Motions

South Australian Bushfires

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:34): By leave, I move:

That this house—

(a) expresses its deep regret at the loss of life as a result of bushfires in South Australia so far this summer and extends its condolences and sympathy to the families and loved ones of those killed;

(b) records its sorrow and support for those who suffered injury and who lost their homes, property and personal possessions;

(c) praises the work of firefighters and other emergency services, volunteers and community members for their courage and sacrifice in responding to the fires and protecting our communities in this time of need;

(d) recognises the profound impact on those communities affected and the role of governments and the South Australian community in assisting them to recover and rebuild at the earliest opportunity; and

(e) appreciates the great generosity and support to the affected communities by all those who have contributed to the Premier's Emergency Relief Fund and other appeals.

In parts, this is a motion no Premier ever wants to move. It speaks of the death of some of our citizens and injury to others, the impact of this summer's bushfires on communities and the loss of homes and other property, but this is also a motion that speaks to the best of our South Australian community—to courage, reaching out to others, generosity and the best of us in response to the worst that nature can throw at us.

The devastation of the fires that swept through parts of Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills is well known, but it is important to recognise that this bushfire season has already been a long one and is not yet over. From the beginning of November, there have also been major fires at Port Lincoln, on Lower Yorke Peninsula and at Keilira in the South-East. Even earlier than that, in September late last year, our Country Fire Service personnel began a series of deployments to other states to assist their firefighting efforts, while the first of this season's total fire bans in South Australia was issued four months ago, on 4 October.

Today, our parliament offers its deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those who lost their lives in the Kangaroo Island and Adelaide Hills fires, to those who have been injured in all this season's fires and to those who have lost their homes and other property and, in some cases, their livelihoods as fires turned day into night in beautiful places in the Adelaide Hills, on Kangaroo Island and elsewhere, places loved for generations by those who live in or visit our regions, fires leaving in their wake only eerie silence as singing birds and wandering wildlife disappeared, nature at its best destroyed or damaged by nature at its most awesome and awful.

Our thoughts are with all victims of the fires so far this summer. We share their shock, their anguish. So far this summer, 186 dwellings have been destroyed in South Australia's bushfires. Also destroyed have been 870 outbuildings, sheds, barns, hay sheds and carports. Stock losses approach 60,000 cattle and sheep, with a total financial impact for the agriculture sector alone estimated at more than $19 million. Other sectors heavily impacted include tourism, the wine industry and our national parks and wildlife.

For those who have lost their homes, it is much more than that: it is the irreplaceable contents that make a house the family home—photographs of children and grandchildren and other memories of a family's life destroyed. For our farmers, many have had to not only fight fires on their properties but immediately afterwards shoot their burnt stock. We are doing whatever it takes to support recovery and rebuilding work so that people and their communities get back on their feet and recover their lives. Local recovery coordinators have been appointed.

Personal hardship emergency grants were immediately made available in all affected communities for temporary relief. An emergency relief fund and tax relief measures will help provide longer term support to people who have lost their homes and livelihoods or have been severely affected in other ways. Stress for families with children returning to school is being alleviated through the waiving of school fees, supply of uniforms free of charge and provision of free child care.

These are practical measures, built on financial and other support, coming from our federal government. I thank Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his ministers for the deep interest that they have taken in the challenges faced this summer by South Australia. This has been constantly demonstrated through their visits to fire locations and ready responses to our proposals for assistance.

It goes without saying that the impact on individuals, families and communities would have been even more devastating without the heroic work of our firefighters. Today is also an opportunity to honour these firefighters, recognising that their work may be far from over for this season. They have already been on the front line for more than four months. Sometimes, this has meant deployment far from home, going where they are needed, getting by on very little sleep while the threat was at its most relentless, running towards fires as the rest of us are able to escape them. It is impossible to speak too highly of the commitment and courage of our firefighters to save lives and to protect property.

So far this summer, 134 of our firefighters have been injured. This compares with about 50 members of the public being injured in fires attended by our CFS. This is one demonstration of the extent to which our firefighters put themselves in harm's way to protect the community. The homes of more than 55 firefighters have been lost or damaged. Shane Leahy of the Parndana CFS was one of those to lose his home.

Shane has lived on Kangaroo Island since 2003 and last year clocked up his 250^th game for the Parndana Roosters Football Club. He is now an islander through and through and has said, in reaction to the bushfires, that islanders will 'fight and fight. It will take years to recover, but we'll get there'. Of that there is no doubt with the determination like Shane has shown. He got back onto his fire truck immediately after realising his own home had been destroyed to help others avoid the same outcome.

As Major Trent Harron, heading the Australian Defence Force recovery work on Kangaroo Island, has said: 'The community here must be among the most resilient Australians that we have.' For the same spirit, I also salute Kit Mizi-Wong of Hahndorf, who fulfilled her CFS obligations in the Cudlee Creek fire while seven months' pregnant. Her husband is also a CFS volunteer. Kit has said, 'After the baby, next fire season I'm ready to go back.' The men and women who fight bushfires embody that great spirit of self-sacrifice in the service of others.

I thank the Minister for Emergency Services for the constant support he gives to our fire and other emergency services. During this bushfire crisis, the minister ensured that his cabinet colleagues were kept fully advised of the services and support needed from their agencies. We thank all CFS firefighters, led so capably by their chief officer, Mark Jones, and MFS and SES personnel called upon during this emergency. We thank firefighters from other jurisdictions and other nations who came to South Australia's aid.

We also pay tribute to our police for their vital work in managing this emergency, led by Commissioner Grant Stevens. We thank our doctors and nurses, ambulance officers and paramedics, charity organisations, workers and volunteers at community centres and the state government agencies assisting with immediate relief measures, veterinarians and members of the community who retrieved and treated wildlife in distress. I pay tribute as well to the hundreds of Australian Defence Force reservists for their contribution to the recovery effort in South Australia and to employers who enabled volunteer firefighters and other emergency personnel to remain available for their crucial work.

It is also important to recognise local government councils in the areas affected for their support to their communities. In particular, I refer to the work of the mayors of each of these councils for their tireless commitment to and support of their communities during this time and their engagement with government about the relief and recovery effort. In all that has happened in recent months on Kangaroo Island, in the Adelaide Hills, and elsewhere, the role of the press and media should be commended for keeping the public informed about the bushfire threats as they emerged and the support available to victims in the aftermath.

