A crowd of 100 people in line with COVID restrictions are at Mallacoota Oval as showstealer1829 continues his campaign. Taking up a place on the stage in front of them to speak

Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a wonderful day in East Gippsland as I've been touring this magnificent countryside, Ending the day in Mallacoota, talking to community leaders, people of the community, local residents and local business owners.

But I'd like to take a moment before I begin to acknowledge the true local heroes, not only here in Mallacoota or East Gippsland but across Victoria and indeed across Australia, those firefighters, many of them volunteers with the CFA or their states rural fire service, who risked their lives here in East Gippsland and across Australia just over one year ago as the most desvestating bushfires of our generation swept through this area of the state.

Indeed I was here one year ago, taking time off from an election campaign to visit many of the same people I met today in evacuation centres across Gippsland, hearing the stories of how they escaped the hellscape as the fires came rushing towards their town, and how those brave firefighters saved their lives by risking their own to fight back the flames to allow them to escape. .

Given the global pandemic that swept the entire world just a month after those bushfires it's easy to forget the devestation that was left in the wake of those fires, indeed as the pandemic first began to appear in Australia, the fires that wrought such tragedy and destruction were still burning, if in containment. It was not until the end of February that the fire was finally contained once and for all.

Also given the global pandemic and the effect it has had on all of our lifes, not only across the country and across the world, it is easy to forget just what destruction tthose brought to not only East Gippsland, not only Victoria but Australia as a whole, let me remind you then of the statistics in case you have forgotten what was lost in those fateful days in the christmas, new year perior of 2019/2020.

Here in East Gippsland, more than 320 thousand hectares of land burnt. Australia wide, more than 2500 homes lost, many here in East Gippsland, 33 Australians tragically lost to the fires, more deaths than COVID-19 has caused in Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland combined. Familys left homeless, businesses destroyed, memories lost forever in the ashes.

It is easy to forget, but to people such as here in Mallacoota, the impact of those fires has never left, and with the global pandemic hitting immediately after, many families in this area have been devestated twice, many still wait for insurance claims as COVID restrictions limit the number of assessors allowed in the offices around Australia. Many have been forced to shell out for any housing they can find as COVID restrictions have meant staying with family has been ruled out. Many business have not even been given a chance to start over as COVIOD restricts travel around our nation.

I do not blame the government for this, but these people have been forgotten, left to fend for themselves as the government focuses on the greater good. We must not allow these people to slip through the cracks any longer, to do so would ignore the first duty of being Australian, that being to stand by your mates when they're down.

If I am chosen to be the member for Nicholls once again. I will be pushing whichever government is successful to bring forward a rebuilding scheme for East Gippsland, this will involve a comprehensive drive for people to visit East Gippsland when it is safe to do so. Extra targeted relief funs to allow those families still waiting for their claims to be finalised to rebuild or move on with their lives and Public Works projects to rebulid community centers and create jobs in the region.

It is no fault of anyone that the pandemic came, but we can not, we must not ignore the plight of these people who have lost everything to the worst fires of our generation to suffer in silence any more. We must stand by them, and if I am once again given the honor of being the member for Nicholls, that is exactly what I plan to do.