Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning, I had a very constructive discussion with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Prime Minister Trudeau was deeply grateful for the help that is being provided by Australia to deal with the dreadful fires that are currently ripping through Canada. It was late at night there in Canada, but he wanted to speak to me to convey his thanks to our firefighters and to our nation, and I committed to passing on his thanks here to this chamber. There are currently 422 active fires burning across Canada, with 199 of those considered to be out of control. Over 3.3 million hectares of land have burned, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced. Unfortunately, we in this chamber are familiar with these scenarios, which are coming more often and with more intensity around the world.

I am so proud, as all Australians should be, that there are currently 364 Australian firefighters and incident management specialists on the ground and that additional crews of 124 are preparing to leave in coming days. These Australians come from every single state as well as from the ACT, and they are making an enormous difference on the ground. I say to the Australians: please keep yourselves safe. We know that in 2019-20 that not only did so many Australians lose their lives but American firefighters who were here to assist lost their lives as well. So, to our firefighters, we say: we are proud of you. We now return that favour to our friends. Canada provided 100 firefighters here during that summer of 2019-20. We spoke this morning with Prime Minister Trudeau—and I have had these discussions with President Biden as well—about how, increasingly, with climate change leading to more intense and more frequent events, we're going to have to have these exchanges more and more, most tragically. We say to our firefighters: thank you. You do our nation proud.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I associate the opposition with the Prime Minister's fine words and send our very best thoughts, wishes and prayers to those who are fighting in our country's name on behalf of Australians, alongside their brothers and sisters in Canada at the moment. Australia is renowned around the world for those men and women who wear the uniform of our Australian Defence Force, but there are also those paramedics, those firefighters and those police officers who are quite often deployed internationally to hotspots of difficulty in our region and right across the world because of the reputation that they have earned over a long period of time. The training that is done conjointly and the shared values that we have with a country like Canada come to the fore in an hour of need. Canada knows—and no doubt Prime Minister Trudeau would have conveyed this to you, Prime Minister—that when Canada is in need of help we stand up and provide that help to her, as Canada has on so many occasions provided it to us.

We say to the families of those Australian firefighters who are deployed at the moment that this will be a period of anxiety for you and for those colleagues who are left behind, who will be worrying about the safety of those officers who are fighting these fires in Canada. We wish them every success. Godspeed, and may they return safely and quickly. No doubt they will provide support to the Canadians to save life and property in their quest there.