I acknowledge the cooperation the government has received from the opposition and other members of this parliament, as well as the work of the federal member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie MP. It is important for South Australians to know that, at a time like this, all of their elected representatives are with them.

These fires have seen unbelievable courage by other South Australians doing extraordinary things in the most challenging of circumstances. I refer, for example, to Adam Stone of Balhannah. In the Cudlee Creek fire, Adam first led Merri Glatz to safety before driving back through the flames to seek her husband, John—well known as the chair of the Onkaparinga Racing Club for 25 years. Adam found John slumped on his tractor. He described the situation as follows:

There was stuff exploding, gas bottles going up, like nothing I ever want to hear again. If that wasn't Armageddon, I don't know what is.

As he worked to save John he burned his hands on the tractor. An ambulance had been called but could not get through the fire, so Adam and a police officer had to get John out. Through all of this, Adam did not give thought to his own safety, and I quote, ‘Not because I'm brave,’ he said, 'but just because you deal with what you have to and just get on with it'. Thankfully, John is now recovering from his critical burns. After this extremely brave rescue mission, Adam spent the following two days fighting spot fires.

Dick Lang and his son Clayton were two of the many on Kangaroo Island who helped others. They used their farm vehicle with a trailer and water tank to put out fires on neighbouring properties but, tragically, were unable to make it back to their own farm. Within hours of the death of his uncle and cousin, Kynan Lang got a call from the Army to advise that reservists were being called up to help on Kangaroo Island. Kynan did not hesitate, saying, 'My uncle and my cousin put the community before themselves and they gave their lives doing it; I could only do the same.'

The Adelaide Hills community mourns the death of Ron Selth whose body was found in his Charleston home after it was destroyed by the Cudlee Creek blaze. Ron built a highly successful engineering business that contributed to the design of thousands of buildings mainly in the Hills. He is remembered as a loving, optimistic and generous man.

As we grieve for those lost in these bushfires, we know for sure there will be future blazes. South Australia's relatively recent history includes Black Sunday in 1955, Ash Wednesday I in 1980, Ash Wednesday II in 1983, Wangary in 2005, Kangaroo Island in 2007, Bangor in 2014 and Pinery and Sampson Flat in 2015. These bushfire events are etched in South Australia's memory, and we can expect that future premiers will stand in this place to lead their state in sorrow again.

It is important therefore that we do all that we can to minimise damage from future events. That is why the government has announced an independent review into what has happened this bushfire season with a focus on the Kangaroo Island and Cudlee Creek fires. The review is already underway because we want the outcomes to inform what we do in the next bushfire season. It will look into South Australia's preparedness for dealing with significant bushfire activity and what can be done to mitigate the impacts on our community into the future. As I have emphasised, our emergency services have done an outstanding job over recent months, and this review will help identify any learnings that can be applied from what they have gone through.

We are pleased that former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty has agreed to lead the review with support from the South Australian Emergency Services Commission and experts from across our state's emergency services. Mr Keelty will be able to draw upon his significant operational experience and the reviews that he has conducted on behalf of other states after previous bushfire seasons. This review will also enable South Australia to provide helpful input to the royal commission the Prime Minister is calling to look at what has happened across many parts of our nation already this bushfire season.

In closing, I can advise that recovery has commenced in all fire-affected areas. I have appointed Margot Forster as State Lead for Disaster Rebuilding and Resilience. Her focus is on rebuilding the economic and social infrastructure that underpins affected communities in a way that makes them more resilient for the future. Margot will work with the community and industry, as well as the new National Bushfire Recovery Agency established by the Prime Minister.

It is important to recognise that for many people in communities affected by these bushfires, there is still a very long way to go. I want them to know that this parliament is with them all the way. As this motion affirms, we are united in our grief for those who have been lost, in our sympathy for those who have suffered injury or loss of their homes or other property and in our determination that our communities will recover and rebuild. Our support will continue. It will continue to be provided where it is needed for as long as it is needed.

We have seen again during this bushfire season that we cannot always control those things that challenge us. What we can count on is the response of our emergency services, the ability of communities to bounce back and the willingness of all South Australians to get behind them in this time of greatest need. For that, my government is extremely grateful. In many cases, rebuilding will take months and years, not days or weeks. My government will continue to do everything, absolutely everything, within its power to support all those affected to rebuild their lives and their communities. I commend the motion to the house.

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:51): I rise to second the Premier's motion. I do so to mark the heartbreaking events since 20 December last year and I do so to honour all those who have suffered and pay tribute to those who have assisted. Today, I offer my deepest sympathies, as does the whole parliament, to the families and friends of those who have lost their lives in these extraordinary and terrible bushfires. Our hearts of course go out to everyone who was impacted. We hope that the process of reclaiming their lives has already begun.

To all those South Australians who lost their homes, and in many cases everything they owned, and to all those people who have lost their businesses and livelihoods in the bushfires, again, our thoughts are with you at this painful time. We share in your shock and your grief and we share in the anguish of the many communities which have been affected by this extraordinary tragedy. Today, I pledge that the opposition will continue to do everything we can in support of the government and you in rebuilding your lives and your communities.

The bushfires on Kangaroo Island and in Cudlee Creek, as the Premier mentioned, saw three South Australians tragically perish. The Cudlee Creek fire saw one person perish and more than 70 houses destroyed, as well as 400 outbuildings and 200 cars. The KI fire burnt more than 211,000 hectares of land, destroyed 89 not houses but homes, 296 outbuildings, more than 53,000 head of livestock and tragically claimed the lives of Australian bush pilot Dick Lang and his son Dr Clayton Lang.

'Desert' Dick Lang was a pioneering bush pilot and safari operator who opened up the outback to countless travellers from Australia and overseas, while Clayton was one of Adelaide's leading plastic and reconstructive surgeons, specialising in hand surgery. No words I express today will be adequate to express our sympathy to the family and friends of Dick and Clayton Lang. May they rest in peace.

