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

Mr President, I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the bushfires in Victoria.

Leave granted.

I thank the Senate for its cooperation. I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

records its deep regret at the loss of at least 108 lives as a result of Victorian bushfires that are continuing to threaten the state;

(b)

notes that four of these were children and the threat of these fires is not yet over;

(c)

expresses its heartfelt concern for those under hospital care suffering from severe burns and other critical injuries; and

(d)

conveys its thoughts and prayers to the families of the deceased and injured whose pain and suffering is shared by all Australians.

This motion is inadequate in dealing with the scale of the shocking tragedy that is currently taking place in Victoria. It is our intention to debate this condolence motion briefly and then to seek to adjourn the Senate as a mark of respect for those who have lost their lives, for those who are injured and for those who are awaiting anxiously news of their family and friends.

This is a disaster on a scale unimaginable in modern Australia. I think it has certainly snuck up on us in the sense that each day it seems to have grown in its enormity. The death and destruction that have been wreaked by these fires are unimaginable, and the speed at which they occurred and the lack of opportunity for people to escape the fires are extraordinary and frightening. We have lost many lives. The current official figure stands at 108, but the expectations are that that figure will go much higher and that there are many others who have lost their lives and have yet to be found or identified. I know many people throughout Australia are waiting anxiously for news of their loved ones. I travelled over to Canberra last night and I know that one of the flight attendants was most concerned about her relatives whom she had not had word of. There are thousands of people around Australia in a similar situation. It has been an enormous tragedy, a shocking natural disaster, one that exceeds Ash Wednesday and other major fires that we have experienced in the past, and the full extent of the damage and the deaths is not yet known.

As well as expressing our support to those who have lost loved ones, to those who are injured and to all those waiting for news of their family and friends, we also need to pay respect to the firefighters who are currently on the front line still dealing with enormous fires. The volunteer and bushfire brigades are the permanent firefighters. I understand some have come from Tasmania today to assist. They all do a fantastic job, putting their lives at risk to try and protect the community and the public. In fact, most of them do it unpaid, out of their sense of community. Their courage and the commitment those firefighters give to their communities never cease to amaze me. Also, SES and ambulance officers and all those others who have volunteered their services to assist these communities are responding in a tremendous way in the face of this terrible tragedy, and we recognise and honour the support that they are providing and the courage that they are showing.

Mr President, I am able to give the Senate an update from the information that the government has to hand as to the current situation, but I stress it is developing and I think the official figures at the moment do not reflect the extent of the tragedy. As I have said, the most recent count is 108 confirmed fatalities. Seven hundred and fifty houses have been destroyed and 3,733 people have been evacuated from their homes. The Prime Minister announced yesterday that the Australian government would support the Victorian government by whatever means possible. The Australian Defence Force has already provided 150 mattresses and portable beds for relief centres in Baw Baw Shire. The ADF has also supplied tents, stretchers and sleeping bags for 200 people, and heavy equipment to assist with establishing control lines in Yea township.

Two additional Erickson Air-Cranes and two Sikorsky S61s have arrived in Victoria to support the two Victorian Erickson Air-Cranes. I understand that other fire brigades, from New South Wales, ACT and South Australia—and, I think, from Tasmania today—are deploying crews to assist in Victoria because the threat of fires continues. Obviously, there is also an enormous amount of work in mopping up.

Mr President, I know the whole Senate is shocked by the extent of the destruction that these fires have caused. I know that Canberra residents in particular will be very much aware of the damage that fire can do, having gone through a very bad fire in 2003. They suffered the enormous impact this has on communities beyond that particular fire, but the impact on the community and families spreads much further. Victorians will need our support, not only in the coming days but in the years ahead. As I have said, the government has announced an assistance package just as a quick response. There is obviously much more to be done, and that will be done over coming days and weeks.

I also urge all Australians to be generous in making donations to assist in the recovery. Australians always respond very well to these sorts of events with their support. I remember going up to the local shops on the day of the tsunami and finding the Red Cross already had a table set up. A couple of mature-age ladies were already out collecting and I had only heard the news about an hour and a half before. The community has a tremendous capacity to respond—not only practically, as they are doing in Victoria now, but also with financial support and by offering whatever support we can to those families affected. So I do encourage Australian citizens to donate.

I also want to join with others in making the point about how devastating deliberately lighting fires can be. Some still do not seem to get the message about how destructive such activity can be. It is very important we continue to ram home the message that that behaviour will not be tolerated and severe penalties will be applied. The best response is to try to make sure people do not engage in such activity. There is nothing funny or thrilling about the damage that it causes.

Mr President, it is an evolving situation. We are still awaiting more information as events unfold. It is appropriate today that the Senate makes its only business this expression of condolence and support. I acknowledge the cooperation the government has received from the opposition and the minor parties and Independents in facilitating what I think is the appropriate management of the chamber today. We obviously have important business to deal with and we will need to get on with that in our committee work and in the parliament in coming days. But we seek today to recognise the enormous tragedy that is occurring in Victoria, the speed and extent of the destruction from fire that has not been seen before in this country. I think we are all shocked by just how widespread the destruction is and how fast all of this occurred. Our main concern is to express support for those still waiting for news of their loved ones, to record our condolences to the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones and, of course, to mark the terrible loss of life and the loss of so much human potential with those who have died. I thank the Senate for its cooperation and urge all senators to support this appropriate remark of respect, as I am sure they will.

Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the opposition, I join with the government in supporting Senator Evans’s motion and in expressing our profound sadness about what has occurred in Victoria over this terrible weekend. This really is a tragic event, and I think the full ramifications of what has occurred are yet to be fully realised. There is still great risk; there are fires still burning out of control in Victoria. The devastation these destructive fires have caused is unbelievable to local communities in that state. We have had small and very close knit communities completely torn apart, whole towns wiped out like they had been bombed in some war. The pictures are horrific. Of course, as Senator Evans said, what is incumbent on all of us now is to join together as Australians and show our full support for those whose lives have been devastated by what has occurred. The loss is extraordinary: people, homes, property, stock. Many families have lost everything. People who have devoted their lives to building their homes and houses and communities—all wiped out in seconds. It is just a reminder of the sort of country we live in, one that can be beautiful one day but fierce and destructive and violent the next.

The ferocity of the fires, the magnitude of the destruction, is really beyond comprehension and touches many of us in many ways. My wife and I had a very difficult night on Saturday night knowing that her brother and his family were on their farm in Gippsland, surrounded by fire and unable to leave. Telephone communications ceased about midnight. Fortunately they were spared—we discovered the next morning they were spared—but it touches us all.

As Senator Evans said, Australians are incredibly resilient. We will overcome this. We all now have to turn our attention to how we help those affected by the tragedy. We support all of the initiatives that the government is taking. We will seek to provide our own suggestions as to how the government can continue to help.

These fires are a reminder of the history of bushfires in this country that have devastated so many parts of it. The fires here in Canberra in 2003, which I was present for, the fires on Eyre Peninsula in my state of South Australia not that long ago, the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983 in Victoria and South Australia, and Black Friday in 1939. My mother lost her brother in the 1939 fires. So we are all touched one way or another by these sorts of tragic events. But we have rebounded from those: communities have come back together, rebuilt their lives and their communities, and that will happen again in this case.

I am reminded that it was only last year that we observed the 25th anniversary of Ash Wednesday, which we thought would never be surpassed, but this tragedy has done so. It has happened again, and I think we are all shocked by the extent of the devastation and the ferocity of these fires. The opposition supports all of the efforts of the Victorian and federal governments to help those communities. Everything that can be done must and should be done.

To all those emergency service volunteers—and last night, as I was coming from Adelaide to Canberra, outside Adelaide Airport there were volunteer South Australian firefighters heading to Victoria to help—the CES and the CFA in Victoria, we pay enormous tribute. They do put themselves in enormous danger fighting to protect the properties and the lives of their communities. We want to thank the personnel of the Australian Defence Force who are now moving into the area and helping in the aftermath and in the continued effort to contain, as I say, fires that are still burning out of control. To all the volunteers who are assisting as they can, we express our appreciation for their efforts to make this as easy as possible for the victims and their families and the communities, who are going to need all the support we can give them to rebuild. To the Red Cross and all the medical teams—the terrible work of those in the burns units in hospitals in Melbourne, dealing with those who have lived but who have horrific injuries—we extend our sympathies and support for their work.

