My Speech from Parliament last night on greens playing politics with bushfire tragedy. BUSHFIRES The Hon. NIALL BLAIR [10.08 p.m.]: In the last few days we have seen dozens of fires ravage areas around the Hunter, the Southern Highlands and the Blue Mountains. Over 200 homes have so far been lost, as well as one life. Unfortunately, we have not seen the end of these fires. Today 59 fires have continued to burn across the State, with 19 of these uncontained. Temperatures today reached the mid-30s with winds of over 70 kilometres an hour. Some 3,000 firefighters helped to battle the blaze today, including, amazingly, 700 firefighters who have flown in from interstate and overseas. I wholeheartedly commend the actions of the NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers for fighting these wildfires, and the Fire and Rescue New South Wales firefighters who have made up many task forces from across New South Wales and concentrated on structural firefighting along with the wildfire effort. Not to be forgotten are the Fire and Rescue New South Wales Community Fire Units. They have educated locals, helped with fire plans and also been an important front line for property protection in some areas. In the midst of this tragedy and the many heroic efforts by paid staff and volunteers alike, last week we saw a gutless, grubby act by The Greens to try to politicise this state of emergency. Adam Bandt kicked off this shameful political stunt by tweeting, Why Tony Abbotts plan means more bushfires for Australia and more pics like this of Sydney, next to a picture of a bushfire. He then thought it necessary to continue his cheap political point scoring by telling ABC television: Tony Abbott has picked this time to say hes going to rip up action on global warming and in fact allow more pollution, which is going to mean these kinds of fires we will see happening more often. This tune was taken up by Dr Mehreen Faruqi last night, although she was more gracious than Mr Bandt in some of her comments. In this place she said: ... it is absolutely true that without strong action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions we will see more of these fires and they will be severe. Now is not the time or the place for such a debate. With thousands of firefighters putting their lives on the line to save life and property and with people literally sifting through the ashes of the remains of their homes, it is inappropriate to selfishly seek air time to further a political agenda. Even Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten stated that it was an inappropriate time to link the fires to climate change in light of the fact that a 63-year-old man had perished. Mr Bandt obviously has little empathy or compassion for his fellow Australians. From the comfort of his inner-city cafe, while people were at work not knowing what had happened to their homes or loved ones, Mr Bandt was on Twitter trying to get one up on his political opponents. While the nations thoughts turned to those in need, it seems The Greens thoughts turned to their political advantage. I am sure they have never seen firsthand what such an emergency is like on the front line. If they had, maybe they could the grasp why their comments have upset so many. If they had stood before a fire front and heard the roar as it moved through a valley and been at the ready to take it head on only to turn around to see it spotting behind them due to embers and strong winds they might think again. They do not know what it is like to struggle to take a breath due to the smoke in your lungs starving you of oxygen or to have your eyes sting and weep while you try to focus on ensuring you use your water in the most efficient and effective way, only to be faced with nothing but destruction and a feeling of helplessness. This is what our firefighters have faced over the past week. Some people have lost everything in this tragedy—photographs, books, vehicles and homes—and one man paid the ultimate price. Many took offence to the timing of the comments from The Greens because of the raw facts I have mentioned. As both sides of the political spectrum have attested, it was completely inappropriate and uncalled for. My advice to The Greens is to quit their petty politicking and infantile bickering, to show a bit of empathy for the loss suffered by so many around our State and to congratulate the everyday heroes, the firefighters, who put themselves on the line to keep our communities safe. Thank you, and, We are sorry for your loss, is enough for now. We will debate the other issues in good time when the time is right. That time will come.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 00:45:25 +0000
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