Page 4799 - Week 16 - Thursday, 29 November 1990
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MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (11.37), in reply: Mr Speaker, it is reassuring to hear that all members of the Assembly today recognise the need for this Bill to upgrade and get into more modern parlance legislation which can control the scourge of bushfire in the ACT. I endorse entirely the comments that have been made by a number of members about the sterling efforts of, and the great community debt that is owed by all of us to, volunteer bushfire fighters, et cetera. There is no question about that. Our community would be a poorer place without members like that, who donate a lot of time and effort and, as we have tragically seen in only recent years, often at the cost of their lives, to protect society generally from the scourge of bushfire in the ACT.
In discussing the various issues that have been raised by the speakers, I would like to start with the comments made by Mr Moore. Mr Moore confessed in his speech that the bushfire brigades and the Bush Fire Council were not a strong area of expertise; he admitted that quite categorically. I think it is fair to say that Mr Moore has confused the Bush Fire Council and the Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades Association.
The Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades Association has membership on the Bush Fire Council. The Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades Association is, naturally, the association of those people who volunteer to fight bushfires. The Bush Fire Council is a government body, whereas the association is a private voluntary organisation. I think it should be pointed out that at the moment the Bush Fire Council, the government body, is the only statutory body in the whole of the ACT to which the Minister does not appoint the chairperson. I do not believe that is appropriate in the 1990s. To every other statutory body within the ambit of government business the Minister responsible has the power and, I think, the responsibility to appoint a chairperson with whom the Minister feels that he or she can deal effectively. For that reason, I reject the claim that the chairperson of any statutory body should be elected by the members appointed to it.
The membership of the council is quite large; I believe that 12 organisations and departmental bodies provide membership, so the council may seek advice from a whole range of people who are interested in this problem. But I think it is appropriate - I will stick to my guns - that the chairperson and deputy chairperson of statutory bodies be appointed by the Minister.
The amendments that have been proposed in a letter from Mr Lonergan, who is one of 12 members of the Bush Fire Council, are minor, in my view. If you look at them I think you will agree that some of them are minor, to the point of deleting "Rural Firefighting Service" and inserting "Rural Fire Service" - taking out the word "fighting". They are minor amendments which deal mainly with the delegation of powers. I think it is fair to say
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