Download Fragment

Monday, 19 September 2011
Page: 10436

Mr BROADBENT (McMillan) (11:06): Thank you to the member for Kennedy for his remarks on the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (Fair Protection for Firefighters) Bill 2011. He has been won over by the argument. I think that is very important—quite often the Australian public do not get a chance to see arguments being put in this place that win over a member of parliament—even though he does not seem to have suffered a lot of damage from his staff knocking him about as he has claimed!

I also recognise the member for Melbourne's and the member for Calwell's work in this and the interest that they have taken in the interests of firemen and their families, having regard to the issue they brought before us in the first place. Secondly, I recognise that their actions have meant we are able to go through a process whereby we were able to go to a Senate committee and have the issues, can I say without any pun intended, flushed out. Before I go on, I promised myself at the start of this year that I would recognise those that have gone before us. I am not talking just about Indigenous people and I am not talking just about those who came on tall ships or our leaders of the nation; I am talking about people like Peter Marshall, the national secretary of the United Firefighters Union, and all those who have gone before him, who work in the interests of their union and the people that they represent and serve. It is not just about Peter; it is about all of the people.

We heard the member for Kennedy talk about his great-grandfather. He had a lot of money if he could put £3,000 into a strike fund on behalf of unionists of the day. It just shows you that this House is made up of many a complex person. We are not, any one of us, like all the others. And the stories that come out are often interesting.

I also want to note today, because it is important to me, that the member for Brand is in the parliament at the very moment. He has had a few hiccoughs along the way with his health. We welcome him back and we appreciate the fact that he is well and up to the task of doing the job on behalf on his constituency and this nation.

Having said that, it is very clear to me that there may be some in the House who have concerns about this bill. You heard the member for Caldwell say that if you have concerns after reading the report—she outlined a couple of them—it is only right to raise them with the executive government. What I do not want to happen here is that a report as important as this one is for firefighters and their families—in the arguments that it makes and the facts that it lays out—is put on a shelf somewhere to collect dust. That is not what I am here for.

I am here to learn that the report will properly be addressed by executive government, and if it needs further consideration or further inquiry, or people need to be reassured, let them put their concerns before the minister and have them addressed. Go back to someone who has the information, because to me it is fairly clear that if you are a fireman in this country today, you will be dealing with toxic fires that we did not have to deal with 10, 20 or 30 years ago. If a car burns now we do not know what the toxins are that come out of it—toxins that have detrimental health effects causing cancer in firemen here and around the world.

Although the member for Kennedy said 7-11 I think he meant 9-11. That event brought home to all of us that there were those who were killed on the day—I believe, to this day, that there could have been many more people killed—and there were those who have suffered after that massive event. I put it to you that firemen in this country are no different. They go out and put their lives on the line. In doing so, in the long run they put the health and wellbeing of themselves and their families on the line as well. It behoves this parliament to consider what the report has recommended and act on this bill on behalf of these people, especially those three little boys I saw over there in the Senate courtyard today.

Debate adjourned.