Page 619 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mrs Grassby: They did not call the Fire Brigade.
MR KAINE: They are qualified people, Mr Speaker, whose job it is. The police rescue squad is trained in all aspects of saving human life. They could have - - -
Mrs Grassby: And they would not even call the Fire Brigade, which could have got the boy out straightaway.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Grassby!
MR KAINE: Nothing that was done was effective because of the volume of the water, the power - - -
Mrs Grassby: Because they did not do their job properly.
MR KAINE: Mrs Grassby says that you can stick a pipe up and if you are washed over you can grab the pipe. I would defy the strongest of men to grab a piece of pipe when he is being washed over a weir under flood conditions and be able to hang onto it.
Mrs Grassby: If you had listened properly, you would have realised that he would have been washed straight over and washed down the river. He would not have been caught in it.
MR KAINE: You are suggesting that you can put bits of pipe there to hang onto. It is physically impossible to do that. It is not within the power of a human being to protect himself or herself under those - - -
Mrs Grassby: I will do a drawing for you later and explain it to you.
MR KAINE: I am not entering into a debate with you, Mrs Grassby. You have had your say.
Mr Moore: You are, actually.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Grassby!
MR KAINE: I am not going to have cross chat and answer everything that she says. That is not what this is about. I think that I should be protected from this constant interjection.
All of the things that Mrs Grassby has mentioned have been considered. They have been considered by qualified engineers, by qualified hydrologists and by qualified rescue people, and we are assured that it is not possible to guarantee anybody's safety on that weir in the future. People ignore the signs; they go around them; they go through the gates; they swim despite warning signs. We have considered all the possibilities. We, the members of this Government, have weighed up all of the factors. In the ultimate what we are talking about is somebody dying.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .