Page 463 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 10 February 2009
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regular donor then I think it is important that people make that decision if they are able to go and do it.
I agree with the Chief Minister having regard to the way that some of this will open the memories and the wounds of 2003. I have rung friends, and friends have rung me. I think it is very important as a community that we continue to do it because the stress of what has happened and the memories of what occurred in our city some time ago will come back and affect people. It is very important that we keep an eye on each other and that, for those for whom this will perhaps trigger different emotions, we are there for each other.
It is important that we also take stock of what has happened and that we look at what we can do into the future. There is a bushfire CRC, a cooperative research centre, which is based in Melbourne. The work that they have been doing has been funded to the tune of about $100 million by successive governments. Perhaps we need to ask the question: is that enough? There is an immense amount of data out there; there is an immense amount of experience out there. What we need to do, and what I am sure Premier Brumby will ensure will occur through their royal commission, is to continue to drill down and not accept until we get down to what is the core issue that causes the loss of 173 lives—and a toll that is growing.
What goes wrong? Yesterday I was checking some of the blogs and there were some discussions about the policy of “stay or leave”. We have got to be so much clearer, I believe, in that direction. “Leave” does not mean five minutes before the fire; “leave” means that morning. These things build up; they tend to culminate in the afternoons and at night. People have to make decisions a long time before they leave, simply because of the nature of the smoke. In many ways smoke can be the biggest killer because (1) it suffocates and (2) it obscures and it causes accidents. The smoke often arrives a long time before the fire does.
Again, there is a national conversation that has to be had there, and it has to be had continually. Let us face it: we had fires here in 2001, on Christmas Eve in 2001, that got to the Mint and the front door of Government House. We had the fires in 2003. Victoria had fires in 2005. Here we are in 2009. It is part of the continuing nature of where we live that this will occur again. We cannot be complacent. I am not casting any doubts or aspersions here, and I have to say that what I saw in driving to Melbourne on Saturday filled me with great heart. It appeared that they were taking it incredibly seriously, and urging people to have their plans ready.
Again, I think we need to revise this, particularly through the education system. How do we instil in our young ones when they are very young the things that we need to do? We teach “look to the left, look to the right, look to the left again” when crossing the road, but what do we instil in our young ones from a very early age about how to address fires when they occur and how quickly they can occur?
It was harrowing to hear the story of the couple that had just gone down to the shops. They did not even realise they were in an area that was exposed, that was under threat. They had done nothing to prepare their property because they did not know it was under threat. They went to the shops, came back and it was just gone. That is the speed and ferocity with which these events occur. Perhaps we need to have a
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