Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about a tragic accident that took place recently in my electorate of Hotham and also about the incredible display of strength, leadership and courage in my community that's shone through in the aftermath. The Bright Moon Buddhist temple in Springvale spectacularly lit into flames about nine days ago. One hundred and fifty-five firefighters were called to the scene, and it took about 2½ hours to bring the flames under control.

The heartbreak that this has caused in my community is really hard to put into words. This temple has been under construction for 25 years and, to see it burnt down in 2½ hours, the local community is just simply and completely devastated. All of you who have places of worship in your electorates would know that these temples are not just religious centres. This was a community hub, where thousands of my constituents would gather together to share spirituality. It was an unusual temple in the sense that lots of different communities worshipped there. I have lots of Chinese constituents, and constituents of Cambodian and Vietnamese ethnicity, who worshipped there. Even some of my Indian-Australian constituents would use this temple as a gathering place. It was the heart of the Buddhist community in my electorate.

The local community has suffered an intense personal loss by the fact that this important piece of our local area has suffered so much damage. But something else which has been very, very distressing for people is that somewhere between five and 10 per cent of the 600 urns containing ashes were destroyed in the fire. Those are enormously important, spiritually, to the people of my community. I want to share with the chamber, just briefly, that I visited this community on Sunday to stand with them and talk to them about how I wanted to help their rebuilding efforts. They told me that when the firefighters arrived, they explained the importance of the urns. The firefighters were able to salvage almost 90 per set of those urns. It really made my heart sing to think that the community came together, understanding the importance of the urns to that community and were, in the end, able to save most of them. I want to acknowledge the emergency service workers who slaved so hard to try to minimise the damage from the fire. I value you intensely, and your hard work does not go unnoticed by our community.

It's going to be a really long road to rebuild, but I can say that if there is a community out there that can do this that then it's my community in Hotham. It was a privilege to stand with Mr Vinh Ly, who is the president of the community there, on the weekend and discuss how we can try to work together to do this. It's moments like this, where everyone in my community is hurting together but also building with optimism together, which make me very proud to represent this amazing part of south-east Melbourne.