Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Carr. Can the minister explain to the Senate how the new CSIRO Pyrotron bushfire simulator will benefit the Australian community?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Farrell. I certainly can tell you. Bushfires have a devastating effect on communities around the country, and nobody understands that better than the people of Canberra—both permanent residents and those of us who spend a large part of our working lives here. The firestorm that engulfed the city on 18 January 2003 claimed four lives. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. The Eyre Peninsula bushfires of 2005 left nine people dead. The Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 killed 75 people in Victoria and in South Australia. The Hobart bushfires of 1967 resulted in 62 deaths.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You might not be interested, but the CSIRO Pyrotron will help us avoid disasters like this in the future. It will usher in a new era of bushfire research in Australia. Up until now, researchers have been obliged to study bushfire behaviour by lighting fires in the open. The problem with that, of course, is that they can only do it in mild weather, making it difficult to draw conclusions about how the fires might behave in extreme conditions. Field experiments are also hard to control, and impossible to repeat precisely.

The CSIRO Pyrotron will help us to overcome all of these limitations. It fights fire with fire. The Pyrotron is a 25 metre long wind tunnel in which researchers can create and observe fires. It will enable scientists to simulate the behaviour of fires, study the mechanisms by which they spread and understand the chemistry of combustion. This will give fire authorities the practical information they need to suppress fires more effectively and with fewer risks to firefighters on the front line. It will also help save lives and protect— (Time expired)

Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister inform the Senate what economic benefits we can expect from the CSIRO Pyrotron?

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bushfires exact an enormous human toll but they also destroy huge amounts of public and private property. They are job destroyers in agriculture, in forestry and in tourism. The ACT fires of 2003 laid waste to invaluable infrastructure, including the historic Mount Stromlo Observatory. They did enormous damage to rural properties and razed over two-thirds of the Australian Capital Territory’s pasture, forests and parks. Bushfire costs Australia around $70 million a year and has cost more than $2.5 billion over the last four years. The Pyrotron will enable us to limit the economic damage caused by bushfires. It will help us improve not only the way we fight fires but also the way we manage our land and forests. It will give us the information we need to minimise the risk. (Time expired)

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.