Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are three events that burn in the memories of Tasmanians. The first one is the tragedy at Port Arthur in 1996; there's the ship that hit the Derwent Bridge in 1975; and there are the 1967 bushfires. The Black Tuesday firestorm claimed 62 lives. Nine hundred Tasmanians were injured and 7,000 were left homeless. Farms and livestock were destroyed and the cost to the Tasmanian economy was in the millions. This year we have seen bushfires burn across nine European countries, Canada's bushfires are the worst in living memory and six people have been killed overnight in bushfires in Hawaii.

I'm worried about Australia and I'm just as worried about Tasmania. Most of Tassie is classed as 'bushfire prone', and firies have told me this summer and next are looking extremely scary. Professor David Bowman from UTAS has warned, 'Soon we are going to have suburban fires.' And what's the Liberal state government doing about this? They have allocated just half a million dollars to get our firies ready for next season. I have just one thing to say about this: are you kidding me? They're not doing very well, the Liberal state government; they're starting to go down the gurgler. Here I was thinking they may at least be able to make it to next year, to an election. I tell you what: I reckon they're lucky. On the other hand they're happy to allocate 350 million bucks to an AFL stadium that we don't even need.

I would suggest the Tasmanian government start listening to the firies and the experts. They need to wake up and put taxpayer dollars where they will protect Tasmanians the most. I also remind Minister Ellis down there that we haven't forgotten what happened when we were down there doing the Senate inquiry on disaster relief—that you stopped your firies coming in to discuss with us what was going on. You actually gagged them. It is absolutely disgraceful what you've done, and you'll pay the price for that after this summer, mate!