Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Our hearts break for the tragedy that our nation has just endured over the summer. This devastating fire season, which started just days out of winter, has demonstrated the reality of the new normal—the climate emergency that Australia is now facing. Summer, which used to be a time of joy and relaxation, has become a time of terror and great loss.

Our deepest and sincerest condolences go to those who have lost their lives and to the loved ones that they've left behind. Our hearts go out to the families of Bob Lindsey and Gwen Hyde, Vivian Chaplain, George Nole, Julie Fletcher, Barry Parsons, Chris Savva, Geoffrey Keaton, Andrew O'Dwyer, Sam McPaul, Robert Salway and Patrick Salway, David Moresi, Mick Roberts, Fred Becker, Mat Kavanagh, Bill Slade, Ron Selth, Dick Lang and Clayton Lang, 10 more people who are yet to be identified and, of course, the three American aerial firefighters, Ian McBeth, Paul Clyde Hudson and Rick A DeMorgan Jr. We offer condolences to everyone who's lost their home, who's lost their business, whose communities have been ravaged over and over again and who continue to carry that mental and emotional devastation as they now try to rebuild their lives. It's right that we recognise them today and that we redouble our efforts to support that community recovery.

The Greens also wish to pay tribute to the phenomenal efforts of our paid and volunteer firefighting and emergency services personnel. They have worked tirelessly for months on end to defend life, property and land, and it is only because of their bravery and courage, showing the best of what Australians can be, that these fires and the results of them have not been much worse. They are heroes. We support the granting of the National Emergency Medal that the Leader of the Government in the Senate has flagged. That is appropriate. More needs to be done to support these heroes.

The best way to pay tribute to those lives that have been lost and to all of that emotional and physical toil and effort of those who have spent their whole summer fighting these fires will be to start in this parliament tomorrow working on a real plan to reduce emissions and to transition to a coal- and gas-free future. These fires were unprecedented, but they weren't unpredicted. Scientists, economists, community leaders and emergency services experts all warned the government of the risks and the need for action many, many months before the crisis began to unfold. This government ignored them and it now offers thoughts and prayers. That is not enough. Communities are anxious and they are angry. They are struggling with what the climate emergency means for them and their future, and they are feeling despair at the government's inaction and lack of compassion.

A survey released today shows the majority of Australians recognise the serious threat climate change poses to their future and they want this government—this parliament—to show leadership. And yet we have government members who don't accept the evidence. It was on TV again last night. I would like to remind the Senate of what the evidence actually is. The first serious fires of this season broke out in September in my home state of Queensland. We've had almost continuous fire warnings since then. That is five months of devastation. The physical toll is great, but the emotional and mental toll is crippling. We've had 33 people killed, and this fire season is not done yet. We've had more than 11 million hectares of our country burnt. We've had more than 3,000 homes destroyed. We've had hundreds of thousands of people evacuated and then re-evacuated. We've had hazardous air quality that has kept people inside and put many vulnerable Australians at risk. Some of us smelled the smoke last night. Canberra has not yet been devastated like other parts of our nation, but we can feel that this is happening. Now is the time to do something about it.

This government wants us to adapt. It wants us to adapt to this being the new normal. Well, we cannot adapt while there are plans to open new coalmines, keep coal-fired power stations open longer and extract more gas. How can that be the government's answer to what this nation has just endured? We cannot protect Australia's communities from more summers like this without serious climate action. Throughout this entire fire season, we Greens have been criticised for raising coal and the role that coal and fossil fuels are playing in making these fires worse. But, if now is not the time to talk about what the emergency service personnel and the climate scientists are saying is making this situation worse, when is going to be the time? If not now, when?

The world's watching, and the community is begging for genuine action from this government. Australians deserve better. This government needs to act on the climate crisis and, if it won't, it needs to get out of the way. We saw yesterday, in fact, the reason why we won't get real climate action—people in this building are beholden to the donations that they get from big fossil fuel companies. It is very telling that in the lead-up to the election there was $1 million donated to the big parties by big oil, big coal and big gas. That's on top of the $8.2 million they have accepted since 2012. I can see people are feeling a bit uncomfortable about this, but we will continue to raise the fact that democracy has been sold out. That is why we have no climate policy in this country. That is why the country has just endured the most devastating fire season that we have yet seen.

It didn't escape anybody's notice that Adani and their associated boss gave almost a quarter of a million dollars to this government in the year before the election. In fact, an amount was donated to this government just four days before the Minister for the Environment signed off on the final groundwater management plan for Adani, which was needed for it to proceed. A further $100,000 was donated just in the weeks after that decision was made. Santos didn't hedge their bets. They, in fact, made large donations to both sides of politics. And—hey, presto!—now they are going to be the beneficiaries of the Prime Minister's announcement that the government want to push open the gas fields in Narrabri against the very strong community sentiment that they want their land, water and climate protected.

Of course, we know that Clive Palmer wants to open up the Galilee Basin. He made some very generous donations, but he's amidst Woodside, Chevron, the Minerals Council and APIA—and this is on top of the revolving door between ministers' advisers and industry. When politics is run by fossil fuel money, it is not hard to understand the failure to act.

Throughout the summer, the Australian community once again demonstrated their generosity and their strength of spirit. They volunteered. They donated their time and their money to assist affected communities and to support firefighting services. The value of our charity sector and the strength of our community is unparalleled. But should the community really be paying for this? Fossil fuel companies have made a lot of money creating the climate crisis. It is about time they were made to pay to clean it up.

