Wednesday, 19 February 2025

 Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (09:52): My region of Western Victoria has experienced significant fire activity this summer: the Little Desert, the southern and eastern parts of the Grampians and then a few weeks later the northern part of the Grampians. Together with Minister for Emergency Services Vicki Ward and Minister for Local Government Nick Staikos I visited Pomonal and Halls Gap on 2 January. Since then I have also visited Dunkeld, Dimboola and Nhill and heard firsthand the impact of the fires on those communities – significantly, the tourism and business part of the impact. I have also toured the incident control centre in Horsham, where people told me of the physical losses: the Little Desert Nature Lodge, buildings, fences, pasture and stock. They also told me stories of how communities come together – about Dimboola residents working to make sure their less mobile and elderly neighbours were safe and housed after they had to evacuate their wonderful little town. They have told me about the losses to small business across the district even when well out of range of the fires themselves. Temporary closures and cancelled bookings at what is usually the busiest time of the year have hit many businesses hard in this region. I want to thank the many residents and small business owners, local government councillors and staff and the staff at the incident control centre for all that they have done to continue responding to this fire.