Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to extend my thanks to the hundreds of professional emergency personnel and countless volunteers who have come to the aid of communities across the south and south-west of Western Australia, which have recently been ravaged by unstoppable and fatal bushfires. I particularly offer my condolences to those who have suffered loss as a result of these fires.

Burning for 17 days, the devastating Waroona-Yarloop fire basically razed the small town of Yarloop, claiming the lives of two elderly residents, destroying important community heritage and impacting more than 400 agricultural properties and national parks across almost 70,000 hectares. Last November, four people in Esperance lost their lives during another massive set of bushfires that scorched more than 300,000 hectares of mostly agricultural land where farmers had been eagerly anticipating the harvest of a bumper wheat crop.

In the face of these catastrophes, emergency personnel worked tirelessly to alert and protect affected communities. Even while embers and smoke still filled the skies, the wider community sprang into action to help evacuate people and animals from the path of the fires. At the holiday community of Preston Beach, where there is only one road in and out, local sea-rescue teams and recreational boaters plucked stricken families from the beach and ferried them to safety. I know that the equestrian community, which is so prominent in the south-west, rallied to help people transport their horses to safety. Around 400 livestock, mostly cattle, are reported to have perished, but the farming community's livestock removal effort as the fire approached, and the donation of feed, saved the lives of many more creatures. Staff and volunteers at the Waroona vet clinic continue to work around the clock caring for both the injured domestic and the injured native animals that have been rescued. It is often a very sad fact that bushfires bring terrible consequences for our native, farm and domestic animals.

Whether for human or horse, dog, kangaroo or cow, these disasters—as so many before them also have done—reveal the ultimate strength of our communities: the compassion and volunteerism and the unquestioning camaraderie that spontaneously emerges in the face of such danger. Residents in neighbouring shires and towns in the south-west offered free emergency accommodation to complete strangers. The organisers of the Southbound Music Festival, which was cancelled due to the Waroona-Yarloop emergency, quickly established a relief fund based on ticket refund donations and organised a fundraising concert in Perth to help with the expense of recovery.

The emergency phase of these fires may now have passed, but the relief and recovery effort continues. It is truly humbling to witness the extent and broad range of specialist support that is being offered to the recovery and rebuilding effort. Musicians in my electorate of Fremantle are lending their talents to a fire appeal concert this weekend. Others have given their time to help reinstate more than 25 kilometres of irrigation to a melaleuca oil plantation near the town of Harvey. This Friday, volunteers working through BlazeAid, an organisation set up in the wake of the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria to expedite the urgent re-fencing needs in agricultural communities struck by fire, will set up camp on Waroona Oval to assist with replacing the countless miles of essential agricultural fencing lost during the blaze. Nearly three months on BlazeAid continues to run a volunteer camp at Grass Patch to assist those who need help restoring fences lost during the Esperance fires. People have done, and will again in the future, all that they physically can to stop these fires or hold back flood waters to minimise the loss to life and property.

The south-west corner of Australia is amongst the most biodiverse places on the planet. Since the mid-1970s this unique place has seen a steady decline in rainfall—the rate of which is accelerating—and increasing temperatures. The country is tinder dry and entire forests are in a state of collapse. Last year was the hottest year since recording began. Fire has been an ever-present threat in our country but, as we have witnessed across the south-west, as we saw in Victoria in 2009 and again recently and as we are seeing in Tasmania right now, it is clear that the ferocity and sheer magnitude of bushfire events are on the rise.

Taking effective action on climate change to minimise its devastating impacts should be the key concern of our time. Ignorance and delay only imperil our future and offend the type of community can-do spirit of the people who have battled to survive horrific natural disasters.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise today to speak on the bushfires in the south-west of WA this last month. The people of the Peel-Harvey region have suffered much over the last month. The raging bushfires of January burnt through 71,000 hectares of bushland, farms and properties and destroyed many homes and businesses throughout the region. The historic township of Yarloop was engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes. Livestock and wildlife have been injured and killed. Primary producers have seen their livelihoods destroyed before their very eyes. Sadly, the greatest tragedy has been the loss of two lives in Yarloop—two everyday Australians who in the midst of the festive season did not expect to perish in an inferno in their own homes.