But amidst all this great tragedy and loss I believe that we, as members of this parliament, have seen and heard of things that will inspire South Australians for years and decades to come. We have seen the very best of human nature: unbelievable self-sacrifice and firefighters remaining steadfast while their own homes burned. We have seen the unbelievable courage of ordinary South Australians who, when the time came, did extraordinary things in the most testing of circumstances. We have seen mateship, hundreds of volunteers, ordinary South Australians, supporting communities impacted and doing whatever they can to help.

One of those unbelievable self-sacrificers has joined us today—and the Premier referred to this earlier. I am so pleased that this gentleman accepted my invitation to attend today's opening of parliament and was able to join us for lunch and be in the gallery to hear this motion. Shane Leahy is a garlic farmer, a wool classer, a business owner, an amateur league footy player but also, importantly, a CFS volunteer. As the Premier mentioned, when Shane discovered his home had been lost in the KI bushfires, what he did was truly remarkable. Shane decided to get straight back on the CFS fire truck and continue the fight, trying to prevent others suffering the same fate.

There was no time for rest or reflection, even though Shane feared he had lost even more: the business dream he had shared with two mates whose lives also had been tragically cut short. The far-reaching consequences of the fire on his own life would have to wait for the crisis to pass. As a lieutenant at the Parndana CFS, Shane had already spent every day for two weeks fighting the initial blaze, which started on 20 December. He plans to rebuild, probably on the same spot as the gutted house that he had spent years gradually renovating. Today we thank you, Shane, and all the other tireless firefighters in our state.

I would also like to place on the record our thanks to the Army personnel and the reservists who assisted, from not just Australia but also New Zealand. Their support was greatly appreciated by all South Australians. There are so many people who deserve our collective compassion and shared admiration. From those who fight fires to those helping with the relief and recovery efforts, the vets working constantly to relieve the agony of family pets and wildlife and SES volunteers who provided important logistical support, we thank them all. We thank SAPOL and we thank Health staff, an endless number of committed public servants in our state all endeavouring to look after others more than they look after themselves.

During my visits to both the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island, I felt an unbelievable sense of pride in seeing the overwhelming number of volunteers who had been assisting in the relief efforts, including farm firefighters who were looking after other people's property yet again, rather than their own. Everywhere I have been I have seen extraordinary South Australians pitching in and doing what they can, but there are so many other untold stories.

One was recently drawn to my attention in a far more humble set of circumstances—not wearing a uniform, not getting paid by South Australian taxpayers, but on everyday streets. The story of young Henry Frossinakis struck me recently. In Hudson Street, Prospect, a humble suburban street, Henry, a six-year-old young man was watching telly with his parents asking questions about the bushfires. He saw images of koalas on TV and asked mum and dad what was going on. They explained to him the tragedy that was unfolding live on television sets throughout South Australian homes.

Young Henry was distressed. His mother, Sally, tried to explain that in Australia when things like this happen we look after each other. She woke up the next morning to find that Henry had written a letter to all the other people in his little suburb of Prospect in and around Hudson Street asking them to donate cans—because cans are currency when you are six years old—and bottles that he would collect and then cash in at the recycling centre to make a donation to Adelaide Koala Rescue. So the Frossinakis family photocopied the handwritten letter and distributed it in and around Hudson Street, Prospect, and slowly but surely over the coming days their front yard turned into a makeshift recycling centre.

Not long after Christmas, there were a few South Australians who clearly had a number of things that could be recycled. Young Henry, with his younger brothers Jack and Louis, raised, I am advised, $262.60 for Adelaide Koala Rescue. What a fine young man. He is a young man who I think gives us all extraordinary hope and confidence that future generations carry the candle for the idea that in Australia we do look after each other as much as we look after ourselves, and I congratulate the Frossinakis family.

The Premier is right: it is going to take time for those impacted communities to get over these fires, but I know they will rebuild. The opposition shares their determination, as I am sure does the parliament. We all want to help get these communities back on their feet. We all want to replace the community buildings, the parks and the tourism facilities. We all want to see businesses—wineries and shops—reopen, and we want to see families back in these areas enjoying themselves again. If passion and determination are anything to go by, and if people like Shane Leahy and Henry Frossinakis are an example to us all, then we will succeed.

We pause today to remember the lives that have been lost, to join with the families and friends in their grief and to remember that people have been injured, homes have been destroyed and communities shaken, but we also resolve to remember by rebuilding. We thank all the hundreds of volunteers who have helped. We thank their employers, whoever released them. We thank the ABC and other media outlets for their magnificent coverage of the bushfires and providing information where they can. We thank the SES, the police, our great fire services—the CFS and MFS—farm firefighting units, the Department for Environment and Water and their firefighting teams.

To those impacted, we will do whatever is possible to support you and ensure that your communities recover, that your towns flourish once more, and we do all we can to prevent a tragedy such as this from ever happening again. I commend the motion to the house.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (15:00): I rise to endorse the comments of the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition and thank them both for their contribution to the chamber expressing the sentiment of so many of us in seeing what has transpired during the bushfire season for 2019-20 in South Australia. Most of us were following the three major fires on Yorke Peninsula, the Adelaide Hills and then Kangaroo Island over a time when we were expected to be preparing for and enjoying the Christmas and holiday season during which our state was alight in those regions.

The similarities in these regions are obvious. All three are rural and, secondly, they are major food and fibre producers of our state, and they are also major areas of destination for tourism in our state. There are of course other industries, but I highlight those as being consistent with all. Unsurprisingly, whilst there has been a focus, as has been repeated in this motion's contribution to date, on the heroic response of the work to the fires themselves and their containment by our emergency services personnel and other volunteers and people in the communities, the relief and recovery aspects are also important. Again, they have been acknowledged, and I will not repeat them all, but it is ongoing.

Can I say that, of the communities that I think I and many of the members have been in over this period of time, once the fire is put out—and of course they have to be alert to the next fire starting because it was not the first fire in South Australia and it will not be the last this season—they are having to consider how they are going to rebuild. Some in those communities will draw a line in the sand and say, 'I've had my turn. I'm not going to do this again. I'm not going to be exposed to this.' We respect that; it is a hard decision to make. There are those who get up, throw off the ash, say, 'Yes, we will rebuild. We'll order new fences, we'll build a new home, we will build up our livestock again, we will make sure that we establish our tourism venture again,' and the like. With help from all of us, initially at least, they will have a chance to do that.

