Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In continuation from my contribution last night in relation to the bushfire tragedies, I want to start again by acknowledging the remarkable work of the RFS, all those emergency personnel and, indeed, the incredible volunteers from our area and throughout the country who have come to our region to assist at a really devastating time. We mentioned last night in the contributions that there are still areas of concern on the New South Wales North Coast that we're all keeping a close eye on.

Also, as I mentioned in my contribution last night, the Leader of the Opposition was recently on the New South Wales North Coast. We were briefed by the RFS at Casino and thank them so much—the briefing at their headquarters was very comprehensive and informative. We also had at that briefing the state member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, and the federal member for Page. The RFS have done a remarkable job.

After that briefing at Casino, we travelled to Nimbin with the opposition leader and toured and spoke to a lot of people at the evacuation centre and heard firsthand the concerns from locals there. We also attended a local CWA. Of course, our CWA are always there to assist in any emergencies, and they've been remarkable throughout our region. Whilst we were there, they mentioned to the opposition that one of the big issues they had was they didn't have enough freezers and fridges for the amazing amount of donations they were getting from many people. The opposition leader later spoke to a member of the Woolworths board. Within hours, he was advised that the next day Woolworths would deliver to the CWA three fridges, three freezers, a pallet of water and a $1,000 voucher. It's great to have that support on the ground to make a difference, so all of those goods that were donated were able to be housed in those freezers.

As I said in my contribution last night, it has of course been devastating—the loss of life and loss of property that we've seen with these bushfires and the impact on our wildlife, including our koalas and our precious rainforests. In our region, on the New South Wales North Coast, rainforests have burned for the first time. This is truly heartbreaking, and it has been for many of the community, when we look at the extent of the damage that there is. The fact is that the fire season is starting earlier and finishing later, and we are seeing more extreme weather events across the country. And of course, whilst we're out and about talking to locals, many people do raise that we need to be having conversations about climate change and acting on that, and I think that moving forward we do, as a country, need to seriously look at what action we need to be taking in light of the devastation we've seen, and it is time to listen to those experts and time to work together in terms of a way to tackle climate change.

I welcome the opposition leader's call to convene a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments to look at practical measures towards a new national strategy for disaster preparedness and for real action on climate change. I certainly support that. I think we need to seriously be looking at that moving forward. I also note and commend the New South Wales opposition, which has recently called on the New South Wales Auditor-General to urgently investigate whether our firefighters have the resources they need. I think it's important that we have a proper audit. Unfortunately, we know that this situation continues. The New South Wales Labor opposition is suggesting that the Auditor-General take a whole-of-government approach to the audit, considering the funding and resourcing of the Royal Fire Service and other areas, and also whether staffing levels are adequate and sustainable—what additional services, responses and measures are needed. So we need to have that auditing done as soon as possible to ensure that our firefighters, our wonderful RFS, have all the resources they need in these very difficult times. One of the things we keep hearing on the ground is that we need to have more permanent, retained firefighters on the front line to keep our communities safe into the future.

I also want to note that a number of disaster recovery grants have been in place since the fires started. They provide immediate relief to eligible primary producers, small businesses and non-profit organisations. It's also for clean-up and restoration costs in the aftermath of extreme natural disasters, and it's important to have all those measures in place for those communities.

Again, I commend all those in the RFS—the emergency personnel, all those volunteers from our local area who have come throughout the state and throughout the country. The spirit of generosity, community and resilience is truly alive and strong, and it's wonderful to see so many people assisting one another in such devastating times and such heartbreaking scenes of loss of life and property and devastation to our rainforests and our wildlife. It is a very difficult time for those throughout the communities who are battling these bushfires. We heard from the RFS that we may not have heavier rain until early next year. So it still is a very difficult time, but we stand with all those communities and commend all those people who are doing their utmost to assist.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to send my thoughts and my very best wishes to all Australians impacted by the devastating bushfires we've seen in New South Wales, in Queensland and in areas of my home state of South Australia over recent weeks. I would particularly like to recognise all our incredible firefighters, police and other emergency service personnel for their tireless efforts not only in fighting the fires but in their work to evacuate residents and provide shelter and support for those who've lost their homes and lost their businesses. I would like to acknowledge the members for Macquarie and Richmond and my colleague the member for Page for their contributions and for what they have been doing to support their communities during these very, very difficult times.

