Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong) (19:41): Australians are living through an unprecedented fire season. It has been an unprecedented summer. A summer of anxiety, a summer of loss. It has been a summer of sadness, a summer of uncertainty, a summer of sleeping with one eye open and one ear on the ABC radio news, a summer of constantly refreshing internet browsers for the latest fire alerts, a summer of nervous calls to friends and relatives, a summer of exceptional courage and remarkable saves by our fireys and other emergency volunteers. Fires have burned right across our country and our state forests and on our islands. Even in this place we can faintly smell the smoke of fires still burning to Canberra's south. Our country is as dry as a bone. Many parts still remain vulnerable to further outbreaks. This is the challenge of climate change. This summer brave Australians and friends from overseas have perished defending the lives and homes of others against nature's fury. Fires have destroyed almost 3,000 houses so far and taken dozens of precious lives. Fires have burnt more than 186,000 square kilometres. This is an area 2,900 times the size of my electorate of Maribyrnong entirely burnt out. It is unimaginable to think that that scale of burning has occurred. Thanks to our professional and volunteer firefighters and emergency workers many, many have survived the fires, escaped with their lives with their families intact, but now they face the long daily struggle to get back what they lost. In my contribution I want to focus on recovery. After fires like this many people will live eternities of regret. They will sift memories from the ashes and recall places and faces that are now gone. Things that are immensely personal and intimate are put at risk of oblivion unless we jointly remember and jointly restore what we can. A long recovery will follow after these fires that for some took everything. A house is more than a building. The loss of family photos, books passed down from parents to children, animals perching in trees, family pets, war medals. I saw firsthand working on the recovery after Black Saturday that the long return from such a day can be hard beyond bearing for those who have lost property. In fact, when you lose property in a fire you realise how closely and deeply it is linked to the memories that make us who we are. There are those who returned to family homes, only to find there was nothing left. Many of these people carry burdens of their own, and they will be dealing with their own losses. Many will cope with the aftermath of the fires by turning their loss into a desire to rebuild and to help others heal. But for others it will simply be impossible: too hard to start again and too difficult the memories to keep living where one did. Our fire impacted communities will have hard choices thrust upon them. They will cope with this admirably. Leadership is a word that is often used here, but I predict that real leadership will emerge in these communities. Some of the leadership which we are already witnessing in these communities is not flashy, nor the barking of orders; it's just the quiet gesture of carrying on and putting one foot in front of the other—that unconsciously modest motto of Australians in trouble, where they say that there are others who are doing it harder. The rebuilding will be a slow process. We of course wish it were happening more quickly. I saw, when I was the Parliamentary Secretary for Bushfire Reconstruction, just how long and arduous this process will be. It will require resilience, it will require strength, it will require community support and it will require government support. In recent weeks, as the shadow minister for government services, I have had the privilege to see firsthand the resilience, the altruism, the community spirit and that helping hand which is such a part of the Australian character and of the Australian nation. It exists in vast quantities in the fire impacted communities. As I travelled around the fire affected areas I could see the good things that are happening. There are too many to detail now but I acknowledge the relief centre being operated by the Aboriginal land council in Mogo, feeding needy people and animals alike. I've been to Bawley Point on the New South Wales South Coast where, in happier summers, my family have splashed in the sea. Bawley Point is now a little oasis of green surrounded by scorched trunks and black sticks of burnt forest. At the entrance to that small coastal hamlet there are hand-painted signs paying tribute to the Rural Fire Service for saving their town. I've been to Batemans Bay and to Malua Bay and Mogo with Fiona Phillips, and to Tathra, Bega and Merimbula, where Mike Kelly is the most active local member. I've seen just how in the worst of times the fire has brought out the best in people. We've seen strength and we've seen solidarity. But in the phase of recovery it is incumbent on all of us in this place to do everything that we can. I recognise just how tremendously grateful our multicultural communities, amongst others, have been. But this is not a moment just here and now but a moment for weeks, months and years where we will need to extend that same memory. We must do everything we can to prevent and to better fight future fires, to address climate change and all the other matters, but also ensure that small business and tourism are supported and not neglected. No idea should be off the table, from national aerial firefighting fleets to government issued vouchers for Australians to spend in hard-hit areas needing tourism. I've heard many good ideas on my travels. Hundreds of small businesses, the economic backbone of small towns, have lost business at the peak time of year for their cashflow. It's when they usually trade most. I saw this on the New South Wales South Coast where, from the humble Batemans Bay furniture restorer to the impressive Bega Cheese company, businesses are all feeling the pinch. In the Bega Valley shire, the mayor informed me that $400 million should have come from tourism this summer, but instead, 90,000 people were evacuated. With the Princes Highway closed from Victoria, Bega Cheese could not get the milk up directly from Orbost or the woodchips to run their power plant from the chip mill in Eden. Detours are costing them between $700 to $1,000 per freight trip. As I have travelled around, people have suggested various common sense solutions and policy proposals. We owe it to those doing it tough to consider them all in good faith. Some of the good ideas I've heard include that the government could waive the requirement for affected businesses to submit a quarterly BAS payment for the last quarter of 2019. Emergency payments tied up in Centrelink could be more immediately processed from the tax office directly into peoples' accounts. Instead of relying on interest-free loans, small grants could be issued to businesses to help restore their cashflow. Perhaps we could extend the $50,000 grant to all businesses with less than a $1 million turnover, and we must accelerate the reopening of important roads—national roads like the Princes Highway. A common theme was that relief and support must be directed not just at the flame impacted but at those who, whilst their physical property may not have been burned, are bushfire affected. I echo the member for Gippsland's wise comments about the importance of not forgetting about the small-business victims of the fires. Merely because a business or an enterprise has not sustained physical or property damage in the fires, they are victims of the fires nonetheless. Tourism and small business must be given a coordinated approach. Today, we cannot replace the people who are not here, but we can support the people who were there and their efforts to rebuild. Sadly, we cannot bring back a lot of things lost, but we can embrace with feeling that which remains and we can build with hope on those burnt foundations. The rescue, the restoration and the recovery commences, but we must ensure that no fire impacted Australian is forgotten and slips through the cracks because the national attention has moved. Recovery is a long process; they must know that the parliament will walk hand in hand with them on this journey to recovery. The SPEAKER: As a mark of respect, I ask all present in the chamber to rise in their places. Honourable members having stood in their places— The SPEAKER: I thank the House. Debate adjourned.