Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (30 January) . . Page.. 45 ..

MS MacDONALD (continuing):

I would also like to say well done to the Chronicle for having the good news edition this week. It is the sort of thing that we need to have; although, as Lisa Brill said to me on Monday night, some of the jokes in there are pretty poor. But good on them for having done it. I would also like to mention at this point that Ginninderra Press is putting a book together, with a local printer doing the printing free of charge, and is asking for people to send in their stories so that it can publish individual stories and raise some money for bushfire relief.

Mr Speaker, I would like to finish on a positive note, and I draw on history to do so. At 9.30 in the morning of 1 November 1755 the city of Lisbon in Portugal was hit by three successive earthquakes. Its being All Saints Day, a large part of the population was in church and were killed by the collapsed buildings. A massive fire also started in the wake of the tremors and was fuelled by the many candles being lit within the churches. Nature, not content with those two things alone, then decided to send a tidal wave which wiped out many of those fleeing the fires. At least 13,000 of the city's 270,000 people died, although some estimates claimed three times that number.

This, of course, was a tragedy of phenomenal proportions, with not only the personal cost, but also the loss of many beautiful buildings. The hope I find coming from this story is to do with the rebuilding of the city of Lisbon. Following the devastation, the city was rebuilt in a very different style, I would say, under the guiding hand of the Marques de Pombal. It would have been easy to have been overcome by these events and to sit and do nothing, but the city of Lisbon was beautifully rebuilt and stands today as testament that it is possible to rebuild a city after devastation.

I know that we can rebuild this town and that we can learn lessons from the events of Saturday, 18 January. I know also that we can make this town even better than it has been in the past. The reason I know that, Mr Speaker, is that I have total faith in the people of this beautiful city being able to positively take control of their lives and in their generosity of spirit.

MRS DUNNE (1.11): Mr Speaker, it is obvious that it gives us no pleasure to be here today to speak of the events of the Saturday before last, but we must look beyond the losses, the heartbreak and the tragedy and we must recognise the reality that they could have been much worse. The loss of life that occurred was tragic and regrettable and no amount of hand-wringing, public eulogising or private prayer can restore to life those who have died, nor fill the spaces that they have left in their families, in their neighbourhoods and in the community at large. All we can do is pray for the comfort of those bereaved.

But we should also have prayers of thanksgiving. We must be thankful that, mercifully, the number was low. Similar fires in recent years in other places in Australia have seen a much higher death toll-94 in Ash Wednesday of 1993. Just what happened and how we respond to this great tragedy, the thing that has impacted so much on our city, is where we go to from here. As our leader has said, it is a matter of necessity that we should have a public inquiry into what happened on the day and how people responded.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .