Page 223 - Week 01 - Thursday, 13 February 2020
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smoke haze. There is no guarantee that the smoke will not return. Although most of the bushfires are either out or well under control, there is still another six weeks or so of the bushfire season to go.
Thankfully, very few of the people who presented to hospital were admitted, but, as Mr Rattenbury said, there were probably many people who just suffered at home or went away if they could. As a family with members who suffer from respiratory conditions, we did take the decision collectively to send one of our family members away and to ensure that the other one who suffers from respiratory conditions and who was away did not come back until the coast was clearer.
Mr Rattenbury is correct in saying that there is a much broader impact. The psychological impacts, the mental health impacts, are considerable. Even for the relatively well-adjusted amongst us, it was oppressive. I recollect that, after having been away for a week on the North Coast of New South Wales, and driving back into Canberra, as we approached Canberra I felt my spirits fall. Normally, when you come into Canberra, you look out towards Black Mountain, you see the Black Mountain tower and you feel that you are home. But when we looked out towards Black Mountain, we could not see it. We thought that it was not a great homecoming. Many people across the territory found this to be the case.
My colleague Mr Milligan will speak about the impact that the smoke emergency had on sports. There are other impacts for people who work outside—tradies on construction sites, police and emergency services personnel, posties, truckies, delivery people, journalists, environmental workers such as rangers, our farmers, and many other people whose work and health can be affected by smoke.
There is also the impact on business and tourism, which Mr Wall touched on yesterday. The South Coast has suffered a very considerable negative economic impact. Hospitality has suffered; retail has suffered; tourism has suffered. And there will be a long, ongoing impact on the local economy of Canberra and the local economy of the region.
As Mr Wall pointed out yesterday, the ACT has not been immune from this. Hospitality and tourism in Canberra have suffered from the effect not only of the bushfires that surrounded Canberra but also from the smoke hazes that lingered like a pall over the city for so long.
As Mr Rattenbury’s motion acknowledges, there are significant mental health fallouts. This is not just from the smoke or the fires; it is from the loss of business. It is also from the sheer fact that the people of Canberra have not had their usual break. One of the things that has been most commonly reported to me is that people—ordinary, everyday people, not people who have been working on the firegrounds or anything like that—are reporting being tired all the time. It is not just that we are busy parents or anything like that. I think it has been exacerbated. My unscientific diagnosis is that people look forward to their summer holidays, and the thing that they look forward to was thwarted. The anxiety of watching the fires, what was happening down at the coast and the oppressive smoke have had somewhat imperceptible impacts on people,
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