Page 30 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 11 February 2020
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also been prepared. I would particularly like to acknowledge the work of Christine Lawrence, the president of the ACT Equestrian Association, in ensuring that community members were getting accurate information about issues such as horse evacuation and relocation points, road closures and the operation of the alert system. We also saw the community pull together, with people offering one another transport and accommodation for their horses as the fire threat shifted around the city from the western fringe to Pialligo and Oaks Estate and back again to the south-west. Awareness of and communication with the equestrian community is just one example of the lessons learned from 2003 and since then.
The commissioner, Georgeina Whelan, and her team, have been laser focused not only on fighting the fires but also on communicating with the community about what they are doing and how ACT residents could help and prepare themselves. Technology has helped. Many people have followed the ESA on social media and the New South Wales RFS Fires Near Me app, which clearly was not an option in 2003. As others have, I also want to give a shout-out to the radio stations, and particularly our emergency broadcast partner, the ABC. I know more than a couple of people who came back from new year on the South Coast vowing to buy a battery-powered radio.
I want to acknowledge how quick the commonwealth government was in understanding the mental health impact of the fires. The funding they have put in place so far is welcome. I have no doubt that Minister Rattenbury and the ACT government as a whole will continue to monitor its effectiveness.
Many members of the first nations community in the surrounding region, particularly the Yuin people on the South Coast, have relocated to the ACT either temporarily or to stay. In the first instance they were supported by community services across Canberra, including through the Dickson relief centre. This support included immediate temporary accommodation and financial assistance. Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services and Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation opened their doors to provide extra support to Aboriginal people from the region impacted by fires. I met with Julie Tongs in mid-January to discuss this response. As a result of this meeting, I have written to the commonwealth health minister, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, asking that he expand the mental health package to include culturally appropriate and community-controlled supports for community members for whom the impact of the fires may be exacerbated by the intergenerational trauma and cultural load that comes with being an Aboriginal person in this country.
Our anxiety as a city has also been heightened by the waves of dense smoke that have engulfed our city for days at a time since November. Canberrans have become aware of air quality in a way most of us never expected. We will be talking about this more on Thursday, so I will not go into detail on everything the Chief Health Officer and health protection service did to respond to this challenge. It was an enormous amount of work, including developing a new website to provide hourly average air quality data in response to feedback from the community and providing up-to-date evidence-based advice on how best to cope.
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