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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (30 January) . . Page.. 49 ..

MRS DUNNE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, in his article last Monday, Denis Shanahan said that there would be in Australia a new awareness of Canberra as a community. He was making the distinction that we always need to make in this place between the Canberra of the media, where the perennial hatchet job is done on us, as it has been done on us in the past week, and the Canberra that we know and love, the Canberra that we represent. The events of 18 January have made Canberra a different and definitely a better place, and more people will see it for that. It might be a cliche, but Canberra will be phoenix-like as a result of these events because we have that indomitable Australian spirit, particularly Canberra spirit. I hope that it can be bottled and sent to the rest of the world.

MR QUINLAN (Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism and Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming) (1.25): I have lived in Weston Creek almost continuously since 1971. Therefore, I know personally many of the people who have lost their homes and many more people who fought to save their homes. I knew Dougie Fraser, one of the people who lost their life. Dougie was a character of Weston Creek. I knew him through the Weston Creek Wildcats and I knew him, as I said, as one of Weston Creek's characters.

My own home, although showered with ashes and, I think, some embers, was not in any immediate danger and, like many, I struggle to appreciate exactly how people felt at the time. I visited evacuation centres on Sunday morning. I remember going to Narrabundah and, after yelling down the phone at a supplier who was quibbling about how he was going to get paid for some pharmaceutical supplies, I met some people who had been directly impacted upon. Most of them were stoic, some were distressed and at least one was totally inconsolable, which brings home the point that there will be more than physical recovery required from this particular disaster.

On the Monday at daybreak I took a tour around Duffy, Chapman, Rivett and Weston, coincidentally all suburbs in which I had resided at some time or another. I have been overwhelmed with the spirit shown, which many other members have spoken about. It has been my privilege to at least initiate the process of setting up the Canberra bushfire recovery appeal and the response has been quite fantastic-the corporate response, the response from community groups and, in fact, the response from other governments, with the Commonwealth government putting in $0.5 million and state and territory governments making contributions to that appeal.

This is not a time for getting down to the numbers and whatever, but I would like to indicate at this point that the territory itself as well has suffered some asset losses and the cost of fighting the fires themselves and the cost of the recovery support to people, business and the community organisations that have been affected. Yes, there is insurance, but there are also deductibles. Yes, there is financial support under the national disaster recovery arrangements, but there will be negotiations with regard to what expenditure we will involve ourselves in and what will actually be recoverable. There probably will be negotiations with the Department of Finance. I hope that we will not have to fight the trench warfare which is often a feature of dealing with the Department of Finance.

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