking a public policy approach that reassures people that, as best we can, we are making sure that the activities of the human race are not making those events more likely.

I support the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and I am pleased that they put this motion forward. It is important to those who have been affected by weather events. Certainly, from my perspective, it is a very, very important opportunity to pay tribute to all those who have helped in the recent events and those before them and no doubt will do so in the future, giving up their time and risking their lives to help others in need.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with a heavy heart that I rise to speak on this motion and to support the wonderful words of both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Like the member for Hunter, I acknowledge the other natural disasters in Western Australia, in the Northern Territory and in the Hunter that have occurred over the summer, but in this contribution I want to speak about the terrible bushfire that occurred in Wye River and Separation Creek on Christmas Day 2015.

For anyone who has not visited, this is a magical part of the world; two tiny settlements on the Great Ocean Road nestled between this magnificent iconic coastline and the Great Otway National Park. As a child I camped in the local caravan park with my family every Easter. The two caravan parks, the Wye River general store, the pub and the surf lifesaving club were and remain the lifeblood of this community. Through sheer bravery, good planning and determination all of these community assets were saved on Christmas Day. Through an incredible miracle, I think it is fair to say, there was no loss of live and no serious injuries. But within a matter of hours the ferocity of this fire had taken 116 homes. Many were holiday homes that had been in families for generations. Around a dozen permanent residents lost their homes. This included three members of the Wye River CFA—people like Tony and Lesley Maly, who lost everything except their beloved cat Muppet.

The Turnbull government stands shoulder to shoulder with the people of Wye River and Separation Creek as they embark on the long and painful rebuilding process after the terrible Christmas Day bushfire. Within a matter of days, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy joined me to visit this community and see first-hand the devastation. It was an incredibly important opportunity to say thank you and to commend this community for its bravery, its resilience and its positivity in the face of such adversity. It was an opportunity to thank members of the Wye River CFA, led by captain Roy Moriarty, who have become real local heroes; to thank the many other firefighters and emergency workers, including CFA volunteers from right across south west Victoria; to thank the community members who worked around the clock from the surf club to provide vital support—food, water, emergency shelter; and to thank the many people now involved in the recovery phase, including the difficult task of rebuilding those homes.

There are some very significant challenges in an area of such high fire risk and with the sort of topography that makes Wye River and Separation Creek so unique: land stability, water quality, the cost of rebuilding in such steep terrain and the damage done to local business during the most important two weeks of the year when the town would ordinarily be swamped with tourists. Let's not forget, the town was closed to the public for about a week with the Great Ocean Road closed as well. It has been very, very tough for local businesses.

The Commonwealth, of course, is very pleased to be providing vital support as this community begins the difficult and painful journey to rebuild and recover. Under longstanding cost-sharing arrangements, the Natural Disaster Relief And Recovery Arrangements, the Commonwealth and the Victorian governments have activated a range of assistance to support affected communities including: personal hardship and distress assistance to help meet immediate needs; repairing damaged homes; providing counselling support; assistance for the demolition and clean-up of residential properties, including the disposal of debris, asbestos and contaminated material from destroyed homes—asbestos is a very big issue—and financial assistance for local and state authorities to restore damaged public infrastructure and undertake disaster recovery operations. The support is extensive. The Victorian government has also announced it will establish a one-stop shop to assist with rebuilding and planning, which is so important, and funding for water infrastructure and marketing to boost tourism. There is a $1 million Economic and Community Recovery Fund which will go towards locally driven recovery priorities to support local businesses.

I am very pleased to say that with the support of the Minister for Communications, the Commonwealth also was able to assist the Falls Festival which is normally based in the outskirts of Lorne. It is a wonderful event for our region and is very important for the local economy. Due to the evacuation of not only Wye River and Separation Creek but also of Lorne, the festival had to be relocated. We are very, very proud to have supported that important festival.

There has been an incredible effort from the Spirit Foundation which has raised a very considerable amount of money to support the community as it recovers. I am concerned that only one permanent resident has been able to access the larger $32,500 grant and I have raised this with the Victorian Government, which administers the scheme, and I am hopeful that this particular matter can be resolved. What is also clear from this natural disaster is the importance that fire sirens played in Wye River and Lorne where they are being trialled. They were activated and generally the feedback is that they worked extremely well. It is very disappointing that the Victorian government has not allocated the $3 million in its budget. The request to provide fire sirens all along the Great Ocean Road, where they are desperately needed, was refused last year—places like Anglesea, Aireys Inlet, Fairhaven and Moggs Creek, where the memories of Ash Wednesday still run very, very deep. I do hope that this matter can be urgently remedied.

There are a number of other issues of course. As the local federal MP for this area there is no doubt that Wye River and Separation Creek will need much more ongoing support. I am focused on how our government can deliver better communications. Improved mobile reception is one particular need in this community as well as the expedited rollout of the NBN .The NBN has been rolled out to some 70,000 premises across Corangamite but Wye and Sep Creek are currently not on the rollout plan, so I am hoping that that can be remedied as well.

One of the great commitments we have made—unfortunately, a commitment not shared by federal Labor—was $50 million towards an upgrade of the Great Ocean Road, in partnership with the state, announced by the previous Liberal state government. This has been received incredibly positively. We are also allocating some $4 million to upgrade the Separation Creek bridge in this community—which is wonderful—but there is no doubt that on such an iconic road, on such a challenging geographical road, more investment is required. Even in places like Kennett River and at the Mobbs Creek arch, we need some basic tourism infrastructure, such as toilet blocks, to make the tourist experience much more significant, better signage and better investment in this road because this is the centrepiece of a $2.1 billion local economy in terms of what it contributes to the tourism economy as an incredibly important tourism asset not just at a national level but also at an international level.

