Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a delight to be here to talk about something I have a great deal of interest in—that is, backing those who back themselves, people who are willing to take a risk to improve things for their community and their families and make a real go of things in this land of opportunity, Australia. By that, I'm talking about small business.

It was a delight for me to join with locals in the community just outside of Hobart, a fairly regional community, Sorell, at the official opening of the Daly Potato Company expanded facilities. The Daly Potato Company is owned and run by Susie and Gerard Daly, with the able assistance of their daughter, Ruby, who actually runs the alcohol distilling arm of the business—which I suspect is perhaps the more exciting arm of the business. But the Daly Potato Company is one that works very hard in the local community, employing people from the Sorell community and surrounding districts and investing in the local region, but does a great deal to value-add to the primary produce from that region, particularly with the use of potatoes.

They recently received a grant of $300,000 from the regional jobs and investment program, which was more than matched by their own contribution to expand their production facilities to value-add to the products that they produce, such as the potato salads which are on sale throughout major supermarkets across Australia, and the demand keeps growing. Through the grant, the $300,000 provided by the Liberal-National government, they've been able to employ an extra 14 people from that community where jobs are needed. It was great to be there with them to officially open their expanded facilities, to meet some of those people who had landed extra work at a time when it is needed, of course, and to see that spirit of entrepreneurship, people who have an idea, are willing to give it a go and who sometimes need the backing of perhaps government to make things work. And to reinvest in their local community was a great thing. I commend the Daly family, Gerard, Susie, and, of course, Ruby. I look forward to seeing their business grow into the future.

Sticking with Tasmania, it was also great to head to the north of the state, to the wonderful community of the west Tamar for the official opening of the Exeter Community Hub. The west Tamar is a growing community north of Launceston, which will be in the electorate of Bass at the next federal election. I joined with somewhere between 150 and 200 locals at the official opening of the government funded Exeter Community Hub.

Exeter and the surrounding communities, Beaconsfield and Lagana, are growing at a great rate. Regional Tasmania, northern Tasmania, is seeing a great many people returning there for work, for family reasons and for lifestyle, so it's important these communities keep up with the demand for proper community and public facilities to ensure that the lifestyle that we have in Tasmania is protected. It was great to be a part of the announcement, the $1 million contribution made by the Liberal government, a promise made by former member for Lyons, Eric Hutchinson, to renew and expand these facilities. I had a good look around the facilities, and it was great to meet members of the community services club, the Inner Wheel association, the ladies' Probus and, of course, the film society, to name but a few groups who are going to be making full use of the facilities.

During the opening, we had the regular bowls club playing their tournament outside. It will be a fantastic facility. I commend members of the community, the west Tamar and, in particular, the Exeter communities, led by their mayor Christina Holmdahl, supported well by the general manager Rolph Vos, who have delivered a lot for that community. It is a pleasure to be working with them, and I look forward to working with the west Tamar community a lot into the future, because it's those communities that deserve our backing, who want to facilitate the growth that we need to see in regional communities and ensure that we have the right lifestyle in these beautiful small towns across Tasmania.

Finally, I'd like to talk about a matter that a number of my colleagues have spoken about. It is an issue that has arisen over the summer months: the bushfires. I know that all of my Labor, Green, Independent and, of course, Liberal colleagues have expressed their sympathies to those who've sustained losses during this awful period. What I'd like to remark on is the community resilience. The resilience that has been demonstrated by those who have been affected by these devastating fires—how quickly they took hold in our community—is something that I was astounded by. At the peak, there were around 70 fires burning across the state of Tasmania, many of them started by the dry lightning storm that passed through on 15 January. There has been over 200,000 hectares of land affected by these fires. That ranges from productive land—forestry plantations and farmland—through to wilderness reserves and the like, which is a devastating thing. Most concerning in the Huon community is that the Tahune Airwalk infrastructure has been damaged, which will have a major impact on that community. There are 80,000 visitors to the Tahune area every year, which is in the Huon Valley and which now won't be attracting visitors. So we need to make sure that we work hard to ensure that we support that community as it rebuilds.

I would like to pay tribute to those who battled the fires in our state. The conditions were terrible—windy, hot and dry. We have over 5,000 volunteer firies in the state of Tasmania who contributed to the firefighting effort. They are people who've taken time out of their holidays with their families and time away from work to ensure that our communities are safe and to protect those things that need protecting—namely, life and our community assets and property. Alongside the paid staff from the Tasmanian Fire Service, Sustainable Timber Tasmania and the Parks and Wildlife Service, they've done a great job in managing the devastating impact of the fire. It was wonderful to see the interstate support that our state received during the bushfires and, indeed, the support from New Zealand with personnel on the ground.

More heartening was the fact that Tasmanians in their thousands donated to support those who had been displaced by these events. People had to evacuate the communities they live in and leave behind their homes. Thankfully, the damage to property was not extensive. Having said that, it is always very, very saddening to hear that anyone has lost part or all of their home, which, sadly, was the case for a number of families in Tasmania. I saw our community band together in these tough times, such as when I went to the Maydena community briefing—it is a community that faced threat for an extended period of time from the Gell River fire in the Derwent Valley—and talked firsthand to the locals about the impending threat coming to them. The support they were providing one another and the cooperation with government agencies was a wonderful thing to see.

Now it is time for us to support those communities that were affected, as I alluded to earlier. People, and tourists in particular, were told to steer clear of the regions that have been affected by bushfires. I was talking to the former manager of Waterfalls cafe in Mount Field National Park, Rachel Power. They lost a huge amount of business as a result of the evacuation orders. Visitors stopped going there. I was talking to the team at the Derwent Valley information centre in New Norfolk. The number of people going through that area has dropped off markedly, compared with previous years. So my message, and I'm sure my Tasmanian colleagues would join with me in this, is get back into these communities, support these businesses—the restaurants, the cafes and the shops—in the communities that were affected in the Huon, the Central Highlands and the Derwent Valley and spend money. We need to support these regional communities, both as a government and as individuals. Tourism in these areas is critical to their economies. As we head into winter, which is the season when things do slow down, these communities are going to need support. So visiting these communities and calling into the shops that are open for business and are ready to trade again will be a wonderful thing. I urge all of my colleagues from right across Australia to come to Tassie, spend a few dollars in the Huon, the Central Highlands and the Derwent Valley and support those who were affected.