In a condolence motion to federal parliament, Gippsland MP Darren Chester said the nation must learn from whatever mistakes were made in Victoria.

More than 100 homes were destroyed and at least 21 people died in the Gippsland region.

"...Now is not the time to apportion blame, but when hundreds of lives have been lost across Victoria, tough questions have to be asked," Mr Chester told parliament.

"I fear we have made the mistake of underestimating the force of these fires and perhaps overestimating our ability to fight it."

Since the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, authorities have told residents to decide on days of high fire danger to go early, or to stay and defend their homes if they are well prepared.

The leave-or-stay-and-defend message had been in place for years, Mr Chester said.

"It may be the wrong message on days like February 7th, when the fire risk according to all experts was off the scale.

"Some places are simply impossible to defend on days of such extreme danger."

Mr Chester said he wasn't advocating forced evacuations but believed the royal commission into the fires should examine the issue.

The community remained determined to rebuild, he said.

"These communities can't be burnt off the face of the earth, no matter how severe the fire storm.

"These communities live on in the heart, in the memories, the dreams, the hope and the future and people will return if that's their choice," an emotional Mr Chester said.

Mr Chester said he would hate to see the bushfire tragedy used to scare people away from living in regional Australia.

Police believe they are closing in on an arsonist suspected of being responsible for the Gippsland blazes.

"There is a seething anger in my community that we have a traitor in our midst," Mr Chester said.

"As much as we pray for those who have perished, we hope their killer is brought to justice.

Sophie Ms Mirabella, whose electorate of Indi contains communities affected by the bushfires, spoke not just of the emotional heartache but the expected financial hardship.

Mobile telephone bills would be "horrendous" following the disaster.

"In the great Australian spirit that we've seen right across our nation, again often in the poorest communities giving the most, perhaps it's time for telecommunications operators to donate to the cost of telephone bills for those living in fire-affected areas," she told parliament.