Hansard debates

Search Hansard
Search help



 

Legislative Assembly
 
BUSHFIRES

05 February 2020
Motions
Frank McGuire  (ALP)

 


Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (13:50): Our sunburnt country has suffered unprecedented fires this summer. The reach of the flames has burned a landmass roughly the size of Italy. Mega-fronts uniting across states created their own weather, threatening lives on a previously unimagined scale. Fire still rages in Victoria, reminding us that this deadly threat remains ominous.

Today we offer condolences to the five families who lost loved ones in Victoria and extend our embrace to families who have also suffered this cruel fate as fires spread across New South Wales, South Australia and the ACT. We are humbled by and grateful for the courage of our first responders, professionals, volunteers and everyday people who put themselves in harm’s way, saving lives, homes and communities.

It is also important to acknowledge the commitment of community leaders, including schools, local governments, MPs from all parties and the exemplary leadership at the state level from Andrew Crisp and Emergency Management Victoria, the Premier, the tireless Minister for Police and Emergency Services, her cabinet colleagues, parliamentary secretaries, public servants and the media, particularly the ABC. Eyewitness updates are invaluable.

Little more than a decade ago Victoria suffered Australia’s worst natural disaster—the Black Saturday bushfires that killed 173 people. This summer’s fires mark a significant difference that needs a new unity ticket to tackle it. It was not a one-off catastrophic event but a series of burns converging to define a new phenomenon, long-predicted to produce more frequent and serious wildfires.

Day turned into night at Mallacoota and required Australia’s biggest evacuation since Cyclone Tracy razed Darwin. Defence force helicopters and ships rescued thousands of holiday-makers and locals from the postcard fishing village. Melbourne and Canberra, rated amongst the world’s most liveable cities, became the world’s most polluted. Skies over Auckland turned an eerie orange as dark plumes raised alarm across the Tasman and eventually could be filmed circling the globe. Even Eden feared Armageddon.

Australians are overwhelmingly practical, not ideological. They are looking for unity tickets that deliver results. The Australian government has recognised the need to improve our military and first responder coordination to prevent, fight and recover from the catastrophic fires we will continue to confront.

Victoria is one of the world’s most fire-prone areas. We have had the benefit of a series of royal commissions of inquiry following past catastrophes. We have established links with international jurisdictions, and Victoria continues to lead with initiatives such as the recently announced Bushfire Recovery Victoria, a new, permanent and dedicated Victorian government agency working directly with local communities to listen, help and deliver what they need. In this spirit I am proposing that Victoria also establishes a life preservation centre as a world-leading centre of excellence to address this existential threat. It would coordinate international and Australian research from universities and key institutions such as the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology and leading government agencies across jurisdictions. Such a consortia would focus on delivering initiatives for bushfire mitigation, response, recovery, community resilience and the impact of climate change.

I am also proposing the Maygar Barracks in Broadmeadows as an ideal site to develop the seamless strategy the Prime Minister has called for between the Australian defence forces and first responders. This site is being used as a logistics hub to fight this summer’s bushfires and was essential in responding to Black Saturday and other disasters. It is strategically located, near our curfew-free international airport—Melbourne Airport—and Essendon Airport. Such an initiative would honour the history and heritage of this compound, where diggers, light horsemen and Victoria Cross winners were trained and dispatched to fight nation-defining battles at Gallipoli and the Western Front, where they were hailed as heroes in France. This base should be developed in a bipartisan way to assist our contemporary heroes to save lives as part of the Premier’s rallying call today: ‘We will not be defined by the ruin but by the recovery’.