There are some amazing stories of survival emerging, and we hope there will be more. As Senator Evans said, 108 people, regrettably, have perished, and there is every possibility that that tally will rise as more of the homes that have been destroyed are properly searched. It is a tragic reality that there may be more victims. It is a tragic day for Australia. The whole parliament is united in extending our thoughts and prayers to all those who are victims of what has occurred. We stand strongly behind all those Victorian communities affected and we will certainly, for our part, support the government in everything it can do to help in what has been an absolutely tragic weekend.

Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to concur with the remarks and condolences of both Senator Evans and Senator Minchin. Australia today speaks as one in sympathy, in support and with prayers for those who have perished; for those in the burns units; for the doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and paramedics; and for the unrelenting dedication to duty of the firefighting units, police, charity organisations and neighbours. It is impossible to fathom the pain and range of emotions that leave those afflicted bewildered by the ferocity of nature—a ferocity that has descended on our fellow Australians with forces beyond our comprehension. The forces of destruction, pain and destitution have taken their toll and now all of us here must do what is human but ultimately more powerful. Noting that we cannot remove their pain, we must do what we can do, which is show compassion. The evidence of that compassion will be in the blood given, the money donated, the bed given to a neighbour and the capacity to put aside the minimal and the parochial to concentrate on the task at hand. Most importantly, compassion will be seen in the durability of our attention to see this issue through to the best conclusion we can attain for those afflicted, knowing that other distractions will quickly become apparent before we have all finished the task at hand.

While the south burns, the north floods, and we are all the sinew which must make sure that the sentiment which is so uniquely Australian becomes a prevailing strength to bring all of us through. What can we offer those victims of nature—and, most disturbingly, in some instances, of the criminal and disgusting actions of those who knowingly and maliciously designed a course that would burn children and kill in the most horrific way and destroy families? We can pray that the weather works in favour of putting the fires out. We can pray that those in hospital pull through. We can deliver ourselves to a hospital and give blood. We can put our hands in our pockets and give what we can. We can promise to learn from our mistakes and make sure that we do not get ourselves in this position again. We must make sure that the victims of burns are given the best chance and those who have lost all are given the hope of a leg-up in their future life.

What makes a nation is not a government. That is merely a reflection of the people; it is not its centre. The centre is that definitive spirit that you can hear in our Australian accent, a peculiar self-deprecating sense of humour, our strong belief in opportunity for the underdog, our belief in our own capacity to quietly work hard without wanting laurels and, most importantly, the Australian ability to time and time again rally under a single banner when a crisis is before us. Putting aside our self and concentrating on the communal task will be the reflection of the highest aspiration of that wonderful goodness that is so seminal and makes us what we are and who we are here today.

Marysville, Murrindindi, Kinglake, Kinglake West, Bendigo, Bunyip, St Andrews, Churchill, Steels Creek, Humevale, Flowerdale—towns that may not have been noted much in the past in the further corners of our vast nation but to which all of Australia’s eyes are now turned. At the same time we do not forget the paradox of the pain in our north, with the floods that have already delivered tragedy to families in that region. We will not be forgetting Ingham and other North Queensland towns as they battle with another side of the destructive force that can be rent by nature’s fury. The tragedy of loss is always immense. It should not be belittled by numbers, as if there is some discerner of effect. The family that loses one member in the course of what are almost apocalyptic scenes is one member that nothing can replace. The vacancy is a hole in their lives forever.

When the role of the community is overwhelmed, it is only just that the state be called in to assist. In these fires the capacity of the community is reduced in its ability to deliver because of the extent of the destruction within it. But we all turn on the TV and what we see is ourselves in another part of our country. We see who we are and from within us we know we have to act and implore those in the appropriate positions to act on our behalf.

I did not know the adult in Kinglake whose remains were found with those of four children—they all perished together. But I pray that they are with our Lord. I did not know them, but I along with all here cannot bear the thought of the terror as we think of our own children. What burden do we shoulder and what pain can we possibly take away? We feel sadness with no repose, we feel anger with no direction, we feel desolate and search for a path that leads those most afflicted out of their pain. The only resolve is that the compassion of Australians is hard at work—it is at work today; it will be at work tomorrow. Whilst the memories are there, our compassion for our fellow Australians shall be the sign that we are a nation at its best when our fellow citizens are in greatest need. Our condolences are with the families, our boundless gratitude is with those hard at work in the hospitals and in the field, and our prayers are with the injured and deceased.

