Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the last week, many fires have been burning across the electorate of Flynn. I'm happy to announce that the fires have been extinguished thanks to rain overnight—up to 40 mil in most cases. I'm pleased to hear that people have been allowed back to access their homes after being evacuated one week ago. Last Saturday I had the pleasure of introducing Michael McCormack, the Acting Prime Minister, and the Hon. Linda Reynolds to the Assistant Commissioner of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, Mr David Hermann. We visited Mount Larcom school, the control centre at Agnes Water and the evacuation centre at Miriam Vale. The message is loud and clear: allow householders and landholders to install fire barriers around their properties and use cool burns when weather is favourable, like in wintertime and before early rain. Indigenous people and our ancestors have been doing this for many years. As kids on the farm we always carried a box of matches for lighting fires, not for smoking cigarettes.