The fires are a painful reminder of the environmental challenges that Western Australians have faced since settling the colony in 1829. Thomas Peel, the first European settler in Mandurah and namesake of the Peel region, lies buried in the heart of Mandurah city. Peel endured many financial and environmental setbacks trying to build a settlement out of nothing. On his headstone is the epitaph: 'The first settler here who bore with much fortitude the hardships and disappointments endured by the first colonists'.

Of course, Indigenous Australians, especially the Noongar people in the Peel region, have long appreciated the harshness of the Western Australian landscape—well before the arrival of European settlers. Their history and relationship with the land looms large over the region. I note that my predecessor, the late Don Randall, in February last year spoke on fire in the same region and made reference to the Noongar people, who have long understood fire and have used fire to reduce fuel loads and also for hunting. I would like to add to his comments that I think we can learn from historic practice in this area.

Thomas Peel died in 1865, but if he were to wander my electorate today he would hardly recognise it with the vast increase in population and economic development over the past 150 years. The Peel region began with only a few hundred European settlers in 1830. It now boasts 129,000 people, with a phenomenal population growth of 45,000 people between 2004 and 2014. It now encompasses the city of Mandurah and the shires of Murray, Boddington, Waroona—where the fires were concentrated—and Serpentine Jarrahdale. The Peel economy is built on mineral processing, mining—Boddington is home to Newmont, Australia's largest goldmine—agriculture, tourism and building construction.

Peel is endowed with many natural resources but its greatest strength lies with its people. We saw this displayed in the heroic efforts of volunteer and professional firefighters who battled the flames day after day over that eight-day period, even when exhausted by the heat and lack of sleep. I spoke to many local volunteer firefighters who went 72 hours without rest. We saw this with the Pinjarra volunteers, who cared for those in need at the Murray Leisure Centre, those evacuated from Waroona and Yarloop; we saw this with the local and state leaders who rallied around those devastated by the fires; and we saw this in the faces of those—and I spoke to many of them—who had lost everything but who showed concern for their neighbours before themselves.

As the fires have demonstrated, our prosperity is fragile. Throughout the electorate of Canning, particularly in Waroona, many of my constituents have suffered. Businesses have been destroyed. Bernie Worthington, the owner of Drakesbrook Winery, lost his whole vineyard just prior to harvest. This amounts to a loss of 60 tonnes of wine, even before we factor in the loss of damage to the vines, the irrigation and other infrastructure essential to his business operations. I acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the Peel Thunder Football Club who assisted the Worthington family with a clean-up of the winery two weekends ago.

Graeme and Sonia Watson, owners of Forest Edge Recreation Camp, also suffered extensive damage to their property and infrastructure. Forest Edge provides recreational activities to groups of people from all walks of life who are trying to build personal relationships and stretch themselves with challenging outdoor activities. They employ 20 staff and have had to cease operations due to the effects of the fire on the infrastructure essential to their business. I also note that this fire has set back their plans for the future. Graeme and Sonia have only recently returned from the United Kingdom, where they were investigating the next step of their business development. Forest Edge Recreation Camp is situated on beautiful hill country to the east of the Waroona township. The gradient on their hills is near perfect for a 300 by 300 metre artificial ski slope. This is their plan to develop their business, and this would be a first for WA. Of course, the fires have set that back.

I met with Helen and Mick Muir who live right along a road that was engulfed in flames. They have a 1,000 acre property, and they have lost 15 kilometres of fencing. They have lost their tractor, they have lost feed. They face a huge task. They are just one funding family of many who have suffered through the fires. The consistent message that I have received from farmers has been: 'We need help with fencing, we need help with feed and we need help with labour.' I am hoping that many Australians, not just in my electorate but throughout the Perth region, will step up and assist these people with fencing.