Nobody wants us to have to start every parliamentary session like we're starting today. I hope that the horror of this fire season serves as a turning point, not just for our nation but for this government to actually listen when the community stands up and demands action. We had 23 former fire chiefs begging the government last year for a meeting. They couldn't get one. They were punted about to various other ministers. They were clearly saying that tackling climate change requires rapidly and deeply reducing greenhouse gas pollution here in Australia and around the world. And they said that we've got the solutions at our disposal; we just need the political will to get on with the job. Our party has that will. Our parliament needs that will. And we commit to honouring the memories of those lost in these fires by progressing a green new deal to ensure that we can lead on the climate emergency, that we can listen to First Nations deep wisdom on caring for country, and that we can support communities and provide hope that the future can be better.

Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (12:41): Today I rise on behalf of the National Party to acknowledge the awesome contributions Australians have made in defending lives and livelihoods as this horrific bushfire season continues. Our deepest condolences are to those families who today are without their loved ones as a result of these fires. Thirty-three Australians have tragically died. Others here have spoken of the loss of flora and fauna to our nation.

The loss of life in our rural and regional communities hits home hard. They lost their lives putting themselves on the line to protect others. These men characterise the Australian spirit—loyal, hardworking, courageous; men who, as cattlemen and timber workers, appreciated the harsh environment this fire ravaged. They were good men, protecting their local patch. And all of us sympathise with their families. Over the past month, because these communities are also our communities, National Party MPs and senators have been in these communities, thanking and spending time with volunteers and emergency service personnel, sitting with the families who've lost husbands, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers. In north-east Victoria: Tallangatta, Cudgewa, Corryong, Myrtleford, Walwa. In Adelaide Hills we saw the impact on Woodside, Lenswood and Lobethal. Visiting Batlow, meeting the local IGA owners, Sam and Yin, and learning about that broader impact, I think, that the fire has had tragically had on communities and individuals. In Bega, Bemboka, Cobargo—I think it was probably a very challenging but also uplifting experience to be with the dairy farming family whose father and grandfather had perished. And, instead of being able to grieve, they had to get the cows milked that day. They had to get the fencing done. They were hardworking and generous. And the very heart of the fabric of the Cobargo community are Patrick Salway and his father, Robert. But the uplifting thing about the experience in Cobargo was what a rural community can do when it is so challenged. And, without state or federal governments, this community came together at the local showground and supported each other through a very, very tough time till real support could actually arrive. That generosity of spirit and commitment of the Cobargo locals to help their neighbours was incredibly inspiring.

I just want, I guess, to share an experience of one of these small communities, called Walwa, in the Upper Murray in my home state of Victoria. After the horror of the bushfire proper, Walwa was cut off from the rest of Australia in every single sense—no landline or mobile communications, no electricity, closed roads, no news. They couldn't receive the ABC emergency broadcast. But theirs is a story of resilience which has played out countless times across Australia over the last couple of months. It's a community built tough and practical, so they used old-fashioned UHF radio and word of mouth. They organised daily community meetings at the Walwa pub for updates, and it was a pub with literally no beer because they had no electricity. Towong is a rugged part of the Upper Murray and home to so many small communities, like Walwa, that were cut off and which seek to rebuild.

Rural farmers are also volunteer country firefighters. Like hundreds and hundreds of farmers and small-business operators across Australia, in recent months they've worked hard at preparing their properties and protecting their homes, their sheep and their cattle. Then they pulled on a uniform and worked with their local volunteer fire crew to protect their neighbours' farms and businesses, often returning to devastation at the home front, just like Walwa CFA captain, David Hanna. It is a one-unit brigade. They worked night and day for days and nights on end to protect their town. One tanker was manned by volunteers. Support crews came and went; the Walwa volunteer crew worked on and on. There were homes and lives to protect. The spirit of Australia, exhausted as it was, was there in that little town. So I salute David Hanna and his crew as examples of the brave men and women who worked so hard and saved so many lives and saved so many livelihoods as a result of their work.

We salute our volunteer firefighters and emergency services personnel. We salute the fabulous volunteers across the country for their unwavering commitment to protect their fellow Australians, the Red Cross ladies at the relief centres and the generosity of Australians in the very urgency of that disaster, even today rocking up to do fencing et cetera. We want you to come back. We're not broken. We need you to come back to our communities and help us with the task of rebuilding our economies and our communities.

There will be lessons learned so we can be better prepared and better equipped for the next fire, just as we learned and adapted when bushfires took the lives of 173 Victorians in a few hours on a ferocious Saturday afternoon almost 11 years ago. But, unlike that day in February 2009, these fires were not isolated to a region or a district; these fires were felt the length and breadth of eastern Australia, from Queensland to Tasmania and to South Australia. More than 18 million hectares burned. Here, around Canberra today, the country is still burning. Thousands of homes and buildings have been lost; millions of domestic and wild animals have been lost; businesses have been lost; incomes, livelihoods and lives have been lost. Rebuilding these impacted businesses and communities will take an intentional and coordinated approach. Just like Captain David Hanna and his Walwa crew, Australians are tough and practical. There is a job. Our government stands ready with state governments and local governments to assist those regional communities rebuild.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who've lost loved ones in this tragedy.