I draw the attention of the house to the third group. The third group are paralysed into indecision. They are incapable of making a decision at this point. They probably need our assistance more than ever to support them during the period until they are fit and strong enough, resilient enough, not only to be able to make decisions but also to be able to make the right decisions and, secondly, to make sure they do not lapse into a period of depression or despair during that journey. That is a really important aspect of the recovery of this fire.

I commend all the personnel who have been involved in mental health and other services to help support people. I have seen strong farmers, usually pretty tough nuts, certainly on football fields, on Kangaroo Island in recent time in tears as they are trying to explain it and go through a form with someone who is assisting them in a recovery centre. It is a fragile period, and these people will need our continued support for a long time. I am confident that everyone in this house understands that.

Our commitment of course must be to ensure that we be part of the repair and rebuild and that we join with others who can go out and demonstrably do physical things such as rip up fences—as the Australian Defence Force and the reservists are doing, and we appreciate that—and clean up burnt buildings and so on. These are all important jobs to do, and we thank them for it. In a way, it is a physical expression of that level of repair and it is necessary. However, the mental and emotional repair is equally significant. Those in the emergency service recovery world have each been acknowledged; I will not repeat them today.

I would like to refer to the Kangaroo Island fire because, as most of you know, this island is dear to my heart. It was the first settlement in the colony of South Australia, I remind you, in July 1836. I did again receive a recent submission to have another public holiday for the settlement day, but I will raise that another day. Unsurprisingly, it is not the first fire that these communities have had and it will not be the last, so it is terribly important that the public has a chance to have a say in relation to the Mick Keelty review. I thank the Premier, and indeed my colleagues, for understanding the significance of reviewing not only the performance of what occurs during the recovery of a fire but also the preparation in the future. To invite the public to be able to have a say in this regard I think is an important initiative.

Of course, we have a number of experts in the emergency services world who will be able to define what has occurred and document the horror of the events. They will be able to analyse all the responses. However, we do need to bring the people with us when we talk about the future decisions that will need to be made and what actions we are going to employ to try to minimise the horror of what has occurred in these periods. Also, whilst today we are acknowledging the best and the bravest, and that is great, we also need to listen carefully to what they have said.

I also bring to your attention that a lot happens during a fire. People still die of natural causes or other reasons, sickness and the like, and children are still born. I want to say that although the burial of one person on Kangaroo Island had to be delayed for a couple of weeks because the football club burnt down and he could not have his service there, it was transferred to the racetrack and hundreds of people came to that occasion to celebrate the life of Rodger Borgmeyer.

Rodger would be unknown to most of you, but he symbolised for me somebody who had made an enormous community contribution. He had been burnt on the day, and had burnt himself over the years, and on his own property he had lost a lot of stock and part of the buildings and structures on his properties. He was really a means by which that community came together, hundreds of them, to celebrate his life and also to support each other. On a happy note, in the last week of the fires we had the first bushfire baby born that I know of: Charlotte Riggs.

It is really important to remember that these are events those communities can celebrate and embrace, and they are symbolic of a new future. To draw a line in the sand will help those who are not able to make a decision straightaway, but we will support people to assist the community in rebuilding the economy, as homes, buildings and fences are all important.

I will tell you a brief story—not about me in a fire; there are plenty of those and I do not need to share them with you. Kate Stanton and I started school at the same time. We both married and had two sons. She married the boy next door; I did not. She lived her life on Kangaroo Island; I did not. In this last fire, she and Richard lost everything, except her two sons. They lost all their stock. Richard's two brothers and their families lost their homes and all their stock. Their Stokes Bay hall/church/meeting centre/tennis facility went to dust, and as a community and a family they were devastated.

Kate symbolises to me someone who is prepared to say, 'We are really well into our period of time of farming, but we have two sons and we are committed to making sure that we rebuild and that we stay strong for them to ensure that they rebuild.' Twenty years of developing a special breed of sheep to a very high standard have been wiped out for the younger son. These are the sorts of hidden losses of fires. Homes and loss of lives are obvious, but decades of work to develop a certain product or skill or benefit for others just evaporated overnight with these fires.

The other area I would like to implore members to remember is this: for all these small businesses and people who operate enterprises that have been wounded in some way in these areas, there are also a very large number of people who have been employed by them, casually or on a permanent basis, and the business or shop that they went to work for has just disappeared. There is no work to do, and so a lot of these people are unemployed and without any direct future. They do not have something they have insured. They do not have a job. They do not even have an income.

Of course, some government benefits are available to support those who are unemployed, but there is a whole area of particularly young people on Kangaroo Island and in the Adelaide Hills who have lost their employment and will need a future. We have to rebuild these rural communities not just to ensure that we have the food and fibre production that we need and the beautiful places in tourism to sell to the world but so these people have a future as well. So the message from Kangaroo Island is very simple: do not forget us. We will be green again.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:11): I rise to support this motion as well and to talk about the really hard time that the people of Kangaroo Island have had in the past 50 days or so as this fire snaked its way across the western end of Kangaroo Island. It touched people's properties but did not destroy them the first time around. It touched them again on the other side the second time around. It touched them for a third time, in some cases. People thought they had miraculously survived, only to be hit by this serpent that came a fourth time and wiped them out.

The fires started on 20 December. Priscilla and Geoff, friends of mine—Priscilla is here today—were the first to lose their home. Priscilla works in my office in Kingscote. They are wonderful people who are homeless. That was the word on the Saturday night when Geoff and Priscilla had gone out to survey their property to see what had happened. That one word on your Facebook post that said 'homeless' really hit home. You were the first to become homeless. Eighty-nine homes have now been lost on Kangaroo Island, and it is a terribly tragic story for so many individuals. Multigenerational farming families have lost four or five farms. They have lost all the genetics they put into the breeding of sheep.

Without trying to single anyone out, Sam Mumford, as the Deputy Premier would know, is just one of those great characters. He is probably six foot four. He is a big, burly guy. I had a very good chat with him for about an hour in the Landmark office. He was a broken man on the inside, and you could tell that he was hurting, but on the outside he kept putting on a stoic face. He was the fellow who broke both wrists on day 2 of these fires. When he was told that he needed them put in plaster casts, he said, 'I can't. I'm the bloke who fills the aerial water bombers. Who is going to turn on the standpipe and fill up those water bombers if I'm not there?' So he has been carrying on with two broken wrists for close to 50 days.

