Page 1453 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
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It is interesting to note that the Priorities Review Board in 1990 recommended the downsizing of the Fire Brigade following the findings of the Grants Commission in 1989. I accept that the police service has also been the focus of much angst about the level of funding and review of what level of service we can afford to support. What we are talking about in this debate is a change of culture, and I have not received sufficient evidence that the Government is handling that change well. There is a reported lack of access to decision makers, a reported lack of consultation with those affected by change, and a lack of understanding of the demoralising effect the unilateral decisions on budget cuts have had on those affected.
I can almost hear the Minister leaping to defend his consultations. However, from my own experience of government consultative measures, I feel that more is needed than to ask for opinions on decisions which the Government says are already made. Our discussion today has a much wider scope than just police and fire brigade services. We are putting forward views on the need for a full and independent inquiry into the appropriate means of providing emergency services to the people of Canberra. Those services include our ambulance services, police, fire brigade, rescue services and the bushfire service. I would also suggest the need to include the New South Wales State Emergency Service and bushfire brigades who assist when necessary, particularly in providing cross-border services. We also need to discuss air rescue services.
Madam Speaker, it has been four years since the first sitting of the Assembly, an anniversary we recently celebrated, and it is timely to take an holistic approach and assess what the ACT community needs from its emergency services. The inquiry will cover not only what is necessary to respond to particular circumstances; it should also encompass the needs of our legal system, our hospital system, community education and our across the border interactions. The Government is trying to rein in the ACT budget at a difficult time. That is a fact that cannot be ignored. But one has to ask whether the long-term goals have been set and whether the cutting of services or the lack of coordination at a policy level between the various emergency services is really in the long-term financial interests of the community.
I feel that an inquiry which established parameters for cooperation and coordination of the various players in the emergency services debate would more than pay for itself in the long term. We are still in the early stages of establishing ourselves as a self-governing Territory. We have the trappings and responsibility but have yet to put in place all the mechanisms which will lead to long-term stability in our services sector. I would not argue that there is chaos; there is not. But there are enough changes which have been made and which have been identified as being needed to necessitate a clear message to the community that the changes in the future will be orderly and fairly long term. I feel that the way to achieve this is to conduct an independent inquiry.
At present the debate is peppered with competing statements, claims that nothing is wrong so do not fix it, rumours of duplication and wasted resources, and concern from various emergency services that they are being targeted for budget cuts and reduction in their functions. With regard to the police rescue service, these concerns have been well founded. Other emergency services must look at this example and feel concerned that they may suffer the same fate.
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