I do want to make note of the Rotary clubs of Pinjarra and Mandurah who have given significant financial assistance to those in need through the fire relief efforts. The Pinjarra Rotary Club, headed up by local farmer Geoff McLarty, last weekend came to Waroona, along with 112 volunteers from Rotary clubs around the state of WA, and worked on 10 separate properties, removing fences. It was great to see the volunteer spirit alive. It certainly complements the efforts of the state and federal governments, who have provided assistance thus far.

The Peel region needs more than just a recovery from fires. We need to build long-term resilience against both bushfires and the WA economic downturn. The commodities boom has slowed in WA and the impact has been felt across all sectors of the economy. In the Peel region, retail and real estate markets have softened, and youth employment currently sits at almost double the national average. Building construction has slowed. I have many FIFO families who live in my electorate who are asking, 'What's next for the Peel region?' With so many people now having to rebuild their lives after the fires, I think this is a very important question.

I am working very closely with local Peel leaders across the five shires to look at a long-term vision for job creation and economic development out to 2050. In December last year, I attended the launch of the Peel Development Commission's Peel Regional Investment Blueprint. This blueprint casts a vision for the region built on its natural strengths as the basis of our economic future. Three investment opportunities have been identified. Firstly, the completion of the state-of-the-art multifunctional Murray Equestrian Centre at Coolup will bring a new focus to the local economy that goes beyond WA. I hope that, if this is fully funded and completed, it will transform our region into the equine capital of the Indian Ocean rim. Perhaps, most importantly, in future bushfires it will serve as a temporary housing facility for large numbers of livestock that need to be evacuated from nearby properties.

Secondly, the establishment of the Peel Business Park at Nambeelup will bring together Peel's strong industries, such as agriculture and food innovation. This in turn would broaden the focus of the WA economy beyond cyclical commodity exports.

Nambeelup is central to the Peel region and ideally positioned to service all five shires. It would bring many workers together and keep them off the freeway headed north to Perth on those very congested mornings that we see every day.

Finally, Mandurah city is the heartbeat of the Peel region. It services the rest of the region with medical, educational and professional services. It is home to 82,000 residents. It boasts a world-class marina and is a popular tourist destination. We need further investment in it—in infrastructure—but, particularly, public transport. I am keen to see more trains, I am keen to see my electorate linked up—like the City of Melbourne, the City of Sydney and much of Perth. So that is something I will be fighting for into the future.

I will close by acknowledging the hardship of the people of the Peel and Harvey region over the past month. They have my full support. I have been very heartened by the volunteer efforts that I see throughout Canning and, of course, the division of Forrest to the south. It has inspired me, and I hope the residents of the electorate will also take heart in these efforts. Thank you.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Every summer Australia is dogged by bushfires. We see it having a significant impact on communities. We see it stretch the resources of our emergency workers and firefighters. But this summer something that has really haunted me has been one of the bushfires—the one in Yarloop. I just cannot get out of my mind the thought of those two men—in their 70s—who perished in the fires. I understand that one required a hearing aid and had a tradition of going to bed early and his relatives suggested that he may have turned off the hearing aid—hence he would not have heard what was coming. So those two men in their 70s—I just cannot get out of my mind what they went through in their last moments. It really does haunt me.

As I understand, at least 143 properties were destroyed in that fire, including 128 houses in Yarloop. That included sheds, caravans and community buildings. Four firefighters were injured in that fire, and it has had a significant and devastating effect on that community. We heard from the Leader of the Opposition this week about 58 students from the local primary school who had to start their school year attending other schools, because their school had burnt down. So you can imagine: not only had they been through the trauma and the aftermath of the fire but here they were starting their school year separated around the region. My thoughts go to those students, their parents and the community.