As I said, I want to sincerely thank each and every emergency service person for everything they have done and continue to do to keep our community safe and to keep homes and business safe from bushfires and for everything they're doing to help people recover, because a lot of communities—a lot of families, a lot of individuals—are now in the recovery phase. We know that in times of crisis Australians are always at their best and they do their very best to support one another, and they do so from all over the nation.

Today I want to personally recognise and thank the members of the CFS from my electorate of Boothby—all the wonderful volunteers who have travelled to New South Wales to support the bushfire-fighting effort and also travelled within South Australia to do so. I want to personally acknowledge the following firefighters, our CFS volunteers from Boothby, who travelled to New South Wales, and probably still are travelling, to help with the effort there. From the Belair CFS, I acknowledge Greg Wood; Amelia Yaron; Senior Firefighter Luke Raymond, who I met and had a good chat to at the CFS barbecue I hosted with Sam Duluk on the weekend; James Wilson; Illora Godwin; Brendan McGannon; and Senior Firefighter Bobbie Rice. From the Blackwood CFS, I acknowledge Linton Dabinet and Jake Barber. From Cherry Gardens CFS, I acknowledge Alan Mundy, who has actually been to New South Wales twice; Lieutenant Hayden Linggood, who also has been to New South Wales twice; Sam Linggood; and Senior Firefighter Peter Tree. From Coromandel Valley CFS, I acknowledge Scott Taylor and Lieutenant Isaac Eckermann. From the Eden Hills CFS, I acknowledge Matt Alan, David Young, Luke Smet—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Proceedings suspended from 11:00 to 11:12

As I was acknowledging, from the Eden Hills CFS we also had Matthew Rex, who has been twice to help out the bushfire effort in New South Wales. I would also like to recognise the following members of my local CFS brigades who provided assistance with the fires on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia recently—and the member for Grey made a contribution in this place this morning noting how serious the situation was on the Yorke Peninsula for those who live in Yorketown, Edithburgh and surrounding farming districts. There were 5,000 hectares burnt out, and 11-plus homes and many other buildings were lost. I want to pass on my sincere thanks to the following CFS volunteers who made the trek across to the Yorke Peninsula, in very serious weather conditions for us in the seat of Boothby at the time. It was very good of them to head across to help those who were desperately in need.

From the Coromandel Valley CFS, we had Lieutenant Ian Mitchell, Senior Firefighter Isaac Eckermann, Janita Bentley, Sammy French, Greg Whittaker, Chris Andrews and John Simpson Smith. From the Belair CFS, we had Chris Langley, Amy Harris, Amelia Yaron and Adam Basedow. From the Blackwood CFS, we had Jhye Moroney, Julian Butler, Nick O'Donohue and David Russell. From the Cherry Gardens CFS, we had Andrew Desteno, Rob Ellis, Lawrie Linggood, Craig Cram, Kayla Anthony, Sam Linggood, Wayne Stainer, Barry Sheppard, Geoff Newblack and Alan Juilian. From the Eden Hills CFS, we had Lieutenant Tom Campbell, Neil Board, Tahlia Lockwood, Victoria McCluskey, William Flynn and Neil Gloyn all head across to the Yorke Peninsula to help out those in very desperate need during those very serious fires.

I also want to acknowledge the CFS coordinators, who managed the absence of these volunteers from our area. It was quite a logistical effort and challenge because we did, of course, have catastrophic bushfire conditions in the seat of Boothby and surrounding areas on 20 November. So my sincere thanks go to Dale Thompson and everyone else who helped to manage sending those volunteers across to help those in desperate need whilst also making sure our local area was protected.

And so, whilst we were lucky not to be personally impacted on 20 November, it was a really good reminder of the danger that the bushfire season brings. Last week we had particularly hot and windy conditions which did result in the catastrophic fire danger declaration in the Mitcham Hills area and in suburbs including Blackwood, Belair, Glenalta, Eden Hills and Bellevue Heights. We were very lucky this time, but, with a hot summer ahead, I urge every single resident living in those areas and those suburbs not to be complacent. We know that people love to live in the Mitcham Hills, the foothills and the Adelaide Hills because of the beautiful bushland, the native vegetation, the gorgeous gum trees, but we know that this brings with it a very high bushfire risk. So I'm urging everyone in my community and everyone around Australia who lives in a bushfire-prone area to please ensure that you have your bushfire action plan in place now. As the CFS says in South Australia: Prepare. Act. Survive. Please get your bushfire plan in place now.

