Pinery Bushfires

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (12:47): I move:

That this house—

1. Extends its deepest condolences to the families and friends of the people who died during the Pinery fire and wish a speedy recovery to those who were injured;

2. Acknowledges the outstanding efforts of our fire and emergency services, police, South Australian Ambulance Service and other agencies during this major event;

3. Recognises the pivotal role volunteers, including those from interstate, played during the response and recovery phases of the Pinery fire; and

4. Acknowledges the resilience of local communities impacted by this catastrophic fire.

I would like to speak more as a local member than the Minister for Emergency Services. As I have mentioned previously, this fire particularly devastated my electorate, as it did the electorates of the members for Goyder, Schubert and Stuart. Also, I think Tarlee is in the member for Frome's electorate.

In supporting the motion, obviously, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of those people who died during the Pinery fire. More importantly, I also acknowledge the ongoing suffering of those people who are critically ill as a result and those people who have not necessarily experienced a physical devastation but also psychological and emotional distress.

The trauma from this fire has yet to be worked out. For a lot of people, we will need to monitor and be very careful of the emotional and psychological trauma. As I said the other day, I would again implore people, particularly men, in country areas to seek support and help, because it will affect them. There is no doubting that it will affect them. You cannot lose generations of memories and what you have built up and not be affected. It will affect you.

In addition to the loss of life and the loss of property, there is also the loss of simple possessions like photographs and records, things which you cannot replace. They are an important part of your life, and you will never be able to look again at those documents and photographs of the grandchildren, or whatever. So, there is great loss there. I would implore people to seek support. There is no shame in seeking out support, and it is very important. I would actually say that it is important for your families and friends that you do seek support because they need you there; they need you with them. So, I would do that.

I would also acknowledge the outstanding efforts of our fire and emergency services, the police, the South Australian Ambulance Service, and other agencies during this major event. In this regard, I think that all the stats we have seen do not paint the full picture in terms of the trauma to the community, but also the enormous contribution made by a whole range of people: volunteers, paid people, etc. I have heard stories over the last few days from people in my electorate of great acts of selflessness—there were many acts of selflessness—and I have also heard stories about great bravery by police officers, and bravery by other emergency service volunteers and workers. The day will come when we will be in a position to talk more about that once some healing has occurred.

I would also like to acknowledge the important role that volunteers and other paid crews have made from other states. I think it is very important to say this: when it comes to a time of crisis, we do it really well—we are one nation. We are one nation, one country, one continent, and we need to work and support each other, and we do. When there is a crisis in another state or territory, we go across and help them. They do the same for us. Not only is it good for our nation to make sure that we remain one nation and act as one nation but it is also important that we actually mobilise the resources, because no state can have all the resources for the biggest events. We do that, and we do it very well. So, I would like to acknowledge members of the CFA and the volunteers from the CFA from Victoria.

I would also like to thank the minister, Jane Garrett. As soon as she heard about the fire she rang me and said, 'What do you need from our state; we're there for you.' She rang me on a number of other occasions, too, just to see how we were going. She particularly rang when she heard that my own electorate had been affected, so I thank her for that. I also need to also acknowledge publicly minister Keenan, the commonwealth minister, who also rang me to say, basically, 'We're here to help you as well.' I would like to acknowledge that, as he did on other previous occasions as well.

I would also like to importantly acknowledge that with time we will recover and with time we will rebuild; these communities are resilient and they will rebuild. I have already seen examples of that. One of my communities, Wasleys, was particularly affected by the fires: we lost our post office, our bowling club, and the general store was affected. Apart from the loss, the sad part about this is also the fact that the general store and the post office only recently opened having been closed for some time. It has been a tragedy for that community, but the general store reopened on the Saturday. The post office is getting back together again, the Wasleys bowling club are bowling again, and I think the department of education is helping them to buy some temporary clubrooms across the road so that they can operate.

Getting back and doing the normal things are very important for the process of grieving and the process of the community coming together and the process of getting through this event and rebuilding. With those few comments, I commend the motion to the chamber.

Mr GRIFFITHS (Goyder) (12:53): I commend the member for Light for this motion and, indeed, I note everything that has occurred. Driving into parliament this morning, I had a call from one of the impacted property owners who managed to save their home, but everything else was gone, and he said to me that yesterday, day 6, was the hard day for people around the district, psychologically dealing with it, but he said, 'Today's a better day.' No matter what stress we have in our lives, when you consider the impact of the devastation of 25 November, it puts it all into balance.

I also offer my sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones and those who have been injured, sadly, in many cases, very seriously. One of the hard things I had to do this morning was write a letter to Mrs Jenny Tiller, Allan's wife. I had contacted Jenny on the Thursday after Allan had passed on the Wednesday, and that was hard enough, but I thought, how the hell can I put anything in words, because I had thought about Allan's loss hourly and I respected him enormously. I was so pleased that The Advertiser has given some significant coverage to those who have suffered, because the photos of Mr Tiller and his grandchildren actually capture the man. I have been so impressed by that.

The community is exceptionally resilient. Their level of support on the day and since, no matter where you are from, is humbling to see and revives one's faith, which is somehow rather challenged, in the human species. I put on record in a very short time my respect for those who offered on the day, who sacrificed on the day and who made a commitment that has cost them significantly on the day but who were prepared to do so to save others.

It puts everything we do in perspective; it puts everything our society does in perspective. While the day was exceptionally challenging, it has brought out the absolute best in people which is something we should be proud of.

I do not want to focus on negatives, but the concerns about looting are an absolute disgrace. I spoke to one chap on the weekend whose home is not lost completely, but it is uninhabitable. He is camping there because of the stories about looters. I know it is a very small minority and every effort has been made to identify them, but that is the absolute negative.

The challenges the community is facing will be overcome. It will take a generation to forget about it completely. The member for Light was very correct in saying that the memories that are lost are never taken away completely from the mind. It becomes harder to recollect them, but they will always be there. I put my hand on my heart and offer my sincere congratulations to those involved in helping the community overcome it, because the community will need it for many days to come.

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (12:56): Building on the remarks from the other day and in rising to support this motion, one of the things I would like to do first is to offer my condolences and dispense the help of my office to those who are affected by the fires, especially those who lost houses or property or have been inconvenienced. It is certainly an extremely traumatic event.

The comment I have heard most from those who were involved not just in this fire but also through Eden Valley and Sampson Flat was that, unless you have experienced it, it is hard to understand the trauma. Terms such as acts of bravery, fear, the loss that comes afterwards, are the warlike descriptors that are used to understand the horrific nature of fire when it comes over.

It is that trauma from which we will now need to recover. Certainly the members for Light and Goyder are talking about how our communities are now going to deal with it and recover. There was a men's shed event yesterday in Freeling where over 200 farmers got together, and I know there will be many more of those to come. On 19 December, there will be a concert at Kapunda. I also know that a community meeting being held tonight and the one at Freeling, which I am going to on Monday, will be ways for the community to come together and talk about it.

What I tend to find in these situations is that communities want to look after these things themselves. I found from Sampson Flat and Eden Valley that they do not want outside pity: what they want is the ability for those who are affected and understand what happened to come together, talk about it and process it themselves. That is what close-knit rural communities do, and we should look at anything we can do to help them process what happened and overcome emotionally the grief they are feeling. I commend the motion.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (12:58): I thank the members for their contributions. All I would like to add is that I hope and pray we do not have another one in this season.

Motion carried.

Sitting suspended from 12:59 to 14:00.