Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

From Bega on the South Coast up to Rappville up in the Northern Rivers, Australians impacted by the summer bushfires are being failed by the federal government. It's been six months since the unprecedented fires, but only four per cent of those impacted have received support. It has been estimated that 7.1 million Australians were impacted directly or indirectly by the fires, yet only 291,000 people have been supported through disaster recovery payments. It doesn't matter how people seek to quibble with those statistics. It's a pretty poor record and it's borne out by the stories on the ground. It's borne out by the stories about the fact that only 288 businesses have been approved for a concessional loan as part of the government's bushfire recovery package. It's borne out by the further information that only $219 million of the $362 million allocated to demand-driven bushfire recovery programs has been spent. Survivors of these fires need support and they need it urgently. The government's lack of action and their lack of ambition for these communities is completely shameful. It reflects an overall complacency and laziness about their role—a focus on themselves and their own jobs at the expense of the communities that they have promised to protect and support.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problems that people are facing in regional areas. In Eden-Monaro, people who watched their houses burn just months ago are now facing serious challenges with unemployment and facing the closure of small businesses. In the region 7½ per cent of jobs have been lost during COVID-19, the 11th-highest electorate in the country, and when you talk to people from the area they express their disappointment in the federal government's response. Many are still struggling to get back on their feet from the fires, and now they face this. My office has heard from a man who lived just one kilometre from the fire in Toowoomba, and this man defended his property. He watched while many of his neighbours' houses burnt. Social-distancing measures have made it difficult for him to access the supplies he needs, but he has persevered and he's repaired his property. These are strong and resilient communities, but they need significantly more support to recover from these very difficult times. It says something about the motivations of those opposite that much-needed temporary housing was only made available once a by-election was announced. It was a media opportunity. This electorate needs strong local representation. It needs a person like Kristy McBain, who was a fierce advocate for locals through the fires and is someone who will take this fight to Canberra.

The thing is that the immediate crisis may have passed but it hasn't passed for the people who have endured so much. For many people there is not going to be a return to normal for a very long time. As Amanda Gearing, a researcher in this area, has written, the effects of a serious natural disaster last for many years. Five years after the floods in Queensland, people are still struggling, and the journey has been longer and more difficult for people who lost family members during or after the disaster, who were traumatised by a near-death experience, who could no longer work in their old job, who had significant health problems or who had insurance claims that were slow, difficult or rejected. These people don't cease to require support just because the fires have been put out. We are talking about a long journey to recovery, and these are communities who know how to manage and advocate for their own interests. It was the community that led the response to the bushfires and it's now the community that is leading the response to COVID-19.

The government needs to provide support to these communities to give them the tools and resources that they need. They don't ask for much, but they do ask, at a minimum, for governments to take an interest in their lives. They ask for governments to think about the fire seasons that may lie ahead, to take seriously the warnings from professionals and to actually start to tackle the issues with climate change that have provided an accelerant to an already dangerous climate. We cannot afford to be complacent. Our lives depend on it. (Time expired)