I want to thank sincerely the Sturt CFS Group for their continuing work and the support they give to the brigades at Blackwood, Belair, Eden Hills, Coromandel Valley and Cherry Gardens and who keep the residents in Boothby and surrounding areas safe each summer. I want to acknowledge the incredible hard work of the head of each brigade—Mark Brookes at Belair, Jamie Emswiler at Blackwood, Ben Gloyn at Eden Hills, Rohan Clarke at Coromandel Valley and Lawrie Linggood at Cherry Gardens—as well as every single one of their dedicated volunteers.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:17 to 11:28

What some members of my community—and, in fact, people around Australia—might not realise is that the CFS don't just help us during bushfires. They also respond to a range of emergency situations from vehicle accidents to hazardous substance spills and other emergencies throughout the year. So I want to thank them again most sincerely for everything they do for my community throughout the year. And, of course, as we head into bushfire season, they play a critical role in helping to spread the message about bushfire safety, including how to prepare homes and properties and what to do in the event of a fire.

I am so grateful to all of my local CFS brigades for always welcoming me very warmly and taking the time to take me through the brigade, explain all of the different equipment to me and demonstrate what they do in terms of their training to prepare for bushfire situations. I recently visited the Belair CFS and I'm most grateful to Captain Mark Brooks and team members Ilora Godwin, Stuart Freckelton, Jack Adcock and Ian Hage for showing me around and having a chat to me about the bushfire season ahead. All of their efforts require significant time and equipment, and not just during emergency situations. Every Friday night these wonderful volunteers go through their training drills, update their skills and make sure they are ready to protect and assist our community.

On behalf of everyone in my local community, I'd like to say a huge thank you in particular to the Sturt group coordinators—Sturt group officer, Dale Thompson and deputy group captains David Sims and Chris Smith—for what they do to help coordinate the entire group. To show our support in our small way for the Sturt CFS group, my state colleague the member for Waite, Sam Duluk, and I hosted our annual CFS fundraising barbecue on Saturday 23 November. We raised a good amount of money for the Sturt CFS and I just want to thank all of our local residents who were so generous with their donations. I know we had a lot of young community members who were really excited to see the fire truck there and to be able to talk to the volunteers about what the fire trucks do.

The bushfire events of the past few weeks do serve as an important reminder to everyone in our community just how fast a fire can spread and the devastating damage that it can cause. I again urge everyone in my area to do what the CFS ask you to do: prepare, act, survive.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I call the member for Solomon, I would like to associate myself with the words of my fellow South Australian the member for Boothby and congratulate all the South Australian CFS workers for the great work that they do.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I add my appreciation and acknowledgement of all those firefighters and others who have been putting themselves out there—and, often, in danger—to put out these dreadful fires—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:32 to 11:49

I rise to express my heartfelt condolences to all Australians across New South Wales, Queensland and the rest of the country who have recently had their loved ones, homes, animals, crops and livelihoods taken by devastating bushfires. The figures alone are a disturbing reminder of what Australians have had to contend with in recent weeks and months. As of Saturday, the New South Wales bushfires had claimed six lives, destroyed over 600 homes and scorched an area of land about the size of Sydney. In Queensland, 20 homes were lost and about 180,000 hectares burnt. In Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, dozens of other dangerous fires caused significant injuries and damaged properties. As of last week, the estimated total of the damages from the terrible fires across New South Wales and Queensland had reached $145 million. The long-term cost to the local, regional and national economies is still incalculable. The cost to the children, spouses, families and friends of those whom we lost to these fires is of course beyond words.

As a House, as parliamentarians and as leaders, we keep the victims of these fires and their loved ones in our hearts. As a community, let's ensure we show ongoing care and support to those who will bear the mental and emotional scars of these traumatic hours and days long after the victims' physical wounds have healed over. When the trees have regrown and the houses have been rebuilt around the sites of these tragedies, we must remember. We not only owe those most affected by these tragedies our thoughts and prayers; we owe them urgent national and bipartisan leadership to ensure that our professional and world-class emergency services have even greater resources at their disposal and a national strategic plan in support of their efforts next time such disasters strike, as, unfortunately, they are sure to. Unless

I want to acknowledge New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Acting Commissioner Mike Wassing and their counterparts from across the country. In the worst hours of their lives, Australians across our states and territories trusted in these leaders of real character, integrity and professionalism for literally life-saving help. We all can learn from the exemplary service they have shown. Thousands of Australians owe them a huge debt of gratitude, and many Australians obviously owe them their very lives. We, as elected representatives of these devastated regions and electorates, owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for their professionalism, integrity and loyal service in the face of immense danger to the personal safety and even the lives of their brave men and women.