About a week before the fires, he was bitten by a tiger snake. He did not go to the doctor because he thought he just had a bit of heat stroke. When he did go to the doctor, he was told there was no way he could have been bitten by a tiger snake because he would be dead. Sam said, 'Well, what do you reckon this is?' He pulled up his shorts and she said, 'You have been bitten by a tiger snake.' His words to me were, 'Lucky I'm a bit of a fat bugger because she reckons the venom is all in the fat. So, if I lose weight and it gets into the meat, I might die. So I'm just going to eat cheeseburgers for the rest of my life.'

They are sorts of great characters that we have on Kangaroo Island. But, beneath that veneer of stoicism, there are a lot of people really hurting and we need to be by their side doing everything we possibly can in the weeks and months and years ahead. We need to throw more money at mental health than we think is necessary because there are people out there who have not even been identified yet as needing support in the mental health area.

We need to iron out some of the bureaucratic blockages as well. I have been talking to people like Priscilla and Geoff. It has been nearly 50 days and the remains of their crumpled, burnt-out house are still on their property and no-one has fixed that up for them. I have spoken to Shane as well. On day 35, he is waking up and getting out of a caravan that someone has loaned him and is surrounded by asbestos dust and the wreckage of what was his home. That is not good enough. We are letting our fellow South Australians down by not being there and providing the sort of assistance they need, because this is now starting to have a real impact on these people's mental health. We have had the physical atrocity and now we are having the mental health damage.

I have been a bit critical of some of the actions and inactions of this government, but I want to draw a line in the sand and say, 'Come on guys, let's work together.' I am the local member over there. I have not heard from any of you ministers in these 50 days of the fires. I wrote a letter to the Premier on 23 December—day 4 of this crisis—asking for a recovery centre to be set up and for some leadership. I have not had a response to that letter.

When I rang Michelle Lensink on day 4 and said, 'Priscilla has lost her home. What's available?' she said, 'Well, there is this grant and this grant.' I said, 'Well, I'm driving, so could someone please email that information through to my office?' She said, 'We're too busy to send you an email.' I said, 'Well, how am I meant to get the information?' She said, 'Look it up on social media.' That is not a standard that I am prepared to accept, but I do want to work with you.

I think from now on we should do everything we can because this is not getting any better for people over there. We have already had victims of the fires. The next round of victims will be those who have suffered economic loss, those who have lost their jobs or those who stand to lose their businesses, and we really need to help them. I spoke with one tourism operator on Monday. His normal January turnover is $190,000; this January he did $9,000. He has had to lay off 10 staff.

As the Deputy Premier knows well, the island sustains five footy clubs and netball clubs, three schools and myriad small businesses with 4½ thousand people. If the population drops to 4,000 or 3,800, does the island survive in the way that we have known it? There needs to be some sort of economic stimulus that helps not just those who were physically impacted by the fire but all those who have been financially impacted by the fire as well. I think there are some good ideas floating around about what we need to do, but I do not think we can waste any more time on this. I think that we really need to work very quickly.

A whole series of fires joined up and ultimately became one big fire, but if you cut it all down there were probably eight fires. I remember three turning into one and then another separate three turning into another one and they also joined together. I went out on the Saturday morning, 4 January, with Tony Nolan, who is a mate of mine. We drove around and what we saw was horrific.

We saw cattle that had been snap frozen on the sides of roads; one looked like it was just standing there halfway through chewing cud and the intensity of the fire had just vaporised it. I saw possums on dirt roads that looked like they were still running down the road—they had just been vaporised. I saw trees that were at this angle, and if you did not know you would swear that you were driving through a cyclone. Everything had been frozen in time.

We went past Dick and Clayton Lang's vehicle, where they had been killed by the fire. I offer my condolences to the Lang family. Dick and I first met in the eighties when I was a journalist and we would go up into the outback. He would tell stories to our TV audience about the outback and really helped open that up.

There was another fellow out there that night, 37-year-old Garth Miller, who is a friend of mine from McLaren Vale. He played a bit of footy over on Kangaroo Island a few years ago. He sent me a text on Thursday 2 January that said, 'Hey Biggles, I need to get over to the island and help fight these fires because of the predicted damaging and dangerous conditions that are on the way.' My advice back to him was, 'It's probably unsafe given the conditions we have coming for us, but I'm sure the farmers would appreciate a bit of a hand.' We kept going backwards and forwards that Thursday night and into Friday and he said, 'I'm on my way. They need my help.'

Garth was over there actually fighting the fires for a few days with Dick and Clayton and other friends of theirs west of Parndana. Every time Garth rang me from that morning, after I had seen all that loss, because I knew he was out there and he was one of the first people to come across Dick's and Clayton's bodies, I took his calls, because he needed to tell someone those stories.

What he told me was horrifying. Not only had they been out fighting the fires with these massive walls of flames and noise and unbearable and unbelievable heat but then, after that had passed, he shot thousands and thousands of sheep and cattle for his mates. He had seen a lot of really bad stuff. I reckon he spent about 12 days on the island doing all this.

He came back and a few days later he was involved in a speedboat collision at Finniss and lost his life. I just want to say to Garth's kids, 14-year-old Montana and five-year-old twins Molly and William, that your dad, Garth Miller, was a great man. Your dad raced into the face of danger to help his fellow South Australians and his life was taken way too soon.

I want to thank everyone in the CFS, the SES, the farm firefighting units, the ambulance, the police, the Army Reserve, the Defence Force, and those wonderful technicians from SA Water and SA Power Networks who were out there. Hours after going out there and surveying the damage on that Saturday morning, we saw them out with big, long ladders and up poles, trying to put the power back on. To Paul, the local Telstra technician over there, and to everyone on the Telstra team, thank you for your great work. To the people who work in health, the firefighters in national parks and the people of PIRSA who have done an amazing job, I want to thank you, too, from the bottom of my heart on behalf of all those people you helped out on the island.

