Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on a matter of public interest and that is the incompetent response of the federal coalition and the state coalition to the bushfire emergency in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. The Blue Mountains were severely impacted by the recent bushfires—203 homes destroyed and a further 110 homes damaged. Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge the IFS, the interstate firefighters, the SES, the police, the national parks personnel and the volunteers, who played a fantastic role in assisting the Blue Mountains community—my community—to recover as quickly as possible from the immediate impact of the bushfires. Across the state of New South Wales, which I represent, we had a period of damaging and destructive bushfires. I am not convinced that this will be the last that we will have of damaging and destructive bushfires as the summer progresses.

I want to acknowledge the loss of life in the recent bushfires: David Black, the pilot who was fighting bushfires west of Ulladulla, and Walter Linder, the resident and retiree who suffered a heart attack following his attempts to save his home. I offer the condolences of the federal Labor Party and my condolences to the families and friends of those who suffered these grave losses.

I also acknowledge the skill and professionalism of the emergency response groups. Professionalism played a great role in making sure that there was no further fire damage loss. But there was a lot of luck, in that the fire went through when many people were at work and houses were empty. If you see the destruction of the houses in the Blue Mountains, you can understand why standing beside your home with a garden hose in 80- or 90-kilometre winds is not a very safe thing to do. Communities along the Bells Line of Road, including Bell and Bilpin, and the communities of Yellow Rock and Winmalee were devastated by these bushfires.

I want to note the findings of the RFS and the involvement of the Defence Force in the fires. I do not want to pre-empt any inquiry, but I think it is quite clear that the north-western fire did emanate from activities of the Defence Force.

I have been criticised by the member for Macquarie, Mrs Louise Markus, and the state member for the Blue Mountains, Roza Sage, for apparently politicising the bushfires. I believe that, in a situation like that which my community faced, it is a politician's responsibility to represent the community's needs to the government, not the government's needs to the community. I think Senator Payne, who is the Minister for Human Services, Mrs Markus and Mrs Sage have failed in their responsibility as parliamentarians to look after people in distress and to look after their community when it is under real pressure. I think they fail to understand the difference between representing their party's position in the community and representing the community's position back to their party. It takes some courage to stand up on an issue, and they have failed the test of having the courage to stand up for the community that they represent. I do not care if people say I am politicising this, because my responsibility, first and foremost, is to my community when it is facing a disaster. First and foremost, I will represent the views and the needs of my community. Unfortunately, the coalition, at both the state and the federal level, have failed to do that.

The climatic conditions that led to the fires in the Blue Mountains are consistent with the forecasts of the CSIRO, the Climate Commission—