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Speaker 1: Do you know one man who deserves a six o'clock

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Speaker 1: club or at key Ring? Is this bloke that I'm

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Speaker 1: about to introduce. Yeah, only talking about Shane Fitzsimmons yesterday

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Speaker 1: after the show, and we're talking about this time last

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Speaker 1: year and every time we looked out across this smoke,

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Speaker 1: conferring how confronting the smoke was and the fires that

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Speaker 1: were going on.

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Speaker 2: Masks for the first time because you actually couldn't breathe properly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and we thought it would be great. We got

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Speaker 1: the Australia of the Year Awards coming up early next

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Speaker 1: week and we thought it'd be a great time to

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Speaker 1: get him back on just to see how it's going.

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Speaker 1: Shane Fitzimmons, welcome to the show.

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Speaker 3: But Shay welcome and how good morning, Gain, How are

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Speaker 3: you going?

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Speaker 2: Once again, as always an absolute honor to have you

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Speaker 2: on the show, and we say thank you on behalf

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Speaker 2: of everybody and the work that you continue to do.

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Speaker 2: But if we go back a year, as FITZI was

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Speaker 2: just saying, you know, this year we're dealing with COVID

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Speaker 2: and can family come into state and I remember, you know,

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Speaker 2: twelve months ago it was my dad's an asthmatic. Can

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Speaker 2: he fly into New South Wales? Will that be okay

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Speaker 2: for him? It was just unprecedented.

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Speaker 3: Times, absolutely, and we've only were running reflecting on that

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Speaker 3: earlier this week when I was given the honor of

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Speaker 3: delivering the New South Wales Australia Day Address. And when

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Speaker 3: you think about the last twelve months or so, the

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Speaker 3: people of New South Wales, they've been on their knees

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Speaker 3: with drought. We then saw the worst ever, most destructive

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Speaker 3: and deadly bushfires in our history, stretched from the Queensland

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Speaker 3: border all the way down to the Victorian border. As

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Speaker 3: we turned into February twenty twenty, we saw the weather break,

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Speaker 3: We saw the end of the fire fire weather, but

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Speaker 3: there was extraordinary storms and floods and erosion. And then

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Speaker 3: of course we've been all impacted and living with COVID

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Speaker 3: ever since, and for some communities they've been absolutely impacted

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Speaker 3: by all four And we just can't go past the

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Speaker 3: enormity and the scale of how lives have been disrupted

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Speaker 3: and how lives have been affected, and central amongst them

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Speaker 3: for me, would be the last bushfire season. We just

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Speaker 3: talked about twenty six lives lost, including our seven firefighters

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Speaker 3: and four volunteers, and just over the end of December

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Speaker 3: and the CRISP New Year break we marked the number

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Speaker 3: of significant milestones where we lost volunteers. And this week

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Speaker 3: on the twenty third, on Saturday, we'll be marking the

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Speaker 3: anniversary of the crash of the large air tank of

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Speaker 3: water Body airplane where all three crew on board were killed.

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Speaker 3: So it's a difficult year when we reflect back on.

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Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what. The thing that's inspired me

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Speaker 3: the most is in the face of adversity, how is

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Speaker 3: New South Wales citizens, how as Australians we've all pulled

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Speaker 3: together and the humanity and the community spirit, the Australian

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Speaker 3: spirit has shorne through and dominated all that adversity, which

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Speaker 3: is just wonderful.

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Speaker 1: You chair the State Emergency Management Committee, now there's a

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Speaker 1: few other things that you're doing as well. You would

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Speaker 1: have forged some amazing relationships though with people out in

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Speaker 1: the country Shane, And how is this? I mean it's

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Speaker 1: a totally different summer this one, and obviously people are

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Speaker 1: freaking out, But do you still talk to these people?

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Speaker 1: How has this summer been for them? And obviously rain

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Speaker 1: was the big thing we needed that badly. Has it

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Speaker 1: helped a lot of these families.

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Speaker 3: Now, as I've been traveling a lot as much as

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Speaker 3: I can in the last seven or eight months twelve

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Speaker 3: months with COVID, the one thing I would say is,

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Speaker 3: you know, we're shaping up to have a bumper season

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Speaker 3: for rural and regional in your south. Last with agriculture,

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Speaker 3: we've gone from one hundred percent of the state drought

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Speaker 3: effected drought declared. It's just a really good drought breaking rain.

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Speaker 3: We're expecting some bumper yields With crops. I think I

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Speaker 3: think on average in good years in recent times, we

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Speaker 3: might have been getting about four million tons of grain.

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Speaker 3: This year, I've seen forecasts of ten to twelve million tons.

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Speaker 3: I was talking to some farmers who, depending on what

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Speaker 3: they're growing, you know, a good season might be a

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Speaker 3: ton for heck there, they're getting four to four to

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Speaker 3: eight tons of heck there. So so really good, really

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Speaker 3: good prospects, Lots of buoyanty, lots of optimism. But as

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Speaker 3: we traveled only over the Christmas UNI year break down

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Speaker 3: to the southern border region to catch up with local

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Speaker 3: farmers and local volunteers and other community members, and then

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Speaker 3: down in the southeast corner of the state down around

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Speaker 3: Cabargo Abatement's Bay and the Rumor and places like that.

