Page 1457 - Week 05 - Thursday, 13 May 1993
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Mr Kaine: It has even infiltrated the Government.
MR DE DOMENICO: Of course it has; here he is, a former secretary of the ACT Fire Brigade union, now the Deputy Chief Minister. Whilst Mr Connolly would not negotiate with various people, the Fire Brigade seems to have no problems in getting its point of view across to the Government. The Fire Brigade claimed to have been cut by 6 per cent, but where is the evidence of this? Nothing that Mr Connolly said this afternoon has proved that. If they have been, why is it that they are putting on new recruits and expanding their roles? We have heard what Mrs Carnell said this afternoon. Mr Berry said, "It is only an ambit claim". But what a waste of time! Have they nothing better to do than to go on with these ambit claims?
Mr Lamont: Tony, you are not that silly. But then again, maybe you are.
MR DE DOMENICO: There is the trade union protagonist. Where was Mr Lamont, though, when there was an ACT electricity dispute? He was nowhere to be found. The cut appears to be borne by the country fire association, with morale reported to be at an all-time low. That was what the Canberra Chronicle said on 28 April 1992. With the recent $1m cuts to police services in the budget, this is yet another attack on police and the important community services they provide. One might be persuaded to such a course of action if it made budgetary sense. But, of course, we can see from the figures provided that this course of action is illogical from the standpoint of community well-being and budgetary integrity. The ACT Fire Brigade is so overmanned, so some people believe, that it would seem to be looking to take functions off the other more efficient services in order to justify itself.
For example, and this bears repeating, Mr Humphries quite clearly said, "Let us compare Canberra and Newcastle". It is something that Mr Connolly might not like to hear. One cannot say that Newcastle has got below the national average. The two cities are comparable in size and there is a glaring disparity in the size of the fire brigades. Canberra has modern building codes, as Mr Humphries said, and employs some 287. The figures that I think the Chief Minister produced yesterday tell me that that number has gone up to, I think, 296. But let us say that there are 287 firemen in eight stations. Newcastle, a similar sized but older city - we know what happened with the earthquake of recent times - has 135 firemen and three stations.
Madam Speaker, the Fire Brigade plan to allocate between four and eight men and two vehicles per shift. This will cost the community some $500,000 per year. This is to complete 13 per cent of the job that the police could achieve with only $152,000 per year. Where is the saving there, Mr Connolly? The ACT, in fact, has the only urban fire service that does not use volunteers. The Priorities Review Board recommended that it use volunteers, but it has not taken that advice. This is the forward thinking that people were talking about before. What are they going to do then? Can the Minister tell us the precise figures with regard to redundancies in the police rescue services? No, the Minister has not given us precise figures.
Mr Connolly: Do you want volunteer police, too? What are you going to say to the police union about volunteer police?
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