Page 1454 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
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What I feel is necessary is a broad-ranging inquiry independent of the Government and which takes information from the emergency service personnel, the legal system and the hospital system, as well as public submissions. The terms of reference should be broad enough to allow the inquiry to determine a model of emergency service delivery which takes into account the needs of all those who need to rely on emergency services, and information gleaned from these emergencies. Its findings should be open to public scrutiny and objection. However, ultimately it should provide a new and workable framework with which the existing emergency services can work. Madam Speaker, I feel that the need expressed in this motion is a real one and that there should be agreement across the political spectrum that an inquiry would have positive and beneficial effects on the delivery of emergency services which are currently facing a degree of uncertainty over their futures.
MR DE DOMENICO (4.28): Madam Speaker, I rise to support, obviously, my colleague, Mr Humphries, and also the two Independents, because I believe that Mr Moore and Ms Szuty have made salient comment about looking to the future. When you look to the future, of course, you have to learn about what has happened in the past. Nothing that the Minister has said has convinced me, and I hope that it has not convinced anybody else in this Assembly, that the Government has done anything about learning from what was happened in the past.
The first thing that we should look at, Madam Speaker, is the fact that in 1986 the then Minister for Territories, Mr Gordon Scholes, ordered a committee of inquiry into the ACT Fire Brigade. That was established under the ACT Enquiry Ordinance 1938. At that stage, in a former life of mine, I was involved in giving evidence to that inquiry. Mr Berry will remember this because at that stage, I think, in a former life, he was the secretary of the Firefighters Union. The main reason the inquiry was held was some of the things that that union used to do from time to time. The committee of inquiry adopted from the outset a forward looking approach, seeking a way to the future rather than assigning blame for the brigade's current state in 1986. The essential element of the committee's approach was its openness and emphasis on consultation. The committee sought and received submissions, held public hearings with submission makers, and issued discussion papers widely as a means of focusing debate on desirable changes within the brigade. One asks the question why, at that stage, the ALP Minister for Territories, Mr Scholes - - -
Debate interrupted.
ADJOURNMENT
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! It being 4.30 pm, I propose the question:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr Berry: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.
Question resolved in the negative.
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