I do need to acknowledge that every year many Corangamite residents face the threat of bushfire. We have been very proud of the mobile base stations that we have rolled out, because mobile communications during any emergency are so incredibly important. We have announced mobile base stations for Gellibrand, Carlisle River, Kawarren and Dereel—all areas of high fire risk. I am hoping that Telstra will prioritise these areas as well as look at other vital areas that need communications along the Great Ocean Road in places like Aireys, Bellbrae and Anglesea.

There are many issues facing these communities at this very difficult time—both immediate issues and, of course, some of the longer term issues that I have referred to in relation to bushfire mitigation and better management when such a terrible emergency occurs. I join with the Wye River and Separation Creek communities in saying it is an incredible feat of bravery that we have seen. There is incredible resilience. There is incredible determination from this community to get back on its feet, and I will be there with the community doing whatever I can, proudly, as its local member.

Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As another Victorian, Member for Corangamite, I acknowledge and support your words, and particularly your words about telecommunications. The story I want to tell the House today is very similar to the member for Corangamite's. It is a tribute to community and to volunteers backed by very effective government.

My story began the week before Christmas, on a Sunday. We had heard it was going to be a really hot day. We knew it was going to be bad, and it was. It was around lunchtime when the word got out that the fire had begun at Barnawartha. Heading south down the Indigo Valley, it jumped the Hume Highway and it burnt—a really intensive wildfire. I am going to spare the details, except to say that about six hours later it rained. That rain, combined with the support, stopped the fire about 10 kays short of Wodonga, the major city in my electorate.

But it is what happened afterwards that I want to place on record in this House today. I want to talk about the work of the CFA—District 24, Paul King and all your team; districts 23 and 22; and the over 70 fire brigades that turned up to support us in Indigo Valley.

I want to acknowledge the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and their fire rescue—crossing the border, coming over and doing that excellent work up at the gap. Not only did you come on the day but you stayed and stayed, and then, three weeks later, when the fire came out of that log—again very close to Wodonga—you were there and you stopped it at the top of the Leneva valley. That was hard, hard work on very rugged country. I want to acknowledge the airborne wing—the magic of your work with those helicopters swooping to pick up the water out of the dam, the siren going, and stopping that fire.

I want to acknowledge all the private providers who provided slip-ons, and the many individuals who turned up; the Red Cross people who staffed the emergency relief centre in Wodonga; and the local hoteliers who provided accommodation for the families that were evacuated. Thank you.

I want to acknowledge the incident control centre and Graham Healy. Congratulations, Graham, on your Fire Service Medal in the Australia Day Honours. I want to acknowledge all the agencies who gathered regularly at that incident control centre to go through what had happened and what needed to happen as we looked at the images coming back from the helicopters and we tried to work out what we needed to do next. Those regular meetings keeping all the agencies in contact made a huge difference.

I want to acknowledge the Victorian government. Today I would like to pay particular attention to the Premier, Daniel Andrews, for coming the day after and spending that whole day with us—touring the Indigo Valley, seeing what happened and talking to the farmers—and to the Minister for Emergency Services, Jane Garrett, for touring the valley and making sure that all the arrangements were in order. They were there when we needed them. They came and they listened. They heard the stories of Coyle sheep. They heard the stories of the four houses that were burnt at Masons Gap and the 39 houses that were not burnt. They heard that no serious injuries occurred, and how that policy of protecting assets and keeping people safe is really working. The local member of parliament for Benambra, Bill Tilley, was constantly a presence, making sure the issues were heard and things were addressed.

I want to acknowledge Christine Ferguson, a regional director with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and all her staff—particularly for being with us on Christmas Day. We know you had other things which you could have been doing; the fact that you chose to come and share it with us was really appreciated. I want to acknowledge the commitment of local government—Gerry Smith at Indigo Shire Council, Patience Harrington at Wodonga Council and all your staff—to being there, to doing what needed to be done and to still being there in the weeks afterwards, particularly Gerry and your staff. I want to acknowledge the ABC as our emergency broadcaster, The Border Mail, North East Newspapers, Prime7 television and WIN Television. Never ever have I felt so strongly the need for really strong local and regional media: you did such a fantastic job on the day and the days afterwards. Thank you.

For me, the unique experience this time was that it was my valley—my community—that burned. It was my community that then came in to do what needed to be done. They came to help me and my family and the other hundreds of families that got burnt. Our houses were okay; sure—but our fences had burned, our water pipes had burned, our stock were burned, our sheds were burned, and our gardens were burned. I watched and experienced as my community and neighbours gathered, first on the scene to help with gathering the stock and sorting out the injured from the uninjured, then people who turned up with food: large plates of lasagne—never have I welcomed such food coming from other people!—and the cakes and slices. And then people got underway with the working bees, helping with the house water and with the stock water.

I want to thank the Middle Indigo Primary School and Tammy Zuber who opened up the school during the holidays—and I have to say that Indigo Valley has two community institutions: we have the fire shed and we have the school. Tammy opening the school and keeping it open for weeks provided a public place for people to gather. And, together with Rachael Proctor and the parents of the Middle Indigo School, Tammy offered child care so that there was a safe place for the kids when their parents were out working, a place for food to go, and for people to meet.

