(clears throat)
- Thank you, Mr. Acting Deputy President.
It is not the critic who counts,
it is not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly.
These Mr. Acting Deputy President, are the words
of the late American President Teddy Roosevelt,
in his capacity as a servant to the people
of the United States, and they bring us to a stark reality.
Many of us can never know what it is like in the arena
of firestorms, which have been a relentless presence
in many Australian summers.
These people face walls of flames,
soaring hundreds of metres high,
which threaten to engulf the firefighter, neighbour,
children, property, much loved farm animals,
our treasured native bush and human communities.
Only the people in the arena can know.
Only they know the desperation to protect their property,
community and kin, while others choose to be the critics
from the comfort of the stands.
I can only imagine the enormity
of feelings these people must have been through.
The overwhelm of fear and terror.
The confusion and fog from unrelenting tiredness.
The depth of grief and knowing
of profound loss of life and property.
The elation of success on one day
and the anguish from losing the fight on another.
The tears of others and the tears welling up within.
The exasperation of defeat from hot days
and changeable dry winds.
The gratitude and love from those unknown,
met for the first time and never seen again.
And each morning, the sense of hopelessness and despair
for many on how to rebuild,
the human spirit that built your families
and communities will build them again.
Please pause to appreciate their huge reserves of courage,
strength and tenacity.
We are in awe of humanity's metal.
These wretched fires,
as with many catastrophes shows us the depth
and breadth of humanity,
some of which we marvel at,
and some of which leaves us in despair.
As I stand in our national parliament today,
as a servant to the people of Queensland in Australia,
I applaud our men, women and children
across many communities who are in that arena,
one of mother nature's most extraordinary events,
an unrelenting and horrific firestorm
and it is these people that we honour today.
Your exhaustion, sadness,
and perhaps anger now must be compelling and overwhelming,
and my heartfelt condolences to those families
who have lost their loved ones,
the heartbreak must seem all-consuming.
To all these people, there are no words,
Madam Deputy President adequate enough
to convey my deepest sympathies to you and your communities.
Yet I know that what we do now,
as a nation will matter the most
in showing you our genuine support, our solidarity,
our care, and our dedication
to helping you rebuild your lives.
We know that we cannot rebuild upon condolences alone.
We must also find that which we can honour, indeed celebrate,
and we have countless titles of courage, bravery,
and tenacity to celebrate.
To the men and women of these communities,
what you have spent decades building has been destroyed
in a few minutes by a fire you may never forget.
I can never know how it felt facing the walls of fire
that reached, according to one friend in The Snowy,
a harrowing 500 metres above the ground.
Your survival shows you would have I've reached deep
into reservoirs of true courage, grit and determination.
It is the extraordinary nature of the human spirit
that soars to heights greater than any firewall
that show us what we are truly capable of
when the situation demands it.
You honour our humanity.
You inspire and uplift us all.
Like the radiant heat that is so intense,
it ignites cars 300 metres from the flames,
the human spirit is invisible, yet like the radiant heat,
the human spirit can be felt
and it carries with it enormous energy.
The human spirit cannot be quantified.
It is imbued, it is resilient, it connects, it encourages,
it overcomes, it restores, it re-energizes.
The Australian bush breeds
and trains firefighters like nowhere else in the world.
As a nation, we rightly have faith, respect and pride
in our firefighting brigades.
The iconic Australian eucalyptus
that find their way into our stories and poems
as the simple gumtree
with their frequent shading of oily leaves
and long streamers of bark acting as conduits
for fire upwards, are masters of creating
the fast-spreading crown fires in the upper storey.
This year, as in years past,
many people have witnessed this roar through our forests,
and if that wasn't enough,
the flammable oil combined with the tinderbox of litter
can turn a small ground fire into a terrifying firestorm
of exploding gums in just a few minutes.
And many have shared with us first hand accounts
of this happening.
