Mr LEESER (Berowra) (16:46): This summer has been incredibly difficult for so many Australians. We've never seen a fire season like it—in its longevity, its scale and its intensity—and it's not over yet. I want to acknowledge the people in Berowra who serviced the bushfire-fighting and recovery effort; they have been extraordinary. The heroes of the fire season have been our amazing volunteers. They encapsulate the best of the Australian spirit. They are men and women from all walks of life who put their lives on the line to save our lives, our animals and our property every single summer. Volunteers and emergency services personnel have worked tirelessly, sacrificing work, family time and long-term plans to protect our communities. And their generosity and sacrifice has not been reserved for our own community; they have spent substantial time fighting fires further afield in other communities. I also want to acknowledge the families of the volunteers and the emergency services personnel who have lived a summer with empty spaces at tables and days spent worrying about their loved ones' safety. My gratitude and the gratitude of the entire Berowra community—and indeed the gratitude of the whole country—is with emergency services personnel, volunteers and their families. As Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Canada, I would also like to acknowledge the work of the Canadian firefighters who came here to Australia to help fight our fires. Australians have previously gone to Canada to help fight their fires. I am thinking in particular of Rolf Poole and Peter Marshall, from my electorate, who went to Canada during its last major fires. As Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of India, I acknowledge the wonderful work of the Indian community in Australia—travelling, feeding and supporting so many Australians who are doing it tough, and in areas where there are not large Indian communities. I was in India in early January. One of the reasons I was there was to get a sense of our relationship and to find out if Indians think much about Australia. Everyone from the chai wallah who served me my tea to the senior officials in the ministry of external affairs knew about the fires and asked me about them. This has been an event of global importance; and more and more people from around the world, including those in India, are standing strong with Australia. Let me acknowledge the Prime Minister's leadership in relation to the bushfire effort. The Prime Minister came with me to the Gospers Mountain fire in early December and got a briefing from RFS, SES and other officials. I also acknowledge the wonderful work of Minister Littleproud. Every time there is a catastrophic fire day in Sydney, he is on hand to provide support and comfort for people in my community. Indeed, when one RFS brigade captain approached me about issues to do with mobile telecommunications in the rural parts of my electorate in advance of the fire season, Minister Littleproud convened a meeting of telco heads and we were able to get some good results there on a matter I had been trying for some years to get action on. So I particularly want to acknowledge him. I'm very proud to have as one of my constituents the New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons. Knowing Shane, he would say he's just another public servant doing his job. But his leadership and his professionalism have been exceptional. He has given the people of New South Wales confidence in the handling of the bushfires at a time when people have been panicky and scared. He has never lost his head, being a calming voice in a difficult and painful time. In times of tragedy, he has shown great compassion. I want to join the many Australians who have been applauding his service. I think he is a very great Australian. Locally, there are 26 Rural Fire Service brigades in my electorate. They were instrumental in fighting, and ultimately containing, the Gospers Mountain megafire which licked the north-west edge of the Berowra electorate for three months. The Gospers Mountain fire was started by a single lightning strike on 26 October. Unfavourable weather conditions, including the fire generating its own thunderstorms, and the difficulty in accessing key fire grounds multiplied the difficulty in fighting and containing the fire, which soon became a megablaze. By the time it was contained almost three months later, it had burnt through parts of Lithgow, the Hawkesbury and the Central Coast. More than 512,000 hectares had been burnt. To put that into perspective, it is seven times the size of Singapore. RFS brigades from across the Berowra electorate were working around the clock for months, together with local brigades in the Hawkesbury, to get the Gospers Mountain fire under control. The contribution of the brigades from my electorate was essential in containing that fire and preventing it jumping the Hawkesbury River or working its way through the hills and on to the city. Berowra crews were also deployed across the state and the country. In all, over 2,000 people across my electorate chose to sacrifice their rest and family time to defend the lives and properties of their fellow Australians. I want to acknowledge Mark Sugden, the fire control officer of the Hornsby/Ku-ring-gai RFS, and Mat Smith and John Hojel, fire control officers from The Hills Fire Control Centre, for their leadership during this time. I also want to thank all the brigades in the electorate led by their captains: Dave Byrne from Arcadia; Craig Woon from Berowra; Jason Plumridge from Berowra Waters; Tim O'Mahony from Brooklyn; Gavin Pringle from Cherrybrook; Grahame Horne from Cowan; Rochman Reese from Dangar Island; Jarrod Barton from Dural; David Simpson from Galston; Stewart English from Hornsby Heights; Theo Klich from Hornsby; David Williams from Milsons Passage; Scott Jones from Mt Ku-ring-gai; Gordon Morgan from Muogamarra; David Sokolnikoff from Westleigh; John Tibbitts, the Hornsby Catering Brigade captain; Stuart Clark from the Communications Brigade; and Ben De Leon from the Support Brigade. In The Hills, I acknowledge Tony Williams from Annangrove; Chris Chivers from Glenhaven; Glynn Lloyd from Glenorie; Andrew Baildon from Hillside; Andrew Callaghan from Kenthurst; John Turnbull from Sackville North; Peter Kazzi from Maroota/Canoelands; Garry Chapman from Maroota South; Len Best from Middle Dural; Alan Clark from Round Corner; Stan Montgomery from Wisemans Ferry; The Hills Catering Brigade, led by Bev Marshall; and The Hills Communications Brigade, led by Ellen Coker. The RFS has been well supported by the State Emergency Service. The Hornsby SES unit has provided logistics and communication support including clearing roads, property and fire-damaged trees in Glen Innes, Kempsey, Batemans Bay and other areas of the state. Assistance has also been provided to the bushfire information line and police information lines. From the Hornsby unit, I want to acknowledge their head, Reinoud Beijerinck, as well as James