Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

People suffered so much from last summer's fires, and our government has failed far too many of them. Despite the unprecedented tragedy of the bushfire season, the news cameras have now largely gone. But for so many people, particularly in my home state of Victoria, the impact is still ongoing. People in East Gippsland are still living in sheds and caravans, even in tents. They haven't been given a time line for when the rubble remains of their homes will be cleared away. Recent media reports tell us that Rotary volunteers supplied about 34 shipping containers to be used as temporary homes, but another hundred were needed. I'd like to read the words of one survivor who's faced trauma: 'Your memory and thoughts are all muddled. I go to counselling every week to try to process my emotions and to understand it. I am a very capable person, but there have been times I have struggled to even make a phone call.'

But it's not just the tangible help directly after the fires where the failure has occurred. In late May, the Finance and Public Administration References Committee heard from Greg Mullins. He was representing Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, a group of 33 former fire and emergency service chiefs and deputy chiefs, covering every fire service in Australia. His words were powerful:

It's settled science; there's no question. The atmosphere is warming due to the burning of oil, coal and gas. Just a 1.1-degree increase has led to weather conditions that have never been experienced before … in just under 50 years of fighting fires … we haven't seen fires of this magnitude before.

Even more scary, he told us that, when he spoke about the climate emergency, 'I was spoken to by my minister at the time and by some senior officials.' What kind of pathetic excuse for a liberal democracy are we living in? We should be listening to the science and to our independent officials, but, instead, the government gagged them. In that same hearing we heard that before the Prime Minister went off on holiday to Hawaii he knew of the unprecedented nature of the fire season that we faced and he went anyway. The Prime Minister buggered off during last season's bushfires, but he has the chance to do the right thing now.

The coalition can and must support people who have survived these fires, to treat them with respect, treat them as if they were family, and they must do it soon. People should not still be living in tents. The government can do a lot more to invest in and rejuvenate local communities and create jobs in environmental rehabilitation, to restore damaged landscapes: employ people working in the bush to tackle weeds and pest animals; fence off rivers and streams; build tourism infrastructure, like walking and cycling trails. They could start protecting our forests, employing local people, including First Nations peoples, in doing that, and stop native forest logging, which is doing more damage to our forests, on top of the fires, killing more wildlife—on top of the billon animals killed in the fires.

In East Gippsland, where people have been suffering so much, there's a proposal for the Emerald Link. It's a proposal for forest protection and tourism and recreation infrastructure, from the mountains to the coast, that would rejuvenate local economies and be an icon project, something to be really proud of, and would reflect what an extraordinary part of the country East Gippsland truly is. These projects are good for people, and good for our economy and our environment, and they can be undertaken quickly and efficiently compared with the massive mining and development projects that the government announced today—which they want to fast-track, trashing and slashing our environment protections and our precious wildlife.

Finally, the Morrison government must do more on the climate emergency. We know climate change makes fires more intense and more frequent. People suffered so much from last summer's firestorms that were so intense, because of the one degree of heating that we have already experienced. Just think what three to four degrees of global heating will do! That's what the Morrison government have us on track for. On top of the Morrison government's failure to look after bushfire victims, failure to plan and deliver sustainable economic initiatives, Morrison's inaction on the climate crisis is risking Australian lives—last summer, the coming summer and all summers to come.