Page 4980 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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fire at Mount Taylor was of major concern to them because of the damage that it could cause to the rare legless lizard that lives in that area. Because of their knowledge of the environment and the possible effects, they were able to monitor very carefully this particular problem.
I would indicate to the Minister that any suggestion that the work that these officers can do should be transferred to the urban service, maybe with them operating as part of the urban service, is totally inappropriate. These machines and other equipment, I believe, as I am sure the officers do, should be maintained and operated from their parks depots. They work on them during the day, when they are not operating them as part of their normal duties, and they also are able to train with them. They are not taken away from their normal operations in the parks and they are able to operate their facilities from their park depots.
I urge the Minister to look very carefully at this issue and listen very carefully to those officers who have had many years of experience in this area. Over the years they have done a sterling job in providing protection for this city because of the knowledge and experience that they have gained.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (11.02): Mr Speaker, in response to those two comments: The review of the fire and emergency services that was recently made public was, despite the call for the closure of some fire stations, which the Government has said is not on our agenda and is not part of our budgetary plans, nonetheless a significant contribution to public debate in Canberra. Its principal recommendations are along the lines of integrating the management and provision of these services. There are substantial savings to be made by going down that track.
The Government is certainly mindful of some of the comments that Mr Jensen has made. I have gone out of my way to make it clear to everyone with an interest in this - the Urban Fire Service, the fire unions, the Rural Firefighting Service and those government employees in either the forestry operations or the Parks and Conservation Branch - that we are not going to rush into implementing that report. We want a full process of consultation to ensure that everybody's interests are respected; but we do expect that going down the path pointed to by this report will lead to significant long-term advantages in the efficient provision of fire protection to Canberra, as well as some savings to the taxpayer.
Proposed expenditure agreed to.
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