I want to acknowledge BlazeAid, who came and set up at the Barnawartha sportsground. For the past month, they have gone out in teams of five to all of our farms. They have helped with that heartbreaking work of pulling up the fences and the pipes, and dismantling the sheds. They have come and they have listened and listened, and provided such practical support. And then, once a week, they invite us farmers down to the Barnawartha sportsground so that we can go and socialise and get to know them. There is a whole new community that has grown up; a national community really. We have had people from the Gold Coast, from Adelaide, from the Mornington Peninsula and of course from our local Albury-Wodonga, who have come out on their days off, joined these local teams, got their overalls on, and up the valley they have gone—and have been such amazing support. I want to acknowledge the Belvoir Rotary Club who have come out and offered us a barbecue—great!

I would now like to thank some very special individuals and name some of them, at the risk of embarrassing them. I acknowledge Bob from Londrigan. It was Christmas time, and Bob arranged for some hams to be delivered up our valley. We have since found out that over $10,000 of hams got delivered—to every single home, and to the CFA. It was such a beautiful thing to be able to sit down there and eat this really tasty ham and know that people were thinking of us. To Katrina and Glen, our local Australia Post people, thank you for what you did—checking in with everybody, keeping an eye on us. I acknowledge the CFA leadership team, Tim and Trish Hibberson, who did a fantastic job—Tim as captain, Trish as communications person—making sure that people knew what they needed to know. To Dave McDonald and all the team, thank you very much. To Jenny Clark and Donna Cross: I think words will never describe the energy, persistence and resilience that you put in being at that fire shed, feeding all the firefighters as they came through, keeping a smile up, getting the rosters in place, and making sure that there was someone there all the time.

In closing, I would like to talk a little bit about some of the learnings from this experience, and to acknowledge the old guys in the Indigo Valley and Barnawartha, like Joe Baynes and Gordon Poulley, who take me aside and say, 'Cathy, we know about fires. We were here in 1939, we were here in 1952, and you know about 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2015. There is nothing new for our rural communities in this experience of fire, yet every time it seems to take us with such a shock.' So there needs to be some way that we can take the learnings of this and incorporate it into our culture. Summer comes; fires come. We know the devastation, but we also know what needs to be done. In my community, we have learnt the lessons of Kinglake, Marysville, and Murrindindi. We have really good communication systems. The incident control centre worked well. But I really want to pick up on the words of the member for Corangamite on the absolute need for mobile phones and the NBN. Where it worked, it was great. But where we had those black spots, the community really suffered. We rely so much now on going onto the broadband to getting our information—but if you have no access, or if your mobile phone does not work, all that sort of infrastructure just leaves us behind. So this is a huge cry out to the Victorian government to continue to support the Commonwealth government mobile phone black spot program and help us invest in those fire prone areas, which Telstra and the other telcos are never going to be able to do by themselves.

I would like to bring my words to a close. It is one of those times in my life where I have felt so proud to be part of a community that is connected, a community that works, a community that is actually networked not only during the fire but also during the support afterwards, and days later when we still gather and share our stories. That sense of belonging to a community and representing a community is so strong. So to the people of Barnawartha, Indigo Valley, Yackandandah, Wooragee, Wodonga and the surrounding areas: just a heartfelt thank you for being there for us and to say that we will absolutely be there for you.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join with the comments of the member for Indi. I also note the presence of the member for Forrest and the contributions that were made by the member for Corangamite and the member for Hunter—all of whom have had communities impacted by natural disasters, something that is part of our nation's make-up. It is what we are this summer: a land of drought, flooding rains and fires. It gives me great pleasure to make a contribution on behalf of the communities in my electorate of Lyons that were impacted over the last month by both fire and flood, and join with the comments yesterday of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to that end.

The situation in Tasmania that we found ourselves in during January, when the fires were at their peak, was really a result of what was an extraordinarily dry spring time. In some parts of the state it was the driest October on record and a pretty ordinary September. A below average rainfall in November and December was the precursor to the higher risk of fire—and, indeed, fire there was. Daily temperatures through that spring time period also compounded the problem. Rainfall, as I said, was lower. Some parts of the state had record temperatures, but certainly some parts of the state had record low rainfalls.

Of course that presents real challenges not only for farmers around my electorate but also for members of more urban communities, particularly in relation to the water restrictions that have been brought in over the last month or so. And it is not over yet. There has been a record number of total fire ban days across the state of Tasmania and hundreds of fires have burnt across the state. Many of you would have seen the impacts of the fires on the west coast—not in my electorate, but in my colleague the member for Braddon's electorate—which are burning in areas that are very sparsely populated, which is a blessing; however, I note the evacuations that were made in those parts of the west coast.

The communities that were most impacted by the fires in my electorate included the Derwent Valley, up towards Maydena and the national park, into the municipality of Kentish. I note the community of Lorinna have had an ongoing issue with access. There is only one road that is currently able to be used to go in and out of that very small community in a beautiful part of the world, and certainly it has understandably highlighted the concerns that they were presented with in terms of being able to access an alternative route out of the township of Lorinna. The Meander Valley, particularly the communities of Mole Creek and Chudleigh, were severely impacted. The fires that started around Lake Mackenzie were a threat to a number of communities around Meander, Western Creek, Chudleigh, Mole Creek and Jackeys Marsh. They also went into reserve areas and part of the national park and world heritage areas that abut those communities. There are still 75 fires active around the state, including 46 that are currently still uncontained or uncontrolled. To date, more than 100,000 hectares have been burnt and 37 fires have yet to be mapped. They have a perimeter of around 830 kilometres.