This is the nature of the beast
that our valiant Australian firefighters face
when they front up every day.
We come to sit at our desks while they face infernos,
defend properties and protect life and in some cases go home
to find their own property reduced to ashes.
These selfless acts keep us indebted to our firefighters,
and they also share in the deep pain and loss
when colleagues do not make it back.
Now under the work of our Defence Force personnel
who have been eager to complement
the work of the emergency services in all communities,
you are a treasured resource of our nation,
and we all rest easy and knowing of your dedication
and loyalty to our country's well being.
Our international colleagues
who have come thousands of kilometres
to face these infernos with us, thank you,
and my deepest condolences to your families
who have lost loved ones fighting alongside our own.
I pay tribute to the many children who have witnessed,
not only a firestorm, but how a community can galvanise
in the face of tragedy.
These children have their own tales of loss,
survival and bravery.
They have been the most vulnerable
to the feelings of fear and psychological trauma.
They need to feel safe again.
Let us remember always that it is our children's stories
that are carried forwards
for future generations of Australians to listen to,
as a poignant reminder of the nature of this land,
we all love so much.
During this harrowing summer,
there are many examples of extraordinary generosity,
including businesses who have given freely
to their communities, donations of money, accommodation
and household essentials
and our wonderful wildlife rescuers.
As we start our own rebuilding, so is the bush regenerating.
Right now the seeds of our gumtrees having been razed
by the fire will be nurtured by the ashes
and will rise like a phoenix and outcompete all else.
Fresh tender shoots are already emerging,
and we will have our eucalyptus forest back,
because this is Australia.
The loss of wildlife has been devastating,
and as they've done many times over millennia,
out fauna and unique ecosystems will regenerate alongside
the rejuvenating bush land, because this is Australia,
and it has a long history of natural weather extremes
and devastating bushfires.
We owe it to the Australian people to chart a steady
but swift course for recovery.
We must recognise that our landowners, our farmers
and our indigenous communities have
the most knowledge of our country and its weather.
These people are the best custodians,
the best environmentalist, the genuine environmentalist,
the best ones to listen to.
We must listen to them because the fires will return again
and again and again as they have done for millennia,
and yet again, and it will be their loved ones
and their livelihoods on the line, not ours.
It is only the magnitude of the fires that will vary.
It will be up to the fortitude of politicians to stand
in the face of the critics
and to champion policies based on endearing knowledge,
physical measurements, physical evidence
and common sense and local experience.
Now I acknowledge, there is an enormous weight
of responsibility upon the shoulders of our leaders,
from the Prime Minister through to the local mayors
and councillors, those who walk among the ashes are people
who many politicians will never meet
from communities they will never visit,
and these people are relying on us
to support their optimism
and their will to wake up tomorrow,
hoping they have the resources to rebuild.
They can rightly demand visionary leadership
that leaves them feeling emboldened,
shows them compassion, nurtures unity,
and gives timely and practical support.
As the stories of peril and devastation slowly fade
to make way for the next media story,
I ask that we from all levels of government,
who are the key decision makers for rebuilding,
ensure that these valiant men, women and children,
do not fade from our hearts and minds,
and to be sure, we are reminded,
ironically, fire rages on the outskirts of Canberra
as we come together here today to pay our respects.
We as a nation will thrive only
when we bring all those people, businesses
and communities with us,
and they will be time for examination and analysis later.
For all of us in Parliament,
the gravity of the decision making for now
and later is immense.
Let no one waste the time of these people who have fought
in the arena, who are in pain and who need our support,
they have not the energy, nor the patience,
nor the personal reserves left
to cope with bureaucratic nonsense.
The Australian people need their servants to be unified
and to be of genuine service.
They want us to be fair dinkum and to give them a fair go.
To all in the arena, we give our condolences,
respect, support, and thanks.
Thank you Madam Acting Deputy President.
- [Madam Acting Deputy President] Thank you Senator Rob...