I also want to talk about the generosity of people right across South Australia and, indeed, around the world who came together to help. Sometimes it is not easy to know what to do and how to provide practical support. Someone contacted me from a farm firefighting unit on Kangaroo Island on New Year's Day, in those days leading up to that horrific Friday 3 January. They said, 'You know these farm firefighting units don't have any two-way radio communication? How could we get 20 or 30 of these two-way radios?' I said, 'I don't know, but leave it with me.' I rang them back about an hour later and I said, 'We've got 50 on the way.'

Within a few days, we had 163 two-way radios on the island. I want to thank Jamieson Marine and particularly Bradley Jamieson, who ran the scheme from that end, and I want to thank the company in Sydney, GME, which got them over here and into the shop. We know from the feedback that we are getting from farmers that those two-way radios save lives.

I want to thank BankSA for their tremendous response to their customers and to those who are not their customers. I have never met a more generous person in my life than branch manager Kaytee Collins. She is amazing. Nick Reade is the CEO. We might have had our differences over the years, but I have to say that Nick Reade and the BankSA crew have really stepped up.

Not only did they help out their customers but he rang me and asked, 'What do you think we can do?' I said, 'There are a whole lot of people out there who have lost everything. The only thing they want to do right now as part of the grieving process, as part of the cleaning process, as part of the rebuilding in the early stages, is to get back out on their property, so what they need is power. How about we get some generators for them?'

BankSA chipped in $35,000, the Hotels Association, $30,000, and Dudley and Irina Brown from Inkwell Wines in McLaren Vale, $25,000. Dr Michael Reid at McLaren Vale—what a legend he is—sent a text message around saying, 'Biggles needs these generators. They are $2,500 each. If you don't chip in and buy one, you are going to get a very uncomfortable prostate check next time you come in.' So 10 of his mates chipped in and each bought a $2,500 generators. I reckon we have put about $120,000, $130,000 worth of business through local businesses on the island. There is no point sending generators over from the mainland because that just hollows out the economy of our island. So we did that, and we got those generators out to people.

There are a few more schemes on the way and we will make sure that we do everything we possibly can. As I said, the fire is finally out after 60 millimetres of rain last Friday, but the crisis is far from over and we can help that next round of victims. We might not have been able to get out there and physically put out those flames, but we can help save these people from financial ruin and from the economic loss that we know the island will sustain without our assistance.

Premier, I look forward to working with you and your team. Let's help the people of Kangaroo Island. They are great people. I commend this motion to the house.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:26): I also rise to support the Premier's motion: as the Premier rightly said, a motion no Premier ever wants to move. As Minister for Emergency Services, people often ask me about matters relating to stations, trucks, hoses, PPE and helmets. But what I want to talk about today is what is behind all that—that is, the people.

Without the people to staff the stations, jump on the trucks, hold the hoses and wear the PPE and helmets we have nothing. We have all the state-of-the-art equipment in the world, but without the people standing on the front line with the equipment it is all of no use. While I cannot mention all those people now, I have met many and will continue to get around and meet more and thank them for their service.

Prior to the Christmas break, as the weather warmed up, members in this place reflected on the important roles of our emergency service men and women, volunteers and paid staff who do not just give up their time but also their safety to protect our state when called to do so. At that time, no member in this place could have anticipated the true scale of destruction and devastation that was to come in the weeks that followed.

In the 55 days since we last met in this place, South Australians have battled through some of our darkest days in recent memory. Whilst there is no question that the greatest impact has been seen on Kangaroo Island and in the Adelaide Hills, and indeed is still being realised, we have also seen substantial fires and damage at Keilira and Bunbury in the South-East, Angle Vale in the north, Miltalie on the West Coast, and, of course, Yorketown on Yorke Peninsula.

As we left 2019, many were excited at the prospect of a new decade. Heartbreakingly, many South Australians are now faced with the reality of starting 2020 from scratch. One thing they can all be assured of as they rebuild their lives piece by piece, brick by brick, is that all South Australians will be with you every step of the way. You are not alone and you never will be.

The stories of pain and suffering and loss are immense, but these stories are vastly outnumbered by the stories of hard work, dedication, commitment, perseverance and sacrifice by so many South Australian men and women. I have been very fortunate to travel throughout the state in recent weeks to meet with many locals—many who have lost everything.

On Christmas Day, as I drove through the Adelaide Hills I was blown away by just how many volunteers were out on the front line. Every corner you took there was another CFS truck hard at work. I was fortunate to join CFS chief, Mark Jones, and other volunteers on Christmas Day at the Gumeracha Oval, and special thanks to all the volunteers from the Salvation Army who put on lunch for our firefighters, as well as all the local volunteers who baked cakes and delivered food for those volunteers.

When catching up with members from the Morphett Vale, Blewitt Springs and other CFS brigades that day, Danny Burns told me how that morning he had video called his daughter from the fire truck to watch her open her Christmas presents. I asked him, 'Why did you come out and fight the fire today? You have every reason to stay at home. Your young daughter is celebrating Christmas.' And he just looked at me and said, 'Well, if I don't who's going to?' That attitude is just embedded in our CFS, and I commend everyone for it. It was at this time that I realised that this was the spirit of Christmas and what it is all about: self sacrifice and giving to others. Nothing we can say or do will ever repay these heroes. They are just outstanding people.

More recently, on Kangaroo Island I visited the Western Districts footy club. I have fond memories of playing footy out at Wonks as a boy and having to move the cows and kangaroos off the field before games. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see the damage that was done. The oval served as a place of last resort for a few people at the peak of the Kangaroo Island fires, and the stories they shared were quite horrific.

On other visits, and on this occasion as well, I went to Parndana, and we have heard Shane's story, but every time I went to the Parndana CFS I would catch up with Johan Kuchel. He was there every time. Like so many others, he was living out of that place and just giving back to his community. Everyone there are just wonderful people.

Whilst down at Stokes Bay last week, I met up with Kate Stanton, who the Deputy Premier talked about, as well as Danielle Bowden and another team from that community at their community hall, which had been levelled by the fires. Kate also took me to her house and showed me the devastation there. It was heartbreaking to see, but they are very resilient people on Kangaroo Island. If you know anyone from there, you will know that and that they are determined to rebuild.

Going to that local community hall where they met, where they congregate, where they gathered as a community, you could see the people there were torn between rebuilding their own personal lives, getting clothes to put on their back and rebuilding their homes and also building their community hall again and having that meeting place where they could all come together and bond. They are wonderful people, they are resilient, and we will be working with them every step of the way. They are people who have lost so much. They are people focused on rebuilding their community and people we will continue to work with every step of the way to help them do it.