Logan, Adam Smithers, Michelle Whye, Nick McLean, Alex Griffith, Maddie Croft, Adrian Leung, Adam Smithers, Murray Oakley and Claire Burrows, many of whom did multiple deployments or served in multiple capacities over the fire season to assist these regions. The Hills SES unit has had volunteers supporting the RFS in various parts of the state since November. More than 60 volunteers have been involved in supporting roles in the Gospers Mountain fires. They have been doorknocking, doing welfare checks, delivering firefighting equipment and food supplies. Over 30 Hills unit members have worked 12-hour shifts on the New South Wales RFS bushfire information line, answering calls from concerned members of the public and helping to answer their questions. Collectively, members of The Hills SES have contributed more than 1,500 hours in response to the bushfires. A special mention goes to William Agiomantis, Varon Mathew, Sally Butler and Colin Fitton, who have been on deployment to areas such as Glen Innes, Mudgee and Ulladulla, providing logistic support and incident management support to those teams fighting fires. One of the things that has marked out this season has been the unprecedented ADF deployment, both the full-time and reserve personnel. RAAF Base Richmond has been providing air base access and support for firefighting aircraft as well as offering logistical and transport support to our emergency services. Many of the reserves and regulars who work from Richmond live in my electorate, and their efforts have not gone unnoticed. The response to the fires has involved more than just those responsible for containing the fires. I am always humbled by the phenomenal generosity of people in Berowra towards Australians in need. Local Facebook community groups have become hubs of support during the fire season, sharing important information updates and facilitating fundraising. Local businesses have established their own fundraising efforts, with local events serving as an opportunity to raise funds and bring the community together. The Dural Pony Club and Castle Hill Showground made their grounds available to anyone who needed to evacuate horses during bushfire warnings. Hearing that schools on the other side of the Hawkesbury River had been closed due to the Gospers Mountain fire, the Wisemans Ferry Public School, and its principal, Deirdre Dorbis, opened its doors to the students of Macdonald Valley Public School, who had to temporarily relocate. In what was a hugely distressing time, this act of generosity and kindness allowed the students to finish up their 2019 school year. These aren't isolated instances. Local RFS brigades have shared reports of children across the electorate, as they have done in so many places, raising and donating their own money or even just writing notes to the local brigades to lift their spirits. One of the major events I have seen, in terms of quality contributions from the community, has been the work of Mobilising for Mogo, developed by Sallianne McClelland from Women's Community Shelters. She began this initiative with a vision of providing specially prepared care packages to the people of Mogo, working directly with Mogo Public School. This ensured no donations were wasted and that families received the goods they specifically needed. This was particularly important for families with unique needs, such as very young children or family members with disability. The first stage of Mobilising for Mogo had an overwhelming response from our community, with six tonnes of donations collected from hundreds of individuals and business donors across four days. Jo and Bryan Moffat and the team at SOS Removals and Storage in Thornleigh, and a number of local volunteers, played an essential role in coordinating, storing and transporting the donations to Mogo. Mobilising for Mogo has maintained its focused effort since that first wave of support and is now undertaking a schools-and-tools stage to ensure Mogo has the resources it needs to start the rebuilding process. The Mogo situation is one example that indicates the fires have brought communities in different parts of Australia together. I acknowledge the comments today of my very good friend the member for Eden-Monaro and welcome him back to this House from his illness; it is wonderful to see him here. One of the communities in his electorate that he and I have talked about over the course of the summer is Cobargo. As a young father I was greatly moved, as many people were, by the death of Patrick Salway and his father, Robert, just outside Cobargo. Cobargo has always been a special place in my family's story. My great-grandfather, Louie Goldman, owned the general store there in the early years of the 20th century, and my grandfather Sam was born in the town along with two of his brothers. A family friend found several photos of my ancestors in Cobargo and gave them to me as a wedding present. Those photos have become prized possessions, connecting me to my past and constantly reminding me that Australia is as much about the small towns as it is about the big cities. In May 2017 I travelled to Cobargo to visit the building which had housed the general store. Unfortunately, that building burnt down in the fires. While my loss is sentimental, the loss is very real for the business which the building housed—Bangles Gallery Pottery. The business had been owned and run continuously by Derwood Loth, a potter, and his late wife, Lois, since 1985, but it had been in that building since 1976—an incredible 43 years. Derwood, like so many of the business owners, is shell-shocked by what the town looks like today, with its burnt-out ruins, and wonders what the future will hold. The romance of Cobargo was the collection of beautiful buildings dating back to the last quarter of the 19th century that made up the village main street. Derwood and others wonder whether it is possible to recreate those and what sort of economic future the town will have. Being near the fire front, the people of Cobargo and surrounding farms continue to wait and see if there will be more. The clean-up is massive, and the need to maintain support and build a sense of hope and confidence in the future for people there is so important to the psyche of the town. That's why I think the efforts that members and others have made to encourage people to buy from communities that have been fire-affected are so important. It is a reminder of the after-effects of the fires, which last long after the tumult and the shouting die. I am conscious that the losses endured in Cobargo could easily have been in one of the bushfire-prone communities in my own electorate. Of course, the fire season isn't over. There will be more long days before the country gets a true respite. Even then, next year's fire season will come all too soon. The damage of these past months will be felt for years to come. With everyone else in this parliament, I stand with the Australian people as we heal from this fire season and rise stronger from its ashes.