Over the course of summer, we also saw the destruction along Victoria's Surf Coast in December—around Christmas Day and beyond—including the loss of 116 homes at Wye River. We also saw bushfires in Tasmania and South Australia that my colleagues have spoken about. I just want to take this opportunity to thank the firefighters, the emergency workers and the communities for their exceptional and courageous work over the course of these fires. As we know, many of these emergency workers and firefighters are volunteers. They give up their summer to help keep communities safe. So I just want to send a very big thank you to them for their extraordinary efforts.

Canberra has not been safe from bushfires. This year marks the 13th anniversary of the bushfires that ravaged Canberra in 2003 that left four people dead, 490 injured and 500 houses destroyed or severely damaged—and all of them in my electorate. They were houses in Duffy, Holder, Kambah, Rivett, Curtin, Torrens, Chapman and the settlement of Uriarra. Perhaps the most notable cultural and scientific loss caused by those fires was the damage to the scenic and renowned Mount Stromlo Observatory, which is the headquarters of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University. It is estimated to be the source of a third of Australia's astronomical research. At that time, five historically significant telescopes were destroyed. Instrumentation and engineering workshops, the observatory's library and the main administration buildings were also consumed. Bushfires severely harmed the vegetation of the Cotter River Catchment and caused water quality problems in the three dams in that catchment: the Cotter, the Bendora and the Corin.

I want to take this opportunity to remind Canberrans about the devastation of the bushfires. I want to take this opportunity to remember those who perished in the fires: Alison Tener, who was 38; Peter Brooke, who was 74; Douglas Fraser, who was 60; and Dorothy McGrath, who was 76 and who lived in the Mount Stromlo Forestry Settlement.

Despite the tragedy and devastation of those 2003 bushfires, the Canberra community rallied around the families and friends of those who had lost their lives or who had been injured or those who had lost their homes, because in Canberra it is half a degree of separation. We are a very close community and most of us knew at least one person or one family that had been affected by the fires. My friend former Chapman resident, now a Narrabundah resident, Jane Smyth, lost her home. At the 10th anniversary service at the memorial that is being built over the road from the suburb of Duffy, at the foot of Mount Stromlo, she said the trauma strengthened the Canberra community. I want to quote her here:

We'll always remember the great losses but we also remember that time of strength following the fires when the people of Canberra and district, friends, neighbours, strangers, reached out in new ways to each other and in our time of recovery, Canberra worked as a community

I know communities go through a range of emotions following the loss and the trauma and the tragedy of bushfires. Ten years on from the Canberra bushfires, some Canberrans were still experiencing anger, and this is not surprising given the devastation. But, as the former ACT emergency services commissioner, Mark Crosweller, told 7:30 ACT on the 10th anniversary of the bushfires:

Simply to blame people in that circumstance … robs us of the opportunity to forgive and move on and we really need to do that. If people are still grieving 10 years later or if they're still angry 10 years later then we do have a problem in society.

As has been mentioned by the previous speaker, the really important thing here is to develop resilient communities. A few years ago, I met members of the community that had been devastated by the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria and, despite the massive losses, they were determined to face the future and rebuild their lives. There were determined, absolutely determined, to build a resilient community, and they had set up a number of mechanisms to do that. From the devastation and the tragedy and the loss that came from the bushfires, they were determined to create something good.

I think it is vitally important, at this point in time—where those communities are in mourning, are angry, are going through the grieving process—that we give them support. The former speaker mentioned that his community needs support in fencing. We also need support in infrastructure, in housing, in clothing, in food. We need to provide these communities with support in so many different ways, in the physical as well as in the emotional way. We particularly have to provide them with support for their mental health. We cannot forget that. It is vitally important that we ensure the tragedy, the trauma and the loss of bushfires unites our communities as it did here in Canberra. As I said, there where people there who were still experiencing anger 10 years afterwards; there were still people experiencing grief. But it is vitally important we remember that we need to unite as a community in this moment, in this time, of tragedy, loss, and trauma, rather than divide as a community.