Cudlee Creek Bushfires

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Minister for Education) (15:25): I will be taking this opportunity to share with the house some reflections on the challenges posed to my community in Morialta by the Cudlee Creek bushfires. While I had intended to make a significant contribution when the motion before the house was available, I do not know when that opportunity will present itself. Since 20 December, there have been things that needed to be said and I do not want to lose the opportunity to do so in the circumstance that it will be some time before the bushfire motion returns to the house.

On 20 December and pretty much every day since, the communities of Cudlee Creek, Lobethal, Kenton Valley, Lenswood and a range of surrounding areas, such as Mount Torrens, the outlying areas of Birdwood and Gumeracha and the whole Adelaide Hills community, including all of the tourism operators and operators of other economic endeavours, have been absolutely smashed by the challenges posed by the bushfires. Some have been directly affected: some have been burnt, hundreds have lost houses. Dozens and dozens of people in my electorate have lost houses and hundreds have lost property one way or another.

The impact, ferocity and severity of the fire has been unmatched in the living memory of many people who live in that community. It was terrifying; it was an extraordinary ordeal. What happened in the days after was extraordinary heroism demonstrated by so many people in the Country Fire Service, so many volunteers and volunteer organisations across the community which, if I get the opportunity to make a longer speech I will mention in greater detail. They have dealt with the immediate response, immediate relief and the longer-term recovery.

The government's response was profound and appreciated on the ground where it was capable of being delivered. The work that was done to support that response on the ground by non-government organisations and, really importantly, individuals standing up, supporting their neighbours, supporting their communities and supporting their towns was an extraordinary sight to behold. I reflect on the fact that in recent weeks we have seen some really bad behaviour by some people in our communities. It has absolutely gutted me to see panic buying in supermarkets and those ignoring the needs of the more vulnerable in the community.

As I believe Adelaide Hills Mayor Jan-Claire Wisdom said at a community meeting in Oakbank just days after the fire, what was brought out by the worst that nature had to offer was in many cases the best that humanity had to offer, and it was extraordinary. I want to pay particular tribute to some community members—and while I risk offending others in doing so, to those I cannot mention by name today, I indicate that I will be looking to do substantially more in my hopefully 20-minute contribution later in the year.

In Lobethal, we saw a response that was potentially unlike any other. Before communication was restored to Lobethal, when there was no mobile phone or internet connectivity and when people were terrified and hungry, a group of people in the community came together in the RSL and then moved to the retirement village to set up a Lobethal bushfire recovery effort. I want to pay particular tribute to some of those people: Adam Weinert, Kelly Lewis, Jodie and Kye Turpin, Taylos Bunce, and Melissa and Amanda Geue, particularly from the committee. There are others on the committee who have asked not to be identified, and there may be some whom I have missed. I could name hundreds of volunteers around the Hills who would be worthy of merit. That group is emblematic of the sorts of things we want to see in our community.

As education minister, I have taken the opportunity to visit sites hit by bushfire: the Kangaroo Island bushfire, in particular, and indeed as many sites as I have been able to get to before the coronavirus took hold in the Adelaide Hills. The stories of staff who themselves suffered great loss but went to support their children—potentially not having had school holidays because of the impact on their properties—to give them some semblance of normality from day one, despite having lost property and despite having in some cases lost houses, have been extraordinary. It has given the children the best possible start to the year.

While we are all confronting this unprecedented crisis of the coronavirus, I ask that all of us remember that there are some in our community who this year were already suffering an unprecedented crisis and who now have had this laid on top of that. To all those educators and all the other workers in the Hills, on Kangaroo Island and in other bushfire-affected areas, we say thank you, thank you, thank you.