Bushfire Class Action Settlement
A coincidence.
Just yesterday I noted with some reflection and sadness, the elegant and appropriately under-stated Mitchell Shire Community Bushfire Memorial in Broadford.
A wonderful topographic representation of the path and extent of the fires within the Shire.
It has been well over five years since we lost our home and possessions in the fires of 2009. The chaos, disruption and loss experienced by so many, still lingers deeply for those that experienced February 7th 2009.
We have been in our new home for just on 12 months. A journey that continues still, but at least one that we could undertake as a family. Many did not get that chance.
A coincidence.
The week and day that the Mitchell Shire Community Bushfire Memorial is completed and unveiled, is also the week that it appears [if approved] there will be a settlement in the Kilmore East Bushfire Class Action.
In what will be the largest class action settlement in Australian history if the court approves it, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers announced today, 15 July 2014 that it had secured agreement from the defendants to pay a settlement of nearly half a billion dollars.
Of course, in matters such as these, the defendant’s settlement is in the context of admitting no liability. Lightning, is the culprit, says the defendant.
Equally assured, the eminently capable Andrew Watson [Head of Class Actions at Maurice Blackburn] disputed this interpretation, suggesting….
“A lightning strike caused this fire in the same way that the formation of the sun created human life on earth,”
The course and ultimate meaning of this long-running case will be for others to ascertain and debate in the months and years to come.
If this settlement is approved, it will signal [perhaps] some closure for those that sought recourse for harm done, although all those directly involved understand the true nature of the events they experienced will be with them for ever.
The question, “have we lived long enough” was posed in 1939 and again by Professor Tom Griffiths [from the ANU] who wrote an article titled ” We still have not lived long enough”.
It remains to be seen if the social, environmental and economic lessons of 2009 will inform our future lives.
” What connexion can there have been between many people in the innumerable histories of this world, who, from opposite sides of great gulfs, have, nevertheless, been very curiously brought together!”
Charles Dickens – Bleak House
Links:
- Maurice Blackburn – Kilmore East – Kinglake Class Action
- Kilmore East Bushfire Class Action – Supreme Court
- ABC News
- It Really Happened
- Four years on
Thanks Nikki, Good to hear from you. Yes, closure is not something I expect or seek, but the news of the settlement has produced a surprisingly perfunctory response in me. “Re-balancing” over time, rather than “closure” seems more relevant for me.
Thanks for your reflection Bill – I thought of you today. Interesting how some celebrate the next steps in the class action when in reality what was experienced 5 and a half years ago cannot be quantified, nor can it be assuaged by a ‘settlement’. The absence of an admission of liability is a (not unexpected) disappointment. I just finished reading Richard Flanagan’s “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” – in the end, there was no closure in his story either – but there were memories and some resolution over time.