We have been blessed though with support from interstate—New South Wales and Victoria in particular—in terms of remote area specialists. In fact, 180 people have come to the state. So we have had a combination of personnel from New Zealand, from New South Wales, the ACT. Of course, there are also staff from the Parks and Wildlife Service in Tasmania, Forestry Tasmania and the wonderful staff at the Tasmanian Fire Service, along with the volunteers.

I note the member for Indi's comments about communication. This has already been raised with me, particularly in relation to the community at Mole Creek. It is great to know that they were funded in the first round of the $100 million mobile phone blackspot program. While they have not got communication currently, that will be something that hopefully will happen in years to come. The SES has been extraordinary in their ability to communicate with often quite isolated communities, as have the ABC. I take my hat off to the ABC; they have done a fantastic job again.

An estimated 11,000 hectares of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area has been burnt. I just want to clarify a few points, because there has been a lot of media—there has been national media, and I note that Senator McKim has made some comments about this; there was an article in the Mercury yesterday by Professor Jamie Kirkpatrick. They are over-egging the omelette there. It is a disaster, it is a tragedy and certainly some of that very fragile and precious alpine vegetation has been impacted, but it is a very small part of what is an enormous area in the state of Tasmania. Less than two per cent of the Wilderness World Heritage Area has been impacted. It is absolutely typical that they overreach, they over exaggerate the reality of this. Of course it is a tragedy to see those vulnerable trees that are less able to regenerate compared to eucalypt forests, but it is disingenuous to say that the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area has been devastated, because it simply has not.

With regard to my contribution, I certainly made Minister Hunt aware when it became apparent that these areas were under threat. I have spoken to Minister Keenan on numerous occasions over the last few months, as I have with the Tasmanian Fire Service. My message to them was that if, through the normal processes of seeking assistance when it is appropriate from the Commonwealth, you have an issue, then come to your local member. That has not been the case, fortunately, and they have been in control of the situation there.

There is an irony here, of course, that those communities that were threatened, particularly the community of Meander and around that area—I note that the member for Watson now owns a property adjacent to the extensions that he, when he was the minister for the environment, extended under his watch. He is now the proud owner of a property in an area that, as a result of his decisions, has been added to the Wilderness World Heritage Area. It was not those communities of Jackeys Marsh, of which he is now part; it was the people in Meander and Western Creek and other areas that had, for generations, made a livelihood off the western tiers. Through their mismanagement, if you will, as would be claimed by some, these areas were considered appropriate for inclusion within the World Heritage Area. There is an irony here that should not be lost on anybody about the inconsistency and the hypocrisy that exist here. It is wonderful to have the member for Watson with a property in my electorate. I am very pleased to have him, and certainly, if there are issues, I will do my best to represent his concerns. I am not sure that some of his neighbours would feel the same pleasure at having him is a neighbour though, given the work and the damage he did during the time he was the minister for the environment.

In the time I have left, I would just say that on the east coast the rain has come during the last week and a half has caused huge damage to some parts of the east coast and in the north-east. There have been record daily rainfalls on any day of the year—not just with January rainfalls at Orford, Frankfurt in the Latrobe municipality, Friendly Beaches, on the east coast. The township of Meander, with a blessing, had their highest daily rainfall of 91.8 millimetres on 29 January, as parts of the north-west did, albeit that the west coast, which was in desperate need, missed out.

Nature is indeed a powerful beast. It is also very resilient, and we should not lose sight of the fact that, like nature, rural and regional committees are also very resilient. I was at a Fingal and St Marys to view the damage that was caused by floods there on Saturday afternoon and to view the work that the volunteers that participated and the SES did—and the stoicism of the locals. The local council—I will give credit to them; it was just wonderful to see. These communities will recover and, again, this is again part of the country that we live in. I take my hat off to all those people that have contributed to the recovery process. Thank you for the opportunity.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is almost without exception that this chamber echoes with, I think, a common purpose and goodwill. Of course all Australians have watched their television sets over the summer and seen the terrible fires and floods that have occurred in Western Australia, Victoria, the Territory, the Hunter Valley and Tasmania and have watched with a great deal of concern and consideration to all those affected. For me, 2015 started with bushfires at Sampson Flat and it ended with bushfires in Pinery and the Adelaide Plains.

I think it was Ms McGowan who said that it is different when the community affected is the one that you grew up in, the one that you live in and the one where you know people. That gives every fire and every flood a greater resonance, and so there is a common bond between Australians but it is made deeper through our experience of and vulnerability to natural disasters such as flood and fire.

The communities affected, particularly by the Pinery fire, a place that very few people had heard about, included Mallala, Owen, Balaklava, Templers, Wasleys, Hamley Bridge, Freeling, Pinkerton Plains, Greenock, Daveyston, Kapunda and Tarlee—these are all communities that I know very well. I grew up in Kapunda. I currently live close by to Greenock. I can see the fire scar from my front yard.

