Page 465 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 10 February 2009

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I look forward to seeing all my colleagues and the majority of Canberra people at social functions and fundraising events. I understand the Brumbies are having some fundraisers and different things are already starting to come out. I look forward to seeing the same level of generosity that was shown to us six years ago repeated in the coming days. I commend the motion to the house.

MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo): I would like very briefly—and it will be very briefly, because if I start speaking for any length I will be in tears—to agree with basically everything that has already been said. It just brings back the memories of what happened here in 2003. I saw the photos and I thought, “This is horrible.” To put it in perspective, the area that has been burnt is 1½ times the size of the ACT. It already has a large site on Wikipedia. It is a tragedy of a scale that is international, not just a Victorian or an Australian tragedy.

I would like to join with Mr Smyth in urging people who can donate blood to do so, if they can, and to do all the practical things that we can to support our fellow Australians at this time. Sorry, I will stop here or I will cry.

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra): I would like to add my words to the motion of condolence, and to congratulate the Chief Minister on bringing it forward. The events of the weekend are a tragedy for Australians, for Victorians and for individuals that is beyond the reckoning of most of us. Even for Canberra, which experienced so much in the 2003 bushfires, I think that the enormity of what has happened in Victoria in these towns over the weekend is hard for us to come to terms with. Photographs of the footage fill us with horror, and I know that it does cause considerable opening of wounds in this town. I agree wholeheartedly with the Chief Minister that we must be mindful of our friends, colleagues and neighbours who were touched in particular ways at the time of the 2003 bushfires and be mindful of their needs and the impact that this is having on them at the moment.

These terrible events are things which do bind the community together. They cement our national character and they are matters that we as legislators and as people who have to bear the burdens in some way for the community have to take to heart. Over the last couple of days I have listened to interviews with the mayor of one of the local communities who has been speaking on radio about the service that she has to provide for her community and the impacts on her community. I was struck by her courage and her presence of mind. That courage and presence of mind are being replicated thousands and thousands of times across Victoria at the moment.

In addition to expressing my condolences for those people who have died, for their families and for the people who are suffering and who are undoubtedly bewildered and unable to comprehend what is going on, I would like to express thanks and reflect the expressions of thanks to the thousands of volunteers who have attempted to improve the situation. We have to remember that most of the people who stand on the fire ground, who stood on the fire ground over this weekend and over the days running up to that, and who are there today, are volunteers. They do this out of a sense of community. I think that their reward is great.

I would like to pay tribute to those people in the ACT who have volunteered at the moment. I had an email from someone last night. I had sent someone an email and his


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