Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): I thank the Prime Minister for his words. On 7 February 2009, Fern Langmead and her father and brother spent two hours in their neighbour's dam, crowded in with frightened deer and kangaroos. Around them their world literally burned. Huddled beneath an old woollen blanket the Langmeads dived under the water every 30 seconds to douse the drifting embers. Stella Reid, who ran the Wildhaven Wildlife Shelter, was on the truck with her CFA crew near St Andrews. It was, in her words, 'an ocean of fire, a tsunami rippling through, rolling off the top of the mountain and landing behind us'. When Stella got back to the station she saw her husband covered in ash. He said, 'I'm so sorry; it's all gone'—their home, their shelter, koalas, wombats, joeys in their pouches. Stella recalls 'an emptiness you've never felt in your life and a loss of something that you'll never find again'. For so many Victorians, the fire took it all: homes, sheds, fences, livestock. It took pets, precious moments, special spots. But these are the people who lived to tell the tale; 173 of our fellow people did not—families who tried to stay and fight and were consumed by the flames; parents and children who tried to flee and were trapped in their cars, chased down by the so-fast fire front; so many bereaved. But I think in particular of the story of three Chinese students who perished in a picnic car park above Marysville, trapped in their car, so far away from home and family. I think of a little girl who has grown up to be a remarkable young woman. She ran hundreds of metres from where the actual fire was. The heat was so severe, though, that she suffered fourth-degree burns. Her parents perished. Her grandparents, who I got to know, became parents again but, unfortunately, they too now have passed. Homes can be rebuilt, farms restocked, things replaced, but seeing that rollcall of the bereaved at the Exhibition Building last week just reminds you of the sudden and shocking loss of someone you love. The burden of that grief can never leave the bereaved. For so many of the brave survivors, the 10-year anniversary is merely another raw reminder of what they have truly lost and the process of recovery, a shock that sends them back to that day of panic and terror. As David Barton from Marysville put it, 'Once a year, we will be reminded of our fate forever.' It's understandable, and no wonder that some who left the ruins and the ashes and moved away never returned. As we look back a decade later at the photos and the footage—the sky black with smoke, the horizon a string of flame—it remains extraordinary to think that men and women, firefighters and volunteers, went off to fight that horror, in some cases as their own properties were in flames. Today, again, we give thanks for the bravery of our emergency services personnel. We salute the calm and compassion of charities and community groups who brought clothes, blankets and food and comfort and the kindness of everyday Australians—children who sent their own toys to kids who had lost everything. It is amongst that devastation and destruction that the essential goodness and generosity of Australians shone through. I remember being then the Parliamentary Secretary for Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction, and some of what I saw will remain with me forever: firstly, in those days afterwards, as those who visited saw the devastation, the ruin, a war zone of burnt-out cars and almost apocalyptic devastation. Secondly, I remember that, while governments—state, federal and local—provided money and resources, most of the ideas and initiatives came from people who loved their 78 communities which were on fire: the footy, cricket and tennis clubs; the Lions and Rotary clubs; the school groups. They picked themselves up, looked after one another and got each other through. In Strathewen the locals began meeting once a week for a good cry, to share the stories, to embrace each other, and they started the work of rebuilding with beautiful, colourful new handmade letterboxes for each of their homes. The fires burned right up to the perimeter of the Steels Creek Community Centre, but the building was spared. In the months that followed, locals, many sleeping in portable classrooms while waiting for their blocks to be cleared, gathered for movie nights and quizzes, guest speakers and art classes. In closing, I'd like to mention Carol and Dave Matthews. I will never forget standing next to Carol in the wreckage of her home as she explained to me how she had lost her son, Sam. Sam would be 32 if he were with us. She showed me photos of him and told me the story: how he was on the phone to her as the fire approached, the noise of the exploding panes of glass, then no more. Yet, as difficult and terrible as that is, how strong are she and her husband! She's so remarkable that, since then, she has developed an immersive multisensory bushfire experience to help educate and save lives in the future. She's so modest that she would squirm at the fact I'm going to mention she was awarded Victorian Local Hero of the Year in 2019. It just reminds us all—I speak of her but I could have spoken of literally thousands of others—that, long after the cameras packed up and the national spotlight moved on, as it does, people carried each other through the hard grind of starting from scratch. There are so many of these stories, studies in courage, portraits of resilience, triumphs of the spirit. We honour them all today, we offer our respects to the memory of those lost and we send our heartfelt condolences to all those who still bear the burden of grief. The SPEAKER: I thank the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition for those very poignant remarks.