I'd especially like to highlight the debt of gratitude we all owe the thousands of incredible fireys and emergency service volunteers from across the country who fought the flames and showed incredible determination and selflessness to save their fellow Australians' lives, properties and livestock. I'm immensely proud of volunteer Territorians who did just that, such as Rob, a local Rotary NT Firey of the Year, who came down to help the Queenslanders fight their fires. I pay tribute to Rob's family too. I pay tribute to all firefighters, whether they're volunteers or career firefighters. It's a very difficult job, and I know that well—my brother is a firefighter up in Darwin. Their job is very difficult indeed. I want to pay tribute to other interstate fire and emergency crews, including those from Tassie who helped in Queensland and New South Wales. I also want to acknowledge Team Rubicon Australia, 'the greyshirts', who are working in country towns in New South Wales as we speak.

The ADF, of course, are always there to assist, and they were able, around their operational requirements, to provide a lot of support to firefighting efforts—regular soldiers, sailors and airmen and reservists alike. The Air Force transported fireys from interstate. The Army engineers, with their dozers, did great jobs in clearing firebreaks. In aviation, the helicopters were up in the air spotting fires. There was also great work done by 7th Brigade in Brisbane, for example. Their Emergency Support Force was out searching for missing persons.

Tragedy can and does bring out the best as well as the worst in us humans, but in this case, with these fires, we've seen some of the best of what human solidarity, compassion and cooperation can achieve. This should give us hope and remind us that some policy areas are just too big and the consequences of potential mistakes too disastrous to just resort to digging into our partisan trenches. I think disaster management is one such policy area. It's in such a bipartisan spirit that Labor has approached these bushfires, recognising the primary task at hand is to ensure lives and properties are kept safe.

Labor stands ready to support this effort. In the Leader of the Opposition's letter to the PM, the member for Grayndler put forward Labor's constructive proposal that an urgent meeting of the Council of Australian Governments seek to firm up Australia's natural disaster preparedness by specifically addressing the following: steps towards a new national strategy for disaster preparedness, ensuring emergency services—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Proceedings suspended from 11:55 to 12:06

In continuation, what I've been keen to do today is to talk about the destruction the bushfires have brought to areas of our country and to thank all the respondents, from the police commissioners and the volunteer fireys to all of those who have supported them from around the country—and even New Zealand; we've had our brothers and sisters from across the Tasman helping out—including the Australian Defence Force and volunteer organisations like Team Rubicon Australia. I've also reinforced that disaster management and preparedness is a policy area that demands bipartisanship and that Labor stands ready to work constructively with the government on this.

There are some things that we need in our national strategy for disaster preparedness. We obviously need to make sure that our services are adequately funded, both at a state and a federal level. I think we need to expand the capacity of Australia's National Aerial Firefighting Centre and provide it with appropriate funding. Gone are the days when Elvis comes over for a season and, 'She'll be right.' We need to seriously increase our aerial firefighting ability. As I said earlier, it's been great that Army Aviation have been able to help out with their helicopters in doing that fire-spotting work. We need to continue to invest and probably increase our investment in research on national disaster response, recovery and mitigation. We need to look at measures required to attract, retain and appropriately reward volunteers, because we've seen with these fires how incredibly important they are, but we also need businesses to be enabled to support their staff who choose to volunteer, in very much the same way that businesses who have Army or ADF reservists working for them are supported.

We need to develop an action plan around climate adaptation—I don't think anyone who's serious about this issue would deny that—and bring forward disaster mitigation funding in recognition of the immediate dangers and impending disaster this season. We are not yet into December and we have had these horrific fires. I, with others, call on this House to work on a bipartisan basis to enhance our capacity to coordinate and respond to future disasters and urge that we keep in mind those who have suffered through this month's fires. Importantly, let's channel our collective pain into acting to ensure that this experience makes us even better prepared for the worst to come.

Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Assistant Minister for Children and Families) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The recent bushfires in Yeppoon have devastated the community and are some of the worst natural disasters the area has seen in recent memory. On the afternoon of Saturday 9 November fire broke out on Old Byfield Road in Cobraball. In a matter of hours the fire spread quickly and immediately threatened lives and properties. I live in Yeppoon and I can remember vividly the smoke haze that fell onto the area. Evacuations were called in the evening and continued throughout the night and well into the next day. Overall, evacuations continued for over 48 hours.

The fire frontage totalled 17 kilometres by 13 kilometres—a truly massive and terrifying wall of fire. After the flames subsided enough to survey the damage, 15 homes and 56 structures were destroyed and approximately 12,000 hectares were affected or destroyed, including 8,500 hectares of grazing land. Some 19 localities in the Livingstone Shire Council were affected by the bushfire, including Barmaryee, Bungundarra, Cobraball, Adelaide Park, Farnborough, Inverness, Lake Mary and Woodbury. Twenty-seven structures and eight houses were severely to moderately damaged, along with 243 operations or businesses impacted within the immediate fire-damaged area. Around 274 hectares of horticulture and tropical fruit production were also lost to the flames, including the crops on Robert and Jocelyn Sikes' farm and Jack and Rae Cowie's farm. It's been amazing how the community have got behind our farmers and the people who have lost property and had major damage to the farms. Groups like Rotary have been out there helping cut down trees. It's been very impressive.

The area is no stranger to bushfires. We have seen five bushfire disasters in three years, including the Byfield and Shoalwater Bay fires in 2017, the Caves fire in 2018 and the Byfield fire in 2019. I hosted the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, and the minister for emergency management, the member for Maranoa, David Littleproud, at Yeppoon last week to visit the farms. Both the Sikes family and the Cowie family estimate that the financial loss to their farms could be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of dollars. We witnessed the damage firsthand—damage that could have been minimised if the Queensland government had lifted restrictions to allow the farmers and the property owners to burn back adequately and safely.

Despite the damage the bushfire left behind, the stories of kindness and consideration that the community has shown one another are truly inspiring. Total strangers offered as much help as they could in the moment. This ranged from an extra pair of hands to fend off the flames near a home or a small and reassuring gesture like offering a cuppa and a friendly ear to listen. It is a testament to the community that we have in Yeppoon, and it's a community that I am very proud to be part of.

I want to thank and commend all the emergency personnel who fought the flames, often without sleep and without a break for days, and the local businesses and the farmers who stood side by side with the fireys. You saved lives, you saved properties and you saved homes. The community is in your debt, and we thank you for your sacrifice to keep people and properties safe.

While one of the worst bushfires the area has seen is now over, we still have a long road ahead with recovery efforts and the rebuilding of homes and properties. I'm happy to say that the Australian government has made available financial assistance to people affected by the bushfires in Livingstone Shire. Assistance has been provided through the activation of the Australian government Disaster Recovery Payment and the Disaster Recovery Allowance.

The Australian government Disaster Recovery Payment is a one-off non-means-tested payment of $1,000 for eligible adults and $400 for eligible children who have been adversely affected by the bushfires. The Disaster Recovery Allowance is also being made available to provide a short-term support payment to assist those who have lost their income as a direct result of the bushfires, which is income assistance for up to 13 weeks, equivalent to the maximum rate of Newstart allowance or youth allowance. The extension of the AGDRP and the DRA is over and above the support already being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. Both payments have been available since 13 November, and I encourage anyone who has been adversely affected to call the Department of Human Services and ask about their eligibility for assistance.

I am very disappointed that the Queensland government has rejected calls for a parliamentary inquiry into these bushfires. The member for Keppel, who's electorate encompasses Yeppoon, said that Queensland doesn't want politicians running an inquiry into bushfires. I think a lot of property owners and farmers in Yeppoon would disagree with that. Conducting important inquiries, such as this one into these devastating bushfires, is exactly why they are elected.

Nearly all of the property owners who I have spoken to have said that land clearing restrictions in place have made fires worse. Even when they have applied for special considerations to back-burn adequately and to do hazard reduction burns, they wait months and months for a response. The IGEM report, released earlier this year, said the Queensland government must reassess its native vegetation legislation. The Queensland government owes a parliamentary review to the farmers, the property owners and the volunteer firefighters who battled the blazes on the ground. While we cannot totally eliminate all of the risks presented by bushfires, considered and responsible steps need to be made to ensure our farmers, Queensland's true conservationists, can adequately burn back the areas that could potentially destroy their homes or properties if left unattended.