These were devastating fires and they had a devastating effect on all of those communities, but particularly on those who have lost loved ones. I would like to offer my condolences to the Tiller family and to the family of Janet Hughes. They have suffered very devastating losses, and it is very humbling to meet those who are mourning for loved ones. I have met Jennifer Tiller. I know I have felt very deeply her loss, and it is a loss that stays with them every hour of every day. It is very difficult to deal with the loss of such a respected person and such a loved family man. I would like to extend my condolences to their friends, their families and the communities that they lived in.

With these recent disasters, we must be reminded that it does not just stop once a fire has swept through. Residents have to deal every day with the consequences of the damage to stock, fencing and soil. In my own electorate we have had massive dust storms over the summer—a constant reminder of the devastation—cleaning up after every one of these dust storms. We know that recovery is so much more. It is an emotional journey but it is also a practical journey, dealing with insurance assessors and arguing out each item sometimes.

I was speaking to one of my neighbours in this building earlier today, in Aussies; he was having a bit of an argument with the insurer over a rainwater tank. Fortunately, the insurer did the right thing but constantly having to go through that process is enormously difficult for people. I know one farmer who left a very expensive truck off the list of items to be insured—a simple administrative error that normally would not have been an issue. Of course the insurer has done the right thing, but it is a moment of worry—a $60,000 truck—and I am sure he will not be the only farmer with a long list of assets that the insurer has to go through. It is a difficult process. It is a laborious process.

One of the real issues of the Pinery fire was that the devastation was such that the stubble had burnt the loam out of the soil—and in many areas there was just dust left on the side of the road and in paddocks. Farmers have had to resurrect technologies that they had thought had passed by them by—they have had to get ploughs. Some of the young farmers had never used discs—I am showing my ignorance, I suppose—and they had to remind themselves of those processes, reacquaint themselves, and re-equip themselves with all of those reasonably old technologies. Recently we have had big rains in South Australia, and you have never heard farmers say this before but they are hoping weeds will grow to hold the soil down. I guess there are a whole lot of land use questions that come out of these devastating fires. I know there are many farmers who are thinking about land use in the future, particularly the use of fire breaks and the like. Of course there is an efficiency trade-off there, but I think that we are becoming more and more aware of the fire risks in these areas, particularly around harvest time.

There is the demolition of buildings, and I heard other members talking about the perils of asbestos used in houses, with higher demolition costs, and of course there are all of the disposal issues that come with the destruction of houses. It is not just asbestos—asbestos is a serious issue—but also in South Australia we have had farmers wanting to dispose of rubble and they have had to crush it to a certain size and bury it in certain places. There is a whole lot of regulatory interaction with the EPA, and sometimes just agents of the EPA, and that can be very frustrating, as dealing with any bureaucracy is, but getting that information out and having the practical application of that information is very important. We need all of our regulators, I guess, to be cognisant of the emotional journey that those affected are having.

Then there are utilities—not just mobile phone towers, although mobile phone towers are very important and the collapse of mobile phone towers in my electorate was a serious issue. Often people only got messages hours after the event and the problem with this is a late message can be more dangerous than not getting the message at all. So many people got evacuation messages when it was actually dangerous to evacuate. I think we have to look at not just making sure that that infrastructure is up, but if people do get a message it has to be timely. If it arrives late it can be more dangerous because one of the things that came out of the Pinery fires is that it is terribly dangerous to be on the road. People are probably safer within a town than out on the road, but of course people have to have their bushfire plans. Owen had a bushfire plan and activated it, and it worked very well not just in protecting people but also in giving people a sense of confidence. Confidence, and being calm in what is an extremely devastating and terrifying situation, having some order, is terribly important. So we do need to learn the lessons of all of these fires, and their impact on communications, and remind people to have a battery-powered radio—at the very least a battery-powered radio is very, very important.

In the wake of the devastating fires in my electorate I did make some comments about the need, I think a desperate need, for a national water bombing fleet. We have now state governments who are doing the right thing and leasing water bombing aircraft, and we know that many of these aircraft are working in both Australia and the United States. They are leased aircraft. I think we have to have a very close look at a national fleet because these aircraft do make a massive difference.

But we have to have national coverage because, as we have learnt from Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia, it took some hours to get those planes to South Australia. They flew over my neighbour's house, so I know how effective they are at protecting towns. I think it is a matter that the national government has to have consideration for. I am not saying that as a partisan thing, but I think—and I know the member for Ballarat also has some expertise and knowledge in this area—this is something we should work out as a bipartisan national project and it would go some way towards responding to these terrible and devastating fires and floods that affected our nation over the summer.

Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The memories of the Dwellingup fires of 1961 in Western Australia send a shudder through anyone who remembers them. On January 6, a lightning strike in Dwellingup's Lane Poole Reserve jarrah forest at the back of Waroona around 7.30 in the morning recreated that challenge. It was a fire that took 17 days to extinguish. It had a 243-kilometre perimeter and burnt over 72,000 hectares around Waroona, Yarloop, Preston Beach, Cookernup and Harvey. Of course, there were so many homes lost in Yarloop, as we have all seen. Over 172 properties in different ways were affected. We have seen bridges lost, power lost and at least 800 kilometres of fencing destroyed as well as cattle losses, pasture, hay, seed and all of that. It claimed the lives of Malcolm Taylor and Leslie 'Squizzy' Taylor in Yarloop. I offer my sincere condolences to their family, their friends and the Yarloop community who all feel their loss.

