Mr LITTLEPROUD (Maranoa—Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management) (13:51): One of the greatest honours that I've been bestowed in my professional career was to be made the emergency management minister of this country, not because of anything that I've done but because of what I've seen: our brave men and women. The professionalism of the emergency management personnel is something I will never forget, the way that they have responded to this emergency and the fact that nine of them have given the ultimate sacrifice to this country. While three of them are from overseas, they are Australians now. They are one with us. They are our brothers. I remember meeting a number of Canadian and US firefighters at Sydney airport. It was a day after we lost two of our own, two of our very first firefighters. I remember saying to them, in welcoming them, that your family, the firefighting family, is one that has lost two brothers. I saw in their eyes that understanding, that appreciation that they had lost brothers of their family, because it is a family. The professionalism and the commitment that these men and women are prepared to make for us are something I think we should be profoundly proud of. It shows that we are part of a global family that works. It does work. For us to have sons and brothers from the other side of the world prepared to come and put their lives on the line for us speaks volumes about our nation and our place in the world, and what we mean to those other nations around the world that have helped us in the past. And we help them. Those men and women, the emergency service personnel, those that are full-time paid and those that are volunteers, they are the heroes. They are ordinary Australians doing extraordinary things. The only difference between both is the pay grade, one firefighter said to me. The professionalism of both the volunteer and full-time firefighters is exemplary and world class. We should be proud of them. We should be proud of the fact that our fire commissioners from around the country have planned meticulously. They are some of the best in the world—not just Shane Fitzsimmons, but right up in Queensland, right down into South Australia and right across this country. If I may indulge at a local level, it is my electorate in Queensland that was one of the first to experience these bushfires. In fact, we've had many in my electorate in western Queensland. To some extent it has always been a little bit of a 'she'll be right' attitude. But what sheeted home the gravity of this event was when Assistant Commissioner Megan Stiffler, who was handling the fires at Stanthorpe, rang me and in such a sobering moment said that these fires had now gone to a catastrophic level and we expected to lose life. That is something that my communities had never experienced. It's something that sheeted home exactly what we were going to face over the ensuring season. To hear the professionalism of an assistant commissioner and the fact that she had prepared herself for fatalities—people that I knew who could possibly could lose their lives—is something that I won't forget. I understood the gravity of the position I then held. I understood not only what the Queensland emergency fire service but what all fire services have achieved. While tragically we have lost 33 lives over this summer, they have saved countless more. They have saved so many lives and so many homes. These aren't houses; these are homes. Over 3,000 homes have been lost across this country—that is peoples' identities, that is them, that is what they've achieved, that is what makes them and makes our country so great. The fact is that rebuilding will happen. It will be about rebuilding their lives more than their homes because their lives and the rebuilding of their lives, emotionally, is something that is far more important than an infrastructure piece. I saw that firsthand in Bilpin with a young man who has one daughter about to go back to school. He could hardly stand in telling us the trauma that he and his family went through in having to evacuate his home. This was a strong, fit, brave young man but he was ground down to the ground in absolute sorrow, anger and grief that this had happened to him and his family. He was a lost soul, simply a lost soul, and I haven't seen anything like that in my life. I hope I don't see it again in a hurry. This is a human being. This is one of our fellow Australians that has seen something they should not have seen. I have to pass great thanks on to our state agencies right across this country—up in Queensland, down in New South Wales, South Australia and particularly in Victoria—for the way that we're able to work together. I remember when the fires were going on in Mallacoota, I was able to pick up the phone to Lisa Neville, after the local doctor rang me about an issue, and within 20 minutes Lisa Neville had had that fixed. That was leadership. That was more than beyond politics. That's what makes us great, that we can reach across the divide. We do care about our fellow Australians, keeping them safe, making our nation better and safer. I think that that's something that will have to stand us in good stead as we move forward, that hand of bipartisanship in making sure that we engage and learn from this disaster and many others. I acknowledge members opposite. In fact, it was one of my first visits to the member for Macquarie's communities, and I acknowledge the strength and leadership that I saw in her. She had experienced her own disaster a couple of years earlier. I think it is something that showed that our parliament is richer for the diversity of those people that come to this place with the life experiences that they have to be able to lead their community. It is something that we as a parliament, regardless of political divide, should be so proud of. The care that she showed—and understanding—is something that I think will help her community heal quicker. In fact, the member for Macquarie led off our press conference. I don't think that's ever been done before, where an opposition member has led off a press conference for a government minister, but this was about people, not politics. We as a parliament should be profoundly proud that we can do that, that we are here to make our nation greater. I have to say the role that the Australian Defence Force played was significant. I didn't really understand the gravity of it until I was out near Cobargo, and I had just been to the pub with David Allen and I had a beer with him, and I understood the real gravity of the loss, for the funerals that were about to happen the next day and the mental anguish that community was having. But, leaving Cobargo, we were driving back to Canberra and, in fact, came across ADF personnel fixing a fence of a farmer, Greg. We pulled up and Greg was pretty emotional. He is 68 and he said to me: 'Look, mate, two days ago I got up and said: "Bugger it; I'm out. It's all too hard." Yesterday, the Australian Defence Force turned up, and they're rebuilding my fence.' He said, 'Bugger it; I'm going to have another crack.' For that man that was about to give up something that was his life's work because it was all too hard, to have the Australian Defence Force walk in and be able to help them, fellow Australians—and the pride on those Australian Defence Force personnel to be able to stand there and to work to build a fence that meant so much to a man that had done all he could—was something that I think put in perspective what our Australian Defence Force is to this nation and means to this nation. And so learnings out of this moving forward are about how the Australian Defence Force gets engaged, how we work with our states in coordinating that better, how we make sure that Australians feel that safety after a disaster—that their fellow Australians are there. There are many other issues that we will continue to work through. There are economic issues that we have to work through, and Andrew Colvin, through the disaster recovery agency, will lead that. This won't be a Canberra-led recovery; this will be a locally led recovery. It's about, firstly, giving some dignity and respect to those people that have lost it all, about making sure they can have some essentials of life, putting money in their pockets to get them by in the short-term. But this is a long-term recovery. This will be a marathon, not a sprint. This will be making sure that we're there not in 12 months, not two years but probably in 10 years, still making the commitments as a government. This is not about money; this is about people. Andrew Colvin will make sure that he understands the complexities and the nuances of communities from down in South Australia right up into Queensland, right across the country, in understanding how we build back better, how we rebuild their lives, how we rebuild their communities. We will also undertake the learnings, and our First Australians are ones that I think have been ignored for far too long. Our First Australians are the ones who can direct us, take us in a direction that will make sure that these types of disasters in the future can be mitigated to an extent. Our First Australians have thousands of years worth of knowledge. Their culture is the richest in the world, and we should draw on that. We should draw on that to keep our country safe but also to make our country better—to build on the pride of our First Australians and what they mean to our nation. The rich tapestry of our nation and the framework of it is built from our First Australians. There is so much that can be learned from our first Australians not just in this but in others. As I said before, one of the failings of my education is I was taught French, not one of our Indigenous languages. This is an opportunity for all Australians, whether they be the Australian Defence Force, emergency management, the community or First Australians, to come together, to take something out of this disaster that will make our nation greater. Our commitment, whether it's my side or the other—this whole parliament, I know. Having been here only three years, I have learned enough to know that out of these disasters the best comes out of us. It really does. We can reach across the aisle and we can make sure that this is above politics and it's about people.