At Cudlee Creek the other day I met with local CFS captain Mark Hawkins and the crew, along with the federal member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, and I acknowledge the importance of her involvement working so closely with the members for Morialta and Kavel, who have been doing outstanding work in their community. Both of them, I know, have missed many hours of sleep, and I think that the member for Kavel is still looking to catch up sometime later this year. He has just done an outstanding job.

As we have heard, there have been stories along the way of local surf clubs, like the Robe Surf Club, raising money for their local community. I mention again the great work of the member for Kavel at the O'Leary Walker Bushfire Relief Race Day they had in their local community—again raising money and doing all they can to help out.

However, remember back to earlier in the year—and this is another example of the great people we have in our state—when our firefighters were going over and helping out in New South Wales. A group of firefighters were at the cafeteria in the airport. They were ordering food and coffee before they got on the plane, and someone just slipped by and paid the bill. They paid the bill as a way of saying thank you for what our volunteers were doing. Again, I think that just shows the greatness of our people who have come together to help at these times.

I talked before about the Keilira fire, and I went down to the member for MacKillop's electorate to meet with the locals. The fire happened on 30 December, and it was one of the biggest fires in the South-East since the Ash Wednesday fire in 1983, burning through over 25,000 hectares, and it really was a miracle that no lives were lost. I thank again the member for MacKillop and the mayor, Kay Rasheed, who took us on a tour, and other members of the Kingston District Council (including my old man) who took us on this tour. Again, we could see the devastation.

Whilst those other fires have been talked about quite prominently, it is a poignant time to say that the people of that region will not be forgotten as well—again, wonderful people. We met with local property owner Greg Fisher, who spoke of the fire there and it being the third one to go through his property in the last seven years. His story of the way the community pulled together, neighbours helping neighbours, people helping people was inspiring.

I will also talk about the remarkable contribution by the South Australian Country Fire Service, which includes at last count more than 430 CFS brigades, 66,310 volunteer firefighter deployments and 10,900 appliances attending fire events across the state. The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service has been actively engaged in fighting regional bushfires, with in excess of 500 personnel being deployed, including firefighters and support staff. The South Australian State Emergency Service has provided support to firefighting activities, with approximately 400 volunteers and 60 staff joining the effort. The CFS aerial firefighting fleet has also been instrumental, with a combined total of 1,700 flying hours, making over 2,500 drops of water and fire retardant to affected bushfire areas.

The tireless work and countless hours donated by South Australia's emergency service volunteers can never be underestimated. Day or night, rain or shine, our first responders are prepared to swiftly respond to emergencies right across the state. They are people our state treasures. Our volunteers can have confidence that the government will continue to support them by ensuring they have the resources to do their job.

Many stories have also been told of the tireless effort of farm firefighters. For them, I have a clear message. We want to know who these heroes are. I know that farm firefighters step up without even being asked to do so. Often these people want to go unnoticed and go about their business quietly—something which makes it hard to thank them for their efforts. They are hard to track down. We want to get them the necessary gear and give them the proper equipment to protect themselves while they help other people.

I will be continuing to visit KI and the regions in the coming weeks and months to start discussions with farm firefighters to see how we can work together with the CFS. As minister, I want to make sure our farm firefighters have the proper protection and cover, like the CFS currently has in place. As minister, it is my role to ensure that anyone going on a fireground is as safe as they can possibly be. It is absolutely devastating to have lost lives and property but we must not forget the crews who have done an outstanding job protecting and saving countless homes and properties.

This has been an extremely trying time for many of our community, but I am heartened by the support and the efforts being shown by our dedicated emergency services volunteers and personnel. The logistics behind responding to a bushfire event—be it in the Adelaide Hills, Kangaroo Island or the Far West Coast—are unique and challenging. Thanks must also be reserved for all those who have worked behind the scenes across the emergency services sector to get people to and from our firegrounds. Not many people get to see what goes on behind the scenes, but I can assure you that South Australia is in good hands.

I pay tribute to Mark Jones, who was literally thrown straight into the deep end of a major emergency in Australia. Mark kept his cool and kept our volunteers safe, as his team fought and contained some of our most ferocious fires ever seen. Leaders need to be emphatic and authentic, and Mark certainly has those traits. I also thank the police commissioner, Grant Stevens, and deputy police commissioner, Linda Williams, for their support, leadership and coordination during times of emergency. I also thank Dominic Lane, our new SAFECOM chief, for his expertise and professionalism. Dom has been an excellent support to me and others since coming into the role.

Other mentions go to MFS chief officer, Michael Morgan, and SES chief executive, Chris Beattie, and their teams. But the biggest thankyou, the most important thankyou, goes the people we cannot thank enough—our volunteers. To each and every single one of you, whether you are CFS, SES, DEW, Salvation Army, MFS, farm firefighters, St John's, SAAS, BlazeAid, or if you helped bake cakes to feed the workers on the front line, thank you. You are wonderful people.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (15:38): I rise to also support the motion brought by the Premier. I support it wholeheartedly and place on record my own personal condolences to the families of all those who have lost their lives in this bushfire emergency, recognising that it is not over yet. We have a long way to go.

We often observe that Adelaide is a small town and South Australia, by extension, is a small place. We all know each other and this takes on a whole new light when we collectively experience a disaster of the scale we have seen in the recent bushfires. It is not just Cudlee Creek and Kangaroo Island that have grabbed our attention in recent weeks. It is the South-East, as has been mentioned, and Angle Vale, up our way in its own small way—I do not think any property was lost there but certainly it looked pretty dangerous for a while—and also Yorke Peninsula earlier on. I want to mention and acknowledge that the member for Goyder is here today in the house to watch this debate.

An honourable member: Former.

Mr ODENWALDER: Former. Sorry, yes. Indeed, the former member for Goyder. If only!

In the days following the first explosive fire that rushed through our Hills communities, what we call for shorthand the Cudlee Creek fire, the leader and I drove to a community meeting at Oakbank Area School. We drove up there in my car to listen to those affected, to get an understanding of the impact of the fires. It was a large community meeting and the members for Kavel and Morialta were there along with the federal member for Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, who as well as being a great supporter to many people also has been personally affected by the fires in Cudlee Creek.