On January 6, I was home at our dairy farm in Harvey. We could see the fire coming—the massive pools of smoke—and were following the DFES alerts and warnings very closely. It was fuelled by very strong winds on Wednesday night—so strong that it woke us up throughout the night. On Thursday morning our paddocks and lawns were covered in ash and embers, and we could see the fires burning on several fronts. There were evacuations from each of the affected communities. On Thursday night we could see Yarloop actually burning—the glow in the sky was intense. We were keeping in close touch with people in the nearby Cookernup community. They could actually hear the gas bottles going off one after the other as Yarloop burned.

The fires then raced towards Preston Beach at a rate of knots, burning properties out to and across the Forrest Highway. The fires came—there was so much changing wind. It changed all the time, and you never knew where the fires were coming from. Properties that had been missed in the first pass of the fires were then collected as the fires came back when the winds changed. The fires actually came to within 1.6 kilometres of the Harvey town site itself.

At one stage, we had fires at our property in Harvey coming at us from three different fronts. Fortunately, they did not actually get to us. Water bombers were constantly flying over the house and, all through this, our firefighters were front and centre.

We had local volunteer fire brigades from Yarloop, Cookernup, Harvey, Uduc, Brunswick and right around the south-west and, of course, the Yarloop-Cookernup crews, fighting fires for others while their own homes were burning.

These men and women, many of whom have trained for years to protect the community, were absolutely devastated when they could not save their own Yarloop community. They were absolutely exhausted in their efforts to do so. In the local newspaper, one Harvey volunteer said that he was in Yarloop and that 'when this inferno hit, it was like a wave of fire that just crashed through the school' that they were trying to protect. He said, 'Half the side of our fire engine just melted.'

The Yarloop fire brigade lost their actual fire station in that fire in Yarloop. They moved to the Cookernup fire station, and it became affectionately known as the 'Cookerloop' fire station. That is where I sat and met so many of the local Yarloop and Cookernup firefighters, and others from right around the region who were helping out with the fires. They had so much to deal with. I am just in awe of people who think of themselves as ordinary people but who do absolutely extraordinary things. And I met fireys from as far away as Rosa Brook, from Denmark in the south, from Cowaramup, from Margaret River, from Capel, and even those who came from New South Wales.

I personally owe a huge thanks, as does our community—all the communities—to the volunteer and the professional firefighters who worked so hard and put their own lives at risk to fight these fires. I thank the local farmers who were also helping each other whenever their properties were under threat—and that was constant. I want to thank the army of volunteers in the community who were doing everything they could to help, whether it was helping to move horses, donating feed and hay or collecting stray horses and animals; the local businesses and individuals who donated food for the fireys, and to people and pets in evacuation centres; and the Brunswick football club and its volunteers, who prepared 2,500 meals for the various fire and volunteer stations.

I want to commend the Harvey shire council, the shire president, Tanya Jackson, and CEO, Michael Parker, as well as the multitude of agencies and organisations who worked tirelessly at the evacuation centres—and now the recovery centres—providing information and support as well as necessities to people, and those who are providing ongoing physical and emotional support—both are greatly needed. I want to acknowledge the generosity of the Australian people and businesses in supporting the many fundraising efforts aimed at helping those affected by the fires including, of course, Andrew Forrest, who actually came to Harvey to hold a meeting with the community.

I want to acknowledge Channel 9 for their wonderful concert for the local fireys, and the artists who donated their time. Anybody who saw the coverage of that on television could not help but be touched by the stories of the local fire brigade and the local volunteers who were there, all talking about what they had seen and done. I hope that concert and the presentation wins an award in time. I want to acknowledge the volunteers on the ground now—those who are helping farmers clean kilometre after kilometre of burnt out wire and fencing. I want to acknowledge Rotary, which got together to fund ongoing counselling services—free of charge—for those who need it most. I want to acknowledge Lions clubs. I want to acknowledge those who are helping out with the fencing, and BlazeAid as well.

I want to talk about Harvey Primary School, which has incorporated the Yarloop Primary School within itself. They have created a place for all of those Yarloop Primary School students who are still in the area. So they have got their own little school; they will stay together as a community school within the Harvey Primary School. I congratulate everyone who has worked so hard to make that happen.

What I would say is that what we see in these times of great tragedy and trauma is the best in us: the best in us as Australian people; the best in us as communities; and the best in us for how we care for each other. Often the smallest things we do for each other in these times matter the most. But mostly—for anybody who is going to read this or is listening—I would say, please do not wait. Make your fire plan and write it down. Go to the DFES website—there is a book there; it is a fire management plan. Please write your own fire management plan—exactly what you are going to do. Write it down, because when you are in a crisis it can be very, very difficult to think clearly.

If you have your lists, if you know exactly what you need to take, how much food you need for each person and all the preparations you need to make, this will make the management of such a situation so much less traumatic and enable you and your families to be far safer. I encourage every person to do exactly that: to actually have your own fire management plan. Every time we have a tragedy such as what happened in Yarloop and around the Harvey Shire in Waroona, we always learn something from it, but one of the most important things is that we learn to have our own fire management plan.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to add my voice to those of my colleagues from both sides of the House, recognising the effect of natural disasters over the summer and, in particular, fires that occurred within my own electorate. We still, obviously, have fires blazing in Tasmania, and they will take quite some time to put out, I understand, given the territory that they are in. We have had terrible fires, as we have just heard, in Western Australia and we have had floods in South Australia and in the Northern Territory. As always with summer, I cannot remember a first session that we have had in this place where we have not been talking about the effects over summer of fires or terrible floods. So I join my voice with colleagues today.

