Mr CONAGHAN (Cowper) (18:13): Like many in this chamber here today, our community of the Mid North Coast has been through the most harrowing and challenging of times. Coming off the back of one of the driest years on record, we had our bushfires in late October, November, and December, and the pain for our community remains very raw and palpable. The residents I've spoken to described the bushfires as firestorms—fires covering over 140,000 hectares, with intensity from trees so dry they literally exploded. I start by offering my sincere condolences and sympathies to the families and friends of Barry Parsons. Barry was a resident of Willawarrin who lost his life when the Carrai East firestorm swept through Willawarrin. Barry was described as a gentle guy and, sadly, the last contact from him was on Facebook, describing the approaching blaze as 'apocalyptic'. I also offer my condolences to the men, women and children who lost their homes in these devastating fires. A total of 156 homes were destroyed in my electorate of Cowper: 26 near Port Macquarie, 66 homes west of Kempsey and a further 64 homes near Macksville and Nambucca. But many hundreds, perhaps even thousands, were saved. In my travels throughout the electorate, I saw home after home where the landscape was burnt up to the back door, only to be saved by the brave men and women of the RFS. It must have been terrifying, yet they stayed there and saved all of those homes. I offer my condolences to our region's farmers—our community backbone. They've had the loss of stock, pets and machinery; the scorching of the land which they love; and the loss of homes and sheds, containing not only their livelihoods but memories, often handed down from generation to generation. These fires have had a major impact on people—their lives, their possessions and their livelihoods. All have been severely impacted and upturned: good people, like Terry and Gigi Welsh—a husband and wife who served our country in the armed services, only to return to their five-generational family home. They lost everything. I met with Terry and Gigi at the RSL club in Macksville. Just like so many others, they considered themselves fortunate and others less fortunate. The hardest thing for Terry and Gigi was, in fact, returning to see what was left and being reminded every day of what had happened. They were looking forward to cleaning up and removing that scar on their property which they once called home. There are people like Carolyn and David Duff, who single-handedly saved their home but lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in sheds, plants, machinery and livestock. When I walked on their property it resembled the face of the moon, not the once-fertile grazing and crop-growing property of former years. Perhaps hardest of all was that David lost his working dogs that he'd had for many years. We all know they are not things you can replace overnight. Residents in some of the worst-hit areas, like South Arm in the Nambucca Valley and Willawarrin and Bellbrook in the Macleay Valley, have justifiably described their areas as war zones. Their landscape has been burnt and blackened. Telecommunications and vital services, like electricity and water, were completely destroyed and, in some instances, are still to be fully restored. I must thank Chris Simon, a local Kempsey man who happens to work for Optus. He not only arranged for a generator for one of the RFS brigades but he also organised a satellite dish and free prepaid mobile phones for the communities of Willawarrin and Bellbrook so that not only could they communicate between themselves but with loved ones outside Kempsey and Willawarrin. And they were able to communicate through the further fires that ultimately came. Councils and community groups have also been greatly burdened as a result of these bushfires. Councils have lost infrastructure and facilities. Kempsey Shire Council had four community facilities destroyed and nine damaged; Nambucca Valley council had two facilities destroyed and six damaged; and Port Macquarie had four community facilities burnt and two damaged. These councils have had their resources massively stretched as they have put their shoulders to the wheel to help impacted communities. Now they face the dilemma of where to put the remains of properties, as waste stations can't cope under the enormity of the clean-up. But, as with all natural disasters, the worst of times can often bring out the best in people. This is certainly what I've seen in the electorate of Cowper over the past three months: local men and women taking leave from their jobs to fight fires with the Rural Fire Service and non-profit groups, councils and churches banding together to provide evacuation centres and help. I went to the evacuation centres in showgrounds, clubs and community halls, and I saw the anguish and uncertainty on all the faces of those who had fled the fires. But they were looked after, as we look after our community. Local businesses donated food, goods and transportation. Other volunteers and businesses from far away offered support in so many ways—businesses like 2 Smokin Arabs, who travelled five hours from Sydney to provide free food at the Lake Cathie thank you to fireys. I'd especially like to thank the Lewis Land Group CEO, Chris Calvert. The Lewis Land Group recently developed Sovereign Hills, just near Port Macquarie. On the opening of their new shopping centre, the Lewis Land Group gave $100,000 to the Sancrox/Thrumster and Lake Innis rural fire brigades. That's $50,000 each. This would equate to hundreds, if not thousands, of hours at Bunnings selling sausages or standing at what we call 'the doughnut' at the McDonald's near the highway rattling the tin. It is a huge investment into our community, and I cannot thank them enough. Overseas countries like New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America have sent personnel—men and women—to help protect life and property alongside our own rural firefighters. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the brave firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives trying to save our communities. I'm blessed to have witnessed the camaraderie of all those volunteer firefighters in the dorms, like the one set up at Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie. Charles Sturt University provided over 3½ thousand individual nights to the RFS. With this, the Tacking Point Lions Club cooked breakfast and lunch every day for three months. I cannot thank Charles Sturt University, the Tacking Point Lions Club and all the other volunteer organisations and individuals enough for what they did. I'm blessed to have witnessed the kindness of strangers who travelled from unaffected parts of Australia to be at BlazeAid camp to help rebuild our farmers' fences or to volunteer with charities and the numerous Sydneysiders who travelled 500 kilometres up the highway to Willawarrin to provide meals for locals as they were rebuilding. I cannot thank enough all the emergency services personnel on the ground and in the control centres. But now is the time to recover. My community will be three months on from the worst of the bushfires this Saturday 8 February. I will be reflecting on our recovery journey at a thank you event for all our rural fire services at Port City Bowling Club on Saturday night. We have come a small way, but there is a lot more that needs to be done. Each area, as it is ready, is transitioning to the longer-term recovery plans that are locally led. We're looking at how we can build back better, how to make our communities more resilient to bushfire and how to spend the various financial assistance packages on offer. I thank the government for those packages, but I strongly urge those who are making the decisions in handing out that money to do so with compassion and empathy, not clinically or coldly. Most people find it difficult to ask for help without being scrutinised or belittled. It is pleasing to see some of our government's disaster relief assistance flowing to people in my area already. So far, over 10,000 claims for disaster relief payments have been made to people across Cowper. And, in relation to the recovery grants for bushfire affected primary producers, our government has established that 52 applications have already been made across Cowper. I was also pleased to see that the amount allocated to primary producers has now increased from $15,000 to $75,000, which will see a lot more money flow to our farmers in need. As for our wildlife, Minister for the Environment Susan Ley's commitment of $50 million nationally in January was well received, and I'll be advocating strongly for further assistance as the next phases of our environmental response roll out. The impact on all wildlife, but particularly in my area on the koalas, has been deeply felt in the electorate of Cowper. Volunteers at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital have been working tirelessly to assist koalas injured in the blaze and to provide drinking stations in the bushland. So worthy has their cause been that the Koala Hospital's GoFundMe page raised $7.7 million in an extraordinary feat which once again shows the extent of the kindness shown by people from around Australia and the world. My area of the Mid North Coast is heavily reliant on tourism. Coffs Coast suffered the cancellation of the World Rally Championship in November due to the bushfires, and this impact alone is estimated to be worth $14 million to Coffs Harbour. Tourism operators and business groups keenly await further detail of the $76 million tourism support package announced by our government last month. They hope it will provide avenues to encourage more visitors to the region. I have met with many businesses reliant on tourism individually and in group sessions. Many of these businesses have lost up to 80 per cent of their income. Most of these earn that income over a three-month period between November and January. I acknowledge that they are on their knees. My staff and I have been active in the community and have undertaken a range of activities to help people in their recovery. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my staff. The unseen nights, working weekends and acting more like counsellors to victims rather than electoral officers—your service is invaluable. Individually, we have helped constituents access various human services assistance measures, emergency accommodation and food. We have helped deliver telecommunications assistance to rural fire brigade sheds and community facilities. Collectively, we have helped to deliver a roundtable with the Minister for Women, Marise Payne, to support women's networks during this time of recovery. I thank Ministers Payne, Ley, McCormack and Littleproud for coming to my electorate to offer real and tangible support. I also thank state ministers Leslie Williams, Melinda Pavey and Gurmesh Singh, as well as Mayors Peta Pinson, Liz Campbell, Rhonda Hogan and Denise Knight for their commitment to our community. I will continue to make myself available. I will be holding 10 mobile offices between now and June to try to alleviate some of the disruption and ease some of the pain to my constituents as we move forward. We will recover, we will rebuild better, we will learn lessons and make changes. Memories will fade but we will not forget the heroic actions of thousands of Rural Fire Service volunteers as well as ordinary Australian men and women who did extraordinary things for their fellow Australians.