Page 3919 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 October 1991
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HOSPITAL BED NUMBERS - SELECT COMMITTEE
Membership
Motion (by Mr Humphries), by leave, agreed to:
That Mrs Grassby, Mr Humphries and Dr Kinloch be appointed members of the Select Committee on Hospital Bed Numbers.
Sitting suspended from 12.34 to 2.30 pm
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Rural Firefighting Service
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, this is historic. I got the first call for the first time. Clearly, Mr Speaker, you noticed me. My question is directed to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly. I refer to the public statements yesterday afternoon by the New South Wales Minister for police and other matters, Mr Ted Pickering, your opposite number in New South Wales. In view of that Minister's revelations that high winds and low humidity can produce tragic bush fires, would you like to add anything to your somewhat intemperate remarks yesterday?
MR CONNOLLY: In fact, I thought of Mr Collaery last night while I was watching the television coverage of the very tragic events in New South Wales. I thought of him in particular when I saw - I think it may have been on the ABC news from Sydney - the tragic vision of a woman in tears outside her burnt and destroyed house, tearfully saying, "We wanted to back-burn only last week and they wouldn't let us". That is what she was saying. She had wanted to take exactly the sort of fire hazard reduction measures that were taken yesterday; but she had not been allowed to by her local council, which must have denizens of the Residents Rally on it.
As I said, yesterday, the program of controlled hazard reduction is an extraordinarily sensible program. The operation yesterday was conducted safely. On the day of yesterday's burn there was considerable liaison between the manager of the Canberra Nature Park and the fire office to ensure that it was safe to proceed with the burn, given the known conditions yesterday. The burning off operation yesterday was very successfully carried out, with very satisfactory fuel reduction results. As I said yesterday, it will avoid, hopefully, the likelihood of a recurrence of that very fearful day last year when houses, property and potentially lives were threatened in O'Connor because burning off had not occurred. Indeed, my colleague Mr Wood had to go home that day.
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