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join with all senators and, indeed, with all Australians in expressing deepest sympathy and condolences with everybody who is suffering from one of the greatest natural disasters in this nation’s history. Our national poet spoke about the beauty and the terror of this wide brown land. Over the few days since this Senate last sat, the terror has visited those people in Victoria in dimensions that we can scarcely imagine. We know that indescribable horror, terror, loss and human fear have been involved in the events that overtook the people in those small towns and those areas in recent days and that may yet overtake more.

It is in these situations where the greatest aid comes from the humanity and the compassion of this wonderful nation of 21 million people. We back our government and governments at all levels, including the Victorian government, in their ability to deliver aid wherever it is needed as fast as possible. We congratulate and are right behind all those people who are trying to fight and ameliorate the horror of these fires wherever they are in Australia. We are also right behind those who are dealing with the gruesome and horrible job of sifting through the ashes to try to identify people and get news out to loved ones. We are right behind those who are bringing medical aid and assistance to help those who have survived so that, hopefully, they can get their lives back together with our aid as best as humanity can provide. As a nation, we will put everything we can into aiding the people who are now suffering. I know that there is frustration right across the country—everybody wants to help but not everybody can. But we can dig deep into our pockets. We can express our condolences. We can contact those people who do not know what has happened to their loved ones. That is what we are doing here today as best we can.

I support, with all senators, this move to suspend our national parliament as a mark of respect and to put an arm around those who are suffering, even from such a great distance, and to share their suffering in the horrible period they are going through. We will do everything we can as a parliament and as a nation to get aid where it is needed as quickly and for as long as possible, through whatever barriers there may be in our way. I join in support of this motion and will continue to assure the government of every support it needs in going to the aid of the people who have suffered in this tragedy.

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of Family First, I want to offer condolences and prayers to the families and friends of the more than 100 people who died in the devastating Victorian bushfires over the weekend. This is an unbelievable tragedy still unfolding by the hour as firefighters continue to count the unimaginable loss that is so horrific and so personal. So many have lost loved ones, homes, farms, businesses and livelihoods.

Like many Victorians, my wife and I spent an agonising time over the weekend trying to reach friends and family who live in areas wiped out by the fires. I have friends in Marysville who are SES volunteers. We finally managed to get through to them this morning. They told us they escaped the town with nothing more than their SES overalls. They are in shock and they are numb, yet they are counting their blessings—they are alive. The interesting part is that, as they were out saving someone else—a woman in a car that a tree had fallen over on—their own house was about to be burnt. My brother lives around the Kinglake area. When we were last in contact yesterday, he had a car packed to send his wife and children away and was preparing to fight the fires with some of our other brothers. Last night we heard he was okay but were not able to raise him. I have just spoken to him and he is fine.

Yesterday, I met with firefighters from my local Country Fire Authority who were heading out into the Yarra ranges. Some had just come back. Once again, they were standing firm against raging fire to protect lives and properties. When you hear the stories of 200-foot and higher walls of smoke and red flames and a noise like two jet engines—I have never seen it or had to experience it before but many have—it is just horrific. I take my hat off to the firefighters, volunteers and SES people who have had to face that. Victoria’s emergency services and those from other parts of Australia that have rallied to support them are indeed heroes. We may never hear their stories but we know that they are there. I say to those men and women, ‘Thank you.’

Events like this change your perspective. It just makes me wonder what we are doing here today when there are so many other important things we could be doing to help people in fire devastated areas. The school my daughter attends has just halted all classes and is meeting to decide how they as a community can help. This is what we all need to do, not just for the next few days but for the next few months and longer—for as long as it is needed—to help our fellow Victorians come to terms with their devastating loss and to do whatever it takes to help them rebuild their homes and their lives. It is this hope that we need to hold on to. It is this hope that we need to offer our fellow Victorians who are devastated. There is no way we can let nature take lives like this without actually standing with them and rebuilding these local communities. It is this hope we must hold on to.

Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I endorse and support the remarks and sentiments of my colleagues and also offer my sympathies to those affected by the bushfire crisis and tragedy in Victoria. I cannot begin to imagine what it has been like for the people and communities involved and I fully support the government’s offer of widespread assistance. To the families who have lost loved ones, I want to express my deepest sympathies. To the people who have lost homes and belongings, I just want to say that all of us here are committed to helping you rebuild your homes and your lives. And to the firefighters and all the emergency services personnel, who risk their lives in order to protect the lives of others, I simply say thank you: you are the best of us and the debt our nation owes you is immeasurable. I support the motion.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today Australians are struggling to comprehend the nation’s worst-ever natural disaster. The bushfires that have raged throughout Victoria over the past few days have destroyed entire communities, razing townships and taking lives. Victoria and the nation are in mourning. At this time our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to the people most closely affected—our neighbours and friends, our families and loved ones. We know that there has been a horrific loss of life and we hold grave fears for others still unaccounted for. The injury toll alone is truly appalling. The scale of destruction of homes, businesses, loved pets, personal possessions and entire communities is so vast that it is difficult to comprehend.

Today, as the rest of the world wakes, it too is being greeted by news of this horrific event. Indeed, as I speak the bushfires are running as lead stories on the websites of major news agencies around the globe: the BBC, CNN, al-Jazeera and the China Daily to name but a few. The overwhelming sentiment is one of horror at the scale and the fact that some of these fires may have been deliberately lit. Indeed, the emergency is not over and, as the Prime Minister has said, the nation needs to prepare itself for further bad news in the coming days.

The response so far from emergency services personnel has been second to none. The Country Fire Authority, metropolitan fire brigades, police, ambulance and hospital staff and volunteers at community centres throughout the affected regions have all responded with extraordinary compassion and courage. The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment should be commended for its handling of the response logistics. I am informed that, despite the ferocity of the fires, emergency communications were not impacted. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for other communications’ infrastructure and, while providers continue to evaluate the impact, it is clear that substantial damage has been done.

The government is in close contact with telecommunications and broadcast providers regarding the disruption of services and actions to recover. Telstra has already announced that it is providing an assistance package to victims of the fires even as it works to calculate the scale of the damage. I understand that this amounts to a large number of mobile phone base stations, thousands of telephone and broadband lines and as many as 88 exchanges in affected areas. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is currently liaising with other telecommunications providers to establish the extent of damages.

I understand that broadcast infrastructure has also been impacted at locations including Mount Tassie, Mount Taylor, Yea and Myrtleford. Efforts are being made to ascertain the extent of disruptions and provide for recovery. In addition, Australia Post estimates that it has lost between six and 10 licensed post offices and that between 50 and 70 townships may be affected by road closures. Australia Post has announced a $1 million donation to the Victorian bushfire relief fund and that it will collect donations in more than 4,000 post offices across the country.

Local residents in the affected communities, many of whom have lost their homes and some of whom have lost friends and family to this terrible tragedy, have shown remarkable resilience and care for one another. Their dedication to their fellow Australians in the face of unimaginable circumstances is inspiring and humbling. Much of this response and support is voluntary and is a testament to the indomitable human spirit and character that runs through our communities. Bushfires have shaped the Australian environment. They have also shaped the spirit of a people who share that environment. They have inspired cooperation, courage and resilience. All of those qualities were on display on Saturday and Sunday. All of them are needed today.

As every hour brings us news of more deaths and more destruction for the families and communities who have endured horrors beyond imagination and suffered losses beyond recovery, we extend our hands and we open our hearts to them. The government, as has already been indicated, is directing the support of the Australian Defence Force to the disaster areas. Immediate emergency payments are now being made available via Centrelink for on-the-ground support in the affected areas. In addition, $10 million has been made available for a relief fund in conjunction with the Victorian government, and I urge the Australian public to support this fund. Donations to the fund can be made through the Red Cross.

Victoria is a state of closely connected communities and, given the scale of this disaster, we are all connected to it in some way. As a senator for Victoria I know many of the communities that have been directly affected by this disaster, but I also know that the people of these communities will respond in the only way Australians know how—with courage, compassion and good humour. Strong communities have been bound even more closely together by this tragedy. I was told of units from the Diamond Valley brigade who got four mayday calls from the fire front in the space of one afternoon. The mind boggles at what thoughts would have gone through the minds of any of these heroic volunteers when they heard their mates calling out for urgent assistance.

I must single out the heroism of the CFA, particularly Captain Ken Williamson, who was chainsawing through burning trees to allow CFA trucks through to the fire front at Kinglake West. Similarly, Captain David McGahy and the Arthurs Creek-Strathewen brigade, whose township was decimated by these fires, and estimates suggest that two-thirds of the properties have been burnt down as well as their school. The St Andrews brigade have a terrible homecoming: whilst they were busy saving the lives and properties of others, nearly half of the brigade lost their own homes.

