Senator RYAN (Victoria) (1:46 PM) —I rise to join my Victorian colleagues this afternoon, especially my good friends Senators Fifield, Kroger and McGauran, and to join the statements of condolence made here and in the other place regarding the tragic events in Victoria over the last week. It is difficult to find the words to speak of this and at the same time I feel so distant from the tragedies unfolding at home. The horrific bushfires of Ash Wednesday are some of my formative memories, albeit as a child in Melbourne. Friends lost homes, but fortunately all were safe. I had hoped to never have to speak in this place to commemorate such a tragedy.
Others have outlined the series of fires that have destroyed and killed throughout Victoria over the last century and a half—1851, 1939 and, of course, 1983, amongst many others. All these represent the tragedy of lives lost and hopes dashed. It is difficult for us to not wonder how, with all the modern technology at our disposal, with communications and equipment that we could not have dreamed of even only 26 years ago, this could be worse than those. But the events of the last week remind us that the threat of horrific, wild and destructive fire is a disastrous thread throughout Victorian history.
Last Friday we were warned that Saturday was going to be the worst day of fire risk in living memory, with record temperatures following a record heatwave accompanied by the Victorian summer northerly wind that I once recall a firefighter describing as ‘the very breath from hell itself’ and combined with the bush made tinder dry by the drought. There is an obscene cruelty in the fact that the drought that has already caused so much pain and hardship for so many in our regional and rural communities became the fuel for the death and destruction we are witnessing this week.
When we heard on Saturday that fires had started, we feared the worst. Those not there cannot conceive of the hell that was about to embrace our fellow Victorians and in some cases our friends and family. As we slept, the people of Kinglake, Flowerdale, Marysville, Strathewen, Churchill and towns throughout Victoria fought for their lives. It was a battle that so many of them tragically lost. They fought against a firestorm unprecedented in its ferocity, a fire that experienced firefighters have described as like nothing they have ever seen.
As we woke on Sunday we began to hear the first stories of towns wiped out and the tragic toll of dozens being killed. We heard of people racing the fire as they sped away as fast as feet or cars would take them and of people searching for families and friends. Towns were destroyed on a scale imaginable only in wartime. A close friend of mine in London was trying to find out about his mother who lived in Marysville. I never thought that receiving an SMS from overseas saying that his mother now owned nothing more than a car, a dog and a toothbrush would be good news, but it was.
The stories that came through that last Sunday will stay with us forever. I cannot conceive of the sheer terror through which these people lived and in which so many spent their last hours. Families sat on parched football ovals, watched their homes burn, heard the screams of neighbours and friends, or raced against the fire past burnt out wrecks of the homes and cars of neighbours and friends. We hoped in vain that it would end there, but we then began to hear of those who had not made it.
We saw pictures of those who had been unable to escape. We saw burnt out cars. Families were found together. They had huddled in fear as every plan they had put in place, all the expert advice which they had heeded and every preventative step they could possibly take proved futile against a fire so fast and so intense that houses exploded, cars and metal melted and the oxygen was sucked from the air around them. Yet, as the death toll rose, so did the warnings of much worse to come which have continued today. Every morning since, we have woken to a rising toll and warnings of yet more towns and more communities under threat. This tragedy has a long way to run.
Just as we have been shocked by the stories of what we have heard, we have also heard of tremendous sacrifice. The men and women of Victoria’s CFA, DSE, SES, MFB, thousands of other volunteers and those who have fought this battle and assisted in the aftermath have moved us all. Many left their own homes and families to fight for the lives of others, in many cases suffering tremendous loss themselves. Words cannot do justice to those who have undoubtedly saved the lives of hundreds or thousands of others. Our thanks and gratitude somehow seem insufficient.
This tragedy has touched us all. As my colleagues have noted, this morning we have had confirmation of the deaths of members of our own party and news that others are still missing. To the O’Gormans and all our friends all I can say is that all the prayers of the Liberal Party and all Australians are with you.
As I mentioned, this tragedy is not over yet. Thousands of people are waiting on news about family and friends. As the member for McMillan outlined yesterday, there are towns still under threat and the horrific job of identifying victims has only just commenced. I do not believe those of us who have not experienced this can ever truly understand; we can only offer our sympathy in grief and our support in recovery. We should resolve now to take every step, dedicate every resource within our power to never allow this to happen again. We owe our fellow Australians nothing less.
As the battle against the fire continues, the battle for many has only just begun. We should make the commitment now to not let this issue slip from our sight, to not turn our minds from this as time passes and to never forget what these communities have gone through as we stick with them through the difficult months and years to come.