The leader and I had barely left the car when we were unexpectedly approached by someone we both knew professionally. This often happens, of course, in South Australia: you run across people. We exchanged hellos, and it quickly became apparent that she was upset, she was shaken, and it turned out that this person we both knew had lost everything, or at least she assumed at the time that she had lost everything. It turns out that was the case. She had left her property as part of a bushfire plan, taking what she could, and at the time we spoke to her she had no idea what had happened but assumed the worst. As it turns out, the worst had happened. So immediately upon getting out of the car we were confronted with the human reality of these fires.

I should say at this point that this community meeting and other community meetings I have attended over the last couple of months have been extremely well run, with the CFS, the police, DPTI, the councils and all the agencies clearly doing what they could to give people the information required. I can see the Minister for Education nodding. He has been to many of these meetings himself. As an aside, I want to thank Alex Zimmerman, who is leading the recovery effort in the Hills in the seats of Morialta and Kavel up in Cudlee Creek and doing an excellent job I am told. Knowing Alex, I am sure that is the case. He is making sure that the resources go where they are needed not just in the immediate aftermath but in the treatment of mental health injuries that are sure to follow, as has been mentioned.

As I said before, emergencies like this bring communities together and remind us that we are indeed all close neighbours and that things like this touch us all. The sense that we are all in this together was reinforced again in very emotional ways on my recent visit to Kangaroo Island, and I can barely add to the member for Mawson's observations of the resilience, the cohesion and the suffering of the island community. Among the many very interesting conversations I had on Kangaroo Island was one at the Parndana Football Club, which has been mentioned as being claimed as a base for both BlazeAid and for the Army reservists.

I met the officer in charge of the Army reservists, who again in a very Adelaide moment turned out to be a friend of a friend, and we got chatting on both occasions I was there. He gave me a very good understanding of the work that the ADF and the reservists were doing on the island and also the help they were receiving from their New Zealand counterparts, particularly in terms of identifying killer trees, which I had not realised were such an enormous problem until I went to Kangaroo Island. I sincerely hope that similar work is going on in Cudlee Creek because we do not want any of those trees coming down.

He gave me a very good understanding of the work that they were doing but, perhaps more importantly, he became very emotional when he told me about the reception he and all his other members had received upon arriving on Kangaroo Island, the spontaneous applause they got when they got off their vessel on arrival, and their subsequent acceptance by the tight-knit Kangaroo Island community. I heard stories like this from soldiers, reservists and other mainland emergency services workers all across the island.

I want to focus on the volunteers themselves, and previous speakers have done this, and I will not speak for too long. In doing so, I do not want to distract from the paid firefighters, the police, the soldiers, the cops, the ambos, the Salvation Army and all those who have been and still are working so hard in the common cause of responding and recovering. But the volunteers are something else again, and I also include those who invested in farm fire units and they support the CFS obviously in defending their own and their neighbours' properties.

We have seen both in this debate and in the media the word 'hero' used a lot. It is mentioned time and time again in the public discourse around the volunteer firefighters. Of course they are heroes, but there is a part of me that fears there is a risk that we are overusing this word and that it in some way detracts from the type of people they are. At the end of the day, they are ordinary people like all of us, everyone in this chamber. They are ordinary community members. They get up each day, they go to work, they love their family and they do their best for their family every day, but they have something else: they have a drive to give back to their communities and take risks that most of us will never have to take.

We have all seen this on ubiquitous mobile phones and social media. We have seen some incredible footage—some of us have seen it up closer than others—of terrible fires and unbelievable bravery. It is important to remember that in many cases the same people fighting these fires stand to lose, and actually did lose, everything in these fires. Over 40 individual CFS volunteers experienced their own personal loss of property or stock during the Cudlee Creek and Kangaroo Island fires, and that is before we even mention the South-East and Yorke Peninsula.

Over the past several months I have been lucky enough to talk to countless volunteer firefighters, and one thing that shines through above all others is the humble belief that they are only doing the right thing by their neighbours, that they are only doing what they believe anybody else would do. It is this belief, that it is their obvious duty to help and protect their neighbours and not simply the physical and psychological acts of bravery that we call heroism, that is what truly makes them heroes and sets them apart from most of us.

I met a husband and wife at Parndana, whom the members for Bragg and Mawson may well know, who had lost everything. They explained to me that they had lost everything: home, stock, land—everything—and they were absolutely devastated. At this stage, they had no idea what they were going to do in terms of recovery. They had no time to think about the future, yet they told me that they were both out the very next day on the back of CFS trucks fighting fires and protecting the lives, the stock and property of their friends and neighbours and that it was their duty. It was, to their way of thinking, simply the right thing to do.

I also met another couple who nearly lost everything, with the fire snaking across the countryside, as the member for Mawson has explained. They nearly lost their property not once but twice. Luckily, their house was saved, but a lot of their property and stock was lost, sadly. This couple sought me out deliberately. When people seek you out deliberately at a public meeting you kind of brace yourself. They told me they had a message for me.

What they wanted to tell me was that they were dismayed that the media were portraying all farmers as climate deniers. They wanted me to help get the message out that they and many other farmers accepted the truth of human-induced climate change. They wanted me to know that they had seen their land change over time and had no doubt why this was happening, and they were very emotional about it. So, I have brought that message back to this house.

While these volunteers and paid firefighters deserve our sincere thanks and gratitude, they also deserve our ongoing support. It is important to remember, as others have said, that the fires are not out, that the job is not yet done. When it is, our firefighters as well as all the other volunteers—the SES, St John and, of course, those landowners who protect their own property and the property of others—deserve our ongoing support. We need to really listen to them when they tell us about their experiences. We need to listen to what went right, what went wrong, what we need to do better now and the next time there is an emergency, because there will be.

I sincerely hope that this is what the Keelty review will do. I sincerely hope that this is what the royal commission, which the Prime Minister has announced, will do, and I sincerely hope that the government will be listening. We on this side will be listening because we owe it to our volunteers. I also hope, as some commentators have optimistically suggested, that this is a turning point in our nation's approach to the challenges of climate change because taking climate change seriously may well be the greatest gift we can give to our firefighters.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. S.K. Knoll.