Those on the ground have seen remarkable feats of survival, and there are stories of neighbours, friends and strangers pulling together to confront the kind of horror that most of us can only imagine. My friend state MP Ben Hardman, who spent Saturday night on the fire trucks, and Danielle Green, Parliamentary Secretary for Emergency Services and a CFA volunteer, report that they have been truly humbled by the response of their fellow Australians in this time of direst need.

In the face of this horrific force of nature, the human spirit and the power of community come to the fore. It is people who suffer and it is people who will pull us through—people such as teenager Rhys Sund, who drove a tiny tractor and trailer across country behind the fire front at Chum Creek near Healesville to save his sister Rhiannon and a group of frightened women and children from an isolated farmhouse; and Marg Hennell in Whittlesea, who, after being evacuated from her home due to the fires, has spent the last 48 hours working at the Whittlesea refuge centre, tending to the needs of others who have been similarly displaced. Today we are in mourning, but Australians are a determined, compassionate and practical people and we will rebuild our communities together.

Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure that we, and particularly my fellow Victorians, are all numb today because of the events over the weekend. We think particularly of those lying in hospitals at the moment who will carry the physical scars for life and who will clearly carry emotional scars as well. Many of those people have lost family and friends.

Victoria last week, with temperatures over 43 or 44 degrees, was dried to a crisp. We had a warning about Saturday, but no amount of warning can ever prepare people, even that extraordinary band of volunteers in Victoria. I give my thanks to the DSE fire officers as well. They were prepared as well as they could be, but you can never prepare for something like this. I spoke to a friend this morning who bought a fire pump on Friday, coincidentally. That saved his house. But they have lost between six and eight friends along their road—they are not sure how many at the moment.

What we have seen with this fire is also a tragic loss of young people and children, which historically has not been the situation. There have been horrific losses of young people.

There are many, I am sure, in this chamber who, like me, have been on the back of a fire truck and who know what it is like to not be able to see more than two feet in front of you and who know what it is like to have a fire turn on you and who know the fear involved. I cannot imagine the level of fear that drove people—who I am sure in the main had had fire plans prepared; the respective governments in Victoria over a long time have ensured from the start of summer that people were aware of their fire plans—to abandon in panic their fire plans and get in their cars. I do not think that any one of us can possibly imagine what that must have been like.

Someone said that these communities will come back together. They will. Houses can be replaced. But lives can never be replaced. We should spare a thought for those many farmers in Victoria who now have the heartbreaking task of going out and shooting stock. The sights that they will face, as many others in this chamber will know, will be horrific.

It is entirely appropriate that this condolence motion has been moved today. We are in my view a unique country, with the national parliament giving our condolences. Our national leaders are in Victoria at the moment, not to make politics but to make sure that those people know that every one of their elected representatives is with them.

In some respects, there is a sense of impotence in situations like this. There is also a heightened level of anger in relation to the way that some of those fires might have started. Clearly, as a community we have to ensure that there is calm in relation to those particular incidents. These have to be properly investigated by the authorities. We must remain calm until those inquiries have been carried out.

I believe that colleagues such as my very good friend Fran Bailey in McEwen and other members have been on the ground in their communities. For all that is said about us as members of parliament, we are close to our communities. We know our communities. While we are often the subject of ribbing and some dry humour, one of the greatest strengths that we have as a nation is that our members of parliament and senators, whether at the state, federal or local level, are close to our communities. That is something that we have to fight to defend.

Increasingly, there is an unholy alliance between us as humans and the bush. Lifestyle and other encroachments which have taken us out of areas of safety into areas that are more dangerous are issues that we have to confront as a nation. That ubiquitous gum tree can be both a peaceful friend and a very powerful enemy. I am sure that in due course when this is looked at and reviewed we will need to change some practices. But no-one is to blame for this—not any government of any persuasion—for not having done A, B, C or D. Everything that could possibly have been done was done, both before and during this fire.

On behalf of all my Victorian colleagues on both sides of the parliament, I thank that remarkable band of people who fight these fires. They feel fear. People say that they are fearless, but they are not fearless; they do feel the fear. But they go in there nevertheless. Victoria will take a long time to get over this, but I know that the Victorian community will do so in due course. I add my support to the previous remarks.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.