Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the premise of the comment that's just been made there. I did not say yesterday that Australians should be happy or should be grateful. I said that the feedback I've received on the ground from the majority of people who I have encountered since I've been out on the bushfire firegrounds has been that they are grateful for the response that they've received from the federal government and the state government, and from their communities—their local government. I think that to come in here and seek to misrepresent me is not doing Senator Ayres any service.

However, what I would say, Senator Ayres, is that the response to these unprecedented fires has been unprecedented in itself. It's the first time that the military has been called out to the kind of degree that it has. This is the first time that the federal government has had to stand up a National Bushfire Recovery Agency, and there has been an absolute myriad of programs put in place, including the $2 billion made available by our good economic management.