In my own electorate we had a fire the week before Christmas in the community of Scotsburn—one of the largest in our district for quite some time. The headline figure from the fire was that 12 homes were destroyed, but, of course, as terrible as the loss of those 12 homes is, it barely touches on the real toll of this blaze. When a home is destroyed, it is not just the building or the place that houses people that is lost; it is a lifetime of memories, care and achievements. One property that I know of lost six fully-restored vintage cars, where someone had poured their heart and soul into doing that. Where once stood a proud history, now stands blackened chimneys amid fields of devastation.

Even when the home is saved, the toll is still terrible. We have had livestock lost and fences, feed and crops destroyed, and families have been left to pick up the pieces and deal with the trauma that is left behind. It is not normal in your daily lives to experience that level of fear, where you think you are going to die. That is what many people in my communities faced. The fire came through so quickly that they just did not have time to respond. Many of them did incredibly well with great fire plans. Many still did not have fire plans in place or those fire plans were not adequate. We were very, very lucky on the day that we did not lose lives and that we did not lose the lives of fire crews. Fire crews were in the field within 10 minutes of the fire breaking out. They were fighting absolutely tooth and nail within 10 minutes of getting onto the fire ground in very, very difficult circumstances.

There were at least 23 sheds lost and farming buildings destroyed, with more than 4,000 hectares burnt. Narmbool, a fantastic property that was gifted to the people of our area and which is managed by Sovereign Hill, our historic museum in Ballarat—it is a beautiful property—really did bear the brunt of it, with a large loss of livestock and certainly some outbuildings. Again, we were very lucky not to lose the historic homestead or lives in that particular area.

Families across the region literally fled their homes. There are stark images on the internet. There was a wedding taking place at the time, just about to happen, and 100 wedding guests had to flee very, very quickly as the fire came across the paddocks at the back. There are very stark images of a beautiful wedding ceremony. I do wish the couple who got married all the best. I know the day was not what you expected, but it will be a day that you talk about, I guess, very much for the rest of your lives. We are so grateful that the pub in Buninyong was able to accommodate you and all of your guests. Some have told me that when fires have happened in the past they have had to deal with memories of those. There are many people who were actively involved as firefighters in Black Saturday and who were also involved on the day. For good reason obviously, that sticks in their memories as well.

We were very lucky. The drought has been very severe in our region. When we look at it, we had 300 firefighters on the ground beating back that fire. The firefighters are extraordinary. When I stopped at the Buninyong fire shed the day after, all they wanted to talk about were the homes they had lost. They are incredible people and they have done an extraordinary job, but their focus, always, is on what they did not do. I very clearly said to them, 'You should be very proud of your efforts. This could have been so, so much worse in our community.' The brigades of district 15 and beyond, who came to people's aid on the day, were fantastic. I know there are a multitude of stories that the community is still sharing as they repair and grieve the loss of what happened in their region.

I also made a visit to the fantastic Erickson sky crane crew who are based every year at the Ballarat Airport. They come for months at a time, away from their families in Canada, Ireland and across the world to live in our community with the sky crane crew. I do want to echo very strongly the words of my colleague in that. There has to be a national focus on our air capacity. The Commonwealth has done very well by purchasing sky crane capacity and leasing sky cranes, but if you look across the country to where that regional capacity is, to where regional airport can house and now mobilise the new LATs very quickly, we are behind the eight ball. There is a need for a national air program. I happen to know a little bit about this from a good friend of mine. This is something that the Commonwealth and the Attorney-General must look at. I would certainly be very happy in our own community to share our experiences of that. Again, the fact that no lives were lost was due to the heroic efforts of the crew, both on the ground and in the air on the day, and also the preparedness of people in our communities.

I particularly want to thank the staff and volunteers who are still today supporting affected communities and individuals. There have been countless support staff from the Shire of Moorabool in the city of Ballarat, in particular. You have done an amazing job. I do not think I have seen a relief centre set up so quickly and operate so well in any of the fires I have been involved with , as a former CFA volunteer who has had some experience of these things.

I want to thank the community for their warmth, even in the smallest of things, from putting out the call when we were in the relief centre to get bottled water quickly to people on the day when we were trying to find out what was happening with the fire and the supermarket had run out bottled water through to people from across the communities delivering feed and volunteering for BlazeAid, coming for weeks on end—retired couples from across the country. I met people from Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia who had come to my community with their campervans for a couple of weeks just to build fences. BlazeAid are a terrific organisation and I do want to thank them very much for their efforts and local community people who spontaneously put on fundraisers and volunteered their time and hours of effort and donations—just the care people have shown to people in the community.

We know fires are tragic events, but it is often the aftermath where people can get lost and can find themselves very traumatised, as I said, by what is not a normal experience for people to have . It is an incredibly traumatic thing not only to be in a fire but also then to have a loss of house. Even when you have not lost your house, there is the survivor guilt of 'why has my house been spared and my neighbours has not?' Being able to talk about these things is critical. I particularly do want to thank people in the community for their ongoing care.

I live in an amazing place. Recently I was speaking to one of the people who had lost livestock in the fire. She and her family had moved up from Melbourne some three years ago. They did not have any particular traditional connections with the local community, they were not a farming family, and they had not really got to know their neighbours overwhelmingly well; they knew them in passing. She said she had never experienced such an overwhelming outpouring of community support. Scotsburn is a lovely place to live, and I want to thank people just for bringing their real care—not only the huge firefighting efforts by the volunteers and paid professionals who have been working there but everyday people who are just constantly checking that their neighbours are okay. The equestrian community in particular have been fantastic. So I want to thank them, and I know that this community will be all the stronger for the care that they have taken of each other throughout this natural disaster.

Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I strongly associate myself with the statements that have been made in parliament, and I support the comments that have been made by the member for Forrest. I acknowledge that the member for Forrest herself was involved in the very terrible Yarloop fires in Western Australia. The Waroona and Harvey shires were very much affected by a major blaze that broke out in the post-Christmas period, and 181 properties were lost, including 162 family homes. Two lives were lost: Les Taylor and Malcolm Taylor. As the previous speaker, the member for Ballarat, has said, I think the thing that really stands out for us all is just how strong and resilient our communities are and the degree to which people come in and support each other when these terrible tragedies have occurred.

Of course, front and centre are our thanks to our local firefighters—the volunteer fire brigades, the career firefighters and also the 120 firefighters and other personnel that came in from New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT. We really thank them for their incredible preparedness to put their lives on the line in dealing with the Yarloop-Waroona fires and the Esperance fires that occurred in November 2015, all within this one fire season. We acknowledge all the excellent work and the amazing community effort that was made to deal with the aftermath of these fires and to assist people, particularly those that had lost their homes and their possessions, in attempting to re-establish their lives.

Of course, Yarloop is a particular tragedy. It is a town with immense, extraordinary historic interest in terms of both machinery and the built form—a very rich history which has now largely been lost. For many people in Yarloop, the ability to return to that town simply will not be there. We note that, understandably, Alcoa, who owned 35 of the homes that were destroyed, have decided not to rebuild, so there will be, without doubt, an enormous problem for many people who will now have to make that painful decision to move away from that very close community.

I want to reflect on what is happening with climate change in Western Australia and to say that, when we look at the facts, we see that our problem—what happened this summer with the Esperance and then the Waroona-Yarloop fires—is in fact only going to get worse. We recently saw the Climate Council release a report called The heat is on:climate change, extreme heat and bushfires in Western Australia. They made some very critical findings: the long-term trend is to hotter weather in Western Australia, and that this has worsened fire weather and contributed to an increase in the frequency and severity of bushfires. They go on to say:

By 2030—

that is just 15 years away—

the number of professional firefighters in WA will need to more than double to meet the increasing risk of bushfires.

It says:

Some of Western Australia’s most fire-prone regions may become unlivable as the risks to lives and property caused by bushfires continue to increase.

Quite clearly we have a great vulnerability—

Mr Hutchinson interjecting—

The member tells me that parts of Tasmania may be in that.

Mr Hutchinson interjecting—

They can move to Tasmania? It is a wonderful offer, but we are pretty attached to our patch over there and we would like to try to deal with this.

Obviously there are the macro issues that we need to deal with in terms of climate change, and that is a discussion for another day. But, quite clearly, we have to be the best we possibly can when fighting these fires. I am not in any way reflecting on the frontline skills that we have got, but I do question whether or not we are utilising the best technologies and best personnel that are available.

I was contacted by quite a number of reservist and ex-military personnel who expressed shock that they were not being called upon to assist in the support of the firefighters. They have an enormous array of equipment and personnel that can, at four hours notice, be mobilised. Indeed, many of these reservists say to us: 'Obviously we're not trained to hold the hose and fight the fire, but, my God, can we add backup to those fireys, to those guys, can we give logistical support to them—move people around. We could assist in the creation of firebreaks, the laying of retardant.' Indeed, there is extraordinary equipment that is available in defence in WA that could be utilised. There is a huge array of earthmoving equipment, gigantic water tanks and even the capacity to build temporary bridges, which would have come in handy in reopening some of the damaged bridges and enable the dairy farmers in particular to get their milk to market and not have to, unfortunately, just throw that milk away.

We see, particularly in Victoria and Queensland, a great preparedness to utilise that defence capacity. We know that defence has a well established protocol, a well established decision-making chain that would enable them to utilise this. At a forum for the victims of the fires, this question was asked: why didn't we bring the defence in to assist us? I was very disappointed when the answer came from the DFES officer there: 'We had enough tents, and that is what we use defence for.' I can say to you that defence in Western Australia has a capacity that goes well beyond the provision of tents. As I said, all of these well-trained personnel are eager to get in there and help our very brave and courageous fireys deal with this problem.

I do note that there has now been an inquiry called into the fire and the response to the fire, and that is very welcome. That is as it should be. I note there is not anything explicitly mentioned in that terms of reference about the potential for the utilisation of the defence resources, but hopefully that will be included—I will certainly be making submissions along that line. This is not the talk of armchair generals, as the Minister for Emergency Services in WA likes to call it; this actually comes from the heart of those people who understand what their capacities are, who understand what they could bring to the task if only they were utilised.

I also hope that there will be a proper analysis of the WA government's decision not to utilise the very generous offer of the DC-10 from the New South Wales government. I think that, as someone said, if our model does not include the use of those water tankers, those mass fire bombers, then we really should be reconsidering whether or not we have the right model. Once again, our grateful appreciation goes to all of those people who put their lives on the line, all of those volunteers. Of course, our very deep sympathy goes to those people who lost their homes and to the families of those people who lost their lives.

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Given the hour and the point you have just made, Madam Deputy Speaker, I move:

That the Federation Chamber do now adjourn.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 13:06 .