I remember being trapped on the NSW Central Coast in 1994. Three kids sitting on the beach, car packed and ready to go. The worst holiday of our lives, mainly because of my raging anxiety. It was nearly impossible to sleep, keeping one ear out for the emergency evacuation call. By the time the fires were over, so was our holiday. Until then the roads had been cut off.
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Of course, that experience is trivial compared to what so many Australians are experiencing right now. We had a dud holiday once, so what?
This time each year, between Christmas Eve and January 13, plays an important part in our national psyche, in the rhythm of our lives. It's when we have a break, go to the beach, relax. See our friends and neighbours. This time of year gets a giant build-up - it's the collision of our main holidays, Christmas, summer, New Year's. Nearly every workplace in Australia throws in a couple of days of extra leave. If we have families, we can actually get together.
That explosion of joy didn't happen this year. If we are on holidays, we are being told to go home. Don't come to the South Coast. If you are still home, don't leave. And the explosion in income experienced in every beachside town won't happen either. Again, in the big scheme of things - compared to the 17 dead across Australia, the many missing and the thousands of homes lost or damaged - this blip in the economy is insignificant. Fun doesn't matter.
Except to one person. The Prime Minister of Australia has been having quite a lot of fun lately. For him, it's overseas holidays, backyard cricket and photo opportunities with the lads from the Australian XI. On Thursday, he finally showed up at a place of grief, announced on Twitter some hours before.
"This morning Jenny will join me as we remember and give thanks for the life and service of Geoff Keaton at his memorial with his partner Jess, his son Harvey and all his family and friends, especially those from the Horsley Park RFS Brigade."
What does leadership look like in a time of crisis?
It looks like Kristy McBain, mayor of Bega Valley Shire Council, who turned on her out-of-office email to spend time with her kids and forgot to turn it back off, although she never really had the holiday she had in mind. McBain, 37, planned to spend time with her husband Brad and their three kids, nine, seven and five. "Hang out, go to the beach, go to the movies," she said.
Brad's brother, his wife and their three-year-old with type-one diabetes had driven up from Melbourne. Instead McBain told them they needed to leave early to ensure they would be safe.
McBain's been at the fire front for days, holding emergency and community meetings all over Bega Valley, in Eden and in Bermagui. When I told her she was acting like a politician with real leadership potential, she pretty smartly told me off. I'm not a politician, she said, although she did say she'd been a member of a political party once. Which one?
"I'd rather not say," she said.
A few companies have also shown leadership. On Monday, Microsoft in Australia announced to its staff that it would provide four weeks extra paid leave for staff who are registered as volunteer firefighters. The company didn't put out a press release. On Wednesday, Telstra said it would cover the cost of volunteer firefighters' mobile bills for December and January. Optus, with just the gentlest of prods, matched Telstra on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Commonwealth Bank says the bank already provided 20 days of paid leave of various kinds for volunteer firefighters. "But if they go over the 20 days, we aren't going to tell them they have to dip into other leave," he said.
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A bunch of other corporates, such as Hanes (undies, bras, sheets and towels) divert money and product into an organisation called GIVIT, which acts like a virtual warehouse. But so far, only the ACT and Queensland governments, and local governments in Western Australia, have registered. Which is so weird, when you consider the need for all this stuff.
At 1pm on Thursday, the Prime Minister finally gave a press conference to update Australians on how the government is responding to the fires. Word is he got shirty when asked about climate change. This is a leader who doesn't want to be tested unless it's about cricket. Unfortunately for him, those tests are not as vital as the ones all Australians face right now, and his answers to hard questions provide neither comfort nor leadership.
He said on Thursday: "What we will do is make sure our policies remain sensible, that they don't move towards either extreme and stay focused on what Australians need for a vibrant and viable economy, as well as a vibrant and sustainable environment."
I wonder if he can face up to those who live by Australia's summer economy and repeat those false promises.
- Jenna Price is a regular columnist and an academic at the University of Technology Sydney.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
Jenna Price is a Canberra Times columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
