Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to congratulate every member of every party and the Independents of this house and the other house for the impending passage of this legislation, the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Fair Protection for Firefighters) Bill. I pay tribute to the member for Melbourne, Mr Adam Bandt, the Independent Bob Katter, Labor backbencher Maria Vamvakinou, Liberal backbencher Russell Broadbent, all the components of the Senate who have contributed here today and everybody else who has enabled this legislation to come before us. That of course goes primarily to the men and women of the great firefighting services of Australia and their voice through the United Firefighters Union.

On a day in which our hearts go out to the crews who are currently battling this massive and destructive fire at Margaret River in Western Australia, it brings home to us the indebtedness we 22 million Australians have to the remarkable service that firefighters give us, at threat to themselves, in making our own lives more secure from the ever-present spectre of catastrophic fire.

From Canada to Canberra, from Manitoba to Melbourne, through the intermediary of the hard work of the United Firefighters Union, and all who are associated with it, this parliament has been informed about an excellent, socially just piece of legislation that is now to be implemented in our nation. We go into the next year, 2012, with firefighters—as a result of their own work, through the great democratic process we have in Australia—having behind them a parliamentary contribution that will in turn make their lives a bit safer.

On behalf of all I dedicate this impending passage of legislation to those firefighters who have lost their lives directly and, not least, to those firefighters, and they must number in their many hundreds, who have lost their lives because of the indirect impact of the chemicals they have ingested—the cancers that have come from that—and who have not known about the relationship let alone the process that has taken their lives from them earlier than nature would have expected. But it is great to know that, in future, people who put their lives on the line for community service will have this legislation to give them a better go because of the dedicated work of the service and the union.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a third time.