CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR FIRIES AND COMMUNITY

BUT WHY ARE WE MISSING OUT ON GOVERNMENT SUPPORT?

Over the past few weeks, there has been tremendous work happening throughout the Hawkesbury, to protect people and properties from the Gospers Mountain blaze.

Our community should be immensely proud of the terrific work being done through Hawkesbury Fire Control Centre in Wilberforce and on the front line.

As I write this, crews are working 24 hours a day. At shift change, I’ve met Rural Fire Service volunteers from across the Hawkesbury and all over greater Sydney. Crews from interstate including Victoria and Tasmania, members of NSW Fire and Rescue, NSW National Parks, and the SES.

People are taking time out of paid employment to fight these fires, people who are self-employed. There are employers making sacrifices so that our RFS has the capacity to manage this fire, and we owe them a great deal of thanks for that.

There has also been an incredible volunteer and community effort underway with many people donating food and looking for ways to assist crews and other people affected by the fires, particularly those who self-evacuated from an area.

Thank goodness, we haven’t seen the scale of loss in northern NSW, but there are cattle producers without fences, hectares of improved land now desolate, and people who’ve had to put everything on hold to protect their families and their homes.

Despite these losses, Hawkesbury residents and businesses are not included in the relief package announced by the Federal and State government.

I have been advocating both publicly and privately