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Speaker 3: Emotions are still very real, they're still very raw, and

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Speaker 3: it doesn't take very long, a few minutes of conversation,

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Speaker 3: and those emotions really surface when people are reflecting on

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Speaker 3: what they experience and indeed where they're up to now.

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Speaker 3: For a lot of these communities, we've got the largest

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Speaker 3: ever recovery, rebuilding, reconstruction and indeed healing. The emotional and

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Speaker 3: psychological goal is enormous. And the big lesson I've taken

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Speaker 3: out of my visits in the last little while is

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Speaker 3: if men particularly they need to be more open and

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Speaker 3: being talking to each other about how they feel and

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Speaker 3: what the impact has been on them personally and their

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Speaker 3: families and their livelihoods and what have you. The more

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Speaker 3: us as blokes can give permission to each other to

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Speaker 3: know that there's no stigma, there's no shame, thing effected

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Speaker 3: and impact it is really really important in my view.

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Speaker 1: That's well, Sir Shane.

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Speaker 2: We look at the situation we're in now, and we

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Speaker 2: look at what we've learned from the last devastating fires,

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Speaker 2: and you know, the talk of Celeste Barber and the

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Speaker 2: fifty one million going to the services and not the

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Speaker 2: victims victims of some of the fire damaged areas. But

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Speaker 2: we must be in a and we would have learned

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Speaker 2: a lot, but we must be in a far better

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Speaker 2: position now or better than ever before if we were

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Speaker 2: to have a fire like that.

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Speaker 3: Again with one hundred percent right, the investments from government

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Speaker 3: are at record levels and there's been significant boosts, particularly

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Speaker 3: following some of the independent enquiries and all the lessons learned.

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Speaker 3: But that the outpouring of compassion, of care, of love

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Speaker 3: and generosity from the community locally and further afield has

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Speaker 3: resulted in some extraordinary financial assistance that's gone out to

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Speaker 3: communities and those affected directly to the volunteers and the brigade.

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Speaker 3: But also we're seeing this community, this shared community priority

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Speaker 3: to build back better, to build back stronger. I would

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Speaker 3: qualify all that by saying, unfortunately, in society, the research

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Speaker 3: shows us that we're still somewhat of a complacent lotted

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Speaker 3: And whilst all those areas impact and affected by fires

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Speaker 3: last year, I can guarantee you they will be the

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Speaker 3: most focused and best prepared for the next couple of years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Sure, so many ways they're the ones that at least

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Speaker 3: need to be. It's everybody else who wasn't affected by

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Speaker 3: fire but still live in fire current areas that should

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Speaker 3: heed the lessons, that should really reflect on the normality

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Speaker 3: of what's here and absolutely prepare themselves and prepare their

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Speaker 3: families in the event that bushfires or any other disaster strikes.

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Speaker 3: We've got to know, as individuals, as families, as businesses,

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Speaker 3: as local communities, what are we going to do and

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Speaker 3: how a we're going to do it in the event

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Speaker 3: that we're threatened or impacted by a disaster?

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Speaker 2: Completely mate.

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Speaker 1: Congratulations, you just awarded the twenty twenty one New South

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Speaker 1: I was Australian of the Year. You're up for Australian

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Speaker 1: of the Year which is early next week as well.

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Speaker 1: You were also Australian Father of the Year last year

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. Please tell me that Australia's Father of

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Speaker 1: the Year still struggles to keep these kids occupied over

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Speaker 1: the school holiday. Are you struggling to do that at

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Speaker 1: the moment.

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Speaker 3: I'm very lucky at the moment. It's because my daughters

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Speaker 3: are now twenty three and twenty, so they're they're they're

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Speaker 3: going all right out so relate completely in my former year.

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Speaker 3: But look it's been I have really been fortunate to

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Speaker 3: be bestowed some extraordinary accolades in the last little while.

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Speaker 3: But I'm very mindful that it comes in a real

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Speaker 3: bittersweet because the attention comes on the backdrop of our

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Speaker 3: worst disasters. And I think more importantly, any accolade that

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Speaker 3: I receive or acknowledgment that I'm given is in recognition

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Speaker 3: of an extraordinary army of men and women. I was

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Speaker 3: part of a massive team, every foreign emergency service coming together,

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Speaker 3: working together like never before for the people of New

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Speaker 3: South Wales and front and foremost in that effort where

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Speaker 3: our remarkable RFS volunteers working shoulder to shoulder with all

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Speaker 3: their colleagues, fire and Rescue, National parks, Forestry, all the

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Speaker 3: police and emergency services. Defense was everybody. So we are

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Speaker 3: a debt of gratitude to some remarkable people. And if

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Speaker 3: it wasn't for their efforts, if it wasn't for their persistence,

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Speaker 3: the damage and the destruction, as tragic and as awful

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Speaker 3: as it was, would have been a whole lot worse.

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Speaker 1: They need a leader, those Shanes, someone that they father,

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Speaker 1: and you you stood up and did that mate, We

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Speaker 1: appreciate it. It's great to hear your voice again. Mate,

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Speaker 1: enjoy your Australia day and we appreciate you coming on

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Speaker 1: the show. Buddy. It fits in Whipper